Talking about the group’s aggressive growth in the Indian market, Ajay Bakaya, Managing Director of Sarovar Hotels & Resorts, said “We are looking forward to open around 10-15 hotels in 2020 and I hope to crack 100-hotel mark by the end of this year. As far as our international growth is concerned, I think Middle East is where Sarovar wants to be for the simple reason, I can source business and talent from both Africa and India.” Some of the locations where Sarovar will open its properties include Greater Noida, Dalhousie, Latur, Udaipur, Panipat, Bodhgaya etc.

GB Srithar, Regional Director – India, Middle East & South Asia (IMESA), shares that they want to position Singapore as an international wedding destination. “Another segment we seek to re-establish our attractiveness in is the Overseas School Trips (OST). We have been a popular OST destination for several years and we would like to re-introduce the refreshed OST options in Singapore for the Indian students,” he says.

Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board (MPTB) is tapping the potential it has for adventure tourism and is working with a private agency to develop camping sites in the state. It has built 30 new camping sites across the state that also offer adventure activities such as jungle safari, hiking, nature trails, trekking, stargazing, bird-watching, camping, canoeing, etc. These campsites have been developed in different regions of Madhya Pradesh such as Sole Adventure Park in Punjapura and Mandav, and Omkareshwar from Indore region. MPTB is also providing training to the local vendors. Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, IAS, Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh, and Managing Director, Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board and Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation, said “Madhya Pradesh Tourism is working vigorously to build adventure tourism in the state, many of the policies like water tourism policy, camping policy, capital subsidy for adventure infrastructure development, has been formulated in the state for the attraction of adventure investors and operators. Currently we have set up 30 adventure campsites in Madhya Pradesh and are getting great responses from the tourists so we had planned to set-up around 100 campsites all around the state.”

The Association of Domestic Tour Operators Of India (ADTOI) has announced its next convention which will take place in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh in the month of April 2020 with the support of MP Tourism, reveals Chetan Gupta, Hony. General Secretary, ADTOI. He says, “The final dates of the convention have not been decided, but it will likely be done in the first week of April. The venue of the convention will be Minto Hall, Bhopal, and other details regarding the same will follow soon.”

Heavy rain and winds from Storm Fabien brought the island of Corsica to a standstill with flight cancellations during the Christmas holidays. The airport in Ajaccio remained closed on Monday due to flooding on the runway. Images showed severe flooding at the airport located on the French island’s western coast. Air Corsica cancelled 50 flights and said that they were working to create an airbridge in northern Corsica (Haute-Corse). They said they were working to add 51 flights to France and Belgium from Bastia in Haute-Corse. Mainland France also suffered heavy rain and winds.

Hundreds of protesters marched through Hong Kong shopping malls on December 26, disrupting business in the Asian financial hub for a third day over the festive period and prompting the riot police to close off a mall in a tourist district. The “shopping protests” have targeted malls across the Chinese-ruled city since Christmas Eve, turning violent at times with the police firing tear gas to disperse demonstrators in areas filled with shoppers and visitors. Some restaurants and stores pulled down their shutters in the malls as protesters, some wearing balaclavas and carrying black flags, marched by. The protests began more than six months ago in response to a now-withdrawn bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, where courts are controlled by the Communist Party.

Virgin Atlantic is giving its oldest passengers a very special gift this holiday season. The airline has decided to upgrade the ticket of the oldest passenger on every flight to a higher category for the rest of 2019- all inspired by the kindness of strangers in a tweet, Virgin Atlantic said, “On behalf of us and @RichardBranson, complimentary upgrades will be offered to the most ‘seasoned’ customer on board all our flights from today until 1st Jan 2020. The airline got inspired from an incident where a passenger named Jack gave up his first-class seat for an 88-year-old woman named Violet. In mid-December, a Virgin Atlantic crew member detailed the incident on Facebook.

Record-breaking Christmas night rainfall in the Los Angeles area along with heavy overnight snowfall in the nearby mountains has turned morning drives into a travel nightmare. In the late-night and early-morning hours, major roadways like Interstate 5 over Tejon Pass was closed in both directions due to multiple stuck vehicles. The California Highway Patrol officially closed I-5 at with no estimate as to when the highway would reopen. The heavy snow in mountainous areas may exceed a foot in some locations. Los Angeles International Airport saw 1.50 inches of rain from the storm, with more to come. At Long Beach Airport, about 20 miles away, a record-breaking 1.03 inches were recorded. The Cajon Pass, a popularly used mountain pass between the San Bernardino Mountains and the San Gabriel Mountains, was also impaired by heavy snow, which forced the closure of I-15.

Barcelona city authorities are planning to raise the tourist tax in 2020. These plans have already received general support. Currently, the maximum tourist tax in Barcelona is between 65 cents and 2 euros per day. The tax rate depends on the level of the accommodation, the more basic it is, the lower the tax. Under the new proposal, the maximum rate will be 4 euros per day. Barcelona is also planning to increase the tax for cruise ship passengers. For these measures to take effect, it is necessary to coordinate them the budget of autonomous community of Catalonia.

32 million global passengers are expected to cruise in the year 2020, reveals Cruise Line International Association’s 2020- State of the Cruise Industry Outlook. In 2019, the projected number of passengers taking cruises globally is 30 million, which was 1.5 million more than what it was in 2018 (28.5 million). CLIA also revealed that 278 ocean cruise line ships are projected to be in operation in 2020, while 19 are scheduled to debut next year.