PATA Annual Summit 2018 underway in Gangneung, South Korea focuses on building bridges, connecting people and how collaboration creates opportunities. This four-day event brought together international thought leaders and industry professionals. The conference looked at various connections that help in shaping the industry as the world moves towards a more exponential future, bringing together a diverse line-up of international industry shapers and senior decision makers. Ban Ki-Moon, Former Secretary-General, United Nations, delivered the keynote address and Taleb Rifai, Former Secretary-General, UNWTO, provided the closing remarks.

MakeMyTrip and Lufthansa Group have entered into a Direct Connect cooperation which gives customers access to innovative and even more competitive flight products.  Direct Connect is a distribution functionality that enables partners to use the Lufthansa Group’s API (application programming interface) for a direct access to the airlines’ inventories and rich content. The API software facilitates the travel partner to provide an enhanced customised offer for third parties. Wolfgang Will, Senior Director Sales South Asia for Lufthansa Group Airlines and Rajesh Magow, Co-founder & CEO India, MakeMyTrip jointly signed the cooperation. The new agreement allows MakeMyTrip to offer Lufthansa Group Airlines’ differentiated travel content to consumers with personalised flight products. Amongst other services, passengers can use the platform to conveniently purchase flight tickets and other services from Lufthansa German Airlines, SWISS, Brussels Airlines and Austrian Airlines without paying the 16 Euro Distribution Cost Charge applied to bookings made via traditional sales channels. “This Direct Connect Solution with MakeMyTrip is an incredible milestone in addressing the new-generation of travellers. MakeMyTrip as a Direct Connect Partner of Lufthansa Group in India is a key partner for our future developments in distribution,” Will said. “At MakeMyTrip, we are always looking to provide best content to our users to help make them best travel decisions. We are delighted to partner with Lufthansa and take another step in providing customised and more relevant offerings to better serve Indian travellers”,  said Magow.

Lemon Tree Hotels has announced the opening of its new hotel, Lemon Tree Hotel, Baddi, marking its entry into this industrial town of Himachal Pradesh. Carnation Hotels, the hotel management arm of Lemon Tree Hotels, will be managing this mid-scale hotel. The management agreement was signed by Rattan Keswani, Deputy Managing Director – Lemon Tree Hotels & Whole Time Director – Carnation Hotels, and M/s Royal Park (Owner). Speaking on the occasion, Rattan Keswani, said: We are pleased to add Lemon Tree Hotel, Baddi to the growing fleet of hotels and thank the promoters for their trust in us. This property enhances our portfolio mix and helps us enter the lucrative industrial town of Baddi, which is home to over 2000 medium and large industries besides being a convenient transit location for guests travelling to popular leisure destinations in the hills.” Expressing his delight at the opening, Ashok Kukreja, Managing Partner, M/s Royal Park stated, “We are happy to partner with Lemon Tree Hotels in bringing their midscale brand to Baddi. With their world class management by our side, we are sure to develop this new hotel into the most preferred destination amongst business and leisure travellers visiting this industrial town.” Spread across 5 acres, this vibrant hotel, with pleasing fountains in the driveway, boasts of a magnificent swimming pool, manicured lawns, wide open spaces and a stylish ambience.  

Thomas Cook (India) has identified Maharashtra as a significant growth market for its foreign exchange business and to leverage this opportunity, it has opened a branch at Hinjewadi, Pune. Hinjewadi, one of the India’s largest Special Economic Zones (SEZ), is home to India’s corporate houses and MNCs, including top IT majors. Via its new outlet, the company aims at harnessing this significant yet underleveraged opportunity for its foreign exchange business. The new branch takes the total foreign exchange network for the company in Pune to six and and 30 in Maharashtra. The outlet will also offer prepaid travel cards. Thomas Cook India also has a forex app. Mahesh Iyer, Chief Executive Officer, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd said, “Maharashtra has been identified as a key source market and Pune is a strong growth driver that continues to deliver over 30% YoY for our Foreign Exchange business. We have hence selected the prime location of Hinjewadi for our new outlet in Pune- its viable catchment of consumers across families, young professionals and business travellers offers us significant opportunity.”  

Amadeus has introduced the ‘Airport Common Use Service’ (ACUS) to key stakeholders in the Indian aviation industry at India’s first Common Use Roundtable, an event hosted by Amadeus and Bird Group. The launch of Amadeus ACUS means, airports in India can offer a futuristic, more efficient and convenient check-in service as the number of international and domestic travellers increases. Rajesh Suri, Executive Vice President, Business Development, Bird Group shared, “Airports and airlines around the world are looking at how new technologies and solutions can improve passenger experience and operations throughout the airport. Behind the scenes and in front of the passenger, we are pleased to introduce ACUS to India. It is indeed a milestone moment for us as we demonstrate our commitment to offer best-in-class solutions to our business partners across the Indian subcontinent.” To mark the launch of ACUS in India, Amadeus and Bird Group held India’s first Common Use Roundtable on May 17th and 18th in New Delhi, the event brought together India’s senior airline and airport industry leaders to share insights, learnings and to create a vision for the future of Common Use in the country. Sarah Samuel, Head of Airport IT, Asia Pacific of Amadeus says, “The rapid growth of passengers traveling in India means airports are under a lot pressure. Now more than ever, they need to think differently to provide the service expected by consumers. The airport industry has advanced tremendously from the days of dedicated airline check-in desks towards a much more flexible and shared environment.”

