Tapping into the evolving aspiration of Indian travellers, Mastercard and Thomas Cook India has announced their partnership to bring, for the first time, Mastercard’s global ‘Priceless Cities’ program for outbound travellers from India. Offered for a period of six months starting May 2019, Thomas Cook India’s Forex cardholders (Borderless Prepaid Cards and One Currency Cards) will have the opportunity to utilize these unique benefits and create enriching experiences for themselves. The initiative will allow travellers the opportunity to unlock hidden gems across more than 40 cities worldwide through the ‘Priceless Cities’ program. All Thomas Cook prepaid cards in India exclusively enjoy Mastercard’s safe and secure payments network. ‘Priceless Cities’ is part of Priceless, a one-of-a-kind global experiential program by Mastercard. First introduced in New York in 2011, the program celebrates the world’s greatest cities by connecting consumers’ passions to unique experiences, privileged access and attractive offers. Cardholders will have access to box seats at bespoke events, cooking classes with Masterchefs, along with an array of other benefits to choose from. The program is designed to bring consumers closer to their passions — dining, sports, shopping, arts and entertainment, and travel — through one-of-a-kind experiences and exclusive access in more than 40 destinations around the world such as Paris, Rome, Abu Dhabi and Singapore.

The Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) has recently announced the launch of its new hotel brand- SeleQtions and Ambassador New Delhi has been rebranded and joins the SeleQtions family. The property is now called as Ambassador, New Delhi IHCL SeleQtions. Rajindera Kumar, Director of the hotel, said, “Today, the hotel has come under the SeleQtions brand of IHCL and we are very proud of the same. I must compliment Puneet Chhatwal for this endeavour.” The new brand has launched 12 hotels across the country and the first phase include properties present in seven key lodging markets of India: President, Mumbai; Ambassador, New Delhi; The Connaught, New Delhi; Blue Diamond, Pune; Cidade de Goa; Tajview, Agra and Devi Ratn, Jaipur. The other hotels are Pratap Mahal Ajmer; Savoy, Ooty; Gateway Coonoor; Gateway Chikmagalur and Gateway Varkala.

IndiGo, the Indian low-cost carrier that presently flies as far as Istanbul, is looking to make its way into the Europe-Asia market with a plan to offer budget Business Class seats on prospective long-haul routes. The move is part of the airline’s ambitious long-distance network as it aims to launch one-stop trips further into Europe, informs CEO Ronojoy Dutta. Though it is still unclear what the actual offering would be and how much it would cost, the airline is in talks with Airbus SE to buy their new, yet-to-be-released narrow-body jet. IndiGo already flies to 53 domestic and 18 international destinations. Earlier this month, SpiceJet had introduced Business Class on its flights post acquiring 737-800 aircraft from grounded Jet Airways’ fleet, allowing passengers to book Business Class with fares that were 30-40 per cent cheaper than its competitors.  

Seychelles Tourism Board recently conducted workshops in Pune, Bengaluru and Chandigarh to train potential travel trade partners and equip them with information about various offerings in Seychelles. This enabled Seychelles Tourism Board to meet many potential travel agents in the three cities and lay the groundwork for future sales visits. These workshops included a destination presentation, question and answer round followed by networking session that was attended by around 45-50 tour operators in each of the three cities. Seychelles offers visa on arrival facility and has direct flight connectivity with India. It ranks India as the top sixth source market for Seychelles.  

Saudia announced total traffic growth increased by 115% year-on-year in 2018, handling more than 34 million passengers in the year. The carrier has registered a 154% growth rate for North America, followed by the Middle East (+144%), the Indian subcontinent (+98%) and Mahatta (+77%) in Africa. The carrier handled more international passengers than domestic passengers for the first time in its history.  (Source: CAPA)

BLS International has announced that it has been signed up by the Embassy of Lebanon to accept visa applications in India. It has also been authorised to handle the ‘Attestation and Legalisation Services’ for the Embassy. BLS will accept visa applications for travel to Lebanon at 16 centres including Mumbai, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Goa, Jalandhar, Kochi, Lucknow, Raipur, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chandigarh and Trivandrum. Commenting on the new contract Shikhar Agarwal, Jt. Managing Director said, “We are extremely pleased to partner with the Embassy of Lebanon, to provide smooth, efficient and convenient experience for the applicants. BLS as a preferred outsourced visa-processing provider will work together with the Embassy to create a distinguished experience for all its valuable applicants travelling to Lebanon. To ensure this, we are opening 16 centres across India, covering major hubs as well as growing regional cities. Our centres will also facilitate the attestation and legalisation services for the Embassy of Lebanon, exclusively.”   BLS International will accept visa applications for travel to Lebanon at 16 centres including Mumbai, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Goa, Jalandhar, Kochi, Lucknow, Raipur, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chandigarh and Trivandrum.  

The pipeline data for the Asia Pacific region by STR- a provider of premium data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights for global hospitality sector, showed 1,892 hotel projects accounting for 423,343 rooms in construction as of April 2019. This represented a 23.3% year-over-year increase in the number of rooms in the final phase of the development pipeline. Five countries reported more than 20,000 rooms under construction including India- 21,068 rooms (7.4%) .

Air Peace, a private Nigerian airline, will soon commence its international operations.  The airline is planning to operate long-haul flight services to Sharjah, Dubai, Johannesburg, London, Houston, Guangzhou and Mumbai. Air Peace will deploy Boeing 777 on its international routes. The airline has acquired four Boeing 777 aircraft for its long-haul operations.

1988-batch officer of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service, Meenakshi Sharma has been appointed  the new Director General (Tourism) with the rank of Additional Secretary. The appointment comes amid a senior-level bureaucratic reshuffle by the Central Government. She will take over charge from former Director General, Satyajeet Rajan. At present, she is Additional Director General (Tourism), Ministry of Tourism. In 2016, she was appointed  Additional Director General, Ministry of Tourism replacing Usha Sharma, a 1985 batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre. She used to look after Administration-1, Establishment & Vigilance Division, Overseas Marketing Division, Domestic Offices Division, PSU Division including ITDC, Travel Division, Territorial Zone Division (West), PRASAD Scheme, Planning & Coordination Division, IT Division.  

AirAsia India has launched a new direct daily flight between Kolkata and Chennai. The airline already has 18 flights connecting Kolkata to Bagdogra, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, Indore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, New Delhi, Ranchi and Visakhapatnam. The flight from Kolkata, I5 556, will take off at 3.40 pm and reach Chennai at 06:05 pm. The return flight, I5 557, will take off from Chennai at 6.35 pm and reach Kolkata at 9.10 pm. Speaking on the development, Sanjay Kumar, Chief Operating Officer, AirAsia India said, “Kolkata is a key market for AirAsia India. The addition of this new route will strengthen up our connectivity in the east.”