Tourism New Zealand’s Kiwi Link India is more focused this year with only Mumbai on the agenda. The annual travel trade event, scheduled to take place from July 11-13, opened in Mumbai with the Kiwi delegation including 35 operators, four airlines, and Immigration New Zealand who met 80 pre-registered Indian buyers. Steven Dixon, Regional Manager South & South East Asia, Tourism New Zealand, who is leading the New Zealand delegation, says, “Kiwi Link is aimed at educating our trade partners about the destination and understanding their clients’ requirements. Last year, we held it in Mumbai and New Delhi but this time we will focus only on Mumbai.” Tourism New Zealand will also be hosting key buyers from around India in Mumbai for the first two days of the event. He added that the tourism board is looking to invest heavily in India. “We will invest more with our travel partners which means we will be having a lot of communication with them, educate them about New Zealand and understand the requirements of Indian travellers. This year ending May 2016, we recorded tourist arrivals of 48,000 from India, which is an increase from 45,000 Indians we received last year. But our research says that there are a lot more people in India who want to visit New Zealand,” Dixon says. He revealed that Tourism New Zealand has a total budget of USD 8 million but refused to comment on the number that has been directed to India.

The Civil Aviation Ministry is all set for a green makeover and has thus planned 146 MW of solar-power generation at airports, with 30 MW already in the pipeline. Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Union Minister of Civil Aviation, has reviewed the progress of energy and water conservation measures at Airports Authority of India (AAI) airports across the country. The important review meeting was attended by Jayant Sinha, Minister of State, Civil Aviation and Secretary of the Department, besides Chairperson AAI and other senior officers. Airport Directors of 12 important airports also attended the deliberations so that they could be sensitized to implement these initiatives at their respective airports. AAI has already installed solar power plants at 16 airports with a total capacity of 5.4 MW. So far, 51 lakh energy units have been generated from these plants leading to a reduction of 4,600 metric tonnes in carbon emissions. By December 2016, additional 24.1 MW of solar power plants will become operational at 11 more airports. Infact, the perspective plan of AAI targets augmenting the solar power generation to 116 MW by including 16 more airports. During the meeting, the Airport Director, Jaipur dwelled at length on the energy conservation measures recently undertaken at the airport. These include maximum use of LED lighting, installation of efficient air-conditioning equipment, provision of energy efficient pumps and motors, a roof top solar power plant of 1 MW capacity and a 1.8 MW ground-based solar power plant under implementation. All Airport directors were encouraged to adopt similar initiatives, some of which have a payback period of as low as two years. The status and scope of water conservation, water-recycling and sewage treatment plants at the airports …

Tourism Australia’s arrival statistics for May 2016 revealed the highest ever visitation in any given month from India to Australia. 27,400 tourists from India visited Australia during the peak school holiday period, an increase of 18 per cent vis-à-vis May 2015, signifying Australia’s rising popularity as a leisure holiday destination amongst outbound Indian travellers. Total arrivals for the year ended (YE) May 2016 were recorded at 238,000, an increase of 8 per cent relative to the same period last year, making India the 9th largest inbound market for arrivals to Australia. For the year ended March 2016, Indian tourists spent A$ 1.14 billion on their Australian sojourn, that saw an increase of 19 per cent over the previous year. A majority of Indian tourists (67 per cent) visited Australia for the purpose of leisure. The average spend for Indian visitors increased by 10 per cent to A$ 5,215. In addition, the average length of stay for all visitors from India was recorded at 65 nights, with a 47 per cent repeat visitation. Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager, India & Gulf, Tourism Australia, said, “We are delighted to announce our highest ever arrivals from India. It is a significant and momentous occasion for Tourism Australia to see such a great response from the Indian market. Our marketing activities in collaboration with our key distribution and airline partners, with an increased thrust on digital initiatives, improved air connectivity between the two countries, stability of the Australian dollar, introduction of the pilot electronic lodgement of visa applications program, have been key factors in boosting travel to Australia. By 2025, we expect India to be among the top five markets for Tourism Australia.” The Tourism …

The Ministry of Tourism has partnered with CII for the Global Travel Mart and have changed the dates of the event from January to now February 1-4, 2017, according to an engagement letter by Federation of Associations of Indian Travel and Hospitality (FAITH) sent to its members. The letter reads that FAITH was in discussion with MOT and had prepared a concept statement for the global travel mart with them. Two key highlights of that, were, if that mart were not in partnership with FAITH, then it would be competitively bid out to PCOs who have created & run world scale tourism events, so as to start off with a Big Indian Tourism Bang. The other key requisite was the hosting date of the mart, to be in the shoulder period of 10th-14th January 2017. However, as of 30th June MOT has joined hands with CII and the dates have been now shifted to February. FAITH has addressed its concerns to the ministry regarding partnering with them and its member associations, and will be discussing it again.

