Sabre Corporation has announced an enhanced partnership with one of India’s largest travel companies, Akbar Travels of India, cementing a valued two-decade long relationship between the two firms as Akbar forges ahead with plans for domestic and overseas growth. Akbar Travels is already a long-time user of Sabre solutions, having implemented Sabre’s APIs to drive operational efficiencies and the Sabre Automated Exchange solution to save costs and improve customer service. Now, Akbar Travels, which has 150 branches across India, 36 offices in the Middle East, Malaysia, UK, Italy and the US, has selected Sabre’s Content Services for Lodging APIs to enable its agents to more easily shop, compare and book more than a million lodging options for clients. “Sabre and Akbar Travels have had a long, valued and productive relationship, and we’re excited to be again expanding our partnership by using Sabre’s Content Services for Lodging technologies to provide further choice and even better service for our travellers. There are already clear signs of a pent-up demand for travel post Covid-19 and we needed technological solutions which provide us with the most intuitive way to shop and book for our travellers in order to provide truly personalized options for our clients,” said Mr. K.V. Abdul Nazar, Chairman & Managing Director of Akbar Travels of India. Sabre’s Content Services for Lodging powers agency and corporate booking tools, integrating traditional GDS content from hoteliers, alongside content from the likes of Booking.com, Bedsonline and Expedia Partner Solutions. The Sabre-led Content Services for Lodging has been integrated into Akbar Travels’ operations through Sabre Red 360, allowing agents access to real-time, rich content on an intuitive graphical interface to make it easier for agents to …

Eastern Himalaya Travel & Tour Operators’ Association (EHTTOA), Travel Agents’ Association of Bengal (TAAB) and Himalayan Hospitality & Tourism Development Network (HHTDN), have joined hands to come up with decisions and demands to try and pragmatically revive the tourism sector in the state. The associations have decided that travellers and agents who paid for a trip that later got cancelled because of the lockdown and pandemic will get a credit note for the full amount with one-year validity. “We have resolved to work together on common issues to expedite the industry’s revival. The idea is to go by a set of decisions which we have made and approach government departments and agencies so that relief in some form comes to the sector that we believe is the worst hit in the region,” said Sandipan Ghosh, General Secretary, EHTTOA. Telegraph

Hotel & Restaurant Association of Odisha (HRAO), has appealed Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/C), Tourism & Culture, to think of a long-term benefit for the tourism industry of Odisha. In a letter addressed to the Minister, JK Mohanty, Chairman, HRAO & IATO Eastern Region, has written, “On behalf of HRAO, we regret to inform that hotel industry of Odisha has not yet received any relief either from the Centre or from the State Government in spite of our continuous appeals explaining the miserable situation faced by the tourism industry. The hotel industry is bleeding profusely and reasons are very well known to your honour through our various correspondences and memorandums presented through our national chapters of HAI, FAITH, FHRAI, FICCI, CII, ICC, ASSOCHAM, PHD Chamber of Commerce, etc. In view of this, we appeal before you to think of a long term benefit that the tourism industry can contribute to the country in terms of employment, both Indian and foreign exchange earnings, image building of the country, and providing service to guests both Indian and foreigners. The Hotel industry as per Swami Vivekananda’s wording ‘Provide Service to mankind is service to God’. Both Union Govt. and the State Govt. must realize the benefit which the Govt. get than the relief which the industry is seeking for its survival.”

IFTM Top Resa will now be held from 17 to 20 November 2020 in Pavilion 1 of Porte de Versailles. Explaining the reason of pushing back the annual event by two months, Frédéric LORIN, Trade Show Director, says, “After this unparalleled crisis, we believe more than ever that it is essential to bring together professionals from the tourism industry.At the same time, as organisers, IFTM Top Resa must be able to provide a safe and stress-free environment for the trade show. We contacted around one hundred of our institutional partners and loyal exhibitors to listen carefully to their expectations and needs, and think about practical possibilities. Around 95% of them requested that the trade show be postponed until November; most producers and tourist destinations need time to work on their offerings, as many of them have been reduced to part-time work, following a 3-month lockdown and a huge slowdown in their business. More generally, everyone in the industry wants more time before financially committing to attending the trade show. I am delighted to officially announce that this essential event will be taking place – it is the only annual trade show in France that brings together all segments of this industry that has been so heavily impacted by the crisis –  with a focus on returning to business as usual in 2021.” The show this year will propose 10 separate zones (Africa, the Americas, Asia & Pacific, Caribbean, Destination France, Europe & Mediterranean, Generalists, Middle East, Indian Ocean, Tech Zone) and 10 thematic villages (Coach Operators, Business Travel, Parks, Cruises, Networks, Tour Operators, Mountain, and Influencers, Innovation and Start-up in the Tech Zone). IFTM Top Resa has already worked on …

