News

Kazakh Tourism launches tour for Chinese travel bloggers.

The tour, initiated by Kazakh Tourism with the support of Capital Partners Real Estate and Air Astana, the nation’s largest carrier, was aimed at highlighting the country, particularly Almaty and the Almaty Region, as an ideal destination for Chinese travellers. The decision to invite them was not a random one. According to global data, Chinese tourists spend approximately $280 billion on travel, including winter tourism, which is actively promoted by popular bloggers. To attract Chinese tourists, the Ministry of Culture and Sport intends to extend the visa free transit stay up to 120 hours. The five-day period will allow visitors the opportunity to travel to several cities or tourist destinations. Last year, Kazakh Tourism invited four bloggers to visit Almaty, Shymkent and the East Kazakhstan Region. The travellers spent nine days in Kazakhstan, expressing their emotions online in videos and social media posts followed by 145 million viewers.

Read more

Mumbai might very soon boast of a Bangkok-style multi-level aquarium.

Mumbai might very soon boast of a multi-level aquarium, which will be built on lines similar to that of Bangkok-based Ocean World, a famous tourist hotspot in Thailand. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray recently ordered the Tourism Department to draft a proposal regarding developing a high-end aquarium in Mumbai. While talking about this, the Chief Minister told the officials that Mumbai, being the city of international standards, needs to be developed further by adding new attractions to woo tourists. He stated that the government had already built a cruise terminal that matches international standards, and that building a high-level aquarium would further enhance the long list of popular tourist attractions in Mumbai.Also, as per an official press release, the CM stated that Mumbai is now attracting several foreign dignitaries and investors being a commercial capital. And therefore, tourist places in Mumbai needs to be developed, for which a separate action plan needs to be put into place. Apart from this project, the Chief Minister also discussed other tourism concepts, such as sea tourism, night safari in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, and flamingo tourism. Since Mumbai is surrounded by sea, the minister is focussing more on water tourism activities, which will be implemented in phases. Moreover, existing caves, such as the Mahakali Caves, Kanheri Caves, and Elephanta Caves etc., will also be developed from a tourism point of view.

Read more

It is safe to back to the Dominican Republic.

The country's tourism minister Francisco Javier Garcia has maintained all along that the Dominican Republic is safe. In June, he noted that the number of tourist deaths in 2019 was actually lower at that point of the year than in 2011 or 2015 when 15 died. In the end, tainted alcohol – which was suspected in several cases – was ruled out, as were other forms other foul play. Autopsies and FBI toxicology reports have since determined that seven of the eight died of natural causes and the eighth is believed to have as well. Vacationers still hesitant to travel to Punta Cana shouldn’t turn their back on visiting the Dominican Republic altogether. The country, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, covers 18,704 square miles and has much to offer beyond Punta Cana, including hotel and shopping bargains, authentic cultural experiences, river and mountain adventures, world-famous golf courses, and beautiful beaches.

Read more

American Airlines just made it easier to check in for international flights.

American on Wednesday introduced passport chip scanning to the app, which will eliminate the need to have an American agent scan the passport at the airport. The carrier said it is the first airline to use near field communication (NFC) technology to securely transmit passport information. It is the same technology behind cashless payment systems like Apple Pay. Initially it will only be available for trips with one person on the reservation. It will eventually be expanded to reservations with multiple travelers, including families. Travelers checking in for an international flight on the American app will be asked to enter some basic passport information and then use their smartphone or other iOS or Android mobile device to scan the chip on the back page of the passport.The passport will still need to be shown at the airport during boarding, but it won't have to be open and scanned, saving passengers and employees time, the airline says. the new feature will especially help with cases where passports weren't scanned on the domestic leg of an international trip with a connection, say Albuquerque to Santiago, Chile, via Dallas Fort Worth.

Read more

Nepal gears up for tourism challenge with swanky new airport.

Four and a half years after a devastating earthquake in April 2015 ravaged Nepal, the small hilly nation aims to reclaim its standing on the world tourism map with plans to attract Buddhist pilgrims from India, Bhutan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka, besides countries like Japan, with a spanking new international airport close to the birthplace of Buddha. Potential economic spinoffs of the plan include new investments in tourism infrastructure such as hotels, which in turn is expected to spur employment generation in a country described as one of the poorest and slowest growing in Asia by the World Bank. Christened the Gautam Buddha International Airport, the facility is being developed with financial assistance from the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB). China’s Northwest Civil Aviation Construction Group is constructing the airport for which the ADB has provided $70 million. The airport is being developed under the South Asia Tourism Infrastructure Development Project. It is expected to be completed by March next year, ahead of the fifth anniversary of the temblor that killed some 9,000 people, said Prabhesh Adhikari, a senior official of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal. Situated in Rupandehi district, some 280 kilometres from Kathmandu, the upcoming airport will function as a second gateway to the country, which is home to the some of the world’s tallest mountains, catering to tourists wanting to visit Lumbini. India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Cambodia have already expressed interest in starting airline operations from the upcoming airport, said Naresh Pradhan, the ADB official overseeing the airport project.According to official statistics, 11.73 lakh tourists visited Nepal in 2018. Of this, nearly 2 lakh were Indians, 69,640 from Sri Lanka and 26,355 were from Bangladesh.Developing the Gautam Buddha International Airport was also aimed at diversifying tourism to other parts of the country that has so far remained concentrated in central Nepal, Vaidya said.

Read more

Roadshows in India, abroad to draw tourists back to Kashmir.

SRI NAGAR: Amidst the unfulfilled demand of restoring internet services in the Valley by stakeholders, the tourism department has decided to launch a seven-week long tourism promotional campaign within the country and abroad to woo tourists back to picturesque Kashmir. The tourism promotional campaign within the country would start from third week of December and continue till 2nd week of February. An official said the roadshows and tourism promotional campaigns would be held in Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Surat, Nagpur, Indore, Bhopal, Bengaluru, Mysore, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Kochi, Ranchi and Varanasi. He said despite strong reservations from some tourism stakeholders, the Tourism Department has decided to hold roadshows in Maharashtra and Gujarat even though the tourist footfall to Valley from these states had dropped considerably over the years. A tour operator said they wanted to focus on south India, where from tourist footfall has increased considerably in last few years. The department has dropped Malaysia from the list of foreign countries, where a month long tourism promotion campaign would be held. The official said the tourism stakeholders would be holding roadshows and promotional campaigns in Thailand, Sharjah, and Dubai in United Arab Emirates (UAE) in January. Malaysia, has been dropped from the list after the Malaysian Prime Minister raised the Kashmir issue at international forums. A tour operator said they hope that government restores internet services in the Valley before the tourism promotional campaign begins.

Read more