NIMA held M!CE Forum 2022 in Jaipur from 29-31 July. Anand K Tripathi, Addl. Director, Rajasthan Tourism said that M!CE has huge potential. Jagdeep Bhagat, National Coordinator, NIMA, said, “The event offered a good networking opportunity to the members from across India. The idea behind this forum is to update the members about the opportunities in the industry and what’s going on in the world.”

Directorate of Tourism (DoT) along with MOT, organised a training workshop to officially kick-off the Annual Tourism Survey in Maharashtra. This exhaustive Annual Tourism survey will be carried out for 13 months and will help the tourism department understand the travel behaviour, the triggers and barriers when it comes to visiting Maharashtra.

MP Bezbaruah, Secretary General, Hotel Association of India (HAI), has said that for some time to come, domestic tourism will continue to be the driving force. “Expansion of accommodation and access will be crucial factor to sustain this tempo of domestic tourism,” he added.

Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, has recommended that MoCA may look into initiating direct flights between India and countries that are witnessing a rise in the number of outbound international tourists. “Thus, connectivity between India and its South Asian neighbours is of utmost importance for Indian tourism sector,” it said in a report.

Rajeev Menon, president of Marriott International, Asia Pacific excluding Greater China (APEC), has said that despite business taking a hit worldwide, investments in India were very strong. “Our team, just in the last 18 months, signed 27 deals in India,” he claimed.

Steve Borgia, CMD, INDeco Leisure Hotels, has said that they are developing a hotel product with no buildings. “I want to call it The Last Resort built in a beautiful mountain river area. It will be in 100 acres and I’m planning to start this project in three months. We have just acquired the land for the same,” he said.

Anita Mendiratta, Special Advisor to the Secretary General, UNWTO, has said that the rate of growth in India is fantastic. “International travel opened in India in March this year, and it’s the domestic market that’s lifted the base line of travel activity.”

Parliamentary Committee suggests that cooperation with other South Asian countries on joint tourism and advertising campaigns and steps to facilitate seamless travel of tourists between India and its neighbourhood would promote Inbound Tourism in India. It was one of the recommendations by the committee in a recent report.

In India, from 2019 to 2021, nights booked at unique properties have increased by over 30 percent, revealed Airbnb. Unique listings collectively earn ₹250 million in India just in 2021. Farmstays are the most-booked unique listing type in India, with more than 30,000 nights booked in 2021.

Travel and transportation services combined are likely to account for 21% of India’s total services exports in Financial Year 2022-23, compared to around 15% in the first half of 2021-22 and 2020-21, when the pandemic struck, according to SEPC. In pre-pandemic 2019-20, travel and transportation services made up nearly 23% of services exports of $213 billion.