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J&K Tourism Department kick-started extensive Spring, Summer Promotional Campaign

Buoyant by the encouraging rush of Tourists during the winter months, Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Department has kick-started extensive Spring and Summer Tourism promotional campaigns across major cities of the country to pull in the massive domestic tourist market available that is keen to move out and spend holidays with their loved ones after COVID Pandemic forced people to remain indoors for months together. As part of the promotional drive, J&K Tourism is organizing Tourism Road Shows in Cities spread across all corners of the Country with active involvement of the various Tour and Travel Associations of J&K. As part of the tourism promotional outreach, a grand Road Show was organized in the eastern city of Bhubaneswar in Odisha. The Tourism Promotional Show was organized in collaboration with the Kashmir Houseboat Owners Association (KHBOA) with Ideel Saleem, Deputy Director, Publicity, J&K Tourism Department and Ashwani Gupta, Deputy General Manager, J&K Tourism Development Corporation representing the Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Department. The KHBOA was led by its Chairman, Hamid Wagnoo. Mr Sachin Ramachandra Jadhav, Director Tourism Odisha, Deputy Director Tourism, Odisha Government, Dr R K Pattanayak, Ms Rashmi Sonia Tirkey, Manager India Tourism, Bubnaeshwar graced the occasion and participated in the event deliberations. Besides a press meet, a detailed presentation, various short-films on known and off-beat destinations of J&K were also screened on the occasion including short tourism promotional films on the unique and iconic heritage, the floating luxury- The Grand Kashmiri Houseboats. Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Director (Publicity), Ideel Saleem said “In the last 6 months since we celebrated the World Tourism Day on 27 September, 2020, we have not stopped even for a moment. The number of activities, events, webinars, publicity Campaigns across all available platforms, be it print & electronic media, digital, Radio & FM and Social Media have been undertaken with the sole purpose of communicating the message to the people of the country including people of this wonderful State of Orissa that J&K is ready to welcome and host you for a memorable time there with our renowned hospitality and yes of course best measures in place to ensure your health safety. In fact J&K was first in the country to move out to Kolkata and other cities back in September, October 2020 and actively start campaigning for the revival of tourism. The revival efforts have borne fruit as domestic tourists have shown keen interest in J&K and have visited during winters and enjoy snow in Gulmarg, Srinagar, Pahalgam, Patnitop, Sanasar, Natha Top, Sonmarg and Doodhpathri in encouraging numbers. Recently, Gulmarg hosted the 2nd edition of the Khelo India Winter Games in which over a thousand athletes from across the country participated. Just a couple of days before, we had a very successful and grand Road Show in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Today we are in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha. Simultaneously, today itself we are in Bangalore and Bhopal and in coming days we will be in Indore, Chennai, Raipur, Mumbai, Delhi, Cochin, Varanasi, Nagpur and other cities. Purpose is to move out, clear doubts, promote our unique, extensive and exquisite tourism products and invite our domestic tourists to come and visit J&K. “We have several festivals lined up including the Almond Bloom festival this month, Tulip festival in the first week of April and a grand Houseboat festival for the summer. As we speak we are preparing for all this in advance to welcome our tourists. With international travel restrictions, we want to cash in on the domestic tourists who otherwise normally might have chosen to go to outside country locations. The high end and the budgeted tourists we want both to visit J&K and we have facilities available to cater to both. While COVID harmed the tourism sector in more than one way, it has also opened more than one window of opportunity to attract a massive domestic tourism market who want to go out with their loved and what better place than Jammu and Kashmir-an all season tourism destination” Deputy Director, Tourism said. Chairman, Kashmir Houseboat Owners Association, Hamid Wagnoo speaking on the occasion said that the core aim and objective of the Road Show is to invite the people of Odisha to Kashmir to enjoy various beautiful destinations and tourism products of J&K including the heritage and iconic Houseboats. “Houseboats are the major attraction for tourists who visit the valley. This year we are offering special seasonal discounts on our houseboat accommodations,” Chairman HBOAK said and added that the state of Odisha has always remained one of the major markets where a large number of travelers visit J&K. Mr Wangnoo appreciated the efforts of the J&K government in mitigating and controlling the Covid19 threat consequent to which tourists have the confidence to visit J&K and feel safe and sound while enjoying their stay. He appealed to locals of Bhubaneswar and Tour and Travel Agents/ Tourism Stakeholders of Odisha to visit J&K and avail special seasonal discounts on Houseboat Stay. “We are here to strengthen and refresh the age-old bond between J&K and Bhubaneswar,” he said. The heads of various tour and travel organisations and tourism stakeholders of Odisha thanked the J&K Tourism Department and the KHBOA for visiting Odisha and organising the Road Show in Bhubaneshwar and said that they are keen to reciprocate. They said they have been receiving queries about J&K and this road show is certainly going to generate further interest among the people of Odisha to visit the heaven on earth i.e Jammu and Kashmir. Road Shows in other major cities are also being organised during the month of March as part of the extensive J&K tourism promotional campaign.

