MBA (TTM) students of Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management (IITTM) represented India at UNWTO Students League 2021, a global platform. The two teams, namely Team Samsara and Team Samviti, participated in the competition under the challenge Plastic Pollution and Rural Development for the Masters’ category, respectively. The competition had over 1000 applications globally and had different levels ranging from High School to Masters.

Indian LCC SpiceJet has introduced daily non-stop flights from Rajkot to Goa and Hyderabad. Flights will depart Rajkot at 14:00 hrs for Goa and at 19:45 hrs for Hyderabad. The return flight from Goa will depart at 17:05 hrs and that from Hyderabad will depart at 06:05 hrs. The carrier has also added to its Rajkot-Mumbai frequency, departing at 07:30 hrs and 05:40 hrs, respectively.

During an insightful webinar organised by PATA, Prof John Koldowski, School of Tourism, Leshan University in China, said, “It looks like another tough year for inbound travel into India. But, if India can show that it is containing the spread of infection and upped its immunisation process, the numbers can improve. The outbound travel numbers from India however look more robust.”

The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (Amendment) Bill, 2021, passed by the Lok Sabha, seeks to amend the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India Act, 2008. The bill proposes to amend the definition of ‘major airport’ so as to extend its scope to determine the tariff for a ‘group of airports’ also, which will encourage development of smaller airports.

VisitBritain organised high-tea for the trade in Delhi to apprise them on the various offerings of West Midlands and Birmingham, which will be hosting the Commonwealth Games 2022. Shuja Bin Mehdi, B2B Manager – India, VisitBritain, says they will be doing promotions on the lines of the cricket World Cup. Moving forward, more promotional campaigns and familiarisation trips are on the cards for the trade.

HVS ANAROCK’S latest monthly newsletter titled ‘Hotels and Hospitality Overview’ states that brand openings and signings (by property) increased marginally in the first half of 2021 compared to last year. During this period, 19 hotels (14 in H1 2020) were opened and 49 hotels (46 in H1 2020) were signed. Hotel operators signed smaller hotels with increased focus on tier-III and IV cities.

IACC-NIC will host the 2nd Indo-US Services Summit tomorrow, July 31, with a session on travel, tourism and hospitality scheduled from 2:00-3:00 pm. Titled ‘Living with COVID – Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow’ and moderated by Ajay Bakaya, MD, Sarovar Hotels, the Chief Guest for the session will be Tourism Secretary Arvind Singh. Also in attendance will be Ross R Belliveau (Commercial Attache US Embassy), Ragini Chopra (InterGlobe Enterprises), Jyoti Mayal (TAAI) and Sudeep Jain (IHG).

In a re-shuffle of the state cabinet, the Odisha government has posted Surendra Kumar, who was the Principal Secretary – Steel and Mines, in the General Administration department with the additional charge of the Tourism department as its Principal Secretary. Vishal Dev, who was the Principal Secretary of Tourism, Sports and Youth Affairs in the Odisha government, has been appointed as the new Principal Secretary of the Finance department.

CAPA India reveals that among PPP airports, Hyderabad is expected to recover closest to pre-COVID traffic at 31.3 per cent, while Mumbai will be the furthest behind at 52.3 per cent. This is according to its updated outlook for airports for FY2022. And though Mumbai’s recovery underperforms other metro airports, it may be possible for the airport to accelerate during the year and achieve higher volumes.

Conrad Clifford, IATA’s Deputy Director General and Regional Vice President for Asia Pacific, believes that vaccination and testing have a role to play in the recovery of international travel, and it is not sustainable to maintain a ‘zero caseload’ approach. He says, “It is not an option to wait for vaccines to be widely available before reopening borders. The global vaccine roll-out is likely to take time.”