Oman Air recently organised a networking evening in New Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai to introduce its new Chief Commercial Officer, Paul Starrs, to its top agent partners. Starrs re-joined the airline three months ago after a gap of five years. Speaking at the event in Mumbai, Starrs said, “We have been seeing strong growth from the India market and my focus is to double our efforts in promoting the products here.” Delegates from TAAI and TAFI were also present at the event and presented him with a memento. TAFI also extended to Starrs an honorary membership. He also spoke briefly about the new flight that Oman Air is starting to Moscow in October to be served by Oman Air’s Boeing 737-800. “While we don’t expect too many numbers from India for the Moscow flight in the winter, we hope it will make up for it in the summer season. The direct flight will be operated daily non-stop between Oman and Russia.” Flights to Istanbul and Casablanca were launched in June and in July 2018 respectively.

The Archaeological Survey of India, in an order issued recently, decided to allow photography within the premises of all centrally protected monuments/sites except three which include Ajanta Caves, Leh Palace and Mausoleum of Taj Mahal. This comes in the wake of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi observing that space technology in the modern era has developed to such an extent that one can photograph even minute objects from far off distances, and in this background, it is indeed ironical to restrict the tourists/visitors from taking photographs of their experiences at heritage monuments and sites. He recently inaugurated Dharohar Bhawan, the new headquarters building of ASI at Tilak Marg, New Delhi.

Imparting knowledge through seminars and product updates is key to growing the industry and GPS is doing just that. GPS Ahmedabad opened with a full house of enthusiastic trade members from across West India eager to learn and update their skills. Inaugurated by Bijal Patel, Mayor of Ahmedabad, the show was supported by all regional and national travel associations. Accepting technology with open arms, the travel fraternity in Gujarat welcomed GPS’ paperless mission. B2B meetings are set to kick off on the second day when the buyers meet over 70 exhibitors.

Uzbekistan has started issuing an electronic visa for citizens of 51 countries, including India, to enter the territory of the Republic of Uzbekistan, effective July 15, 2018. The issued e-visa is valid for 90 days from the date of its issuance. The application for processing an e-visa must be submitted at least three working days before the planned date of trip to Uzbekistan. The consular fee for processing and issuing an e-visa is $20. Foreign citizens aged under 16, holding an international passport or a biometric travel document, may enter and stay in Uzbekistan for the validity period of the entry visa of the accompanying person, but not longer than 90 days from the date of entry into Uzbekistan. From July 15, the five-day visa-free transit procedure will take effect for the citizens of 101 countries, including India at the Uzbek airports, provided they hold an air ticket to a third country, and the carrier must provide information about passengers to the border authorities of Uzbekistan.

In its monthly luncheon meeting held at The Metropolitan Hotel and Spa, New Delhi, the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) updated its members about its upcoming convention and participation in various roadshows with the Ministry as well as in the India Tourism Mart. Chairing the meeting was Pronab Sarkar, President, IATO; EM Najeeb, Senior Vice President, IATO and Rajesh Mudgill, Honorary Secretary, IATO. They attended to the queries of the members and solved their concerns regarding GST. The IATO Managing Committee also felicitated Ajeet Bajaj and his daughter Diya Bajaj for accomplishing the feat of climbing Mount Everest recently.  

Around 250 regional level guides from different units of India recently attended the Tourist Guides’ Federation of India (TGFI) Annual National Convention in Hyderabad. Representatives from tourism associations like Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) and Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) also marked their presence at the event. The convention held discussions on current tourism policies, tourism promotion, tour guide fee revision, general body elections and cooperation with Ministry of Tourism (MOT) and IATO, etc. Sunita M Bhagwat, IFS, Commissioner, Department of Tourism, Government of Telangana was the chief guest for the inaugural ceremony. Shreevats Sanjay, Regional Director (South), India Tourism; Subhash Goyal, Honorary Secretary, FAITH; K Ranga Reddy, Chairman, IATO Telangana & Andhra Pradesh Chapter; C V Shankar Reddy, Assistant Director, India Tourism were also present at the opening ceremony. TGFI unanimously elected New Executive Body for 2018-2020. Ajay Singh has been elected as the President of the association.

Vietnam Airlines has withdrawn its IATA commission for travel agents applicable for all tickets issued in India, effective July 15, 2018. According to a statement released by the airline, the commission will be reduced from the existing 3 per cent to 0 per cent. Earlier, Oman Air, Jet Airways and Etihad have also have withdrawn IATA commission for agents.

K J Alphons, Minister of State (IC) for Tourism, highlighted that the tourism industry alone has created 14.62 million jobs in India over the last 4 years. The minister met ambassadors from 20 countries in New Delhi to further promote India. Reaching across the world, the ministry of tourism recently conducted roadshows in the USA and will be conducting roadshows in Russia and China. The Moscow office is also slated to open in the next 3-4 months.

In a bid to increase the number of tourist arrivals to India, K J Alphons, Minister of State ( IC) for Tourism, met ambassadors from 20 countries to further promote India. The minister met with ambassadors & diplomatic representatives of various embassies including Austria, Argentina, Bhutan, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Philippines, Brazil, Malaysia, Germany, Indonesia, Finland, Russia, New Zealand, Oman.  He personally made a presentation and showed promotional films further to attract more foreign arrivals to the country. He also highlighted the transformational experience, a visit to India provides. The minister will continue to meet more ambassadors. The newly launched video “Yogi of the Racetrack” has already got 25 million views. Global promotions will continue with films in 9 foreign languages.

Divine Holiday Management and Divine Line Production have recently announced their presence in Bali which will cater operations for tourism, MICE, events, destination weddings and film shoots not only in Bali but also for all cities in Indonesia. The companies already have their presence in Mauritius, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and the Philippines. Terence Cardoz owner of both companies said that Indonesia is an endless destination to explore as the archipelago has the world’s richest natural resources covering more than 17.000 islands, beautiful white sandy beaches to the panoramic rings of volcano stretched all along Sunderland with its deep forest that offered some of the world’s most amazing wildlife, the richest deep-root cultures that covered by more than 300 ethnic groups and tribes with huge variant of culinary, clothing, art and dances, daily life and charm peoples with their genuine hospitality. Those fact on Indonesia offers a very wide range of traveling style to the country, from Romantic & Honeymoon, Sports & Adventure, Science and Research, Family Leisure, Cultural & Spiritual Explorations, Photography and Videography from small to wide productions scale, MICE and Groups. For Film shoots , music videos  we would like to encourage film makers from India and International film industry to shoot in the exotic locations of Bali, Java and around other beautiful locations in Indonesia.