Ahead of ‘The Great India Road Show’ by TravelBullz in Delhi, KD Singh, Founder & President, TravelBullz said that they are coming up with three new destinations in 2020. He adds, “We have just gone live with Dubai. We have come up with a product which takes Dubai to the next level as far as the experience is concerned. For instance, with us, clients get a complimentary one-hour stretch limo ride in Dubai. Coming up in March 2020 are two more new products that we will be offering to the industry – Singapore and Bali. We have already established our Singapore office. This will be followed by Bali over the next couple of weeks.” He further informed that the roadshow will be an annual event where hotels across the UAE, Thailand, Macau, Singapore, Bali, etc will showcase their products.

Meenakshi Sharma, Director General, Ministry of Tourism, has said that they are very happy about the budget announcement, and will be using the same for developing infrastructure for iconic sites and other existing schemes by the MOT, apart from global promotions.  She says, “We are getting a budget of around Rs. 2500 crores and we have sufficient funds to go on with our existing schemes. We also look forward to develop the iconic sites, for which we will use more funds. For the iconic sites, our responsibility is to create major infrastructure. Hence, the focus will be on iconic sites, Swadesh Darshan, and Prasad schemes. OF course, the global promotions always remains an important thing. The Incredible India 2.0 scheme has panned out very well. We will be continuing with our theme. For domestic promotions—Dekho Apna Desh, the Prime Minister has already urged all Indian to visit Indian destinations before going anywhere else. This is something we are also going to talk about in our domestic promotions.”

Accor will open Grand Mercure Bengaluru, Raffles Udaipur, ibis Mumbai LBS Road and Novotel Mumbai International Airport by end of this year, says, Jean-Michel Cassé, Chief Operating Officer (COO) –India & South Asia, Accor. He further says, We also have the Raffles Jaipur and Fairmont Mumbai Sahar in the pipeline. At Accor, we have budgeted for a 12 percent RevPAR growth for 2020.”

Tarja Koivisto, Account Manager, Global Sales Promotions, Visit Finland, has revealed that the country has recorded a 27% increase in 2019 over 2018. “I am extremely happy about the Indian market. We had this milestone of 100,000 overnights, and we crossed that last year. In 2019, we had a 27% increase from 2018 in overnights. We measure overnights at Visit Finland and do not consider arrivals. Hence, we would like people to stay longer when they come to Finland,” she said. Koivisto was speaking at the side lines of the Visit Finland India Workshop in Delhi. A total of 14 Finnish partners participated in the workshop in Delhi and Mumbai.

The Government of Odisha has approved eight more investment proposals worth Rs.1,649.49 crore in the 89th State Level Single Window Clearance Authority (SLSWCA) meeting, out of which two are hotel proposals. The projects were approved in food processing, chemicals, plastics, tourism, steel downstream and infrastructure and will create employment opportunities for 1,450 people. In the tourism sector, a project by M/s Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels Ltd. for expansion of its five-star hotel with an investment of Rs 150 crores, has been approved which will provide employment for 150 people and another proposal by M/s Kamat Hotels (India) Ltd. for expansion of its five-star hotel, with an investment of Rs. 52 crore has also been approved and it will provide an additional employment to around 160 people.

Air India has resumed the biweekly flight operations from the Kozhikode to Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) after 5 years, revealed Ministry of Civil Aviation in a recent tweet. The flight between Calicut International Airport and Jeddah would be using a Boeing 747-400, to operate on a Monday and Saturday every week. The flight will land at Calicut at 7.05 a.m. and depart for Jeddah at 5.30 p.m. The flight will reach Jeddah at 9.15 p.m. From Jeddah, the flight will depart from Fridays and Sundays at 11.15 p.m. Regarding configuration, the jet will have 12 seats for first class, 26 for business and 385 for economy.

