India International Travel Mart (IITM) is to be held in Cochin from 27^th to 29^th January at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium. IITM is India’s premier exhibition that showcases travel, tourism, hospitality, leisure and other related industries. It is one of the most important events for the travel and hospitality industry in our state. IITM-Cochin will focus on raising the standards of travel trade by offering the industry new solutions. It will also bring in the much needed international exposure to the brands of Kerala giving them a solid platform to enhance their business. IITM is aimed at bringing the industry face to face with the travel trade, corporate buyers and the end customers with the requisite purchasing power.

The exhibition has been organized by Sphere Travel media and Exhibitions Private Ltd. IITM will have a comfortable ambience with a festive atmosphere. Free networking dinners and cocktails will be organized and merchandises will be distributed among the participants. The main highlights of this event are exploring Cochin as a travel destination, opportunity to meet consumers and corporate buyers, new networking opportunities for the participants and a chance to create new tie-ups and collaborations with international brands. Over 130 exhibitors and 4000 visitors are expected to visit this event.

You cannot miss out on this great opportunity to rub shoulders with biggest names of travel industry and enthusiasts. To know more about this event, visit www.iitmindia.com

Health tourism is  growing world wide. And, Kerala, which is already considered among the top three must-visit places and also among the top ten ‘paradises on Earth’, is becoming one of the major destinations for health tourism. Ayurveda, the holistic method of treatment, has its roots here. With the aim of developing kerala further as a health tourism destination, the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) is organizing the Kerala Health Tourism 2011: International Conference and Exhibition , here in Kochi. The topics of discussion for the conference and exhibition being standardization of practices, improvement of facilities, factors realting to increase in health tourism to name a few.

As a part of this initiative, the CII is inviting participation from various quarters of the medical fraternity including doctors, CEO’s of public and private hospitals ,medical administrators and members from the health ministry.

There is prior registration for participation in this event.

For further information contact the CII at +91-484-4012300/2800

or visit http://www.cii.in/EventsDetails.aspx

Event : Kerala Health Tourism 2011: International Conference and Exhibition

Venue : Hotel Le Meridien, Kochi

Date : 20th to 22nd October

Make a Difference(or MAD) is an NGO of young volunteers working to providing quality education to many unprivileged children. MAD began five years ago in Cochin. In a few years, we have spread to over eighteen cites in India and teach over 2500 children. We provide an easy platform for college students and young professionals to reach out and make a difference.

A team of MAD volunteers have been cycling the whole of south India to spread awareness for this cause. This “Tour De Difference” started at Mangalore, went on to cover 12 cities covering 4240 kilometers in the process, in the months of August and September. The 12 cities they visited are Mangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Chennai, Vellore, Bangalore, Mysore, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram and Cochin.

The objectives of the trip are:

• 1. Raising Rs. 100 for every kilometer the cyclists cover, and thereby meet the costs incurred by the Mangalore chapter of MAD on Cambridge syllabus textbooks for the 300 children under its wings.
• 2. To promote Make A Difference and it’s project and to stress the importance of education to the future of our country.

They’ll reach Cochin on 18th September. A few MAD volunteers will be cycling with them during the last streach. From Vytilla to Oberon Mall. If anyone is interested in helping out in this process, you can cycle with them in this streach. They’ll start from Vytilla at 4 PM on Sunday go to Menaka and then to Oberon Mall. Any interested person is encouraged to join them for any distance(even if you can’t cycle the whole distance, don’t let that stop you).

For more details, call me(Binny) at 9746068565 or contact me via email at binnyva@makeadiff.in.

Related Links

• Tour De Difference
• Make A Difference

Air India has introduced two daily budget flight services connecting cities like Trivandrum, Kozhikode, Kochi and Agatti in Lakshadweep Islands. This service will be operated by Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India. A 48-seater ATR 42 aircraft will be providing this service on all days in a week except Sundays. This flight services will be a boon to the passengers, especially to politicians and those travelling to the state capital for medical treatments. The routes of this service are Kozhikode-Trivandrum-Kozhikode and Kozhikode-Kochi-Agatti-Kozhikode. The flights connecting Kozhikode and Agatti meet a long-pending demand of Lakshadweevians.

Air India has offered attractive fares in view of the Onam festival upto September 30^th. The fare of journey from Trivandrum to Kozhikode would be Rs 2005/-, while Kochi to Kozhikode will be Rs 1005/- and the fare from Kozhikode to Agatti would be Rs 3005/-.

The Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) at Nedumbassery is soon introducing a foreigner’s facilitation centre that will come up near the airport. CIAL is one of the most prominent airports of India and it is the fourth largest in terms of international passenger traffic in the country. Foreigner touching down Kochi will have to register their information with local Police at this facilitation centre. This step is taken in order to provide a hassle free visit for the tourists and travellers coming to Kerala. The facilitation centre will be set up adjacent to the Nedumbassery Police station and will be constructed at a cost of Rs 1.5 crore.

All travellers coming on a visa of more than 180 days will be able to register their details at this centre instead of the rural SP or the City Police Comissioner. Once this facilitation centre opens, there will be the advantage of completing the formalities right after arrivals at the airport. The rural SP will be the in-charge of this facilitation centre.

