The Newsletter from the Creative Travel Family of Brands
Dear Industry Colleagues,
Welcome to another edition of 'Creatively Yours'.
August brings a welcome rhythm to India, with the monsoon transforming the landscape and making travel especially rewarding. As the rains continue, the country begins to look ahead to the festive season, when celebrations and traditions take centre stage.
In this edition, we journey through the region's festive calendar, from the vibrant Kandy Esala Perahera in Sri Lanka to the joyous celebrations of Janmashtami and Ganesh Chaturthi in India, followed by the colourful Thimphu Tshechu in Bhutan. Each offers a different window into the traditions and spirit of South Asia.
Our Cool Location takes us to Gogunda Palace in Udaipur, a lesser-known boutique retreat with a rich heritage. Atmantan in Mulshi offers a serene wellness sanctuary surrounded by nature, while Bari Kothi in West Bengal showcases the remarkable restoration of a historic mansion into a distinctive heritage stay.
In Experiences, we step into the world of India's beloved chai with a hands-on masterclass in Delhi. Our Story of the Month explores the fascinating science behind India's ancient Sun temples, revealing how architecture, astronomy and ingenuity came together centuries ago. In Indians Around the World, we turn to Ajay Singh Banga, one of India's most prominent figures on the global stage. And as the monsoon rains continue, our Iconic Things to Eat celebrates pakoras, the much-loved fried fritters that have become synonymous with rainy days in India.
Looking ahead, we look forward to reconnecting with our industry friends at PURE Marrakech, IMEX Las Vegas and WTM at Excel, London - essential opportunities to reconnect with our industry community and shape the future of experiential travel.
As always, we continue to offer custom training and one-on-one strategy sessions for travel advisors and tour operators worldwide. To book a session, please write to us at knowledge@creative.travel with your details.
And finally, beyond this monthly newsletter, stay even more informed with our weekly updates through The South Asia Travel Journal.
Boat Services Suspended In Varanasi As Ganga Levels Rise
Boat operations on the Ganga in Varanasi have been suspended due to a steady rise in river levels, with authorities citing visitor safety as their primary concern. Water police used loudhailers to direct boatmen to anchor their vessels at the ghats, with boats visible moored along Dashashwamedh.
Kochi Pins Cruise Hopes On Cordelia As International Calls Stay Slim
Kochi’s cruise season is recovering slowly, with the Cochin Port Authority confirming 64 port calls for the October 2026 season, including 56 international vessels. The numbers, however, tell a more cautious story. After hosting over 50 international cruise calls in 2024-25, the port received just 13 in 2025-26, as the Red Sea crisis and wider West Asia conflict disrupted western cruise routes through the region.The outlook for 2026-27 remains constrained, with fewer than 15 of the confirmed international calls expected to bring tourists from Western countries.
ELIVAAS Expands Jim Corbett Portfolio With Five New Properties
Luxury villa and experiential hospitality brand ELIVAAS has added five new properties to its Jim Corbett portfolio, broadening its presence across one of North India’s fastest-growing leisure destinations.
Taj Opens Luxury Villa Resort At Tadoba Tiger Reserve
Taj has added Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve to its wildlife hospitality portfolio with the opening of Taj Tadoba Resort & Spa, Nagpur. Set across 17 acres on the edge of one of India’s most activeThe 35-villa resort features all-day dining, a speciality bar, the J Wellness Circle, and plunge pools, alongside a golf area for guests seeking leisure between safaris. Nagpur International Airport provides straightforward connectivity for travellers arriving from major cities.
The Leela Unveils A Forest Sanctuary Retreat In Coorg
The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts has given a recently acquired Coorg property a new identity, launching it as The Leela Coorg Forest Sanctuary. Spread across 76 acres of ancient forest and coffee plantations in the Western Ghats, the retreat joins the brand’s growing collection of nature-led destinations as it marks four decades of operations.
India has expanded its e-visa entry network with the addition of 11 international ports, bringing the total number of points where e-visa holders can enter the country to 88. The newly added locations include nine land ports and two airports, Bhopal and Tirupati, with the land ports spanning Attari on the India-Pakistan border, Darranga, Gede, Ghojadanga, Haridaspur, Jaigaon, Dawki, and Moreh.The expanded network now covers 37 airports, 38 seaports, and 13 land ports. The e-visa facility, first introduced in 2014, is currently available to citizens of 172 countries.
Encalm Hospitality Opens New International Lounge At Hyderabad Airport
Encalm Hospitality has launched a new international lounge at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad, adding to its growing airport hospitality presence across India.
Ranthambore Safari Bookings Hit 40,000 Registrations In Two Hours
Advance safari bookings for Ranthambore Tiger Reserve’s upcoming season opened to an extraordinary response, with nearly 40,000 registrations recorded within two hours of the booking window going live on August 1. Of those, around 14,000 were foreign visitors, accounting for close to 40% of total bookings on the first day.
