Tag Archives: Mumbai

Australian hotel management company, StayWell Hospitality Group has extended its international footprint with the opening of its fifth property in Rajasthan, the Leisure Inn Shrey in Jodhpur. Rohit Vig, Managing Director for StayWell Hospitality Group in India, said that the opening of the new property solidifies the brand’s presence in the region. “We have signed 12 hotels under the Park Regis and Leisure Inn Brands, which will result in the opening of properties in Hyderabad, Goa, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Gurgaon–Sohna Road and Greater Noida,” he said. The opening of Leisure Inn Shrey in partnership with Hukam Constructions & Hotels Pvt. Ltd will deliver a roof-top restaurant and conference facilities along with well-appointed rooms and international service standards that the Leisure Inn brand is famous for. Additionally, the hotel will house the famous vegetarian restaurant ‘Grand Chanakya’ which has a sister restaurant under the same name in Jaipur at the Leisure Inn Grand Chanakya. Shranik Jain, Owner of Hukam Constructions & Hotels Pvt., said that the partnership with StayWell Hospitality Group was about aligning with the best possible global partner to enter the hospitality sector for the first time. “Our partnership will deliver premium hospitality expertise and a world-class experience to not only our guests but to the region, it’s an alignment we are extremely proud of as we feel we are in the best possible position for future success,” he said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, represented by Embassy of Georgia in New Delhi launched its visa facilitation centre in the capital city in collaboration with VFS Global, which will be operational from June 23. Four other centres in Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai will begin operations by the end of this month. The key features of the centre include extended operating hours to enable visitors to submit applications at their time of convenience, dedicated website for easy access to information including visa categories, requirements, checklist, application fees and visa status update; premium lounges for personalised service, etc. The new centre in New Delhi was inaugurated by Giorgi Tabatadze, Director of Consular Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia and His Excellency Archil Dzuliashvili, Ambassador of Georgia to India. Dzuliashvili informed that in 2016 Georgia recorded 350,000 Indian visitors but is now looking at ways to increase the two-way traffic given the long standing history that the countries have shared. “I am happy to note that after several months of intensive consultations, we have successfully accomplished negotiation process with VFS Global and finally signed the contract which allows us to facilitate and offer more accessible services to the Indian travellers through the several VFS Visa Application Centres in India,” said Dzuliashvili. He further added that Georgia is emerging as a very popular destination amongst Indians and the country will try to reduce the turn over time for granting visas to Indian nationals for tourism, business and education. The destination is promoting tourism from Georgia to India as well. Vinay Malhotra, Chief Operation Officer-Middle East and South Asia, VFS Global commented, “We are honoured to enter into this partnership with …

Switzerland has created a single platform in Mumbai to represent key Swiss interests in diplomacy, trade and investment as well as tourism, along with the continuation of providing consular services to Swiss citizens. The new and integrated set-up located in Nariman Point is considered as a milestone for Switzerland’s presence in India’s financial capital. In February 2016, the visa section in Mumbai was closed and visa processing within India was centralised at the Embassy in New Delhi. Subsequently, the Consulate General was reorganised internally with allocation of additional resources to the culture and public diplomacy department within the new scope of activities. The renovation of the offices began simultaneously. After completion of the remodeling, the Swiss Business Hub India and Switzerland Tourism have come under the single roof of the Consulate General. The grand opening of the new state-of-the-art offices took place on 26 May, 2017. Consul General Martin Bienz welcomed Ambassador Jacques Pitteloud, Director, Directorate for Resources, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Andreas Baum, Ambassador of Switzerland to India, Daniel Küng, CEO of Switzerland Global Enterprise, Jodok Brunner, BBL at the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the new premises. The celebrations continued in the evening at the Trident Hotel followed by a music programme by musicians Sanjay Divecha and Varun Venkit. Ambassador Andreas Baum announced the new public diplomacy campaign for 2017-2018 which will be ‘70 years of Swiss-Indian Friendship, Connecting Minds Inspiring the Future’. The gala reception was attended by representatives from the diplomatic, business and culture communities in Mumbai. The Consulate General of Switzerland in Mumbai was the leading visa-issuing office within the Swiss network abroad, providing up to 80,000 visas per year.

The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) organised a conference on National Agri Tourism on the occasion of the tenth World Agri Tourism Day in Mumbai. The objective was to create employment opportunities and boost investment in the agriculture sector that would encourage tourism. Jaykumar Rawal, Honourable Minister of Tourism, was present at the conference and spoke about how farmers and other stakeholders can develop their skills and farms to attract more tourists looking for a rural, farm-stay experience. The discussion at the conference also touched upon MTDC’s ‘Mahabhraman Scheme’ that showcases farmer’s lifestyle and experiencing different activities like planting trees, plucking fruits and vegetables, bullock cart rides, etc. “The Department of Tourism also intends to set up a government interface to cater to the needs of the agri-tour operators. This interface will co-ordinate and provide link with regional and local government bodies to boost employment opportunities and sustainability in the agricultural sector,” Rawal revealed.

Air India Engineering Services Limited, a subsidiary of Air India today has completed a major maintenance ‘C-1’ check for the first time of Jet Airways A330 at its Mumbai facility. A330 was a part of Air India fleet till 2014, however to perform third party maintenance check Air India trained its staff and received necessary licenses to deliver major maintenance ‘C-1’ check for Jet Airways A330. The first Jet Airways A330 aircraft VT-JWR ‘C-1’ Check was inducted on 26th April, 2017 and was handed over to the airline in a short span on 11th May, 2017. The C-1 check for A330 is done every 2 years or ten thousand flight hours whichever is early. Earlier in May, 2016, Air India also completed major ‘C’ check on Jet Airways Boeing B777 aircraft at their Mumbai facility.

