VisitBritain successfully concluded its roadshow in New Delhi with over 250 travel trade partners in attendance. Agents from Delhi, Punjab, West Bengal and Gujarat attended the event, which had a total of 42 exhibitors representing destinations, attractions, DMCs and products from across Britain. New destinations which were in focus were Birmingham, Manchester and Lake District. Leading the delegation was Vishal Bhatia- country manager India, Visit Britain. Shuja Bin Mehdi, B2B manager, Visit Britain revealed that they have got an overwhelming response in both Mumbai and Delhi, which shows the interest the agents have in the destination. With such a response they will hopefully organise the roadshow once again next year.

Along with developing world-class infrastructure and organising several national events, the Madhya Pradesh government has now decided to promote sports tourism in a big way across the state. Sports Minister of MP, Jeetu Patwari has announced that the state government is drafting a policy in this regard. “Sports tourism is a fast-growing sector and has been giving a fillip to the global travel industry for a while. I think the time has come to start promoting sports tourism; the policy will be soon prepared on this,” said Patwari while giving information on the 20-point departmental action plan for the year 2020. Patwari said that sports infrastructure will be set up in Bhopal Gwalior, Jabalpur and Ujjain through PPP model. In last one year, MP has organised several national and international sports meet. In 2020, the state will host events like world dragon boat championship in Indore, where teams from 43 countries will participate. Bhopal will host the rowing championship around October-November 2020.

VisitBritain successfully concluded the Mumbai edition of its two-city sales mission yesterday with more than 250 key travel agents and tour operators attending the event. The New Delhi edition will be held on January 15, 2020. Sharing more information on it is Vishal Bhatia, Country Manager, India, VisitBritain, who says, “We received a phenomenal response in Mumbai with more than 250 trade partners attending the event to engage with the delegates from the UK. We had 35 suppliers at the roadshow with a total of 42 delegates. A lot of the suppliers from the UK are here for the first time like the Grasmere Gingerbread, The Spires Service Apartments and Sterling Travel. This will be the biggest contingent ever from the UK participating in this India Sales Mission, which speaks volumes about the demand they see from India and the kind of confidence we have in the market. The UK Visas & Immigration is also part of this.” The last such sales mission was conducted in 2017 in Pune with 22 suppliers from the UK who met 90-odd hosted buyers from India. He added that some agents had also travelled from outside Mumbai from cities like Pune and even Rajkot in Gujarat to meet the suppliers. Bhatia adds, “There is a big contingent from north of England as well. Marketing Manchester has been working extremely closely with us over the years and we have 20-odd suppliers coming from the north who are capable of holding big MICE groups as well – like the Lancashire Cricket Club where the India-Pakistan match took place in June last year.”

Following the successful re-launch of its eLearning programme in the fall with the introduction of the Bronze level, Insight Vacations is now releasing the Silver Level on its Insight Specialist eLearning Programme. The second level of the new course is designed with travel advisors in mind and focuses on offering them a deep understanding of what makes the brand unique in the market. Whether a novice or an Insight Vacations expert, advisors will benefit from the course by having access to a bank of examples showcasing what makes Insight holidays unique for clients and through the tools, knowledge and confidence to sell Insight Vacations. The company is currently offering Early Payment Discount (EPD) with savings of 10 per cent* when clients book and pay in full by 28th February 2020. “The Silver Level of the Insight Specialist eLearning program is designed to provide Travel Advisors concrete examples of our distinctive features,” says Anthony Lim, Insight Vacations, Managing Director, Asia. “This enables advisors to highlight what makes Insight’s journeys so personal, stylish and magical, which in turn will benefit them with increased sales, rewards and elated clients. The timing couldn’t be more ideal with Insight Vacations’ Early Payment Discount offering our valuable Travel Advisors the opportunity to secure their clients’ spots on 2020 journeys with savings,”  Lim concludes. The Insight Specialist Gold Level will be available at a later date.  

Inbound air bookings have declined 15.6% for the period between December 17, 2019 to Jan 11, 2020 compared with 2.5% annualised decline, reveals ForwardKeys after an analysis of over 7.5 million bookings. The analysis was conducted to assess the impact of CAA protests on inbound air bookings into India at both country and state level. The study took into consideration actual travel bookings growth/ decline into India between the period Jan 11, 2019 to Jan 11, 2020 and showed an annual decline 2.5% decline in passenger bookings into India.

