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India-Bangladesh Mitali Express passenger train service to start from June 1

In a major boost to transnational railway connectivity between India and Bangladesh, from West Bengal’s New Jalpaiguri to Dhaka cantonment in Bangladesh, the Mitali Express- the third India-Bangladesh passenger train service, is scheduled to start services from June 1. The new train service will be flagged off virtually by the Railway Ministers of India and Bangladesh from Rail Bhawan in New Delhi on June 1. Sabyasachi De, the Chief Public Relations Officer of Northeast Frontier Railway said that the Mitali Express will run two days a week on Sunday and Wednesday. “During the regular service of the train, departure from New Jalpaiguri will be at 11:45 hours (IST). The train will arrive at Haldibari (India) at 12.55 hours (IST) and depart from Haldibari at 13.05 hours (IST). The train will arrive at Chilahati (Bangladesh) at 13.55 hours (BST) and depart from Chilahati at 14.25 hours (BST) to reach Dhaka Cantonment at 22:30 hours (BST),” De said. The CPRO also informed that the train will not have any commercial stoppages. The new Jalpaiguri - Dhaka Cantonment leg of this train will consist of four First Class AC (Seating only), four AC Chair cars and two luggage-cum-generator vans. “During its return journey, Dhaka Cantonment - New Jalpaiguri Mitali Express will also run two days a week- on Monday and Thursday; leaving Dhaka Cantonment at 21:50 hours (BST). The train will arrive at Chilahati (Bangladesh) at 05.45 hours (BST) and depart from Chilahati at 06.15 hours (BST). The train will arrive at Haldibari (India) at 06.00 hours (IST) and depart from Haldibari at 06.05 hours (IST) to reach New Jalpaiguri at 07:15 hours (IST). This leg of the journey will consist of four First Class AC (Sleeper), four AC Chair cars and two luggage-cum-generator vans,” De said. He further said that the tickets for this train are available at the overseas Passenger Reservation System counters at New Jalpaiguri Station and Kolkata Railway Station. “The new train services will improve the bilateral trade relation and socio-economic activities of India and Bangladesh. The services will further make travel easier for the passengers and will greatly benefit the tourism sector of North Bengal area along with other tourism hotspots across India,” De said.

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Travellers to Cyprus no longer need Covid-19 tests

Travellers to Cyprus will no longer be required to show either a valid Covid-19 vaccination or a recovery certificate and won’t need to produce a negative recent Covid-19 test of June 1. The government also decided to abolish a requirement to wear face masks in all indoor areas in Cyprus as of June 1 with the exception of hospitals, nursing homes and other indoor medical facilities. Transport Minister Yiannis Karousos said that the decision to lift Covid-19 screening requirements at airports signals the tourism-reliant island nation is ready to return to normality. Over 10 per cent of the island’s gross domestic product comes directly from tourism. Authorities are hopeful that a post-pandemic desire for travel will boost arrivals to Cyprus significantly, despite the loss of a significant number of Russian and Ukrainian holidaymakers as a result of the war in Ukraine. Karousos said that the estimate of travellers arriving in Cyprus in May will be more than three-quarters of the same month in 2019, when arrivals hit a record yearly high. “Not only will we meet the target we had set regarding flight capacity and overall passenger numbers, we will surpass it,” he said.

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Japan to resume tourism in June; only packaged tour for now

