Tag Archives: Bengaluru

Dusit International recently organised ‘India Roadshow 2018’ as part of its newly-acquired focus on India as a source market for its hotels and resorts. Designed to present Dusit’s ever-growing global portfolio of distinctive properties to the Indian travel trade fraternity, the roadshow featured one-day workshops held in both Mumbai and Bengaluru. B2B sessions along with sessions for wedding planners were also conducted. On both occasions, Dusit executives presented the company’s properties in Thailand, Maldives and Dubai, as well as key openings in 2018 across Bahrain, Bhutan, China, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam. Dusit International is represented in India by its Global Sales Office in Mumbai, headed by Keshwar Bhagat, Director of Sales. Prachoom Tantiprasertsuk, Vice President Sales, Dusit International, said, “As evidenced by the recent opening of our new Global Sales Office in Mumbai, India is a key market for our international properties, and this roadshow is just one of the ways we are actively promoting our brands and hospitality to Indian travellers. Taking into account our own expansion, which will see our current tally of 27 properties top 80 worldwide within the next four-to-five years, we will be well positioned to leverage the rapid growth of India’s outbound market with a plethora of options for MICE and leisure travellers.”

SOTC Travel strengthens its presence in Bengaluru with the inauguration of its first-ever experiential store offering Virtual Reality (VR) experiences. SOTC created a first-of-its-kind customer experience zone where customers can be inspired by the different destinations through VR’s for real time experience of the key destinations that SOTC provides like New Zealand, South Africa and other destinations like Australia, Abu Dhabi, South Korea. The store at St. Marks Road comprises of a digital screen that features video itineraries of destinations and holiday experiences for the customer which could be viewed from an iPad. Speaking about the launch, Daniel D’souza, Head Sales, India and NRI Markets, SOTC Travel, said, “We believe customer experience is the key in making our business successful in this competitive and growing industry. It is extremely important for us to ensure that we keep delivering and enriching holiday experiences for our customers. Virtual Reality technology will allow us to know the clients’ needs before he even knows what he wants.” He further added, “The store is one of our efforts to reinvent the buying experience for our customers. Its strategic location offers convenience and accessibility. We ensure that we provide superior service to our customers by meeting their every expectation”.

To reach out to the domestic market, Kerala Tourism is organising a string of Partnership Meets in Mumbai, Pune, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Kolkata, Patna and Delhi in the 1st quarter of 2018. At the Partnership Meet in Mumbai on January 09, Kadakampally Surendran, Minister for Co-Operation, Tourism and Devaswom, Government of Kerala, said, “To ensure the accomplishment of an ambitious target of a 100% increase in arrival of foreign tourists and 50% in domestic tourists in five years, a tourism regulatory authority has been formed. This would help put a stop to any unhealthy practices and guarantee better intervention of the Tourism Department through scrutiny and a licensing system.” The new Kerala Tourism Policy also forms a major highlight of this year’s domestic campaign. The revamped fare with an array of new tourism products was showcased at Mumbai today.

Establishing the growing importance of emerging domestic sectors from South India, IndiGo has announced Vijayawada as its 50th destination on its route network. Effective March 2, 2018, the airline will operate daily direct operations connecting Vijayawada to Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai. In line with company’s growth strategy, the airline has also inducted a brand new Airbus A320 NEO aircraft into its existing fleet, taking the overall count to 150 aircraft. Aditya Ghosh, President and Whole Time Director, IndiGo said, “It gives us immense pleasure to introduce services from Vijayawada. 2017 has been a great year for growth and expansion as the airline clocked many milestones. In the coming years, we will continue to expand our network to meet the requirements of both business and leisure travellers.” The launch of Vijayawada comes just after the carrier’s first ATR flight on Hyderabad-Mangalore sector on December 21, 2017; boosting regional connectivity. IndiGo will also commence operations from Rajahmundry and Tirupati in January 2018.

In an attempt to cater to the growing travel demands across markets, Ezeego1.com has recently opened a series of eight new franchise stores across Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Dhule, Uttarakhand, Guwahati and Amritsar. These stores will provide services like flight tickets, hotels, packages, rail holidays and cruise holidays through a single platform from a diverse mix of travel suppliers offering the best in class services. The company will provide the franchisee with an active marketing, technical and store development support. The marketing activity will include print and radio advertising, attractive and preferential commercials while the store development support will include store designing to reinforce the brand’s look and feel. Training and technical support will be provided to all franchisee staff to effectively address the changing technology and enhance customer interface. Neelu Singh, CEO and Director, Ezeego1, said, “Distribution is the key to success in the growing travel market and the opening of our new franchise stores in these markets will help us gain a foothold. Our offerings are curated from a slew of travel aggregators and we enable and distribute it through our platform.’’

InterContinental Hotels Group has partnered with SAMHI to rebrand approximately 2000 rooms (operating and under construction) within its India hotel portfolio, to Holiday Inn Express® hotels. The recently signed portfolio comprises 14 hotels, including 10 open hotels across key cities such as Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai. The additional four hotels are under construction. The signing sees IHG grow its pipeline by 41 hotels, positioning IHG as one of the largest players in India’s growing midscale hotel market. All hotels in the portfolio will be closed while they are being refurbished and upgraded with the latest design directives, to ensure the portfolio is fully representative of the Holiday Inn Express brand globally. The hotels will feature the next-generation design, several additional public areas and feature brand hallmarks to enhance guest service delivery. Commenting on the announcement, Sudeep Jain, Vice President, Development, South West Asia, IHG said: “It is with great pride and excitement that we are announcing our partnership with SAMHI for conversion of their existing mid-market hotel portfolio in India to Holiday Inn Express. This is a significant move towards establishing IHG as a leading player in the midscale hotel segment in India, while we continue to build on our upscale and luxury offering in the country with InterContinental Hotels & Resorts and Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts.” Jain added: “With this signing, we now have close to 60 hotels open and in the pipeline, across the Holiday Inn Brand Family. SAMHI is keen to accelerate Holiday Inn Express’ highly efficient operating model and engage the brand’s growing familiarity in the country. Holiday Inn Express is the rest and go hotel brand that delivers a …

