The Indian travel trade welcomed nine companies from Ireland during Tourism Ireland’s India Sales Mission that concluded recently. Its aim was to facilitate the Irish industry to engage with Indian travel professionals who are currently selling the island of Ireland, or who have strong potential to sell the destination and to position Ireland as one of the most desirable destinations for travellers from India. Business links between tourism companies from Ireland and influential travel professionals in India were strengthened during the sales mission, through a busy programme of workshops, presentations and networking events. Siobhan McManamy, Director of Markets, Tourism Ireland said, “Our sales mission is a key element of our promotional programme in India. It will give our tourism partners a platform to inform and influence the Indian travel trade about what the island of Ireland has to offer and, importantly, encourage them to include the destination in their brochures and programmes. Tourism Ireland is committed to growing visitor numbers to the island of Ireland from India and our sales mission will play a significant role in helping us achieve this goal.” The workshops were held in Mumbai and Delhi with over 100 leading travel agents and tour operators in attendance. The companies who were represented at the event include Fáilte Ireland, Tourism Northern Ireland, Guinness Storehouse, Winterfell Castle – Game of Thrones Visitor Attraction, Stena Line, Hotel Solutions, The Savoy Hotel, Andras House Group and Irish Rugby Tours.  

The growth of the LCC market for India has been significant, according to a recent ‘Project Rupee Raftaar’ report by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Around 55 per cent of all seats in the market are offered by low cost carriers (LCC). Focusing on the domestic market alone, the LCC share of total seats is almost 70 per cent. While the share of LCC seats offered on India’s international routes is much smaller, at just under 25 per cent, this share has risen from essentially zero in 2004. Arguably, the emergence of LCCs has facilitated the democratization of air travel and fueled aviation growth, albeit in various ways across different markets. In emerging markets, LCCs have broadened the market and allowed more people the opportunity to fly for the very first time. In more mature markets, LCCs have deepened the market allowing people to fly more often.

The report, ‘The Future of Rail: Opportunities for Energy and the Environment’ released recently by International Energy Agency said the annual investment in rail infrastructure will increase to USD 330 billion in 2050 globally on the basis of projects currently in various stages of construction and planning. Indian railways will have a share of 40 per cent of the total global rail activity and save around USD 64 billion on fuel bills by 2050, a report by International Energy Agency said. “Rail activity in India is set to grow more than any other country, with passenger movements in India reaching 40 per cent of global activity. The biggest part of the increased investment goes to infrastructure for urban rail (nearly USD 190 billion) and high-speed rail (USD 70 billion); the additional costs of the trains are small in comparison,” the report said. “As a result of these investments, in 2050 fuel expenditures are reduced by around USD 450 billion, relative to the base scenario. India could save as much as USD 64 billion on fuel expenditures by mid-century,” the report stated. The report also stated that the pace of infrastructure build is fastest in urban rail. The length of metro lines under construction or slated for construction over the coming five years is twice the length of those built over any five-year period between 1970 and 2015. The result, it said is unprecedented growth in passenger movements on urban rail.

Paytm has launched domestic hotel booking service and will be investing Rs 500 crore for scaling its operations and expanding the portfolio. The company has also acquired Nightstay, a luxury hotel-booking platform for an undisclosed amount. In the first phase of the launch, the company has partnered with over 5000 hotels across the budget, luxury and business segments. These include the Zuri, Sarovar, Treebo, Vresorts, Sterling, Ginger and Bloomrooms across top cities. With the acquisition, Paytm will leverage Nightstay’s acumen to further expand its portfolio in this vertical. Nasr Khan, founder, NightStay will be leading this category at Paytm and will be responsible for the overall growth and development as well. Paytm Travel, which had started in 2014, sells over 60 million tickets a year, and has become the leading player for IRCTC tickets, bus tickets, and flight bookings. Earlier this year, Paytm Travel also started offering foreign exchange bookings for international travellers. “The momentum we’re building in our travel vertical is remarkable, with leading positions in rail, bus and flight bookings. The launch of domestic hotel bookings is an important step forward as it will help travellers around the country conveniently plan and book their perfect trip on Paytm. We want to offer the broadest travel selection on our platform, and look forward to continuing our expansion with the help of our trusted travel partners,” Madhur Deora, Chief Financial Officer, Paytm said. Paytm aims at having two million hotels and alternate accommodations globally, with the availability of 50 million rooms within the first 18 months.

GoAir further expands its international footprint with the launch of direct flights on Kannur–Abu Dhabi–Kannur route effective March 1, 2019. The airline will operate four direct flight services per week between the destinations with bookings now open at an all-inclusive one way fare starting from Rs 6099. This sector will further strengthen the airline’s growing international network to the Gulf and travellers will now have the opportunity to experience affordable travel experience that GoAir is acknowledged with. Speaking on the occasion, Jeh Wadia, Managing Director, GoAir said, “Commercial and cultural links between India and UAE are flourishing and GoAir is committed to contribute in facilitating and enhancing the growth of trade and the strong demand for tourism. Kannur, an incredibly beautiful part of India, is now accessible from Abu Dhabi with direct flights and an affordable and convenient travel option.” Recently GoAir announced international operations out of Kannur to Muscat. GoAir will operate three direct flight services per week between Kannur–Muscat–Kannur effective February 28, 2019. On the domestic front, GoAir currently connects Kannur to Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Showcasing the diversity of handicrafts, handlooms and cultural fabric of India, the 33rd Surajkund International Crafts Mela, 2019 gets underway from February 1-17 at Surajkund Mela Ground, Faridabad. Speaking at a press meet for the event, Yogendra Tripathi, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism and Chairman, Surajkund Mela Authority said, “Tourists today are looking for immersive experiences and the 33rd Surajkund International Crafts Mela provides that very culturally enriching experience for visitors. We have craftspersons from all over India with participants from 30 countries.” Other dignitaries present at the event included Vikas Yadav, Managing Director, Haryana Tourism Corporation and Chief Administrator, Surajkund Mela Authority; Vijai Vardhan, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Tourism, Government of Haryana and Vice Chairman, Surajkund Mela Authority. The event is organised by Surajkund Mela Authority and Haryana Tourism in collaboration with Union Ministries of Tourism, Textiles, Culture and External Affairs. Maharashtra has been chosen as Theme State for the 33rd Surajkund International Crafts Mela 2019. A large number of renowned national and international folk artistes and cultural groups will present day performances at open-air theatres located in the Mela premises. The multi-cuisine food court provides ethnic cuisines from all over the world.

