Displaying an aggressive growth over the last few months, Lemon Tree is now on an expansion spree. Rattan Keswani, Deputy Managing Director, Lemon Tree Hotels, says, “As far as our expansion is concerned, we will go where a larger section of Indians tend to go. In both Sri Lanka and Dubai, the largest inbound is from India. We are focussing on these two locations because we know here the brand strength will create the guests for us, without having to work much hard.” Keswani reveals that the brand is chasing a few pieces in both these places. “Our strength is our loyalty programme and depth in the Indian customers. About 90 odd per cent of our customers are Indians. So, that’s our focus but we have not scored any goals that I can talk about at this moment.”  

Yas Experiences, Yas Island’s recently launched trade arm, has signed an agreement with VFS Global, appointing them as the company’s representative in the Indian market. The appointment will see the new partner work closely with the Yas Experiences’ business development team in Abu Dhabi to promote the leisure and entertainment destination and provide package solutions for trade partners across India. As part of the agreement, VFS Global will set up three sales offices in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru to cater to travel partners in Central, North and South India respectively. The sales rep office headquartered in Mumbai will support Yas Experience’ sales & marketing efforts to further promote Yas Island to Indian travellers. The two parties will work together to explore approaches to target Indian holidaymakers, and with a strong network presence across India, both are confident of the results this strategic partnership will reap. “We are absolutely delighted to have been chosen as the India representative for Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. Yas Island is a unique destination renowned for its assortment of experiences. We are confident that we will be able to further establish the island as a premier destination for discerning Indian travellers,” said Vinay Malhotra, Regional Group Chief Operating Officer – China, Middle East and South Asia, VFS Global. Around nine million Indians are expected to travel to the GCC by 2021, according to the latest figures from Colliers International.  

Gokulam Grand Hotel & Spa Bangalore has been accepted as a member of Preferred Hotels & Resorts brand that represents more than 700 hotels, resorts, residences, and unique hotel groups across 85 countries as the newest experience available within the Preferred Hotels & Resorts Lifestyle Collection. Baiju Gopalan, Executive Director, says “As we step into one of India’s most dynamic and competitive hospitality/travel markets, we understand that we need strategic partnerships to leverage international travel markets, distribution systems and loyalty programmes. Preferred Hotels and Resorts was the ideal choice for us to go global.” Akash Gupta, General Manager, says, “We are excited to be in Bangalore to take the erstwhile MSR Hotel and Spa with its existing service and brand standards and market recall to newer heights. The hotel has grown from strength to strength, and with the new management team coming in, a new growth phase for the hotel is being charted out. In keeping with the international brand presence the hotel once enjoyed, we have judiciously decided to partner with Preferred Hotels and Resorts to connect with the overseas market. This strategic alliance is the first step for us to initiate and strengthen our brand presence globally, and benefit from the global sales, marketing and distribution network of Preferred Hotels and Resorts.” Gokulam Grand Hotel & Spa has 182 rooms and suites with three F&B outlets, a pool, Sohum Spa and a gym.

The Association of Domestic Tour Operators (ADTOI) is set to conduct its elections on August 11, 2018 at the Metropolitan Hotel, New Delhi. The Returning Officer (RO) for the election would be Harbans Singh, Retd Secretary, Election Commission. This was announced at the General House meeting of the association recently. The current team will be completing its two-year term on August 16, 2018.  

The Indian hotel market is projected to grow to around USD 13 bn by 2020, according to FICCI-Yes Bank Knowledge Paper titled ‘Tourism Infrastructure Investments: Leveraging Partnerships for Exponential Growth’. Further, as per World Travel & Tourism Council’s 2018 report, the industry contribution to capital investment in India was Rs 2706.1 bn in 2017 and is projected to grow 6.7 per cent per annum in next 10 years to Rs 5546.3 bn by 2028, higher than the global average of 4.5 per cent. Despite increase in private sector investment, the Indian hotel industry observed a decline in average room rate and room occupancy in 2016-17 which is largely attributed to lower participation of hotels in the five-star deluxe and five-star categories in India.

