KD Singh, Founder & President, TravelBullz, announces a new feather to its cap with the launch of a new destination – Maldives – on the occasion of its tenth anniversary. “It is a momentous day for TravelBullz as we complete ten years of redefining B2B travel business. We started from India and expanded to Thailand, Hong Kong, Macao, Dubai, Bali and Singapore. Today, I’m happy to announce Maldives as another destination that we will offer,” he reveals.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his speech on Independence Day, has said that as part of development work in Ladakh, work is going on towards starting new courses for hotel and management in the Union Territory. “Nestled in the heights of the Himalayas, Ladakh is progressing towards new heights. Work is going on for a central university, setting up new research centres, new courses for hotel and management. Plan is also under way for the creation of 7,500 MW Solar Park. Ladakh has several specialties. Not only do we have to preserve them, we must nurture them as well. As Sikkim has made its mark as an Organic State in the northeast, Ladakh, Leh and Kargil can also create their own niche as a Carbon Neutral unit. Indian government has joined hands with the locals of the region to create a new model of development as per their own requirements.

AirAsia India has become the most punctual airline for the month of July 2020 with an OTP of 98.1%, according to statistics released by DGCA for domestic airlines. Air Asia is followed by IndiGo (97.6%), Vistara (95.9%), SpiceJet (93.2%), Go Air (91.3%) and Air India (89.3%)

Korea Tourism Organization will conduct a webinar today at 3pm for the Indian travel trade that will focus on Korea as a perfect destination for luxury experiences. The tourism board invites members of the trade to sign up for this by contacting Jaspreet Kaur on 9650196532 or jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com.

Recent statistics from ForwardKeys have claimed that Delhi-Mumbai and Mumbai-Delhi have been the top 2 most searched domestic routes in India in July 2020. However, In July 2019, Delhi-Goa and Goa-Delhi were the top 2 most searched routes.

Swadesh Kumar, President, ATOAI, revealed that in their recommendation to the minister, they have said that the COVID-19 guidelines which have been formulated by ATOAI for the adventure tourism activities should be accepted by the MOT, so that it can be circulated to the entire country and the state governments.

Pradip Lulla, Vice- President, Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI), has said that they have postponed their elections, which were due this year. “We had an MC meeting recently, where we took a decision on our elections. Because of the pandemic, we have decided to postpone our elections. We will continue having our AGMs though.”

JLL’s Hotel Momentum India (HMI) Q2 2020, has revealed that Goa saw the sharpest decline in RevPAR in Q2 2020, with a 93.9 percent drop compared to the same period in the previous year.

Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI, has said that they had met Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of Tourism & Culture, along with the other association heads, where they have requested him to initiate a meeting with Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Civil Aviation, so that they can discuss their issues with him, especially regarding restructuring tourism business, refunds, money stuck with airlines, and also about Air India and the service fee that the agents charge for booking VBM flights.

Mehernosh Colombowalla, Director, Beyond Borders Travel Management Company, believes that going forward, when travel restarts, there should be relaxation in refunds and cancellations form service providers like hotels, airlines and tourism boards. “Going forward, I would like to see a little more relaxed policies from service providers in terms of cancellations and refunds so. For example, when a client is overseas and gets infected by the virus, we would expect the hotel to give refund on the remaining part of the stay, and airlines should be more accommodative in both charges for re-booking or even refund on the return portion of the journey, whatever the fare type maybe, in case the client has to come back on the first available flight. Hence, collectively we just need to work together to build trust and make sure that the client does not feel that he’s going to have huge losses if he contracts the virus when he is on a vacation overseas,” he commented at the 5th TravTalk Digital Conclave.