SpiceJet flagged off its first flight from Gaya to Mecca for the Hajj 2016 season. The Airbus320 which departed on its schedule time of 11.30 AM from the Gaya airport carried 135 passengers onboard. The flight was inaugurated by Dr. Abdul Ghafoor, Minister of Minority Affairs, Government of Bihar, Kumar Ravi, District Magistrate, Gaya, Dilip Kumar, Airport Director, Gaya Airport and Sumant Rautela Head of Ground Services, SpiceJet along with of the Hajj Committee members. The airline will carry more than 8000 pilgrims on special flights for the annual Islamic pilgrimage Hajj in Mecca from Gaya and Indore. G.P. Gupta, Chief Administrative Officer and Accountable Manager, SpiceJet, said, “Hajj is a lifetime experience and SpiceJet will make every effort to ensure a hassle-free and delightful travel experience for all its passengers by delivering high on on-time performance and critical etiquettes ensuring absolute passenger satisfaction. We are grateful for being made a part of this humane operation and wish all our pilgrim passengers a wonderful stay at Mecca this year.” The airline has deployed two Airbus320 to ferry pilgrims from Gaya and Indore respectively. The flights will be operated from the two Indian cities to Jeddah and Madina between August 4 and September 3, 2016. The return journey for the pilgrims back to Gaya is scheduled from September 21 and to Indore from October 1. The whole activity is expected to be executed by October 20, 2016.

Kerala Tourism has rolled out a taxi campaign in Dubai targeting Arab travellers, showcasing the state’s features on taxis on the Dubai roads. Around 200 Kerala-branded taxis carry the message of ‘A Faraway Land Four Hours Away’– with visuals featuring hill stations, backwaters, waterfalls and also Ayurvedic therapies. The campaign will see the cabs take to the streets sporting wrappings aimed to promote the state’s Monsoon getaways. “Apart from the favourable climate, the relative proximity and excellent air connectivity between Kerala and the cities of the Middle East make it easier to attract holiday makers to the state,” said Dr. Venu V, Principal Secretary Tourism, Kerala. “Dubai, being the hub for air travel in the region, was the logical choice of location for the marketing campaign. The exposure and footfalls gained by Kerala will bear this out.” The campaign, inspired by the previous highly successful branding efforts on London taxi cabs and the Mumbai metro, will run until August 15. Besides serving to augment Kerala’s destination pull, it is an acknowledgment of the growing importance of the Middle East outbound tourist market. Kerala received more than one lakh visitors from the region in 2015, with some 20,506 tourists from the UAE alone. The majority came from Saudi Arabia with 51,149 Saudi nationals visiting last year, while Oman accounted for 18,763 footfalls. “As the holiday season in the Middle East coincides with the Monsoon season here, Kerala is well-positioned to benefit from the influx of travellers looking to trade in the sizzle and dust for cooler climes and greener pastures,” said U.V. Jose, Director, Kerala Tourism.

Sri Lanka is emerging as a high potential incentive destination and corporate venue for employee incentive trips and business meetings, having witnessed an impressive growth of over 15 per cent YOY, with over 233,000 MICE visitors from India in the past six years, according to data from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. Thomas Cook (India) recently hosted an exclusive corporate event in collaboration with Sri Lanka Convention Bureau and SriLankan Airlines to harness the demand for MICE travel to Sri Lanka across mid and large Indian corporates and SMEs. TCI’s internal research and consumer analysis reiterates the significant and growing opportunity of India’s corporate segment, with interest for Sri Lanka as a MICE destination having grown by 15-20 per cent YOY over the last three years. The exclusive corporate event in Mumbai was attended by the crème de la crème of the corporate world, Saroja Siresena, The Consul General of Sri Lanka in Mumbai, and Bollywood celebrity Jacqueline Fernandez.

India continues to lead all markets with a 23.3 per cent rise in domestic traffic in June, propelled by strong growth in real consumer spending as well as by the fact that airlines are adding airport pairs and frequencies. This was revealed in International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) global passenger traffic data for June. Demand for domestic travel climbed 5.7 per cent this June compared to June 2015, while capacity increased 4.3 per cent, causing load factor to rise 1.1 percentage points to 83.2 pre cent. All markets reported demand increases with the exception of Brazil. Domestic RPKs account for about 36 per cent of the total market. The global passenger traffic data for June showing that demand (measured in revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) rose by 5.2% compared to the year-ago period. This was up slightly from the 4.8% increase recorded in May (revised). However, the upward trend in seasonally-adjusted traffic has moderated since January. June capacity (available seat kilometers or ASKs) increased by 5.6%, and load factor slipped 0.3 percentage points to 80.7%. “The demand for travel continues to increase, but at a slower pace. The fragile and uncertain economic backdrop, political shocks and a wave of terrorist attacks are all contributing to a softer demand environment,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO.

