Hahn Air has become the first airline that issued a real-world ticket enabled by blockchain technology on the open-source travel distribution platform Winding Tree. It is also the first airline to fly passengers holding blockchain-powered tickets on its scheduled flight from Dusseldorf to Luxemburg on November 18. The first blockchain passengers were Maksim Izmaylov, Founder of Winding Tree, Davide Montali, CIO of Winding Tree, and Frederick Nowotny, Head of Sales Engineering at Hahn Air. “We at Hahn Air are constantly exploring new technologies and we are proud to now demonstrate our technical capability to issue blockchain-powered Hahn Air tickets. We are pleased to be partnering with Winding Tree, the most established company when it comes to distributing travel inventory in the blockchain. Our goal is to investigate and monitor the opportunities this technology holds for travel distribution, even if widespread acceptance is still a vision of the future,” commented Frederick Nowotny. The blockchain technology holds many advantages for the different parties involved in the process of booking an airline ticket. It is an open-source, meaning all market participants such as airlines, travel companies and distribution systems can easily connect and exchange transactions. All market participants can directly interact with each other and perform transactions without intermediaries thereby reducing costs. It is 100% secure. All of the necessary information is stored in a decentralised ledger which is verified by millions of sources and therefore cannot be changed or tampered with. 

In a bid to strengthen India’s relationships with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Indian Government has decided to offer visa-on-arrival facility for UAE nationals travelling to India. The facility will be available to UAE nationals for a period of up to 60 days with double entry for business, tourism, conference and medical purposes. This facility will be available at six international airports: Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai. The facility will be available to only those UAE nationals who have earlier obtained and e-visa or a normal paper visa for India, irrespective of whether the person actually visited India or not. Those UAE nationals going to India for the first time may be advised to apply for e-Visa or a normal paper Visa. Pakistan-origin UAE nationals will not be eligible for Visa-on-Arrival Scheme. Nationals of Japan, South Korea are also eligible for the facility.

MITT annually attracts around 22,200 visitors and 1,500 exhibiting companies and organisations from all corners of the world showcasing their travel opportunities to the Russian outbound market. A huge range of tourist destinations are set to showcase their tourism opportunities to MITT’s B2B audience next March. Each tourist organisation will provide support for their local companies such as inbound tour operators and travel agents, hotels and accommodation providers, and other travel service providers to promote themselves to Russian tour operators, travel agents, and those influencing where Russians travel.

Union minister of state for shipping Mansukh Mandaviya, recently said, two more ports including Kolkata and Vizag are being developed for cruise traffic and would soon start getting calls besides Chennai, Cochin, Mumbai, Mangalore and Mormugao. He said, “Cruise tourism is currently one of the fastest developing verticals in the Indian tourism sector. Over the years, cruise tourism has been recognised as an active component in the economic growth of any country and we also see it as a major source of employment because of its labour-intensive nature and the significant multiplier effect on employment in related sectors.”

In a recent update, Air India has announced that it will now connect Chandigarh with Dharamshala. The flight will operate six days a week, sparing Sunday. This will be UDAN’s 226th operational route. The airline will also connect Ahmedabad and Kandla making it possible for the common man to fly at affordable fares.

Bengaluru recorded highest RevPAR % change in Q3 2019 over the same period last year with 11%, followed by Gurugram with 9.5% and Hyderabad with 6.9% RevPAR change. The Hotel Momentum India (HMI) report for Q3 2019 has revealed that 9 out of 10 markets in India recorded an increase in RevPAR Performance in Q3 2019 over the same period last year. Mumbai came out to be the winner all across when it comes to RevPAR in absolute terms.

The highest occupancy for Financial Year 2018-19 (FY 2018-19) for Indian hotels was in February 2019, with an average occupancy of 81% in 5-star hotels and 77% in 5-star deluxe hotels, according to a report by CARE Ratings. November 2018 saw the second highest occupancy with 80% average occupancy for 5-star hotels and 72% for five-star deluxe hotels. In December 2018, 79% average occupancy was recorded for 5-star hotels, while 69% was recorded for 5-star deluxe hotels.

In the last two years, almost a four-fold jump in cruise callings on Indian ports has been recorded as a result of initiatives undertaken to bring in synergy in the functionality of various stakeholders, revealed Mansukh Mandaviya, Union minister of state for shipping. The total cruise callings on five ports including Chennai, Cochin, Mumbai, Mangalore and Mormugao were 138 ships carrying a total of 1.76 lakh passengers in fiscal 2017-18, which increased to 285 callings in FY19 and is projected to rise to 593 cruise traffic in the current fiscal. This number increased to 285 callings in FY19 and is projected to rise to 593 cruise traffic in the current fiscal, he revealed.

India’s market for medical tourism is expected to touch the $9 billion mark in 2020, according to a report released by the FICCI and Ernst & Young. As per the report titled ‘India: Building Best Practices in Healthcare Services Globally 2019’, India is one of the preferred destinations for Medical Value Tourism, occupying the 5th position among 41 major medical tourism destinations as per Medical Tourism Index Overall ranking, 2016. In the coming years, the rising costs of health care in developed countries such as the US and the UK will make India an affordable alternative, the report said.

Serbia is expecting 30,000 overnight stays from India in 2019, revealed Marija Labovic, CEO/Managing Director, National Tourism Organisation of Serbia, while speaking at the travel trade workshop organised by them in New Delhi, recently.  “Last year, we had around 8000 tourists from India and they had 25,000 overnight stays. This year, we expect to have around 9000 tourists, according to the data for just the first 5 months. Until the end of September, we had around 20,000 overnight stays, and by the end of the year, we expect to have around 30,000 overnight stays. This should be better than the year before, but less than what we are expecting from this market. Hence, we believe that in 2020, with such workshops, roadshows and other promotional activities, we will increase this number significantly.”