News

UK unveils Collective Message project at Dubai Expo 2020

Reem Al Hashimy, director general of Expo 2020 Dubai, has donated the first word – “dignity” – to an AI algorithm that will generate a ‘Collective Message’ at the UK pavilion. The event opens to the public tomorrow. The selection is the first of tens of thousands of words that will create the message from humanity to another civilisation. In a concept inspired by Stephen Hawking, visitors to the UK pavilion will be invited to donate a word they feel describes humanity or life on Earth. AI technology will use these words to generate individual poetic couplets that will combine to create a Collective Message projected on the cone-shaped structure until March. The algorithm used to create the AI-generated poetic couplets was trained on 15,000 poems from more than 100 British poets. Tying in with the theme, Innovating for a Shared Future, the interactive poetry installation will explore whether a computer programme can express the complex nature of humanity through verse.

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Manipur organises tourism congress to position the state as a top destination

The first congress of tourism professionals from across the country in Manipur concluded at Classic Grande, Imphal on September 29. The event that started on World Tourism Day, was organised by the Department of Tourism, Government of Manipur, in association with Manipur Association of Tour Operators, under the theme ‘Tourism for Inclusive Growth’. The congress witnessed the participation of representatives from tour operator associations and travel agents, hoteliers from Manipur and other neighbouring Northeastern as well as other states, and homestays owner from Manipur. Speaking at the inauguration of the Congress, P Vaiphei, Additional Chief Secretary-Tourism, Government of Manipur, congratulated the organising teams of the congress for sending out the message of restarting the tourism industry in the state for a quick recovery. The participating delegates from different states conducted idea-sharing sessions with state tourism officials and tour operators. The Manipur Association of Tour Operators showcased a wide array of tourism products and services available in the state during the inaugural function of the congress. A FAM trip to various tourist destinations in the state was organised as part of the event to give the participants a first- and experience. Manipur’s Tourism Director, W Ibohal Singh, made a presentation on the tourism products of the state and emphasised the need for Northeastern states to come together while promoting the region as a favourite tourist destination for domestic and international travellers. He also spoke about how the figures for international arrivals to the state have increased by leaps and bounds every year till the outbreak of the Covid pandemic at the end of 2019. Welcoming the participation of members of premiere tour operators’ associations from across the country, he said that this will give them the opportunity to identify the gaps that tour operators face in selling Manipur’s tourism products to potential visitors. The congress marked the opening of the tourism business in the state and the creation of a common platform for stakeholders in the tourism industry to jointly promote Manipur as a favourite tourist destination in the Northeast.

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Travel and tourism industry hopes the long wait for int’l travel to end soon

The tourism sector is abuzz and waiting anxiously for the announcement of the reopening of international borders and scheduled flights by the government. They are expecting a positive and favourable announcement from the government in the first week of October. The travel and tourism industry is pinning a lot of hopes on the recent gestures by the Prime Minister, the Home Minister, and the Civil Aviation Minister on the reopening of the international borders. The Secretary - Tourism, Government of India, Arvind Singh has confirmed to ET TravelWorld that the mood in the government is “favourable and positive” to reopening of international travel with protocols in place. Quoting reliable sources in the industry and the government, the news agency, UNI had said that the government is geared for the graded opening of the international border for international charter flights from October 15 and regular commercial flights from mid-November. “Charter flights would be allowed from most countries and would not be limited to 28 nations with which India currently has Air Bubble agreements,” UNI said, quoting sources aware of the plans. A senior official of the Ministry of Civil Aviation recently said that the department is developing a unified platform for verification of the testing reports and vaccine certifications with third-party authentication as a step towards enabling safe travel into the country.

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Tourism New Zealand says ‘Kia Ora’ to Indian agents through their newly launched marketing hub

Tourism New Zealand today launched its 100% Pure New Zealand Marketing Hub in India, housing free and professionally designed marketing assets so that when international travel resumes, the travel trade will be well prepared to convert sales for New Zealand. The hub aims to keep the New Zealand travel dream alive by providing agents with an extensive digital toolkit. The free marketing tools include emails, images, print ads, sales flyers, web banners, sharable Facebook posts and more. Agents will be able to customise these marketing assets with their own sales message, logo and contact information. “India is an important market for New Zealand. In launching this self-service Marketing Hub we aim to empower our agents with the right kind of information and assets that will creatively engage their customers and ultimately help make their job easier and more effective,” says Venessa Chen, Regional Marketing Manager-Asia, Tourism New Zealand. Tourism New Zealand is also launching a new season of its Virtual Road Trip webinar series which supports the travel trade with New Zealand information that’s most relevant to Indian consumers. The webinars will highlight trade tools and resources that will help agents to qualify and become a 100% New Zealand specialist, along with popular themes like self-drive campervan, adventure and adrenaline, culture, food and wine to name a few.

