Switzerland Tourism will conduct an exclusive webinar on Monday, 6th December 2021 at 3pm IST, with Swiss Travel System (STS) and Rail Europe. The webinar will highlight STS’s various products and services, as well as provide an update for 2022. It will also showcase the ease in booking of these products and services through Rail Europe’s distribution network. To register, contact jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or 9650196532.

The German National Tourist Office in India has launched the Germany Specialist Program, which is designed exclusively for the Indian travel trade. The aim behind the campaign is to educate the agents across India about Destination Germany and its offerings for Indian tourists as a holiday destination. The program, which has four modules, is an interactive design template and a mobile first design to engage the users to take the training and become a Germany Specialist. log in now https://germanyspecialist.com/.

As the tourism industry is bouncing back with all safety protocols Enterprising Travel Agents Association ETAA, south chapter have initiated the knowledge session for its members on 26th November. Many crucial changes in travel agents booking systems, which will initiate digitalization, were announced. Travel Industry Designatory Service is an identity management program designed from IATA, montreal Canada for all NON IATA travel company made available free of cost Globally

Sommet Education, world leaders in hospitality and culinary education entered into a strategic partnership with Indian School of Hospitality. At an event in Delhi, to celebrate the partnership, Benoit Etienne Domenget, CEO, Sommet Education and Dilip Puri, Founder & CEO, Indian School of Hospitality announced their future development plans for India. The partnership aims at offering a global standard of education to a larger number of hospitality and culinary arts aspirants win years to come.

The much-awaited National Tourism Policy will be soon finalised and it will have the norms and provisions to suit the post COVID traveller, revealed Rupinder Brar, ADG, Tourism. “We are deliberating on how the policy is shaped in keeping with the global standards to be followed in the COVID-era. We have to digitise more to reduce physical touch, make places accessible for all,” she said on the sidelines of the three-day International Tourism Mart held in Nagaland.

IATO recently orgainsed a members meet where Hareet Shukla, Secretary Tourism, Govt. of Gujarat said, Gujarat has a progressive tourism policy. They have come up with various policies on heritage, adventure sports, homestays and are going to launch cinematic tourism policy soon. Through these policies the government of Gujarat aims to promote various sectors of the economy. The details of the upcoming 36th IATO Annual Convention from 16th – 19th December 2021 at Gandhinagar was also discussed. 

Sanjay Razdan, Joint Secretary, IATO reveals that the tourism post pandemic has completely changed. He said “Tourists travelling to India want to visit nature based tourist places, foreign tourists are keen to explore natural parks. The bookings that the travel agents are getting are different from what they used to get. International tourist are giving thrust on less popular and less crowded places at present”.

EaseMyTrip makes second acquisition, Spree Hospitality. Prashant Pitti- Co-Founder, EaseMyTrip said, “There is a synergy between EaseMyTrip and Spree Hospitality where we leverage the asset-light model to build a lean and efficient infrastructure. With this acquisition, EaseMyTrip is well-positioned to unlock the market potential of a recovering hospitality sector and quickly scale up the business to meet the evolving needs of the modern traveller”.

Austrian National Tourist Office (ANTO) will be conducting a webinar for the Indian travel trade on Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna on 23rd November from 3:30pm-4:30pm IST. Markus Kustatscher, Tourism Manager of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna will present the wonderful Imperial Collections of the Habsburg family in Vienna. “The Imperial Collections of the Habsburgs with the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, the Imperial Treasury Vienna and the Imperial Carriage Museum Vienna are one of the most important collections of artworks and breath-taking treasures in the world,” says Kustatscher. To join the webinar, contact jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.comor call 9650196532.

Harmandeep Singh Anand, MD, Global Panorama Showcase, has announced that they will be doing the next edition of GPS from April 2022 in 16 cities, covering 4 cities in each quarter. “The events will be physical and depending on the participation, it will be for one day in most cities, and in certain cities it will be for two days. The same GPS format will be followed, and the virtual platform is already there so that people can connect. There are almost 2000+ verified attendees, consisting of pan India buyers, who are registered, which is the USP of the GPs platform. The 16 cities will be the four metros–Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru; along with the 8 cities that were already there–Nagpur , Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Kolkata, Kochi, Pune; and we will be adding Jaipur, Indore, Guwahati and Visakhapatnam,” informed Singh. He added, “Pricing will also be according to the category of cities and audience we are targeting. We won’t be targeting 1000 agents per city now. Because of COVID, we will be restricting it to between 100-300 buyers per city. With more people expected in metros, the event would probably be split over two days. GPS would be a targeted event, where we want the decision makers to be present, and not anyone or everyone.”