Niti Aayog and the Indian Railways have come out with a discussion paper for running 150 trains on 100 routes by private operators, envisaging an investment of ₹ 22,500 crore. The discussion paper titled ‘Private Participation: Passenger Trains’ has identified 100 routes, including Mumbai Central-New Delhi, New Delhi- Patna, Allahabad-Pune and Dadar-Vadodara. Other prominent routes include Howrah-Chennai, Howrah Patna, Indore-Okhla, Lucknow-Jammu Tawi, Chennai-Okhla, Anand Vihar-Bhagalpur, Secunderabad-Guwahati and Howrah-Anand Vihar. The paper, prepared for discussions with stakeholders, has split the 100 routes into 10-12 clusters. The plan is to move in swiftly with the panel headed by NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant suggesting that the first train can be rolled out within six months of the award, with 35-year contracts to be awarded to entities offering to pay the highest revenue share. As per the paper, the private operator will have the right to collect market-linked fares and will be provided flexibility of class composition and halts. The privatisation of train operation, the paper said, will help in introducing modern technology and rolling stocks with reduced maintenance. Besides, it would provide world-class service experience to passengers and also help in reducing the supply demand deficit. The operators could be domestic or international entities, the paper said. Each bidder would eligible for award of maximum three clusters, it added.

Airports Authority of India (AAI) is readying to invest more than Rs.25,000 crores in airport infrastructure, says Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State(I/C) for Civil aviation. “India, being the third largest domestic civil aviation market in the world and showing a robust growth, is poised for greater heights. With the kind of fleet expansion underway, India will soon have about 2000 civil aviation aircrafts in the sky, we will be doubling the number of airports with Airports Authority of India (AAI) readying to invest more than Rs.25,000 crores in Airport infrastructure and we have a structured privatisation program in place,” he said.

The deepening work of the Ganges is underway and big ships will be able to cruise on the Ganges by 2021, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi while briefing about his government’ integrated waterways policy in Kolkata. He also said that 625 projects worth Rs. 6 Lakh crore have been identified under the Sagarmala Scheme of the government to improve connectivity as well as infrastructure of ports, out of which 200 projects worth Rs. 3 lakh crore are already underway. He revealed that 125 projects have already been completed by the government by modernising existing port infrastructure and integrating it with other modes of transport in a seamless way. Commenting about Kolkata’s unique positioning as the ‘Sangam Sthal’ of the Sea and the River Ganges, Modi said that Kolkata will be the biggest beneficiary of the connected and integrated transport policy of the government. Ports, he said, have always been considered to be the gateways to prosperity in India.

Madhya Pradesh Tourism has announced ‘Namaste Orchha’ festival, which is scheduled to be held from 6-8 March 2020, in the historic town of Orchha. The festival, aimed at celebrating the cultural landscape of MP, was announced at a curtain raiser event in New Delhi, in the presence of Sonia Meena, Additional Managing Director, Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation (MPSTDC) and Yasmin Kidwai, Festival Director and Curator, Director of Spring Box Films. The 3-day festival offers unparalleled travel experiences for visitors to Madhya Pradesh, the government has announced this festival in the heritage city of Orchha to promote tourism, celebrate cultural diversity, natural beauty and the architectural heritage of the state. Namaste Orchha will showcase Madhya Pradesh in Orchha, bringing it alive with music, dance, heritage tours, workshops, local cuisine, arts and handicrafts. Madhya Pradesh boasts popular tourist destinations like Khajuraho, Ujjain, Sanchi, Bhimbetka as well as untapped places like the recently awarded National Award for Best Heritage City – Orchha.

JSC Ural Airlines has announced the launch of its flights to Mumbai and has appointed Minar Group as General Sales Agent (GSA) for India. JSC Ural Airlines, the full service carrier of the Russian Federation, is all set to launch four weekly flights operations to Moscow-Mumbai, India, starting March 30, 2020. The aircraft used for the new Moscow-Mumbai flight is the brand new A320 Neo aircraft having 2 Class configuration. The flight will depart from Mumbai 0540 hrs and arriving in Moscow at 1005 hrs, the airline is offering convenient timings for business travellers, M!CE and tourist groups. On the other hand, flights from Moscow will depart at 1920 hrs and arrive Mumbai at 0435 hrs. In addition, the airline has appointed Minar Travels (India), the Airline Management Services arm of Minar Group as it’s General Sales Agent for the Indian market. Spokesperson of Ural airlines stated that, “We have selected Minar Travels to position our brand, create awareness of our products and sell our services in this important new market.”