The Vice President of India H.E. Mohammad Hamid Ansari today inaugurated the internationally acclaimed annual Surajkund Crafts Mela at Surajkund near New Delhi.
The Governor of Haryana, Jagannath Pahadia, Chief Minister of Haryana Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the Union Minister for Tourism, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, Kumari Selja and Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot, with several other dignitaries, were also present on the occasion.
The 15-Day Mela has participating craftsmen with exquisite talents not only from the length and breadth of the Country, but even from countries like Tajikistan, Thailand and Egypt besides the neighbouring SAARC Nations. State of Rajasthan is the theme State this time.
One of the main objectives of this Mela is to project the sensitivity of the rich Indian art, culture, music and folk art under one single banner and at one single venue for the benefit of its visitors besides providing the young generation an opportunity to have a first hand feel of the extraordinary variety of the tradition and rural ambience that happens to be the hallmark of our country.
It would be a bonanza for the foreign and domestic tourists in educating themselves about the diversity of Indian traditions and culture besides enjoying the vibrant ambiance created typically to represent the entire ethos of rural India in miniature. The Mela also offers the participating craftsmen a direct opportunity and exposure to market their products to the end users.
Organized primarily under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Tourism, the Mela is a collective and concerted effort of agencies like Development Commissioners of Handicrafts, Handlooms and Union Ministries of Culture and External Affairs, Haryana Tourism and the Tourism Department of the theme State as they jointly conduct and coordinate the arrangements of the Mela.
The best amongst the craftsmen and folk artists converge from across the country along with their products and skills populating this 15-day long jamboree of Indian traditional art, culture and tradition. The Mela happens to be one amongst the most important and popular event in the annual national calendar organised in and around Delhi. The number of visitors that stood at over 7 lakhs last year is expected to increase substantially this time.
This year a high level team of Sri Lanka consisting of 25 persons is visiting Surajkund Crafts Mela to study the aspects of its conduct in totality with a view to replicate it.
More than 400 craftsmen sponsored by Development Commissioners Handicrafts and Handlooms, Ministry of Textiles, Rajasthan Government and other organisations of international repute have started reaching the venue to setup their exhibition cum sale counters within the Mela area.
The Goa government has clarified that no diktat or guideline has been issued banning bikinis from the beaches. But the government, in a bid to promote family tourism and stung by the spate of crimes against women, has already ordered scrapping all advertisements displaying bikini babes’ saying that wrong perception of the pictures was leading to Goa being tagged as a sex tourism destination.
Officials clarified that no official of the tourism department had many any statement indicating a ban was in the offing.
But earlier this month the government had moved to correct perceptions. “Goa is a family holiday destination and not a sex tourism destination. We will make sure that bikini babes do not symbolize Goa tourism,” state tourism minister Francisco Mickky Pacheco had said.
The tourism department asked all empanelled advertising agencies to refrain from showing scantily clad women in their advertisement campaigns.
“This is already being implemented. Further directives are being issued to reinforce the decision by the tourism ministry,” said tourism director Swapnil Naik. (News Source: Times of India)
Endowed with spectacular scenic beauty, Sikkim is harnessing its natural bounty for sustainable development through village tourism.
Sikkim is considered as one of the most peaceful and fastest developing states of Northeast India.
In a bid to further develop its economy, the first Winter Village Festival was held at Assam Lingzey village in Gangtok with the aim of promoting Village tourism to boost its revenue generation mechanism.
During the festival, villagers of the area got an opportunity to exhibit their products and resources besides presenting the unique traditions and distinctive cultural features of the Sikkimese society to the visitors.
“We want to introduce eco-friendly tourist spots. We will be able to supply organic based products. Once we start working in this sector, we will be able to encourage local people in tourism sector.” Amrit Rai, member, organizing committee, Winter Village Fest.
Different government departments, self-help groups, NGOs and Panchayat units set up around 32 stalls that showcased traditional Sikkimese food, exotic flowers and crafts of the state.
The main attractions of the event were Adventure sports like rock climbing and cultural shows.
“This type of programme will definitely attract tourists from outside. They will get the benefit of knowing new traditions, cultures and people of different types. We can interact,” said Kamala Rai, a local.
The Sikkim Government is aiming to build more traditional houses in model villages with suitable modern amenities so that tourist can experience the rural lifestyle of the state. (New Source: OneIndia online)
Egyptian envoy Mohamed Higazy has said that India is a country with which Egypt shares cultural synergies and affinities that go far back in history and this had prompted the launch here of a new tourism campaign.
