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.”

Fitur 2020, the International Tourism Fair organised by IFEMA from 22-26 January at Feria de Madrid, has opened registration for Trade visitors. All professionals registering at the Trade Meeting Point before November 1, will get a free one-day pass. At its last edition, Fitur brought together 10,400 participating companies with more than 253,000 attendees. In addition to the excellent participation forecasts, together with the positive figures from the tourism industry, this year’s will be the Fair’s 40th Anniversary, a special occasion that will mark the culmination of a whole series of initiatives already underway and whose objective is to continue Fitur’s successful, upward trend.

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.

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 Partnerships (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.