Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

At the inauguration of ITC Ratnadipa in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sanjiv Puri, Chairman and Managing Director, ITC, said, “ITC Hotels plans to open more hotels in neighbouring countries. The brand which opened 22 new properties in the last 24 months, plans to add another 70 hotels in the next five years in India as part of expansion plans in the hospitality sector.:

Ankit Hakhu, Director, CRISIL Ratings, said, “Taking off from the strong base of last fiscal, passenger traffic growth will continue its momentum in fiscal 2025 and rise more than 10% to over 415 million. Continuing economic growth, opening of more airports and improving regional connectivity are providing the tailwinds necessary for domestic traffic growth.”

Highlighting India’s growing importance in the global travel market, Bernstein in its report said, “India is on its way to emerge to 5th place in outbound travel spending by 2027, reaching $89 billion compared to its current 10th position at $38 billion in 2019. The country is also expected to become the 3rd largest domestic travel market by 2027, with expenditures reaching $174 billion, up from $127 billion in 2029 when it held the 5th position.”

Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director and CEO, IHCL, said, “Re-imagined Gateway, is a full-service hotel offering in the upscale segment, an ideal fit to capture growth opportunities in emerging micro markets in metros and Tier II and Tier III cities. The brand roll-out starting with 15 hotels will commence with launches in Bekal and Nashik.”

Kapil Kaul, CEO & Director, CAPA India, speaking at the webinar titled ‘Outlook for Widebody Aircraft in India’ has said that India will need approximately an additional 60 widebody aircraft, targeting a 30% market share. “By FY2032, the long and ultra-long haul market is projected to require the deployment of around 300 widebodies,” he added.

Rail Europe invites the Indian outbound travel trade to attend an exclusive webinar on Eurail passes as well as booking passholder fares on agent.raileurope.com on 30 April at 3pm. Participate in the quiz and win exciting prizes! For more information, write to jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or 9650196532

HRAWI presented inputs for curating the Maharashtra Convention Promotion Bureau to Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC), a council to promote the state as an attractive and suitable location for hosting conferences, conventions, and business events, considering that events boost economic development and accelerate tourism in the state.

To enhance the relationship of Uttar Pradesh Travel Trade Professionals with India’s and overseas travel trade fraternity and to highlight UP as a tourist destination, a cricket league was organised by UPTCL after 4-years in Lucknow. Eight teams from varied cities of UP participated. Rezbook Allahabad Warriors lifted the trophy.

According to CAPA India, the combination of India’s outbound potential, supplemented by other South Asian countries as extension markets and the opportunity to capture intercontinental transfer traffic via Indian hubs, makes this arguably one of the most exciting long-haul markets in the world. Indian carriers currently only have around 65 widebodies (of which some are not operational). In contrast, the ME carriers have close to 500 widebodies, of which more than 250 are with Emirates alone. As a result, 6th freedom carriers accounted for the dominant share of long-haul traffic (64%) and ultra-long-haul traffic (80%) to/from India prior to the pandemic.

Speaking about the latest update from Vistara, Jay Bhatia, TAAI VP, says, “The airline has said that the agents can use the credit cards on the list they have circulated to the travel agents as a payment option on the GDS. However, other cards were not listed. Therefore, TAAI had taken this issue up with them and now the airline has added multiple cards on this list that agents can use to book.”