Lords Hotels & Resorts will open 11 hotels by early 2020 in India. In a recent interview, Rishi Puri, Senior VP- Operations & Development, Lords Hotels & Resorts, says, “Starting September 1, we will open 11 properties across India by early 2020. The locations of these hotels are- Goa, Morbi, Lonavala, Ahmedabad, Jamnagar, Kurnul, Amritsar, Rajkot, Amritsar, Rajkot (2 hotels), Nathdwara and Udaipur.”

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.”

According to a report by HVS ANAROCK, 2019 is expected to outpace 2018 with a total of 105 new branded hotel openings with a total key count of 8,574 keys. Re-branded openings accounted for 24% of the openings in 2018. The significant jump in 2018 and 2017 hotel openings over 2016 is partly a result of re-branding. The report further says, “The effort to open new hotels, big or small, requires hotel operators to coordinate large amounts of pre-opening effort.”

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.  

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation, has advised passengers not to carry models of 15-inch MacBook Pro laptops that Apple deemed a safety risk due to overheating batteries. Affected units were sold primarily between September 2015 and February 2017 and product eligibility is determined by the product serial number. Apple has determined that, in a limited number of older generation 15-inch MacBook Pro units, the battery may overheat and pose a fire safety risk.

In a bid to cater to the demand of Indian diaspora and foreign tourists to visit various destinations, Air India has introduced ‘Discover India’ scheme valid for sale and travel up to March 31, 2020. Under the scheme, Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) and Foreign nationals will now be able to buy five domestic Air India economy class tickets for Rs. 40,000 which will be valid for travel within 15 days of the first leg of travel. According to a statement, “Ten domestic economy class tickets are also on offer for Rs 75,000 with a validity period of 30 days both on firm basis. The passenger will be allowed to travel to any destination of their choice within India and are also permitted to reroute their journey as per their requirement.” The scheme allows re-booking, which is permitted without penalty till 4 hours prior to scheduled departure. The passenger can also change the date of the journey without any charge. “Air India offers unique benefits to passengers like 25 Kilograms free baggage allowance to all adult and child passengers and also 10 kgs free baggage allowance to infants. Besides, comfortable seats, range of inflight cuisine in plush new aircraft,” revealed the statement by Air India.

The number of weekly international seats deployed by IndiGo to/from India has increased by 43% in just 3 months, according to CAPA. The airline offers over 1400 daily flights and connects 57 domestic destinations and 19 international destinations and has added