Cruising days are back in Kochi, as India’s first cruise liner AMET cruises will launch its operations from the first week of October. The M V AMET Majesty cruiser will set sail from Kochi to Maldives, Kochi to Lakshadweep and also operate on high sea trip during the night, every week. AMET cruise has brought forward a new pattern of holiday, recreation and entertainment in India. The days are gone when only foreigners used to visit the ports that always remained the prerogative of the rich as the AMET cruise brings tourism option within the reach of urban middle class with the rightly priced packages.

These cruisers will operate in the West-Coast from October to March and in the East-Coast from April to September. The cruise liners have dance floors, disco casinos, show lounge bars, swimming pool, barbeque, conference rooms and kids zone to provide a memorable and cherish able holiday to its customers. The cruise also has event floors for business meets, seminars, trade shows, anniversary and social gatherings. It comes with luxurious state rooms, suites and stag cabins.

AMET cruiser calls you to enjoy and experience the fun-filled joy of cruising.

Get ready to cruise through the backwaters of Kochi in luxury. The Goshree Islands Development Authority (GIDA) is going to introduce air-conditioned hi-tech double-decker boats by this December. This is the first initiative taken by GIDA in the water transport sector to conduct a circular service connecting major islands of this amazing city. The administration has already given permission to GIDA to purchase the luxurious boats as GIDA is planning to purchase boats using its own funds. The estimated price of boats is about Rs 60 lakhs.

GIDA are planning to purchase custom boats, so a tender will be soon floated to identify an agency for the construction of the boat. The Kerala Industrial and Technical Organization (KITCO) will help in the preparation of tender, according to sources.

The boats that will be introduced soon will be the most modern type and will have an advantage to navigate over shallow waters with a depth of 80 cms. The upper deck will be fully air-conditioned, and the authorities expect it will attract more tourists. The boat service will connect Ernakulam – Wilingdon Island – Mattanchery – Fort Kochi Islands.

The world’s largest hotel group by number of rooms, Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG) has officially announced the launch of their third hotel (Holiday Inn Cochin) in India. The hotel spreads across 250,000 sq feet area and has 212 rooms and is located to the National Highway Bypass making it easier for the businessman and travelers to access. The IHG has opened four key brands of hotels in India – Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express. The company has also plans to come up with another hotel under the brand” Crowne Plaza” considering the development rate in Kochi.

The Holiday Inn brand represents a great opportunity for the company in the mid market segment and will address the increasing demand for right opportunities to expands the brand’s presence in India’s key business and leisure hub.

Currently in India the IHG has 15 hotels including one in Kochi and about 46 hotels have been signed and many are under construction as Kerala is an extremely strong tourist destination for overseas visitors around the globe. During off seasons Infopark, Smart City projects, Cochin port would offer great opportunities to the IHG.

MindHelix Technologies ,a Kochi based IT company, has launched an app called SENTINEL which is the first app designed with women’s security in mind. The app can send instant alerts in case of any problems. A forced power-off of the phone or an improper exit of the application will trigger an alert to be sent. Prolonged signal loss will also cause a ‘fail safe’ alert SMS and email to be sent from the company’s server.According to the CEO and CO-Founder of the firm , Christin Emmanuel George they are also planning to add a direct emailing or texting to nearest police station as soon as possible. We hope to get their consent in receiving and acting on such information.

With crimes against the fairer sex on the rise, applications like these could provide a sense of security for women. Records show that crime rates against women have increased dramatically in the metros.Sentinel can send multiple SMS and e-mail alerts to preconfigured numbers and e-mail ids. The alerts would include last known location, direction of travel, mode of transportation and vehicle number (which the user can enter). The app has been designed for smart phones including all devices with Android, Blackberry, Symbian, iOS and Java operating systems. The application was designed with the urban woman in mind and requires a continuous cellphone signal.

This application is absolutely free and can be downloaded from http://sentinel.mindhelix.com/ was so what do you guys have to say about this ? Please share your views in the comment box below .

The Cities Development Initiative for Asia (CDIA) has suggested an ambitious plan at an estimates for improving of the public transport means in Kochi city.The pre-feasibility study report in this regard prepared by international agency, Global Works, was presented at the Kochi Corporation Council Hall on Thursday.The report concentrates on four sectors. And they are Ferry services,bus services,Pedestrian precincts, Pedestrian overbridges.

For the betterment of ferry services, the pre-feasiblity report suggests increase in frequency of existing services and number of vessels through five ferry service routes. The routes are Vypeen-Fort Kochi, Mattanchery-Ernakulam High Court, Edakochi- Thevara, Panchayat Terminal-High Court and Kumabalam-Chittoor.

And an estimated cost of Rs 100 crore of the project mainly aims at enhancing bus services. The report suggests the improvement of 35 km of the new priority bus lanes, seven new park and ride facilities and upgradation of existing 26 bus shelters.The report suggests five pedestrian precincts where vehicular traffic will be totally banned, 16 off-street parking facilities, modifying eight existing streets as one-way and proper road signs and marking.The CDIA report also proposes the construction of 14 pedestrian overbridges at various locations.

So what do you think about the new proposal, which may change the face of public transport system of cochin ? Please share your views through comments.