Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State (I/C) for Civil Aviation, Housing & Urban Affairs and Minister of State for Commerce & Industry,  launched an aviation job portal for people looking for jobs in this sector. Puri revealed that the portal aims to provide a common platform for job seekers to register their job interests across various civil aviation sub-sectors. “Aviation Jobs portal is a unique initiative to harness the growth potential of the aviation sector to contribute to employment and re-employment in skilled aviation jobs in India. Both candidates and employers would be able to access a wider choice. Candidates will be able to seek job opportunities matching their profiles. Employers will be able to shortlist those suitable to serve their HR requirements as per their company policy through an online medium,” he added. Prospective Employers, who have completed their KYC under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs MCA-21 database would be eligible to register themselves on the portal. The portal can be accessed at the following link: http://aviationjobs.co.in/available on the website of the Ministry. Aviation Jobs makes no recommendations regarding employers. Job seekers and employers are encouraged to perform their verifications when applying for or accepting employment offers.

Going with the PM’s vision to encourage environment-friendly products, national carrier, Air India, has announced ban on usage of single-use plastic on the flights of its subsidiaries, Air India Express and Alliance Air, from October 2. “Air India is going to ban single-use plastic from October 2. In first phase it will implement in all flights of Air India Express and Alliance Air flights. In 2nd phase, it will be implemented in Air India flights,” an Air India spokesperson said. For special meals that are ordered and paid for by passengers in advance, the crew of Alliance Air and Air India Express will only use eco-friendly birch wood cutlery from October 2, the spokesperson added. Source: PTI

Travel Luxury Show 2019 is scheduled from September 14-15, 2019 at the Crowne Plaza Jaipur. The show promises 60 prefixed one-one-one meetings with the most sought after luxury buyers. The show will connect sellers to the travel trade luxury buyers across India, targeting Tier-II and Tier-III cities.

Travstarz Cruises, the cruise division of Travstarz Global Group, along with Dream Cruises organised a product presentation for travel agents and tour operators in New Delhi. Attended by around 150 agents, the presentation was followed by a networking cocktail and dinner. Pankaj Nagpal, MD and CEO, TravStarz Global Group, said that after starting their cruise division in November 2018, they have seen a great demand for cruise products and since they are the PSAs for Dream Cruises, they wanted to update the members about different products in their portfolio. He insisted that the last season for cruises was quite good and they are hoping to increase it further going forward.

A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report has revealed that Indian travellers have spent record amount of forex abroad in the first quarter of financial year 2019. With travel topping the chart for being the prime reason for buying/spending forex, followed by education, maintenance of close relatives and gifts. International travel cost the country US$1.6 billion out of the total US$4.2 billion forex purchased by Indians in Q1 (April-June 2019). There’s a 42 per cent increase from the US$1 billion spent on international travel out of a total US$ 3 billion spent done during April-June 2018. RBI’s numbers show that of the total US$13.8 billion spent by Indians in Financial Year 2018-2019, US$ 4.8 billion (35%) was on travel, US$ 3.6 billion (26%) on education, followed by US$ 2.8 billion (20%) for maintenance of close relatives and nearly US$ 1.4 billion on gifts to the relatives overseas. The sector that has crashed in terms of overseas spending is purchase of property or equity investments. According to World Tourism Organization, Indians are spending more than twice the amount on international travel as per June 2019, as opposed to what they spent in 2017. The numbers of Indians already having travelling overseas so far this year is close to 5 crore; quite a hike from the 2.4 crore Indians who travelled abroad in 2017.

Best Western will unveil BW Premier and Executive Residency brands by 2021 in India. The brand will also unveil GLō and Aiden later in the country. Atul Jain, COO, Best Western Hotels & Resorts India, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka, says, “Best Western Hotels & Resorts will aggressively seek expansion in India and other chosen markets, but will do so responsibly and efficiently.  The expansion will be spread across our brands and will include Best Western Plus, Best Western Premier, Vīb and GLō properties”. 

In a recent interview, Jaideep Dang, Managing Director, Hotels & Hospitality Business, JLL, says, “At present, Hyderabad is a booming market and is back into the reckoning. New hotels are being added yet the city remains strong. Besides this, Bengaluru, Delhi, Gurugram keep rising. However, Mumbai remains at the top in terms of Occupancy and RevPAR. The reason primarily remains the surge in the commercial market space.”

The Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) is soon going to launch its new website and will prove handy and useful for members in terms of new features and added benefits. Sharing more details, Sidharth Khanna, Treasurer, OTOAI said they are looking to unveil the website in next 10-15 days. He says, “We have been working on the new website and we felt the need to revamp the existing website. The new website will be more interactive for the members and will give them an opportunity to interact with each other. The key feature of the website would be that members can post a deal for the B2B, who is in the market on this new platform, which can be viewed by all the existing members. It will also give you all the updates about what the association has been doing, what is in the pipeline for the future. There is going to be a calendar of events apart from other exciting and useful features.”

Tamil Nadu Tourism is hopeful that Tamil Nadu Travel Mart (TTM), scheduled from September 19-22 at Chennai Trade Centre for increasing visitor numbers to the state. Apurva Varma, Additional Chief Secretary to Government, Tourism, Culture and Religious Endowments Dept. said, “We expect a lot of buyers to come for the second edition of TTM. It will be a huge platform for showcasing Tamil Nadu, where all stakeholders would come under one roof. Right from hoteliers, wellness tourism providers, domestic and international travel products, will be there for buyers. Everybody is excited and looking forward to it.”

Continuing its focus on developing the cruising market in India, Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has announced that it will organise another edition of its Singapore Cruise Forum on 12 September 2019 in New Delhi. Explaining the idea behind this, GB Srithar, Regional Director (India, Middle East & South Asia), Singapore Tourism Board, says, “We began actively positioning Singapore as a major cruise holiday destination and a cruise hub from 2014-2015 onwards. We have conducted cruise forums in the past, with cruise professionals to provide thought leadership, discussions and networking with cruise lines and intermediaries – in 2017, in Mumbai and in Singapore last year. We are now bringing it back to India.” The theme of this year’s forum will be ‘Growing Cruise Connections – Achieving Together’ and will be an event involving thought leaders and cruise professionals. “We plan to do two to three panel discussions bringing in professionals from the industry including cruise lines and travel agent intermediaries and people who are looking at this cruise industry from a strategic perspective, including CLIA (Cruising Lines International Association). We hope to initiate a dialogue within the industry and expand the mind space about cruising as a holiday option,” Srithar adds.