Akbar Travels and Sabre Corporation have announced a new long-term, strategic partnership agreement. Under the extended and expanded agreement, Sabre will continue to be Akbar’s preferred GDS partner in India, ensuring that the firm can continue to access real-time, rich content from hundreds of thousands of airlines, hoteliers and other travel providers through Sabre’s intuitive Sabre Red 360 interface. Akbar and Sabre will also be working more closely together through the appointment of software company, Benzy Infotech – a 100% subsidiary of the Akbar Group.

The Karnataka State Cabinet has approved the proposal to accord ‘Industry’ status to hotels and resorts classified or approved by Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, in Karnataka. The decision is expected to boost recovery of the hospitality sector through various benefits, including applicability of industrial tariff for electricity and property taxes.

Government of Andhra Pradesh has issued a Restart Package to support the tourism sector in the state. The approved package of Rs198.50 crore is a loan for hotels, M!CE, function halls, restaurants and service providers by extending interest subsidy at 50% of the interest on the loan for 12 months subject to a maximum of 4.50% of the loan amount for one year.

Expedia TAAP is organising a webinar for the travel trade on Friday, 26th Feb, 2021, which will start at 11:30 am. Travel agents will get to chance to learn about the benefits of using Expedia TAAP at this virtual event. To register, write to jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or call +91 9650196532.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, speaking at the Virtual ITM, said that India is emerging as a crucial destination as far as medical tourism is concerned. “To encourage it further, we have already started issuing medical visa and are planning to soon restart e-tourist visa as well as scheduled international flights,” he said.

In anticipation of border reopening, Tourism Malaysia India Offices (Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai) are engaging with TAAI, TAFI as well as tour operators and other travel agents to come up with key initiatives, strategies and activities to once again woo Indian tourists to Malaysia, as well as update partners on Malaysia’s products.

In order to protect potential long-term housing from being monopolised by tourist-oriented rentals, the city of Barcelona in Spain has proposed a new rule that will allow locals to rent rooms in their homes only for stays of 30 days or more. The city has already taken several measures to limit tourist accommodations made available through platforms like Airbnb.

In a recent Tweet, Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri, has said that “domestic aviation operations in the country are slowly reaching towards the pre-COVID numbers.” He adds, “With 2,77,235 passengers on 2,235 flights, 4,469 total movements & 5,51,506 footfalls at airports, we are almost at a touching distance.”

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) is calling for governments to abandon the concept of ‘high-risk countries’ and instead focus on how individual ‘high-risk travellers’ are treated at borders. It urges governments around the world to redefine their whole approach to risk assessment, to revive international business and leisure travel.

Adani Airport Holdings Limited (AAHL), the flagship holding company of Adani Group for its airports business, has acquired 23.5% equity stake in Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) from ACSA Global Limited and Bid Services Division (Mauritius) Limited. This makes AAHL’s total stake in MIAL touch 74%, having earlier acquired the entire 50.5% cent stake of the GVK group in Mumbai Airport.