GoAir has started to commercially operate night flights to Port Blair Veer Savarkar International Airport. Its maiden commercial charter flight G8 1291 took off from Bengaluru at 23:15 hrs on January 20, and landed at Port Blair airport at 01:50 hrs. As a part of its charter operations, GoAir will operate three night flights in this sector in January, five night flights in February and six night flights in March. All flights will arrive at Port Blair from Bengaluru at 1.50 am and depart for Bengaluru from Port Blair VSI Airport at 2.20 am. Effective March 27, 2016 and as per its new summer schedule, GoAir will also start operating its first ever daily direct flights to Port Blair from Bengaluru.

The Department of Tourism (DoT), Government of Odisha, in its bid to attract domestic tourists from an important source state Uttar Pradesh, organised a roadshow in Varanasi to promote the state and its variety of tourism products. The roadshow provided information on Odisha Tourism to tour operators, travel agents, travel writers, etc. “Odisha is famous for its golden beaches, sprawling lakes, luxuriant forests, teeming wildlife, majestic temples & monuments, Buddhist sites, exotic handloom & handicrafts, primitive tribes, colourful fairs and festivals and the scintillating music, dances & cuisine which attract large number of tourists,” said Ashok Chandra Panda, Hon. Minister of Tourism and Culture, Government of Odisha. “Travel to Odisha is truly an amazing experience that attracts people from all parts of the world for its sculptural and artistic heritage. The Sun Temple at Konark, a UNESCO Heritage site, the Temple of Lord Jagannath at Puri, one of the four cardinal centres for Hindus (Char Dhams) of India and temple city of Bhubaneswar are important and popular tourist destinations. The Buddhist heritage of Odisha comprising of Ratnagiri-Lalitgiri-Udayagiri-Langudi and Dhauli attracts tourists from overseas and domestic front,” he said. To attract domestic tourists from various parts of the country, Odisha Tourism is holding roadshows in different cities. It has already organised various roadshows last year and has planned to organise few more roadshows this year. It is a happy coincidence that one of such roadshow is being organised in this great city of Varanasi.

Vienna drew a record number of 40,355 Indians in 2015, accounting for 89,628 overnight stays. While the number of Indians visiting Vienna increased by 49.5 per cent over last year, the number of overnight stays grew by 38.7 per cent, according to Vienna Tourist Board. “We are delighted at the growing number of Indian travellers, largely comprising families, youth, honeymooners and those attending business conferences,” says Isabella Rauter, Vienna Tourist Board’s Head of Public Relations and responsible for media relations with India and Italy. Vienna continued to attract more people with tourist arrivals from around the crossed the 6.6 million mark, representing an increase of 6.1 per cent. The former capital of Habsburg Empire now prepares to welcome Indian travellers in much larger numbers in 2016. According to the data, the growth in Indian visitors to Vienna was among the highest after the Arabic countries and Taiwan. During 2015 overnight stays crossed the 14 million mark for the first time, representing a healthy 5.9 per cent increase of over previous year.

Namaste Turkey has launched a brochure for 2016-17 comprising of 48 pages and includes over 15 unique itineraries for Turkey and combination of Turkey & Greece. These programmes are commissionable to the travel agents and tour operators at 10 per cent. Subhash Motwani, Director, Namaste Turkey, who was recently in Cappadocia to forge an alliance with key partners, is optimistic that Turkey will be doing exceptionally well in 2016, given that Turkish Airlines has excellent connectivity to Europe, US and Africa and with a valid Schengen, UK or US or OECD country visa, you can get a Turkey visa online instantly. Namaste Turkey has also introduced for the first time eight-day full board cruises from Bodrum and Marmaris with guaranteed departures from May until October 2016. This too is commissionable to travel agents and tour operators.

From April 25-June 15, Tigerair will increase flight frequency on its Hyderabad-Singapore and Tiruchirappalli-Singapore route by adding one seasonal route each, taking the total count to seven and 14 weekly flights. The increase of the frequency on these routes is due to the overwhelming response from these markets during peak season, said Teh Yik Chuan, Director – Sales and Marketing, Tigerair. To ensure an overall memorable experience, Tigerair has partnered with Singapore Tourism Board to encourage travellers from India to witness the thrilling sights and sounds of Singapore. The budget carrier has also announced an all-inclusive return fare to Singapore for passengers travelling from Hyderabad during Mar 9-Apr 16. The special fare can be availed by booking tickets from Jan 20-31.