New Zealand has witnessed a steady increase in arrivals from India with 53,424 travellers visiting there as of March 2017, a 14.9 per cent growth from same period last year. To further boost the Indian tourist numbers, Tourism New Zealand is tying up with two airlines to promote the island country in the India sub-continent. The partnership between Tourism New Zealand, Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand is valid from May 2017 to April 2018 and will seek to position Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines as the preferred carriers for travelling to the country and promotional fares will be offered to passengers. The strategic partnership aims to encourage more travellers from key cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram and Vishakhapatnam. “New Zealand is the ultimate destination for many Indian travellers and special promotional fares provide a great opportunity to turn their dream holiday into reality,” said Tourism New Zealand regional manager, South and South East Asia, Steven Dixon. Elaborating on the initiative, David Lim, General Manager, India, said, “We offer 98 weekly connections from 11 cities in India to Singapore and together with our partner – Air New Zealand, we provide over 25 weekly, onward connections to three cities (Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington) in New Zealand.” Scott Carr, Regional General Manager-Asia, Air New Zealand, said, “India is one of our fastest-growing emerging markets and we’re excited about the potential of this campaign to reach more Indian travellers. Through our alliance and code share services with Singapore Airlines, we connect passengers from 11 Indian cities to Singapore, where they can access three non-stop flights a day to New Zealand.”

A delegation of Belgian companies led by Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, Pieter De Crem, were in Mumbai recently on an economic mission to underline the importance of the newly-reinstated route between Mumbai and Brussels and the relations between India and Belgium. Bernard Gustin, CEO, Brussels Airlines, was also part of the delegation. On March 30, Belgian airline Brussels Airlines connected Mumbai Chhatrapati Airport to Brussels Airport five times a week with a direct flight for the first time since the route was abandoned last year. There was a high demand from various industries (pharmaceutical, diamond, maritime, industry, amongst others), from leisure travelers and cargo forwarders to reinstate a direct service. Bernard Gustin, CEO, Brussels Airlines, says, “India is an important economic partner for Belgium and has a large leisure potential at the same time. The demand for direct flights for passengers as well as for cargo is high. With our new service, we offer the diamond- and travel industry direct flights, which is an important investment in our network expansion, but also in the economic relations between India and Belgium.” The flight schedule consists of daytime flights to Mumbai on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. The flights depart in the morning and arrive late in the evening in Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. Flights leave Mumbai on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday night and arrive in Brussels early the next morning. Speaking about how the new route can help trade, Pieter De Crem, Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, says, “Belgium and India are close economic partners. Our country is the 2nd EU exporter of goods to India, just behind Germany. For Indian companies, Belgium is …

Garuda Indonesia recently hosted an Open House for the travel trade in Mumbai in association with Visit Indonesia Tourism Office. The airline has appointed Bird Travels as its GSA that has eight offices across India. The purpose of the event was to create awareness about the airline’s new office in Mumbai and informing the trade about the various opportunities available to promote Indonesia as a destination. Garuda Indonesia recently inaugurated its office in Mumbai. Product presentation was given to the travel fraternity to update them more on Garuda Indonesia Services and to promote Indonesian destinations beyond Bali. To enable passengers to take advantage of the summer holiday season, Garuda Indonesia is running a special return promotional fare valid for travel until April 26, 2017. Mumbai to Jakarta and Denpasar (Bali) all-inclusive Economy class return fares starts from Rs. 22,000 and Business class from Rs. 58,000. (T&C apply) The fares are available for purchase from the Garuda Indonesia, Mumbai sales office and the appointed travel agents. Garuda Indonesia’s Jakarta-bound service operates on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and is operated by Garuda’s state-of-the-art 162-seater, Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

Cox & Kings Global Services’ Thailand Visa Application Centre (VAC) has moved to a new spacious office in Nariman Point, Mumbai. The new office was inaugurated recently by His Excellency Ekapol Poolpipat, Consul General, Royal Thai Consulate in Mumbai. The office is more spacious and offers a lot of benefits to customers including more application counters to make it quicker and easier for customers to submit their visa applications. Customers can submit their application from Monday to Friday 08:00 hours to 12:00 hours (except holidays), while timings for passport collection are- Monday to Friday 16:00 hours to 17:00 hours (except holidays). It is located at Dalamal Towers, A Wing, 4th Floor, Unit No: 410 – 412, Free Press Journal Marg, Nariman Point.

Brussels Airlines now connects Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport to Brussels Airport with a direct flight. The departure of the first flight out of Mumbai, was celebrated with a ribbon and cake cutting ceremony. The flight schedule consists of daytime flights to Mumbai on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. The flights depart in the morning and arrive late in the evening at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. “Our new service received a warm welcome here in the Indian market. We see very encouraging booking results for travel to Belgium and many destinations beyond Brussels like Canada, the States, the UK, Spain, France and several African destinations.” – Patrick Roofthooft, Brussels Airlines Director India and Commercial Development. Flights leave Mumbai on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday night and arrive in Brussels early the next morning. Since the past year, there was no longer a direct connection by air between India and Belgium. The demand from various industries (pharmaceutical, diamond, maritime amongst others), from leisure travelers and cargo forwarders for a direct service was high. The Mumbai-Brussels flight schedule will allow seamless connections to many European, African and American destinations in the Brussels Airlines network, like London Heathrow, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Bristol, Geneva, Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, Stockholm, Milan, Madrid and the intercontinental flights to New York, Toronto, Washington and 19 African destinations.