Global Destinations is organising a four-city roadshow in the country in order to strengthen relations with the travel fraternity and various private players. Having kicked off in Delhi, the roadshow will travel to Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Chennai. Pranav Kapadia, Founder & Director, Global Destinations, shared, “We have got 12 partners with for the roadshow, which includes five properties from Bintan Resorts and partners from Greece, Vietnam and Bulgaria. We’ve got  Swiss-Belhotel International from Bali, a partner from United states and Air New Zealand from New Zealand. We have invited very select agents for the roadshow. The idea is to either target agents who have the potential as we have not been getting the required support from them or look at agents who have been supporting Global Destinations and haven’t met the partners.”  

Following the successful implementation of its New Distribution Capability (NDC) roadmap during 2018, Travelport  has completed the onboarding of the first group of travel agencies to receive access to NDC content. In October 2018, UK-based travel agency Meon Valley completed the first live booking using NDC content through Travelport’s Smartpoint desktop. The next phase of Travelport’s NDC roadmap involved onboarding a larger group of travel agencies. To ensure NDC works for all parts of the travel ecosystem, Travelport has implemented its booking solution with a wide variety of agencies of different sizes, including American Express Global Business Travel, dnata, Gray Dawes Group, Global Travel Management, Meon Valley Travel, Premier Holidays, TAG, Travel Counsellors and Travel & Transport Statesman. Commenting on this milestone in Travelport’s NDC delivery, Nick Dagg, SVP Global Agency Sales said, “We work at the heart of the travel industry and our agency customers rely on us to provide them with choice through access to the broadest range of travel content. NDC is no exception and we’ve taken great care in managing the roll-out of our NDC booking capability through Smartpoint to our agency customers. This has allowed us to learn as we go, listen to the important feedback from our customers as they operate in this new distribution era and refine our NDC solution to ensure it provides seamless, integrated travel choice.” John Bukowski, Director, Content and Distribution, American Express Global Business Travel said, “We are working with key parties to ensure we continue to deliver access to all content, with a focus on improving traveller experience, controlling cost, maintaining full end to end servicing, as well as transparent fares, pricing and comparison shopping. NDC is an …

Registering an annual traffic of over 89.1 million for 2018, Dubai International (DXB) has retained its position as the world’s busiest airport for the fifth consecutive year with Indian travellers emerging as the largest source of traffic for the airport. India continued to hold to its position as Dubai’s top destination country by passenger numbers, with traffic for the year reaching 12,279,485 – propelled mainly by top destinations like Mumbai, Delhi and Kochi. Saudi Arabia was number two on the list with 6,471,142 customers, followed closely by the United Kingdom with 6,284,771 customers. Other destination countries of note include the US (3,205,524 customers) and the fast-growing markets of China (3,512,075) with 6 per cent growth and Russia (1,533,654) which grew 14.5 per cent. The top three cities were London (3,817,889 customers), Mumbai (2,540,750) and Kuwait (2,194,576). Eastern Europe was the fastest growing region with double-digit growth of 16.7 per cent, followed by CIS at 12.9 per cent and Africa growing 9.8 per cent. A statement released by the airport said that the annual traffic at the major transit hub rose just over 1 per cent to 89.15 million passengers in comparison to 2017. Although the figure was a new record high, it missed on the 90.3 million passengers that Dubai airport had projected for 2018.

K J Alphons, Union Minister for Tourism has inaugurated the project ‘Development of North East Circuit: Rangpo– Rorathang- Aritar- Phadamchen- Nathang-Sherathang- Tsongmo- Gangtok-Phodong- Mangan- Lachung-Yumthang- Lachen- Thangu-Gurudongmer- Mangan- Gangtok-Tuminlingee- Singtam’ implemented under Swadesh Darshan Scheme of Ministry of Tourism in the presence of Ugen T Gyatso, Minister of Tourism & Civil Aviation, Government of Sikkim at Zero Point, Gangtok. This project was sanctioned by Ministry of Tourism in June 2015 for Rs 98.05 crores. One of the many challenges region faces in development of tourism is the absence of quality infrastructure, services and awareness about the array of tourism products region has to offer. The Ministry is carrying out number of activities to handle the issues on above fronts. On one hand, the Ministry has given great impetus to the tourism infrastructure in the region under its flagship schemes of Swadesh Darshan and PRASHAD. For development of tourism infrastructure, the Ministry has sanctioned 16 projects for Rs 1349.04 crores covering all North Eastern States under its schemes of Swadesh Darshan and PRASHAD.  The Ministry is actively working with other Central Ministries like M/o Culture, M/o DONER, M/o Road Transport and Highways, M /o Civil Aviation, etc for development of tourism in the region. For promotion of North East region Ministry carries out special promotion in domestic and international markets highlighting regions diversity, tourism products and its rich culture. The Ministry of Tourism has also set up hotel managements and food craft institutes for creating skilled manpower in tourism and hospitality sector in the North Eastern Region.