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QATAR Airways, one of the world’s fastest growing airlines, has sought more traffic routes and seats from India to serve two-tier cities, a top airline official has said.   Akbar-Al-Baker, the Chief Executive Officer told reporters on Wednesday (May 15) that Qatar Airways has exhausted all the traffic routes allotted by the Government of India.   He was talking on the sidelines of a global education programme “Educate a child”, sponsored by the airl]]>
IN A PARKING lot near the East River in Manhattan, Adriana Alltari gathers her courage, lifts her feet off the ground and wobbles away on New York’s latest mode of public transport: a bicycle.   Alltari, a 32-year-old engineer, was taking part in free bike riding classes as the Big Apple makes final preparations for a program that will revolutionize a city known more for traffic jams of yellow cabs and other vehicles of the four-wheeled variety.   On May 27, th]]>
FLYING will become costlier from next week if you are carrying baggage weighing more than 15 kg with major airlines deciding to impose a levy of Rs 250 ($4.60/£2.96) per additional kg and considering charging more for preferential seating.   After Air India, private full service carrier Jet Airways on Thursday (May 9) announced revision of free baggage allowance to 15 kgs in economy class from 20 kg on its flights and that of its all economy arm Jet Konnect.   ]]>
  AIR INDIA will lower the free baggage allowance from 20 to 15 kilograms on the domestic sector and start charging a flat rate of about Rs 200 (£2.37/$3.69) to Rs 250 (£2.96/$4.61)per kilogram (kg) on excess baggage from next week, airline sources said on Monday (May 6).   This follows a Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) circular last week allowing the airlines to charge fees for ‘unbundled services’ such as chec]]>
BOEING began installing reinforced lithium-ion battery systems on five 787 jets in Japan on Monday (April 22), starting a process that should make the first commercial Dreamliners ready to fly again in about a week.   Boeing’s Dreamliners have been grounded since regulators ordered all 50 planes out of the skies in mid-January after batteries on two of them overheated. US regulators approved a new battery design on Friday (April 19), clearing the way for installation. &]]>
THERE has been a growth of 2.3 per cent in foreign tourist arrivals in January-March this year over corresponding period last year, Tourism Minister K Chiranjeevi has said, while rejecting an industry survey which said there was a decrease of 25 per cent due to safety issues.   The conclusions of the quick random survey undertaken by Assocham Social Development Foundation are incorrect, Chiranjeevi said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Indian Parliament). &]]>
  IN A BID to attract more foreign tourists, the Indian government has decided to provide collective landing permits. The revised procedure will allow foreign tourists in groups of four or more arriving by air or sea and sponsored by tourism ministry-approved, Indian travel agencies to be given a collective landing permit. The tourists should have a pre-drawn itinerary; the permit will not exceed a period of 60 days. Such tourists will get multiple entry f]]>
MYTHIC Cuban bar Sloppy Joe’s, a watering hole for a who’s who of Hollywood stars during Prohibition, reopens its doors on Friday (April 12) in Havana.   The revived bar is in the center of old Havana, just steps away from Central Park and some of the city’s grand hotels.   “Tomorrow, Friday, we will open to the public and begin to work, even though the official inauguration will be a little later,” a bar manager told reporters. &nbs]]>
STARWOOD Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc got a 104-room hotel up and running in India in less than 12 months, bypassing years of red tape by rebranding an existing property instead of building a new one.   Capitalising on distress in the Indian hospitality sector, international operators such as Starwood and France’s Accor SA are teaming up with investors to acquire hotels from debt-laden domestic owners and reopen them under their own corporate banners.   S]]>
AN INDIAN lawmaker has threatened to go on hunger strike if a Playboy nightclub is allowed to open in Goa, claiming it would promote prostitution in the tourist hub.   Michael Lobo, a state legislator in India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is opposing a club proposed on Candolim beach - the first of dozens of Playboy outlets planned across the country.   “I will resort to hunger strike until death if the Playboy club is allowed in Goa,&r]]>
A TINY Samoan airline that is the first to introduce a fare system based on passengers’ weight hailed the success of its policy on Wednesday (April 3) and predicted it would become a global norm.   Four months after introducing the “fare-weight” system - the lighter the passenger the lighter the fare - Air Samoa chief executive Chris Langton said the feedback from fliers of all sizes has been positive.   “We started the system back in November]]>
THE number of foreign women tourists visiting India has dropped by 35 per cent in the past three months following a spate of sex attacks that have made global headlines, a new survey has found.   The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) says overall tourist arrivals are down 25 per cent year-on-year, with holidaymakers opting instead to visit other Asian countries such as Malaysia and Thailand.   The fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old Indian]]>
