Hailing IndiGo’s deal with Airbus to procure 500 A320s, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia says, “India has set another landmark with this largest-ever recorded order by a carrier with any aircraft manufacturer in the world.” He expressed confidence that this investment will yield fruitful outcomes in terms of employment opportunities within India. Expressing optimism for the employment prospects associated with the deal, he said, “Every dollar invested in civil aviation yields $3.1 in terms of new growth, as well as the employment multiplier. Every direct job in civil aviation results in 6.1 indirect jobs in the sector. And therefore, there are tremendous dividends that accrue from the ever-expanding civil aviation sector.”

In 2022, India became for the first time Asia’s highest source of international travelers, according to tourism consultancy IPK International. International travelers from India in 2022 exceeded those of China, South Korea, and Japan, the company said. For the first five months of 2023, travel from India to the United States has exceeded pre-pandemic volumes.

The global cruise capacity is forecast to grow 19 per cent to more than 746,000 lower berths leading up to 2028, Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) said in its recent report ‘State Of The Cruise Industry 2023’. The task of attracting four million new-to-cruise travellers now lies with the industry to meet the increase in global cruise capacity projected from 2023 to 2025. At least 14 new member ships will enter service during 2023 itself and projected to exceed 300 ocean-going vessels in 2024.

Global international scheduled seat capacity on offer for the week to 19-Jun-2023 reached 59.9 million seats. Capacity reached a new pandemic era high (97.6% of 2019 volumes).

Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, Sultanate of Oman, is organising an exclusive webinar to help attendees learn more about the beautiful city of Salalah in Oman, today at 11:30 am. Register to get a chance to win a free trip to Oman. Contact jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com, 9650196532.

Minister of State for Tourism & Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Shripad Yesso Naik held a bilateral meeting with Md. Mahbub Ali, State Minister for Civil Aviation & Tourism. It stressed on the deep cultural bond between the two nations. It also outlined the major infrastructure initiatives which have been taken by respective governments. The discussions stressed the possibility of further collaboration on tourism via inland rivers, and visa facilities to facilitate long-haul travel for visitors.

SpiceJet has signed an interline agreement with Hahn Air. Since 2016, SpiceJet has already been available under Hahn Air’s H1 code in all major GDSs. With the new interline agreement, the airline will be additionally available under their own SG code in the Amadeus GDS. Travel agents around the world can issue SpiceJet flights on the insolvency-safe HR-169 ticket by choosing Hahn Air as the validating carrier. In addition, travel agents using Amadeus GDS can combine SpiceJet’s flights with other Hahn Air partners’ flights on a single ticket. “We are proud to extend our partnership with SpiceJet”, says Kimberley Long, Vice President Agency Distribution at Hahn Air. “By providing a wealth of destinations and excellent service, this award-winning airline is very popular with travellers. We are excited to now give the travel agent community various options to easily access this carrier, even in markets where SpiceJet does not grant ticketing authority for SG or where the airline is not a member of the local BSP or ARC.” Shilpa Bhatia, Chief Commercial Officer, SpiceJet, said, “We are delighted to partner with Hahn Air for distribution of our flights to over 190 markets that will help international passengers to seamlessly travel across various parts of India with ease and beyond. The interline agreement with Hahn Air and the strong distribution network of 350 airlines will positively benefit SpiceJet to increase its global reach under its own SG code.”

V Vidyavathi, Secretary, Tourism, has said that the five pillars/priorities of G20 TWG meeting and the Goa Roadmap have emerged from the draft National Tourism Policy prepared by MOT. “They were quite comprehensive and appreciated by all,” she said. She shared the policy will soon see light of the day.

The newly appointed Director of Tourism Malaysia, Noriah Jaafar, is gung-ho about the India market. Sharing numbers, she says, “Pre covid in 2019, we saw 735,309 tourist arrivals from India and currently from January to April 2023, we have welcomed 164,566 arrivals into Malaysia. Our target for this year is to reach 462,000 arrivals from India. As an international source market for Malaysia, India ranked number four in 2022! This makes India a very important market for us.”

Rajiv Jalota, Chairman, Mumbai Port Trust, has said that with the upgradation of the Mumbai port passenger terminal, he expects the international cruise traffic to increase this year, with more than one million passengers per annum. He added that Mumbai port has one of the lowest cruise tariffs in the world.