Fortune Hotels  has launched two new hotels – one in Jalandhar and another in Mahiya near Kasauli. Fortune Avenue, Jalandhar is located in close proximity to the city’s business and entertainment hub. The hotel has a selection of 51 contemporary rooms with free Wi-Fi connectivity and round-the-clock dining. The three signature food and beverage venues are Orchid – The Multi Cuisine Restaurant, Neptune Bar and Lounge, and Fortune Deli. This is further complemented by the 4000 sq ft modern banquet venues that can accommodate up to 350 to 500 people.

The Adani group has won the bid to operate five out of six airports put up for privatisation by the government. It was the highest bidder for the Ahmedabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Lucknow, Mangaluru and Jaipur airports, a senior official of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said. The bid for the Guwahati airport will be opened on February 26. AAI chose the winner on the basis of “monthly per-passenger fee”. The official said the bids put by Adani group were “very aggressive” as compared to other bidders. The five airports would be handed over to Adani group after completion of formalities, the AAI official said. A total of 32 technical bids were received from 10 companies to operate six airports currently under AAI’s management. In November last year, the government had cleared a proposal for managing six AAI-run airports on public-private partnership (PPP) basis. The Ahmedabad and Jaipur airports received seven bids each. Those at Lucknow and Guwahati received six bids each. Mangaluru and Thiruvananthapuram received three bids each. The move to manage the six airports on PPP basis, according to AAI, is part of an initiative to provide world-class infrastructure and services to stakeholders. Source: PTI

Finland witnessed a 15 per cent growth in Indian arrivals in 2018 and over 80,000 overnights, informed Jukka Holappa, Commercial Counsellor, Country Head—India and Sri Lanka, Business Finland, at VisitFinland and India Workshop 2019 held in Delhi on February 25. Speaking at the event, he said, “The numbers from India have been growing. At our roadshows in Delhi and Mumbai, we have 10 partners from Finland and are looking at a participation of about 70-80 agents in each city. Indians usually like to explore more countries in one single visit, often going to Russia and Estonia; we are hoping to get them to stay longer in Finland.” Holappa claims that the they are committed to support, educate and grow the business for their travel partners. “It’s our role to educate the travel agents on Finland but the Indian travel trade needs to educate us to manage Indian travellers as well,” he concluded. He also informed that Lapland is very popular with Indians as they love to see the Northern Lights.

IndiGo is set to begin direct daily operations to Istanbul from Delhi and later from Ahmedabad along with other destinations. This was revealed by Emin Çakmak, Chairman, Turkish Indian Tourism Council, at a Turkish delegation meet held in Delhi on February 25. He says, “We are expecting a growth of 25-30 per cent from the Indian market by the end of this year. We have a great co-operation between the tourism and trade industry of the two countries. The potential is huge and now that can be released as more seats will be made available soon.”

The National Tourism Advisory Council (NTAC) and other stakeholders recently met with Gujarat Tourism officials at Tent City, Statue of Unity, Kevadia in Gujarat to chalk out a strategy for bringing five million tourists to the Statue. The Council came to the conclusion that the number of tourists visiting the Statue would touch three million in 2019, taking into consideration the footfall during the last two months. Further, to reach the goal of five million tourists, a detailed proposal was made by the state government. After discussions, it was suggested that additional facilities should be created at the Statue of Unity like night safari, ropeway between the dam and safari, check dam to be constructed about 10 kms downstream of the dam so that boating and water sports would be possible for a length of over 10 kms from the check dam to the Statue, amusement park, tribal museum, state bhawans at the site, restaurant complex to be expanded with cuisines from all states, adventure tourism, boat riding in the dam, mid-segment hotels to be set up on land to be leased out by Narmada Valley Development Authority on long term lease, regular helicopter service to be started from the Statue to various towns in Gujarat, and seaplanes to be operational from the Dam to various destinations.  

