KLM Royal Dutch Airlines will be celebrating 99 years on October 7, becoming the only airline in the world to reach this milestone. Since 1919, KLM has continued operating under its original name, making it one of a kind in the aviation industry. Starting from October 4, KLM will be launching exclusive promotions and engagement activities for 99 hours across multiple channels, offering attractive discounts on ticket purchases to Amsterdam and to over 40 destinations across its network. Jean – Noel Rault, General Manager, Air France – KLM, Indian Sub – Continent, said, “For the past 99 years, we have been flying customers from all over the world and creating beautiful memories across generations. We have brought Europe and the rest of the world closer to our customers in India with our partnership with Jet Airways. Together, we offer 31 weekly flights to Amsterdam, connecting from 45 Indian cities. We look forward to the coming year and our 100th anniversary, making us the only airline in the world to celebrate a centenary.” Customers can avail the special 99-hour deal when they book their flights via KLM’s website www.klm.com or through their travel agents. On October 7, customers travelling from Delhi and Mumbai airports via KLM flights will be able to experience the birthday-themed KLM check-in counters and start their journey on a sweet note.

With its theme “Together for a Better Tomorrow”, SIHRA Convention is taking place from October 4-5, with participation from nearly 600 delegates. The convention looks at connecting all the south Indian states and brings about varied opportunities in exploring the hospitality and tourism fraternity. The event is expected to be a perfect mix of technology, emerging trends in the beverage and food industry, innovations in hotel projects and women leadership in the hospitality industry, among others. It is being supported by the departments of tourism, governments of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Puducherry.  The event will be inaugurated by Vellamandi N Natarajan, Minister for Tourism, Government of Tamil Nadu, in the presence of SP Velumani, Minister for Municipal Administration and Rural Development; KA Sengottaiyan, Minister for School Education; Shri Sellur K Raju, Minister for Co-operation; RB Udhaya Kumar, Minister for Revenue and Disaster Management and Dindigul C Sreenivasan, Minister for Forests Department. Edappadi K Palaniswami, Chief Minister, Tamil Nadu, said,  The state continues to hold the leading position in tourist arrivals, both domestic and international for the fourth year in a row. I am sure that SIHRA, which has over 1100 hotel and restaurant members playing a major role in providing comprehensive logistic support to all our tourists.” S K Hari Arumugam, Chairman, Organising Committee, SIHRA Convention 2018, said, “It is our objective that each and every fellow member is an integral part of this movement, empowered with a forum to voice concerns and have problems redressed and, to facilitate every member in  enabling them to take advantage of this event and enterprise.”

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has partnered with a popular music channel to launch a music video, featuring both Indian and Singaporean talents. With this, STB becomes the first tourism board to come out with its own, cross-border collaborative English music video. India is a key traveller source market for Singapore and moved up a spot to become its third-largest visitor-arrival contributor in 2017. With an estimated 65 per cent of India’s population being 35 years and under having strong disposable income and increasingly travelling overseas, STB recognises the importance of reaching out to them. These young adults or working millennials seek immersive, unique and local experiences and Singapore presents a plethora of options. With this music video, STB forays into a different public space: the world of English music, pop culture and entertainment to connect with the young Indians, who are more adventurous and seek lifestyle experiences when travelling.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved agreements between India and Uzbekistan for cooperation in tourism. An MoU was approved by the Cabinet for strengthening cooperation in the field of tourism, signed during the Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s visit to India on October 1. The signing of the MoU in the field of tourism will help the two countries in creating an institutional mechanism for enhancing cooperation in the tourism sector. It will also help in increasing foreign tourist arrivals from Uzbekistan to the country. This, in turn, will result in economic development and employment generation. The agreement shall create favourable conditions for long-term tourism cooperation for mutual benefits of all stakeholders within the broader framework and areas of cooperation. In addition, the MoU shall explore to incorporate the best practices to implement the measures that will realise the objectives set out in it. Source: ANI

The annual convention of Network of Indian MICE Agents (NIMA) is set to be held in Taipei, Taiwan from January 20-25, 2019, as stated by Gajesh Girdhar, National Coordinator, NIMA. A destination showcase is also slated to be held in 2019 but the destination is yet to be finalised. NIMA, a four-and-half-years old association, is a network of MiCE agents. “We currently have 136 numbers with a majority from Tier-II, III cities. With zero membership fee, we have always focused on tapping new markets. For instance, in Spain, everybody has their eyes on Barcelona, Madrid and Apjiza, while we tap the Catalonia region where we had our first convention in 2016. So, now people are aware of Catalonia and all the members are promoting it,” explained Girdhar.  

