Jaipur is set to host to the fifth edition of Travel Wedding Show, a B2B meetings platform for buyers and suppliers in the wedding segment and tourism stakeholders, from July 7-8, 2018, at Jaipur Marriott Hotel. Following a table-top format, the show provides a suitable opportunity to exhibitors to showcase their products and services, demonstrate expertise and increase awareness, generating sales from a qualified audience with maximum exposure. The agenda is to bring new business opportunities to its exhibitors. Sarika Bambhani Rawal, Vice President, DDP Exhibitions said, “A wedding in one’s life is a special moment that remains etched in memory for a lifetime! Today, weddings mean big business. With more and more people on the look-out for offbeat experiential weddings for themselves, destination weddings is the most preferred and flourishing trend these days.” The idea of the show is to amalgamate the two vibrant sectors – weddings and travel. The show brings a selected group of people together and facilitates business for the growth of both the industries.

Building on 125 years of Norwegian pioneering heritage, Hurtigruten marked its anniversary by banning single use plastic and throwing the world’s longest plastic free birthday party, extending over 11,000 nautical miles, from Seattle in the west and Hong Kong in the east, to Svalbard in the High North, and along the Norwegian coast. The birthday was celebrated in Hurtigruten ports, destinations, ships and offices, without use of any single use plastic items. “The initiative to ban single use plastic needs to be applauded as this signifies that there are businesses which are conscious of their surroundings and would do all possible to minimise the damage to the environment. Very recently, we have heard that Maharashtra is the first state in India to ban single use plastic – if similar initiatives could also be taken in other cities as well then our cities would not choke on plastic and be more liveable, said Nishith Saxena, Director, Cruise Professionals – the sole GSA for Hurtigruten in India.

In a bid to attract investors across the industry, a number of state tourism boards presented their ideas and prospect on tourism in their respective states during the 4th Tourism Investors Meet held at FICCI, Federation House, New Delhi. The tourism boards of West Bengal, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Manipur gave detailed presentations on how their state provides lucrative opportunities to investors. Each presentation counted on their USP and explained about the incentives and concessions provided by the respective state governments. The first presentation was given by the meet’s Theme State West Bengal Tourism which stressed on developing the state as an ‘ecotourism hub’. This was followed by a presentation by Partner State Rajasthan Tourism which focused on promoting heritage location and properties in the state. It also talked about opportunity of growth for adventure sports and MiCE in the state. Feature State Gujarat Tourism stressed on providing attractive incentives to investors with last mile connectivity for travellers in the state. The final presentation was given by Feature State Manipur Tourism. Highlighting the state’s rich culture and resources, the presentation talked about the prospect of developing Manipur as a ‘tourism hub’. The main focus was on Loktak lake, the largest fresh water lake in the Northeast.

Highlighting the foremost areas of developing a robust tourism infrastructure and the current scenario of tourism in India, FICCI in association with Yes Bank has released a knowledge report titled ‘Tourism Infrastructure Investments: Leveraging Partnerships for Exponential Growth’, during the Tourism Investors Meet 2018 held in New Delhi. The It also features facts and figures pertaining to the tourism sector and suggests recommendations to establish India as a global tourism hotspot. Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India, unveiled the report during the meet along with Bhupesh Rathore, President & Head – Strategic Government Advisory, Yes Bank; Dr Jyotsana Suri, Past President, FICCI & Chairperson, FICCI Tourism Committee; Dipak Deva, Co-chairman, FICCI Tourism Committee and Rahul Chakravarty, Consultant – Tourism, FICCI. Rathore also gave a presentation focusing on the potential and development of tourism across various sectors of the industry.

Travel and tourism investment is expected to rise by 6.7 per cent per annum over the next 10 years to Rs 5,546.3 billion in 2028, according to FICCI-Yes Bank Knowledge Paper titled ‘Tourism Infrastructure Investments- Leveraging Partnerships for Exponential Growth’. Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, said that the tourism and civil aviation ministries are engaging continuously to identify solutions and implement them for the growth of both the sectors. “The way forward is a focused approach for evolving tourist places under the aviation connectivity scheme and expanding existing routes under UDAN scheme including helicopter routes in hilly and north-eastern regions. This will provide good infrastructural support to the tourism sector,” said Padhee. She also added that the Ministry of Civil Aviation is working to remove bottlenecks in remote and regional areas by providing proper navigation means, technology, better security and safety. Dr Jyotsna Suri, Past President, FICCI & Chair, FICCI Tourism Committee and CMD, Lalit Suri Hospitality Group, in her address said that increasing connectivity will boost tourism, adding that ‘one flight per day to Khajuraho will build the demand eventually’. Dipak Deva, Co-Chair, FICCI Tourism Committee and MD, SITA, TCI & Distant Frontiers also presented his views on the growth of tourism in the country at the 4th Tourism Investors Meet held in Delhi.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) will inaugurate the fourth edition of its Tourism Investors Meet (TIM) today. During the interactive conclave, exhibiting destinations will showcase their policy and facilities to soliciting investment in tourism infrastructure. This is done through pre-scheduled structured face-to-face business meetings between the state governments and prominent investors. Last year, TIM witnessed participation from several state governments and over 150 investors from various parts of the country. The two-day event saw presentations made by the states, followed by more than 200 structured face-to-face business meetings between the states and the investors.

