The Indian aviation sector is witnessing phenomenal growth and there could be 2,000 planes in a short time, Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said recently. He told the Lok Sabha that the country’s aviation sector is the third-largest in the world and there is an annual growth of 17%. “In 2008, the number of passengers stood at 117 million and now it is around 440 million. It is expected to touch 1 billion,” adds Puri. Source: PTI

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and partners welcomed passengers on board Vistara’s inaugural international flights from Delhi and Mumbai with a taste of Singaporean hospitality. The STB, together with tourism partners like Gardens by the Bay, Resorts World Sentosa, Sentosa Development Corporation, Trick Eye Museum Singapore and Wildlife Reserves Singapore (comprising the Singapore Zoo, Night Safari, River Safari and Jurong Bird Park) have put together value deals and discounts to popular attractions and experiences in Singapore. The discount vouchers are part of the welcome kits for Vistara’s passengers upon arrival in Singapore for the inaugural flights; and will continue to be distributed to passengers until 14 August 2019. Details of the discounts being offered can be found in the appended Fact Sheet.   Singapore received 1.44 million visitors from India in 2018, crossing the one million visitor mark for the fourth time in a row. India is also the third largest visitor source market for Singapore and has been able to retain its position as the top source market for cruise travel. The introduction of new flights from India will help more Indian travelers experience leisure, business and cruise travel to Singapore.   

Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), Chandigarh Chapter, has elected its new committee recently. Harraj Singh Sidhu has been elected has the Chairman, Puneet Arora has been constituted as the Hony. Secretary and Naveen Kumar has been elected as the Hony. Treasurer.

Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) Punjab Chapter held its Annual General Meeting on 2 August 2019 in Jalandhar. The meeting elected Gurjeet S.Sekhon of Ace Vacations & Travels, Amritsar as its Chairman, Narinder Davesar of Bharti Travel Advisor (Regd.) as its Secretary and Pankul Sharma of Sharma Travels, Jalandhar as Treasurer for a period of two years. TAAI is India’s premier, nodal, largest and oldest Travel & Tourism Association.

Airlines across the world carried 4.4 billion passengers on scheduled services, an increase of 6.9 per cent over 2017, representing an additional 284 million trips by air, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which released performance figures for 2018 in the IATA World Air Transport Statistics (2019 WATS).  Alexandre de Juniac, Director General and CEO, IATA, stated, “The world’s airlines safely carried around 4.3 billion passengers last year, on some 126,000 daily flights connecting over 21,000 city pairs.”

The scheduled international passenger traffic for the first quarter (January-March) of the year 2019 stands at 16.4 million while the international passenger traffic for the corresponding period in the year 2018 stood at 15.8 million thereby witnessing a growth of 3.8 per cent, according to International Air Traffic Statistics revealed by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). It has been observed that all the three months of the first quarter of the year 2019 witnessed a positive growth in terms of the total number of international passengers carried as compared to the corresponding months in the first quarter of the year 2019

Almost all markets in India witnessed an increase in Average Daily Rate (ADR) of hotels in the first half of 2019 except for Ahmedabad.  Bengaluru recorded the highest ADR percentage change of 9.3 per cent in this period over the same period last year, followed by Hyderabad at 9.2%, and then Jaipur at 6.7% The figures were revealed by JLL in a report titled Hotel Momentum India (HMI) that gave the performance report of hospitality industry in 11 markets across India.

India recorded a total of 44,611 advanced bookings to the holy city of Mecca ahead of this year’s Hajj, which is the second highest in the world and the highest in Asia, according to Travelport’s global trends in flight bookings for Hajj 2019. Globally, Egypt recorded the greatest number of flight bookings through a GDS out of any country this year (49,477). The report stated that Advanced flight bookings to airports around the have increased from Asia, Europe and Oceania. Travelport’s analysis of available data , Asia recorded the greatest growth in flight bookings made through GDS to airports around Mecca this year in terms of volume, with bookings up by 11,284 (+5%). On a country level, the greatest growth came from Bangladesh, with bookings up by +171% (13,906).

Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, MOT, revealed that the third edition of Paryatan Parv will be celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and will be held from Oct 2- 13 across the country. “The dates for the nationwide activities under Paryatan Parv by the states will take place from October 2-13, 2019, while the activities under Government of India will be held from October 2-6 at Rajpath in New Delhi. This year Paryatna Parv will be special because it is the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, and the theme will be ‘150 years of celebrating the Mahatma’, wherein, we will have activities centered around the life of Mahatma Gandhi,” he said.

Travel Luxury Show 2019 is scheduled from September 14-15, 2019 at the Crowne Plaza Jaipur. This show will connect sellers to the travel trade luxury buyers across India, targeting Tier-II and Tier-III cities. The show promises 60+ pre–scheduled B2B meetings in two days. The two-day event will also witness panel discussion with keynote speakers who will give an in-depth update of the industry.