Inaugurating the World Tourism Day celebrations in New Delhi, Vice President, M Venkaiah Naidu, urged all stake holders of the tourism industry to be mindful of their ecological foot print and called for more responsible and sustainable tourism practices. Observing that tourism is a major engine of economic growth and an important source of employment and foreign exchange earnings in many countries, Shri Naidu said that tourism in India has tremendous potential, considering the country’s rich cultural and historical heritage, varied ecology, terrains and places of natural beauty spread across the country.

Hindi makes its way into the UNWTO Academy course. Zurab Pololikashvili- Secretary General, UNWTO, said, “We have launched Hindi into our Academy course. It will help Indian tourism students learn effectively. We will also take more of such initiatives.” This announcement was made on the occasion of the World Tourism Day which was celebrated by UNWTO in Delhi.

Jean-Michel Cassé, Chief Operating Officer (COO) – India & South Asia, Accor, says, “For Accor, hotels in Mumbai recorded around 80 percent occupancy with almost 12-15 percent rate increase. Delhi/NCR hotels were at around 75 percent with double digit ADR growth in H1. Bengaluru hotels recorded maximum occupancy growth with almost 20 percent rate growth. Goa had a soft Q1 with under 5 percent RevPAR growth. 

WelcomHeritage has opened a new property in Tadoba – WH Tadoba Vanya Villas Resort & Spa and is set to launch 3 more by the end of this year. Sanjeev K Nayar, MIH, General Manager, WelcomHeritage, says, “We have three new properties in the pipeline which includes a heritage property in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh; Inderpura Resort in Udaipurwati, the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan and Mount Valley in Ranthambore in the foothills of the Aravalli range.”

Travel Trade Association of Uttar Pradesh (TTAUP) is holding its TTAUP Travel Mart, TTM 2019 today at the Hotel Hyatt Regency, Lucknow. Vivek Pandey, President, TTAUP said that, “At TTM 2019, we have 35 exhibitors and already 400+ online registrations for the buyers. The buyers from the travel trade are coming in exclusively from Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Among the exhibitors we have a wide range of travel suppliers, DMC’s, cruise operators, visa facilitators, online portals and hotels.” Expected dignitaries include, Satish Mahana, Minister, Industrial Development, govt of UP and  Jitendra Kumar, I.A.S, Additional Chief Secretary & Director General, Tourism, govt of UP. The full day event will be followed by networking dinner and regional cultural performance.

In 2018, a total of 221,000 Indian cruise passengers sailed the seas, a 28 per cent growth over 2017, reveals Jiali Wong, Regional Manager (Asia) of the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) from findings of a report. India as a cruise source market has grown by double digits in the past couple of years, she said. Compared to 46.7 years for a Global Cruiser’s average age and 45.4 years for an Asia Cruiser, the Indian cruiser’s average was at a relatively younger 37 years old.

Foreign Tourist Arrivals in August 2019 were 7,98,587 as compared to 7,86,003 in August 2018, registering a growth of 1.6%, revealed latest statistics released by Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. FTAs during the period January-August 2019 were 68,82,940 as compared to 67,43,819 in January- August 2018 registering a growth of 2.1%.

Nearly three quarters (71%) of travellers today consider it important whether an airline offers a good digital experience when booking a flight, up +3% on 2018, reveals Travelport’s Global Digital Traveler Research 2019, which surveyed 23,000 people from 20 countries. Over half (58%) also consider this when choosing accommodation, up +7% on 2018.

Overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for the month of Aug 2019 has been 1.61%, according to Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Air Asia recorded lowest cancellations with (0.45%), followed by Vistara (0.47%) and SpiceJet (0.62%). GoAir was next with 0.85% cancellations, while IndiGo recorded 0.90%. Air India had 3.80% cancellations in August 2019.

CAPA India has recently reported that at the end of Q2, with Jet’s exit, Air India now has the largest share of international seats at both at Delhi and Mumbai airports. The 3 LCCs, IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir have also increased their share of international seats at Mumbai Airport over the last year from 4.0% to 20.4%.