Tag Archives: New Delhi

Visit Scotland gathered its top tour operators and travel trade associations for a roundtable discussion in Mumbai on the sidelines of its three-city roadshow to help push numbers and get feedback from them. Explaining the reason behind this initiative, Vineet Lal, Senior Market Manager (Long Haul & Emerging Markets), Visit Scotland, said, “We along with Etihad Airways met a lot of our top trade partners and travel trade associations in Mumbai to look at how we can increase the volume and value of the Indian market to Scotland. A lot of the conclusions were around the ability to communicate what Scotland has to offer, communicating Scotland’s top experiences and also working on a program of education both in Scotland and in India so that people on both sides understand how to do business with each other.” The Visit Scotland delegation, that includes seven Scottish suppliers, is in India on its India Business Development Mission to encourage the development of Scotland products among the travel trade in India. It was in Mumbai on February 22 and will travel to Chandigarh on February 23-24, followed by New Delhi on February 25-26. Mumbai saw around 100 attendees at Scotland workshop and around 50 at the networking dinner.

Delhi Tourism will organise the 29th Garden Tourism Festival from 19-21 February, 2016, at The Garden of Five Senses, New Delhi. The three day extravaganza will showcase variety of flora and fauna to charm garden enthusiasts. The major participants during the festival are the horticulture departments of NDMC, DDA, DJB, SDMC, EDMC, HUDA, Noida Authority, Northern Railways and others. With the theme “Garden for Environment and Health,” the main objective of this year’s festival is to encourage visitors to contribute in the cause for protection of environment as it is directly related to their own health. Soumya Gupta, Managing Director and CEO of DTTDC, says, “Special transport will be arranged from the nearest metro station to provide seamless experience to the visitors. A number of elements have been included to increase the number of visitors to the festival.” The festival will showcase terrariums, 3 day non-stop musical extravaganza, workshops, lectures, plays on environment and horticulture, cultural programmes in association with Sahitya Kala Parishad, Hindi Academy etc. A food festival to savor the taste of Delhi’s delicacies, activities like magic show, adventure activities will also be organised.

Indonesia received approximately 262,000 Indian arrivals in 2015, and are aiming for 350,000 this year, announced H.E. Rizali Wilmar Indrakesuma, Ambassador of Indonesia to India during the U&I Holidays Bali roadshow in New Delhi. The first day of the first ever 5-city roadshow saw the presence of 23 participants from Bali out of which 21 hotel properties, an Indian restaurant and the Bali Zoo were available to interact with guests and give out information. “We are here to promote Bali and to increase awareness about the variety of products Bali is well-known for,” said Shyam Upadhyay, Director, U&I Holidays. He furthered announced that the DMC would be launching their online portal this year. The roadshow began in Delhi on Feb 5, and will go on to Chennai on Feb 8, Bengaluru on Feb 9, Ahmedabad on Feb 11 and Mumbai on Feb 12, respectively.

The Hotel & Restaurant Association of Northern India (HRANI) is organising a Conclave on February 27, 2016 at Le Meridien, New Delhi. The theme of the conclave is “Hospitality & Tourism- Gateway to Growth”.  The HRANI Conclave will be a one-day event that aims to highlight the issues and aspirations of tourism and hospitality sector. This conclave will be a quarterly feature for the association and will be conducted in its nine member states on a rotational basis. Delhi Tourism will also launch ‘Brand Delhi’ Campaign in 2016 with a vision of encouraging tourism and increasing tourists inflow in the state. With HRANI shared aspiration of making Delhi, a top destination of choice, for both foreign and domestic tourists, the organisation is privileged to announce endorsement of Delhi Tourism Ministry towards the HRANI Conclave. A delegation led by Luv Malhotra, President, HRANI; Garish Oberoi, Hony. Secretary, HRANI; Bharat Aggarwal, Treasurer, HRANI; and Renu Thapliyal, Secretary General, HRANI, met Kapil Mishra, Minister of Tourism, Govt. of NCT of Delhi, to discuss about jointly organising a tourism and hospitality Conclave in the capital.

South Asian Travel and Tourism Exhibition (SATTE) 2017 will be held from February 15-17. The dates for the next year’s event were announced at the SATTE 2016, being held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi from Jan 29-31. The event is one of the biggest travel and tourism platforms showcasing India’s tourism potential to the world by bringing the global tourism market to India.

The first-ever meeting of the National Medical and Wellness Tourism Promotion Board will be held under the Chairmanship of Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State for Tourism and Culture (Independent Charge) and Civil Aviation on January 13, 2016 at Hotel Samrat, New Delhi.  The meeting will draw short-term and long-term road maps and strategies for marketing and promotion of medical and wellness tourism, both within India and abroad. Future activities aimed at creating synergy between the tourism sector and the healthcare sector will be outlined. Key members other than stakeholders and the representatives of related government departments, tourism and hospitality sector and experts in various disciplines including Wellness and Yoga will be participating in the meeting. The National Medical and Wellness Tourism Promotion Board was constituted by the Ministry of Tourism in October 2015 to provide leadership of the Government within a framework of prudent and effective measures, thereby enabling promotion and positioning of India as a competent and credible medical and wellness tourism destination.

Air India has announced that it will operate a new flight from New Delhi to Gorakhpur, six days a week, starting January 15, 2016. The flight will offer connection to flyers travelling to various domestic and international destinations from Gorakhpur. This would also offer a convenient connection to Gorakhpur from Delhi to passengers arriving from the Gulf and other international destinations. This is the latest destination to be added to Air India’s network under its Connecting India programme. India’s national carrier, also launched operations between Mumbai and Gwalior with ATR-72 aircraft and also connected Durgapur to Delhi and Kolkata with an A319 flight. Air India will operate a 70 seater ATR 72-600 aircraft between Delhi and Gorakhpur. The flight AI 9809 will depart from Delhi at 1215 hrs and arrive Gorakhpur at 1415 hrs. On the return leg, flight AI 9810 will depart from Gorakhpur at 1445 hrs and reach Delhi at 1645 hrs. The flight will operate six days a week on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.