Ancient Trek Route to Mount Kailash Opens Doors - Remarkable Discovery by ITBP

Here is a piece of good news for all the pilgrimage loving tourists, trekkers, adventurers and mountain lovers! The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has unveiled an all-new trekking route to reach the divine destination - Kailash Mansarovar. This newly discovered lost trekking route stretches from Gala to Kathgodam. This route has an ancient significance.  This ancient stretch is believed to be the fabled route of Kailash-Mansarovar yatra. The battalion who discovered this beautiful trek path was headed by chief Nimbadia. The team was finally successful in tracing the route after six long expeditions. According to Hindu mythology, Mount Kailash is the place where Lord Shiva dwells. At the foot of the mountain sits the holy Mansarovar Lake in Tibet. The existent routes are hazardous being prone to landslides and earthquakes. This newly found route will be particularly helpful to divert the pilgrims to an alternative route when the main routes are blocked by natural calamities. The officer believes that the Kailash Mansarovar route also has historical significance. The famous Dogra warrior - Zorawar Singh and his military troupe had traced this route to attack and conquer Tibet. Nimbadia, who believes this route to be an excellent road for hikers has collected the historical maps, photos, letters and records of this ancient Kailash Mansarovar route in his book 'Kumaon aur Kailash'. A new found route to the magnificent Kailash Mountain definitely comes as good news to Indian tourism and to all those travellers who have a special place in their heart for the Mighty Himalayas.

New Tourism Policy from Gujarat Tourism Board

The Gujarat Tourism Board is busy studying a new Tourism Policy. This Tourism Policy proposed by the TFCI (Tourism Finance Corporation of India) expects to address the major growth issues concerning tourism in Gujarat state. According to Gujarat Tourism Secretary – Vipul Mittra, this new policy will take care of the various issues including fiscal incentives, taxation, prohibition, land banking and so on. He also hopes that this policy will prompt the state government to ease the liquor permit system in Gujarat. The bigger parts of this new Gujarat tourism policy is that the government might also consider building hotels at select tourist places in Gujarat. So, we can expect a mushrooming of beach resorts in this beautiful beach state of India where serving liquor will not be an issue. This policy comes as a part of promoting rural and heritage tourism in Gujarat. Mittra also expects to develop the Rann of Kutch as an active tourism destination to boost up Gujarat tourism. In fact one such project is already on its making in the Rann. To bring in more dimensions in Gujarat tourism, the policy also mentions introducing cruise tourism in the state. The Gujarat tourism department hopes to tie up with major sea port operators to set up cruise tourism landing facilities at the major ports. According to the latest developments, several private cruise operators have already approached the Gujarat tourism department expressing their interest in flagging off cruise tourism operation from the coast of Gujarat. Furthermore, to give an enhanced boost to Gujarat tourism, the policy also mentions the establishing of three more state-level Institute of Hotel Management (IHM) within the state in Patna, Baroda and Surat to improve the hospitality sector. The Gujarat tourism board plans to launch aggressive marketing campaigns to project the state as an irresistible travel destination for the international and domestic tourists alike. Looks like a huge makeover is on the make in our beloved beach state – Gujarat!

Conservation tourism in Goa – Turtles show the torchlight!

Ecotourism in India is getting a new boost with a newly found dimension called “conservation tourism”. This conservation tourism in India is budding out from Goa, to begin with and in the stream Goa tourism is getting a fresh exposure all over again. This ecotourism in Goa has been given a go by the turtles that come to nest in this beautiful beach paradise. According to the president of ISTS (International Sea turtle Society), Kartik Shanker, this unique tourism model in Goa of mixing turtle conservation and tourism will also benefit the local community.

This turtle conservation tourism in Goa also comes as a flagship towards protecting and showcasing the beautiful coral reefs of the Indian coastline. The Goan communities living here will also greatly benefit from this project. Though the east coast of India shares the maximum population of breeding turtles, in the west coast it is Goa and Gujarat. Especially, the green turtles and Olive Turtles are very popular in Goa. So, it’s a good time for Goa, and also India on a whole, as more and more new concepts of tourism are developing in the country which is sure to hook on more international travellers to this shore.

Predictions, Calculations and Preparations have begun for the Big Boom in Medical Tourism

Indian tourism experts have recently predicted that medical tourism in India is going to experience a major boom in the current year. More than a million medical tourists are expected to visit our Indian subcontinent by 2010 and to make the most out of this huge influx, both the hospitality sector and medical sector are gearing up fast. The Fortune Park Hotels recently ventured into the Indian medical tourism segment by inaugurating its new hotel wing - Fortune Park Lake City hotel in Thane, Maharashtra. The Jupiter Lifeline Hospitals own this property which boasts of 58 rooms as of now. 32 more rooms are in the making, which are expected to open up for guests by the end of 2010.

Fortune Park in collaboration with the Jupiter Lifeline Hospitals is looking forward to bring up a similar medical tourism project in Vizag in a couple of years. Plans are to create a 50-60 room hotel with a 250 bedded hospital. A sum of 150 crore rupees has been estimated to be required to complete this project. Medical tourism in India is already on the lines of scoring big because of its cost efficiency factors. In India, medical treatments cost about a fifth of what it is in the US. Majority of the travellers visiting India for medical treatments are from the West and South East Asian countries. This is followed by UK, US, Tanzania and Switzerland.

Research further predicts that a surge in influx of medical tourists in India will be majorly influenced by the availability of quality medical services at lower costs. Another study conducted by the Confederation of Indian Industry and McKinsey consulting firm showed that the Indian medical tourism industry has a potential to rise up to $2 billion from $1 billion by 2012. Seeing such promise in the India health tourism business in the near future, the Wockhardt Hospitals group is planning to open 4 super specialty hospitals in a three years line. Way to go India!!

Travel and Tourism Industry Gets a Shameful Miss in the Union Budget 2010-11

In the Budget 2010-2011 presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, the aviation and tourism sector of India again got a miss. While tourism disbursal has been shot up to Rs 1050 crore for the year 2010-11 as against 2009’s Rs 950 crore, several areas were still ignored. These included the key demands of the Indian tourism industry like the need for exempting the inbound tour operators from service tax, exporting status for the travel industry, including ATF in the list of declared goods for uniform taxation, making air travel within India cheaper by abolishing the fuel surcharge, rationalizing taxes on state transport and forming a National Commission for Tourism under the PM’s leadership. 

To sum it up, the only good thing to come out of this year’s budget for the tourism industry in India was the announcement which talked about the Income Tax Act investment deductions to the hotel developing companies (2 star hotels and above). Instead of focusing more on the travel industry and meeting demands and expectations, the finance ministry proposed of adding service tax on domestic and international air fares for every class. This leaves us with the conclusion that with the addition of service tax on domestic journeys the cost of air travel will climb up by 10%. 

But while the parliament has been ignoring the tourism industry of the country, the Foundation for Aviation and Sustainable Tourism (FAST) has planned a seminar on Destination Management and Sustainable Tourism in Delhi on March 2, 2010. The states of focus on this daylong seminar will be Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Sikkim and will be attended by the delegates of the Indian tourism industry.