According to WTTC, the total contribution of Travel & Tourism to employment was 41,622,500 jobs in 2017 (8.0% of total employment). This is forecast to rise by 3.1% in 2018 to 42,898,000 jobs (8.1% of total employment).By 2028, Travel & Tourism is forecast to support 52,279,000 jobs (8.4% of total employment), an increase of 2.0% pa over the period.

According to a recent report by DGCA, Passengers carried by domestic airlines during Jan 2019 were 125.08 lakhs as against 114.65 lakhs during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering a growth of 9.10%. However, the passenger load factor in the month of Jan 2019 has shown decreasing trend compared to previous month due to the end of tourist season.

According to a recent report by JLL India, eight out of eleven cities in India witnessed an increase in RevPAR performance in Q4 2018 over same period last year. While Mumbai is the RevPAR leader in absolute terms, Ahmedabad is the leader in RevPAR % change in Q4 2018 over same period last year. For CY 2018, Delhi is the leader in RevPAR growth change. All eleven markets witnessed increase in ADRs in Q4 2018, except for Kolkata. International hotel operators dominated signings over domestic operators with the ratio of 57:43. Importantly, 25% of new signings are conversions of old hotels. Rajasthan is the leading state in brand signings and Goa leads in hotel openings in Q4 2018.

Japan Airlines and Vistara airlines have entered a codeshare partnership that will open up more routes between India and Tokyo. With the signing of this agreement, Vistara becomes the only codeshare partner for Japan Airlines in India. The sale of tickets open on 26 February 2019 on all channels and major GDS systems, for travel from 28 February 2019. As part of the agreement, Japan Airlines will add its ‘JL’ designator code to approximately 32 Vistara-operated flights each day across India covering seven Indian cities, namely Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune. JAL and Vistara already have an interline/through check-in partnership and the two airlines had signed a Memorandum of Understanding in September 2017¹ to pursue commercial opportunities together. Commenting on this key partnership, Mr. Sanjiv Kapoor, Chief Strategy & Commercial Officer, Vistara said: “We’re delighted to further strengthen our partnership with Japan Airlines with this codeshare agreement, which is a step that underlines our commitment of partnering with some of the leading airlines in the world and of putting Vistara, India’s best airline, on the global map. This partnership helps us offer greater convenience and variety of choice to customers with a comprehensive network, as well as the opportunity of welcoming travellers from Japan and beyond to experience Vistara’s award-winning hospitality and service. We’re confident that our respective customers will truly enjoy the shared benefits of this partnership between two airlines committed to being amongst the best service providers on the ground and in the sky.” “The number of passengers traveling between Japan and India has increased over time,” said Mr. Hideki Oshima, Executive Officer, Japan Airlines. “By strengthening the partnership with Vistara, we will be able …

Philippine Airlines (PAL) is planning further rapid expansion of its international operation over the next few months as it launches services to Hanoi, New Delhi and Phnom Penh and adds frequencies to 12 of its 39 existing international destinations. PAL’s international seat capacity will increase by nearly 10% this summer, pressuring yields and profitability as the airline tries to increase sixth freedom traffic. PAL is growing capacity to continental North America by nearly 50% this summer, supported by the delivery of A350-900s. As PAL introduces 17 additional weekly frequencies to North America it is trying to attract more transit traffic in the highly competitive North America-Southeast Asia market – leading to the decision to add Hanoi, New Delhi and Phnom Penh. PAL’s expansion this summer will result in more competition with several North Asian airlines, including its new strategic partner All Nippon Airways (ANA). On 29-Jan-2019 ANA Holdings announced the acquisition of a 9.5% stake in PAL Holdings, the parent company for PAL and the full service regional subsidiary PAL Express. While the deal is strategically significantly for PAL, which has been trying to secure a foreign airline investor for years, the stake is small, and the USD95 million investment is pocket change for ANA. The fact that the transaction values PAL at only USD1 billion, despite group revenues of over USD2.5 billion and an extremely attractive slot portfolio at congested Manila, reflects the challenges PAL faces. (Source: CAPA)