Japan will open its borders to foreign tourists in June for the first time since imposing tight pandemic travel restrictions about two years ago, but only for package tours for now, the prime minister said Thursday. Beginning June 10, Japan will allow the entry of people on tours with fixed schedules and guides, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said. Tourists from areas with low COVID-19 infection rates who have received three vaccine doses will be exempt from testing and quarantine after entry. Japan this week is hosting small experimental package tours from four countries, Australia, Singapore, Thailand and the United States. That experiment, which involves only 50 people who received special visas, not tourist visas, is to end May 31. “Free and active exchange of people is the foundation of economy and society, as well as that of Asia’s development,” Kishida told his speech at a Tokyo hotel Thursday. Japan, while watching the infection situation, will gradually accept more tourists in stages to the level of arrivals before the pandemic, he added. After facing criticism that its strict border controls were xenophobic, Japan began easing its restrictions earlier this year and currently allows entry of up to 10,000 people a day, including Japanese citizens, foreign students and some business travellers. Japan will double the cap to 20,000 a day from June 1, which will also include package tour participants, said Makoto Shimoaraiso, a Cabinet official in charge of pandemic measures. The scale of the package tours and other details will be finalized after officials evaluate the results of the current experimental tours, he said. It will take some time before foreign visitors can come to Japan for individual tourism, Shimoaraiso said. Japan this week also eased requests for mask wearing. While masks are still requested on public transportation, hospitals and other public facilities, people can take off masks outdoors where others are not around or talking. Despite the easing, most Japanese so far are seen sticking to wearing masks in public. Japan’s tourism industry, hit hard by the border controls, is eager for foreign tourism to resume. COVID-19 infections have slowed in Japan since earlier this year and the government is gradually expanding social and economic activity. Kishida said during a visit to London earlier this month that he planned to ease the border controls as early as June in line with the policies of other Group of Seven industrialized countries, but gave no further details. Foreign tourist arrivals fell more than 90% in 2020 from a record 31.9 million the year before, almost wiping out the pre-pandemic inbound tourism market of more than 4 trillion yen ($31 billion).

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Gulf airlines to run shuttle flights during soccer World Cup, ease Doha pressure

Qatar Airways said on Thursday fellow Gulf Arab airlines would operate more than 180 daily shuttle flights to Qatar during this year's soccer World Cup, allowing fans to fly in from nearby cities and easing accommodation pressure in Doha. Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al-Baker told a news conference that United Arab Emirates airline flydubai, Oman Air, Kuwait Airways and Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) would run shuttle flights and that the UAE's Etihad and Air Arabia may also join the plan. "Like anywhere else there has always been a shortage of accommodation, so we are not unique. The biggest challenge for us is because everything is happening in one place," Baker said. He described November's World Cup, the first to be held in the Middle East, as a "big cake" that will bring "huge economic benefit" that Doha aims to share with its Gulf neighbours. Qatar hopes the tournament will attract roughly 1.2 million visitors, or almost half of the conservative country's population, posing a logistical and policing challenge. Games will be at eight stadiums around Doha, the only major city in Qatar, which is roughly the size of Jamaica and the smallest state to have hosted soccer's biggest event. Flydubai will operate up to 60 daily flights from Dubai, the region's tourism hub, carrying up to 2,500 fans, Baker said, while Oman Air will run up to 48 daily flights from Muscat carrying up to 3,400 fans. Saudia said it would operate up to 60 daily flights carrying up to 10,000 passengers from Riyadh and Jeddah. Kuwait Airways will run up to 20 flights a day carrying up to 1,700 fans. Qatar Airays is adjusting 70% of its schedule to make way for incoming flights and has cancelled other flights and reduced frequencies in order to have aircraft available to meet demand from fans. "It will be a huge challenge to be able to manage this very fast moving demand for very large numbers of spectators," Baker said. The shuttle service will help overseas fans avoid expensive lodgings in Qatar. Tournament organisers say they would offer up to 130,000 rooms, including hotels. The move could boost Qatar's ties with its neighbours following the resolution early last year of a political row that had seen Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt boycott Doha for over three years. This is "a way to improve the relations with its neighbours," said Danyel Reiche, visiting professor at Georgetown and co-author of a book on Qatar's hosting of the World Cup.

