Destination News – Issue 03
June 10, 2020

Festival

— 01

Rath Yatra
Puri, Odisha – June 23,2020

One of India’s biggest religious festivals, the Jagannath Puri Rath Yatra is believed to be the oldest Rath Yatra or chariot procession in the world,  Ratha Yatra is a major Hindu festival associated with Lord Jagannath (avatar of Lord Vishnu) held at Puri in India.

The Puri Rath Yatra is world famous and attracts more than one million pilgrims every year, not only from India but also from the different parts of the world. Rath Yatra in other words the Chariot Festival is the only day when devotees who are not allowed into the temple can get a chance to see the deities. This festival is a symbol of equality and integration.

Offbeat Stay

— 02

Desia Eco Tourisme Camp – Koraput,Odisha

The story of Koraput Valley Odisha, India. This story is about the Odisha (Orissa) Tribal Tour, tribal people, tribal village, their believes, their rituals, their livelihood, festivals, farming, crafts and much more…

This story cannot be told by words or websites. You need to be here to experience and feel. Amazing landscape, aged old tribal culture, ethnic villages with unique settlement pattern, vibrant weekly markets, farm fresh local cuisine, traditional tunes with drum bits and after all the ever smiling local Tribal Community awaits your Visit to Desia, a community based Rural Tourism initiative based on Responsible Travel practice.

Experiences

— 03

Bespoken Experiences

Excursions can be organised to visit nearby places of interest like Gupteswar, Duduma waterfall, Deomali, Araku valley, Bora caves and to Bastar region.

Most interesting Onkadeli weekly market for Bonda tribes or largest tribal weekly market at Kundli are near Desia which can be coverd with few hours’ drive or walk. One can make excursion to various weekly markets by making Desia a base.

Trade news

Covid -19 update

 India

The government of India has decided to relax lockdown rules from June 1. After over two months of lockdown, the government has decided to open the economy in a phase-wise manner. Describing it as Unlock 1.0, the government has decided to open malls, hotels, places of worships and restaurants from June 8 with social distancing norms and other precautions.

 Unlock 1.0 guidelines: Gist of the MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) order

 Phase I: Coming into effect on June 8

  1. Religious places or places of worship would be opened for public
  2. Hotels, restaurants, and other establishments in the hospitality sector would be allowed to resume operations.
  3. Shopping malls would be opened

Phase II: To be decided in July

  1. The Centre would issue guidelines regarding the opening of schools, colleges, educational institutions, training centres, coaching institutions, etc., in consultation with the state governments.

Phase III: Dates for these activities to be decided based on assessment of situation

  1. International travel of passengers via air
  2. Resumption of metro rail
  3. The opening of cinema halls, swimming pools, gymnasiums, theatres, entertainment parks, auditoriums, bars, etc.
  4. Large congregations and gatherings of social, political, cultural, academic, sports, entertainment, or religious natures

 MHA unlock guidelines: Movement of goods and persons

  1. Trains travel would be allowed as per the SOPs issued by the Centre.
  2. Domestic air travel would be allowed as per the SOPs issued by the Centre.PDF Download AAI Guidelines for Flights
  3. Goods or cargo trade, as per treatise with neighbouring countries, would be allowed to cross borders.
  4. A night curfew will be placed between 9 pm and 5 am.

 Nepal

The Government of Nepal has decided to extend the lockdown further till 14th June. In the meantime, they are increased the testing, however, the cases have been increasing daily at the moment. Till today, there are more than 2050 cases with 06 deaths out of which 260 plus people have recovered.

 We are now hoping the Government will ease down the lockdown after 14th June and lockdown will be opened in different phases. Domestic Airlines are hoping to resume their services from 1st of July. As per Buddha Air, one of the main domestic airlines with largest numbers of passengers, they are also planning to resume their international flights from 16th of July.

 Bhutan

Bhutan at the moment there is no lockdown, however government has closed all the borders since the beginning of March and they still don’t have any plans to reopen while they wait to see what happens around the world. In total, Bhutan have 47 cases, and no deaths. But as a small country they are taking extra measures and they are extremely sensitive. At present, all individuals coming into the country are kept under mandatory quarantine for 21 days. So, 43 of these cases were identified while they were in quarantine. Since they do not have any community transmission (fingers crossed), therefore they are all calm and allowed to move freely as of now.  

 Tibet

We are happy to inform you that starting from June 3rd, Potala Palace will re-open to the public. It means the tourism in Tibet/China is resumed. Right now, Tibet/China is only open to the domestic tourists. We think in not far future China will re-open to the abroad tourists.

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