Sunil Kumar, President, TAAI, said, “We will be rolling out circulars inviting our members to join the Joint Bank Guarantee (JBG) scheme by February first week and close the process by March 31, 2016. Those agents who are chosen by the National Committee for the scheme will be able to get on board with IATA effective July 1, 2016. They were anyway paid their insurance or guarantee till June 30, 2016. So, TAAI’s JBG scheme will be in place from July onwards when the new term starts for the new guarantee cover.” He however refused to share any updates on TAAI’s annual convention. This was discussed during TAAI’s Managing Committee meeting held on the sidelines of the IITT exhibition in Mumbai recently.

During January-September 2015, South Africa received 58,373 Indian arrivals to the country, shared Monika Iuel, General Manager-International Marketing, South African Tourism, at the Delhi leg of 4-city South African Tourism roadshow. She stated that they are hoping for exponential growth with the help of various campaigns, due for launch in 2016. Talking about the initiative, Hanneli Slabber, Country Head, South African Tourism, said that the Chalo South Africa and T20 World Cup campaigns set to launch on March 1 and March 10 respectively, will surely be beneficial in upping the tourist arrival number to the country. After Delhi, the South African Tourism roadshow moves to Hyderabad on January 21, and ends at Mumbai on January 22.

SpiceJet has announced the launch of two new flights to Jaipur and Hyderabad. With the introduction of these two new flights, SpiceJet now connects 10 Indian cities with Dubai every day. The airline is offering an introductory one way offer of Dh359 (all-inclusive) between Dubai and Jaipur. The Dubai-Hyderabad fares are available at Dh397 (all-inclusive) on a first-come-first-served basis. The flights will commence on February 16, 2016, for which bookings are now open. “With the launch of our Jaipur-Dubai sector, SpiceJet will become the first private airline to operate a direct flight on this route. SpiceJet will also be the only airline to fly five times per week on this route. The Hyderabad-Dubai flights are so timed as to allow business travellers to India’s IT hub make the most of every working day,” said Shilpa Bhatia, Senior VP Commercial, SpiceJet. The airline will deploy its Boeing 737-800 aircraft on these routes.

Thailand’s Absolute Hotel Services (AHS) is expanding its upscale Eastin hotel brand in India, with the launch of a new property in Darjeeling, West Bengal. Set atop a mountain surrounded by nature and views of the valleys and foothills of Kurseong, the land of the white orchids, Eastin Hotel Kurseong, Darjeeling, will open its doors in April 2016. The property will offer a total of 100 rooms and suites, a signature all day dining restaurant, a vegetarian restaurant, lounge bar, café terrace, banquet and meeting centre for the MICE market. The hotel will also provide wellness centre including one double and two spa treatment rooms, foot massage, ayurvedic massage, gym, meditation and yoga classes. AHS operates a collection of Eastin, Eastin Easy and U Hotels in several locations across India. AHS has re-branded the property as Eastin Hotel Kurseong, Darjeeling, from its earlier name Eastin Easy Kurseong Darjeeling. It is the first international 4-star deluxe resort hotel in Kurseong, Darjeeling district.

RwandAir, the national carrier for Rwanda, will start direct flights from Rwanda into Mumbai effective September 2016. Clarence Fernandes, India representative, Rwanda Development Board, which also promotes tourism, reveales, “RwandAir will be coming in with four weekly flights from Mumbai to Dar-e-salaam and Dar-e-salaam to Kigali on A-330 with first, business and economy class. They will initially come in with 244 seats and as the demand increases the airline will scale up to 274 seats. This will be the shortest route, connecting Mumbai and Kigali. Dar-e-Salaam has a large Indian population so it was most practical to do a stop-over here.”