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Medical tourism in Ernakulam recovers from Covid

Ernakulam is once again emerging as the largest destination for medical tourism in the state. There was a 75-80 per cent drop in arrival of foreign patients during the initial two years of Covid-19 pandemic. Medical tourists contribute to 10 per cent of the total hospital admissions and procedures and 25-30 per cent of the earnings in most of the major hospitals in Ernakulam, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode. Hospital managements said that they have the capacity and facility to increase in-patient admission to 20 per cent from 10 per cent. “Hospitals in Ernakulam are now doing extremely well in medical tourism and are back to pre-Covid times. However, in Thiruvananthapuram, the movement has been slow and we have only been able to recover 3 per cent to 5 per cent of the business,” said Dr M I Sahadulla, Chairman and Managing Director, KIMS Healthcare Group and President, Association of Healthcare Providers India (Kerala chapter). “The recovery has been good and we are seeing patients, especially from Gulf countries and Africa, coming here for treatment. The numbers are expected to increase further in June,” said Farhan Yasin, Kerala Cluster & Oman regional director, Aster DM Healthcare. There are also a few patients from South East Asia, Africa, Afghanistan and Yemen. However, post-Covid hardly any European national is coming for treatment in the city. For hospitals here, the path of recovery has been made possible with innovations and change in strategy to attract medical tourists. From aggressive marketing to searching for new patients in countries that earlier didn’t have people coming here for treatment to offering discounts and hospital as well hospitality experience, the hospitals in Kochi are doing everything possible to attract more foreign patients, especially from neighbouring countries like Bangladesh and Nepal too. Some hospitals are also doing free procedures to patients from select countries in certain specialties to gain attention and attract more patients from the country. Hospitals like VPS Lakeshore have gone a step ahead and they have set up an office to facilitate not just the hospital stay and treatment but also stay in the hotel for patient and family as well as travel within the state during the course of treatment at discounted rates. In other words, the hospital plans their treatment, accommodation and travel too. This ensures that their overall experience and stay here is memorable. However, the ride is not easy. There are some foreign patients who, instead of coming for treatment on e-medical visa, reach Kochi on tourist visa and then seek elective procedure. “About 25 per cent to 30 per cent such patients have to be refused admission or they have to wait until they get a revised medical dr ajoy menon States Medical Tourism Destination Covid-19 visa,” said a hospital management official. Moreover, as uncertainty about the pandemic continues, there is a growing demand that just like in tourism, even in medical tourism, the city hospitals should focus on attracting domestic patients and NRIs. “Things start at home. Our focus is to first attract domestic patients and then patients from abroad. Though patients fundamentally come for allopathy, they have interest in ayurveda too and we have a facility to offer integrated treatment,” said Dr Ajoy Menon, senior medical administrator, Amrita Hospital.

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Glass restaurant at hotel for panoramic view of Kumbh

Visitors at Prayagraj Kumbh 2025 can have a beautiful view of the grand religious fair through the glass kitchen and restaurant on the top of Hotel Triveni Darshan at Kydganj while enjoying their meals and refreshments. Uttar Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation Ltd (UPSTDC) authorities have mooted proposals to renovate its both hotels, Rahi Ilawart and Triveni Darshan before Kumbh 2025. Since Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed officials of various government departments to prepare their work plans for Kumbh at Prayagraj, UPSTDC officials are also formulating their proposal. UPSTDC Senior Manager, DP Singh, said, “We will be submitting an elaborate work plan to authorities for the renovation of our both hotels in Prayagraj.” “There are plans to refurbish banquets besides constructing new toilets, rooms, and underground parking at Hotel Rahil Ilawart. We will submit the proposals in the first week of June,” he added. Millions of devotees and visitors, including foreigners, are expected to visit Prayagraj for a holy dip and glimpse of grand Kumbh in 2025. “We have drafted an elaborate plan to give a new look to both the hotels to attract more customers,” he added. We also plan to construct a glass restaurant at Hotel Triveni Darshan so that visitors can enjoy a panoramic view of Kumbh. UPSTDC also plans to set up a tent city on banks of the Ganga during Kumbh 2025 on a PPP (public private partnership) model. “We have been setting up tent city and swiss cottages on the banks at every Kumbh. This time we plan to set up 56 specially-designed swiss cottages,” he added.

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