FlyBig plans to commence three times weekly Ahmedabad-Indore service from Jan 3, 2021. From its Indore hub, FlyBig started flights to Bhopal and Ahmedabad with Jabalpur to follow later on. FlyBig started booking for Raipur-Indore from Jan 13, 2021. Its second phase will focus on North East India market for which it will set up a base in Guwahati. Apart from the Delhi-Shillong route, it will serve Imphal and Aizawl. It is yet to debut operations using its own aircraft ATR72-500.

Ministry of Tourism’s Regional Office, Indiatourism Mumbai conducted a domestic tourism marketing campaign ‘Dekho Apna Desh’ under the theme ‘Explore Incredible India’ with a brand activation event in Reliance Mall, Borivali in Mumbai from Dec 25 until 31 Dec. Mall visitors were provided information on special promotional packages prepared by local travel agents and tour operators.  

GB Srithar, Regional Director (India, Middle East & South Asia), Singapore Tourism Board, has said that the STB Virtual Tradeshow would allow them to reconnect with the travel trade in India. “It is in line with our ‘United we stand’ messaging for the travel trade in this crisis time. We would like to show our solidarity with the travel trade fraternity in terms of  communication and messages. We want to tell them that we are getting prepared, and as and when the restart happens, we hope to welcome Indian travellers to Singapore through the help and cooperation of our travel trade partner friends,” he said. The STB India Virtual Tradeshow is scheduled on Jan 12, 15, 19 and 21 for South, North, West and East India respectively. Register on: www.stbindiatradeshow2021.com, email: Jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com, or call +919650196532.

Regional commuter airline Flybig started its first flight from Shillong direct to Delhi on December 21, 2020. However, it used a SpiceJet aircraft for the same. Part of Big Charter, Flybig was awarded the contract for this route through a tender floated by Meghalaya Transport Corporation at the beginning of 2020. It will initially operate this route twice a week.

The first flight from Belgaum (Karnataka) to Surat (Gujarat) to Kishangarh (Rajasthan) was flagged off on December 21, 2020 by Star Air India under RCS-UDAN. This flag-off marks the inauguration of the 303rd route under the scheme and the 20th UDAN route by the airline. The airline is being provided Viability Gap Funding (VGF) under the scheme to keep fares affordable. The airline will operate thrice-weekly flights on the route and will deploy its 50-seater Embraer-145.

After nine months of restriction on the entry of tourists to Meghalaya due to the pandemic, the state re-opened its doors on December 21, 2020. The Tourism Department has issued SOP for all tourists wherein they will need to mandatorily register on ‘The Meghalaya Tourism App’ and generate an e-invite for the proposed itinerary.

With widespread travel ban on the UK introduced overnight, Gloria Guevara, WTTC President & CEO, said, “While protecting public health is paramount, blanket travel bans cannot be the answer. They have not worked in the past and they will not work now. If a comprehensive and quick turnaround testing regime were in place at airports to test all travellers before they depart, it would ensure only those infected with COVID-19 are isolated. There would be no need for countries to introduce damaging and counterproductive wholesale bans on UK travellers.”

The new ‘Travel Insights with Google’ is Google’s new website that reflects demand trends to sector participants, be they a chain of hotels, a small travel start-up, or a booking  agent. It will help the industry understand pent-up travel demand and leverage insights from these tools for businesses. It is based on user search data. The tool can point to two kinds of time-specific trends: destination insights and hotel insights.

Under the revised MDA Scheme for domestic tourism, financial support will be provided to not just domestic tour operators but any tourism service providers approved by the Ministry of Tourism for promotion of domestic tourism. This can include travel agents, tour operators, tourist transport operators, hoteliers, B&B units, home-stays, motels, guest houses, tented accommodation, standalone restaurants, convention centres and online aggregators. Upper ceiling for this support is Rs 1,35,000 per trip including GST.

Sharing news about a new cruise brand, Jurgen Bailom, President & CEO, Cordelia Cruises, says, “I am excited to share news of the launch of luxury cruise brand Cordelia Cruises with its first ship The Empress that has a capacity of 2,000 individuals. It was earlier owned by Royal Caribbean. We are working on adding a second ship to the line.” Waterways Leisure Tourism had recently bought over the brand Jalesh Cruises.