VFS Global has rolled out Lithuania visa services in New Delhi, to cater to travellers from India visiting the European country. H.E. Julius Pranevičius, Ambassador of Lithuania to India and Giedrius Kazakevičius, Director of the Consular Department of the Lithuania Ministry of Foreign Affairs inaugurated the new Lithuania Visa Application Centre in the capital recently. VFS Global has been serving the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania since 2013, with visa operations in eight countries. On 10 June 2019, the contract was extended, mandating VFS Global to serve customers in 71 countries in all, including India, owing to Lithuania’s growing popularity among travellers globally. The Visa Application Centre is equipped to accept all categories of Schengen visas for Lithuania, as well as bio-metric enrollment for the same. Customers will have access to a range of optional services available to assist with the visa application process. This includes video conferencing facilities, form filling assistance, Prime Time appointments for application submission and passport collection outside of business hours, Hold at Location enabling a change in the mode of passport return after submitting the application, and much more. Customers can also choose to apply for their visas from the Premium Lounge, and enjoy end-to-end personalised assistance throughout the visa application submission. H.E. Julius Pranevičius, Ambassador of Lithuania to India added, “The newly opened Visa Centres in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru will facilitate the process by bringing the service closer to customer, contribute to building stronger people-to-people contacts, as well as strengthening  bilateral relations between Lithuania and India through tourism, trade and culture. We are looking forward to productive cooperation between the Embassy of Lithuania and VFS Global.” Vinay Malhotra, Regional …

By the end of this year, Best Western will open its hotels in New Delhi, Nawanshahr, Goa, Vizag and Gurugram. In a recent interview, Atul Jain, COO, Best Western Hotels & Resorts, India, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka says, “Following the signing of 20 new hotels in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the group regional pipeline now features 36 hotels containing over 3,000 rooms.”

UNWTO’s World Tourism Day celebration themed on ‘Tourism and Jobs: a better future for all’, will be held in New Delhi today. The event will be graced by the senior officials of Govt. of India and Tourism Ministry. Zurab Pololikashvili, Secretary-General, UNWTO will also mark his presence. The event’s purpose is to foster awareness among the global community on the importance of tourism sector for bringing about the holistic development.

The Turkish Tourism Board in India revealed that between January to June this year, Turkey has registered a 56% increase in the number of Indian tourist arrivals in comparison to the same period last year, hosting 130,000 Indian visitors. With such positive growth rate and indicative data coming from ministry, the Turkey tourism board is expecting to host around 250.000 Indian tourists by the end of 2019 The latest official statistics show that more than 24 million foreign tourists visited Turkey within the period of January to July, a strong 14.10 percent increase from the same period of last year. Turkey has emerged as a popular destination for Indian Travellers across categories. From leisure travel to FITs, Indian weddings to Mice summits, there has been a significant increase in all segments. This year Turkey witnessed a substantial surge in the number of extravagant Indian destination weddings across Turkey.  Similarly, MICE travel to Turkey increased at an incredibly fast pace. The tourism board further announced that by the end of 2019, Turkey is expected to host around 30 Indian weddings and 30.000 MICE visitors. Basis the current arrival numbers, and the activities planned in months to come, the tourism board is hoping to reach a record number of Indian tourist arrivals in Turkey by end of this year. The first half has witnessed a record engagement in terms of FITs, weddings & MICE and this trend will only go up. Turkey tourism board has been constantly engaging with Indian audience by highlighting important festivals, summits & international events that are being held in Turkey. A number of fams and engagements are being held regularly from India market to different parts of …

Cholan Tours, part of Lufthansa City Center, is set to launch a new mobile application, which will help connect the tour operators, travel guides and guides for better co-ordination and support. Sharing details, Pandian, Director, Cholan Tours said, “We have been thinking about coming up with something like this from last 5-7 years and now we have found right people and the work is going on for the launch of the App. We have scheduled a launch on November 15 this year. The app will help connect the tourist with guides, which is very tough to pre-book for tourist travelling to India. They can book flights, hotels and other services but now with the new app, they will be able to book guides as well. With this, more employment for guides will be generated throughout the year and guide services in the country will also improve.” He went on to say that around 88 per cent of tourists coming to India travel to the country on their own or through unorganised sector while the rest 12 per cent take services of organised travel agencies. “My intention of creating this App is not to disturb the 12 per cent share but tap the 88 per cent share of the market to book travel guides. If we are able to get even 10 per cent of the share, it will be phenomenal boost to bookings,” he added.

The ongoing Experience France roadshow organised by Atout France India in Mahabalipuram is proof that its strategy to tap the small cities more aggressively is paying off. The third edition of this event taking place over four days at Sheraton Grand Chennai Resort & Spa saw the largest delegate participation from France with 36 partners who will meet 85 agents from different parts of India. Sheetal Munshaw, Director, Atout France in India, says, “We have been doing multi-city roadshow formats for some time which worked at the time and suites our purpose. But we passed a point where we could no longer work with two or three cities and we needed a pan-India approach and this was the best way to do it. So for Experience France, we bring agents from different parts of India to meet our delegates. We have agents from Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and even Lucknow.” She added that 2018 saw around 7,00,000 visitors coming to France on short-term or tourist visas. This indicates a double digit growth in numbers in the last three years. She also adds that the aim for 2020 is to reach one million visitors but the collapse of Jet and Cox and Kings Plc, might affect these numbers. The event saw a huge delegation from private players from the Alps region alone because of the huge traction it sees from the Indian market.

After introducing flights from Guwahati (Assam) and Imphal (Manipur), AirAsia India will start operations from another north-eastern state- Agartala (Tripura) from next month, disclosed an AAI official. According to him, the airline has got the initial approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to operate few flights from Tripura capital Agartala connecting Delhi, Kolkata, Guwahati and other cities of India. The operations are likely to start from the fourth week of October. (Source: IANS)

The Department of Tourism (DOT), Republic of Philippines, reported double-digit growth on Indian tourist arrivals to the country during the first half of this year (Jan-June). India is among the top eleven source markets to the archipelago country. Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo–Puyat owes the continued upsurge to the sustained support from industry stakeholders, government, host communities, investors and foreign travel trade counterparts.

Shares of hotel companies zoomed up to 20 per cent on Monday after the GST Council reduced tax rate for hotel room tariffs. Post market hours on Friday, the GST Council reduced tax rate on hotel room tariffs, a move aimed at giving a boost to the hospitality sector. Indian Hotels Company shares grew by 8.20 per cent, ITC rose 6.95 per cent and Hotel Leela Venture advanced 3.59 per cent. The scrip of Taj GVK Hotels & Resorts jumped 19.98 per cent and Royal Orchid Hotels advanced 16.30 per cent on the BSE. (Source: PTI)

The second edition of tourism and hospitality buyer-seller meet the ‘India Tourism Mart 2019’ inaugurated in New Delhi recently. On the occasion, Union Minister, Nitin Gadkari, said that tourism sector has employment potential and this is the most important agenda for the government. He expressed faith that the Tourism Ministry will show great results given its commitment to promote tourism and travel in the country. He adds “Great positive outcome can be expected from the well organised Mart and the type of stake holders who are participating. India is a diverse country language, which fascinates and attracts new tourists. We are focusing on cleanliness and infrastructure which will also boost the tourism sector.”