The Golden Chariot is all set to restart its operations from 22nd March, after almost a two-year break. The train completed a decade’s run in 2018. The marketing and operations of the luxury train was given to the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) in November 2019 after the KSTDC signed an agreement. The train was discontinued temporarily in 2018 after the Government took note of the ₹41 crore losses the train had incurred. The train would run three tours – two existing routes, and a third one – a short trip of three nights. The next season onwards from October, the train will start running all three – Pride of Karnataka, Southern Splendour, and a third new route of four days and three nights that covers Bengaluru, Mysuru, Bandipur, Chikkamagaluru, Hampi and back. Badami and Goa have been excluded. This tour is aimed at giving the chariot experience to more people at a reduced cost. The train has gone through a refurbishment both in external design as well as in interiors. IRCTC will be launching publicity of the train in the upcoming ITB Berlin.

Cross Hotels & Resorts has entered into a strategic alliance with Buzz Travel Marketing India. The exclusive General Sales Agent (GSA) agreement facilitates Cross Hotels & Resorts move into the fastest growing travel market in APAC at a challenging period in the global travel industry. “India is the most dynamic market in the Asia Pacific region with more than 50 million people forecast to take overseas trips this year. For many years, India has been a key source market for Thailand and the Southeast Asian region. Indian business and leisure travellers contribute to a diversity of segments that include weddings, MICE, leisure, FITs and group travel. In 2019, Thailand alone received 1.9 million Indian arrivals, setting a new record for tourism trade between the two countries,” said Paul Wilson, Executive Vice President, Commercial at Cross Hotels & Resorts. Always on the front foot looking to advance its global customer base, Cross Hotels & Resorts continues to actively seek out dynamic partners that will help boost its global distribution network. “This alliance is a major investment for us and one that I believe will bear fruit. I am keenly aware of the development of the India travel market and as such we’re totally committed to delivering memorable experiences for all our guests. As a team we shall be incisive, focused and uncompromising in our approach and I am confident the Cross Hotels – Buzz Travel partnership will be very exciting venture.” “We are delighted with this partnership with Cross Hotels & Resorts, the hospitality brand which serves as a perfect fit for the new-age Indian travellers. As an increasing number of Indian travellers continue to fly to Southeast Asia for leisure …

Upset by the recent proposal by the IT department to impose 5% TCS on overseas remittance as well as sale of overseas tour package, the travel trade has united to file online petitions on the PMO website urging the government to withdraw the same, claims Pradeep Saboo, Partner, Guideline Travels LLP. He said that he realised there was an urgent need to represent the travel trade to the government on this issue. “Even though I am not part of any trade association, I wanted to bring the industry together in some small way. I have started encouraging travel agents and tour operators like me to go on the PMO grievance website and post their contact details along with the message for withdrawing TCS.” The link for this is https://pmopg.gov.in/pmocitizen/Grievancepmo.aspx where the agent will need to fill in the contact details and put in their suggestion. To help with this, Saboo has also created a ready message that they can copy-paste in the feedback box. He started this on Friday, February 14, 2020 and more than 5,000 individuals signed up for this within the first 48 hours. Saboo pleads, “Please spare two minutes to make a difference to our trade which is facing a very difficult time. This will also affect those who sell cruises.” Saboo adds that he will arrange a meeting between the various trade associations and the travel agents and tour operators soon, post which they will look to send a delegation to meet the PMO or the Finance Ministry.

Winner of multiple India Travel Awards, online B2B Destination Management Company TravelBullz will kickstart its two-city roadshow titled ‘The Great India Road Show’ in Mumbai on February 19, 2020. It will bring together more than 50 hotels and attractions from Thailand. The ‘Great India Road Show’ is a unique platform for hoteliers and travel partners to meet under one roof. Over 200 agents are expected to attend the event in Mumbai. TravelBullz will also take this opportunity to announce new products and initiatives to its travel trade partners. It will launch its new, revolutionary B2B online booking engine “Phoenix” – with its enhanced user interface and ease of booking experience for its partners. It will also launch its first-ever B2B dynamic packaging module along with the showcasing destination – Dubai – that has been recently added to its product portfolio.