The Indian Railways is looking to explore options to join hands with private operators to run passenger trains on select tourist routes, generally the ones who receives less congestion. A Railway Board document revealed that the department will invite bids for the same in the next 100 days. To begin with, the Railways is thinking of giving two trains to its tourism and ticketing subsidiary, IRCTC to operate. The ticketing and on board services will be provided by IRCTC and the Railways will receive a lump sum amount in return. These trains will be run on routes which have “low congestion and connect important tourist spots”, which will be identified by Railways. Subsequently, the railways will float the expression of interests to identify operators willing to participate in the bidding process for rights to run passenger day/ overnight train sets connecting important cities, according communication shared among Railway Board members. The letter said that the railways will consult trade unions while finalising the contours of inviting private players to run passenger trains on select routes.

Cygnett Resort Mountain Breeze situated in Jeolikot is now open for guests. The resort offers 59 rooms and an all day dining area. Speaking on the occasion, Sarbendra Sarkar, Managing Director, said, “Cygnett Resort Mountain Breeze is a gem in the lap of nature.The resort promises its guests a truly unmatched Cygnetture experience and a memorable stay with an undisputed location at unbeatable prices.” Cygnett Resort Mountain Breeze offers an incredible value and an unforgettable experience when it comes to hosting corporate events. The hall is situated at a superb location with flexible banqueting spaces equipped to handle gatherings of any nature and size. In addition to this, an acclaimed blend of thoughtful hi tech amenities, agile service and superb culinary offerings ensure a flawlessly orchestrated event every time- be it be it meetings, launches, seminars, workshops, weddings, anniversaries, private parties or any other occasion. Tailor-made residential conference packages are also available.

Worldwide Rail Journeys (WRJ), India’s foremost rail-tour operator has concluded pre-purchase of number of charters and cabins on luxury trains of India, for the upcoming season (2019-2020 & 2020-2021). Collaborations, partnerships and enquiries are invited by the group. WRJ offers journeys on luxury trains such as the – Deccan Odyssey, Palace on Wheels, The Golden Chariot, Maharaja’s Express, Deluxe Buddhist Train, Majestic Train & Heritage Toy Trains of India.

Agartala airport will soon become the third international airport in Northeast India, post completion of a Rs 438 crore project to upgrade it to international standards. The project is said to be completed by 2019-end or early 2020, with plans in place to begin flights between Agartala and Dhaka, as well as other Bangladesh cities. The state government has already provided 72 acres of land to AAI for construction of the new terminal building, runway, and other necessary infrastructure. Agartala airport is the second busiest in the northeast after Guwahati’s Bordoloi International, and handles, on an average, 900,000 passengers per year according to AAI officials.

LvYue Hotel Management, the strategic investment arm of Ctrip Group, has launched its 18-room property in Gurugram, through its India unit – LvYue Hotel Management (India). Six more properties are said to be in pipeline as the company vies for a greater share in the Indian hotel space.  The newly-established LvYue Hotel Management (India) is operating out of DLF Cyber City in Gurugram. LvYue is currently said to be scouting for other properties in North India. At a later stage, the company management will also explore a combination of management contracts and franchise agreements to expand its network. Established in 2016, the LvYue group has built a portfolio of over 500 properties worldwide. It has three brands – Floral, Sucha and Vyluk, with hotels either operational or under development across 10 countries including China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia. The company is expecting its network to exceed 2000 hotels by the end of this year. Source: DNA India

According to statistics released by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), domestic air passenger traffic increased by 2.96 per cent in May as compared to last year, after a significant slump in April, owing to Jet Airways ceasing its operations. In April, domestic air passenger traffic dropped by 4.5 per cent over the same period last year. The domestic air traffic in May this year recorded 12.20 million passengers as compared to 11.85 million passengers in the same month last year, which translated into an increase of 2.96 per cent. IndiGo led with 49 per cent share of the domestic passenger market in May, followed by SpiceJet recording 14.8 per cent market share. The market share of Air India, GoAir, AirAsia and Vistara were 13.5 per cent, 11.1 per cent, 6.3 per cent and 4.7 per cent, respectively.

Goa Tourism has dropped the US and China from its list of marketing and promotional activity destination citing minimal footfall from the long-haul destinations. Explaining the move, Dayanand Sopte told a news organisation that there is no point in marketing Goa in destinations from where the footfall is minimal. In a state-level marketing and promotion committee meeting the board discussed destinations and events it should participate in and it should avoid. Sopte said that the state’s participation in any international road show or trade fair should be decided by considering all facts especially weather the market or countries will bring in tourists in big numbers. “We have decided not to participate in certain countries because experience has shown that despite spending crores of rupees, the resultant footfalls were not impressive. We don’t have many US tourists visiting Goa. Is it worthwhile then to spend over Rs 1 crore to promote the state there?,” said Sopte.

United Airlines has announced it has entered into a new alliance agreement with New Delhi-based airline, Vistara. The agreement, effective in Fall 2019, further expands United’s global route network to more than 20 destinations throughout India. United currently operates more nonstop service to India than any other U.S. carrier. In addition to convenient, one-stop connections to more than 20 destinations from Mumbai and New Delhi, the new United/Vistara alliance agreement enables United customers traveling from the United States with a seamless travel experience including: • Connecting flight opportunities from Mumbai and New Delhi further enhances United’s network offering from its U.S. hubs in New York/Newark and San Francisco. • Reciprocal frequent flyer benefits – United MileagePlus members earn and redeem frequent flyer miles on all Vistara routes and Vistara’s Club Vistara members earn and redeem frequent flyer miles on all Vistara and United routes. • United will place its UA* marketing code on more than 20 flights operated by Vistara (subject to government approval). • Coordinated United and Vistara customer service. “United Airlines has served India from our New York/Newark hub for more than 14 years and in December of this year will begin operating new nonstop service between San Francisco and New Delhi,” said John Gebo, United’s senior vice presiden4t of Alliances. “We are pleased to enter into this new alliance agreement with Vistara to offer our customers traveling between the United States and India seamless access to more destinations throughout India.”

Vistara has announced a significant network expansion with the addition of 62 new flights to and from Mumbai and Delhi. These new flights represent an over 50% increase in the size of the airline’s network, with 170 flights a day across 24 destinations operated by a fleet of 23 Airbus A320 and 6 Boeing 737-800NG aircraft. With the addition of 62 new flights, Vistara will now operate direct flights from Mumbai to 10 cities, adding Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Chennai and Varanasi to the six other cities it already flies to from Mumbai, namely Amritsar, Bengaluru, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad and Kolkata. Additionally, Vistara has increased its daily frequency on the Mumbai – Kolkata sector from 1x to 3x; Mumbai – Goa from 1x to 2x; Mumbai – Bengaluru from 5x to 6x; Mumbai – Hyderabad from 1x to 3x; Delhi – Chandigarh from 2x to 4x; Delhi – Guwahati from 1x to 2x; Delhi – Amritsar from 1x to 2x; Delhi – Kolkata from 3x to 4x; and Delhi – Bengaluru from 5x to 6x daily.

The Cochin International Airport will suspend daytime operations starting November 6, 2019 to March 28, 2020, owing to maintenance works and recarpeting. There would no flight services from 10 am till 6 pm during the five-month period at the airport. Right now, around 31 domestic services and seven international flights take off from Kochi in these hours, and the same number of flights land in Kochi during the daytime. Otherwise The runway would however would carry on operations as usual from 6pm till the next day morning. The airline companies have been asked to change the flight timings accordingly.