The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) will conduct a destination presentation today at 11am that will have a special focus on Busan. Along with KTO, the webinar will also have representatives from Busan Tourism Organization and a DMC joining in from Korea for product updates. Young Geul Choi, Deputy Director, Korea Tourism Organization, New Delhi office, says, “Each region of South Korea has its own unique feature and characteristic. To bring a better understanding of each special region, we decided to conduct a destination presentation with a special focus on Busan – South Korea’s second-most populous city. The local charm paired with attractions and shops are what draw people back to Busan. It is the perfect destination for slow travel, filled with hidden attractions in its side streets. It is also a food haven with its streets lined with restaurants and food vendors. The city is home to landmark attractions like the Oryukdo Skywalk, Haeundae Beach and the Haedong Yonggungsa Temple among others. With this webinar, travel agents can add more value to their South Korea itineraries and recommend it as the first choice once travel between India and South Korea resumes.” To sign up, contact Jaspreet Kaur on 9650196532 or jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com.  

Help Tourism and Not on Map in association with ICRT India (The International Centre for Responsible Tourism) has come up with an ingenious project “Project TraVival- Training for Travel Revival” exclusively for Rural communities, to aid rural areas of India to manage the crisis efficiently. They are coming up with a series of 150+ training videos in over 18 regional languages divided into 12 modules for Homestay owners, Village Panchayats, Teachers/Youth and Women of villages and travellers across India thus covering all stakeholders of ‘Rural Tourism’ in India. The entire training will be kept as open-source, free of any expenses and it aims to touch around 1 lac villages in India in next 1 year. Today in these times, when rural pockets of India are dried up economically and socially due to no business, TraVival plans to help in such rural parts categorically with the training for travel revival, and follow the extensive SOP for the COVID-19 prevention while enabling the business to sustain and grow. The project is an outcome of 3 months of continuous efforts after conducting more than 30 webinars involving over 2000 community members and around 50 organizations from across 17 states in India. These modules have been designed by subject matter experts to provide reliable and relevant training content to rural pockets. Rupesh Kumar K, Responsible Tourism Mission State Coordinator Govt of Kerala; Raj Basu, Founder Help Tourism and Rural Tourism advisor with Govt of Arunachal Pradesh; Arun Chandan Regional Director, RCFC North from the AAYUSH ministry, civil society DA (Development Alternative), Sachin Kumar an expert in Green livelihood and Impact evaluation are some of the domain experts who have been an integral part while …

In a webinar organised by ITDC on the revival of the hotel industry, Rakesh Kumar Verma, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism said that the first challenge for hotels and ministry after reopening of hotels to rebuild consumer confidence. “We have to jointly convince people that they have to trust the industry, otherwise the demand will not pick up,” he said.  

JB Singh, President & CEO, InterGlobe Hotels, has said that to drive the industry where we want to go, big policy intervention is needed. “One cannot drive policy intervention without changing the structure. I think the policy must have something that can do transformational change,” he said while speaking at CAPA India Webinar.

The first winner of the ongoing Tripjack Fantasy League contest is AR Vinoth Kumar, Proprietor, VKM Travels, from Port Blair. He wins the second prize of 7,500 Tripjack coins that he can redeem on the Tripjack website. Commenting on this, Kumar says, “I love cricket and follow IPL regularly. I have been working with Tripjack for two years and like their quick payment and auto-update system online.” Join the IPL Fantasy contest now on tripjack.com and win daily prizes.

The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) will conduct a destination presentation on Friday, September 25 at 11am that will have a special focus on Busan. Along with KTO, the webinar will also have representatives from Busan Tourism Organization and a DMC joining in from Korea for product updates. Young Geul Choi, Deputy Director, Korea Tourism Organization, New Delhi office, says, “Each region of South Korea has its own unique feature and characteristic. To bring a better understanding of each special region, we decided to conduct a destination presentation with a special focus on Busan – South Korea’s second-most populous city. The local charm paired with attractions and shops are what draw people back to Busan. It is the perfect destination for slow travel, filled with hidden attractions in its side streets. It is also a food haven with its streets lined with restaurants and food vendors. The city is home to landmark attractions like the Yongdusan Park escalator and the popular Busan Tower among others. With this webinar, travel agents can add more value to their South Korea itineraries and recommend it as the first choice once travel between India and South Korea resumes.” To sign up, contact Jaspreet Kaur on 9650196532 or jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com.

