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Attending an Indian Weddings: A niche tourism opportunity

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Indian weddings are known to be over the top. Hotels and resorts love to organize Indian weddings. A hotel in Hawaii told eTurboNews: “Yes it’s big business, but don’t mention it too much 🙂 “
Families mortgage their homes and take large loans to pay for such weddings, but some couples in India are not only inviting family and friends to their weddings. They have started selling admission tickets to their weddings to tourists wishing to attend the colorful affair.

A typical rate is $200 for a two-day invitation to attend an Indian wedding through a start-up called Join My Wedding.

“The concept was pretty new,” Delhi-based fund manager Surabhi Chauhan told US broadcaster CNBC, explaining that she came across the start-up while booking her wedding venue. “We were also getting to know people from other countries. We were very much excited and open about it, given the fact that it was new.”

Chauhan and her husband were introduced to Stevens and Gower. “We were chatting and coordinating, we had a brief introduction about each of us, what exactly we do, our respective profiles (and) what are the arrangements that will be there, the kind of attire they’re supposed to wear — all those conversations happened,” she said.

To sell tickets to their wedding couples list details about the special day on the website.

“If you think about it, there’s nothing more cultural than a wedding because you have every cultural element present: The local people, local food, customs, the outfit, the music, basically every cultural element is right there,” said the start-up’s co-founder Orsi Parkanyi.

She explained that the idea came from her own experiences in missing out on friends’ weddings. She decided to focus on Indian weddings because they are “world-famous” and the chances to attend them are not high for most non-Indians.

TAravel agencies and tour operators are also offering tour packages for international travelers to attend Indian wedding ceremonies during their visit. Experts estimate the Indian wedding industry to be worth about $40 billion and expect it to grow around 20 percent a year.

 

Travel News | eTurboNews

“It’s easier to fly nude”: Naked man attempts to board plane in Moscow airport

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A man was filmed trying to board a plane to Crimea in a Moscow airport after stripping in public. He stood in the line for the ticket check fully nude, before bewildered police detained him.

At first, it seemed like a typical Saturday at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport. Passengers were lining up near the jet bridge to board a plane for the city of Simferopol in Crimea. But one man clearly stood out.

Footage from the scene shows the man getting in line stark naked. Covering his private parts, he calmly waited for his turn as others passed through the final check. It was not clear what the man had in mind, but he crossed himself several times as the line moved forward.

During the entire process, the naked man acted as if nothing were amiss. Other passengers didn’t pay much attention to him either, apart from giggling.

According to one witness, the man explained his stunt by saying that “clothes make body aerodynamics worse” so “it’s easier to fly” nude.

The man was later detained by police and is set to be examined for his mental condition.

The airline, whose aircraft he attempted to board, told local media that the individual undressed in public and ran past its staff. “He failed to reach the plane,” the company’s spokesperson said.

Not a lot is known about his identity, except that police say he is 38 years old and was born in Siberia.

Travel News | eTurboNews

Love to travel? Like to eat? Why Portugal should be on your bucket list

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The gastronomy scene in Portugal is booming with the food scene finally stepping out of the shadow of Spain. While neighboring Spain often steals the limelight as a foodie destination, Portugal shouldn’t be overlooked.

Michelin has recently awarded 3 restaurants in Portugal with their first star. The country now boasts 20 restaurants with one star, and 6 with 2 stars, demonstrating that exceptional cuisine is served in restaurants across the nation.

To give travelers a taste of the country’s gourmet cuisine, the national airline TAP Air Portugal has introduced a “Taste the Star” program through which Michelin star chefs create exceptional local cuisine which is served to business class passengers.

Now is the time to visit as the best culinary destinations become tourist hotspots. Some of the finest foodie options in the country include exquisite codfish tasting menus in Aveiro to typical Portuguese snacks, known as petiscos, in Alentejo.

Portuguese cuisine hinges on 5 icons. First, the best fish in the world in the opinion of many renowned international chefs. Their habitat and specific geomorphological location in the Atlantic give the fish unique conditions for birth and growth that enable them to acquire a taste and texture hard to match elsewhere.

Second is the cataplana, a utensil that is the delight of gourmets and those who like to conjure up all the senses around the table. Cataplana is the word for both the food dish and the spherical pot it’s cooked and served in. This pork and seafood stew is found in the Algarve in Portugal.

The third icon of Portuguese cuisine is Port wine, considered both sumptuous and sensual. Its unique characteristics come from the soil, man’s hard work, and the sunshine that ripens the fruit. This region was classified as a World Heritage site by UNESCO, as well as the Lodges in Gaia where these wines age.

Next are the sweets of Portuguese cuisine, and they are divine. In the old days, nuns would prepare their recipes of sugar, eggs, and almond in the seclusion of their cloisters. The result of the balance between flavor, creaminess, and crispiness is another icon of Portuguese cuisine, considered a truly heavenly sweet – the pastel de nata (custard tart).

