In a major milestone, The Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) has announced its foray into the Holy City of Makkah, Saudi Arabia, with a partnership with Umm Al Qura Development and Construction Company in the prestigious King Abdul Aziz Road (KAAR) project, one of the largest urban rejuvenation projects in the city of Makkah. Commenting on the signing of this agreement, Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, IHCL, said, “We are honoured to partner with Umm Al Qura Development and Construction Company in bringing the first Taj hotel to Saudi Arabia. This signing is aligned to our strategy of a strong focus on global growth markets and to be present where our guests travel to.” This hotel will be IHCL’s fourth venture in the MENA region. The company manages Taj Dubai located in the Burj Khalifa downtown area. It will also open another two hotels in Dubai in the next 12 to 18 months. The hotel, scheduled to open in January 2023, will have approximately 340 keys, banqueting facilities and several restaurants to serve all tastes. Commenting on the partnership, Eng. Mohammad Al Ganawi, Chief Executive Officer, Umm Al Qura Development and Construction Company said, “We look forward to working with them to bring the iconic Taj brand to the unique development project in Makkah.” As the birthplace of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the site of his first revelation of the Quran, Makkah is the holiest city in the religion of Islam.

Air Guru Travel Solutions has been appointed as the exclusive partner in India to represent Bali’s high-end hotel properties that include Double Six Luxury Hotel, Seminyak, The Breezes Bali Resort & Spa, Seminyak Bali, The Downtown Villas, Seminyak Bali, Le Jardin Boutique Villas Semniyak, and the famous Bali Safari Marine Park & Mrar River Safari Cottages. Air Guru Travel Solutions already represent BPPD (Badung Tourism Promotion Board, Bali) in India. Dhiraj Kumar, Managing Director, Air Guru Travel Solutions, was appointed as an Honorary Representative for Badung Regency Bali by BPPD Badung Tourism Promotions Board, Bali, Indonesia in 2017. With the inclusion of the new luxury segment hotels, resorts and parks, Air Guru has now become a holistic travel solution providers in India for Bali for its B2B clients. He says, “The aggregation of vast variety of travel hot spots under one company will certainly result in more cost benefits for our B2b clients. We are honoured and delighted that Air Guru Travel Solutions is rising in capacity and services rapidly. Our vision is to offer complete travel solutions specially to Bali and Indonesia under one roof. We’ve been handpicking and partnering the most incredible portfolio of hotels, resorts and parks in Bali. Travellers are seeking enhanced ways to enriching travel experience and we believe our partnership with these luxury hotels, resorts and amusement park will meet this need.”

After three years of flat prices, price for overnight accommodation rose two per cent globally in 2017, according to the latest Hotel Price Index (HPI) from Hotels.com. In a year, where cryptocurrencies flooded the market, hashtags took over the red carpet and political debate turned well, political, the needle also moved for travellers, with a two-point rise in the global Index to 116, the closest it has been to the 2007 peak of 118. Every regional Index, except for North America, grew in 2017, signaling strong growth in the travel industry. Johan Svanstrom, President – Hotels.com said, “The slight increase in average accommodation prices globally combined with numerous markets having record visitor growth signals a strong travel economy and a growing desire from consumers to experience the world. Cultural events have inspired travel more than ever before as we aspire not to just stand by and observe the action, but to instead actually be part of it. ” Due to the implementation of new economic policies and GST in 2017, which introduced multiple tax slabs to cover different hotel categories, Indian hotel prices have witnessed an increase for the year.

Sarovar Hotels & Resorts has relaunched its Sarovar Portico Lonavala located in the hill town near Mumbai. Back with a refreshing new look, Sarovar Portico Lonavala is an ideal destination for a summer holiday complemented with excellent services. The hotel offers great facilities and comfortable rooms to create a quintessential vacationing experience. Sarovar Portico Lonavala features 23 well furnished rooms including three Dupleix rooms. Each room is equipped with modern facilities and carefully selected amenities. A multi-cuisine restaurant, The Restaurant at Sarovar Portico Lonavala, offers wide range of delicacies. The hotel offers excellent conferencing and banqueting services overseen by experts to keep an occasion memorable. Outfitted with the latest audiovisual equipment, picture screens, overhead video and slide-projectors and advanced audio and microphone systems, the two meeting spaces at the hotel are equipped with a host of facilities tailored to cater to business and social needs.

Yatra.com has announced the appointment of Mudit Shekhawat as Chief Marketing Officer of the company. He will be responsible for leading marketing activities, alliances and ancillary revenues across all Yatra.com business-lines and group entities. In addition to further strengthening Yatra’s brand positioning, he will also manage all consumer marketing initiatives across platforms to drive customer stickiness and loyalty. Commenting on the new appointment, Sharat Dhall, COO (B2C), Yatra.com said, “We are delighted to have Mudit come on board with us. As a veteran of the industry, he brings with him vast experience in digital and consumer marketing, which will spur additional growth for us and cement our position as India’s travel planner.” Shekhawat comes with rich consumer marketing experience of more than 12 years in the consumer internet space, most recently with Ola, where he was head of marketing. In his earlier stints, he has worked with Myntra, Yahoo and HCL Technologies in various marketing leadership roles. Shekhawat is an alumnus of IIT Madras, from where he went on to do a Masters in Engineering from Pennsylvania State University before finally finding his calling in marketing, and rounding it up with an MBA from ISB Hyderabad.