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Iran to resume issuing tourist visas

Iran will resume issuing visas to foreign tourists from next month, officials said, after suspending services for 19 months due to the coronavirus pandemic. "The issuance of tourist visas from land and air borders will resume" from October 23, Tourism Minister, Ezzatollah Zarghami said, quoted Tuesday by the government-run Iran newspaper. Except for medical and business reasons, Iran banned the entry of foreign nationals in March last year, a few weeks after the Islamic republic detected its first cases of Covid-19 infection. The decision to restart visa services was taken on Saturday at a meeting of Iran's anti-Coronavirus taskforce that was attended by President Ebrahim Raisi, local media reported. "This regulation will not include direct and indirect travel from or to high-risk countries declared by the World Health Organisation," the committee was quoted as saying. Iran is battling the Middle East's deadliest outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. It has recorded nearly 120,000 deaths from more than 5.5 million cases of infection, according to the latest official figures, which the authorities admit are largely underestimated. In recent weeks the country's caseload has begun to decline, after peaking in August during what officials have called a "fifth wave" driven by the Delta variant. The tourism ministry said in February that more than 8.8 million tourists visited Iran in the year before the outbreak of the Coronavirus, saying travel was down 94 per cent.

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66 per cent millennials are willing to travel to Thailand as soon as it opens up, says Survey

With Covid-19 Vaccination drives in full steam across the world, an independent survey conducted by TAT New Delhi found that 73 per cent millennial travellers would prefer international destinations with fewer Covid cases and about 67 per cent would want to go to destinations with easy Covid policies and protocols. All thanks to the pent up travel demand, things are looking up for tourism sector as 66 per cent millennial travellers are willing to travel to Thailand as soon as it opens up. With COVID-19 vaccination drives picking up steam across the world, bringing hope to millions that an end to the pandemic is on the horizon, 73 per cent millennials would prefer to go to international destinations with fewer Covid cases. As per the report, 67 per cent millennials would opt for destinations with defined Covid protocols to avoid unnecessary hassles while planning their international holiday in the ensuing holiday season. “The findings aptly reflect the pent-up travel demand among the Indian millennial travellers. We have started receiving queries for international travel for the upcoming holiday season but travellers are cautious too with respect to Covid restrictions, better connectivity and selection of international destinations. It is not at all surprising that Thailand is a preferred destination for Indians who wish to travel for the purpose of tourism, shopping, golf, meetings or wellness and I am confident that it will be one of the first to pick up outbound traffic from India,” said Riaz Munshi, President, Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI). The Independent survey was done with over 7800 millennial travellers across the country for over a period of 4 weeks in August 2021 and revealed that 61 per cent millennials would look for better connectively while selecting an international travel destination while 27 per cent would prefer short-haul destinations. Interestingly, 38 per cent millennial travellers would base their decisions on attractive destination campaigns highlighting their unique features and offerings. A whopping 68 per cent millennial travellers are willing to travel to Thailand for their next vacations. Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, Deputy Governor, Tourism Authority of Thailand, said, “We are quite pleased to see tracker results that there is such a keen interest to visit Thailand among the Indian travellers. India has always been one of the key markets for Thailand. Phuket, Pattaya, Krabi, Bangkok and Koh Samui have become very popular with Indian tourists. They have attracted high-end tourists, honeymooners, and also budget travellers from India, because the beach destinations have diverse choices of accommodation, from luxurious five-star hotels to comfortable resorts, budget hotels and bungalows. We are glad that India has been added to the list of low and medium-risk Covid countries and travellers from India are now allowed to visit Thailand under the guidelines included in our special pioneering projects like Phuket Sandbox. We are ensuring that all the hotels, restaurants, sightseeing spots, tour companies have gone through stringent checks and been certified in order to welcome international tourists.” According to the survey, 83 per cent millennials would prefer Beach destinations for their next holidays followed by Wellness & Spa destinations and Staycation at hotels and resorts at 65 per cent and 53 per cent respectively. Interestingly, 48 per cent millennials opted for Golf destinations and 43 per cent of them went for Shopping destinations. The survey also touched upon new travel trends such as rise of couple & do-it-yourself travel and innovations like popularity of touch-less technology, voice-activated services and more automation in the hospitality sector. Travellers are still looking for destinations with fewer crowds and minimum exposure.

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