THE Hotel de Crillon in Paris, one of the world’s oldest luxury hotels, is closing this weekend for a two-year-long makeover that includes a new spa and sweeping renovations.   As the venerable Paris institution located on the foot of the Champs Elysees prepared to close, veteran guests and celebrity habitues bade good-bye to the staff in a wistful and sombre atmosphere.   “We are exceedingly sad. We have been coming here for 32 years. This place is magic]]>
DANISH tourist Judith Jensen has a long list of don’ts to help her feel safe during her holiday in India.   She won’t hail a taxi off the street, she won’t stay in an obscure hotel and she won’t go out after dark - all decisions made in response to the growing reporting of sexual crime in the country.   “I have read and heard so much about rape in India that now I feel this persistent sense of danger,” Jensen, 42, told reporters as]]>
SRI LANKAis turning its newest international airport opening on Monday (March 18) into a tax-free zone to attract aviation-related industries, a top official said.   Talks were under way to set up aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul operations at the $209m (£138m) airport located near wildlife sanctuaries in the island’s southeast, airport chairman Prasanna Wickremasuriya said.   The airport can accommodate Airbus A-380, the biggest passenger liner ]]>
RINGED by an endless stream of pilgrims at an ancient temple in Kathmandu, Hindu holy man Mahant Ramnaresh Giri sat naked and puffed on a pipe filled with cannabis, his body smeared with ash as he took part in Nepal’s biggest annual religious event.   Giri was one of more than a hundred such naked ascetics at the ancient Shivaratri festival, which brings an estimated one million devout Hindus flocking to Kathmandu’s Pashupatinath temple each year for rituals to cleans]]>
SRI LANKA is set to open later this month a Chinese-built international airport surrounded by wildlife sanctuaries with the aim of boosting tourism, an official said.   Authorities want to leverage the exotic flora and fauna in the $209m (£138.97m) airport’s neighbourhood to attract holidaymakers.   Travellers will be offered the “experience of being able to get up close and feed wild baby elephants,” the state-run airport chairman Prasanna Wi]]>
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TOURISTS and business people seeking visas to visit the US could face even longer waits at already swamped US embassies if severe budget cuts kick in at the State Department.   It was increasingly apparent that no legislative solution will be ready before automatic budget cuts - the so-called sequester - kick in on Friday (March 1), forcing a wide range of government agencies to trim services.   Faced with ballooning demand, the State Department had embarked on a hir]]>
THE FRENCH hotel group Accor said on Wednesday (February 20) it had suffered a net loss of $804m (£527.98m) last year owing to the sale of the US budget chain Motel 6, and said it would seek to generate $131.94m (£88.63m) in savings over the next two years to remain competitive.   Stripping out exception items the company said its results were solid, with revenue up by 2.7 per cent on a like-for-like basis to $7.45bn (£4.89bn) as rates for rooms increased steadi]]>
MORE than half of British workers would rather spend spare cash on a holiday than save it for their retirement, a survey from banking group HSBC said on Wednesday (February 20).   Some 58 per cent of employees in Britain would choose to pay for a holiday over retirement if they could afford to save for only one of these options in a year. This was a higher percentage than in the other countries surveyed in the bank’s latest The Future of Retirement report.   In]]>
AUSTRALIA’S strong dollar has done little to dampen its popularity with Chinese and Indian visitors, with tourist numbers from those countries tripling in the past decade, data showed Wednesday (February 6).   The Australian Bureau of Statistics said there were 630,000 visits from Chinese tourists in 2012 compared with 190,000 in 2002. Indian visits went from 45,000 to 160,000 in the same period.   “Despite a high Australian dollar, Australia’s shor]]>
INTERNATIONAL tourist arrivals exceeded one billion for the first time last year despite ongoing global economic uncertainty and numbers will rise further in 2013, a UN body said on Tuesday (January 29).   The number of arrivals grew by 4.0 per cent to 1.035 billion in 2012, up from 996 million in 2011, the Madrid-based United Nations World Tourism Organisation said in an annual survey.   “2012 was a year of constant economic instability in the entire world, es]]>
A RECENT flare-up in tensions between India and Pakistan along the de facto border of Kashmir has hit the local skiing season, with hoteliers reporting a surge of cancellations by anxious tourists.   Gulmarg, the region’s main resort on the Indian side of the divided Himalayan region, is popular with daredevil skiers mostly from Asia and Europe who come in search of deep powder snow and untouched slopes.   The region’s tourism industry, a vital part of th]]>
      WHEN Robert Reid last visited London from the United States for a short trip he stayed in an apartment he found on a “couch-surfing” site in the off-the-beaten north London suburb of Muswell Hill. “I wanted to be at the place where The Kinks were from,” says Reid. “The people were super and it gave me a great outlook on London and I appreciate the city more than I did before.”  Couch-surfing is a hospitality rev]]>
