Etihad Airways has announced that it will start operating Airbus A380 between Abu Dhabi and Mumbai from May 1, 2016. With this flight, India’s commercial capital would join the carrier’s other A380 destinations of London, New York, Sydney and from June 1, 2016, Melbourne. The new daily A380 India service will connect over the airline’s Abu Dhabi hub to key A380 destinations of New York and London, and many other cities around the world. With 496 seats comprising The Residence – the commercial airline industry’s only three-room suite in the sky – 9 First Apartments, 70 Business Studios, and 415 Economy Smart Seats – the A380 is a great addition to the wide body fleet.

The ninth edition of Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) will be held at Samudrika and Sagara Convention Centre, Willingdon Island from September 28 to 30 and will focus on themes ‘Responsible tourism’ and ‘Muziris and Spice Route’. It is expected to attract around 1,500 buyers from around the country and abroad. Around 265 stalls of different sizes for the exhibitors within Kerala will be featured at the venue as part of the event. Abraham George, President, Kerala Travel Mart Society, says, “KTM 2016, which will coincide with ‘World Tourism Day’, will reach out to buyers from new international markets, emphasizing focus on the new arenas of tourism, including responsible tourism, and popularize the concept among the common man. To facilitate better interaction between buyers and sellers, we have initiated the process for sellers’ registration much in advance. The buyers’ registration is open till July 29. The mart will be a platform for B2B networking.”  

OYO Rooms has partnered with open digital payments company, PayPal to enable OYO Rooms’ customers across the globe to seamlessly pay for their bookings internationally. Speaking on the partnership, Hamish Moline, Regional Merchant Services, PayPal APAC, said, “The Indian e-commerce sector is at a stage where growth is exponential and with this comes increased risk. Growth of new age businesses like OYO Rooms can be further accelerated if they are protected against online payment risks and frauds. PayPal’s technology protects merchants such as OYO Rooms against unauthorized transactions and mitigates associated risks. We are proud to have tied-up with OYO Rooms and look forward to aid their growth through our holistic payments technology in every way possible.” Abhinav Sinha, COO, OYO Rooms, spoke about the partnership, “We are focused on utilising technology to enhance guest experience and solve customer problems. This tie-up with PayPal will assist us in delivering a seamless payment experience through reduced friction during payment process. PayPal is a global leader in payments and we look forward to their network supporting our growth.” Having established its market leadership in India, OYO Rooms recently forayed into South East Asia through launch of operations in Malaysia. PayPal constantly works to maintain and enhance the security, reliability and responsiveness of the secure payments platform to allow 179 million active consumers and millions of merchants across 203 markets around the world to pay and get paid with confidence every day. PayPal’s Seller Protection program helps guard merchants from losing money to claims and chargebacks.

India’s domestic air travel soared 22.9 per cent in January compared to a year ago. Growth is being propelled by the comparatively strong domestic economy and increases in air services. The Indian market overtook both Australia and Japan during 2015 and is currently level with Russia at around 1.2 per cent of global revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs). The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced global passenger traffic results for January 2016 showing demand (RPKs) rose 7.1% compared to January 2015. This was ahead of the 2015 full year growth rate of 6.5%. January capacity rose 5.6%, with the result that load factor rose 1.1 percentage points to 78.8%, the highest load factor ever recorded for the first month of the year. Domestic air travel rose 6.8 per cent in January year-on-year. Capacity rose 5.1 per cent and load factor was 78.9 per cent, up 1.3 per cent percentage points. “January maintained the strong traffic growth trend seen in 2015, showing the resilience of demand for connectivity despite recent turmoil in equity markets.The record load factor is a result of strong demand for our product and airlines making the most productive use of their assets. Underlying conditions point to another strong year for passenger traffic, with the latestdecline in oil prices likely providing additional stimulus for air travel growth,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO. Domestic RPKs accounted for about 36% of the total market in 2015. It is most important for North American airlines as it is about 66% of their operations. In Latin America, domestic travel accounts for 46% of operations, primarily owing to the large Brazilian market. For Asia-Pacific carriers, the large markets in India, China …

Cox & Kings has partnered with RBL Bank Ltd to launch the ‘Save Now Travel Later’ programme to suit every budget. In this latest offering ‘Save Now Travel Later’, travellers get an opportunity to meticulously plan their finance by opening a Recurring Deposit account with RBL Bank. This programme has been designed keeping in mind that the traveller gets an opportunity to plan their Holiday one year in advance. Karan Anand, Head, Relationships, Cox & Kings said,” ‘Save Now Travel Later’ is a well-thought programme launched keeping in mind the fluctuating market rates. Travellers can now through instalments book their future trips at today’s price with minimal or no effect on their planned travel budget.” The interest accumulated on the EMIs will be refunded back to the customer by way of a crossed cheque to be paid in favour of that customer. Rana Vikram Anand, Head – Products & Segments, Branch and Business Banking at RBL Bank said “At RBL Bank, the customer is at the heart of everything we do. We are excited to join hands with Cox & Kings to launch this innovative new product in the market. The “Save Now Travel Later” offering fulfils the travel aspirations of the growing Indian consumers by enabling them to take charge of their finances in a systematic and convenient manner.” A passenger can also cancel the trip in case of contingencies with NIL cancellation cost, if intimated within 9 months of opening the account.

