Tag Archives: India

Celebrating its 25-year milestone in the industry and its partnership with the travel industry in India, Hahnair, a German scheduled, and executive charter airline organised its anniversary event at the Meridien Hotel in New Delhi. Over 80 travel agency partners attended the event along with Kimberley Long, Hahnair’s Vice President of Agency Distribution, Bharat Kapoor, Regional Vice President, Archana Nautiyal, Service Desk Manager, and Pawan Kumar Soni, Office Manager. Being one of the company’s top five global markets, the celebration highlighted the significant contributions of Hahnair’s Indian partners in its journey and underscored the company’s commitment to supporting the growth of the travel industry in India. Since 1999, the company has offered indirect distribution services to other airlines and thus, provides ticketing solutions to 100,000 travel agencies in 190 markets. With 25 years of experience, the company has established itself as the market leader. Today, Hahnair’s partner network encompasses more than 350 partner airlines. The evening also served as an opportunity to share Hahnair’s strategic plans for the future and reflect on the successes achieved through strong partnerships and a shared vision. With this, the company looks forward to expanding its footprint in India and continuing its collaboration with Indian travel agencies.

Keeping with the Indian tourism industry’s objective of positioning India as a global tourism brand, Mugdha Sinha, DG, Tourism, GoI, urged the tourism stakeholders to work together with the government while inviting them to come up with a draft of code of best practices and ethics by 27 September which is ‘World Tourism Day’ so that the MOT will try to adopt it and advertise and popularise it.”

KPMG and PHDCCI in its report titled ‘Sacred Journeys: Unfolding the Evolution and Growth of Pilgrimage and Spiritual Tourism in India’ said that pilgrimage and spiritual tourism are rapidly expanding within the global tourism sector, reflecting a growing interest in cultural, spiritual, and faith-based travel. With over 450,000 religious and cultural heritage sites, India offers a wealth of pilgrimage and spiritual landmarks, highlighting its growth, economic impact, and future opportunities.

Highlighting India’s growing importance as a key tourism market for Moscow, Evgeny Kozlov, Chairman, Moscow City Tourism Committee, said, “India currently ranks as the 6th-largest source of tourists to the city, with an increasing number of Indian business professionals choosing Moscow as their preferred destination for business events.”

Monish Shah, CEO, DreamSetGo, said, “Sports tourism in India is on a remarkable upward trajectory, growing at a CAGR of approximately 17.5 per cent, outpacing the overall tourism sector’s 10 per cent. This growth is fuelled by India’s deep-rooted passion for sports and an increasing interest in diverse international sports beyond cricket.”

Sharing details in the recent Rajya Sabha session, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said India has executed Bilateral Air Services Agreements (ASAs) with a total of 116 foreign countries. The agreements facilitate the operation of international flights between India and these nations, aiming to boost global connectivity and support economic and tourism growth.

On IndiGo’s 18th-anniversary, Rahul Bhatia, Group MD, InterGlobe Enterprises, said, “India deserves more than just two major airlines, and IndiGo’s market share domination is not entirely of its own volition, as certain airlines have fallen by the wayside. He also said that IndiGo will never be found guilty of “gouging” its customers and welcomes competition with the right cost structure.”

A visa-on-arrival facility is available to citizens of Japan, South Korea, and the UAE if they are visiting India for tourism, business, conference, and medical purposes. This visa is valid for 60 days with the flexibility of double entry, said MOT. However, it is available only at 6 designated airports: Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai.

Suman Billa, Additional Secretary, MOT, has said that India could have one taskforce that looks at the ‘macro side’ picture, but there is also a need to have four or five taskforces that work on sector-specific issues. “I think there is a clear case for making four or five taskforces, but we will figure out how to structure them,” he said.

According to CRISIL Ratings, rising domestic tourism and increasing propensity to travel overseas will expand revenue of India’s tour and travel operators by a robust 15-17 per cent this fiscal. The growth in revenue will be on a high base of last fiscal, when revenue jumped ~40% year-on-year to about ₹14,500 crore, surpassing the pre-pandemic peak by ~20%.