The Agra district administration (ADA) is mulling plans to reopen the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort for tourists in the second week of September. A final date has not been decided yet. However, it is speculated that other ASI protected monuments in the region like Fatehpur Sikri and Sikandara Tomb will open by the end of this month.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the proposal for leasing out Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram airports, which are currently run by Airports Authority of India (AAI) through Public Private Partnership (PPP). Adani Enterprises had won the bid last year to operate, manage and develop these airports for next 15 years.  

Speaking on charter flights, Nilesh Shah, President, Travel & Tourism Association of Goa, says, “We request the government to allow international charter flights into India from October-end which is when the season starts from key markets such as the UK, Germany, Russia and Scandinavian countries. If the state government is serious about restarting tourism, then it has take such bold steps.”

Yatra Online has announced its collaboration with Amazon Business, in an effort to provide hospitality partners with products, catering to the hospitality segment.- Hospitality partners can access over 15 crore products ranging from commercial-grade kitchen appliances, home décor products, large appliances, consumer electronics, office supplies and much more with GST invoice and with discounts linked to bulk volume purchase. Commenting on this association Dhruv Shringi, Co-founder & CEO, Yatra.com, said, “We are glad to announce our association with Amazon Business to help our hospitality partners for all their daily and monthly product requirements. This is another step towards diversification of our portfolio beyond travel. Backed with our extensive network of hotels across India, we are moving ahead to extend our portfolio through seamless integration on the Yatra partner platform. Amazon has been a market leader in the e-commerce space and through Amazon Business, we want to offer an avenue to our partners where necessities are just a ‘click’ away.” Sharing his comments on the tie-up, Peter George, Director, Amazon Business, said, “We are happy to partner with Yatra.com and help its hospitality partners get access to a one stop destination for all their emerging operational needs. Amazon Business marketplace helps business customers conveniently discover and save on over 15 Cr products ranging from commercial grade kitchen appliances, Large Appliances, Home Décor, Office supplies and storage solutions and more with the added advantage of GST invoice for input tax credit and bulk purchase discounts. The partnership will help our sellers reach lakhs of hotels across the country as they kick-start operations again.”     This initiative is live on Yatra’s hospitality partner platform and is available pan-India. Extending the company’s purpose of …

JLL’s Q2 2020 performance trend chart revealed that Mumbai continues to be RevPAR leader in absolute terms despite the decline of RevPAR by 81% in comparison to Q2 2019. All key 11 markets in India witnessed a decrease in RevPAR Performance in Q2 2020 over the same period last year Mumbai continues to be the RevPAR leader in absolute terms, despite the decline of RevPAR by 81% in Q2 2020 compared to Q2 2019 Goa saw the sharpest decline in RevPAR in Q2 2020, with a 93.9% decline compared to the same period in the previous year. ‘Vande Bharat Mission’ remains a major demand generator for hotels in key cities. Total no. of signings in Q2 of 2020 stood at 7 hotels comprising of 673 keys, witnessing a decline of 83% of signings in terms of inventory over the same period last year. International hotel operators dominated signings over Domestic operators with the ratio of 63:37 in terms of inventory volume.

Tourism Minister Prahlad Singh Patel along with MOT officials met legendary cricketer and Padma Bhushan awardee Kapil Dev to discuss the promotion of tourism, especially golf tourism in India.   .  

Vistara will operate special, non-stop flights between Delhi and London Heathrow from 28 August to 30 September 2020, marking its foray in long-haul international operations. The flights have been introduced as part of the bilateral ‘transport bubble’ formed between India and the UK. During the period, Vistara will fly thrice a week between the two cities – on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The one-way fares from Delhi to London start from INR 29,912 in Economy Class, INR 44,449 in Premium Economy, and INR 77,373 in Business Class. Bookings for these flights are being progressively opened on all channels, including Vistara’s website, mobile app, and through travel agents. The airline will deploy its brand-new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft on the route to provide an exceptional, non-stop flying experience to travellers in both directions. The airline also received its second Dreamliner aircraft recently, further strengthening its fleet to operate more such long-haul flights and expand its international operations. Vistara is also seeking necessary regulatory approvals to soon operate similar special flights to Paris, France and Frankfurt, Germany. Leslie Thng, Chief Executive Officer, Vistara, said, “As the world starts opening up in a phased manner following an extended global lockdown, these special flights give us the privilege of facilitating travel between the two countries. We are confident that travellers will appreciate having the choice of flying India’s only five-star airline to and from London, which also upholds the highest standards of safety and hygiene.” “The arrival of our second Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner further strengthens our fleet and underlines our commitment to expanding globally. There is an inherent need for an Indian carrier with a modern fleet, world-class cabin products and onboard service to …

