Qatar Tourism attended ILTM Cannes 2021 with a strong Qatari delegation, to profile the new tourism projects and luxury offerings in the country. Qatar is becoming a leading destination as it expands its tourism proposition, in line with Qatar’s National Vision 2030. Its tourism strategy puts the visitor at the heart of all new programmes and initiatives. As part of the ‘Qatar Tourism Strategy 2030’, the country has added a variety of exciting experiences, including a wave of new luxury hotels, theme parks, shops, and major leisure projects, that have recently opened, or are set to open in the lead up to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022TM. Over 100 new hotels and serviced apartments are currently under construction which will add to Qatar’s already extensive portfolio of properties. Some of the new properties include a Raffles Hotel and Fairmont Hotel and Resort at Katara Towers, Rosewood Doha and the St. Regis Marsa Arabia Island. The hotels will broaden Qatar’s appeal to high value travellers, offering more choice to its existing 80 five and four star hotels. With the aim of raising the tourism sector to 12% GBP by 2030, Qatar will grow and improve assets and attractions, enhance the end-to-end customer experience, invest in Service Excellence and deploy a tailored marketing strategy to target point-to-point (P2P) and stopover visitors. Chief Operating Officer of Qatar Tourism, Berthold Trenkel, said: “We are continuing to expand our tourism offering and are excited to introduce guests to the best of Qatari hospitality. In 2019, we saw over two million visitors to Qatar and we hope to see similar growth trends now that we are welcoming visitors back to the country again. “We are now …

The new Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) between Singapore and Sri Lanka now allows fully vaccinated travellers quarantine-free access to both countries. This was highlighted for the travel trade in a webinar titled ‘Welcome Back to Singapore’, organised by STB, Singapore Airlines and Changi Airport Group. All short-term visitors and long-term pass holders are required to have a Vaccinated Travel Pass and fulfil VTL conditions in order to qualify for quarantine-free travel under the VTL.

Singapore Tourism Board (STB), Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Changi Airport Group (CAG) will conduct a “Welcome Back to Singapore” webinar for the Sri Lanka travel trade on Dec 10 at 11:30am The Singapore-Sri Lanka Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) will be launched on December 16th.  STB, SIA and CAG will conduct a webinar to provide an update to the Sri Lanka trade partners on the VTL, SIA flight operations and the passenger experience at Changi Airport and the facilities within the Jewel Changi Airport. The session will be on Friday, December 10 at 11:30am Colombo time. To register, contact jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or 9650196532 or click here https://event.webinarjam.com/register/346/xyo1rbv1

The Civil Aviation Minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia recently took stock of the preparedness, testing capacities, and the situation on the ground with regards to crowd management at both private and AAI airports. He tweeted, “Have put an action plan with 8 compliances on immigration queues, expanding RT-PCR service providers, ramping up help desks and forex counters, along with seamless floor management. Rest assured, MoCA  is monitoring the situation on a daily basis and passengers shall not face any inconvenience at airports.”

Vikas Ahluwalia, General Manager and National Head – Zone by The Park Hotels, has said that they have a healthy pipeline of projects at both Zone by The Park Hotels and Zone Connect of 1600 rooms under development and would be opening 6 new properties in the coming 12 months.” Zone Connect is an upscale brand, which has upcoming hotels in Goa, Tirupati, Gopalpur (Odisha), Phalodi (Rajasthan) and Port Blair,” he said.

Average economy class fares on flights of Air India, United Airlines and Lufthansa, operating under the ‘air bubble’ arrangement currently, are comparable to the average fares of pre-pandemic era, Minister of State for Civil Aviation V K Singh has said. Since July last year, India has formed bilateral air bubble arrangements with around 31 countries so that special international pax flights could be operated.

All international passengers arriving in India are mandated to declare their current health status prior to boarding on the Air Suvidha Portal. Ministry of Civil Aviation has mandated contact-less self-declaration at ‘Air Suvidha Portal’ for international passengers. This portal developed by MoCA aids passengers in providing their details of travel and final stay along with RT-PCR, vaccination status etc.

Try out our new  Destination Germany online training program designed exclusively for travel experts like you. Explore Germany through four informative modules and learn about the incredible array of things to do, vibrant hidden gems, and diversity of the destination itself. Follow the below link to register yourself: www.germanyspecialist.com

Anna Paul, Head MICE North India, Inorbit Tours and Shailesh Patel, Proprietor, Sambhav International Travels are first week’s lucky winners for successfully subscribing to Singapore Tourism Board (STB) India’s WhatsApp Channel. Every week STB India is giving away exciting prizes to its new subscribers. One can easily subscribe to this WhatsApp channel by clicking this link http://bit.ly/stbindia and stand a chance to be the next winner. STB India’s WhatsApp channel provides updates on Destination Singapore in a more direct, swift and timely manner. Win exciting prizes by subscribing to STB India’s WhatsApp Channel: Subscribe to Singapore Tourism Board India’s WhatsApp Channel and stand a chance to win prizes every week. Get real time updates on Destination Singapore and STB’s initiatives. Subscribe by following 3 simple steps: Click this link (http://bit.ly/stbindia) to fill the form Send the prefilled WhatsApp message Save STB India’s contact card or number

As the tourism industry bounces back with all safety protocols, the Enterprising Travel Agents Association (ETAA), South Chapter recently initiated a knowledge session for its members. Many crucial changes in travel agents booking systems which will initiate digitalisation were announced. The session was held at The Paul Hotel Bangalore on 26 November and was all about discussions of TIDS and The Paul John Hotels & Resorts familiarization tour at Domlur, Bengaluru. The Travel Industry Designatory Service (TIDS) is an identity management program designed by IATA, Canada for all non-IATA travel companies made available free of cost globally. On procuring ETAA recommendation letter, the TIDS procedure will be complete. Travel agents and tour operators availing the service will get updated on the IATA agency list. This additional agency listing in turn with benefit airlines and hotel industry globally.