Udaipur has been ranked as the most preferred wedding destination in India, according to a recent survey conducted ahead of Travel Wedding Show. What better than getting married in the most romantic city with a passionate flavour floating in the air. Besides, one can have a mini honeymoon in Udaipur as well right after the wedding day. Several celebrities like Neil Nitin Mukesh and Raveena Tandon chose Udaipur for their royal wedding. As Udaipur is counted amongst the most appropriate destinations for having a lavish destination wedding, people from all around the world choose it for their special day.

Cathay Dragon has recently celebrated 10 years of passenger flight operations between Bengaluru and Hong Kong. Since the launch of these flights in 2008, more than 800,000 passengers have travelled from Bengaluru and approximately 32,000 tons of cargo have been carried. In celebration of the 10th anniversary, the airline’s check-in counters wore a festive look and passengers travelling from Bengaluru were given commemorative gifts. The airline has also launched a special offer – 10 per cent discount on fares from Bengaluru to destinations such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Toronto, Seoul, Narita, Taipei and Hong Kong. This discount is applicable on tickets booked on the airline’s website for travel right until the end of the year. Rajesh Menon, Regional Sales and Marketing Manager – South Asia, Cathay Pacific says,” We have always been very confident of the potential that Bengaluru holds, which is why we launched services in 2008 with daily flights. Karnataka’s GDP growth at 7 per cent is in line with the national average. From South India, the highest traffic to countries like North America, Japan and Australia comes from Bengaluru. At Cathay Dragon we are perfectly positioned to cater to this traffic with excellent connections to these key destinations with our differentiated product and service”.

Venya Traveltech India has launched the beta version of the b2b travel platform Innowayt after eight months of developing its product and building its team. The portal is a b2b travel marketplace enabling DMCs and travel suppliers across the globe to transact with travel agents and tour operators. Narayan Mallapur, CEO & Co-Founder, Venya Traveltech, says, “We started Innowayt with a vision of fixing the current state of broken b2b travel transactions globally. To rethink travel technology and make it invisible but truly assistive, we allow the travel trade to do what they love – take care of their clients.” Vikas Khanduri, Co-Founder, adds, “Travel technology has touched all aspects of travel space – flights, buses, trains, transfers. What remains are tours and activities and as per Phocuswright Research, globally the tours and activities business is 80 per cent offline and growing at the rate of nine per cent p a with a market size of US$ 118 billion. That’s a big opportunity which we want to tap.” Mallapur adds that they did a survey with industry experts, suppliers and agents from various destinations in August and September 2017, and started developing the platform from October end with a dedicated tech team of seven. They registered the entity in April 2018. “We have already begun on-boarding suppliers and DMCs from various countries from May 28 under beta. As on today, we have registered 55+ suppliers and on-boarded 33 from these 55. We are looking at 110 countries for suppliers. We plan to onboard agents from end of July and will initially target India, US and European markets. At the moment, we are bootstrapped,” he says.

Nijhawan Group has been appointed as the Advisor for tourism promotion of Embassy of Uzbekistan in India. Farhod C Arziev, Ambassador of the Republic of Uzbekistan to India, said that they would be working closely with the Nijhawan Group to make Indian travellers aware of the tourism possibilities in Uzbekistan. Ankush Nijhawan, Managing Director, Nijhawan Group, said that their first agenda will be to make the travel trade in India meet and start collaborating with the DMCs in Uzbekistan, as awareness about the destination is foremost. Arziev said that they have already simplified the visa procedure to boost the incoming traffic to Uzbekistan from India. It will also offer e-visa to Indians as well as a five-day visa-free transit in Uzbekistan from July 15, 2018.

HPMF Sri Lanka Chapter was recently launched at Shangri-La Hotel Colombo during International Housekeepers Summit 2018. This will be the second international chapter after the launch of Middle East Chapter in Dubai in February 2018. HPMF has grown to over 12 Chapters in India and 2 outside India. The membership base has increased from its initial three to almost 2000 members across India and the Middle East. The launch event was attended by several industry professionals from Asia which mostly included housekeepers, buyers, General Managers and hotel owners. Soon the HPMF Sri Lanka chapter council members will be announced so that top fraternity professionals from Sri Lanka take forward the vision of HPMF to all members. Before the Annual Convention at Varanasi from October 25-27, 2018, HPMF intends to launch the Nepal and Bangladesh chapters. Mohan Deshpande, Chairman, HPMF was thrilled on the overall turn-out of the hospitality professionals at Summit.