Strengthening trade and promoting cultural ties with the world’s fastest growing economy will be the priority of Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s trade mission to India next week. Berejiklian said her four-day mission will focus on opening doors for New South Wales (NSW) industries and businesses with India, and will include high-level meetings with Indian business and government officials. “Over the last five years India has been the fastest growing inbound tourism market for NSW, but we need to work to ensure we continue to attract Indian tourists,” Berejiklian said. “India has enormous projected GDP growth of 7.4 per cent for 2018 and I want the people of NSW to benefit from this significant and sustained progress. There are more than 200,000 people of Indian ancestry in NSW. The Indian community is an important part of our multicultural society and I look forward to building on our already strong cultural links. I also look forward to building on our collaboration in sectors such as technology, film and education to benefit NSW industries and businesses,” she adds. The Premier will visit Mumbai and New Delhi from April 16 to 19, 2018.

In an effort to showcase its festivals, Goa Tourism is all set to conduct two of its most captivating events – the Grape Escapade  and Goa Vintage Car & Bike Festival 2018 in the second fortnight  of April 2018. The lifestyle and wine festival organised by Goa Tourism through Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC), the ‘Grape Escapade 2018’ will be held from April 19-22 at the D B Bandodkar Ground, Campal, Panjim. The four-day event is expected to draw lakhs of tourists in view of the on-going summer vacations. Over the years, Grape Escapade has provided a platform for local enterpreneurs to share expertise, display products, engage in B2B, and offers tourists and Goans an opportunity to savour on flavours from the vineyard, taste Goan food and experience Goa’s traditions and culture. The festival brings together a host of professionals from the tourism hospitality industry like hoteliers, restaurateurs, wineries and manufacturers to showcase their premium offerings. The Goa Vintage Car & Bike Festival 2018 will hit the streets  of Panjim on April  29, 2018 at the INOX Courtyard from 10.00 am onwards. Various vintage bike and car owners, users, collectors and fans will parade along with their prized possessions around Panjim. The vintage bike and car rally will route from INOX courtyard  to  Miramar Circle and further proceed to Divja circle and head back to  INOX Courtyard where they will be on display till 6.00 pm.

The Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) conducted a member’s meet in Mumbai last week to introduce the new team to the members in the Western Region. Present at the event were the association’s Executive Committee (EC) led by its President, Mahendra Vakharia. He said, “We have decided to have the EC meeting once a month on every second Saturday so everyone can plan their month accordingly. It will be held in different cities but predominantly in Delhi and will rotate between Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad.” Speaking about the association’s upcoming convention, he said, “It is shaping up very well. We will announce the name of the country in a week. We are doing it with the support of the destination’s tourism board and it will be held sometime in August or September 2018. The team will start working on the logistical details now like airlines, hotels, etc.” The next EC meeting will be held on May 14, 2018 in New Delhi. The EC members had met earlier in the day to discuss the plan of action for the association as well as its upcoming convention. Ajay Sengar, Chapter Chairman – Western India, OTOAI, who is from the tier city of Akola in Maharashtra, was also present at the networking event. Some other EC members had flown down from New Delhi including Shravan Bhalla and Rajeev Sabharwal, along with General Secretary Chitra Bhatia.

India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) has recently signed a MoU with Hyderabad-based firm, Suraas Impex for developing a mega tourism destination project at Bhairav Lanka in Kakinada, East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh at an estimated cost of Rs 550 crores. This is the first-of-its-kind project for the state-owned ITDC, which got preferred against several private contenders. ITDC will be the Consulting Agency as well as Implementing Agency for the DPR and the execution which shall be taken up in three stages, i.e., preparing the DPR, implementation of project costing around Rs 550 crores and implementation of second phase of the project. ITDC has been the prime mover in the progressive development, promotion and expansion of tourism in the country. The Division has completed 67 infrastructure projects for Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Culture and various state governments. The division has also prepared more than 85 DPRs for various tourism projects in the country. The corporation provides Engineering Consultancy Services through its full-fledged Ashok Consultancy & Engineering Services Division. It undertakes development of tourism infrastructure projects from concept to commissioning.

Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) this March were 10.26 lakh as compared to FTAs of 9.05 lakh in March 2017, according to the latest data released by the Ministry of Tourism. FTAs during the period January-March 2018 were 31.27 lakh with a growth of 9.9 per cent over the same period of previous year. The percentage share of FTAs in India during March 2018 among the top 15 source countries was highest from Bangladesh (19.59 per cent) followed by UK (11.56 per cent), USA (10.79 per cent), Russian Federation (3.89 per cent), Sri Lanka (3.72 per cent), Malaysia (3.36 per cent), Canada (3.35 per cent), Germany (3.19 per cent), China (2.67 per cent), Australia (2.62 per cent), France (2.58 per cent), Japan (2.11 per cent), Thailand (2.00 per cent), Singapore (1.64 per cent) and Afghanistan (1.60 per cent).