The Karnataka Chapter of TAAI, in collaboration with the MSME Development Institute, conducted a virtual workshop to educate members about various schemes of Ministry of Micro, SME. This is part of the series initiated by TAAI at pan-India level to educate its members about the benefits and reliefs extended by the Ministry of MSME. Gopinath Rao, Deputy Director, MSME Development Institute, Bengaluru shared various schemes and initiatives of MSME and explained how it can benefit businesses at large. He specifically mentioned the schemes which attendees may avail finance, both at micro and macro levels.

In a recent awareness session conducted on the opening of Sri Lanka for Indian traveller, Sanath Ukwatte, President, The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka, said “Sri Lanka is now open for Indians. We are getting about 1,000 requests a day for visas from Indians which is a huge surge.” Indian travellers travelling to Sri Lanka should have the Indian government approved vaccination certificate that is the mandatory guideline issued by Sri Lanka.

Switzerland Tourism will conduct a webinar on Friday, 9th September 2021, focusing on Swiss Travel System (STS), Switzerland’s public transport network. STS offers comfortable, convenient, and scenic travel across Switzerland by rail, bus or boat. This webinar will highlight STS’s various products and services for the Indian market, as well as showcase the hassle-free booking experience of these offerings on RailEurope’s distribution network. To register, contact jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or 9650196532.

Global hotel employee travel program, hotelemployeerate.com, has appointed IndiJo Consulting as its representative in India. IndiJo activities will include market outreach through sales, marketing, and PR initiatives on behalf of hotelemployeerate.com. The programme which offers exclusive hotel employee rates for hoteliers, their friends, and families. With an ever-expanding collection of hotel companies, branded properties and independent hotels around the world joining the Hotel Employee Rate Travel Program, hotels in India signing up can now offer their teams the unique benefit of employee travel rate. Hoteliers in the programme can add up to 10 friends and family. Additionally, hotels benefit with commission-free incremental bookings over low demand periods from its global base of leisure travellers booking through the hotelemployeerate.com travel programme. Joseph Fernandes, CEO, IndiJo Consulting, said, “We are excited to represent Hotel Employee Rate which we believe has the potential to do exceedingly well in India, by offering hotels dual benefit of providing their employee with an additional perk, and at the same time opening up a new platform of attracting leisure guest.” Lara Sidhu, Director Business Development -APAC, Hotel Employee Rate said, “While India is a new market for us, we see immense potential and we’re eager to showcase India’s beautiful hotels and locations on our global platform. As we see travel resume, hotelemployeerate.com will help mitigate the current issues in hotel employee satisfaction and retention rates.”

To say that virtual events will take over is a myth, feels Sandeep Nagpal, VP & Head of Marketing, Cvent India. He says, “Virtual will go hybrid. While physical events will happen, the same events will be viewed by thousands virtually. That is an opportunity both for planners as well as hotels. There are a lot of venues in the world that are transforming themselves into hybrid venues.”

Encouraging his members to register themselves with MoT and as MSMEs, Jitul Mehta, Chairman, Western India, TAFI, says, “I have been talking about MoT and MSME since the last five years. These topics are very close to my heart and I shall continue to focus on them for our members. There are benefits in terms of the government schemes for accredited tourism entities and how MSME registration can help them obtain business loans at a lower rate with minimum documentation. Being registered as a MSME could also help to recover outstandings from corporates.”

Representatives from ‘Invest India’ gave a brief presentation on their tourism vision plan they are jointly developing with Ministry of Tourism at the recent ‘Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav’ that took place in Ladakh. The presentation included short, medium and long-term plans for various segments such as adventure and wellness tourism in Ladakh.

Principal Secretary, Tourism, Surendra Kumar visited the newly-constructed Nimantran restaurant in Bhubaneshwar and reviewed the preparation. The soon to be inaugurated restaurant is an initiative of Odisha Tourism to promote Odia cuisine. The restaurant chain will be operated by Odisha Tourism Development Corporation through a dedicated wing.

RARE India has added 18 new hotels, of which seven are based in North and West India, five in South and Western Ghats while six hotels are located in the North Hills, Terai, East India and the Himalayas. With these additions, RARE India now has 86 hospitality and destination brands across 18 states in the Indian subcontinent, all of which offer experiential stays and immersions that place a great emphasis on community engagement and strive to preserve and protect the planet. The new hotels and experiences in the RARE India Community include: North & West:Khem Villas in Ranthambhore (Rajasthan); Premkunj in Udaipur (Rajasthan); Dera Amer near Jaipur (Rajasthan); Killa Bhawan in Jaisalmer (Rajasthan); Mihir Garh near Jodhpur (Rajasthan); Rohet Garh near Jodhpur (Rajasthan); The Rohet House in Jodhpur (Rajasthan) South & Western Ghats:Gratitude Heritage, Kariappa House and Grand Hotel D’Europe in Puducherry; Dhole’s Den in Bandipur (Karnataka); Cabo Serai in Cabo de Rama (Goa) North Hills, Terai, East & Himalayas: Karan Mahal in Srinagar (Jammu & Kashmir); The Apricot Tree Hotel in Nurla (Ladakh); Atali Ganga in Rishikesh (Uttarakhand); The Mandala House in Devprayag (Uttarakhand); Neeralaya in Manali (Himachal Pradesh); Ging Tea House in Darjeeling (West Bengal) Shoba Mohan, Founder, RARE India, said, “We worked away through the pandemic lockdowns, creating value and awareness for the RARE India Community hoping that when the world opens up for travel, our community of hotels, carefully chosen for their experiences and attitude towards sustainable luxury and community engagement, will be known globally and will be on the travel-list of Indian travellers discovering their own country and the subcontinent. This not only meant stepping up our marketing strategy to improve sales but also create better distribution of our hotels and …

The Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT) Abu Dhabi will be organising a webinar titled, ‘Rediscover MICE in Abu Dhabi’ on Tuesday 7th September, 2021 at 3pm IST. One of the panelists on the webinar is Roula Jouny, Executive Director, Tourism 365. Speaking about their focus, she said, “Post COVID, we see a huge potential to develop the MICE business to Abu Dhabi from India following the strategic partnership between the two countries, the frequency of the accessibility of the destination through both airlines Etihad and Emirates as well as the important commercial exchange between the two countries.”