Category Archives: Agents

VFS Global is re-opening Visa Application Centres in some cities for specific visa categories. Countries for which visa services will resume are United Kingdom (from July 6), Italy (July 3), UAE, Turkey, Ireland, Belarus, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Norway, Portugal and South Korea. Applicants will have to schedule an appointment in advance on www.vfsglobal.com. After specific Embassies/Consulates as well as local authorities have given their approval, VFS Global’s centres will accept visa applications for select countries with strict health and hygiene SOPs in place.

A Travel Consul study reveals that agents, while they wish to create partnerships with new buyers and suppliers, and diversify their product offerings, they will considerably refrain from increasing their marketing & advertising spend (45% respondents) and offering price reductions (37% respondents). The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed travel businesses to alter their products, enhance their reach, modify their policies and much more. With online travel agencies not being able to cope with consumer grievances on booking cancellations, refunds, etc., during the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown, it was the traditional travel agent who came to his clients’ rescue. Now, it seems, people feel safer booking with their friendly neighbourhood travel agent rather than going through the online booking process, especially when COVID-19 has turned the industry upside down.

GPS has partnered with EASEBUZZ to bring a contactless payment collection solution for travel agencies, with payment link and payment gateway options available free of cost and with competitive TDR rates. Solutions like webstore and invoicing will also be offered, and agents can get activated and start collecting payments within 24 hours and with minimum documentation.

Redefining the art of bespoke luxury holidays for perceptive travellers – A Travel Circle launches today in India. For Pritish Shah – Founder & CEO, A Travel Circle, this is the newest addition to his successfully established experiential travel brands in India for the high-end traveller – including A Travel Duet that has been specialising in exclusive travel for couples for almost a decade. “This pandemic has fast-tracked us to launch A Travel Circle, as the changing travel expectations in the new normal world align very well with our product offerings – private villas for social distancing, private jets to avoid commercial airports, highest standards in safety with our carefully selected hospitality partners and other service vendors,” he said. Offering thoughtfully designed, private journeys to the most desirable destinations around the world, A Travel Circle helps guests celebrate close bonds and togetherness with their circle of loved ones. The in-house creative team has the calibre to exclusively create an array of special interest vacations and unique bonding experiences for guests. Celebrating the spirit of wanderlust, this bespoke travel brand is dedicated to crafting the most carefully planned holidays, away from the rigmarole of urban life with those who matter. With a meticulously handpicked selection of the finest private villas or small boutique hotels for buy-outs, offering customised service that suit the lifestyle preferences of each guest, A Travel Circle is a preferred partner in India for prominent luxury hospitality brands located across idyllic destinations globally, such as – Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Marriott International, Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts and more. 

Sabre Corporation has announced an enhanced partnership with one of India’s largest travel companies, Akbar Travels of India, cementing a valued two-decade long relationship between the two firms as Akbar forges ahead with plans for domestic and overseas growth. Akbar Travels is already a long-time user of Sabre solutions, having implemented Sabre’s APIs to drive operational efficiencies and the Sabre Automated Exchange solution to save costs and improve customer service. Now, Akbar Travels, which has 150 branches across India, 36 offices in the Middle East, Malaysia, UK, Italy and the US, has selected Sabre’s Content Services for Lodging APIs to enable its agents to more easily shop, compare and book more than a million lodging options for clients. “Sabre and Akbar Travels have had a long, valued and productive relationship, and we’re excited to be again expanding our partnership by using Sabre’s Content Services for Lodging technologies to provide further choice and even better service for our travellers. There are already clear signs of a pent-up demand for travel post Covid-19 and we needed technological solutions which provide us with the most intuitive way to shop and book for our travellers in order to provide truly personalized options for our clients,” said Mr. K.V. Abdul Nazar, Chairman & Managing Director of Akbar Travels of India. Sabre’s Content Services for Lodging powers agency and corporate booking tools, integrating traditional GDS content from hoteliers, alongside content from the likes of Booking.com, Bedsonline and Expedia Partner Solutions. The Sabre-led Content Services for Lodging has been integrated into Akbar Travels’ operations through Sabre Red 360, allowing agents access to real-time, rich content on an intuitive graphical interface to make it easier for agents to …

Eastern Himalaya Travel & Tour Operators’ Association (EHTTOA), Travel Agents’ Association of Bengal (TAAB) and Himalayan Hospitality & Tourism Development Network (HHTDN), have joined hands to come up with decisions and demands to try and pragmatically revive the tourism sector in the state. The associations have decided that travellers and agents who paid for a trip that later got cancelled because of the lockdown and pandemic will get a credit note for the full amount with one-year validity. “We have resolved to work together on common issues to expedite the industry’s revival. The idea is to go by a set of decisions which we have made and approach government departments and agencies so that relief in some form comes to the sector that we believe is the worst hit in the region,” said Sandipan Ghosh, General Secretary, EHTTOA. Telegraph

Travel agents need to put forth their case before the Supreme Court to make the Bench conscious of the plight of travel agents while finally deciding the matter on issue of credit shells given by airlines instead of cash refunds, says Dheeraj Nair, Partner and Vishrutyi Sahni, Associate at J. Sagar Associates. “Every individual, including the Supreme Court judges are consumers to airlines. Thus, they understand the transaction between a consumer and an airline and relate to the impact of cancellations and refunds. However, non-members of the travel industry are not aware of the transaction between an airline and a travel agent and thus, cannot relate to the impact of cancellations and refunds on travel agents. Only by placing this information on record will the Supreme Court be able to understand the direct losses being faced by travel agents in case of non-refunds and consequentially enable them to order accordingly,” says the firm.

A Travel Consul survey that analyses the impact and outlook of the COVID-19 outbreak on tour operators and agency owners suggests that at least 42% of the businesses surveyed will not be able to sustain themselves for more than three months in the absence of government intervention. A meagre 3% said they have a chance of survival for 7-10 months.

Celebrating 20 years of operations, Happy Tours will conduct a live webinar on Slovenia today at 3 pm (IST). Happy Tours has offices in Slovenia, Croatia, London and Athens and a dedicated team based in Pune. Happy Tours is an inbound European tour operator for both M!CE and leisure groups throughout Europe. It also owns a hotel near Plitvice Lakes – Hotel Lyra www.lyraplitvice.com in Croatia and has its own coaches. To register, contact Jaspreet Kaur on 9650196532 or jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com.

According to a comprehensive survey conducted by EbixCash Travel & Holidays to understand travel trends in a new normal scenario, 82% of respondents feel that people will start travelling within the next 3-12 months. While the rest 18% feel it that they will travel only after a year. The responses were collected from 5,124 respondents comprising travel enthusiasts, corporates and stakeholders from M!CE sectors.