Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) has launched its new chapter in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. The office bearers of the new chapter were unanimously elected and Jose T K from Jose Travels was named the Chairman. Hari Om Jhunjhunwala of Rashi Travels is the Secretary; Mandeep Duggal of Ondigo Travels is the Treasurer, while Shailendra Khare of Network Travels has been named as the Advisor of MP chapter. Present at the launch of the new chapter from national level were Pradeep Lulla, President, TAFI, along with Aditi Bhende, Secretary General, TAFI; Jayesh Tharani, Treasurer, TAFI and Teddy M. Thomas, Joint Treasurer, TAFI. Jose TK said that they will initiate discussion with various airlines to induct a flight to Bangkok from Indore as well as international flight operations from Bhopal & domestic sectors like Surat, Cochin, Pune & Chandigarh from Indore.

Telangana Tourism has opened an air-conditioned two-storey ferry, and ten three-star cottages in Somalisa, Kollapur, which is located at the backwaters of Krishna River. Located about 250km away from Hyderabad, these new facilities were inaugurated by Srinivas Goud, Minister of State, Tourism & Culture, Telangana. Previously a Naxal zone, Somasila, is now being transformed into a world-class eco-tourism destination.

Russia is set to offer e-visa facility to all regions of the Russian Federation by 2021, after offering free e-visa to Indians tourists travelling to four regions of the Russian Federation including St. Petersberg, Leningrad, Kaliningrad and Far East region. The Federal Agency for Tourism expects that introducing electronic visas for Indian citizens is an effective way to provide an increase in the flow of both group and individual tourists form the country by more than 20 per cent. The topic of e-visa and the mechanism for obtaining them was the key aspects in the framework of the presentation event, ‘Russia 2020, EURO as a gift’, organised in Delhi by the Federal Agency to present the main tourist products of Russia in the Indian market. India is placed third in terms of growth in tourist flow from the Asian region with 47.8 per cent growth.

Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has identified 138 monuments as must-see monuments and information of all these monuments is made available on ‘must-see’ portal of ASI, revealed Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/c) of Culture and Tourism. He said that there are 38 World Heritage Sites in India, out of which 22 cultural sites including monuments/ buildings and caves are under protection of ASI. There is no such division between repair and maintenance activities. Conservation includes all actions at the site for repair, maintenance and protection of the monuments. The expenditure is incurred as per the requirement of works at different sites and availability of resources.

Around 32,000 domestic tourists visited Jammu & Kashmir between August and November, marking a decline of 87% from the 2.49 lakh domestic tourists visiting the Union Territory in the corresponding month last year. With regards to foreign tourists, the dip is 82%. Zahoor Qari, Chairman—TAAI, J&K Chapter, said, “Ever since Article 370 was revoked in J&K, we have not seen any development in tourism in the region. There has been a steep decline in tourists as compared to last year, with only 10% of tourists received as compared to last year. In winter last year, we saw a lot of tourists who came to Gulmarg, Srinagar etc., but owing to the restrictions by the Government, tourists are now hesitant to visit Kashmir right now.” The ban on leisure travel to the valley was officially lifted on October 10.

The Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board has released a list of land parcels, for which it has invited bids for development into tourist sites and hotels through PPP mode. The queries were opened for a total of seven land parcels and properties, which include Benazir Palace in Bhopal to be made into a heritage hotel; Sawant Nagar in Tikamgarh, where there is a plan to create tourism zone with minimum 5 tourism projects inclusive of 100 rooms 4-5 Star hotel or 50 rooms luxury resort; Madhavgarh Fort to be converted into a heritage property; Mehgavan, which is to be developed into hotel cum convention centre or 4-5 star hotel; Patakhali (Nagarbeda) in Khandwa, where there are plans to develop resort/ wellness centre/amusement park/theme park/adventure sports/film studio and infrastructure for film making; Juna Kathhivada in Alirajpur, where a resort/wellness centre is to be developed; and Khapa in Betul, where plans are to develop resort/wellness centre/camping sites and fixed tenting units.

The Goa government has given approval to the tourism master plan for the state, a 25-year vision. Work on the tourism vision document started in 2014 through a consortium of KPMG Advisory Services and Leisure Advisory Services, with a 38-week time frame. The new tourism policy of Goa will evaluate and prioritise tourism development initiatives in the master plan. Other areas would be to develop broad guidelines and an action plan for implementation of tourism initiatives. It took over three years to get the master plan ready. The tourism policy, which has been presented for government’s approval, has a provision to constitute a tourism board. The proposed tourism board will be headed by the tourism minister and will have equal representation of government officials and industry stakeholders.

RwandAir has announced that effective January 1, 2020, the airline will cut down the IATA agent commission to 0% from the current 3%. Announcing a revision in its commission structure, RwandAir revealed that the 3% commission would only be effective till December 31, 2019, and starting 2020, there will be no commission for agents. The airline thanked the trade fraternity for their support.

Five unserved airports in Haryana, namely Bhiwani, Hisar, Karnal, Narnaul and Sirsa, are now available for bidding under UDAN 4.0, revealed Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA). The opening of these five airports would give a boost to regional connectivity and promote tourism opportunities in the state, claimed MoCA in a tweet recently. MoCA has opened bidding for many such airports in different states recently.  

VisitBritain has announced its two-city sales mission in January 2020. The tourism authority will conduct its sales mission in India after a gap of three years. The sales mission is scheduled to take place in Mumbai followed by New Delhi on January 13, 2020 and January 15, 2020, respectively. Vishal Bhatia, Country Manager, India, VisitBritain, said, “For this we have the biggest ever contingent from the UK participating this time which speaks volumes about the demand they see from India and the kind of confidence we have in the market. We are looking at around 44 companies from British organisations across DMCs, DMOs, as well as UK Visas & Immigration coming in for this.” The primary focus for the participants will be leisure but there will be many suppliers who will also focus on MICE. Bhatia adds, “There will be 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 can handle big MICE groups as well – like the Lancashire Cricket Club which is where the India-Pakistan match took place in June. The trade will also be able to meet some football clubs who can host big MICE groups. We have a lot of suppliers coming in for the first time, almost 60-70 per cent are first-timers. This is possibly due to new air connections launched recently between India and the UK.” 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.