Fiji Airways has appointed Bird Travels, the airline management services arm of Bird Group as its local representative in India. The association marks the airline’s latest step in developing its sales distribution network within the Indian market. Reinforcing the airline’s growing confidence in the market, Bird Travels is responsible for all the airline’s sales, marketing and ticketing activities in India through its centrally located headquarters in New Delhi. “Bird Group is a veteran in air travel management and we are challenging them to capitalise on their strength and capabilities to help achieve our targets,” said Sajid Khan, Country Manager, Fiji Airways.

AVIAREPS has been appointed as the Sales, Marketing and PR representative in India for Maldives Marketing & Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC). The appointment came into effect owing to Maldives’ growing outbound demand, steady rise in visitation from India, along with surge in the length of stay and spending power of Indian travellers. Speaking after the announcement, Haris Mohamed, Acting Managing Director, MMPRC, said “Maldives’ tourism industry has been expanding over the years to provide unique experiences to its visitors whilst also catering to specific needs of the niche segments that Maldives attracts. We are delighted to have appointed AVIAREPS to represent the Maldives tourism board in India. We hope to work together with the aim of increasing the number of tourists from India, which has been a growing market and the top fifth market in terms of arrivals to Maldives. With well-planned strategies and activities targeted towards educating and inviting the Indian Market, we hope to achieve continued growth in the years to come”. “The Maldives’ is one of India’s closest neighbour with world-class resorts and tourism offerings. Our plans include working very closely with the Indian travel trade and media to reach out to the Indian consumer. Our prime focus will be on maintaining and strengthening Maldives’s positioning in India as the first choice beach and leisure destination with a myriad of tourism offerings,” commented Joseph Fernandes, General Manager—India, AVIAREPS.  

Union Minister of Railways and Coal, Piyush Goyal has launched ‘Rail Heritage Digitisation Project’ of Indian Railways in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture through video conferencing. The project is a landmark effort to showcase the country’s rail heritage to national and international audience in an online story-telling platform. Ashwani Lohani, Chairman, Railway Board; Rajan Anandan, Vice President—South East Asia and India, Google; Amit Sood, Director, Google Cultural Institute, among other dignitaries and UNESCO representatives were among those present on the occasion. Goyal said, “As a 165 year old organisation, the Railways has a lot of material which we need to preserve and leave behind for posterity. Mumbai has a special place in the Railways, being the first railway line to be set up in India. We will be setting up 22 digital screens across different locations in India for showcasing this historic project. This partnership between the Railways and Google also has the dimension of the Wi-Fi, which we have proliferated to over 400 stations in India.” Lohani said that collaboration with Google Art & Culture has enabled Indian Railways to digitise National Rail Museum, Rewari Steam Centre, three World Heritage Railways, CSMT Mumbai building and other prominent aspects of country’s rail heritage.

Tata group’s Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) has retained the iconic Taj Mansingh Hotel after an auction conducted by New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC). “The lease for the property will be granted to the group for 33 years at double the license fees. IHCL will pay a license fee of Rs 7.03 crore per month including GST. Earlier, they were paying Rs 3.94 crore per month as license fee,” a senior NDMC official said. The other bidder in the auction held on September 28 was the ITC group of hotels . The Taj Mansingh was given to the IHCL in 1978 on a lease for 33 years, which ended in 2011. The company has been since given nine temporary extensions. Source: PTI

The tourism industry in Kerala has showed its strong character post the devastating floods and the way it made the revival is astounding, said K J Alphons, Union Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism at the inaugural ceremony of the tenth edition of Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) held at Samudrika and Sagara Convention Centre, Willingdon Island in Kochi. “I give emphasis on Kerala Tourism’s ability to recoup after a severe natural calamity as an epitome wherever I go. We bounced back defeating all the never-seen-before challenges. It gives the positive sign that tourism has regained its vigour post the flood,” he remarked. On the occasion, he also inaugurated the pavilion of Responsible Tourism put up by Kerala’s Department of Tourism. Later, he made a round of the various exhibition stalls and pavilions. Rani George, Tourism Secretary, Kerala; Baby Mathew, President, KTM Society; M Vijayakumar, Chairman, KTDC; E M Najeeb, Senior Vice President, Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO); and Abraham George, Former President, KTM, accompanied the minister. The four-day event inaugurated by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has its focus on the Malabar as a core theme. KTM 2018 features 1,600 buyers, one-third of them from 66 foreign countries. KTM, with 325 sellers in 400 stalls, has 1,635 buyers who are top functionaries of firms in tourism industry within the country and outside. The number of foreign buyers is 545, and they come from 66 countries, including USA, Russia, Japan, China, Australia and Britain.