Starbucks unveils plans for India stores with Tata-Oya!

Starbucks has unveiled plans to open its first outlets in India.

The US coffee giant said the first coffee shops would open by September in a 50-50 joint venture with Tata Global Beverages.

The outlets are to be co-branded "Starbucks Coffee: A Tata Alliance", on an initial investment of 4bn rupees ($80m).

Starbucks currently operates more than 17,000 cafes, with about 6,000 of them in more than 50 nations outside the US.

Starbucks announced a reorganisation last year, creating a China and Asia Pacific division with the intention of opening in India.

Delhi and Mumbai will be the first Indian cities to see Starbucks stores.

John Culver, president of Starbucks China and Asia Pacific, said: "We're going to move as fast as possible in opening as many stores as we can so long as we are successful and so long as we are embraced by the Indian consumers."

The Tata group is a massive Indian conglomerate. Its Tata Coffee division will supply coffee to the joint venture.

Tough competition

Indian coffee sales are put at about $667m annually, with the organised market - mainly cafe sales - accounting for about $140m.

Cafe Coffee Day is the market leader in cafe outlets, followed by Barista and Costa Coffee, both of which have ambitious expansion plans.

Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz has successfully turned around the company's fortunes since he returned to the top job in January 2008.

He closed under-performing outlets in the US, and extended the company into selling pre-packed coffee in supermarkets.

from: BBC NEWS

Outside Vehicles Banned To Rohtang Pass - Manali

The Himachal government’s decision to ban on the movement of vehicles registered outside the state moving towards Rohtang Pass has not been favored by the travellers across India and those who come from abroad also. However, The taxi union in Manali, has welcomed the decision.

The Himachal Pradesh government's decision is based on the reasons to save Rohtang Pass from Ecological Disaster, Traffic problem and it would also make a big difference in the livelihood of locals.

While the taxi drivers have welcomed the move sensing good business opportunity, hoteliers are opposing it, fearing low occupancy in future in the wake of the decision.

One side the local Manali Taxi Union is happy and welcoming the state govt. decision as The Himachal Taxi Operators Union has a fleet of 1,700 cabs where as daily movement of outside vehicles is around 3,000-4,000 which carries around 20,000 tourists head for Rohtang pass.

As it is already widely spread that the Local Taxi Union charges the high fare as they pleased.

Otherside, the local hoteliers are worried much and held an emergency meeting to discuss the issue and asked the government to withdraw its decision at the earliest.

Some tourists from neighbouring state Punjab have put up the questiong that, “What if the Punjab government imposes a similar ban on vehicles from Himachal Pradesh".

Kullu SP Abhishek Dular said given the traffic congestion at Kothi, movement of non-Himachali vehicles would be restricted beyond Manali town and to keep an eye on the vehicles, posts have been installed at three places.

As mentioned above that there are only approx. 1700 local taxis are available in Manali but the outside vehicle arrivals are more than 3500 daily, the question arrising here that how the local authorities going to cope up with increase in demand for more taxis.. What kind of norms the local authorities will impliment on the local taxi unions not to charge accesive fares or to avoid any exploitation of tourists.

If we see from Ecological terms, decision might be right but from the tourist incoming may decrease to Manali as the main purpose of tourists is to visit Rohtang pass..

Hopefully, State Govt. of Himachal Pradesh will be able to bring some solution at the earliest to cope up this situation.

India Diwali Festival

The very auspicious festival of India Diwali 2011 is around the corner, only 2 days to go! its the celebrating event of the year for the Indians Living in India and abroad!

What is Diwali ?

The word "Diwali / Deepavali", came into existance from the Sanskrit word Dīpāvalī (दीपावली) and Englis meaning is "Row of Lights". This festival is also known as "Festival of Lights".

About Diwali

The Diwali Festival is celebrated to the victory of Good over Evil and Light over Darkness. Diwali has a major religious significance for Hindus, Sikhs and Jains alike - not only in India, but also for Indians living abroad. In the western (gregorian) calendar, Diwali falls on a day in October or November every year - just after the monsoon season in India. The exact date of Diwali festival varies and is based on Hindu Luni-Solar calendar (according to the positions of the Sun and the Moon). The day of Diwali falls on Ashvina Amavasya (the lunar day of new moon) on 15 Ashvin (Hindu month). This date also marks the beginning of the Hindu New Year, and many businesses in India starting a new accounting year on the Diwali holiday. People on this day buy new commodities or household things inexchange of old things.

On this auspicious day people worship Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Rama. Devotees visit Temples for worshipping Lakshmi, Goddess of wealth and wisdom with Laxmi Poojas and also pray to Ganesh, the 'Lord of Beginnings' and 'Remover of Obstacles'. In the evening during Aarti, oil lamps with a cotton wick are placed on a Puja Thali and offered to the deities, praising the deity by singing wonderful Aarti songs. At night people light up little oil lamps called Diyas, colorful candles or Ghee Lamps and place them around their houses and lightening up the lamps in their houses, later they enjoy firework displays or blasting firecrackers. On Kartika day next day to Diwali in the Hindu calendar and is also known as Govardhan Puja or Annakoot. It is believed that Lord Krishna defeated the god of rain and heavens Indra on that day. Lord Krishna lifted Mount Govardhana to save people's life from the endless rain. According to another legend followed in South-India, Vishnu defeated the demon-king Bali on this day. 'Bhaiduj' ('Bhai Dooj') comes after Kartika Day and also known as 'Yama Dwitiya'. This is the day for brothers and sisters to strengthen their relationships.