There were 26,100 visitors from India during December 2015, an increase of 15.5 percent over December 2014. This was the highest ever visitation in any single month from India to Australia. The total arrivals for the calendar year 2015 were 233,100, an increase of 18.6 per cent over 2014. This makes India the 8th largest inbound market for arrivals for the year 2015. In the year ending December 2015, 68 per cent of Indian visitors visited Australia for leisure (158,500). Other visitors travelled for business (26,400), short-term education (14,800) and other purposes (33,500). Leisure visitors are on holiday (60,500) or visiting friends and relatives (98,000). The Tourism Forecasting Committee (TFC) is forecasting 245,000 visitors from India for Jun 2015 – Jul 16, a 12 per cent increase over 2014-15. Arrivals from India are expected to perform well with an average annual financial year growth rate of 7.2 per cent through to the financial year 2021-22. For the year 2015, Indian visitors contributed over A$ 1.1 billion to the Australian economy, an increase of 38 per cent over the previous year. India is the 10th largest source market in terms of expenditure. Average spend for Indian visitors was A$ 5,185. For the year 2015, Indian visitors spent a total of 14 million nights in Australia, an increase of 38 per cent over 2014. Australia is targetting Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore among India’s primary markets and Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Ahmedabad under secondary market. Participants in the Aussie Specialist Program are all identified as strongly promoting and developing Australia as a holiday destination. As of December 2015, ASP figures were as below: Total qualified ASP agents: 2,500 As of December 2015, agents …

Air India operated the longest all-women crew flight from New Delhi to San Francisco on March 6, to celebrate International Women’s Day. The “historic” New Delhi – San Francisco flight had 14 crew members and four pilots, all women. The flight left on March 6 and will return on March 8, reports PTI. Besides, the national carrier today said it would be operate over 20 all-women crew flights in domestic routes on March 8 to commemorate International Women’s Day. Air India CMD Ashwani Lohani had said that the flight to San Francisco on March 6 will be a symbol of “women empowerment”. “It will be a historic flight and the longest to be operated by all-women crew,” Lohani had said. The state-run airline has around 3,800 women workforce of the total 27,500 people with 20,500 of them regular. Duration of the flight would be more than 15 hours. According to him, the airline has immense respect for women and everyone associated with the flight, including pilots, engineers and those at the gate would be women. Every year, Air India operates all-women flights to celebrate the international women’s day.

Hyatt Hotels Corporation has announced the launch of The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, a global collection of unique and independent stay experiences. The Unbound Collection by Hyatt will include a portfolio of new and existing upper-upscale and luxury properties that will maintain a distinct character while providing guests and owners Hyatt’s award-winning customer loyalty program, robust operational and marketing resources and trusted, quality brand. The properties within The Unbound Collection by Hyatt – which will include historic urban gems, contemporary trend-setters, boutique hotels, resorts, and more – will have their own individual brand identities, free from constraint or convention. “The Unbound Collection by Hyatt provides us with a myriad of opportunities to grow, not only in new markets, but also in places we know our guests want to go. The collection of properties will allow us to reach the modern traveler who seeks one-of-a-kind experiences, but also wants the reassurance and loyalty program that comes with our brand,” said Mark Hoplamazian, President and CEO of Hyatt Hotels Corporation. The Unbound Collection by Hyatt launches with properties around the world, including The Driskill Hotel in Austin, Texas; the Hôtel du Louvre in Paris, France; the Carmelo Resort & Spa in Carmelo, Uruguay; and the Coco Palms Resort in Kauai, Hawaii, which is expected to undergo a revitalization and re-open in spring 2018. Future hotels in The Unbound Collection by Hyatt will be equally story-worthy, whether it be through a fascinating past, an exclusive location, famous architecture and design, or an award-winning dining experience. “We are committed to creating a portfolio that works for owners and provides them with flexibility, agility, and support, all while accentuating the best of each property and …

After signing an MoU with Rwanda recently to promote bilateral tourism from and into India, the Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) might also be looking at it as the venue for its upcoming annual convention that will be held in August or September of this year. As part of the protocol, it is in talks with a couple of destinations for this and one of them is Rwanda, hints Zakkir Ahmed, President of TAFI. “We will be able to announce the destination only by March end or early April. Our MoU with Rwanda includes not just outbound but inbound as well. It is not very well-known to tourists in India. So we will help them do some promotions through our members and familiarization tours. If possible, we will also do our convention there,” he says.

Dropping Kochi in favour of Mumbai, Tourism Selangor tweaked the schedule of its four-city sales mission with Tourism Malaysia and decided to tap it along – making its debut into Mumbai. Tourism Malaysia led its sales mission to India and Sri Lanka between February 25 and March 3, 2016 which covered Chandigarh, Lucknow, Bengaluru, Kochi, and Colombo in Sri Lanka. The dates were decided keeping in mind the peak travelling season from May to July. Noorul Ashikin Binti Mohd Din, General Manager, Tourism Selangor, who was leading the mission in Mumbai, confirmed that it was the first time they were visiting this market individually. She said, “Mumbai is important for us and we didn’t want to miss it. Kuala Lumpur and Genting are regular destinations for Indians but there’s more to see and agents should know about them. We feel it’s better to come alone as it gives more exposure.”