Top Section
Explore Business Standard
Don’t miss the latest developments in business and finance.
Union Minister for Culture and Tourism G Kishan Reddy on Tuesday said tourism can be a positive force for economic transformation, rural development and community wellbeing, and India plans to use the key segment to achieve sustainable development goals during its G20 Presidency. The minister was addressing a side event at the start of a three-day Tourism Working Group (TWG) meeting of G20 at the tent city of Dhordo in Gujarat's Kutch district. This is the first meeting of the working group. Speaking at a panel discussion on 'Rural Tourism for Community Empowerment and Poverty Alleviation', Reddy said, India is focused on using tourism as a vehicle for achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) during its G20 Presidency." SDGs are a call for action by all countries to promote prosperity while protecting the planet. "The soul of India lives in its villages," the minister said quoting Mahatma Gandhi. The focus of rural tourism should be to showcase villages, the country's way o
The US on Friday asked its citizens to exercise "increased caution" while travelling to India due to "crime and terrorism" and advised them to not to travel to the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. In a new travel advisory issued on Friday, the US State Department reduced the India Travel Advisory Level to 2 on a scale of one to 4 with the latter being the highest. The State Department in a separate advisory, a day earlier, had put Pakistan on Level 3 and asked its citizens to reconsider their travel especially its restive provinces due to terrorism and sectarian violence. Exercise increased caution in India due to crime and terrorism, said the State Department. Do not travel to: The union territory of Jammu and Kashmir (except the eastern Ladakh region and its capital, Leh) due to terrorism and civil unrest. Within 10 km of the India-Pakistan border due to the potential for armed conflict, it said. According to the travel advisory, "Indian authorities report rape is one of th
Varanasi, Tirupati, Puri, Amritsar and Shirdi have emerged as the top pilgrimage destinations, according to a report by travel tech firm OYO. The report titled 'India's Treasure Trove of Cultural Travel 2022' said with over 3.5 times growth over the past year, Srinagar clocked the highest growth in bookings among cultural destinations in 2022. Besides Srinagar, Pahalgam and Jammu in J&K also ranked among the top cultural destinations in India, the report released on Monday said. As per OYO's booking data analysed between January to April 2022, Srinagar, Pahalgam, Bodhgaya, Shirdi and Jammu are among India's top five cultural destinations in order of ranking. "Varanasi, seen by many as the spiritual hub, tops the chart as the most popular pilgrimage destination in India in 2022. This is followed by Tirupati, Puri, Amritsar and Shirdi. Besides this, OYO's Mid-Summer Vacation Index also highlights keen consumer interest in visiting Vaishno Devi this summer," it said. As per the ...