InterGlobe Hotels (IGH) has acquired land at Hebbal, Bengaluru to build another ibis hotel in the city as part of a long-standing joint venture between AccorHotels and InterGlobe Hotels. Currently, IGH has 15 ibis hotels operational in India with ibis Pune Hinjewadi set to launch next month and ibis Kolkata launching early in 2018. With a total of seven hotels now under development and planning, IGH’s total inventory in India is projected to be 3,700 rooms by 2021. Shwetank Singh, VP Development & Asset Management, InterGlobe Hotels, said, “With this acquisition, we are marking our entry into one of Bengaluru’s established commercial hub – Hebbal. ibis Hebbal will be a perfect destination catering to both leisure and business needs. We are viewing this acquisition with a great deal of optimism and will continue with our strong focus on new expansions in the future as well.” Strategically located opposite to the main gate of Manyata Tech Park and surrounded by some key commercial developments of the region, the location is a preferred destination for business travellers to the region. The ibis Hebbal proposes to feature a 153-key hotel and over 250 sq m of meeting space.

BLS International Services has signed a contract with Embassy of the People’s Republic of Algeria in India to offer visa outsourcing and consular services through five visa application and attestation centers in New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Trivandrum. BLS international is accredited to facilitate Algerian visa processing in India from submission of applications to collection of visas along with attestation services. This contract has been signed to provide efficient visa and attestation services to people traveling to Algeria for business, work or leisure. Shikhar Aggarwal, Joint Managing Director, BLS International Services, says, “We cherish the progressive relations with the Embassy of the People’s Republic of Algeria and are delighted to have been chosen to provide consular services to them in India. It has been our endeavor to always provide state-of the-art services to our clients by creating value for our stakeholders.” While signing the contract, Algerian Ambassador in India, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Nepal, H.E Hamza Yahia-Cherif said, “We are pleased to have partnered with BLS International for facilitating Algeria visa processing in India. We hope this association to be fruitful and that it will further strengthen the Algerian-Indian relationship in future.” BLS International shall also aim to provide advance value added services like door-stop delivery / courier facility of passports, SMS, assistance in filling visa application forms, printing and photocopying for the benefit of visa applicants at the premises. All BLS centres are equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and trained staff to provide complete hassle free services to visa application.

VFS Global recently received authorisation from the Royal Thai Embassy in New Delhi and its Consulates in Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai to process Thailand Visa Application Centres across India. In order to provide convenience to the travellers from across East, West, North and South India, VFS Global has expanded its network of Thailand Visa Application Centres to 13 cities. VFS Global has already been servicing Thailand visas in East, North and South India, with centres in the cities of Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Bengaluru, Gurugram, Kochi and Chandigarh. With the addition of operations in Western India, travellers can now also apply for a Thailand visa at any one of the VFS Global Thailand Visa Application Centres in Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Goa. Vinay Malhotra, Chief Operating Officer – Middle East and South Asia, VFS Global, says, “Thailand has long been a popular destinati0n for Indian travellers, and a long-standing partner of VFS Global. For well over a decade, we have proudly served The Royal Thai Embassy and The Royal Thai Consulate General in India, with nine centres. It is therefore an honour to announce that VFS Global has been authorised to expand its Thailand visa services across India through its network of visa centres in 13 cities.” With Thailand emerging as one of the top destinations for Indian travellers, VFS Global’s appointment as a service provider will greatly benefit the growing volumes of applicants from India. When applying through VFS Global, applicants will be able to avail of the additional benefits on offer across VFS Global’s Visa Application Centres including services such as SMS updates, courier services, online tracking services, among others.

Jet Airways will introduce three new international services this winter, besides reinforcing six existing routes with additional frequencies. The carrier will introduce its first non-stop service between New Delhi and Riyadh. It will also deploy additional frequencies on the Mumbai-Riyadh, Mumbai-Kuwait, Delhi-Doha and Delhi-Dammam sectors. Effective October 29, new non-stop flights will commence connecting Bengaluru and Chennai to the airline’s gateways in Amsterdam and Paris, respectively, as part of the carrier’s strategy to connect more cities, especially in the South of the country to destinations in Europe and North America. The airline is the first to operate flights on these routes which, along with a third daily flight on the increasingly popular Mumbai-London sector, will give guests a greater choice of convenient connections to other European cities and destinations in North America. Jet Airways will deploy its Airbus A330 aircraft on the Chennai-Paris and Bengaluru-Amsterdam routes The new intercontinental services to Amsterdam and Paris will operate in codeshare with KLM, Air France and Delta Air Lines. Guests who are members of Frequent Flyer programmes of the codeshare partners – JetPrivilege (JP), Flying Blue and SkyMiles will also be able to easily accrue and redeem points on each other. Jet Airways is also adding new frequencies on certain select routes, including the extremely popular Mumbai-London Heathrow as well as Delhi-Singapore, further enhancing connectivity and choice for guests travelling between North India, United Kingdom and South East Asia. Jayaraj Shanmugam, Chief Commercial Officer, Jet Airways, said, “Jet Airways’ network will see new introductions, in Europe and the Gulf that will strengthen our commitment to provide our guests with wider choice, convenience and connectivity over our hubs in Mumbai and Delhi and onwards …