Jyoti Mayal has been announced as the new TAAI President for the term 2019- 2021. Jay Bhatia, Tulsidas Khimji Holidays has been appointed as Vice President (Unopposed); Bettaiah Lokesh, Triway Travels has been elected as Hon. Secretary General and Shreeram Patel, Unicorn Travels has been elected as the Hon. Treasurer. Jyoti Mayal has been elected as the President of Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) for the term 2019-21. This was announced on November 28, 2019 at Hotel Sahara Star in Mumbai after TAAI’s 68th Annual General Meeting followed by the elections of the Office Bearers and members of the Managing Committee for the term 2019 – 2021. While Jay Bhatia was elected as the Vice President unopposed, Bettaiah Lokesh from Triway Travels is the Honorary Secretary General. Shreeram Patel of Unicorn Travels has been elected for the post of National Treasurer.    Jyoti Mayal, incoming President, TAAI, says, “My most important agenda is that we should have a very strong say with the government and the airlines. That can only happen when we are recognised as an industry. We need a unified procedure set by the government as to how we should operate as an industry. We will be able to achieve this only when we have the government on our side. Taxes are another thing which is very relevant like GST and TCS and we are suffering because of that. We are already in negotiations with the ministries and we are very hopeful that we will achieve our targets. There is also another thing that is very close to my heart and that is empowering women. Women are multi-taskers and we would like more women in the industry to …

In a recent report released by JLL India, Hotel Momentum India (HMI) Q3 2019, 19 branded hotels with 1256 rooms open in Tier II & III cities in the third quarter of this year. However, Tier I cities opened 3 branded hotels with 218 rooms and signed 2 branded hotels with 74 rooms. The reports also shows that 4 luxury hotels were signed during the same quarter consisting 282 keys.

In a recent interview, Atul Jain, COO, Best Western Hotels & Resorts, India, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka, said, “Best Western is already one of the most popular international hotel brands in India, and apart from reinforcing its presence, we’re also focussed on opening hotels with other brands in the portfolio to show that we have much more to offer. We have been experiencing a remarkable growth and penetration into diverse markets in India in the past three years, and we hope to gather more pace with the opening of ten more hotels in the next six months that will take our tally to 2,000 operating keys. This would be followed by the opening of over 1,000 keys in the pipeline. The new hotels shall operate under Best Western, Best Western Plus, SureStay Plus and SureStay Hotel by Best Western brands in locations across India.”

SriLankan Airlines has commenced a code-shared, non-stop service between Toronto and Delhi with Air India, providing seamless connection to Colombo. Flights will operate on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays both to and from Toronto. The Delhi-Toronto flight AI187 will have the UL code UL3640; while the Toronto-Delhi flight AI188 will have the code UL3641. Travellers can now book their entire journey from Sri Lanka to Canada in one go , which they were unable to do earlier. The non-stop flight from Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson International Airport to New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport is supported by rapid connectivity to Colombo with connection times of just 4 hours for Colombo-Delhi-Toronto and 6 hours for Toronto-Delhi-Colombo. SriLankan and Air India currently codeshare on each other’s flights to a large number of destinations in South Asia, the Far East and the Indian Ocean region.

Travel M!CE Show, this year, has been scheduled for December 14 & 15 at the Trident Chennai. Pre-scheduled B2B meetings with buyers will give an opportunity to the exhibitors to amplify their business- domestic and globally. The show will entail pan-India corporate meetings on day 1 and interactions and meetings with M!CE specialists on Day 2.

Marriott International and Prestige Group has announced the signing of agreements to open six new hotels across India. Under the agreement, Prestige Group would build new hotels across the W, JW Marriott, Tribute Portfolio and Moxy brands across India’s Southern belt, representing nearly 1,000 rooms across four brands. Prestige Group, plans to open the W Bengaluru, Tribute Portfolio Resort Bengaluru, Tribute Portfolio Hotel Kochi Maradu, JW Marriott Bengaluru Prestige Golfshire Resort & Spa, Moxy Chennai and Moxy Bengaluru, all ofwhich are expected to open between 2021 and 2025.

India’s first full-fledged international cruise terminal will open at the Ernakulam wharf in Willingdon Island in Kochi and will be commissioned in February 2020, said M Beena, Chairperson, Cochin Port Trust (CPT). The Rs 25.72-crore cruise terminal with facilities to handle 5,000 tourists will be spread over 12,200 sq. ft. There are also plans to have regular helicopter services from the terminal to different tourist spots in Kerala. The wharf, after the revamp will have an area to stage traditional art forms, ATMs and food kiosks on the premises. There will also be a permanent space for selling artefacts and others to tourists, aimed at improving visitor experience.

Air India in a recent announcement has said that the airline now allows 10 kg more bag allowance on all its domestic flights where the fliers can save up to Rs 5000. Earlier, 15 kg were allowed on the domestic sector. This has brought huge respite to domestic fliers. In other announcement, Alliance Air has also started Hyderabad-Hubli flights under UDAN.

The 2nd edition of the PATA India Tourism PowerHouse, presented by the Inder Sharma Foundation will be held on December 6 at The PARK, New Delhi. Participants will get the opportunity to network, learn and interact with knowledge leaders and industry stalwarts and participate in engaging discussions on aviation capacity to India, impact of tourism, digital and destination marketing, The China opportunity and more.

Organised by IFEMA, FITUR 2020 will take place from 22 to 26 January at Feria de Madrid where sustainability, technology and specialisation will again be in the spotlight. The last FITUR trade fair brought together 10,400 participating companies and over 253,000 attendees. The Trade Fair is boosting its B2B meeting agenda with the specialised sections FITUR B2B Match and FITUR MICE.