On the eve of Diwali, families, friends and relatives gather and exchange sweet dishes with each other and send Diwali Greeting Cards. But nowadays sending E Cards is more in trend. Apart from India, Diwali Mela (Fairs) takes place in many countries of world. Sellers of handicraft and artworks like to rent a booth on a Diwali Mela to offer their items for sale to the general public. The different locations and venues for this event can range from small community halls to the size of a whole stadium like in the case of the Diwali Mela 2011 in Dallas, Texas, USA in the Cotton Bowl Stadium

(This season Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2011/Time: 4pm to midnight) with approx. 100,000 attendees.

Where is Diwali being celebrated ?

The largest groups of non-resident Indians live in the USA, Canada, Nepal, Burma, Malaysia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi-Arabia, South-Africa and in the United Kingdom (UK). Depending on the origin of the majority of Indians, the festival in those countries is either Diwali (most immigrants from North-India, i.e. USA/Canada/UK) or Deepavali (most immigrants from South-India such as Tamils, i.e. Malaysia/Singapore).

Snow Skiing in Kashmir-India

Thinking of Snow skiing in India, Best places for Skiing in India are Gulmarg in Kashmir and Auli in Uttarakhand. However, most people prefer Gulmarg as it is easily accesible.

Snow Skiing in Gulmarg
Kashmir - One of the jewels in the crwon of India, honeymooner's paradise, heaven on earth and many more praising titles have been given to Kashmir. Any foreign or Indian Traveler thinking of good vacactions in India, i will advise them to must visit the Valleys of Kashmir. All around years, tourist throng to Kashmir after getting suffered from Urban Life Chaos.

Places to visit in Kashmir are Srinagar, Gulmarg, Sonmarg, Pahalgam, Leh & Ladakh.

Among these tourist places, Gulmarg is highlighted town in Winters because of Snow Skiing. The best place for Snow Skiing in North India.

Skiing in Gulmarg usually starts from the mid of December onwards till Beginning of March every year. Snow falling during December, January and February is heavy and thus is ideal place to do skiing.

Minimum stay of 3 Nigths in Gulmarg, is best way to enjoy the skiing in Gulmarg. For the freshers or first timers, better to take the services of Snow Skiing Trainers.

Recommended Kashmir Travel Packages For Travelers:

1. Gulmarg Skiing tour package
2. Honeymooners Paradise Tour

Travel to Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir tourism is getting the boost in last few months as One and Half Million tourist arrivals within from India and approx. 21000 foreign tourist arrival to Kashmir till now.

The Peace in Kashmir have attracted foreign travelers to Kashmir.
This time during Amarnath Yatra, the state has received 6.5 lac Amarnath Yatris visited this year, told NN Vohra, Hon’ble Governor of the state.

Sample Itinerary: Kashmir Travel Information

Daily flights by Spicejet for Chennai & Hyderabad from Thiruvananthapuram

There is one good news for Both Foreign tourists and domestic tourists who travel to South India that Spicejet has launched daily flights to Hyderabad and Chennai from Trivandrum or Thiruvananthapuram.

"Spicejet has been fast expanding its domestic footprint with Q400 Nexgen turbotrop aircraft from Bombardier. Its fleet addition aims at enhancing air connectivity to tier-II and III destinations including Aurangabad, Bhopal, Goa, Nagpur, Pune, Rajamundhry, Pune, Tirupati, Trivandrum and Vijayawada," Spicejet CEO Neil Raymond Mills said.

The new services offer "affordable and competitive" rates to travellers, the airline official said. The airlines had recently announced the addition of Tiruchirappalli as its 30th destination, he said.
Sample Itinerary : South India Temple Tour

Korean Tourism & Bollywood

Korean Tourism Board (KTB) has got the better idea to promote its country’s tourism throught bollywood movies. For this purpose Korean Tourism Board has tied up with bollywood producer Sajid Nadiadwala to promote the scenic beauty of the country in his coming movie KICK with bollywood actor Salman Khan and Actress Sonakshi Sinha. This great of idea of promoting the Korea as tourist destination to attract Indian Tourists worked when Sajid Nadiadwala received an invitation from Korean Tourism Organisation (KTO) president to Korea and thus Sajid signed the agreement to set scenes of his films in the country.

The movie will show the scenic beauty of some really good places in Korea like Seoul, Busan and Jeju Island. Besides, Seoul, Jeju Island and Busan, Kick, the action adventure directed by Shirish Kunder is likely to feature some scenes in the picturesque Gangwon Do too.

Some actions sequences in wild outdoors of Korea have been performed by Bollywood actor Salman Khan. The actor is supposed to start training in martial arts with famous French stunt director, Philip Guegan for the same. The Korean government is expected to offer assistance too, as far as martial arts experts and stunt artistes are concerned.
The Tie up between Korean Tourism Board and Bollywood Producer will bring more chances of Korean Tourist to Travel to India.