A beautiful Hill station in Kerala

Munnar - A picturesque Hill station in Kerala, mostly occupied by Tea plantations and evergreen forests. Here I am posting a few photos of my recent trip to munnar.

Rajamalai, where Eravikulam National park located is a must see tourist spot in Munnar. Rajamalai is famous for Neelakurinji(a rare kind of plant blooms once in 12 years) and Nilgiri Tahr.

Nilgiri Tahr

Mattupetti dam is another beautiful tourist place nearby. There is an Echo point and boat services are available through the dam reservoir.

A tour to southern end of India

Kanyakumari, a beautiful tourist place at the southern tip of india in tamil nadu state. A place where you can watch both sunrise and sunset.

Kanyakumari considered to be a sacred place because this is the meeting place of three ocean - Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean and Arabian sea.

Kanyakumari Amman temple on the edge of the ocean at the confluence of three oceans attracts many pilgrims.

main attractions of Kanyakumari are Vivekananda rock and Thiruvalluvar Statue, both are situated on two giant rocks looks like two small islands in the ocean.

Boat services to these rocks are available here.

No one would like to leave the peaceful and tranquilizing atmosphere here.

Then we headed towards Kovalam beach in Kerala about 87km away from Kanyakumari. A fine sandy beach backed by lush coconut trees. Kovalam has been one of the most popular beaches in India among tourists, especially europeans.

There are many restaurants, Hotels and resorts providing services to the tourists.

Thiruvananthapuram - the Capital city of Kerala, is 16km away from kovalam.

Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu - Top tourist destinations of india

Andhra Pradesh topped the domestic tourist arrivals list, with over 150 million tourists, while Tamil Nadu attracted the maximum number of foreign tourists at over 2.3 million for the year 2009. Though Andhra Pradesh is the most popular destination for domestic tourists, it ranks 7th when it comes to foreign tourist visits.

Kerala is not even in the list of domesic tourist visits list and is 8th for foreign tourist visits. Karnataka is 4th for domesic tourist visits and not in the list for foreign tourist visits.

Most foreign visitors are from France followed by USA, Spain, China, Italy, UK, Turky, Germany, Malasia, Mexico.

Read the complete statistics here

An idol of Lord Buddha found in Hyderabad

A limestone idol of Lord Buddha, dating back to the 2nd century AD of the Satavahana dynasty, found by The department of archaeology and museums, Andhra Pradesh, at Chada village in Atmakur mandal of Nalgonda district. A limestone parasol, Buddhist sculptural panels and large sized bricks were also excavated from the sight apart from the Idol. For safe custody The findings have been shifted to the Ramannapet police station.

A release issued by the department stated that the three feet tall idol was found by villagers when they were working on the land at Chada, which is situated 40 km away from the famous Buddhist site, Phanigiri. Jayesh Ranjan, the principal secretary of tourism, Andhra pradesh, has directed officials to conduct small-scale excavations at the spot, to study the cultural potential of the site.

In the past, Buddhist traces were found at Vardhamanukota, Aravapalli, Tirumalagiri and Gazulabanda in Nalgonda district. The department is now planning to create a circuit of all these Buddhist sites in the district to facilitate tourism activity.

Conventions India Conclave, 2010 in Bangalore

The Conventions India Conclave, held in Bengaluru at the Lalit Ashok Hotel, from August 27th to 28th, 2010, provided an opportunity for interactions with the India Convention Promotion Bureau’s (ICPB) members — all specialists in the organisation of meetings and conventions and also other suppliers. This core group, made of members from the airlines, leading hotels, convention centres, tour operators, travel agents, professional conference organisers, state tourism development corporations and other organisations providing ancillary services plays a pivotal role in any major event of this nature in the country.

The mounting opportunities for holidays and leisure have made India one of the leading venues for MICE. The MICE infrastructure in the country has been developing rapidly and convention hotels and conference venues of international standards are being set up in cities across the country. With the corresponding expansion in the network of airline operations, India is ready to position and market itself as an important MICE destination. The prime focus of the ICPB is to disseminate information regarding the infrastructural facilities and related services available in India for organising meetings, incentives and conventions and also to assist the tourism industry to effectively market the MICE potential of India internationally. Overseas participants at the Conclave also had an opportunity to join the tours on offer to give them an opportunity to inspect the infrastructural facilities and view the dazzling diversity of India with its colours, tastes and the unique aromas. It also acted as an excellent platform for participants from many different but related disciplines to interact, seek information and share experiences.

In order to strengthen the brand positioning of `Incredible India’ as a MICE destination, buyers from overseas were invited to meet with suppliers from India’s MICE industry and experience the product themselves. Attending the meet this year were also a slew of large multi-national and trans-national corporations who had an interest in improving their meeting-related purchasing. The Conventions India Conclave is the country’s only marketing event of its type for the MICE industry.

India Tourism lures Japanese visitors with Hyderabadi Food Festival

India Tourism, Tokyo got together with Jet Airways, Ashok Chain of Restaurants and Roko Group to give the citizens of Tokyo a flavour of one of India’s finest culinary experiences with the ‘Hyderabadi Food Festival’ from 15th to 31st August, 2010. The festival was launched on Independence Day by Mr. H.K. Singh, Ambassador of India, in the presence of Mr. Saito, Advisor, Japanese Association of Travel Agents (JATA).

A major promotion for the Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi was also made. Riding parallel to the duration of the festival was an open seminar / promotion organised in co-ordination with M/s TCI and M/s Club Tourism. The event was attended by over 150 people and door prizes on offer included free air tickets, restaurant coupons, Indian handicrafts and lots more. The Hyderabadi Food Festival was inspired by the very popular India Food Fair held in Hotel Okura, Tokyo in July in association with the Taj Group of Hotels. Indiancuisine has found much favour amongst the people of Japan and festivals such as these are proving to be an excellent marketing tool for India as a holiday destination.