Saudi Arabia will be extending its e-visa facilities for Indian tourists soon, revealed Fahd Hamidaddin, CEO, Saudi Tourism Authority (STA). Hamidaddin said that Saudi is home for nearly 5 million Indians, and the proposed e-visa facility will help in unlocking the huge potential that exists for Visit Friends & Relatives (VFR) from India to Saudi Arabia. “You can expect the good news soon,” he said. The STA CEO has said that the eVisa has proved to be quite successful for Saudi Arabia and around 5 lakh travellers have used the facility since its introduction to visit the country.

Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/C), Tourism & Culture, will be having a virtual interaction with state/UT tourism ministers on October 15 and 16. The aim behind these meetings is to discuss post-COVID protocols and put plans in motion to ensure that the tourism sector opens up with safety measures in place. The Minister will be interacting with tourism ministers of the northern and western states and Union territories on October 15 and those of the southern, eastern and north-eastern states on October 16. These meetings will be in line with the meetings held with the tourism stakeholders in the last two months.

FAITH organised the India Tourism Vision Day, which saw the Presidents of 10 member associations of FAITH discussing the way forward. In his address, Nakul Anand, Chairman, FAITH, said, “Like the way GST council is structured, Indian tourism needs to be structured through a constitutionally empowered legislative body-A national tourism council headed by our Honourable Prime Minister along with the presence of all chief ministers.” Also, he shared that a tourism Covid 19 Fund should be set up by the MOT where interest free funds are given to support the employees and the operating costs of tourism companies.

Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Civil Aviation, has said that domestic airlines may soon increase their capacity to 75 per cent and it may reach more than pre-COVID levels in the first quarter of 2021. “I had earlier said that pre-COVID domestic numbers will be achieved between Diwali and New Year. Now I am confident that by the first quarter next year, we will be able to surpass the pre-COVID number,” the civil aviation minister said. Currently, the capacity is around 65%.

In a tweet directed at some of the Indian airlines as well as MoCA and the DGCA, TAFI said that it is the duty of MoCA and DGCA India under the leadership of Hardeep S Puri to ensure that the Supreme Court orders for refund of tickets are followed by all airlines. This would amount to contempt of court if not followed. We request the DGCAIndia and MoCA to intervene to ensure rightful credit.

Sunny Bansal, Proprietor of 195 Holidays based in Raipur, is excited to participate in the ongoing Fantasy League. He says, “We have been using Tripjack for everything, specially to book all our flight tickets. Even during this pandemic we continue to get support from the Tripjack team. I commend the way they are promoting travel through this Cricket Fantasy League where the winner can take home Tripjack points after signing up and playing. They are also giving points on referrals, which is very interesting.” Top winners every week also get Jalesh Cruise Package, Air Tickets, & Hotels Stays. Visit tripjack.com now!

PATA Destination Competitiveness Report has stated that the overall resident sentiment about T&T in the Asia Pacific remains positive, with most residents ready to welcome visitors again. “With 61% saying tourism generates more positive than negative consequences, and only 11% stating the contrary, Asia Pacific residents surveyed demonstrate a positive perception about tourism, reaching a sentiment level comparable to the RSI average observed in 20 other global cities during the same period,” stated the report.

Office bearers of Travel Trade Association of Uttar Pradesh (TTAUP) in Lucknow, welcomed a team of six travel agents from Surat, Ahmedabad and Mumbai, who embarked on an 18,000 km expedition in the country to promote domestic tourism. TTAUP team consisted of Vivek Pandey, President; SMA Sheeraz, Vice-President; Mohd Azam, General Secretary; Sandeeo Srivastava, Joint Secretary; and Rajiv Arora, Treasurer.

Sharing his thoughts on whether he thinks the architecture of the travel industry will change going forward, Madhavan Menon, Chairman & Managing Director of Thomas Cook (India), says, “It is not going to change dramatically. There is place for the OTAs, the tour operators, and the travel agents. For me, what is going to change is customer behaviour. The customer is going to now look for brands they can trust. No longer can we take our customer for granted. What COVID-19 has done besides everything else is made the customer far more aware.”

SpiceJet has announced non-stop flights connecting Delhi and Mumbai with London’s Heathrow airport from December 4. With this announcement, SpiceJet would become the third Indian airline, and the first low-cost carrier, to fly to London. The new connections come under the air bubble agreement with UK. “SpiceJet will operate thrice-a-week to London including twice from Delhi and once-a-week from Mumbai,” revealed Ajay Singh, CMD, SpiceJet on a virtual event for announcement of the new flight. SpiceJet will use an Airbus A330-900 Neo aircraft for these flights. This is a huge milestone for us and I am proud of the fact that SpiceJet will be the first Indian low-cost airline to operate non-stop long-haul flights to the UK. London is one of the busiest long-haul destinations from India and our convenient flight timings should suit the convenience of our passengers perfectly,” added Singh.