The fifth icon of Portuguese cuisine lies in the human factor. The country’s chefs are increasingly talented and winning more prizes, revolutionizing the richness of Portuguese cuisine with their creativity, boldness, and good taste. Currently, Portugal is proud to have a host of chefs who work at the highest levels of cuisine, using old-established recipes or more unusual methods that often enhance the flavor and quality of local products.

Along with these cultural food icons, are a number of other products that also help to distinguish what is eaten in Portugal. The Protected Denomination of Origin (DOP) meats from local breeds – Bísaro pig and black pig, Arouquesa, Maronesa, Mertolenga, Barrosã and Lafões beef, Barroso kid (charnequeiro and transmontano), Terrincho and Bragançano lamb – whose producers work hard to maintain their succulence and flavor.

Fresh fruit and vegetables are the basis of Portuguese cuisine and of its more Mediterranean characteristics, typical of a healthy, simple, and varied cuisine. They are the product of a fertile land, which is adopting the new organic production processes that are friendly to both consumers and the environment.

For seasoning, there is pure aromatic olive oil that is conquering international markets with every passing day. Fish, soups, salads, and cheeses are all seasoned with it.

And, surprise – there are wonderful mountain cheeses produced in Portugal that the world has yet to discover. The creamy, oily, or dry goat and sheep cheeses will make foodies bless the heavens.

Meia Tigela restaurant in Portugal

To accompany all this, there is one more delightful secret that is just beginning to be revealed – excellent table wines. Created from a new generation of winemakers and producers with a new vision for the cultivation of vines, Portuguese wines are exactly the right drink to accompany meals with great quality according to the region of the country in which you are dining.

Now all you foodie travelers need to do is plan your trip, and when you arrive sit down at a table and enjoy the food and wine as you toast your delightful experience.

Travel News | eTurboNews

Italy travel: Extraordinary opening of hidden treasures to the world

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An extraordinary opening is about to take place of over 1,100 sites in 430 locations in Italy, from the Palazzo della Consulta in Rome to the Castle of Melegnano (MI), from the Center for Space Geodesy in Matera to the city of Pontremoli (MS). This is the Italian Environmental Fund (FAI), the National Trust of Italy.

The organization was founded in 1975 on the model of the British National Trust. It is a private non-profit organization with 60,000 members in early 2005. Its purpose is to protect elements of the Italian physical heritage that could otherwise be lost.

The splendid paradox of Italian beauty is being together both every day and extraordinary, sometimes sumptuous and explicit, others hidden and wounded, but always so deeply Italy’s as to define who the country is and remind of the countless plots that have woven the nation’s origins, leaving footprints in Italy’s cultural heritage as if they are clues.

On Saturday and Sunday, March 23 and 24, 2019, the FAI invites everyone to participate in the FAI Spring Days to look at Italy as never done before and build an ideal bridge between cultures that will make travel around the world a goal and a delight.

Now in its 27th edition, the event has turned into a grandiose mobile party for a vast public, which awaits every year to take part in this extraordinary collective ceremony, an unrepeatable appointment in the cultural panorama that since 1993 has enthralled almost 11 million visitors.

Year after year, the FAI Spring Days exceed themselves: this edition will see 1,100 places open in 430 locations in all regions, thanks to the organizational thrust of the 325 groups of delegates scattered in all regions – regional, provincial, and youth group delegations – and thanks to the 40,000 Cicerone Apprentices.

Hundreds of sites and thousands of people that the soul of the FAI lights up, will take everyone by the hand and accompany the Italians to reflect themselves in the astonishing variety of the most beautiful country, opening places that are often inaccessible and exceptionally open to visitors this weekend, during which it is possible to support the Foundation with an optional contribution or with registration.

For 2019, the novelty of the largest square festival dedicated to the cultural heritage of Italy will be a FAI bridge between cultures, the FAI project that aims to amplify and tell the different foreign cultural influences scattered in open goods throughout Italy. Many of these places bear witness to the wealth derived from the encounter and the fusion between Italy’s tradition and that of European, Asian, American, and African countries.

This is why in some of these sites and in some FAI assets the visits will be handled by over a hundred volunteers of foreign origin who will tell the historical, artistic, and architectural aspects typical of their culture of origin which, in contact with Italy’s, contributed to give life to the country’s heritage.

Examples are the Carlo Viganò Library of the Catholic University in Brescia, a “journey” between the Latin, Greek, Arabic, and vernacular languages through manuscripts, sixteenth-century works, and printed works that document the development of algebra, astronomy, the physics, and other sciences.

There is the Piazza Sett’Angeli in Palermo, an open book where one can read the millennial history of the city, and the Chinese Cabinet of Palazzo Reale in Turin, covered with lacquered panels  from China. Also, there is the connection between Venice and the Dalmatian School of Saints George and Trifone, which still maintains the spiritual and cultural bond between the Dalmatians and Venice.

The catalog of goods that can be visited during the FAI Spring Days is available at giornatefai.it and contains a proposal so varied and original that it is impossible to summarize.

Travel News | eTurboNews