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.

Travel Agents Association of Kashmir (TAAK) has elected Farooq A Kuthoo as its new President for the term 2020-22. The association held its elections recently, and the results were declared on Saturday during its 11th and 12th Annual General Meeting, attended by majority of members. Habibullah Pandow has been re-elected Vice President; Showket A Khankashi is the new Secretary General, Mohammad Shafi Jan also retained Secretary Finance post; Sajad Ahmad Kralyari has been chosen as the Joint Secretary, Irshad Ahmad Hazari is elected as Chief Organiser, while Ghulam Nabi Bhat is the Publicity Secretary. Secretary Tourism Sarmad Hafeez was the chief guest for the AGM while, Nisar Ahmad Wani, Director Tourism, Kashmir, was the guest of honour. Other deputy directors also graced the occasion.

With borders gradually opening, VFS Global has started re-opening its Visa Application Centres and resuming services for around 25 countries in accordance with the rules set by the respective governments. “Over the last few weeks, VFS Global’s Visa Application Centres (VACs) resumed operations, with a few countries opening up the application process for limited categories. Since then, visa applications for around 25 countries have resumed at select Centres across India,” according to an update from VFS Global

Meenakshi Sharma, Director General, Tourism, has said that apart from coming out with the incentive schemes for tour operators in the form of MDA for promotions nationally or internationally, they are also relaxing the rules for approval of tour operators, so that the benefits can go to those who haven’t been involved with us and also for the start-ups. “This is because the promotion and marketing budget for the smaller formations are not burdened to them and the Government can pick up some of that tab,” she added, while addressing a CII Webinar recently.

After winning points from this ongoing game, Pankaj Sharma, Partner, Shubh Yatra, located in Jaipur, says, “This contest by Tripjack is a very exciting concept and a lot of agents are enjoying participating in it. I have recommended my colleagues and friends in the industry to sign up for this. Not only it does it provide some entertainment, but you can also win great prizes and use the Tripjack points on their website – whether it is hotels, air tickets, or packages. Tripjack also offers great rates and amazing deals.” Top winners every week also get Jalesh Cruise Package, AirAsia Tickets, & Hotels Stays. Visit tripjack.com now!

More than nine out of 10 (92%) of consumers trust personal recommendations with regards to health and hygiene, according to a new WTTC report titled, ‘To recovery and beyond- the future of travel & tourism in the wake of COVID-19’.

Jitendra Jadhav, Asst. Director (Niche Tourism Division), Government of India, Ministry of Tourism, has said that the Ministry has been directed by Sectoral Group of Secretaries to form guidelines on wedding tourism. “For this, inputs of industry stakeholders such as ICPB and wedding planners including Rashi Entertainment have been sought. Rajeev Jain, MD, Raashi Entertainment has been instrumental in quickly providing us detailed inputs as sought from the industry. The proposed guidelines on wedding tourism/destination weddings are under process and is expected to be finalised soon by the Ministry after getting approval from competent authority,” he said.

Mandeep Singh Lamba, President (South Asia), HVS ANAROCK, has said, “Our prediction is that we should reach pre-pandemic occupancy level around the 3rd quarter of 2022, and RevPar level at 3rd quarter of 2023. Bounce back will start in the middle of next year. As standards of medical fraternity will rise somewhere in the next year, most of the people will be inoculated and hopefully some vaccine will be there,” he said at a recent webinar.

Shyam Agarwal, MD of Kolkata-based Shree Shyam Travels wins 5,000 Tripjack coins in the ongoing Tripjack Fantasy League contest. He can redeem the same for hotel & flight bookings on tripjack.com. Sharing his excitement, Agarwal says, “This is a very interesting concept. I rate Tripjack as a B2B operator very highly. In today’s competitive environment, one’s service needs to be prompt and their sales team has a very quick revert time. Their internal communication is very strong.” Join the IPL Fantasy contest now to win daily prizes. Weekly winners also win 2-night on Jalesh cruise for a couple.