InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has announced the opening of seven more Holiday Inn Express hotels from the IHG-SAMHI partnership. The hotels are spread across Pune, Hyderabad, Nashik, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru. With the latest announcement, 10 Holiday Inn Express hotels from the IHG–SAMHI partnership are now open across the country. IHG and SAMHI entered a partnership in 2017 to rebrand 14 hotels (approximately 2000 rooms, operating and under construction) in India to Holiday Inn Express hotels. All hotels in the portfolio were closed while they were being refurbished and upgraded with the latest design directives, to ensure the portfolio is fully representative of the Holiday Inn Express brand globally. The new Holiday Inn Express hotels are located strategically providing easy accessibility to local shopping centres, tourist attractions and business hubs. Promising unparalleled comfort and convenience to the guests, all newly-opened hotels offer well designed, contemporary rooms with a range of in-room amenities, service culture and feature the brand’s signature ‘Great Room’, a dynamic space to socialise as well as relax and unwind. Vivek Bhalla, Regional Vice President, SWA, IHG said, “The Holiday Inn Express brand has gained tremendous momentum in the country and we have also made significant progress towards our commitment to strengthen our mid-scale portfolio in India. We are confident that all newly opened Holiday Inn Express hotels in partnership with SAMHI, will successfully cater to the needs of the modern business and leisure travellers, across cities.” Ashish Jakhanwala, Founder, MD & CEO, SAMHI, added, “We began this journey with IHG in 2017 when we signed an agreement for 14 Holiday Inn Express hotels in India. With the opening of 10 Holiday Inn Express hotels from the portfolio, across seven …

The Ministry of Civil Aviation, in association with Airports Authority of India and Confederation of Indian Industry, has organised ‘Aviation Conclave 2019’ with an overarching theme of ‘Flying for All’ in Delhi. The conclave deliberated upon taking the government’s agenda to bring new aviation business to India, in particular, drones systems, manufacturing of aircraft in India, financing and leasing of aircraft from India by Indian and foreign airlines, transforming Indian airports into next-gen aviation hubs, and unleashing the air cargo potential by integrating every village of India in global value chains. Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister for Civil Aviation, stated that realising the government’s vision of making ‘Flying for All’ a reality underpins the government’s commitment to bring about a veritable revolution in the Indian aviation sector. “This conclave is about the future of Indian aviation – it bringing together industry leaders, government and regulators for setting the tone and propelling us to realise our Vision 2040”, he stated. Over 30 industry leaders deliberated across five key sessions covering the Drone-Ecosystem Policy Roadmap, Roadmap for Manufacturing Aircraft and associated equipment, including Regional Transport Aircraft in India, Project Rupee Raftaar- Aircraft Financing and Leasing from India, National Air Cargo Policy, and Mission to transform Indian Airports into Next-Gen Aviation Hubs. The deliberations threw up key catalysts to fast track the holistic growth of the passenger, cargo and MRO sectors. Commenting on the objectives of the conclave, Jayant Sinha, Minister of State of Civil Aviation said, “With more than a hundred commercially-connected airports, aviation is now central to the lives of Indians. We are committed to growing the industry by encouraging and opening new segments. I am confident that this conclave with its …

Sterling Holiday Resorts has launched its latest resort Sterling Mount Abu. This is Sterling’s third resort in Rajasthan, which increases their total holiday network to 36 resorts across the country. The resort is at a driveable distance from Ahmedabad and Udaipur. Sterling Mount Abu features 69 guestrooms and offers amenities such as a 24/7 fitness centre, a holiday activity centre, a spa, a swimming pool, yoga and meditation room, and a conference hall which can accommodate up to 140 guests. The resort has a poolside bar and multi-cuisine restaurant. It also has a private entry from the resort to the forest which facilitates bird watching or a hike for Sterling guests.

The Accor Showcase 2019 will be held in Mumbai on Wednesday, March 13 at Sofitel Mumbai BKC and in Delhi on Friday, March 15 at Pullman New Delhi Aerocity. The event will witness participation from over 23 countries and representation from more than 70 Accor hotels and resorts worldwide, of which, 45 are international properties. Also, recently, Accor has launched a new premium visual language including a new corporate logo. The two distinctive brands, Accor and ALL, will utilize the same ‘iconic A’ monogram which fuses the letter A with the bernache which is the historical emblem of the group. The brand has announced a disruptive and dramatic shift of its loyalty program into a fully integrated global platform integrating rewards, services, and experiences across our entire ecosystem. This is to increase the global visibility of our brands to strengthen the efficiency of our distribution networks and to offer our guests an attractive and unique loyalty program in the industry.

The Sultanate of Oman has recorded a 12.37 per cent growth in Indian tourist arrivals with 357,147 travellers visiting the country from January to December 2018 vis-à-vis 317,844 in 2017 making India the second highest source market for Oman. This marks a remarkable growth of 39.4% over the last five years, as per the statistics released by Oman’s National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI). The country received 1,484,063 international travelers in 2018 vis-à-vis 1,369,199 in 2017, which is significantly higher, showcasing a growth of over 8.39%. The numbers do not include regional travelers from other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, who do not require a visa. Speaking about the incredible growth, Lubaina Sheerazi, India Representative, Ministry of Tourism, Oman said “2018 has been a splendid year for the Ministry of Tourism. India represents a substantial and vast market for Oman, given the high percentage of travellers willing to travel abroad and experience new destinations. We have been observing a steady year-on-year increase in tourist arrivals to Oman from India and are extremely pleased with the consistent growth. India has been an important market for us and we are delighted to say that it has been one of the best performing countries, reaching the status of second highest source market after GCC. Several initiatives have contributed to this success, such as launch of the Electronic visa, direct flight connectivity from various cities in India and opening of the new passenger terminal at Muscat International Airport, among others. With growing number of travellers each year, we are expecting double digit growth in 2019 as well.

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.