Kerala makes it to CNN Travel’s list of 19 places to visit in 2019

Soak in the beauty of Kerala in 2019. (Source: Instagram/KeralaTourism, Designed by Gargi Singh) Kerala became one of the 19 places shortlisted by CNN this year for travel enthusiasts to visit in 2019. Stating that Kerala lives up to its moniker, God’s Own Country, the reports says, “This area of India has it all: sun, sea, sand, good food, houseboats, culture and wildlife. Its spectacular natural landscapes — think palm trees and sprawling backwaters — lend the region the nickname “God’s Own Country.” The report also mentions the floods that wreaked havoc in…

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Interview: Experiential travelling is the next big trend in India

The Indian tourism industry is evolving but fails to score well on customer satisfaction. The industry needs certain regulations and interventions in aspects like safety for women travellers, keeping the tourist sites clean and creating a great experience only then people will look upon India as a promising tourist destination, said Saurabh Sharma, the founder and director of Travel Unravel Holidays Private Limited, in an email interview with Yahoo India. Travel Unravel is a UK-based organisation, working to create a better travel experience for every traveler. Here are some edited excerpts…

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How Drones Caused Travel Chaos At London’s Gatwick Airport

Passengers at the South Terminal building at Gatwick Airport, after the airport reopened. (Reuters) London: Gatwick Airport in London reopened on Friday after a rogue drone saboteur wrought travel chaos for hundreds of thousands of Christmas travellers. The perpetrator, or perpetrators, have not yet been caught. Here are some details of the incident. What happened? Flights were halted at 2103 GMT on Wednesday after two drones were spotted near the airfield. The airstrip was reopened briefly on Thursday but had to be closed again after another sighting. By midday on Thursday,…

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How I Plan to Cover the World’s Most Exciting Travel Region as Skift’s New Asia Editor

It occurred to me that I might be in trouble. Because Asia is a huge continent to cover! It occupies a third of the world’s land area and its 4.5 billion person population is bigger than that of the other continents combined. Skift’s new Asia editor Raini Hamdi And then there’s me, located in a tiny red dot on the world map, Singapore, covering the whole of Asia for Skift. The continent I’m covering is also not a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, to borrow Ang Lee’s film title. It is…

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Visit Romania’s fading architectural gems before they are lost forever

In a spa town nestled near Romania’s border with Bulgaria and Serbia, Oana Chirila puts on her hard hat and gets down to work with a dozen other young architects to try to save their country’s heritage. Some of the precious architectural gems they are striving to restore bore witness to centuries of Romanian history and the crowned heads who ruled it through the ages. Built at the start of the last century by Daniel Renard, an architect of Swiss origin, the site won the admiration of Russia’s Tsar Nicolas…

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Would you consider skipping the Colosseum and Vatican on a trip to Rome?

You can hardly see the treasures of Rome’s top attractions these days amid the sweaty hordes and seas of selfie-sticks. Overtourism is real, there and elsewhere in Europe. Yet look away and there is hope. Give up your ambition to name-drop the top 10 attractions, and you can unlock the experiences of a lifetime at sites with equally astounding masterpieces that just don’t happen to be in every guidebook and listicle. The central part of the ancient Roman Baths of Caracalla. At the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme museum, you might…

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