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New travel rules for domestic, international passengers in Tamil Nadu

New travel rules for air passengers in Tamil Nadu: The move comes in the wake of a spurt in coronavirus cases in states like Maharashtra and Kerala. In view of the spike in Covid-19 cases, the Tamil Nadu Health and Family Welfare Department have issued fresh travel guidelines for domestic and international passengers. E-pass is mandatory for all international passengers and domestic travellers, except those from neighbouring states of Puducherry, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The move comes in the wake of a spurt in coronavirus cases in states like Maharashtra and Kerala, even as Tamil Nadu has been witnessing an increase in the number of new infections over the past few days. A Government Order to this effect was issued recently by the Health and Family Welfare Department. Travellers visiting the state after generating an e-pass allow the government to trace them or their contacts if they had tested Covid-19 positive during their stay in Tamil Nadu. According to the latest order, an auto e-pass is mandatory for all international and domestic passengers from other states and union territories. However, those from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry were exempted. Last year, in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tamil Nadu government had allowed only those with an e-pass to take up inter-district and inter-state travel, though the norms were relaxed later. State Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan recently expressed concern over laxity in wearing masks among people and the trend of formation of COVID-19 clusters after people attended weddings or funerals. On Sunday, Tamil Nadu continued to witness an upward trend in its daily tally with 567 new cases being reported, pushing the gross to 8.55 lakh.

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Kerala Tourism to consider physical KTM in August - September this year

Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) Society and Kerala Tourism Department will consider holding a physical Kerala Travel Mart some time in August or September this year. Rani George, Principal Secretary - Tourism, Government of Kerala informed this at the valedictory of the first Virtual KTM that concluded on March 5. Addressing the trade and industry virtually, George said that while the virtual mart went off well and created another history for Kerala Tourism, the importance of a physical mart cannot be ignored. She said that the department and the KTM Society will work together to hold a physical mart in August or September this year. Kerala’s tourism industry has always shown strong resilience to adversities, she said. George said that the state has to look at its strengths as a travel destination and try to build on that to overcome the current challenges. While the state’s natural beauty, strengths in traditional health and wellness practices, tourism entrenched in inclusiveness and responsible tourism, its culture and heritage, will continue to fascinate the travellers, she said that the entrepreneurs have to look at the explored potential of Northern Kerala to make offerings diverse and appealing to wide variety of travellers. She said that the Malabar River Cruise project connecting 7 rivers of the Kasargod and Kannur districts will unlock the tourism potential of northern Kerala.

