Cruise Professionals has launched a special offer for the travel trade on its 11th anniversary. Nishith Saxena, Founder & Director, Cruise Professionals said, “For year 2020, travel agencies just have to sell five cabins (balcony or higher grade cabins) on any of the Princess Cruises year 2020 itinerary, after which, they will be entitled for a free cruise ex Singapore, along with a part of air fare and visa fee of Singapore. The special offer is valid from November 7 to December 6.”

H.E. Ivan Lančarič, Ambassador of Slovakia to India, officially inaugurated VFS Global’s Slovakia Visa Application Centre in Mumbai’s BKC area. The centre is one of three that opened in India in the last quarter of 2018, to cater to the growing demand for Slovakia as a travel destination. The Ambassador revealed that in 2018, there were around 12,000 Indians that travelled to Slovakia. He added, “I would like to announce here in Mumbai, heart of the film industry in India that Slovakia offers a 20 per cent cash rebate of certified private expenses spent for film or TV production in the Slovak Republic, and starting from January 1, 2020, this cash rebate will increase to 33 per cent. Slovakia offers culturally rich and diverse locations, historical and modern as well and has a rich filmmaking tradition. I would like to encourage filmmakers from Mumbai to consider filming in Slovakia as we have a lot of to offer to them professionally, and VFS Global in Mumbai can easily process the necessary visa applications.” Vinay Malhotra, Regional Chief Operating Officer – South Asia, Middle East and China, VFS Global said, “Slovakia’s reputation as an aspirational destination is growing, and we are pleased to pro-vide travellers our best in class visa services, to make the first step in their journeys as comfortable and relaxed as their visit to Slovakia. We are honoured to have the Ambassador to formally inaugurate our centre here in Mumbai, and hope for a long and fruitful association with the Embassy.”

To cater to growing travel demands, India would need around 2,400 aircraft in the next 20 years and around 85-90 per cent of them would be narrow-body, a senior executive of Boeing said recently. Indian airlines currently have around 600 aircraft in their fleet. While narrow-body planes are smaller and used for short-haul routes, wide-body aircraft are used to fly on medium and long-haul routes. “Based on economic growth, evolving business models and the dynamics in the marketplace, India will need around 2,400 new aircraft deliveries in the next 20 years,” said Darren Hulst, Deputy Vice President of Commercial Marketing, Boeing. “The vast majority of these aircraft, as we no doubt expect, would be single-aisle fleets, 737-sized aircraft. It will make up for 85-90 per cent of the deliveries in the market place,” Hulst explained.

On the concluding day of WTM London, EbixCash Travel & Holidays announced that they have become the titles sponsors of the IPL teams, Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Capitals. Making the announcement in London, Naveen Kundu, Managing Director, Mercury – A Luxury Initiative of EbixCash said, “What we have launched at WTM London is a part of our initiative to take the Kings XI Punjab brand outside India and build extended fan base in UK. We want travellers to come to India and follow, Kings XI Punjab. We want to encourage them to follow their team, travel with them to watch matches in different parts of India. Sharing details on different tours the company is going to launch, Kundu said that it will be a complete inbound tour to India being launched in UK. “We are targeting all the Kings XI supporters and cricket fans, who wants to travel to India to watch their team play and win. We are going to launch pre and post cricketing tours, where we will take travellers to cricket stadiums to watch matches from the EbixCash Stand and all the other destinations they want to travel in India,” he said.

Under the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Grameen Paryatan Yojana, Uttarakhand has a homestay project, under which they have completed 1522 homestays and are targeting for 5000 homestays in the near future, revealed Satpal Maharaj, Tourism Minister, Uttarakhand. He says, “We have already completed 1522 homestays across the state and have given loans for more to people in the state. I am sure having more homestays in the state would help tourism in Uttarakhand. The tourism department in the state is going to train the homestay owners and will also do promotion for the same.”

In a recent update, Civil Aviation Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri has shared that AAI has taken up up-gradation work at Jabalpur Airport to make it suitable for operation of A-320 type of aircraft. This includes contruction of new terminal building, ATC tower, fire station, extension of runway, construction of new apron, isolation bay, perimeter road etc. the work of Terminal Building and ancillary building is expected to be completed by June 2021.

To boost tourism in the state, Odisha Government has decided to start houseboat operation in Chilika Lake and Bhitarkanika National Park. The Tourism Advisory Committee of the state government has recently approved a slew of activities to attract visitors to the state, Tourism Secretary Vishal Dev said. “The houseboats would be run by private operators on an operation-and-management basis while the annual festival at Puri will be organised in association with the Surfing Federation of India,” he said.

USA, Australia and India continue to take the top spot for the UK’s most favourite long-haul inbound tourism markets, according to research revealed at WTM London 2019. In third place, India showed a phenomenal growth, up 14.5% compared to 2018, with a quarter of all Indian arrivals staying more than 22 nights. The Cricket World Cup, held in the UK in May and June this year, were cited as having a huge impact on visitor numbers.

With a focus on specialisation, business and professionalisation, the upcoming edition of FITUR, International Tourism Fair, organised by IFEMA, from the 22 to 26 January at Feria de Madrid, presents its greatly enhanced B2B meeting programs. These include the general meetings agenda, FITUR B2B Match, and the specialised meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions, FITUR MiCE, schedule. Both programs have proven to be an effective tool, concentrating a high business activity during the professional events at FITUR. Data from the latest edition show that there were a total of 9,150 B2B meetings with professionals from around the world.

Minar Group received the TravTalk-WTM World Travel Leaders Award at the recently held World Travel Mart London. The World Travel Leaders Awards honours companies and individuals for their outstanding contribution to the industry over the last 24 months voted for by the WTM partners. Speaking on the occasion, Gren Pacheco, VP, Business Development, said, “It’s a pleasure to be at WTM London. I want to thank TravTalk for this award and it feels great to have received it at such a big international forum.”