Spreading its wings in Nepal, The Fern Hotels & Resorts has opened its first overseas property under The Fern Residency brand in Kathmandu. With this opening, the tally of the hotels managed by the group under The Fern Residency brand goes up to 23 hotels. The Fern Residency, Kathmandu is located in the heart of the city and offers a total of 58 well-appointed rooms – 46 Winter Green Rooms, 10 Fern Club Rooms and 02 Hazel Suites. The hotel facilities include a finely designed multi-cuisine restaurant, a coffee shop, two conference rooms, health club with spa and a mini-casino. The hotel has easy access to the major sightseeing attractions in town and to public transport as well. The COO of the company Suhail Kannampilly said, “We are delighted to offer guests visiting Nepal The Fern experience in Kathmandu and enjoy the advantages of our environmentally sensitive brand. It is no mean achievement to take an Indian brand overseas and we want to further consolidate our position in India as well as internationally, to get to our target of 100 hotels by 2020.”

After the severe floods in Kerala, the tourism industry in the state is geared to be back in business by September 1, 2018, says Sejoe Jose, Chairman, IATO Kerala Chapter. “The airports are expected to open on August 26, and even if we keep a buffer owing to DGCA permissions, it should be operational by September 1. In fact, the airport management is insisting to resume operations from August 26,” he adds. Jose insists that tourists would be able to visit Kerala starting September. “Kerala would be ready to receive guests from the first week of September. However, nobody is expecting the bookings to start immediately as it is going to take time. There have been cancellations as well. At a recent meeting with KTM Society, we estimated a loss of Rs 1000 crores for the tourism industry, for people directly and indirectly affected. The loss owing to cancellations is estimated to be around Rs 120 crores,” he informs.

President Ram Nath Kovind will inaugurate the International Buddhist Conclave (IBC), 2018 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on August 23. KJ Alphons, Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism will preside over the inaugural function. The Conclave is being organised by the Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with the state governments of Maharashtra, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh from August 23-26, 2018 at New Delhi and Ajanta (Maharashtra), followed by site visits to Rajgir, Nalanda and Bodhgaya (Bihar) and Sarnath (Uttar Pradesh). During the inaugural session of the Conclave, the Ministry will launch its website landofbuddha.in and a new film showcasing the Buddhist sites in the country. Delegates would be taken for site visits to Aurangabad, Rajgir, Nalanda, Bodhgaya and Sarnath. The Ministerial level delegation from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar and Sri Lanka will participate in the conclave. Delegates from 29 countries are participating in the event. The countries include Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mangolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Norway, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, UK,  USA and Vietnam.  

Vladimir Maric, Ambassador of Serbia to India, Embassy of the Republic of Serbia, is optimistic about the growth and hopes to touch the 10k mark in Indian arrivals by the end of this year since the no-visa regime for Indians since September 2017. “There is no need for a visa to visit Serbia for Indians, which means that they just have to book their flight tickets and hotel, and travel to Serbia with their passport,” he said. No other Western country has this kind of a regime for Indian nationals. Maric further shared, “We have started recording the arrival numbers from India separately and from January-April 2018, around 2000 Indians have visited Serbia. Serbia is a great destination, with amazing nightlife, art, exhibitions, sports and natural surroundings. With the way things are going, we are . To create the awareness further, we will be having a representative for Serbia Tourism Board in India in 2019,” he said.

Seychelles continues to ride the wave of growth with increasing number of Indian tourists each year. 2017 marked India’s placement as the top seventh source market for the destination with over 13500 visitors from India. The numbers are only increasing with over 8000 passengers having travelled in the first half of 2018, even before the peak honeymoon season of October-December. The destination now sees a growth in family and celebrations segment as well with a steady rise of 13.3% in Indian tourist arrivals from January to July 2018 vis-a-vis the same time period in 2017. This increase can be attributed to the India tourist office’s committed focus on promotion of the destination, interest and efforts from the hotels and DMCs to capture the Indian market, increased customer awareness due to innovative digital presence along with direct flights from Mumbai five times a week. Commenting on this accomplishment, Sherin Francis, CEO, Seychelles Tourism Board said, “We have always adopted innovative strategies and marketing collaborations to present Seychelles as the ideal luxury holiday destination in India. The growth would not have been possible without the constant support of Air Seychelles, the DMCs and the hotels who walk with us hand in hand in going the extra mile to ensure year on year success.” Lubaina Sheerazi, COO, Blue Square Consultants which is the India office for the Seychelles Tourism Board accounted this increase to focused efforts into innovative marketing campaigns and precise targeting of the destination to the Indian audience.  