India’s first travel wedding show was held from July 9-10. The show welcomed agents who are wedding specialists. Punam Singh, Associate, Pacific Leisure Group, said, “we have been successful in conducting the meetings. I think over the two days we have been able to do about 1200 meetings. Both exhibitors and buyers have found value from it. We had 30 buyers in each category. Everyone has gone back with at least 50 meetings.” Sarika Bhambani Rawal, General, Manager, Travel Wedding Show, said, “The show was very successful and all the buyers and sellers were satisfied. We will soon come out with Travel Experiential Show in October. We are equally excited about it.”

Ras Al Khaimah is actively promoting the destination for weddings. Speaking at the Travel Wedding Show, Shaji Thomas, Director – Destination Tourism Development, Ras Al Khaimah, said that realising the potential of the multi-billion dollar Indian wedding industry, the country is keen to grab a piece of the pie. “We are just 45 minutes away from Dubai and is home to fantastic, luxurious hotels capable of hosting larger-than-life weddings. We encourage you to host weddings here as it caters to all sorts of client genres, thanks to the infrastructure and tourism products like beaches.”

The maiden edition of Travel Wedding Show took off in full swing at Le Meridien, Gurgaon on Saturday, July 9. A total of 26 buyers and 28 exhibitors participated in the inaugural day of the B2B event where appointments took place in round robin format. The first day held emphasis on wedding planners and event management companies while the exhibitors were representatives from different hotels and resorts, and DMCs. “There have been events focussing on either weddings or travel, but never together. Travel Wedding Show aims to bring a select group of  people together and facilitate business for the growth of the industry,” shared Sarika Bhambani Rawal, General Manager, Travel Wedding Show.

The Indian wedding industry is flourishing at a growth rate of 25 per cent per annum and is pegged at an estimated Rs 250,000 crore ($40 billion), said Rajeev Jain, Managing Director, Rashi Entertainment, keynote speaker at the Travel Wedding Show. In his speech, Jain said that with Indians spending 80% of their wealth on weddings, the sector has proved to be a great contributor to GDP. About 8% of Indians opt for destination weddings from which connectivity and accessibility is the chief factor while choosing locations. The inauguration of Travel Wedding Show also witnessed speaker sessions with Shaji Thomas, Director – Destination Tourism Development, Ras Al Khaimah, Guldeep Singh Sahni, President – OTOAI, and Rajneesh Rathi, Editor-in-Chief, Wedding Affair as the speakers.

Kerala Government has allotted Rs 100 crore each for the Alappuzha and Thalassery Heritage Tourism projects in its budget for the year 2016-17. The annual budget was presented by Dr Thomas Issac, Finance Minister, Government of Kerala. Another Rs 400 crore was allotted for improving the existing infrastructural conditions in select tourism destinations identified across the state. A ropeway project was also announced at Ponmudi. For which Rs 200 crore shall be allotted. The budget also proposed development of air strips at Bekal, Wayand and Idukki in order to connect far flung destinations. However the bus trips to Bengaluru and Chennai will cost more now as tax of tourist buses has been increased. Green Tax on old vehicles and goods transport has also been increased by 10 per cent.

Amadeus has recently announced its B2B Wallet Prepaid product for the travel agents. To this end, Amadeus is partnering with MasterCard to offer travel agencies payment acceptance and security around the globe, as well as better protection against supplier default when using B2B Wallet. Amadeus’ solution will build on MasterCard’s vast global network to expand virtual B2B payments in travel. Amadeus is also partnering with Ixaris to drive efficient virtual card management on B2B Wallet. With its innovative payments technology, Ixaris allows travel agents to easily create and add funds to their virtual payment cards. “Virtual card technology is the ideal application of Fintech innovation for the travel industry. By combining the strengths of Amadeus, MasterCard and Ixaris, we bring flexibility, efficiency and confidence to travel agent B2B payments. Since we launched the product in some markets in February we have seen overwhelming demand for it and today have customers in 10 European countries,” said Celia Pereiro, Head-Travel Payments, Amadeus. The Amadeus B2B Wallet will be gradually rolled out in select Asia Pacific markets in 2017 to bring travel agencies a virtual payments product with the option of either earning or saving cash when paying travel providers. Hany Fam, President, MasterCard Enterprise Partnerships, says, “With our global acceptance, advanced security and automatic consolidation, Amadeus B2B Wallet gives travel agencies a host of reasons to leave cash, checks and other payment mechanisms behind, saving time and money.”