General Awareness

TOURISM AND HOTEL INDUSTRY AWARENESS - December 2019

Dec 2019

Feb 10, 2020

UDAN Heli Services To Connect Dehradun With Badrinath, Gangotri

Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) operationalized the first-ever helicopter services from Dehradun's Sahastradhara helipad to Gauchar and Chinyalisaur under the Regional Connectivity Scheme – Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (RCS-UDAN) of Government of India. Trivendra Singh Rawat, Chief Minister of Uttrakhand and Pradeep Singh Kharola, Secretary, MoCA were present.
The inauguration of the helicopter routes in the Uttrakhand region is in line with the objective of the Ministry of Civil Aviation to enhance the aerial connectivity of the hilly areas in the country.
MoCA awarded the Sahastradhara-Gauchar-Chinyalisaur route to Heritage Aviation under the UDAN 2 bidding process. Heritage Aviation will operate helicopter services from Sahastradhara to Gauchar and Chinyalisaur twice daily.
For these services, Viability Gap Funding (VGF) is provided under UDAN to keep the fares affordable for the common people. The State Government of Uttrakhand is also providing additional incentives to make the scheme more attractive.

World's Fastest Growing Tourist Destinations

Overseas trips hit 1.5 billion in 2019, up four per cent from 2018, according to the latest statistics from the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).
France remained the most-visited country with more than 90 million visitors, followed by Spain's 83.8 million.
But the most interesting stats related to the countries that saw the highest jump in visitor numbers year-on-year.
Top of the pack was Myanmar, which saw a 40.2 per cent per cent increase in visitors, followed by Puerto Rico (31.2 per cent) and Iran (27.9 per cent), although this last is likely to suffer a drop in 2020 given the current political climate.
Other trends saw central Asia increase in popularity, with Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan all in the top 20 fastest growing destinations.
Winter sun destinations previously hit by terror attacks also saw a comeback last year, with Egypt seeing a 21.1 per cent increase in visitor numbers, Turkey a 14 per cent rise, and Tunisia up 13.6 per cent.

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.

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