Ladakh To Launch India’s First High-Altitude Wildlife Safari
Ladakh is preparing to launch India’s first high-altitude wildlife safari, following approval from Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena for guided jeep safaris on snow leopard and birdwatching trails across the region.Modelled on safari operations at Kaziranga and Ranthambore, the initiative will use open-back vehicles driven by trained local drivers and guides. Potential routes are being identified across Hemis National Park, Changthang, Karakoram Wildlife Sanctuary, and wildlife-rich areas including Nubra, Zanskar, Sham, Kargil, and Drass.
Madhya Pradesh Forest Permits for the 2026-27 Season Open In August
Wildlife enthusiasts planning a Central India safari this season will want to mark their calendars. Advance permit bookings for Madhya Pradesh’s forest reserves will open in two phases: October 2026 permits become available on August 1, while bookings for November 2026 onwards open on September 1, both at 11:00 AM.
Two ancient rituals once walked separate paths in Sri Lanka. One, older still, was the Esala, an offering to the gods for rain, fertility, and good harvest, born in the dry heat of the third century BC. The other began in the fourth century, when Princess Hemamala, hiding a sacred relic in her hair.
More than five thousand years ago, in a prison cell in Mathura, the sky itself seemed to conspire with fate. Thunder rolled, rain fell in sheets, and the Yamuna swelled as if straining toward the child about to be born. At the stroke of midnight, Krishna arrived, the eighth avatar of Vishnu, sent to lift a world buckling under tyranny. His father Vasudev, guided by an unseen hand, carried him through the flooded river to the safety of Gokul. From that single, storm-lit night, one of India’s most enduring stories began.
Long ago, as the story goes, Goddess Parvati shaped a boy from turmeric paste and breathed him into being, setting him at her door as a guardian while she bathed. When Shiva returned and found his path blocked by a stranger.
Centuries ago, Guru Rinpoche, revered as the Second Buddha, crossed into Bhutan and wove Buddhism into its mountains through sacred dance, subduing evil spirits and blessing the land with his teachings. In the 1670s, Gyalse Tenzin Rabgye, the fourth Desi of Bhutan, sought to honour that legacy and established the Thimphu Tshechu as a lasting tribute, a festival born from gratitude to the saint who shaped the nation’s soul.
Atmantan sits on a crystal hill in the Sahyadris, forty-two acres of green folded into the hills above Mulshi Lake, close enough to Pune to reach in under two hours, far enough to feel like another world entirely. The name itself is a quiet philosophy: Atma, Mana, and Tann— soul, mind, and body —treated not as separate concerns but as one continuous whole.
In India, chai is more than a drink. It is a morning ritual, a reason to pause, a companion to conversation and, quite often, the beginning of a story.
In the quiet lanes of Azimganj, a once-crumbling 18th-century mansion tells the story of Bengal’s forgotten trading empire. Built by the Dudhoria family, wealthy Sheherwali merchants who arrived from Rajasthan when Murshidabad rivalled global economic powers, Bari Kothi stood empty for over five decades after commerce shifted to Kolkata. In 2015, siblings Darshan and Lipika began an extraordinary five-year revival, enlisting over 150 local artisans to painstakingly recover the estate’s original character rather than reinvent it.
Gogunda Palace: Rajasthan’s Best-Kept Royal Secret
Long before it was a hotel, Gogunda Palace was a van durgh, a forest fort built in the sixteenth century in the Aravalli hills between Udaipur and Kumbhalgarh. This was where Maharana Udai Singh II once took refuge, where Maharana Pratap was crowned, and where the Battle of Haldighati was planned. That history is not staged for effect, it simply remains, in the carved jharokas, the Mewari archways, and the grand Hathi Pol gates still standing as they were built centuries ago.
Long before it had a name in English, the pakora existed as pakvavata in Sanskrit texts, a compound word meaning simply “cooked lump.” Early traces appear in Sanskrit and Tamil Sangam literature: round cakes of lentil or vegetable fried in oil, described in verses over a thousand years old. What began as a humble mention in ancient food writing eventually became something far bigger, a snack that would find its way into nearly every Indian home.
He was born Ajaypal Singh Banga in Khadki, in what was then Bombay State, the son of an army lieutenant-general whose postings moved the family across a young, restless India. He studied in Shimla, then Hyderabad, before economics at St. Stephen’s College and an MBA at IIM Ahmedabad shaped the mind that would later run some of the world’s largest institutions.
Keema masala is a delicious and aromatic ground meat curry, commonly enjoyed in Indian cuisine. It’s made with finely minced meat, traditionally mutton, cooked in a rich base of buttery onions and tomatoes, spiced with a mix of tangy and warming powdered spices. The dish is often finished with a touch of heavy cream or milk for added richness. In the Indian subcontinent, “keema” refers to minced meat, which is either hand-chopped or processed using a meat grinder. When buying keema from butchers in India, you can request the addition of suet (animal fat) during grinding, which enhances the dish’s flavor and richness, making it even more indulgent.
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