Air travel in India lower than SL, Pak

NEW DELHI: The aviation sector may be witnessing an unprecedented boom in the country but an Assocham-Ernst and Young joint study suggests that India is one of the 'least penetrated' markets for air travel. The study says, on an average, 1,000 Indians take 20 air trips a year. This figure is 60 for China and 2,300 for the US. In fact, India's "air penetration levels are even lower than its neighbours Sri Lanka, Pakistan and countries with poorer GDP such as Ethiopia and Nigeria."

Infrastructure woes hit air travel in India

NEW DELHI: Every 1,000 Indians, accustomed to air travel, make only 20 air trips in a year against 60 and 2,300 trips made by the Chinese and Americans. This is a stark contrast and an example which highlights India’s low score in aviation penetration, said a joint study by industry body Assocham and Ernst & Young. Commenting on the study, Assocham president Venugopal Dhoot said: “The basic reason for the lack of advancement in the Indian aviation industry is the absence of proper infrastructure and presence of high costs. The aviation sector needs to pay attention to the infrastructure at the international airports, domestic aerodrome conveniences and air control and navigational facilities.”

Mumbai-based travel firm will be opening 45 retail outlets in malls

Travel companies are smitten by the retail bug. Mumbai-based travel firm TravelPort will be opening 45 retail outlets in malls by March 2008. It has tied up with the Delhi-based Salasar Retail to open travel terminals in Salasar stores. Branded as TravelPort@Salasar, these terminals will provide travel products such as air tickets, hotel packages and cruise packages. The company will also be tying up with Fun Republic and the New Delhi-based Sun City. It is in talks with players like Ansals and DLF. TravelPort is looking at an investment of Rs 3-lakh per outlet. The company has projected a turnover of Rs 100 crore by the end of this fiscal.

Domestic tourists to India expected to touch 1,570 million by 2017

With the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) predicting India to be the third fastest growing country in the globe in travel and tourism demand over the next 10 years, experts said time was ripe for the country to meet demands from increased number of tourist. "With the enormous tourism potential in India, the time could not be better for the industry to launch new leisure real estate models that will meet the needs of the evolving consumer," Group RCI Chairman and CEO Kenneth N May said.

10 Perfect Days in India

* Day 1: Old Delhi, New Delhi Day 1: Old Delhi, New Delhi

* Day 2: Shah Jahan's Delhi Day 2: Shah Jahan's Delhi

* Day 3: Delhi to Varanasi Day 3: Delhi to Varanasi

* Day 4: Varanasi to Khajuraho Day 4: Varanasi to Khajuraho

* Day 5: Khajuraho to Agra Day 5: Khajuraho to Agra

* Day 6: Agra and the Taj Mahal Day 6: Agra and the Taj Mahal

* Day 7: Agra to Jaipur Day 7: Agra to Jaipur

* Day 8: Jaipur Day 8: Jaipur

* Day 9: Udaipur Day 9: Udaipur

* Day 10: Udaipur to Delhi Day 10: Udaipur to Delhi

Splurge on India's ultra luxury hotels

The landscape changed when the Oberoi Group, an Indian hotel company, opened Rajvilas in Jaipur. Set among 32 acres of gardens and reflecting pools, the property's 54 rooms are set around courtyards and have four-poster beds and sunken white Italian marble bathtubs looking into their own walled ornamental gardens. The hotel also has a spa with an extensive menu of holistic and Western treatments and refined, doting service to match its lavish surroundings.

Medical-related precautions concerning travel in india with babies

For medical-related precautions concerning babies, Kozarsky says, "I worry more about sub-Saharan Africa, because there are more immunizations you can't give an infant. India is a little less problematic, but you still have to be cautious." She advises parents to make sure their child's immunizations are up-to-date. However, some travel-specific vaccines are not approved for small children. For example, while adults can be vaccinated for hepatitis A, infants must be injected with immune globulin and should take anti-malarial pills that are specifically formulated for little ones

Multifaceted India

“When people think of India, they tend to think of its icons—the Taj Mahal or wandering holy men. But India is a multi-sensory, multi-faceted experience,” says Andy Alpine, Co-Publisher of Specialty Travel Index.
Royal Expeditions’ (so named for it’s founder Rani Chandresh Kumari, Princess of Jodhpur, not just the treatment of their guests) “Tigers, Rhinos, and Elephant’s Tour” visits the wilder places of India: Kaziranga National Park, Pench National Park, Kanha National Park, and Bandhavgarh National Park - and includes wildlife viewing by elephant and jeep, and the chance to bathe an elephant in a river.