GVK Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), the company that administers the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) has introduced another initiative to enhance passenger experience at the airport premises. Passengers can now use extended check-in facility that will be available at the hotels in Mumbai. This facility is presently introduced at hotels like Sahara Star, Hyatt Regency, Taj Santacruz, ITC Maratha, Hilton Mumbai International Airport and LaLiT so far. This facility can be used by anyone who has the access to these hotels. By the use of this facility, passengers will be able to save on time and have a stress-free experience at the airport. GVK Mumbai Airport also has equipped Terminals with various self-service check-in facilities. CSIA is the pioneer to introduce facilities like check-in kiosks, generating boarding pass through CUSS, generating Baggage tag through CUSS, and use of self bag drop facility for a faster check-in experience. All the airlines operating out of Terminal 1 of CSIA are now on SBD (self-bag drop facility) making Terminal 1 the only terminal in the country to have a fully automated check in system. The integration of new technology allows the processing of a significant number of passengers to be decentralised from the airport and allows for better use of airport resources.

IndiGo is set to operate flights to and from Surat from August 16, 2018, connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Jaipur. After a successful launch of seven domestic and two international destinations since January 2018, the airline has announced Surat as its 56th destination. Bookings are open with immediate effect with fares starting from Rs 1999. To provide more enhanced connectivity across India, IndiGo will operate three new routes, including Jaipur-Varanasi, Jaipur-Guwahati and Mumbai-Bagdogra. All new services start in August 2018. The new flights are designed to cater to business and leisure travellers who are constantly on the lookout for new and affordable flying options. Customers who wish to plan their travel can book tickets via the official website. William Boulter, Chief Strategy Officer, IndiGo said, “We are pleased to have the opportunity to fly out of Surat starting August 2018. Surat, undoubtedly holds immense potential for IndiGo, and launching operations to and from the diamond city is in line with our growth strategy for the India market. We are also launching three other new routes which includes Jaipur-Varanasi, Jaipur-Guwahati, and Mumbai-Bagdogra.  With these new services, we are providing more flexibility of choice to our customers as IndiGo continues to offer them on time, courteous and hassle-free service and an always affordable flying experience.”  

In a curtain raiser event held in New Delhi, the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board has announced that it will host ‘AdventureNEXT’ in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh from December 3-5, 2018. The event is organised by Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA). The curtain raiser saw in presence Hari Ranjan Rao, MD, Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board; Gergana Nikolova, Regional Manager – Europe, ATTA; Jake Finifrock, Regional Director – Asia, ATTA; and Swadesh Kumar, President ATOAI. Rao said, “India has been a great destination in terms of adventure travel. We are grateful to ATTA that it agreed to come to India and bring so many partners from other parts of the world. I am also grateful to ATOAI who have been at the forefront to take this event forward.” Organised for the first time in Asia, AdventureNEXT is known for putting emerging adventure destinations on the world tourism map. Finifrock added, “ATTA is a member organisation that is made up of over 1300 members throughout the world. We like to provide opportunities to people to come together to learn from one another, to inspire one another, to have more opportunities to network and grow the adventure travel community. It’s not only an event for Madhya Pradesh but also for all adventure travel across India. We are expecting around 300-350 delegates to attend Adventure Next. Many of these will be international buyers who will come to see travel products available in India.”

Hotelivate has kicked off its 6th Hotel Operations Summit India (HOSI) at Taj Palace, New Delhi with stimulating discussions on topics pertaining to the hospitality industry. HOSI, the only dedicated forum for hotel professionals in the region, aims to empower today’s hospitality leaders through enabling conversations on management and operations-related issues, the rapidly evolving marketplace, latest industry trends, benchmarking and best practices. With the focus on increasing the diaspora of the speaker by bringing in leaders from businesses that are intricately tied up with the hospitality industry, the programme encompassed a series of keynote addresses by distinguished speakers and thought-provoking group discussions. Notable speakers included industry leaders such as Anshuman Bapna, Chief Product Officer, Goibibo; Dilip Puri, Founder and CEO, Indian School of Hospitality; Jiggs Kalra, Mentor and Culinary Director, Massive Restaurants; Raj Rana, Chief Executive Officer – South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group; Rattan Keswani, Deputy Managing Director, Lemon Tree Hotels; Navjit Ahluwalia, Senior Vice President and Country Head – India, Hilton; Ritesh Agarwal, Founder and CEO, OYO Rooms; Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director and CEO, Indian Hotels Company, to name a few.