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is offering an aerial view of Mumbai for 20 minutes at a cost of Rs 2,995 per person. IRCTC has tied up with private chopper company, Aman Aviation, which will use the US-made Robinson R-44 helicopter carrying three passengers at a time. To book a helicopter ride, passengers can log on to www.irctctourism.com. In the initial phase, the rides will be operated to facilitate an aerial view of the suburbs of east and south Mumbai. Helicopter rides for south Mumbai will likely be undertaken on Mondays and Thursdays whereas joy rides for east Mumbai will be available on any given day except Wednesday. Booking will be closed four days prior to departure of the flight. Thirty seats will be available every day.

SpiceJet achieved the highest passenger load factor (PLF) of 92.1 per cent followed by IndiGo at 88.5 per cent and Air Costa at 87.1 per cent for the month of December 2015, according to data provided by Ministry of Civil Aviation. The domestic airlines carried 20.34 per cent more passengers during December. The number of passengers carried by domestic airlines during Jan-Dec 2015 were 810.91 lakhs as against 673.83 lakhs during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering the growth of 20.34 per cent. The On-Time Performance (OTP) of scheduled domestic airlines, computed for four metro airports viz. Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai showed Vistara topping the chart with 90.6 per cent followed by GoAir at 79.3 per cent (excluding Hyderabad) and Jet Airways at 78.5 per cent.

Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) in association with Goa Tourism Development  Corporation (GTDC) will have a special carnival charter coach from Mumbai during Goa Carnival with a GTDC tour package specially designed for passengers between February 6-9, 2016. This is part of the joint venture between the GTDC and the IRCTC to promote holiday special trains after the Railways Ministry approved the running of special holiday trains to Goa, and an MoU was signed between the two organisations. Bookings for travel on this train are online only. Passengers buying this package will get an opportunity to enjoy the four-day carnival. The Goa Carnival package of five nights and six days will include Standard Comfort and Deluxe priced between Rs 7,695 and 17,395 per pax.

AirAsia has amended its pricing for bag fees, increasing the cost for purchasing checked baggage after a flight booking has been made. The new fee structure takes effect on January 28 and applies to all routes except those originating from Indonesia. At any time after a booking has been confirmed, customers will have to pay more for checked baggage, such as through the Manage My Booking page, the airline said. AirAsia said this is still a cheaper option than checking in bags at the last minute prior to departure. For example, a 20kg of checked baggage for a one-way flight from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore would cost RM45 at the time of the flight booking. If this is done later through Manage My Booking, customers would pay RM52 or a whopping RM355 on the day at the check-in counter. The new fee schedule has been uploaded to the AirAsia website. “You will still enjoy more savings as compared to purchasing last minute at the airport counter,” the airline said in a release.

Rajasthan has launched a multi-year, multi-modal, multi-narrative and multi-crore global campaign to galvanise tourism in the state with a view to raise the annual tourist arrivals past the 50 million mark by 2020. Unveiling the campaign, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, said, “This campaign will herald Rajasthan Tourism 3.0. Rajasthan Tourism 1.0 of the 80s was about our landscape, the harsh terrain, and the adventures immortalized by Satyajit Ray on celluloid. The 90s saw version 2.0, with a forward looking vision which included our heritage properties. With Rajasthan Tourism 3.0 we aim to implement an integrated plan that revolves around experience, infrastructure, cleanliness, security and marketing.” The campaign will play an important role in the Government of Rajasthan’s vision of doubling the annual footfall of international tourists to from 1.5 million to 3.0 million by the year 2020. In the same period, the government also aims to increasing the domestic tourist traffic from the present 33 million to 50 million tourists annually. The evening saw the launch of a new logo and brand identity for the campaign. The campaign also includes a new website and an advertisement Print, TV and Outdoor spots which are aimed at attracting both the seasoned traveler and the youth to explore Rajasthan in a whole new way. Realizing that the tourism sector in Rajasthan has a huge potential to grow, this new campaign aims to increase the number of foreign and domestic tourists visiting the state. Shailendra Agrawal, Principal Secretary, Tourism, Art & Culture, Archeology & Museums, Government of Rajasthan said, “Global trends indicate that Asia Pacific’s share in global tourist traffic will rise from 22% to 30% in the next 10-15 years. Through our campaign, …