HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President – Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, CEO & Founder – Emirates Group and Chairman – Dubai World, inaugurated Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2021, marking the start of the 28th edition of the Middle East’s largest travel and tourism exhibition. He was accompanied by HE Helal Saeed Al Marri, CEO – Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) and Director-General – Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) and other VIPs. Taking place from May 16 to 19, this year’s event has 1,300 exhibitors from 62 countries. Consistent with the existing density restrictions and social distancing guidelines and regulations, there will be 11,000 people in the halls at any given time.

TravelBullz is happy to announce the preferred partnership with Vervotech, SaaS Company.  Founded by a team of passionate entrepreneurs in 2018, Vervotech’s vision is to organize all accommodation data with Vervotech Hotel Mapping and Room Mapping using large-scale aggregation, AI-based processing, and ever-evolving ML models. With this preferred partnership, TravelBullz will gain express access to UNICA, a hotel mapping platform with an accuracy of 99.99% and a coverage of 98%. This enables all 150,000 hotels under TravelBullz express access to unified content through UNICA and its seamless integration into existing platforms. With the commencement of this deal, TravelBullz’s clients will reap the following benefits: Real-time content updates along with content insights. Better conversions with de-duplicated inventory. 99.99% mapping accuracy and 98% mapping coverage with reduced processing time. Opinionated Content to deliver a more streamlined user experience. In accordance with TravelBullz’s Dynamic Packaging Module that was launched back in March 2020, integration of UNICA into our existing platform is expected to enhance all travel components with opaque hotel pricing, providing hotel chains greater flexibility for yielding packaged rates. Sanjay Ghare, Co-Founder & CEO at Vervotech said, “This is an extremely crucial time for the global travel industry and we are looking at changes at an astronomical level. It is important that the businesses operating today under such circumstances are not only aware but are also prepared to integrate the latest technologies in the market in order to circumvent the shortcomings. We feel that strategic mutual partnerships are the key to overcoming the challenges that are plaguing the industry today”. According to Nidhi Gupta, Global Head Supplier Partnerships & Activities of TravelBullz, “We are constantly working to revolutionize the way business is transacted in …

In his letter to the PM, JK Mohanty, Chairman, IATO – Eastern Region and Co-Chairman, FICCI – National Tourism Committee, has suggested measures to battle the financial crunch, including extension of moratorium for a year with minimal interest rate, one-time rescheduling of principal and interest dues of borrowers in hospitality in line with revised estimated cash flows of each project, among others.

IRCTC has launched packages for professionals to continue with their work from the comfort of hotel rooms. A statement by the Corporation said, “Professionals can pick their favourite destination in Kerala among the list of hotels offered under ‘work from hotel’ concept.” Destinations presently offering the service are Munnar, Thekkady, Kumarakom, Marari (Alappuzha), Kovalam, Wayanad and Kochi.

In a bid to curb the spread of the new COVID-19 variant, the European Union has urged all countries of the bloc to halt all non-essential travel from India. “It is important to limit to the strict minimum the categories of travellers that can travel from India for essential reasons and to subject those who may still travel from India to strict testing and quarantine arrangements,” it added.

Etihad Airways has introduced its ‘Verified to Fly’ travel document initiative for travellers flying from Abu Dhabi with Etihad Airways. The move enables travellers to validate their COVID-19 travel documents before arriving at the airport. Future developments are in progress to introduce the service for other destinations.

Turespaña has launched a new feature within the TRAVEL SAFE microsite of the official Spanish tourism portal www.spain.info, whereby international tourists who wish to go to Spain can consult the travel restrictions due to COVID-19 in the country, as well as the entry and exit requirements for their respective countries. TRAVEL SAFE microsite has included an information system, permanently updated on travel restrictions due to COVID-19, which allows to consult the information necessary to make any trip from 50 countries, including India, to Spain.

In a marathon session fielding member queries, Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI, urged everyone to register themselves on the Ministry of Tourism website. She said, “Agencies who don’t do this may not be allowed to call themselves a travel agent.” The association has also written to MoCA to help resolve matters with Air India bookings multiple times, and has sought an online appointment directly with the PM.

The IATO Executive Committee recently reviewed and restructured the IATO Regional and the State Chapters to expand its wings and strengthen its membership base in Uttarakhand, Ladakh, Lakshadweep, Dadra, Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu. In continuation, IATO has further expanded its wings by appointing Co-Chairman and in-charge in various states and union territories. Rajasthan being a large state with a strong membership basis was considered to have a Co-chairman and Mahendra Singh of Holidays N Vacations, Jaipur has been appointed as Co-Chairman of Rajasthan. It was for a long time in the mind of IATO EC to have a Co-Chairman of Uttar Pradesh who should be based in Varanasi, keeping in view the importance of Varanasi as a big tourist attraction,  both for international and domestic tourists and Bhuvanendra Vikram Singh of Prime Value Tours Pvt. Ltd has been given this responsibility. Sikkim being a prime tourist destination needed a Co-Chairman, keeping in view the distance between North Bengal and Sikkim.  Namgyal P Sherpa of Namgyal Treks & Tours, Gangtok has been appointed as co-chairman to assist the Chairman of Sikkim and North Bengal Chapter who is based in Siliguri, Darjeeling. Similar is the case of Andaman & Nicobar and Mohamed Jadwet has been appointed as Co-Chairman in Andaman & Nicobar to assist the Chairman based in Chennai. Besides the above, two-state in-charge have been appointed in Manipur & Tripura to assist Chairman of IATO North East Chapter and H Radhakrishna Sharma, of Seven Sisters Holidays and Soumen Dutta of Hindustan Tour & Travels have been appointed State In-Charge of Manipur and Tripura respectively. Rajiv Mehra, President of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) expressed his happiness and mentioned …

In its latest order, Government of Goa has prohibited inter-state movement for tourists till May 24. Exceptions to the rule are people who are residents of Goa or are entering Goa for work, or who have with them full vaccination certificate or COVID-negative test report for a test done a maximum of 72 hours prior to entering Goa.