BRITAIN’S Queen Elizabeth has awarded a royal warrant to the family-owned London hotel which captured the attention of nearly two billion people around the world when Kate Middleton stepped from its doors on her way to marry Prince William.   The Goring Hotel where the now Duchess of Cambridge spent her last night as a single woman has been awarded a “Royal Warrant of appointment to HM The Queen for Hospitality Services”, the hotel said in a statement this week.]]>
HEALTHY hotels, wellness tourism and the holistic medicine system Ayurveda are expected to be the among the top spa trends in 2013, according to a report that tracks the $73bn (£45.57bn) global industry.   Gyms, pools and spas are standard at many hotels, but international chains and boutique inns will be enhancing offerings by adding customized services like jogging routes, in-room workouts, sleep programs, and gluten-free and vegan menus.   “Hotels are ]]>
MALAYSIA has been rated the world’s top Muslim-friendly holiday destination in a survey released on Wednesday (January 16) that listed Egypt, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Singapore as runners-up.   The study by Singapore-based Muslim travel consultancy Crescentrating ranked countries on how well they cater to the growing number of Muslim holidaymakers seeking halal - or Islam-compliant - food and services.   It used criteria including the leve]]>
HUNDREDS of thousands of Hindu pilgrims led by naked, ash-covered holy men streamed into the sacred river Ganges on Monday (January 14) at the start of the world’s biggest religious festival.   The Kumbh Mela in the Indian town of Allahabad will see up to 100 million worshippers gather over the next 55 days to take a ritual bath in the holy waters, believed to cleanse sins and bestow blessings.   Before daybreak on Monday, a day chosen by astrologers as auspici]]>
AT FIRST glance, the Atfaluna restaurant in Gaza City looks like any other - a space for locals to enjoy a simple meal. But there’s a difference: nearly all its staff are deaf.   Inside, customers chat to each other and scan the menu, but when it comes to ordering, their requests are taken down by waiters who communicate in sign language, and their meals are all cooked by deaf chefs.   It’s a one-of-a-kind concept in Gaza and the brainchild of a local org]]>
CHINA launched service on Wednesday (December 26) on the world’s longest high-speed rail route, the latest milestone in the country’s rapid and - sometimes troubled - super fast rail network.   The opening of the new 2,298-kilometre (1,425-mile) line between Beijing and Guangzhou means passengers will be whisked from the capital to the southern commercial hub in just eight hours, compared with the 22 hours previously required.   State broadcaster China Ce]]>
  AS DECLINE in militancy paves the way for tourists in north Indian state Jammu and Kashmir, over 60 per cent hotels occupied by the security forces in Srinagar city have been evacuated. With the improving security scenario in the city and the huge rush of tourists this year, the government directed the evacuation of these hotels and other buildings and relocated forces to other places, officials said.   “Over 60 per cent of hotels oc]]>
  HOSPITALITY major PeachState Hospitality was recently honoured with the Marriott Horizon Award for its outstanding performance in guest satisfaction. The company, led by hotelier Danny Patel, is headquartered in Warner Robins, Georgia.  The company’s four Fairfield Inns averaged 84.3 per cent in overall guest satisfaction, while SpringHill Suites hotel had an impressive guests satisfaction percentage of 88.6 per cent. The company’s Courtyard hotel registered a ]]>
    AIR TRAVELLERS are most frustrated by the queuing time for security checks, removing shoes and belts, apart from electronic items and liquids from their carry-on bags, a study said.   A significant majority -- 75 per cent of travellers -- would rather go through a full body scanner than have a full pat down by a security officer, said the survey by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).   A similar number --73 per cent of air travel]]>
    HOLLYWOOD adventure film Life of Pi is set to receive two National Tourism Awards from the  Indian government for promoting India as a tourism destination, especially Puducherry and Munnar in Kerala.   Director Ang Lee and Yann Martel, writer of the book on which the film is based, would receive the awards, Union Tourism Minister Chiranjeevi said.   The film tells the story of an Indian boy from Puducherry, who survives a shipwreck and ]]>
THE NUMBER of annual tourists crossing international borders will reach 1bn this week, the United Nations World Tourism Organisation said on Wednesday (December 12), with Chinese travellers the biggest growth driver.   Tourism grew between 3.5 per cent and 4 per cent in 2012, the secretary general of the UNWTO said, with the billionth tourist expected to touch down somewhere in the world on Thursday (December 13).   Chinese tourists, whose numbers increased 30 per ce]]>
IN A SMALL Arctic town in Sweden, a construction crew bundled up in heavy parkas is bustling around a building site unlike any other: a massive ice hotel is taking shape.   Armed with thick gloves and safety helmets over fur-lined hats, the builders in the northern town of Jukkasjaervi assemble two-tonne blocks of ice as if they were a large set of Lego blocks, with the end result a giant igloo with several domes, vaulted ceilings and archways.   In one hallway, a wo]]>
AIR INDIA has launched special all-inclusive promotional return fares on its international routes.   The airline is offering return fares as low as Rs15,999 (£183/$295) on the India-UAE route and Rs51,999 (£594/$957) on the India-US sector.   The seven-day scheme started on Monday (December 10) and will remain open till December 16, an Air India spokesperson said. The fares have been launched for travel on more than 15 city pairs worldwide.   ]]>
