Outbound Tour Operators Association of India, OTOAI, has elected a new team. Riaz Munshi (N. Chirag) has been elected as the President; Himanshu Patil (Kesari Tours), has been elected as the Vice President; Shravan Bhalla (High Flyer) is the new General Secretary; Vineet Gopal (Engee Holidays) has been elected as the Joint Secretary and Siddharth Khanna (Khanna Enterprises) has been elected as the Treasurer. The members of the new committee members are, Mahendra Vakharia, Adl Abdul Karim, Gurdeep Singh Gujral, Ankush Nijhawan, Arshdeep Anand and Monia Kapoor.  

The second Association of Buddhist Tour Operators (ABTO) Convention and the International Buddhist Travel Mart (IBTM) kick-started in Bodhgaya, Bihar. Speaking at the inauguration, Vinod Zutshi, Former Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, said, “I congratulate ABTO for conducting this event and it’s great to see participants from 17 international countries. I think I have never seen a bigger congregation of Buddhist tourism lovers, especially when the programme is being convened by someone in the private sector. It great to see private players promoting tourism in such a manner. We all are blessed to be here at the event.” The two-day event is supported by the Ministry of Tourism. ABTO  provides a platform for religious tourism mainly Buddhism. It’s an international organisation working for the conservation, protection, preservation of monuments & promotion of tourism around the world.    

Sarovar Hotels & Resorts has launched Royal Hometel Suites in Mumbai. The hotel features 112 rooms & suites and features two banquet halls to conduct conferences, wedding and social gathering which can accommodate up to 550 guests. Anil Madhok, Executive Chairman, Sarovar Hotels & Resorts, said, “The opening of Royal Hometel Suites strengthens our position in the Mumbai market in line with the brand’s growth strategy. The launch follows the growing trend of business and leisure hotels along with the brand’s quality assurance and ‘Signature Sarovar Hospitality’. Our new property is appropriate for both business and leisure travellers considering the location of the hotel.”

Uttar Pradesh Cabinet has approved Zurich Airport International as developer for Jewar airport and its construction is expected to begin in February. The formal nod from Uttar Pradesh government comes after a bidding process in which Zurich Airport beat Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), Adani Enterprises and Anchorage Infrastructure Investments Holdings on November 29. This will be NCR’s third airport after Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport and Ghaziabad’s Hindon. The winning bid was then put up before the project monitoring and implementation committee (PMIC) of the state government, before being forwarded to the Cabinet. “The Cabinet has approved Zurich Airport International as developer for Jewar airport,” UP’s Additional Chief Secretary (Home and Information) Awanish Awasthi confirmed after the meeting here. The Swiss firm offered a premium of Rs 400.97 per passenger to the government, the highest among the bidders.

The first of the three-city Incredible India roadshow was held at Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore and witnessed participation from 25 Indian tour operators and DMCs along with representations from the state governments of Punjab and Madhya Pradesh. India Tourism Office in Singapore said that the roadshow provided a platform to the stakeholders of India’s tourism industry to interact with their Singaporean counterparts and position  India as a preferred destination for tourists of Singapore. After Singapore, the Incredible India roadshow will take place in Kuala Lumpur on December 10 and in Bangkok on December 12. A total of 1,75,852 tourists from Singapore visited India in 2017, a growth of 7.4 per cent on the year.

The next edition of FITUR,  organised by IFEMA will take place at Feria de Madrid, from January 22-26. The sustainability, technology and expertise, will remain principal axes of FITUR, to which the momentum of the shares will add targeted to grow in professionalism and inter-nationality and thus overcome the results of the last edition, which brought together more than 11,000 exhibiting companies from 160 countries, and 253,000 participants. For this, the FITUR organisation has paid special attention to strengthening its International Guest Programs as well as the agenda of  B2B meeting.

FITUR and the Instituto Tecnológico Hotelero (ITH) are organising a specialist section for tourism sector technology and innovation – FITURTECHY – to be held from 22 to 24 January in Hall 10 at FITUR. It will further focus on how innovation and the application of the right technology in the tourism industry can offer major changes – ranging from vast differences in the service provided to customers to greater resource efficiency – which can lead to improvements in the conservation of the environment and, ultimately, the preservation of our planet’s future. The Cajamar Cooperative Bank will also be showing their support for the tourism sector – one of Spain’s strategic industries – at FITURTECHY, as part of its endorsement of innovation, sustainability and quality, as well as its commitment to helping travel agencies, groups and companies from the hotel and services sectors in the development of their business and their international expansion projects.

The Kempegowda International Airport has commenced operations on the new South Runway with the landing of the first flight on the 4,000-metres long and 45-metres wide airstrip. The South Runway will begin with limited landings and take offs before gradually scaling up flight operations. This makes the BLR Airport the first in the country to operate independent parallel runways, enabling aircraft to land or take-off simultaneously on both runways.

ibis Jaipur Civil Lines has refurbished its interiors, dining and 22 new premium rooms for the new-age traveller in line with the global ibis brand. Shwetank Singh – Vice President of Development & Asset Management, InterGlobe Hotels says, “The completion of the project has far exceeded expectations of what we had envisioned which is in line with our ‘New Generation’ Design and we are excited about the new look and feel of the hotel. The culinary offerings along with the vibrant and colourful public area bring about a great amount of energy to the place and it fits in well with the Rajasthani art and architecture. I would like to congratulate the operations team and our projects team whose tireless efforts resulted in the completion of the project within timelines and budget whilst the property was still operational.”

Lufthansa and Vistara has started offering its customers codeshare flights. This new partnership will add 126 weekly flights to ten key Indian cities. This will be in addition to Lufthansa’s current schedule of 56 weekly international flights to and from the major Indian hubs of Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai with aircraft like the Airbus A350. It is planned to subsequently add more destinations of Vistara’s network under the umbrella of the codeshare agreement in 2020 and beyond. Connecting Vistara‘s strong domestic network with Lufthansa‘s global reach gives European airline customers immediate access to many more Indian cities than ever before. At the same time this partnership offers customers from ten key Indian cities like Kolkata, Goa and Pune unlimited access to the Lufthansa Group’s worldwide network, including top-tier destinations in Europe, Canada and the United States. Further, Lufthansa and Vistara are in the final stages on enabling customers being able to earn miles flying Vistara or Lufthansa. Vistara joins Air India as the second Indian airline having a codeshare agreement with Lufthansa. George Ettiyil, Senior Director Sales for the Lufthansa Group Airlines in South Asia emphasises the strategic importance of taking the existing interline agreement with Vistara to the next level. “This marks Lufthansa’s commitment to offering its Indian customers world-class international travel experiences and will enable them to use their preferred mileage program on codeshare routes. By teaming up with Vistara, we will strengthen and expand our position as the leading and most popular European airline in India – a country all set to become the third-largest aviation market in just a few years’ time.“