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Maharashtra travellers to carry negative Covid-19 report in Madhya Pradesh

In view of the rising coronavirus cases, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has instructed the state authorities to make it mandatory for the travellers coming from Maharashtra to carry a negative Covid-19 test report. Chouhan issued the directives in this regard during a meeting held on Friday, an official statement said. "It will be mandatory for the travellers coming from Maharashtra to carry a negative report for coronavirus infection. The responsibility for this will be with the bus operators, who will allow passengers to board the bus only on the basis of the report," Chouhan said. Adequate arrangements should be made for checking along the the state's border areas, he said. Chouhan said that the number of coronavirus cases in Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Betul, Chhindwara, Ujjain and the state's districts bordering Maharashtra, has been on the rise. He also said that the situation in all the districts along the Maharashtra border should be monitored constantly.

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You can fly to Gaya from Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata from March 28

COVID-induced lockdown brought the aviation industry in the country to a screeching halt, also forcing suspension of flights on the Delhi - Gaya - Varanasi - Delhi route. The flights have stayed suspended since March 24 last year. Now, starting March 28, the flights will operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Reportedly, Air India is all set to resume flights on the said route, and the bookings for the same have already started. The flight from Delhi will take off at 12 PM, and arrive at Gaya at 1:40 PM. Thereafter, it will leave for Varanasi at 2:15 PM and land at 2:50 PM; the same will leave for Delhi at 3:30 PM and land at 5:10 PM. The said flights will operate four days a week, as mentioned above. Reportedly, IndiGo previously started flights on the Mumbai - Gaya route, which were later suspended owing to lesser footfall for the route. It is also expected that IndiGo will also start operations between Gaya and Bengaluru from April 26. As commercial international travel stays in a state of disarray owing to COVID, domestic travel is expected to gain pace, especially with more connecting flights and initiatives to boost domestic tourism.

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Jammu and Kashmir: Footfall of 10 lakh passengers at Srinagar Airport in 4 months

Flight operations had resumed in May last year after a hiatus of three months owing to the outbreak of Covid-19. However, after air traffic resumed, Srinagar Airport witnessed 61 flight arrivals during the month of May. The boom in air travel though was seen by the end of 2020 when Kashmir started witnessing a large number of tourist arrivals. As per Airports Authority of India (AAI) data, the highest number of passenger footfalls at the Srinagar Airport since resumption of air traffic was 218783 in December last year which saw 705 flight arrivals. These were all domestic flights. Director Airports Authority of India, Srinagar, Santosh Dhoke said the airport was handling almost 9000- 10000 passengers daily with almost 25 to 30 flight arrivals and at times even more. Dhoke said the increase in tourist influx is the main reason for the sharp spike in passenger footfalls. “Compared to many other airports with a similar passenger handling capacity, Srinagar Airport has seen a sharp increase in the footfalls. The revival of tourism in the Valley is one of the reasons for this increase as we saw a lot of rush of holidaymakers during winters,” Dhoke said. The Airport Director said there was a plan in the pipeline to upgrade infrastructure of both the airport terminal building as well as runway expansion to handle the increasing passenger influx. He said focus as of now was to ensure that all Covid-19 protocols were being followed. As per AAI data, 655 flights arrived in Srinagar during November 2020 with 191982 passengers travelled to and fro at the Srinagar Airport. In January 2021, with 688 flight arrivals 212491 passengers travelled to and fro while in February with 487 total flight arrivals more than 2 lakh passenger footfalls were witnessed at the Srinagar Airport. It may be mentioned that much-awaited night flight operations at the Srinagar International Airport are likely to start by end of this month provided the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) gives its final approval. While airliner GoAir is already offering bookings for a night flight from Srinagar to Delhi for March end on its website, airport officials said the nod from the central aviation regulator DGCA is required before the Valley can witness its maiden night flight operations. Srinagar Airport is under direct operational control of the Indian Air Force (IAF), which controls its air traffic and landing strip and also the facilities of fire-fighting and crash activities, apart from the airspace. The terminal building, where the passengers check-in and check-out, and the apron area, where an aircraft is parked are controlled by the AAI. The airport witnesses operations of 25 to 30 commercial flights every day. As per AAI data, the annual footfalls of passengers at Srinagar is expected to increase from the current 3 million passengers to 5.2 million passengers.

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