Category: Travel

5 points to consider before selecting travel credit cards

Loknath Das

Travel credit cards can be an excellent tool for business travellers and holiday makers. These cards earn you higher reward points and other benefits on travel-related expenses. You can redeem accumulated reward points for air tickets, hotel stays and other expenses. They also enrich travel experience by providing complimentary airport lounge access, additional baggage allowance, dedicated concierge service and priority check-in at airports. Following are the points that you must factor in while selecting your travel credit card: Co-branded or non-co-branded credit card: Co-branded cards bear the name of their…

Read More

Amazon’s Travel Strategy Comes Into Focus

Loknath Das

So why would Amazon choose to re-enter the travel industry through a seemingly loss-generating proposition hawking already low-margin airline tickets via a Cleartrip partnership in the domestic Indian market? It sounds crazy, but Skift Research believes that airline tickets are a sensible entry point for a new Amazon foray into travel. Flights is a fairly commoditized product with far fewer suppliers to tangle with —hundreds of airlines worldwide versus hundreds of thousands of hotels, for example. But the challenge of selling airfares is that it is a low-margin offering, typically the least…

Read More

PM Modi, Ministers spend Rs 393 cr on foreign, domestic travel in 5 years

Loknath Das

A Right to Information (RTI) query has revealed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Council of Ministers incurred an expenditure of Rs 393 crore on foreign and domestic travel in last five fiscal years. City-based RTI activist Anil Galgali had filed an RTI query with the PMO seeking the total Foreign Travel Expenses (FTE) and Domestic Travel Expenses (DTE) incurred by the Prime Minister and his council since May 2014. In December 2018, the Modi government, replying to queries on foreign travel expenses in Rajya Sabha, had said that…

Read More

How Biometrics May Be Key In Reducing The Hassles Of Travel

Loknath Das

Facial recognition began as a tool of law enforcement and now is making travel easier. GETTY Mixing biometrics and travel usually means one thing for most countries — making sure the wrong people don’t get in. The United States, for example, has an advanced system of facial recognition that analyzes more than 100 points of reference on each face to evaluate whether people are who they say they are. It has become the aspirational standard for dozens of nations that are employing or looking to employ biometrics to screen people…

Read More

Student discounts you can get on holiday travel and at tourist destinations

Loknath Das

Book flights and hotels in advance, travel in the shoulder season and take the DIY approach. We are all familiar with such travel tips to keep our vacation budgets under control. However, there’s more money to be saved during family holidays if you have a school or college-going child. You can grab student discounts on entry fees to heritage sites and airfare. Then there are additional benefits like special travel cards that are designed exclusively for students. These discounts should not be confused with concessions that are offered to children in general….

Read More

Visiting Maharashtra travel-trade delegation concludes Kashmir tour

Loknath Das

Kashmir’s travel and hospitality sector held detailed interaction with the visiting Maharashtra travel and tour operators in Pahalgam, Srinagar and Gulmarg during their four-day familiarization trip to Kashmir and vowed to promote Kashmir among the travellers. The 32-member delegation of Maharashtra Tour Operators Association (MTOA) led by its president Sudhir Patel arrived in Srinagar on April 7 and will leave back tomorrow. The delegation was mesmerized by Valley’s beauty and hospitality and expressed their desire to send a good chunk of travellers to Valley for holidaying. Dharmendra Singh Chauhan Chapter…

Read More

Obama’s Important Message About The Future Of Travel

Loknath Das

Former US President Barack Obama speaking at the 2019 World Travel and Tourism Council’s Global Summit in Seville, Spain WORLD TRAVEL AND TOURISM COUNCIL When he was in his early 20s, a young Barack Obama visited Europe for the first time. He fondly remembers traveling alone, riding an overnight bus from Madrid to Barcelona, sharing a baguette with a fellow traveler who, in turn, shared his wine. They didn’t speak the same language, but it was that simple, human interaction that reinforced the fact that people around the world are…

Read More

The top 25 places to travel around the world in 2019

Loknath Das

TripAdvisor just released its 2019 Travelers’ Choice awards — and millions of visitors voted for their favorite destinations around the world. Whether you’re looking for a sandy beach or a bustling city, there’s likely a destination fit for you. Here are the top 25 best places to travel around the world in 2019. #25: Tel Aviv, Israel, features a quarter called “the White City” because of the over 4,000 buildings within that feature Bauhaus architecture. Tel Aviv, Israel By eFesenko/Shutterstock It’s the largest collection of Bauhaus architecture in the world, and was…

Read More

Always Bring Stomach Medicine When You Travel

Loknath Das

We still don’t know what got us sick in Tokyo. But when four Lifehacker staffers traveled there together this month, three of us caught different bugs at different points. For me, that meant an upset stomach and diarrhea that sent me to bed at 6 every night and made fine dining impossible. I had great luck with Tokyo’s plentiful public bathrooms. Much worse luck when I tried to buy stomach medicine. I’ll tell you that story, but first, go grab some stomach medicine—Pepto-Bismol, antacid, whatever covers your most common travel…

Read More

Austin Adventures: A Passion For Family Travel

Loknath Das

v The Austins. From left, Kasey, Dan, Andy and Carol AUSTIN ADVENTURES Dan Austin has a passion for family travel. That’s true not only of the trips he’s been offering for over two decades at Austin Adventures but in the very company he’s created. It’s a bona fide family business with his wife and two grown children, born from his adventures with them along the way. Austin Adventures takes people on hiking, biking and multisport adventures around the world, in South and Central America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. They were once known…

Read More