Category Archives: NTO (National Tourist Offices)

Switzerland Tourism invites members of India’s travel trade to participate in its exclusive webinar series. The webinar series aims to educate the trade about the most sought-after destinations, activities and attractions in Switzerland and share news and updates that are important for their clients. The webinar scheduled on 17th Feb 2020 at 2:30 pm will highlight the Swiss Travel System and its products. Viewers get a chance to learn about one of the most efficient transportation networks in the world, as well as the popular Swiss Travel Pass, an all-in-one ticket offering travellers unlimited travel by train, bus and boat including panoramic routes. Travel partners who attend all the webinars also stand a chance of winning a trip to Switzerland. Those who are interested in participating can get in touch with  Jaspreet Kaur for further information either via email, jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com  or call  9650196532.

Tricia Warwick, Director, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa for VisitBritain, said that India is a huge tourism opportunity for Britain. “It is a priority market for Britain and forecast to generate more than 22 million outbound visits globally by the end of 2020, with inbound tourism from India to the Britain looking set to continue to increase by +50 per cent visits and +64 per cent spend between 2018 and 2025. According to the International Passenger Survey results for the first nine months from January to September, 2019, visitors from India to Britain set new records for visits and spend. Overall, there were a record 452,000 visits from India to the UK in those months in 2019, up 13% year on year. Those visitors spent a record £499 million, up 44% on January –September 2018,” she confirmed.

The Penang Convention & Exhibition Bureau (PCEB) has launched the Penang specialist Programme designed for the Indian market. The Programme will equip select outbound travel, M!CE, wedding and filming agencies with first-hand knowledge of Penang through a full day workshop conducted in each city concurrently with the B2B engagement session. Among the incentives that the Penang Specialists can qualify for are special incentive for group sales of 100 pax and above, family opportunities to Penang, opportunities to attend PCEB’s training and networking programme in Penang and India and much more. The Certification of the Penang Specialist Programme is valid for three years upon which qualifying members will be invited for recertification. The workshop is conducted by Katharine Chua, Managing Director, Penang Tropical Spice Garden.

Thailand is looking at attracting Indian weddings to its smaller cities, revealed Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, Deputy Governor for International Marketing (Asia and South Pacific), Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT). Talking about Indian weddings in Thailand, he said, “Thailand is the number one outbound wedding destination for Indians. Now we have realised that Indian weddings are not restricted only to big cities, but weddings of about 200 people, are now going beyond popular destinations. Phuket and hua Hin are very popular now. There are other smaller provinces also that benefit because some of them have magnificent scenery and unspoilt nature, which the wedding planners look for. In 2019, Thailand received 1.9 million Indian arrivals, which set a new record, claiming that they have new offerings to attract tourists from secondary cities of India.

From the US, the highest number of bookings happen in September and October, accounting for 21% of all bookings. Even in January there is a peak of 10% from US. From United Kingdom there are 2 periods of peak bookings— January, which accounts for 12% of booking volume and the period September to November, which accounts for 29% of booking volume. Both USA, UK have two peak periods, reveals an analysis of time of actual 2019 inbound bookings data to India by Forwardkeys, from 3 important long-haul source markets – USA, UK and Australia. Australia, being in the Southern Hemisphere has one peak booking peak period – July August September which account 32% of all bookings.

According to the data released by South African Tourism office in India, Mumbai continued to be the leading source market for South Africa in India. Between January to June 2019, around 43% of total Indian visitors to the Rainbow Nation were from Mumbai. Delhi managed to be the second leading source market for the destination in India contributing 21% of the total Indian visitors during the same period. One thing remained common for both cities – the summer and winter holiday months of April, May and December emerged as preferred travel months among Mumbaikars as well as Delhiites for their South Africa trips. With 81,316 Indian arrivals as of October 2019, the destination board shared a positive outlook for the Indian market, noting that as of September 2019, total spends by Indian travellers in South Africa had reached a four-year high. The average length of stay witnessed a year on year increase of 8% in the first half of 2019.