WOW air, Iceland’s low fare transatlantic airline, has launched its operations in India with flights from December 7, 2018 at an introductory fare of Rs 13,499 one way. The airline will fly direct, five times a week between New Delhi and Keflavik airport in Iceland and would further connect to multiple destinations in North America and Europe. The price varies in different configuration of seat options, ranging from WOW basic, WOW plus, WOW comfy and WOW premium. A one-way ticket to Iceland, US, Canada and London in economy category called WOW basic will start from Rs 13,499 (including taxes) while the business class fares termed as WOW premium will be priced from Rs 46,599 onwards (including taxes). The airline will deploy the most modern long-haul aircraft, Airbus A330neo for the route from New Delhi. Skúli Mogensen, Chief Executive Officer and founder of WOW air said, “Our launch is in sync with India’s aviation growth story and we look forward to being part of it with our very affordable fares to North America and Europe on board brand new Airbus A330neos. It is also a major milestone for WOW air as we are now connecting Asia with our extensive network in North America and Europe, making Iceland a global hub.”  

Lemon Tree Hotels has recently announced the formal opening of Lemon Tree Hotel, Banjara Hills, its fourth hotel in Hyderabad. The hotel is strategically located adjacent to CARE hospital, in close proximity to major commercial hubs and popular malls. It is easily accessible from RGIA Airport, and is only a 45 minutes drive from Hyderabad Railway station. The hotel is conveniently located near popular tourist places like Birla Mandir, the Necklace Road and a short drive from the Secretariat, the Assembly and various heritage sites like Charminar, Mecca Masjid and Golconda Fort. Commenting on the launch, Vikramjit Singh, President, Lemon Tree Hotels said, “A very demand driven micro-market with immense business potential, Banjara Hills is an urban commercial centre of importance. We look forward to welcoming our discerning guests here. With this opening, Lemon Tree Hotels further strengthens its footprint in the city.” Lemon Tree Hotels, Banjara Hills will have 85 rooms and will cater to travellers looking for value-for-money accommodations in Hyderabad. Each room has been tastefully decorated and suited to meet the specific needs of a business traveller with a full sized working desk and an ergonomic executive chair, to make business-on-the-go productive. With this new opening, Lemon Tree now holds a cumulative inventory of 663 rooms in the city.

In a historic moment, Ajeet Bajaj from Skal International Delhi recently summitted Mt Everest and unfurled the Skal flag on the summit of the highest mountain peak in the world. His daughter Deeya reached the summit a few minutes before him. History was also created as this was the first father-daughter duo to have climbed the highest peak together. Skal Delhi and all the members joined together to send congratulation messages to this dynamic duo for their fantastic feat.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai has said that mega projects being implemented in the UAE are reinforcing the country’s profile globally as a model for sustainable growth. HH Sheikh Mohammed’s remarks came as he approved the ‘Dubai Cruise Terminal’ as the main hub for cruise tourism in Dubai. He also attended the signing ceremony of a strategic partnership agreement between Meraas and Carnival Corporation & plc that aims to transform Dubai into a major regional maritime tourism hub. Under the agreement, signed by His Excellency Abdulla Al Habbai, Group Chairman, Meraas, and Arnold W Donald, Chief Executive Officer, Carnival Corporation, the world’s largest leisure travel company, the companies will collaborate across several strategic areas including port development, terminal management and new cruise development opportunities at Dubai Harbour and the broader region. Dubai is set to become central to Carnival Corporation’s operations in the region. The agreement mandates Carnival Corporation to assist Meraas in ensuring the cruise terminal meets the highest international standards of the cruise industry, while the relevant authorities will be responsible for security, immigration and customs. The agreement highlights Meraas’ support for Dubai Tourism Vision 2020, which aims to attract 20 million visitors a year to the emirate, and strengthens the company’s contribution to Dubai Plan 2021, the strategic roadmap to establish Dubai among the world’s best cities.  

Marriott Hotels hosted its South Asia Market Place at Westin Gurgaon. Representatives from a total of 53 hotels across the region were present at the event with 120 customers for one-on-one meetings. The customers included travel trade, MiCE agents as well as corporates. Hema Hariramani, Area Director, National Sales- India, Marriott International said, “We started this concept last year. The first edition of  South Asia Marketplace was held last year in November and we started with JW Marriott New Delhi Aerocity. We saw overwhelming response over there and the latest edition happening at Westin Gurgaon for the first time again is bigger and better, because we have changed the format a little bit. Last year we started with the trade in the morning and then we went on to one-on-one meetings, which was only for two hours. However, after doing a survey and customer feedback as well as discussion with internal partners, we were told to have more time for one-on-one meetings, and hence we have extended the time for the same to three and a half hours and everybody has liked this format and has been well received. We will make more changes in it next year and hope to make it bigger and better.”