The second premium Tejas train has started plying between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, which was flagged off by Chief Minister of Gujarat, Vijay Rupani from Ahmedabad. It has started its commercial run, in line with the success of semi-high speed and fully air-conditioned Lucknow-Delhi Tejas Express. Passengers can book their tickets for the train exclusively on IRCTC website and its mobile app ‘Irctc Rail Connect’. There will be no booking at railway reservation counters. However, passengers can get their tickets booked through IRCTC authorised agents. The train will also be available for booking through IRCTC’s online travel portal partners. The fully air-conditioned train shall have two Executive Class Chair Cars having 56 seats each and Eight Chair Cars having capacity of 78 seats each. The total carrying capacity of the train will be 736 passengers.  The train will start its journey ex Ahmedabad in the morning at 06:40 hours and will reach Mumbai Central at 13.10 hours having scheduled commercial halts at Nadiad, Vadodara, Bharuch, Surat, Vapi and Borivali. For the return journey, the train will leave Mumbai Central at 15:40 hours and will reach Ahmedabad at 21:55 hours having scheduled halts at Borivali, Vapi, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara and Nadiad. Train will run on all days of the week except Thursday. Train fare will be dynamic in nature keeping in consideration the prevailing bus, taxi, rail and airfares. Train will have different series of fares for lean, busy and festive seasons. Further, train fares will be on point to point basis. There will be no tatkal quota or premium tatkal quota in the train. There will be only General Quota and Foreign Tourist Quota. Foreign Tourist Quota of 6 seats in …

Effective March 1, 2020, Qantas Airways Limited, flag carrier of Australia, will reduce the IATA BSP Travel Agency Commission to just one per cent for Qantas tickets issued in India. All Qantas tickets prior to March 1, 2020 will be eligible for the current 3% per cent IATA BSP Travel Agency Commission. The airline recently cancelled nearly one in ten flights on the busy Sydney-Melbourne corridor in the six months to November 2019, according to Australian Government statistics. The route is one of the busiest in the world and Qantas operates up to 46 return services a day at 15-minute frequencies in peak times.

In line with Hyve’s other Moscow exhibitions, MITT this year will be moving from its previous home of Expocenter to Crocus Expo – Eastern Europe’s largest exhibition venue. According to MITT’s Event Director Artem Chernyshov, the move will bring many advantages to help improve the show experience. He believes that with the move, a more developed infrastructure would enable visitors to enter efficiently without queues. There will be extensive places to rest and relax on the 2nd floor, which is a food court with plenty of cafés and restaurants. Also, there will be 35,000 free parking spaces. Large and spacious pavilions would allow the whole exhibition to take place in one pavilion, improving navigation for visitors and providing better stand locations for exhibitors. While Crocus’ distance from the city centre may be seen by some as a disadvantage, Artem shares, “We are prepared to possibly see fewer visitors in 2020, but those who need to be there will come. Our experience with other exhibitions that have already moved to Crocus suggests that targeted visitors will always attend. Our exhibition is trade-only, and we maintain this concept.”

Kutni Island Resort near Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh, has been inaugurated by Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/C), Tourism, on January 18, 2020, reveals Rupinder Brar, Additional Director General (ADG), Tourism. Sharing details of the project, she said, “One of the most exciting projects that have been launched recently is the Kutni Island Resort, which is around 12 km from Khajuraho, using the fully-funded Swadesh darshan scheme of MOT. This project has been completed in 2.5 years and it’s on a reservoir made on the river that passes through Khajuraho. There are 10 double rooms. It’s a beautiful facility that has been created, and only takes about 25 odd minutes to get there. We want to encourage everybody to go there.”

The government has issued a travel advisory asking citizens to follow certain precautionary measures while visiting China in the wake of the outbreak of coronavirus. All travellers to China, especially to Wuhan city, have been advised to monitor their health closely. The advisory suggested avoiding close contact with people who are unwell or showing symptoms of illness, such as cough, runny nose among others. The travellers are advised to wear a mask if they have symptoms of respiratory problem. The advisory issued by the Union health ministry stated that even though the mode of transmission of the novel coronavirus is unclear as of now, those visiting China are advised to avoid travel to farms, live animal markets or where animals are slaughtered and refrain consuming “raw or under-cooked meat”.

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.”