Mandeep Singh Lamba, President – South Asia, HVS ANAROCK, has said that the hospitality industry would see changes in terms of design and operations after the COVID-19 crisis is over. Speaking at the third TravTalk Digital Conclave, he said, “There are going to be some permanent changes that will happen in the industry, both in terms of operations of the hotels and in terms of design. We need to understand that this is perhaps not the last time we are seeing a disruption of this kind. It’s a reality which can hit us again, and hence we need to be far better prepared the next time. This crisis has stirred the industry into making some serious changes.”

A survey conducted by SOTC Travel to understand the M!CE plans of key corporates in India reveals that 39% of the respondents said their M!CE budgets would remain unaltered. This spells well for the M!CE sector which is directly influenced by the business health of corporates. The survey also suggests that 32% of the respondents pegged August to September as the right time to restart discussions and operations on M!CE, more than half (or 55%) felt the right time for this would be between October and December.

Suman Billa, Director, Technical Cooperation & Silk Route Development, UNWTO, has said that the Indian stimulus package follows the same trajectory as other global stimulus packages, and instead of being disheartened about not having a specific tourism stimulus package, the industry should reach out to the government and share what in the existing package doesn’t work for them. “The industry should pitch for moratorium on interest and lowering of interest rates. They should look at firms which were left out and ensure that everybody should get access to loans. We need to look at the existing package and see what provisions are pinching us and tell the government that it is not catching the sensitivity of the tourism sector. If we can say that, I am sure that the government will be happy to consider the request,” commented Billa while speaking at the ‘Saving Airlines & Allied Industries – Saving Jobs’ webinar. He added that most stimulus packages across the world are sector-agnostic, and that the industry should carefully assess the existing provisions and propose the changes that are specifically required for the tourism sector.

Cross Hotels & Resorts is holding an exclusive webinar for the Indian travel trade today (May 25) at 2:30 pm IST. To attend the webinar, please register on this link https://event.webinarjam.com/register/113/1n728ak9 or contact Harish Chhetri at 9650196521 or sales@crosshotelsandresorts.in. The keynote speaker is from Thailand – Yui, Group Director of Sales, Cross Hotels & Resorts. The webinar will be an informative session for the trade and will elaborate on one of the leading hotel chains in SE Asia – Cross Hotels & Resorts.

“Corporates will not buy travel the same way as before, that’s for sure. The entire travel industry is going to move to IT. They will also have to learn how to close deals on the phone,” said Rajdev Bhattacharya, GM, Global Travel & Hospitality Services and Way2go, Digital Operations & Platforms for Wipro, when speaking at TravTalk’s third Digital Conclave on May 15. The session, where Bhattacharya spoke at length about how travel companies also needed to relook at the mix of people they were to hire based on skill sets, aimed to highlight the timelines when the Indian travel industry could start looking at weddings as well as corporate and M!CE travel in the road to tourism’s recovery.

Speaking at the third TravTalk Digital Conclave, Dilip Puri, Founder & CEO, Indian School of Hospitality (ISH), said that technology would be used in hotels to monitor guests’ health. “Many hotels have started working with technology or proximity software. With our loyalty programme, we wanted to recognise our platinum guests in and around the lobby, allowing us to go ahead and personalise their stay more. In terms of policing in hotels, they need to understand the health condition of a customer and see if social distancing is being maintained. Technology would begin to take this over as well. Not only will the guests be thermally scanned and checked while entering a hotel, but there would be technology that would also allow hotels to recognise a guest’s health condition, like what the Aarogya Setu App is doing. How technology is going to play out in this new normal is going to be a very significant factor in how hotels operate in the future, whether they are new hotels, existing hotels or hotels under renovation,” he said.

In the foremost session of 3rd TravTalk Digital Conclave, titled ‘The Reality of No Tourism’, Debjit Dutta, Director & CEO, Impression Tourism Services (India), highlighted the advantage enjoyed by East India when it came to tourism’s recovery. He said, “For eastern India, the biggest opportunity will be cross-border tourism with East Asian countries. Lockdown has come as a form of opportunity for the industry to learn and adapt to a better world.” He added that while indirect support from the government will be needed, stand-alone properties will be more popular and in demand once everything normalises, as people would like to travel to less-crowded places that serve their specialised needs.

The DDP Group, to support travel and hospitality companies affected by the COVID-19 crisis, has created a media fund of Rs1 crore under its ‘Standing with the Trade’ initiative. The move will help support businesses by providing targeted advertising campaigns, free of cost. Advertisements will be provided on a first-come, first-serve basis. Interested businesses can contact the DDP team through gaganpreet@ddppl.com. This initiative is supported by all of DDP Group’s premier publications, including TravTalk, Tourism Breaking News, TravelTV.News, M!CETalk and Hospitality Talk. Together, these publications reach 600,000 travel and hospitality professionals daily. “The timeliness and effectiveness of our actions as a united industry are more important than ever before and we are hoping that our initiative can assist stressed businesses till the market begins to strengthen again. Although it is difficult to predict how long this might continue, history has enough examples to show that after a time of economic difficulty, industry and countries have always bounced back,” says SanJeet, Director, DDP Group.

Sarovar Hotels has announced the launch of Seyfert Sarovar Portico, Dehradun. The hotel was inaugurated by Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat in the presence of Ajay K. Bakaya, Executive Director, Sarovar Hotels and Rahul Saxena, General Manager, Seyfert Sarovar Portico, Dehradun. Seyfert Sarovar Portico, Dehradun, has 68 spacious and well-appointed rooms offering modern amenities and personalized service. The hotel offers state-of-the-art business and conferencing facilities, in-room dining, fitness centre, swimming pool, and all day dining multi-cuisine restaurant. With excellent settings, unmatched F&B offerings and seamless service, it is also the perfect venue to host social events. Speaking on the occasion, Rawat said, “I am very glad to inaugurate this hotel that brings a new level of hospitality services to our city. Dehradun is the gateway to numerous pilgrimage and tourist destinations in the upper and lower Himalayas, and I believe this hotel will be immensely beneficial to people travelling through this route as well as to the locals here with the excellent F&B and banquet services on offer.” Commenting on the launch, Bakaya said, “We are glad to be expanding our presence to yet another popular destination in Uttarakhand. With our immense focus on providing quality accommodation and services at the best rates, we hope to ensure a pleasant stay for all our guests travelling to this region. The hotel brings to the city exceptional facilities and houses the largest banquet in the city in terms of capacity and size covering 10,000 square feet.” Located close to Dehradun’s Jolly Grant Airport, bus stand and railway station, the hotel is conveniently accessible to guests. The hotel also brings the choicest of culinary delights to its guests at Café Travertine, an all-day …

The Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) show, India’s first travel show that focuses on the potential of Central India organised by Nagpur-based Jagsons Travels, has launched a mobile application. Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director, Jagsons Travels, says, “We are probably the first company in India to launch an exclusive B2B application for a travel show. It is live now and we are working towards making it a marketplace for GPS participants. It is available on iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows platforms.” GPS will now be travelling to four cities of Ahmedabad (July 13-15), Chandigarh (July 20-22), Kolkata (July 27-29) and Coimbatore (August 3-5) with a week-s interval between the cities. The first day will be dedicated to presentations for the local travel trade and the following two days will be for B2B meetings.