Domestic air passenger traffic grew to 14.41 crore in 2019, an increase of just 3.74 per cent compared to 2018, revealed Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).  The domestic air passenger traffic grew by 18.6 per cent to 13.89 crore in 2018. The decline in growth is attributed to the collapse of Jet Airways in April 2019. The passenger load factors of all major airlines – Air India, SpiceJet, GoAir, IndiGo, AirAsia India and Vistara. The domestic air passenger traffic in December 2019 increased by 2.56 per cent to 1.30 crore compared to the same month in 2018. In comparison, the growth in domestic traffic in November 2019 was 11.18 per cent.

India will be the sixth strongest source markets for International Visitor Arrivals (IVAs) into Asia Pacific between 2019-2024, according to a forecast by Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA). India is predicted to generate IVAs of 6.825mn during this period. The top ten strongest source markets into Asia Pacific between 2019 and 2024 are forecast to include China, the Republic of Korea and Hong Kong SAR in the top three positions, generating a collective volume of more than 369 million IVAs over that period. These three source markets alone are also predicted to generate an additional volume of more than 106 million IVAs into Asia Pacific over the same period. The top group of 11 destinations by strongest IVA increase is likely to account for 77 per cent of the IVA volume into Asia Pacific in 2024. In addition, it is predicted that nine out of 10 destinations will have AAGRs (between 2019 and 2024) in excess of 10 per cent, with India touching an AAGR of 11.5 per cent.

Up to Jan 19, 2020, outbound travel bookings from China were 7.3% ahead compared to the equivalent period of last year, but a week later, they were 6.8% behind after travel restrictions were introduced owing to Coronavirus outbreak, according to ForwardKeys data. Bookings to China have declined from 4.5% ahead to 7.2% behind the previous year over the same time period. The epidemic has caused a substantial setback in flight bookings for the Chinese New Year period, 10th January – 6th February 2020.

Hospitality industry in India has stringent policies which is detrimental to the sector. Mandeep Lamba, President(South Asia), HVS Anarock, further elaborating on his recent report, states that given limited supply of suitable land parcels for hospitality projects and prohibitive costs of the same, the government must relax FSI norms in key metros to upto 5 times the size of land so as to allow a larger built up space in the designated land parcel. in countries like the US, prime business areas such as Manhattan in New York, could have up to 15 FSI allowing for adequate offset for the cost of land through larger revenue generating built up areas.

Ajay Bakaya, MD, Sarovar Hotels & Resorts says, “We are looking forward to opening around 10-15 hotels in 2020 and I hope to crack 100-hotel mark by the end of this year, which means we will be opening 800 plus rooms this year. Some of the locations where we will be opening our hotels are, Morbi, Dalhousie, Latur, Udaipur, Jalandhar, Katra, Greater Noida West etc.

Major Indian and global airlines are witnessing a high number of flight booking cancellations to many cities of China amid the deadly coronavirus outbreak. IndiGo Cathay Pacific and British Airways have suspended flights to the mainland China. In addition,  Air India, Singapore Airlines, SpiceJet, IndiGo, AirAsia, Shandong Airlines, Air China, Cathay Pacific and China Eastern have waived off charges for any cancellation or flight change. Indigo has suspended flights on Delhi-Chengdu route and the Bengaluru- Hong Kong flight effective February 1 till February 20, while Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific is reducing the capacity of its flights to and from mainland China by 50 per cent or more, from January 30 to the end of March 2020. Air India has announced that Reissue/ No-Show/Cancellation and Refund charges for all international tickets for travel to/from China till February 24 is waived off. Air Asia and Cathay Dragon have also extended suspension of flights to and from Wuhan and allowed credit account/refund for other mainland China bookings. Air India and Indigo have enabled the waiver of ticket change and cancellation fee on the bookings within the next one month. Shandong Airlines is also providing waiver on full refund of tickets issued for travel to/from China. Whereas, Rebooking, rerouting and refund charges on Cathay Pacific/Cathay Dragon will be waived off for all tickets issued worldwide for confirmed bookings arriving to or departing from mainland China between January 28 and March 31. IndiGo currently runs two daily direct flights to China, one is on Delhi-Chengdu route and another is on Kolkata-Guangzhou route. It will start a daily flight on Mumbai-Chengdu route from 15 March. Air India has only one direct flight to China and it …

