Invest India, the National Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency, has revealed that India aims to become the third-largest aviation market globally by 2024. According to the report, India plans to revive its aviation infrastructure by redeveloping 200 airports and airstrips, thus creating numerous investment possibilities for global investors. The report also states that, Indian carriers plan to increase their fleet size to 1,100 aircraft by 2027.

Hotel Leela Venture said its board has approved the proposed change in name of the company to ‘HLV Ltd’ or some other suitable name, if it is not available. As part of the Brookfield transaction, the word “Leela” would not be a part of the company’s name, Hotel Leela Venture said in a filing to the BSE. The board has also approved the resignations of Rajiv Kaul as President and Rajan Shah, its Chief Financial Officer as they wanted to move to Brookfield. The Company will continue to own and operate the hotel in Mumbai, under the Leela Brand licensed to it by Brookfield. The Company also continues to own the land in Hyderabad and its share of apartments under the joint development project of residential apartments with Prestige Developers in Bangalore, adjoining The Leela Palace Hotel. Source: PTI

VISIT JAPAN Travel & MICE Mart (VJTM) 2019 kick-started in Osaka and will be held till 26 October. The business meetings in VJTM 2019 use a unique appointment-matching system to arrange business meetings in line with needs of both buyers and sellers. This year, the mart concurrently is held with “Tourism ExpoJapan,” as part of one of the world’s largest international tourism event, with an aim to promote the entire tourism industry and activate local economies. Furthermore, with the VJTM being held in Osaka for the first time, Kansai Tour Program (voluntary participation) for buyers and the media to introduce Osaka and the other Kansai areas and help expand buyer knowledge of the region, in addition to the conventional familiarization trip has been arranged.

sDouble Tree By Hilton Goa – Panaji has joined hands with Internet Moguls for their social media management and digital presence. Avijit Arya, Founder and Chief Mogul of Internet Moguls, said, “We truly feel elated to be the digital marketing consultants for Double Tree By Hilton Goa, Panaji. With our creativity, credibility and commitment we will make sure it makes a new bench mark in the hospitality sector”  Commercial Director, Double Tree By Hilton Goa, Panaji said “We are incredibly excited about this association and expect our brand to reach out to audience base with the latest digital marketing strategies. The world is changing and so are we by adopting the newest trends that will support our vision to stand out in the industry”.

Alitalia recently launched its B2B community platform, called ‘Alitalia Connect’, in Italy to offer personalised relationship between Alitalia and its B2B customers like travel agencies, companies and SMEs. Now, the Italian carrier is set to launch ‘Group Connect’, a web platform under Alitalia Connect in India on November 13. Group Connect is aimed to manage and speed up quotations and group bookings, revealed Nicola Bonacchi, Vice President, Leisure Travel Sales, Alitalia. Other prominent features of ‘Group Connect’ include requesting an offer, booking a group and having the quotation and the contract in real time, monitoring the contract terms and conditions, changing the reservation (increasing or decreasing the group) and entering passengers’ names in the system. The platform offers increased flexibility, allowing the agent to customise the conditions to be chosen based on customer’s characteristics and period.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation would seek Cabinet approval for privatising half a dozen more airports by the first week of December. The six airports up for privatisation are Varanasi, Amritsar, Bhubaneswar, Trichy, Indore and Raipur. An official source said, “The Airports Authority of India (AAI) board has approved the plan. We will seek in-principle approval of the Cabinet now. Once it is approved, the bidding process would start.”

The Indian Railways has recently announced that all trains services will be stopped to and from Dehradun with effect from November 10 and will be reopened for public on February 7, once the renovation is over. A few trains have been cancelled and others including the Dehradun-New Delhi Shatabdi Express and Nanda Devi Express will start and terminate at Haridwar Railway Station.

Piyush Goyal, Minister, Railways and Commerce, said that there is no privatisation on cards for Indian Railways. However, the government is planning to bring a lot of investments into Indian Railways via Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and using state-of-the-art technologies from across the world, revealed Goyal. This comes after the launch of IRCTC-operated Lucknow-Delhi Tejas Express on October 4, and is India’s first private train. Apart from that, the Government decided to form a task force to draw a blueprint for handing over operations of 150 Indian Railways’ trains and 50 stations to private operators in a time-bound manner.

The AAI is planning to monetise 759 acres of land near eight major airports so that private companies are able to establish warehouses, hotels or restaurants, and the money generated is utilised to develop airport infrastructure, a senior official said. AAI has identified land parcels near airports of Kolkata, Amritsar, Bhubaneswar, Jaipur airport, Varanasi, Lucknow, Raipur and Tirupati. “The (aforementioned) land is likely to be leased to any company or organisation for a period of 25-30 years for a fixed annual rental income,” a senior official said. Source: PTI

In a bid to promote the heritage, history, and culture of Guwahati city, Assam Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC) has launched Guwahati Heritage Walk, to showcase the heritage sites of the city to the domestic and foreign tourists through the morning commute. Jayanta Malla Baruah, Chairman, Assam Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC), launched the tour recently in the presence of tour operators and association members. Guwahati Heritage Walk starts from the North Brook Gate of Sukreswar Temple, then Cotton College, Latasil, Jurpukhuri, Ujanbazar, Shattrakar Devalay and ends at Raj Bhawan.