Tourism New Zealand virtually launched its new campaign ‘Messages from New Zealand’ today in presence of Steven Dixon, Regional Trade Marketing Manager, Asia, Tourism New Zealand and His Excellency, David Pine, New Zealand’s High Commissioner to India. ‘Messages from New Zealand’ features everyday New Zealanders sharing video messages of hope and care with their international whānau (family), presenting a unique Kiwi perspective about what is important to them. The campaign showcases locals who embody the values of manaakitanga (hospitality) and kaitiakitanga (care for the land) through positivity and encouragement. This beautifully captures their wholesome messages of kindness and compassion to family, friends and loved ones all around the world. The campaign will be released through social and digital channels. Each of these ‘Messages’ will show that New Zealand is a country which is driven by what matters in life, underpinned by the purity of its values such as Manaakitanga and Kaitiakitanga. And to build on the success of these webinars, and further engage and educate agents, Tourism New Zealand will launch a ‘Virtual Road Trip’ campaign later this week. The ‘Virtual Road Trip’ will showcase a different region of the country each month. This campaign will be shared on Tourism New Zealand’s travel trade website. To bring to life the campaign in India, Tourism New Zealand will be partnering with its Indian whānau, including influencers – who have a strong affinity with New Zealand – highlighting their own personal experiences and connections with the country. Commenting on the campaign, Dixon says, “The travel industry has been impacted by the Covid-19 crisis tremendously in the past few months and it is important now more than ever, that we stay connected to visitors and our travel …

Rajesh Mudgill, Hony. Secretary, IATO has informed that Ministry of Tourism has proposed a new category called green shoots or stand-ups for granting recognition to start-ups. “Anyone starting a new business will be able to apply for MOT recognition without any specific capital or turnover requirement. This can earn them a provisional recognition valid for 3 years,” he said.

Ebixcash Tours & Travels has become the preferred travel & forex partner of 5 IPL teams. The company will handle travel needs of players and provide end to end support including charter flights, ground transportation, foreign exchange, hotel rooms and event insurance coverage.   A fully owned subsidiary of Ebix Inc., EbixCash has announced that it is handling the travel needs for five of the eight franchises involved in an 82-day Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket sporting extravaganza in Dubai. Under the leadership of Naveen Kundu, Managing Director, EbixCash Tours & Travels, EbixCash has been able to secure this prestigious assignment. As a part of this engagement of EbixCash independently by five of the IPL Franchises, EbixCash is handling approximately 19,000 plus hotel room night bookings for four franchises, chartered flights for five franchises, ground transportation for two franchises, foreign exchange needs for the entire entourage of four of the teams and event insurance coverage for one team. Kings XI Punjab, Delhi Capitals, Rajasthan Royals, Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings are the five franchises who have engaged EbixCash Tours and Travels for varied travel needs of each of the franchises. Sharing his views on the deal, Kundu says, “We are honoured to have been chosen as the vendor of choice by the majority of the IPL franchises. Their decision was made easier with EbixCash emerging as the only end-to-end services provider who could handle their varied needs under one window. Our depth of products and services, international expanse, travel expertise and the past record was instrumental in us being selected for this prestigious engagement.” Robin Raina, Chairman of the Board, President & CEO, Ebix, said, “In COVID-19 times, …

The 36th IATO Annual Convention scheduled to be held in Ahmedabad in September 2020 has been postponed for a year due to COVID-19 situation and is now scheduled to be hosted in September 2021 at the same venue. New dates of the convention will be finalised in due course and will be decided mutually by IATO and Gujarat Tourism.