The last leg of Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) kicked off in Coimbatore with 50 exhibitors and 130 hosted buyers. Harmandeep Singh Anand, Co-founder, GPS, said, “We have a total of 50 exhibitors and expect 250 buyers to attend. We are hosting 130 buyers and so far the response has been very good. The informative sessions that were held yesterday received a strong response where over 130 attendees were present.” Hanneli Slabber, Country Manager-India, South Africa Tourism inaugurated the Coimbatore edition along with Anand and Madhu Saliankar, Director, GPS, at Le Meridien, Coimbatore.

Jet Airways will fly the largest aircraft in its fleet, the Boeing 777-300 ER, on the Mumbai-Amsterdam route with effect from Oct 30, 2016 to meet the growing demand on this key sector. Jet Airways is the only airline flying daily non-stop flights between Mumbai and Amsterdam. The Jet Airways’ Boeing 777 service offers a three-class configuration, comprising of eight First Class suites, 30 Premiere seats that open out into lie-flat beds, and 308 ergonomically designed seats in Economy. Jet Airways had commenced daily flights from Mumbai to Amsterdam on Mar 27, 2016. The capacity increase is in response to growing demand, particularly from business and corporate travellers. From Amsterdam, Jet Airways offers connectivity to 30 destinations across Europe and 11 destinations in the United States and Canada through its codeshare partnership with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Delta Air Lines. Gaurang Shetty, Whole-time Director, Jet Airways, said, “Our daily non-stop service connecting India’s commercial capital Mumbai and the key European hub Amsterdam has received excellent response since its launch. By deploying the 777-300ER aircraft, Jet Airways will be able to cater to the growing demand on this important sector at a time when trade and investment between India and Europe and North America is witnessing a healthy growth. The state-of-the-art wide body aircraft enables us to deliver a superior in-flight experience to our guests, along with the introduction of our signature First Class suites on this route.”

After easing visa services with the introduction of e-Tourist Visa (eTV), the Ministry of Tourism (MOT) is also planning to provide free Wi-Fi services at tourism hubs in India, revealed Vinod Zutshi, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism. He added that after discussions with various service providers, BSNL would most likely work with MOT to offer such provisions.

Lavasa has registered footfall of about 1.14 million tourists and is aiming at welcoming  2 million tourists by March 2017. This information was given by Rajiv Duggal, CEO, Lavasa. He said, “We are looking at 2 million tourists by March 2017 and so our major focus right now is at increasing our inventory.” He informed that they are looking forward to the opening of Novotel this year which will add another 200 rooms. He also said, “We have a Holiday Inn and an ibis opening. So, the concentration is to bring another 400 rooms to the city to its existing 300 inventory.”  

Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) participated in India International Travel Mart (IITM) at Chennai Trade Centre, Nandambakkam, Chennai from July 29 to 31, 2016 for promotion of Maharashtra Tourism amongst the B2B, travel trade and media fraternity of Chennai. MTDC also held a road show on July 29, post exhibition to promote the state and enthrall the Chennai trade. Swati Kale, General Manager, Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation said, “Tamil Nadu is one of the most developed states of India with a large class of educated and affluent society. Maharashtra has rich tourist destinations to satiate the needs of tourists from Tamil Nadu. With Chennai being an important market from tourist point of view it is imperative for us to showcase Maharashtra and its best products to the B2B, Travel Trade fraternity, stakeholders and media. From exotic beaches to historic forts, scuba diving to fort trekking, heli tourism to deccan odyssey, delicious cuisine to culture and heritage monuments there is a lot to explore in Maharashtra. The list is endless and that is what we aim to showcase through these road shows.” On these initiatives, Minister of Tourism, Government of Maharashtra Jaykumar Jitendrasinh Rawal commented, “The Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis has declared the year 2017 as the ‘Visit Maharashtra Year’ as part of its tourism development strategy. In view of the same, Department of Tourism, Government of Maharashtra, planned to organize a series of roadshows, events, festivals and cultural programmes throughout India to promote the state’s tourism attractions. The objective of MTDC’s participation at IITM is to promote Maharashtra as the world-class tourist destination, and offer opportunity to travel & tour operators to interact with foreign buyers, retail buyers, …

Due to unavailability of runway at Dubai International Airport, all IndiGo flights operating to and fro India stand cancelled for August 4, 2016.  From August 05 till 0730 hours IST on August 07, 2016, limited flights will be allowed to operate from Dubai Airports. The airline has requested all IndiGo passengers to check their flight status via customer relations or Twitter/Facebook or its web site. Passengers have been notified via web chat, SMSes, and through other channels.