Lords Hotels & Resorts has recently added a new property in Vyara, a town and district headquarters in Tapi district of Gujarat. To be launched under the ‘Club & Resort’ brand, the property offers 55 rooms and suites and is expected to commence operations after implementation of its brand standards. Lords Club and Resort – Vyara offers facilities for meeting and conferences, a spa, well-equipped gym and fitness center, swimming pool, and a Game Zone and discotheque. It also has a multi-cuisine restaurant and other outdoor venues for events. The property is located at a distance of 52 Kms from Surat International Airport and 4 Kms from Vyara Railway Station. It is in proximity to famous destinations like Jalvatika Garden, Gaytri Mandir, Vyara fort, Mayadevi Waterfall Temple, Padamdugri to mention a few. The promoters of this property are KD Jain, Anmol Choriya and Vinay Choriya who felt that there was a need for branded hotel in the location. Pushpendra Bansal, COO – Lords Hotels and Resorts, says, “Vyara has emerged as a vibrant destination thus offering tremendous scope for hospitality industry to grow.” Rishi Puri, Sr. Vice President – Lords Hotels and Resorts, says, “We welcome Lords Resort and Club into the Lords family and are confident of its success once it’s launched.”

IndiGo reports net loss of INR 10,620 million and EBITDAR of INR 2,564 million for the quarter ended September 2019. Mark-to-market losses on capitalised operating leases of INR 4,282 million and higher maintenance cost of INR 3,190 million significantly impacted profitability. The Company’s CEO, Ronojoy Dutta said, “In a historically weak quarter, we registered a negative profit before tax margin of 12.7% compared to 16% margin loss registered in the same quarter last year. While our revenue performance was much better during the quarter, the losses were accentuated by forex losses on operating lease liabilities created under IND AS 116, and re-assessment of accrual estimates for future maintenance cost. We remain focused on our growth plans and are expanding both domestically and internationally. We added 7 new domestic destinations and 6 new international destinations this past quarter and are looking to further grow our network profitably.”

The State Government of Karnataka has decided to return the Rs 96 crore under the Swadesh Darshan programme, which was sanctioned by MOT for development of coastal tourism projects in three districts of the state, after not being able to implement the project within the stipulated time. According to CT Ravi, Tourism Minister, Karnataka, reportedly said that the Centre had sanctioned Rs 95 crore for the integrated development of coastal tourism circuits in Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada and Udupi districts in 2015-16. After that MOT also released Rs 19 crore to start the work. However, the state could not make any progress, and thus has decided to return the sanctioned amount. They will now submit a new implementable detailed project report in two months and get it sanctioned again.

Sanjay Kumar, Chief Operating Officer, AirAsia has said that AirAsia India will increase its fleet size to 29 aircraft by December-end, as it aims to increase frequencies to metro cities and prune unprofitable routes in the upcoming winter schedule. The airline currently has 23 aircraft and will induct two aircraft in the next fortnight. “We don’t want to spread too thin and operate at stations with only one flight or so. Our aim is to strengthen our network, especially in metros, and have multiple frequencies between two cities,” said Kumar. DGCA has approved the operation of 1,345 departures every week by AirAsia India in the upcoming winter schedule between October 27 2019 and March 28, 2020. This is an increase of 326 departures every week compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. This will lead to the airline increasing the frequencies of flights on busy metro routes, including Mumbai-Pune, New Delhi-Chennai, Delhi-Bengaluru, New Delhi-Hyderabad, Guwahati-New Delhi, Guwahati-Kolkata, Guwahati-Bengaluru, and New Delhi-Srinagar. AirAsia India operates 175 daily flights to over 20 destinations across the country, including New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kolkata.

Charanjit Singh Channi, Cabinet Minister for Tourism & Culture Affairs, Government of Punjab, has said that the Government is investing around Rs 100 crore for developing heritage tourism. He said, “There are a lot of heritage buildings in Punjab, which we want to develop to attract tourists. Projects worth about Rs 100 crore are being carried out in Punjab for heritage tourism. Apart from that, there are a lot of other initiatives going on in Amritsar, including renovation of all the buildings.” He also adds, “Among other things, we are developing adventure sports activities in Pinkasia, which is in Ropar district. We are also developing a convention centre here. In Chamkaur Sahib, we are beautifying the façade. Also, in Fatehpur Sahib, there is a lot of development going on. In the coming days, one would see more such projects coming up in the state,” he shares. Channi said that while the state’s tourism department is leaving no stone unturned in promoting religious tourism further, it is also focusing on promoting heritage, medical, and eco-tourism.”

The Fern Hotels & Resorts has announced the opening of The Fern Residency in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. This is the 16th hotel which the company is managing in the state. Overall the company’s count has extended to 69 hotels across the country and in Nepal and Seychelles. The Fern Residency, Aurangabad is a 120-room business hotel offering modern-day accommodations, swimming pool and state-of-art banquet halls.  Suhail Kannampilly, the CEO of the company said, “People visiting Aurangabad which is steeped in history will be delighted by the hospitality extended to them. The Fern brand is extremely popular in the state and this property will go a long way in further expanding the popularity.”

Moscow International Travel & Tourism trade show will be held from 17-19 March 2020 at Crocus Expo to find new customers and business partners, conduct negotiations and meetings. 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.

Gurgaon-based travel fintech company SanKash and Travel Boutique Online has entered into a strategic partnership. The association will enable the travel agents operating both online and offline to fast track the processing of their travel packages without any hassle and drive double-digit revenue growth. While TBO will bring its reach and distribution, SanKash will contribute its entire payment know-how, operations and technology to the travel agents associated with TBO. They can adopt SanKash’s Monthly Payment Plan and help customers book their dream vacation packages, which will eventually increase their customer uptake and upsell services without money becoming an issue. Aiming to make holiday trips a part of the simple and accessible pleasures of life, SanKash comes as a revolutionary travel fintech company that focuses on helping Travel Agents and Tour Operators provide pay-in-parts / monthly EMI solutions for their travellers. Through this unique value proposition, it intends to create best-in-class customer and partner focused affordability solutions for the travel industry. Sankash is a B2B service that makes payment (loan disbursement) to travel agents bank account instead of customers account, thus empowering the travel agent but enabling customers to travel.

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