Air India's Low-Fare Unit Plans Domestic Flights

"We plan to start operations from the winter of this year" S. Venkat, executive director in charge of finance at Air India, said in a telephone interview from Mumbai, where the airline is based. "We want to offer seamless connectivity to our international passengers and also those who want to travel within India." Air India Express flies to 10 international destinations, including Dubai, Sharjah, Doha, Bahrain and Colombo, from 10 Indian cities, according to the airline's Web site.

India's best holidays for 2007

If you choose the much-awarded Oberoi Rajvilas hotel in Jaipur, here’s what you could notch up in eight days: Agra and the Taj Mahal (one hour’s flight ea way), Udaipur and lovely Lake Piola (one hour), the formidable fortress city of Jodphpur (45 minutes), the temples of Khajuraho (two hours 15 minutes) and Delhi (one hour). To which you could add a visit to the Shimla in the Himalayan foothills, or even a tiger reserve — whole chunks of India can be digested with ease.

From the high Himalayas to the Tamil south

Coming here recently to film The Story of India has made me appreciate the country even more. The wonderful variety of landscapes and cultures never fails to amaze me: the Buddhist sites of Leh and Ladakh, the Gonds of Orissa, near the magical lake at Chilika; Kerala, where you can rub shoulders with Syrian Christians, Indian Jews and Muslim boat-builders, who still ply the spice trade to the Gulf in their great wooden sailing boats. The Story of India by Michael Wood (BBC Books, £20) is published next Thursday. The six-part BBC 2 series of the same name starts on August 24 at 9pm.

Time to get real

Travel has grown to become the largest segment (65-70 per cent, by industry estimates) of e-commerce in India today. However, online travel accounts for only about 10 per cent of the total domestic travel market, estimated at about $20 billion, as per figures put out by PhoCusWright. Clearly, online travel companies have a long way to go. And so the wheel has come full circle, with online travel companies now venturing off-line as well. MMT has offline retail presence in Bangalore and Ahmedabad at the moment, while Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata will be rolled out soon.

Great Indian Holidays

Holidays in India, awesome in her size and diversity. This virtual sub-continent, stretches from the lofty Himalyas , a series of 2000km long mountain ranges in the north, to the extensive deserts in the west, the lush evergreen forest in the south to the far-flung sub Himalayan forests in the North East. Containing within it three mighty rivers, the Indus, the Ganga and the Brahmaputra, the immense Indo-Gangetic Plain, the Deccan Plateau and the two major hill chains of the South, the Western Ghats, bordering the southwestern coast from Maharashtra, across Goa and Karnataka into Kerala and the Eastern Ghats on the Coromondal Coast. Finally, the Lakhshadweep Islands in the Arabian Sea and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal.

Travel Kashmir

Set like a jewelled crown on the map of India, Kashmir is a many faceted diamond, changing character with the seasons - always extravagantly beautiful. Three Himalayan ranges; Karakoram, Zanaskar, and Pir Panjal - snow capped majestic frame the landscape from northwest to northeast. They are the birthplace of great rivers which flow through the kashmir valley.

india Medical Travel - Precautions You Need to Take

There are fewer regulations, regarding health in India, applicable to foreign tourists. These regulations are more of the nature of prevention than anything else.
General Tips - Drink only bottled or boiled water, or carbonated (bubbly) drinks in cans or bottles. Avoid tap water, fountain drinks, and ice cubes. If this is not possible, make water safer by both filtering through an "absolute 1 micron or less" filter AND adding iodine tablets to the filtered water. "Absolute 1 micron filters" are found in camping/outdoor supply stores.

70% of Indian eggs purchased by hotels

There will be a shortage of eggs following the ban on the import of Indian poultry products.The retail prices of eggs in the country may go up by 10 to 30 per cent soon following the ban on the import of Indian poultry products, said retail chains. Supermarkets disclosed that some egg suppliers have already given them notice to increase the price. Dr Mohammad Saeed Al Kindi, Minister of Environment and Water, said the ban covers "all domestic and wild birds, including ornamental birds and products." The decision was taken as a precautionary measure following reports by the World Organisation for Animal Health on the emergence of bird flu cases in India.