Providing relief to residents of flood-affected Kerala, Sushma Swaraj, Minister of External Affairs, Government of India, has announced the free of cost renewal of all passports damaged in the Kerala floods. “There are unprecedented floods in Kerala causing huge damage. We have decided that as the situation becomes normal, passports damaged on account of floods shall be replaced free of charge. Please contact the concerned Passport Kendras,” announced Swaraj on Twitter.

During the recently-concluded 3rd Skål International India National Congress in Kolkata, Ranjini Nambiar, President, Skål International India has announced the commencement of three new Skål clubs by April 2019. “We are planning to come up with a new Skål club in Jammu & Kashmir, Coimbatore and Bhubaneswar. There is also a possibility of a club in Vizag as well. We are aiming a total of 20 Skål clubs by 2020.” Skål International Asia Area Congress 2019 will be held in Bengaluru from June 27-30, 2019.  

Travel agencies, corporate customers and travel technology providers in India can now find out about the airline group’s various direct sales interfaces on a new website. www.lhgroupairlines.com/ndc was set up as part of the NDC Partner Programme. This programme now bundles offers, exclusive content and solutions of the NDC API connection of Lufthansa Group Airlines on a single platform. The website is freely available on the internet and provides information on services that are beneficial for sales partners and customers, the so-called NDC Smart Offer, as well as technological and strategic cooperation options. The programme also offers user support for connected sales partners and training programmes. Travel agencies interested in the free web-based NDC solution SPRK can now register on the website and gain access to the booking and service platform. The registration is possible by filling in a form available on the new website. “We want to provide our local distribution partners with the best possible solutions. The newly launched NDC Partner Program and its website is an important tool. A steadily increasing number of travel agencies are already using and benefiting from NDC Smart Offer,” says Wolfgang Will, Senior Director Sales – South Asia, Lufthansa Group. “At the same time, we extend our NDC Smart Offer to Indian customers. Partners using one of the NDC solutions will benefit from an additional price advantage of Rs 1.500 to our destinations in Europe.”

Sterling Holiday Resorts is set to launch its latest resort in Jaipur. With this launch, Sterling now has increased its holiday network to 34 resorts across the country. This is Sterling’s second property in Rajasthan, underlining the importance it gives to expansion in India’s foremost tourist destination. Sterling Holiday Resorts has signed a management agreement with Atharva Hotels and Resorts for Sterling Jaipur. Located on the Jaipur-Ajmer NH-8, Sterling Jaipur is spread across 6 acres of land and is divided into two wings: the Palace and Cottage wings. The architecture is inspired by the world-famous Rajasthani art and architecture. There are 45 luxurious rooms in the resort. Speaking on this occasion, Ramesh Ramanathan, Managing Director, Sterling Holiday Resorts stated, “Rajasthan is at the heart of cultural experiences and attracts tourists from different parts of the world. This resort will further bolster “Brand Sterling” in providing experiential and immersive holidays to its guests.” Commenting on this partnership, NBS Raathore, Partner, Atharva Hotel & Resorts said, “We are delighted to work with Sterling and we believe “Brand Sterling” brings immense leisure hospitality expertise, and with this launch we look forward to establishing Sterling Jaipur as a premier resort.” The resort offers extensive recreational and meeting facilities, which include a conference hall, three spacious lawns for banquet and weddings facilities, spa and swimming pool, two restaurants and a rooftop resto-bar.

Mumbai is leading in terms of hotel occupancy (74.2%) as per a report by HVS Global Hospitality Services. According to the report as expected in the second year of the up-cycle, all major markets tracked  witnessed an increase in Revenue per available room (RevPAR) except for Agra. Interesting to note, Noida saw the highest year-on-year growth in RevPAR (16.0 %), followed by Hyderabad (11.4%) and Ahmedabad (10.7%). Noida displayed the lowest occupancy (56.9%) and Ahmedabad, the lowest average rate (3,840), the study said. All 13 hotel markets depicted an increase in occupancy leaving Pune (-0.7%), even as some markets saw a lower growth (Bengaluru and Mumbai at 0.4% and 0.6%, respectively) compared to others (Ahmedabad and Noida at 12.0% and 11.7%, respectively). In 2016/17, only two cities showed a decline in average rates – Agra, which witnessed a steep decline of 8.9% over 2015/16 and, Ahmedabad, which witnessed a minor decline of 1.1%. Goa registered the highest yearon-year increase of 7.3% in average rate, followed by Pune (5.7%).