Airline and travel management company, InterGlobe Air Transport (IGAT) has launched its new website. IGAT provides diverse expertise across passenger and cargo sales, which will be showcased through a modern, well-organized, and easy to navigate website. It has been revamped to address the need of the current business landscape and is in-line with the company’s mission to provide its customers with the resources and tools to understand the experience and gain knowledge about the company’s three decades in the business. Commenting on the launch of the refurbished website, Siddhanta Sharma, President & CEO, InterGlobe Air Transport, said, “The business landscape has tremendously changed over the last few months with the global pandemic. In an era when every business is moving online, we felt there was a need to refurbish our digital presence to address the need of the hour.  We are delighted to launch our new user-friendly brand website, which will make all relevant information on our services easily accessible to our customers across the globe. By investing resources in the focused development of a modern age interface, we have ensured that the website allows prospective customers to find business-relevant information with the utmost ease. We are confident that this new website will not only serve our existing customers but also be instrumental in landing new business for the company.” The website is designed to deliver a smooth experience by enabling efficient navigation between passenger services, cargo services, car rental and other pages. InterGlobe Air Transport has worked with Multia – the design division of Multiversity Group  to completely revamp its website – www.interglobeairtransport.com

After successfully organizing & operating a number of repatriation flights in last two months, bringing back thousands of stranded Indians home, CapaJet has announced that it would be operating new flights beginning 19th August targeting key routes in South East Asia & Pacific. These flights will be operating from Jakarta, New Delhi, Port Moresby, Nadi and will touch down in Delhi, Singapore & Jakarta. These flights will operate in accordance with the directive released by the Ministry of External Affairs and the Department of Civil Aviation India to bring back stranded Indians in the country. The first flight will be between Delhi, Singapore & Jakarta on 19th August followed by another Jakarta-Delhi flight on 22nd August. While online bookings have already started and tickets are selling fast, there are limited seats available. All the necessary approvals to run these special flights have been granted by the authorities of relevant countries. The flight from Port Moresby to Delhi will depart on the 23rd of August while Nadi-New Delhi is scheduled for 24th August. CapaJet is committed to providing high-end service and comfortable flying experience to its flier. To ensure this, the company has selected Singapore Airlines and Garuda Airlines to operate its long-haul Asia and APAC repatriation mission. CapaJet has emerged as a preferred repatriation carrier in last few with months and we have received overwhelming praise for its past flights. Komal Seth, India Representative – CapaJet said, “At CapaJet, we are constantly engaging & collaborating with various governments to ensure that stranded citizens from around the world reach their home. All our missions have been very successful so far and these upcoming flights targeted in the pacific & Southeast Asian …

PATA India Chapter requested the Minister of Tourism that since all states have different SOPs and quarantine rules, there is a need to develop on the One Country One Rule concept. Runeep Sangha, Executive Director, PATA India Chapter said, “The MOT website should be one point of authentic information for tourists, and if there are any changes, they should first be intimated to MOT, who can update its website accordingly before they are put into the public domain. We also told them that tourism is a perishable commodity, and if the moment is gone, the opportunity is gone, and the result is that you lose revenues which will never come back. Therefore, it’s important for related ministries to understand that and work together with MOT as one. Another point we made was that there are over 50 NTOs that are jostling for the attention of FTOs, so we should focus on FTOs, work hand-in-glove with them for promotions and incentives and if we do that =, our returns will be better. In advertising, we should focus on travel trade media rather than mainstream media, because the rate of response to travel trade media will be much higher than that in mainstream media. On domestic tourism, there should be commonality of rules and regulations between states, and they should provide relief to people who go on domestic holidays. Instead of twice in a block of 4 years, they should make it every year.”