Travel Nevada will host a webinar for travel agents on 24th January. For registration and more details on the event, please contact, Ritesh Ahluwalia at ritesh.ahluwalia@buzzindia.in or +91 9818576755. Over 500 agents from across India are expected to participate. Through this, agents will learn about the key highlights of the destination and will be educated on what makes Nevada an ideal destination for Indian tourists.

In a bid to attract the Indian outbound travellers, Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) has launched its brand new ‘Your Japan 2020’ campaign, aimed at offering special experiences and never-before kind of offers to Indian visitors. Through the campaign ‘Your Japan 2020’, JNTO wants to invite visitors globally to experience Japan their way through events. This high magnitude campaign began on 1st January and will extend till end of this year; that is 31st December 2020. JNTO, through its premeditated partnership is allowing travellers on an economical trip to Japan as both, domestic and international airlines are handing out phenomenal discounts. Yusuke Yamamoto, Executive Director, JNTO said, “The year 2020 is highly crucial for Japan as all eyes would be on our destination for hosting the World Olympic Games. In order to make every individual’s visit to our destination enthralling, JNTO has made conscious efforts in planning. We have categorically focused on each areas of traveler’s interest and spread activities all around the year starting from 1st January to 31st December 2020. We are extremely thrilled to host each one of you in Japan and are certain that your visit would be something, which you would never forget. Through our new campaign “Your Japan 2020”, we would like to invite more and more Indian to come and explore Japan to the fullest the way you want it to be.” Japan witnessed 11,700 Indian tourist arrivals in December, posting 13.9% SPLY hike. Moreover, 175,900 Indians visited Japan from Jan-Dec’19, posting a phenomenal 14.2% year-on-year hike. In addition, 2020 also marks the year of Olympic and Paralympic Games in Japan, and hence the country is set to welcome visitors from across the …

The Penang Convention & Exhibition Bureau (PCEB) launched its annual roadshow to India in Mumbai as part of the Penang Roadshow to India 2020. The objective is promoting Penang as the preferred destination for corporate and association meetings, conferences, and incentives, and leisure travel. Capitalising on Penang’s rising popularity in India, the Penang Roadshow to India will host, in each of the four cities, a B2B engagement session with participating Business Events and leisure travel buyers from India. Led by Hon. Yeoh Soon Hin, Penang State Minister for Tourism, Arts, Culture and Heritage, and Ashwin Gunasekeran, Chief Executive Officer of PCEB, the roadshow is supported by a Penang delegation of 14 partners, including hotels, destination management companies, attractions, professional conference organisers and event experts. Also accompanying the Penang delegation is Hon. Satees Muniandy, Penang State Assemblyman for Bagan Dalam. Also joining the roadshow is PCEB’s strategic airline partner, Malaysia Airlines. PCEB is also launching the Penang Specialist Programme designed for the Indian market. The Programme will equip select outbound travel, MICE, wedding and filming agencies with first-hand knowledge of Penang through a full day workshop conducted in each city concurrently with the B2B engagement session. Among the incentives that the Penang Specialists can qualify for are special incentive for group sales of 100 pax and above, famil opportunities to Penang, opportunities to attend PCEB’s training and networking programme in Penang and India, and much more. The certification of the Penang Specialist Programme is valid for three years upon which qualifying members will be invited for recertification. The workshop is conducted by Ms. Katharine Chua, the Managing Director of Penang’s Tropical Spice Garden. “The number of Indian travellers to Penang has …

In a bid to stimulate the India market and achieve its new milestone of doubling numbers by 2030, South Africa has announced an e-visa regime for the India market on a pilot basis. Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, Hon. Minister of Tourism, South Africa, who was in Mumbai to interact with key travel trade partners said, “We want to remove the barriers for the India market to visit South Africa and for this we will introduce an online visa application system from the third week of January this year. This will be on a pilot basis for now and we will look at introducing it formally by April this year.” About 32 key agents attending the morning session where they discussed ideas on how they can push numbers from India.