General Awareness

TOURISM AND HOTEL INDUSTRY AWARENESS - March 2019

Mar 2019

Feb 06, 2020

Bhutan Ends Free Entry for Indian Tourists

Ending decades of free entry to Indian tourists visiting Bhutan, the government in Thimphu decided to levy a daily Rs. 1,200 ($17) fee for "regional tourists" from India, the Maldives and Bangladesh, beginning July 2020. The fee, called a Sustainable Development Fee (SDF), is meant to help the government deal with burgeoning numbers in tourist traffic, which it is seeking to regulate through a new tourism policy.
The decision was passed by the National Assembly as a 'Tourism Levy and Exemption Bill of Bhutan', 2020. The SDF is considerably lower than the $65 charged to other foreign tourists, who are also charged a compulsory flat cover charge of $250 per day.

Feb 03, 2020

Budget Carrier Air Asia Denies Allegations of Bribery

Asia's biggest budget airline denied allegations it was paid a bribe of $50m (£38m) by plane maker Airbus.
AirAsia vigorously rejected claims that it was paid to buy 180 planes from the European manufacturer.
The allegations have surfaced after Airbus agreed to pay $4bn in fines to settle accusations of corruption.
European plane maker Airbus had agreed a settlement with French, British and US authorities following lengthy investigations into allegations that it bribed airlines to purchase its planes.
AirAsia has said that it will fully cooperate with Malaysia's Anti-Corruption Commission, which is working alongside Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) probing the claims.

Jan 31, 2020

Railways Plans Six High-speed Corridors

As per railway board chairman V. K. Yadav, six high-speed and semi-high speed corridors will be built to ease up the congestion on the Indian Railways.
The detailed project report (DPR) will be prepared within a year.
The corridors include the Delhi-Noida-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi (865 km) and the Delhi-Jaipur-Udaipur-Ahmedabad (886 km) sections. These will be constructed to join the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train which is scheduled to be completed by December 2023.
Trains can run at a maximum speed of over 300 km/hr on a high-speed corridor, while on a semi-high speed corridor, the maximum speed can go beyond 160 km/hour.
The other corridors also include sections along the Mumbai-Nashik-Nagpur (753 km), Mumbai-Pune-Hyderabad (711 km), Chennai-Bangalore-Mysore (435 km) and Delhi-Chandigarh-Ludhiana-Jalandhar-Amritsar (459 km) corridors.

Jan 30, 2020

Airlines Suspend Flights to China as Fear Grows

Global airlines suspended or scaled back more direct flights to China's major cities amid an increase in travel warnings and decline in demand from passengers due to a growing outbreak of coronavirus. Fears over the spread of the flu-like virus, which originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, are increasing as the death toll topped 160.
The virus appears to represent the biggest epidemic threat to the airline industry since the SARS outbreak, which at its peak in April 2003 led to a 45% plunge in passenger demand in Asia.

Japanese Chef Wins First ever Three-star Rating in France

The French edition of the Michelin Guide, the Bible of gastronomy, for the first time in its history awarded the highest rating of three stars to a Japanese-born chef.
The accolade, unveiled at a ceremony in Paris, went to chef Kei Kobayashi who, according to the guide, is a virtuoso at marrying flavours and always spot-on with his conception of the dish.
Japan has several dozen restaurants with Michelin stars, but Kobayashi is the first chef from Japan to be awarded the recognition for a restaurant in France.

Jan 28, 2020

All Departing Flyers at IGIA will have to Remove Footwear

Passengers flying out from Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) will have to take off their footwear before the mandatory body scan as part of the security check-in procedure starting in April, according to senior officers from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which secures the Delhi airport.
This is because extensive tests conducted on the body scanning machines showed that it did not deliver accurate results below the ankle. The CISF has been testing out the German-made machines since November 2019.

Malaysia Bans Visitors

Malaysia's government announced it will ban travellers from the central Chinese city of Wuhan and other parts of surrounding Hubei province beginning immediately.
A statement issued by the Prime Minister's Department said Malaysia would stop issuing visas for Chinese travellers from those areas.
Normal visa procedures will resume once the situation returns to normal.
Meanwhile, Germany's Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that his country was considering evacuating its citizens from Wuhan.
A consular team was expected to arrive in Wuhan to provide Germans there with assistance.

Indian Railways to Run 100% on Electricity by 2024

Railways Minister Piyush Goyal said that the Indian Railways is expected to switch entirely to electricity by 2024, as it is already shunting diesel locomotives gradually out of service.
Goyal said at India-Brazil Business Forum that it will be the first railway network in the world to be run fully on electricity. We are very conscious of our responsibility to the environment. We are embarking on rapid electrification of our rail network.

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