Travel agents need to put forth their case before the Supreme Court to make the Bench conscious of the plight of travel agents while finally deciding the matter on issue of credit shells given by airlines instead of cash refunds, says Dheeraj Nair, Partner and Vishrutyi Sahni, Associate at J. Sagar Associates. “Every individual, including the Supreme Court judges are consumers to airlines. Thus, they understand the transaction between a consumer and an airline and relate to the impact of cancellations and refunds. However, non-members of the travel industry are not aware of the transaction between an airline and a travel agent and thus, cannot relate to the impact of cancellations and refunds on travel agents. Only by placing this information on record will the Supreme Court be able to understand the direct losses being faced by travel agents in case of non-refunds and consequentially enable them to order accordingly,” says the firm.

Jatinder Taneja, Vice-Chairman, PATA India Chapter, has revealed that they will be having the PATA Update & Outlook meet with the Ministry of Tourism on July 6, 2020. The idea behind the meeting is to apprise PATA members about the areas in focus for the MOT and the initiatives being taken by them.

Hahn Air has signed contracts with seven new airlines this year, namely Air Century (Y2), Cambodia Airways (KR), Divi Divi Air (3R), Eastern Airlines (2D), Eastern Airways (T3), Emetebe Airlines (ET) and Thai Smile Airways (WE). These airlines have joined the Hahn Air partner portfolio which includes more than 350 airlines. By using one or more of Hahn Air’s solutions, the seven new partners generate incremental revenue in additional markets. “Hahn Air offers solutions for airlines of any business model. For example, US carrier Eastern Airlines and Thai Smiles Airways from Thailand opted for our HR-169 product. They can sell their flights under their own two-letter-codes in the GDS while unlocking their non-BSP markets for indirect ticket sales. Our new X1-Air partners Emetebe Airlines, Eastern Airways, Air Century and Divi Divi Air outsourced their complete indirect distribution to Hahn Air Technologies. They can now sell their flights in Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport under the code X1. And finally, Dual Partner Cambodia Airways is combining the HR-169 and H1-Air products, thereby exploiting the full potential of primary and secondary markets,” said Alexander Proschka, Executive Vice President Commercial. With its ticketing and distribution solutions, the German airline Hahn Air facilitates global business between travel agencies and airlines. Hahn Air holds contracts with all major GDSs and is a member of the IATA Clearing House, almost all IATA BSPs as well as the settlement systems ARC and TCH. With this extensive technology infrastructure, Hahn Air enables its partner airlines to sell tickets through more than 100,000 travel agencies in 190 markets. Alexander Proschka adds, “Our products are cost efficient, effective and quickly to implement and therefore particularly interesting for airlines looking to kick-start …

S Jaishankar, Minister, External Affairs, has said that the introduction of chip-enabled e-passports will greatly strengthen the security of Indian travel documents. Underlining the need to expedite their roll out, he said that his ministry is working with Indian Security Press, Nashik, and National Informatics Centre for chip-enabled e-passports with advanced security features. “I am very confident that the introduction of e-passports will greatly strengthen the security of our travel documents. I understand that the procurement process for its production is currently underway and I would emphasise the need to hasten that as much as possible. I emphasise that it is necessary to roll out the manufacture of e-passports on a priority basis,” he said.

Sunil C Gupta, EC Member and Chairman- Northern Region, IATO, has said that they have appealed to the Minister of Tourism, Prime Minister and ASI to open Taj Mahal, since over two lakh residents of Agra associated with the tourism sector have been living without any activity in Agra for the last 3 months. “When malls, shops, markets and places of religious worship can be opened, surely the Taj can be opened, as it would be a great precursor to start domestic tourism within the region. The opening of the Taj Mahal would send the right signals for international and domestic tourism. The Government do this with teh right SOPs and facilitating online ticketing for the same.”

The Ministry of Tourism (MOT) met with major travel trade associations including, FAITH, IATO, ICPB, & ADTOI, where they gave suggestions on the way forward for the promotion of tourism, revealed Subhash Goyal, Secretary General, FAITH. The associations discussed plans for international promotions and marketing, wherein they suggested to target countries with fewer number of COVID cases and also focus on traditional markets like US and UK through various mediums.