Homestays in West Bengal is growing at a pace of 30 per cent compound annual growth rate, said Nandini Chakravorty, Principal Secretary, Tourism Department, West Bengal. She also revealed that the foreign tourist arrivals in the state have grown up by 2.57 per cent despite the slowdown in the global economy.  “The state government’s homestay policy encouraged the homestay sector and is growing at a CAGR of more than 30 per cent,” she claimed. Tourism minister Gautam Deb focused on the tourism and homestay policies and said that there are around 3000 homestays in north Bengal.

Air travel data and analytics company Cirium, in its latest report titled ‘On-time Performance Review 2019’, has named All Nippon Airways (ANA) as Asia Pacific’s most on-time mainline airline and network airline. Singapore Airlines achieves second place in the mainline airline category, followed by Thai AirAsia, JAL and Korean Air. India’s GoAir takes the tenth spot in APAC’s mainline airlines category.  It also reveals that Aeroflot leads the global ranking in most on-time mainline airline, while LATAM is the most on-time global network airline. According to the long-running analysis by Cirium, which provides the definitive ranking of the top 10 most on-time airlines and airports globally, by size and region, 86.7 per cent of Aeroflot’s flights operated on time in 2019.

FTAs from India’s top 10 markets increased at a CAGR of 5.5% during 2008–2018, reveals CAPA India. China’s rank improved to 7th in 2018 from 10th in 2017.  FTAs from Russia registered the highest CAGR of 11.2% during the last 10 years, followed by China (11.2%), Malaysia (10.7%) and Australia (9.0%). In 2018, Sri Lanka (16.5%) and c(14.0%) were the only two source markets (amongst the top 10) that saw double-digit year-on-year growth.

The latest findings of the World Travel Monitor by IPK International point to further growth in outbound trips from India in 2020. India’s market has recorded above-average growth in outbound travel: With an increase of seven per cent in the first eight months of 2019, outbound trips from India exceeded the average figure for Asia overall. Despite a large population and economic development India is not one of Asia’s high-volume source markets for outbound trips. It ranks fifth, a long way behind China, South Korea, Japan and even Taiwan. The World Travel Monitor is based on the results of representative interviews with more than 500,000 people in over 60 countries worldwide. It has been compiled for more than 20 years and is recognized as the most widescale continuous survey of global travel trends.

The U.S. State Department has recently issued a travel advisory warning tourists to exercise increased caution in certain areas of Brazil, citing the increased risk of crime. “Violent crime, such as murder, armed robbery, and carjacking, is common in urban areas, day and night,” according to the State Department advisory. “Gang activity and organized crime is widespread.  Assaults are common. U.S. government personnel are discouraged from using public, municipal buses in all parts of Brazil due to an elevated risk of robbery and assault at any time of day, and especially at night.”

Flood warnings and alerts have been issued across the UK as 80mph winds from Storm Brendan are expected to hit the country. The storm is expected to bring rain, gusts and flooding and will also hit some of the same areas which were devastated by the November 2019 floods, which affected families just before Christmas. Areas in Oxfordshire and Warwickshire were hit with delays for commuters, as well as damage to properties and roads in November last year. Coastal areas such as Hull, Hartlepool and Sunderland are due to be some of those who could be hit hardest by flooding in England. The storm hit the island of Ireland on Sunday night and has already affected homes in County Cork, with at least 400 homes seeing power cuts.

Australian authorities urged another mass evacuation across the heavily populated southeast region of Australia, as the return of hot weather fanned huge bushfires, threatening several towns and communities. Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews urged communities to be on alert ahead of the extreme conditions. “If you receive instructions to leave, then you must leave,” Andrews said in a televised briefing. “That is the only way to guarantee your safety.” Parts of Kangaroo Island, a wildlife-rich tourist spot off the southeast coast where Prime Minister Scott Morrison made a plea for foreign tourists not to be deterred by the fires, were again evacuated. A third of the island has been destroyed. Thousands have been made homeless and thousands have had to evacuate repeatedly because of the volatility of the fires.  

Thick, unhealthy smog continues to plague much of the Northern provinces in Thailand, with the worst pollution in Lampang province, and Bangkok residents were afflicted by unsafe fine-dust levels in eight districts. The Pollution Control Dept recently reported unsafe levels of particulate matter 2.5 micrometres and less in diameter (PM2.5) at 11 of the 15 air quality measurement stations it operates in the North. In the capital city, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration reported unsafe PM2.5 levels in eight districts — Klong San, Bang Khlaem, Wang Thonglang, Phra Nakhon, Klong Toey, Laksi, Bang Khen and Bung Kum. The capital’s most polluted air was measured at 58mcg in Bang Khen.

RezLive.com, under Travel Designer Group, have announced the launch of ‘Affiliate.Travel’, which would empower travel agencies and professionals managing business travel with their own booking engines without investing in technology. Affiliate.Travel will help Indian travel and tourism industry to create new success avenues with the rise of business travel in the country. Affiliate.Travel, allows travel agents to distribute their own booking platform to their corporate clients for managing reservations. Afilliate.Travel is powered by RezLive.com’s robust booking engine with access to over 250,000+ hotels, 45000+ sightseeing options and 5000+ transfer options. The booking tool is packaged with the innovative features of RezLive.com, complete with a payment gateway for seamless payment collection from corporate clients. Jaal Shah, Managing Director, Travel Designer Group said, “We are confident that Affiliate.Travel will help travel agent community to take business travel segment in India to new global heights.”

EbixCash, a fully owned subsidiary of Ebix, has announced a strategic travel technology partnership with Amadeus to grow its footprint across the Asia-Pacific region and UAE and become a one-stop shop for travel. The partnership will provide EbixCash’s online websites, travel agents and corporations in Asia-Pacific and UAE with greater access to the unrivalled breadth of content offered by the Amadeus Travel Platform , enabling EbixCash to better serve its customers. Robin Raina, Chairman of the Board, President & CEO, Ebix, said, “Our vision is to build an end-to-end travel solution for the industry. We want to empower travel agents and travellers alike. EbixCash today is the largest end-to-end financial exchange in the Indian sub-continent, besides its parent company Ebix being the largest insurance exchange in the world. We are always looking for new ways to stay ahead of our competitors. Partnering with Amadeus gives us access to innovative technology that will allow us to further expand our footprint across the region, especially in India, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, where we see the greatest potential. Our growth strategy is built on the premise of having an unrivalled ‘phygital’ presence in the region – combining our physical distribution outlets in Southeast Asia with an omnichannel digital presence that allows our seller partners to have access to extensive real-time data and ecommerce solutions across all digital channels. Amadeus’ technology empowers EbixCash to deliver this and truly become a one-stop shop for travel.”