Sabre Corporation and Accor have announced that they intend to create the first unified central reservation (CR) and property management (PM) platform for the global hospitality industry. In collaboration with Accor, Sabre intends to develop a new full service property management capability and enrich its existing central reservation and limited service property management systems. These capabilities will combine within a new unified cloud-native, highly-flexible platform that will be built for and available to hoteliers across all property classes and geographic regions. In this context, Accor would be Sabre’s newest enterprise hospitality customer, adopting Sabre’s industry-leading SynXis Central Reservation system and, ultimately, the new global technology platform for all of its hospitality brands and geographies. “We are thrilled to be collaborating with Accor and look forward to redefining the guest experience together. We know our customers have historically had limited options in this area, and we are taking the lead to deliver the solutions that hoteliers have repeatedly told us they both want and need,” said Sean Menke, president and CEO of Sabre Corporation. “Once developed, this offering will power a new generation of retailing, distribution and fulfillment solutions that will enable hotels to drive revenue growth beyond traditional sources and offer unique personalized services to their guests around the world.” With a diverse portfolio of brands from luxury to economy and over 50 years of experience in the industry, Accor offers a unique perspective on what guests want and hotels need. “Sabre shares our vision of a future where hoteliers are able to offer guests an unforgettable, personalized experience that goes beyond simply being a place or service,” said Sébastien Bazin, Chairman and CEO for Accor. “Partners like Sabre are …

The Sun Temple at Konark, Odisha will soon be included in the list of iconic tourist sites, said the Union Tourism Minister, Prahlad Singh Patel. Last year, the government announced in budget to develop 17 tourism sites across the country under the Iconic Tourist Sites Development Project with a budget of Rs 5000 crore. Leaders and stakeholders from Odisha have since then demanding to include the Sun Temple of Konark in the list. No other destination from the state was included in the list. “The people of Odisha will soon receive the good news about Konark being included in the list of iconic sites. We will organise a special event to announce the inclusion very soon,” said the Minister while addressing at the concluding ceremony of two-day long National Tourism Conference at Konark. He also visited the Sun temple and reviewed the necessary preservation plans with the Archaeological Survey of India officials. Last year, there was a huge hue and cry about Konark not making it to the list announced by the Ministry of Tourism. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had requested the Union Tourism Minister to include at least two tourist places of importance from the state in the list of iconic tourist sites to be developed by the Centre.

In order to handle the increase in passenger traffic on the Tel Aviv-New Delhi sector, Air India has announced that they are doubling the frequency on the route to six flights per week from April. Air India started with three flights a week to Tel-Aviv in 2018 and would make this to six flights-a-week from April 1 this year. The announcement was made by Indian Ambassador in Israel Sanjeev Singla during the Republic Day celebrations at the Indian Embassy in Delhi recently. “Direct Air India flight connectivity between New Delhi and Tel Aviv is a game-changer in our bilateral relations reflecting the importance we attach to people-to-people linkages and connectivity. The direct flights have greatly enhanced movement of people between the two countries resulting in an increase in tourism and also facilitating the travel of the business community.” Every flight from Tel Aviv has almost 50 per cent of passengers travelling beyond Delhi to domestic destinations within India and international destinations including Singapore, Thailand, Australia, Shanghai, Hongkong, Sri Lanka and Nepal, a press release issued by Air India said.

MITT will launch new travel technology sector in 2020. The new sector will be a key hub for travel and booking software providers looking to expand their reach into the valuable Russian market. With 4,000 visitors interested in travel technologies at last year’s show, the Travel Technology sector will be a key interest for visitors, helping to attract a highly targeted audience of travel agents and other industry professionals. With its move to Crocus Expo in 2020, MITT will offer even more space for business and networking. The expansion consolidates MITT’s position as an unmissable industry hub, bringing professionals together to network, do business, and discuss the most prevalent issues facing the travel industry.