As of November 2015, more than 924,000 Indian travellers visited Singapore, registering 7.4 per cent growth, said Bridget Goh, Area Director India & Sri Lanka, Singapore Tourism Board. “India is the top five visitor market for Singapore with over 943,000 Indian travellers in 2014 and the average length of stay being 6.8 days,” she added. Singapore celebrated its Golden Jubilee last year by partnering with Tigerair for a successful marketing campaign targeting Indian travellers majorly from South India and Lucknow. “We are excited to continue our partnership with Tigerair and offer Indian travellers to start 2016 with attractive fares and indulge in spending quality time with loved ones in Singapore,” she said. As a popular destination among Indian travellers, Singapore has a multitude of experiences for a fun-filled family holiday as well as vibrant lifestyle offerings for working millennials seeking a short getaway.  

The Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) will hold its next annual convention in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, said Amitabh Devendra, Secretary General, FHRAI, adding that the tentative dates for the event are September 23-25, 2016. The theme of the convention will be ‘Brand India.’ “The contribution of Hospitality and Tourism will make ‘Brand India’ soar to great heights and help the country achieve the target of attracting one per cent share of the world tourists’ arrivals by 2020,” he said.

Giving a fillip to ASEAN Tourism Forum, President of the Philippines H.E. Benigno Simeon Aquino III, in his inaugural speech, said that ASEAN integration benefits the region and all must capitalise on this. He urged the ASEAN countries to concentrate on bio-sustainability and maintain this delicate balance. He insisted that working together is the key as no single country can achieve this alone. The President called on all brothers and sisters of ASEAN to progress as one region, showcase the uniqueness of the region, and let all tourists visit each country. Welcoming delegates to his country, Secretary (Minister) of the Philippines, Department of Tourism, Hon. Ramon R. Jimenez, Jr. talked about partnership in tourism development. He mentioned that this event in the Philippines is a milestone in flowering of the ASEAN Tourism Forum. The lively and colourful short inauguration ended with a group photo of all the Ministers of Tourism from ASEAN and then with the heads of all tourism organisations.

Starting March this year, Kuwait Airways will add two more flights on the Kuwait-Ahmedabad and Kuwait-Bengaluru routes making it five flights each. The airline recently increased its frequency to twice double daily from Kuwait to Cochin and added three flights to Ahmedabad and Bengaluru each. Philip Saunders, Chief Commercial Officer, Kuwait Airways, said, “We are seeing a change in the load factors from India. We are excited about our new schedules with new destinations like Ahmedabad and Bengaluru while consolidating our operations in other places by introducing double-daily flights to Cochin that we did in December 2015. The second reason why things will continue to improve for us is the growth of Indian market and also because our strategy is focusing on depth rather than breadth. We want to introduce more frequencies as we can and get more relevant to Indians living in Kuwait. A third reason is that we are recruiting the right people to engage with the travel agents to find new ways to co-operate with them.” The airline still offers IATA commission of three per cent in India apart from some incentive it offers to the travel agents.

Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) website will be made into an online booking portal to allow tour operators and tourists to sell and book packages to Goa at discounted rates. Private tour operators will be provided a login ID which will allow them to load their packages into the system and sell them based on commission rates, built into the portal. “We will be the first tourism board to launch such a service. A tourist can combine various activities with the packages like hot air balloon ride, paragliding, bungee jumping amongst other new products on the website, making Goa a 365-day destination. Even though we own the new product offerings, the services will be offered by the private sector where we will only be the facilitator and hand hold them for proper delivery,” said Nikhil Desai, Managing Director, GTDC. Goa Tourism is expecting at least 400,000 tourists to visit the state over three days during Goa Carnaval from February 6-9, 2016, Desai said during a press conference in New Delhi. Dilip Parulekar, Goa Tourism Minister, was also present. Parulekar said, “Goa Carnaval is one-of-a-kind event and people come from all over the globe. While the spirit of this celebration is contagious, we have taken into account aspects of safety, security and cleanliness which will ensure that the celebration is a truly memorable one.”