Higazy was speaking at a function to launch a new brand campaign for the Egypt Tourism Authority along with a logo.
“It is for this reason that we are launching our new campaign and logo here. We want more and more Indians to visit Egypt and experience for themselves the warm hospitality of Egypt, something for which both India and Egypt are fabled,” he said.
The new campaign was launched by Egypt’s brand ambassador and Indian film actress Celina Jaitley on Friday evening. There was also a performance of an Egyptian belly dance at the launch organized at a five-star hotel.
According to Egyptian Tourism Authority director Adel El Masry the new campaign signified that Egypt was not only the origin of a great civilization, but helped in shaping global culture.
“The campaign brings alive the rarity and exotica, the mystique and the modern of this fabled land that offers the widest diversification of tourism all in one place,” he added.
India is witnessing a preference for low-cost air travel, increase in business-driven tourism and a rise in the number of moderate-tier hotels for long-haul travellers post recession. Over the next two decades the focus will be on low cost air travel both in the domestic and foreign circuits, said speakers at a seminar at the SATTE-ITB 2010 travel fair in the capital.
“The focus of Air India is on low-cost carriers as we had been badly affected by changes in the money market in 2007, which had pushed up our cost of operations and an ageing fleet. We are now pulling out the old aircraft and refurbishing our fleet by inducting new Boeing aircraft so that flying becomes an economical experience for travellers and profitable for airlines,” Rohita Jaidka, executive director (Commercial) of Air India, one of the speakers at the seminar on ‘The Challenge of Change’, said.
The airline is receiving its first consignment of 27 Boeing 787 Dreamliners in November 2010 and replacing its existing fleet with 21 Boeing 777s, six 747s and 24 737s.
“Air India is also joining forces with Star Alliance, an umbrella of 21 airlines in the US,” she said.
The benefits to accrue from the move, Rohita Jaidka said, are “expanded coverage area, more opportunities for frequent fliers, wider network, special schemes for the government of India segment, rise in the volume of student traffic and focus on AI holiday segment. Delhi will be used as a transit point”.
The tourism, aviation and travel segment - the three components that make up the industry - “is learning to listen to customers”, said Aditya Ghosh, president, Indigo Airlines.
“We are now listening to customers. The last three years have shown that we are no different from the world and customers’ expectations and profile have changed,” he said.
Over the last 18 months, travel and tourism trade has been receiving tremendous support from business travellers - much more than the leisure segment - and they are looking for variety in their itineraries and transport.
According to statistics furnished by the Confederation of Indian Industry at SATTE, business travel bookings are expected to show a gentle upswing as the economy steps into 2010.
Business travellers with reduced purses are looking for cheaper bargains and budget hotels, the industry body said.
The Asia-Pacific region has registered a growth rate of 5.1 percent in November 2009 compared to 2.1 percent globally, cites CII. As the economy looks up, business travel is likely to look up in late 2010. Last year, the industry logged 15 percent negative growth.
“There were some customers you thought were yours, but suddenly they felt that they needed to go to Indigo, Jet Airways and Kingfisher. As things move up - 50 percent of them have moved up, we need to build more capacities and choice for customers. We do not give enough choices to our customers. The customer is evolving faster than you thought,” the president of Indigo Airlines said.
As the customers tighten purse, hotels too are restructuring hospitality. While the markets have become softer, business plans of hotels have more strategies to suit the trends, said Matthew Cooper, general manager of The Marriott Courtyard-Gurgaon owned by the J.W. Marriott Group in the outskirts in the capital.
The Courtyard Marriott is a “moderate tier four-star property” of the Marriott chain of hotels.
“Travellers look for right beds, right size rooms, quality beverage and food in a hotel now. We are targeting the long-stay clients so that business stays over the weekend. It also helps the hotel set up a personal relationship with the guests. The meltdown has cut hotel trade down to size,” Cooper said.
The chain is building three Courtyard hotels to “accommodate the needs of moderate tier business travellers”.
Several hotel chains like The Park, the Sarovar Group and Premier Inn India have entered the mid-market moderately priced hotel segment in the last two years.
One of the first movers in the mid-market segment, the Lemon Tree Hotels currently has 10 operating hotels - and 17 more in the pipeline - aggregating over 2,500 under “construction”.
According to Rika Jean-Francois, product manager for South Asia and Pacific of ITB-Berlin, which is looking for strategic partnerships in tourism, India was projected as a potential market in the next five years.
