The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) has announced the launch of the first official Public Profile for a tourism board on leading social media platform Snapchat – giving potential travellers the chance to explore everything that the capital of the UAE has to offer in a new and immersive way. Public Profiles give brands the ability to have an organic presence on Snapchat, housing all their unique content in one discoverable place. Acting as a portal to unlock everything the region has to offer, the Visit Abu Dhabi Public Profile will provide subscribers with exclusive travel information for Abu Dhabi, showcasing the wide variety of things to do during a stay in the emirate, whilst bringing the beauty of the destination to life in an interactive new format. At a time when travel is slowly opening up, the new official Public Profile is ideal for those planning an upcoming trip to Abu Dhabi, offering a glimpse of the destination from the comfort of their own homes – and phones. There will be a wealth of content to explore, be it uncovering the beauty of Al Ain via the Highlights section or simply experiencing the capital in real-time via Stories or Community Snaps. Public Profiles were launched by Snapchat in 2020 and have had great success in bringing a brand’s story to life. The move from DCT Abu Dhabi marks the launch of the first official tourist board profile and it’s likely other tourist boards will follow suit as they look to welcome tourists back. Social channels have been a popular vehicle to engage potential travellers – inspiring wanderlust by making global destinations accessible to …

The Directorate of Tourism, Jammu is now trying to promote a little-known destination in the UT called Kishtwar. Rupinder Brar, Additional DG, MoT, said that Kishtwar is blessed with beautiful geaography and rich culture, and has immense potential with regard to several types of tourism, ranging from nature to ethnic tourism. She said, “We need to work with the local administration and develop connectivity to the destination, hospitality units workforce quality and marketing strategy for Kishtwar. We are planning roadshows and other promo activities to promote the region extensively.”

According to a Reuters news report, Singapore is looking to allow quarantine-free travel for those who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 from September, when 80% of the city-state’s population should be inoculated. Singapore will establish travel corridors with countries or regions where COVID-19 is under control, and those who are vaccinated may not have to quarantine or may be allowed to isolate at home. The city-state will also review whether to loosen curbs in early August.

The past year has brought about significant changes and challenges due to the global pandemic, with travel and tourism being amongst the most impacted sectors. As the travel and tourism industry adapts to the new realities of working remotely, reduced travel business and other factors, it has become more important than ever to look after mental wellness, as well as physical health. To assist the travel industry in looking after their mental wellbeing, Tourism Australia is organising a series of Wellness Workshops in India aimed at providing a toolkit of practical tips that will help build confidence in the ability to maintain and build mental wellbeing. Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager – India and Gulf, Tourism Australia said, ‘Pre-COVID our travel industry was focused on promoting the many benefits of travel to consumers, including the positive effects of travel to overall wellness and mental wellbeing. Now with travel on hold, the workshops have been planned to impart effective strategies, techniques and mechanisms for our travel industry colleagues to manage stress and maintain their general mental wellbeing in the challenging times. It is also a positive step towards supporting the resilience of our industry and our tourism partners in these challenging times.’ This first-of-a-kind initiative in the travel industry includes a curated set of sessions featuring veteran motivational speakers and mental health experts and will be open to Aussie Specialist Agents and all members of the Indian travel trade.

Members of the Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) chose Ajay Prakash as their new national president via electronic voting today. The results were announced at around 5:30pm. He will lead the new team with  Kamal Ramchand as the Vice-President. Other winners include Abbas Moiz as the National General Secretary, and Hitank Shah as the Treasurer. The five Managing Committee Members are Anil Kalsi, Lalith Jain, Rani Bachani, Rai Achal Krishna and Seeraj Sabharwal.

Airlink, the privately owned South African regional airline based in Johannesburg, has named AirlinePros International as its General Sales Agent for India with immediate effect. Airlink is a member of IATA and is IOSA accredited. It has more than 50 commercial jetliners operating throughout Southern Africa. In 2019 pre COVID the airline carried 2 million customers on more than 63,000 flights on 55 routes to 39 destinations in 9 African countries and St Helena Island. Airlink operates the widest network in Southern Africa to countries such as South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Madagascar, Lesotho, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Eswatini (Swaziland), as well as to the remote island of St. Helena. Airlink operates independently under its own unique 4Z flight code. Throughout 2020 Airlink has been busy activating new interline relationships and partners including British Airways, Air France, Emirates and Qatar which will offer strong opportunities for connecting traffic from India. Ramesh Marwah, Regional Managing Partner India, AirlinePros International added “India enjoys close strategic, cultural & economic ties with South Africa and neighbouring countries in Southern Africa which will be connected well to India by Airlink in cooperation with its Interline Partners. We are confident to receive necessary support of our trade partners in India to assist Airlink in not only establishing base in India but securing optimum market share of travel triggered by growing trade, anticipated surge in tourism and movement of large number of Indian origin people residing in South Africa and other nations in Southern Africa”.

Members of the Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) will be choosing between two candidates who have stood for the post of the national president for the new term. They are Rajat Bagaria and Ajay Prakash. TAFI will conduct its national elections via e-voting on July 24, 2021 along with its AGM and EOGM through an online platform. . Results are likely to be announced at around 17:00 hours on 24th July 2021 through an online platform.

Arvind Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, has shared that the goal with the MICE tourism strategy would be to increase the number of MICE events that take place in the country. We see that we have a very small percentage of the global MICE market, and that a large number of Indian groups and Indian MICE events are held abroad as people like to Southeast Asia, Middle East or Maldives to hold MICE events. Hence, the short terms strategy would be to attract some of them because of the restrictions on travel, and if they are doing any MICE events, to encourage them to hold them at many places in India, instead of going to neighbouring countries.”

Rakesh Verma, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, has said that they will be appointing international marketing representatives within 3-4 months. “We have done preliminary work before 2nd wave . We identified some of the markets, where we need to position these representatives. We are working on it, and in about 3-4 months, we would be having them in position, so that whenever international travel happens, we will have them on ground to really help us,” he added.

The second wave will further delay UDAN progress; stressed financial health of airline operators to impact existing route operations and future bidding, as per ICRA. As on May 31, 2021, only 47% of total routes and 39% of airports (unserved and underserved) have been operationalised[1] under UDAN. The number of new RCS routes which started operations increased at a healthy pace and stood at 102 and 120 routes in FY2019 and FY2020 respectively, but have declined to 77 new routes in FY2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. During FY2018 – FY2021, a total of Rs. 3,350 crores have been incurred by the Central Government towards the UDAN scheme and the budgeted outlay for FY2022 is Rs. 1,130 crores.