Category Archives: Agents

Bird Travels has been appointed as the GSA for Somon Air in India. Somon Air is a private airlines based in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Bird Travels will soon be launching online operations from Delhi to Dushanbe (subject to government approval).

Travstarz Cruises, the cruise division of Travstarz Global Group, along with Dream Cruises organised a product presentation for travel agents and tour operators in New Delhi. Attended by around 150 agents, the presentation was followed by a networking cocktail and dinner. Pankaj Nagpal, MD and CEO, TravStarz Global Group, said that after starting their cruise division in November 2018, they have seen a great demand for cruise products and since they are the PSAs for Dream Cruises, they wanted to update the members about different products in their portfolio. He insisted that the last season for cruises was quite good and they are hoping to increase it further going forward.

The Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) is soon going to launch its new website and will prove handy and useful for members in terms of new features and added benefits. Sharing more details, Sidharth Khanna, Treasurer, OTOAI said they are looking to unveil the website in next 10-15 days. He says, “We have been working on the new website and we felt the need to revamp the existing website. The new website will be more interactive for the members and will give them an opportunity to interact with each other. The key feature of the website would be that members can post a deal for the B2B, who is in the market on this new platform, which can be viewed by all the existing members. It will also give you all the updates about what the association has been doing, what is in the pipeline for the future. There is going to be a calendar of events apart from other exciting and useful features.”

Travel Nevada will host a webinar for travel agents on September 10. The event will be limited to 250 agents from across India who will learn about the key highlights of the destination and will be educated on what makes Nevada an ideal destination for Indian tourists. The event will also include an exclusive speech by SanJeet, India Representative, Travel Nevada. For registration, contact, Arjun Chadha at arjun.chadha@buzzindia.in.

Considering the option of Joint Bank Guarantee for hotels and discussing its viability, Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, Vice President, The Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India, says, “We are open to consider Joint Bank Guarantee option but it would require a prior and complete scrutiny and understanding of the JBG terms and conditions. For instance, the JBG  should be given by either the TA or a renowned association on behalf of the agent so that there is a guarantee for payments for the hotels and the TA can enjoy extended credit.” 

The Amravati Tour & Travel Association (ATTA), which is a small 23-member association based in Amravati, will be hosting its second edition of the three-day B2C Travel Expo 2019 from November 29 to December 1, 2019 in Amravati. The association, which is in its third year now, is led by Babanrao Kolhe, President, ATTA, alongside Vishwanath Arora, Vice President, ATTA. Speaking to TravTalk, Arora said, “This is the first time that a travel trade association is conducting a B2C expo. We saw huge success in its first year with more than 50 booths and so we decided to organise it again this year. It will start from November 29, 2019 and end on December 1, 2019. Last year, we were supported by MTDC and Genting Cruise Lines. The aim is to get more and more big travel companies to Amravati as there is a huge market here. We hope to get good support from companies this year too and we are in discussions for the same.”

The Enterprising Travel Agents Association (ETAA) jointly with Rajasthan Routes Trails recently organised an educational familiarisation trip for its members to Rajasthan. The trip was hosted by Rajasthan Routes Trails Pvt Ltd and had 25 participants from cities like Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Satara and Nagpur. The group travelled across Rajasthan starting from Udaipur and covering Kumbhalgarh, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Jaisalmer and Jaipur. The itinerary included sightseeing of prominent monuments, temples and other attractions and visits to hotels from across various categories. Besides enjoying the gracious hospitality of the sponsoring hotels and the main host Rajasthan Routes Trails Pvt Ltd, the members also enjoyed some local and traditional activities like camel rides, jeep sand dune safaris, jungle safaris, authentic Rajasthani cuisine and shopping in the local markets. This is the second year in a row that ETAA and Rajasthan Routes Trails Pvt Ltd collaborated for an educational tour.

Sri Lanka High Commission in New Delhi, along with Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) organised a workshop for OTOAI members on Ramayana Trail, where Jeevana Fernando, Assistant Director, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLPB) gave a presentation on the Ramayana related sites in Sri Lanka to the attendees. The event was chaired by Austin Fernando, High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to India along with Mahendra Vakharia, President, OTOAI. The idea behind the workshop was to position Sri Lanka’s rich Ramayana heritage as a popular pilgrim package and to create awareness among the OTOAI members about locations of the Sri Lanka Ramayana Trail. The OTOAI members gave a positive response towards the workshop and discussed possible itineraries with Fernando for the same.

The fourth edition of Global Panorama Showcase Kolkata kick-started at The Lalit Great Eastern, Kolkata with slew of announcements related to its upcoming plans. With a target of reaching out to 25 destinations with EDWIN (Educational Destination Workshop) in next five years, Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director, GPS, announced new EDWIN program with Trulyy hotels at its properties in Gujarat and Rajasthan. He also announced special booking packages with Trulyy providing 30, 40 and 50 per cent discount with membership program.  According to Anand, The Oberoi hotels has also proposed a special membership plan for the GPS members. He also briefed about sustainable and responsible tourism initiatives of GPS including rain water harvesting programme, restricting single-use plastic and counselling the clients on code of conduct in hotels abroad.

Tourism Association of Bihar (TAB) recently celebrated its Foundation day. The event was inaugurated by Y. Nilkantham (Director , India Tourism,  Patna) , Sumit Chatergee (Principle , IHM , Hajipur). Nilkantham shared insight regarding tourist flow in Bihar where he said that by 2020, Bihar will host more foreigners than Goa. He also encouraged the associates of the association to actively participate in programmes organised by India and state tourism . He said, “Two way traffic from other states or from Nepal  should be created to promote Bihar so that adequate revenue could be generated .” The Foundation Day also saw the presence of delegates from Nepal Tourism Board.