How To Reach Lakshadweep By Train, Air & Road: Permits Needed, Best Time To Visit & More

In a bid to attract wealthy global citizens for long-term stays, Indonesia is inviting these citizens in order to bolster Southeast Asia’s largest economy with a focus on its trump card: Bali. “Second Home” Visa by Indonesia As per the new regulation issued on Tuesday, the country is offering “second home” visas for five years […]

As part of ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’, the Union Culture ministry announced free entry for all into Archaeological Survey of India-protected monuments/sites across the country.  Buildup to 75th year of independence Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav is a series of events organized by the Government of India to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of India’s Independence. The […]

IRCTC’s ‘Bharat Gaurav’ train will be the first tourist train from India to cross the international border into a neighbouring country. IRCTC announced that the tourist train will travel to Nepal as part of the Ramayana Yatra Circuit. Nepal Stoppages, Highlights The circuit covers destinations associated with Lord Ram in Nepal — Dhanusha Pahar, Baawan […]

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is starting its cruise liner business from Sep 18. Private Partnership Set to be India’s first indigenous cruise liner, it has been developed in partnership with a private firm Cordelia Cruises. Cordelia Cruises will be the promoter and marketer of the luxury cruise liner. It will travel to […]

As the pandemic situation in India is slowly settling (despite the looming threat of a third wave around the corner), more and more countries around the world are now welcoming Indian travelers. Needless to say, Covid protocols such as mask wearing and social distancing along with local safety norms have to be followed no matter […]

Airbnb, EaseMyTrip, Oyo Hotels & Homes and Yatra have come together to form a new association, the Confederation of Hospitality, Technology and Tourism Industry or CHATT. The announcement was made on Wednesday by Culture and Tourism Minister Prahlad Singh Patel in a virtual event on Twitter. Government’s Efforts He said that as the vaccination drive […]

Tourism, along with a lot many sectors has halted with the onset of the deadly coronavirus pandemic. In order to contain the spread of the virus, the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) shut down an estimate of over 3400 monuments on March 17. Now, all monuments including Taj Mahal and Red Fort have been decided […]

Singapore is 4500 times smaller than India, and roughly half of Delhi, but it receives more than 1.8 crore tourists in a year, compared to just 1 crore in India. What is the reason for such huge gap? It seems that Indian Govt. has finally woken-up to the reality that India is not able to […]

On following the footprint of “Atithi Devo Bhavo” , the Government has started working on promoting tourism in India. Several interesting initiatives have already been taken: Policy changes for visa on arrival and adding more countries to provide e-visa facility is just the start. Tourism Ministry has now decided to take another big leap towards […]

The Crown of Palaces or the Taj Mahal, one of the wonders of this modern world built by  Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan is now harder to access, and enjoy. In a stunning decision, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has decided to impose a 100% penalty, for staying more than 3 hours in the campus of […]

Indian tourism industry will never be the same again. In a historic decision, Indian government has now allowed visa on arrival for citizens from 43 countries, who can make an entry at any one of the designated 9 international airports in India. Indian Association of Tour Operators President Subhas Goyal said, “It would be a […]

I have been quite critical about driving and driving conditions in India earlier on this blog. Most of it has been from infrastructure, roads and pollution point of view. Although, these are serious negatives, have you thought about positives of driving in India?
One of my favorite blogs is “Get rich slowly”. If you are bad…

Cleartrip has launched an interesting solution that will be mighty beneficial for international travelers. One of the most difficult task for an international traveler is to time the purchase of his tickets so he gets the best deal. Air-fares are volatile – They keep changing depending on various factors including oil prices, exchange rates, demand […]

This year has not been good for any of the Industry, except I guess for Medical Industry in India (Thanks to Swine Flu, recession related diseases :)). The tourism in India has seen a steep decline over last 12 months and the effects of that have seen Hospitality Industry in India cut to half. ASSOCHAM […]

The tourism statistics in the first quarter and up to MAY’09 as compiled by the Department of Tourism shows a sharp decline in the industry by a whopping 40-45%. This depressing situation can either be defended by obvious reasons which every sector seems to be falling trap to. i.e. Recession or specifically for this sector […]

Chartered : hired for the exclusive temporary use of a group of travelers; “a chartered plane”; “the chartered buses arrived on time” I tried looking for the meaning of ‘Chartered” using define:chartered in Google and that is what I got. The definition mentions about a plane and a bus. No mention of a train. I […]

Last year I did a comparison of 10 OTA’s operating in India. The comparison was done based on 5 different parameters like Ticket fares, Flight options, Destinations, User Friendliness and value added services. In that comparison IXIGO scored quite well on most aspects including user friendliness. Cleartrip and Yatra also got good points on user friendliness aspect.

However, in a recent survey conducted by Juxtconsult, Cleartrip seems to have taken a lead over other OTA rivals in terms of user friendliness. The JuxtConsult survey conducted on the online travel portals involved most of the leading players in the OTA category – Cleartrip, Makemytrip, Yatra, Travelguru and Indiatimes Travel (surprisingly IXIGO was not included in the survey). To measure the ‘Website User-Friendliness’ Index, respondents were asked to rate the travel portals on 19 distinct parameters under 4 categories: ease of access, design appeal, ease of usage and usage satisfaction.

Cleartrip came out the winner in their research.

Indian Union Railway minister -Lalu Prasad Yadav – the darling of the masses and the favorite whipping-boy of the media has added another feather to Indian railways.

Two premium trains of India – Shatabdi and Rajdhani – will now be boasting on-board free internet and direct-to-home (DTH) services.

The premium trains have been consistently loosing market share over past couple of years to low cost budget airlines offering very competitive rates. In a bid to stem this loosing streak, the Indian railway minister is expected to announce many new initiatives including Free Internet access and DTH services.

Indian OTAs (Online travel agents) are in news again. With more than 70% of e-commerce spend happening purely on online travel booking, this space is getting quite lucrative.
With the number of Online Travel agents reaching double figures, it is getting quite competitive too. To move ahead of the competition, ClearTrip, Yatra and IXIGO have come up with new features to attract more audience.

I am surprised that in this day and age we have Travel search engine looking like 90DI. I don’t know how many of you would agree with me, but I found the look of this excellent travel search engine bit too amateurish. It is also quite glaring, because even though it is ugly, it is one of the better travel searches in Indian Travel sector, and I can say that I seen most, if not all the Indian players in this sector.