As part of its commitment to enhance the visa system experience for students, United Kingdom Visas and Immigration (UKVI) has introduced flexibility in visa rules, with health precautions throughout the visa system, to ensure a comfortable and safe environment for all customers, especially incoming international students, along with its visa services partner VFS Global.  UK Visas and Immigration has introduced greater flexibility in visa rules, allowing students to apply for visas when they are able to travel to the UK, rather than at the start of their studies, with health precautions throughout the visa system along with visa services partner VFS Global, to ensure a comfortable and safe environment throughout the visa application process. Study visa applications for the UK can be made in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru (Global Tech Park only), Chandigarh, Chennai, Jalandhar, Kochi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai (Mahalaxmi only), New Delhi (Shivaji Metro Stadium only), and Pune. In order to ensure a safe environment for customers and employees, VFS Global has established standardised protective measures to be followed across all its UK Visa Application Centres. To ensure health and safety norms are followed, the centres have implemented a mandatory online appointment system, besides checking body temperature of all customers at the entrance, and maintaining physical distancing measures. Additionally, staff also carry out preventive measures such as disinfecting high-contact surfaces, body temperature screenings, use of hand sanitisers, regular hand washing, etc. Since 06 July 2020, UK Visa Application Centres have re-opened in 11 cities in India in a phased manner: Ahmedabad, Bengaluru (Global Tech Park only), Chandigarh, Chennai, Jalandhar, Kochi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai (Mahalaxmi only), New Delhi (Shivaji Metro Stadium only), and Pune – and these centres are receiving Tier 4 …

Kimarli Fernando, Chairperson, Sir Lanka Tourism has said that India and Middle East will be key source markets for Sir Lanka in the luxury tourism segment. “We are working on various touch points when to imrove our luxury products. Now we are focusing on identifying client to offer luxury rather than just marketing the country as a whole,” she said during TT ME digital conclave.

According to a KPMG report on the infrastructure sector, India needs an estimated USD50 billion in building airport assets over the next two decades to cater to demand, with the next five years expected to see significant investments in the airports’ sector. By 2027, the number of domestic passengers is estimated to be around 500 million, the report stated.

Luxury hospitality industry leader Hemant Mediratta recently launched a new river cruise brand, Antara Luxury River Cruises. Joining the company as Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, Mediratta has laid the agenda and a clear roadmap for expansion with new cruise ships and enhanced service offerings. He earlier served as Senior Vice President at Oberoi Hotels & Resorts.

According to a survey by Bengaluru airport, the intent to fly among respondents improved from a mere 13% in phase 1 to 33% in phase 5 owing to continuous enhancements in safety and hygiene measures at the airport. The survey was conducted over five phases from April 2020 to July 2020, to understand passenger sentiments around air travel. Contactless processing has also led to increase in passenger confidence in air travel.

According to a JLL report, Bengaluru’s hotel sector performance declined 59% in RevPAR in YTD July 2020 (YoY) but is expected to bottom out in Q4 2020 as domestic travel gains momentum. Occupancy was also down 53% YTD July (YoY)

Hotelogix, a Cloud PMS company, AxisRooms, a distribution company and RepUp, a guest experience management company have announced their merger into Hotelogix PTE, headquartered in Singapore. This three-way merger marks the radical beginning of a new era of hospitality solutions that will now be re-imagined and delivered by this integrated platform which will cover operations, distribution, reputation, marketing automation, and guest-facing technologies. The merger has given Hotelogix PTE an aggregate customer base spanning 100+ countries, powering 10000+ hospitality businesses ranging from hotels, resorts, boutique hotels, hostels to aparthotels, campsites, villas, vacation rentals, independents, and chains. With 200+ employees, the new entity has emerged as one of the largest SaaS providers for the hospitality sector in the APAC market and aims at aggregating 20K+ customers in the next 3 years. Hotels today use multiple systems through a guest’s lifecycle, from pre-booking to post-checkout stages, which then require integration of various systems leading to high costs, broken experience, delayed implementation, and fragmented support. Worst still, it leaves guests with sub-optimal stay experience. The core objective of the merger is to harness the power of data across operations, distribution and customer experience systems to deliver exceptional value and seamless experience to its clients’ customers. Aditya Sanghi who will continue to be the CEO at Hotelogix, said “With this merger, we will have a wide range of solutions to offer which will give superior value to our customers and increase our share of wallet. This definitely gives us a huge competitive edge against our competitors at a global level.” “I am very excited to work with the combined leadership, people, customers, partners and technologies in our journey ahead”, further added Aditya. Anil Kumar Prasanna, CEO at AxisRooms said “The future of hotel …

Thailand’s Dusit International is all set to re-enter the Indian market after the company announced its expansion in India and joined hands with real estate and hospitality major Jain Group. They will together set up a new 126-room property in New Town, Rajarhat, Kolkata by Q2 of 2022 with an investment of Rs 80 crore.

According to new independent research by Travelport, travellers in India are much more likely to book through a travel agent than before the COVID-19 crisis, with half (50%, compared to 33% globally) of all travellers anticipating an increase in their use of travel agent services. Globally, this trend was particularly evident among millennials (44%).

TAT India’s TogetherThailand digital campaign has entered today in its 4th and concluding week where the key theme focuses on new destinations in Thailand. Agents have to make an itinerary with 2 nights 3 days or 3 nights four days and post on social media platforms about Khao Yai / Chiang Rai/ Trat + Koh Chang/ Phangnga.