INDIAon Tuesday (November 4) said it had lifted restrictions placed on tourist visas after the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which had been blamed for putting off visitors and criticised by some countries.   The rule required tourists to wait for two months between visits to India - complicating regional trips and deterring regular visitors to a country that is keen to boost its tourism industry.   “It has been decided to lift the restriction of the two-month gap on re-]]>
    LONDON, described as the world’s most visited city, has become a favourite tourist attraction for Indians.  Indian visitors to the city grew by nearly 28 per cent from last year, Mayor of London Boris Johnson recently said.   According to figures from the Mayor’s official tourism and investment agency, London & Partners, the number of Indian tourists is now at a five-year high, with 145,000 visitors in the first half of 2012 - up 28 per ]]>
IN A BREAK with tradition, people will be charged to enter the gardens of Queen Elizabeth’s London residence where a trade fair and series of concerts will be held to commemorate the 60th anniversary of her 1953 coronation.   Members of the public are regularly treated to the large green space behind the imposing Buckingham Palace, but they usually go free either as invited guests to garden parties or on special occasions like the Diamond Jubilee picnic earlier this year. ]]>
UNDETERRED by the chill in Kashmir, tourists are thronging the Valley in large numbers. An unprecedented rush in tourist arrivals was witnessed in the Valley in September and October, which are usually considered off-season for tourism in Kashmir, Deputy Director of Tourism (Publicity) Azmat Ali said.   “As many as 64,000 tourists visited Kashmir in the month of September and 69,000 in October,” Ali said.   Not only domestic tourists, foreigners are also ]]>
WITH ONE out of six foreign tourists heading to the eastern Indian state, Bihar is being touted as the historical hotspot for visitors from abroad.   “One among every six foreign tourists arriving in the country is accepting the hospitality of Bihar now,” Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said.   According to reports, Bihar is receiving more holidaymakers from abroad than Goa, which is a hotspot for foreigners due to its beaches and nightlife.   St]]>
THE UK ON Tuesday (November 6) lifted its two-decade old advisory for its nationals against travel to Srinagar, Jammu and Ladakh, citing “improvements in the security situation” there.   In a letter to Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, the UK High Commissioner to India Sir James Bevan said “the improvements in the security situation has led us to lift the advisory against UK citizens travelling to both the cities of Jammu and Srinagar and travel be]]>
INDIAN tourist officials in Goa warned on Friday (November 2) that they would shut down a Playboy club set to open next month if there was any evidence of “obscenity, vulgarity or nudity”.   Playboy’s local franchisee PB Lifestyle has announced plans for more than 100 outlets in India, starting with a beachside club in the holiday state, but their “bunny” waitresses will sport a new look to suit conservative Indian values.   “They ]]>
BRITISH transport mogul Richard Branson said on Friday (October 26) he would love to help set up high-speed trains in India at a time when the nation’s creaking railway system desperately needs new investment.   State-run Indian Railways, the world’s biggest employer, is studying the feasibility of attracting private investment for high-speed trains for six routes and has been studying various options of attracting funding.   In an interview with India&rs]]>
EUROPEAN Union airlines must pay compensation for delayed flights unless the delay was caused by circumstances beyond their control, the bloc’s highest court said.   Travellers should be recompensed for delays of more than three hours, the European Union Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday (October 23), reaffirming a right established three years ago in a case involving Air France.   The ECJ was ruling in one case involving German carrier Lufthansa and a second i]]>
EGYPT projects a rise of about 20 per cent in tourist numbers this year, the tourism minister said on Wednesday (October 18), despite outbreaks of violence after last year’s Arab Spring.   The uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak last February and political instability since then have stopped millions of potential visitors to Egypt’s beach resorts and ancient sites.   Tourism accounted for more than a tenth of Egypt’s gross domestic product before th]]>
IT HAS to be the most famous pedestrian crossing in the world, immortalised by the Beatles on the cover of their Abbey Road album in 1969.   Situated just outside the north London EMI studios, the crossing enjoys listed status for its “cultural and historical importance” and draws thousands of tourists every year.   But a growing number of visitors hoping to take photos of themselves recreating the enigmatic, single-file crossing of the famous foursome ar]]>
A TOP UAE official denied on Wednesday (September 19) reports that the Gulf state had toughened visa rules for tourists from labour-exporting South Asians nations banning low-income visitors.   General Nasser al-Menhali, assistant undersecretary for Nationality and Residency at the interior ministry said no changes have been made to the existing law for visas, WAM state news agency reported.             “Any ame]]>