The Tata Group announced the consolidation of its airlines, Vistara and Air India. With this consolidation, Air India shall be India’s leading domestic and international carrier with a combined fleet of 218 aircraft, making it India’s largest international carrier and second largest domestic carrier. 

ETAA announced its new team for the North India chapter. Taking on the baton from Sangeeta Manocha, Saurabh Tuteja is appointed as the new Chairman of the association. He shared that ETAA will be creating more opportunities for members to learn, network and empower and will continue to contribute to the success and growth of the association. Punit Bhasin is the Senior Vice Chairman, Deepika Khanna is the General Secretary, and Sangeeta Manocha is the new advisor. Gaurav Arora and Praveen Ghai will continue their stint as Joint Secretaries. 

Europamundo Vacations collaborates with the Tourism Board of Spain to launch their products for 2023-24 season. Join their webinar today at 3pm to find out more about these products and stand a chance to win Europamundo trip to Spain. For more information, write to jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or 9650196532. 

Tourism New Zealand will conduct an exciting webinar highlighting their latest campaign If You Seek and related trade tools and assets on Tuesday, Nov 29 at 11am. For more information, write to jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or 9650196532 to register.

Telangana State Tourism Development Corporation (TSTDC) Managing Director B Manohar said, “Our target is to increase international tourist arrivals by 20 per cent, and domestic tourist arrivals by 30 per cent by 2023-end as compared to pre-COVID level.” 

Arvind Singh, Secretary, MoT said, ‘Everybody wants to mainstream sustainability in all aspects of life, including tourism and highlighted the fact that with G20 around the corner it is important to step up our commitment towards it. He also informed that there are four tourism track meetings slated to be held during G-20. “It is the ideal time that India should take the leadership position in responsible tourism”, he added. 

Riaz Munshi was re-elected as the President of OTOAI Managing Committee for the term 2022-24. Shravan Bhalla was elected as Vice President, Sidharth Khanna as Gen. Secretary, Gurdeep Gujral as Treasurer, and Monia Kapoor as Joint Secretary were selected respectively. 

TOFTigers India Wildlife Association & Assam Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC) sign an MOU in an event held at Hotel Ashok, today at the Assam Tourism Road Show in New Delhi to training Wildlife Park guides and Safari Vehicle drivers in Guest Handling and to promote and support the strategy and concept of sustainable tourism. With a vision to create a sustainable future for tourism, TOFTigers has taken several steps to achieve this goal since 2005. The MoU is yet another milestone in this journey of change and improving environmental and economic sustainability in the state of Assam. TOFTigers will actively support and promote the introduction of the training for improving the guides’ and drivers’ knowledge of conservation, ecology, and storytelling skills for better visitor experience – which will potentially help them generate more income, while also furthering conservation awareness among tourists. TOFTigers and ATDC have a strong view towards promoting sustainability and social responsibility within the travel sector. The MoU was signed in the presence of dignitaries from the state of Assam and leaders from national tourism industry who had gathered in a large number at the event. Sustainable tourism practises are about putting local communities and the environment at the heart of business operations, in addition to economic factors. “TOFTigers is dedicated sustainable tourism organisation in India and would like to support the travel industry in India towards sustainability,” said Mr. Vishal Singh, Director TOFTigers. The travel and tourism industry are one of the largest industries in the world and contributes enormously to the economic well-being and development of many countries by helping to alleviate poverty throughout the world. It has recognised cross-cultural benefits as well as educational, health …

Akasa Air, India’s newest airline, today inaugurated its first flight on the Pune-Bengaluru route. Pune is the ninth destination in Akasa Air’s network and its second city in the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai. The airline is offering double daily flights on the Bengaluru–Pune route starting today with additional daily flights linking the two IT hubs, starting from December 10, 2022. Earlier in November, Akasa Air announced the addition of Visakhapatnam as the tenth destination on its network, with flights connecting the city with Bengaluru, scheduled to commence from December 10, 2022, and a second frequency on the route to be added on December 12, 2022. Since its launch in August this year, Akasa Air has been progressively scaling up its operations and by mid-December expects to cross over 450 weekly flights on a total of fourteen routes across ten cities – Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kochi, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Guwahati, Agartala, Pune, and Visakhapatnam. This rapid expansion of cities, routes, and frequencies is in line with the airline’s vision of adopting a phased yet rapid approach to grow its network across India. Commenting on the maiden flight and the new route, Praveen Iyer, Co-Founder, and Chief Commercial Officer, Akasa Air, said, “Commencement of operations on this route is a momentous occasion as we expand our footprint in Maharashtra by adding Pune to our network. Both Pune and Bengaluru are important IT hubs, and enhanced connectivity on this route, backed by affordable fares, are in line with our purpose to strengthen important transportation links of our country, which will provide a boost to economic development. We will soon launch another daily flight on this route from December 10 onwards, taking daily departures from Pune …

Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) will be announcing its new team today for the term 2022-24. The existing team will be taking over unopposed and some shuffle in positions is expected. Currently, Riaz Munshi is President, Himanshu Patil is Vice President, Shravan Bhalla is Gen. Secretary and Siddharth Khanna is Treasurer.