Kempinski Hotels has partnered with the Nijhawan Group led by MD Ankush Nijhawan, one of the oldest tourism groups with offices in over 40 cities throughout India. Kempinski has opened three Global Sales Offices in India, respectively in Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangalore. Kempinski Hotels recently conducted an impressive roadshow throughout the country in February, in which 12 representatives and General Managers from various hotels were able to re-introduce Kempinski to around 300 trade partners. “Several of our hotels are already enjoying Indian business and have hosted multi-million dollar weddings. Successful Kempinski top destinations dealing with India so far are Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bangkok and Venice,” says Theo Ocks, Vice President—Global Sales, Kempinski Hotels.

Sarovar Hotels & Resorts has launched its newly redesigned website. Guests can now explore the website which has been designed to offer a more user-friendly experience and is mobile and e-commerce optimised. The initiative further signifies the group’s effort in enabling guests a superlative experience and its strong expansion plans. The website is now live at www.sarovarhotels.com. The new website offer add-on benefits to customers booking rooms from the brand website directly with services such as customized meal by the Chef, takeaway breakfast on early check out, check-in/check-out at your convenience and free high speed internet browsing. Ample usage of imagery showcases the brand and its properties in the finest form. Sarovar Hotels is targeting to have 100 hotels under its portfolio by 2020. Expected openings in 2018 include hotels in Jaisalmer, Jhansi, Jaipur, Somnath, Dibrugarh, Junagadh, Gorakhpur and Lusaka, Zambia.

Hahn Air announced the evolution of its portfolio of services for partners worldwide. It launched additional benefits for registered travel agents, including VIP flights aboard the airline’s aircraft and discounts on courses provided by the Hahn Air Business School. With its global infrastructure of connections to all major Global Distribution Systems (GDS) and memberships in almost all Billing and Settlement Plans (BSPs), Hahn Air enables more than 100,000 travel agents worldwide to issue the services of over 350 air, rail and shuttle partners on its HR-169 ticket. Following a one-time registration on Hahn Air’s corporate website, travel agents from over 190 markets can take advantage of the exclusive list of services. The services have now been extended to include a VIP-journey from Dusseldorf to Luxembourg aboard one of Hahn Air Lines bizjet aircrafts at 50 per cent of the official Product Experience Programme (PEP) rate. “The travel agent community is the reason for our business and we are constantly trying to create new and exciting ways to foster even stronger relationships between us. We appreciate their growing interest in our portfolio and value their trust in our ticketing solutions”, says Kimberley Long, Vice President—Sales and Agency Distribution, Hahn Air.

In an effort to expand its fleet, Air Arabia will receive three of its new A320 aircraft in 2018. Speaking about the same, Adel Abdulla Al.Ali, Group Chief Executive Officer, Air Arabia said, “Air Arabia has ordered six Airbus A321 LR and will receive them in 2019. The variant can accommodate 15-20 per cent more passengers than its current capacity. It is also looking to placing an order for aircraft requirement after 2019” Air Arabia currently operates in 145 routes from five hubs in UAE, Morocco, Egypt and Jordan. The airline’s fleet consists of the popular Airbus A320 aircraft, the world’s best-selling commercial jetliner ever, offering Air Arabia passengers the best economy configuration in the market with a 32′ seat pitch.  

Visitor arrivals from India to Australia have crossed the 300,000 mark as recorded by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for the year ended December 2017, an increase of 15.4 per cent over the previous year. India is also currently the eighth-largest and the fastest-growing inbound travel market for Australia, and has recorded double-digit growth for the fourth consecutive year. The growing appetite for Australian holidays has been fueled by Tourism Australia’s consumer marketing campaign – ‘There’s Nothing Like Australia’. Commenting on this achievement, Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager, Tourism Australia India and Gulf said, “We are delighted at having crossed the 300k mark for arrivals into Australia from India, and are extremely grateful to all our partners and stakeholders for being with us on this journey. There has been a consistent effort at the introduction of new products and experiences from a trade distribution perspective and innovative direct to consumer communication initiatives that have been implemented to build and sustain Australia’s preference as a holiday destination.” In mid-2017, the Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection extended online lodgment of visitor visa applications to all Indian nationals. The online application process provides a more convenient option for Indians looking to visit Australia.

Seychelles Tourism Board is set to conduct roadshows at Kolkata, Pune and Bengaluru. The pre-fixed meetings format which was introduced last year will continue this year as well. Sherin Francis, CEO, Seychelles Tourism Board, says, “Last year’s roadshow allowed top agents to meet all partners in a quick pre-fixed meeting of 15 minutes each in a round-robin flow. This no-frills format focused on serious business generation and ensured that every agent invited could spend quality time with every partner from Seychelles.” For 2018, the tourism board plans to conduct workshops with its key B2B partners in cities of Raipur, Indore, Kochi, Coimbatore, Baroda, Surat and Rajkot. “We will also continue to meet and educate agents in main cities that will include Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune and Kolkata. We plan to support tour operators with incentive-based trainings to encourage bigger numbers to Seychelles,” Francis adds. Seychelles Tourism Boards recently hosted an appreciation evening in Mumbai to acknowledge high performers from the travel trade in association with Air Seychelles. India emerged as the seventh-largest source market for Seychelles with an arrival of 13,518 tourists from India in 2017 which indicated a 23 per cent growth compared to 2016. In 2018, the tourism board expects a similar percentage growth.  

The 2018 AccorHotels Showcase in Mumbai and New Delhi will be held on March 21 at Sofitel Mumbai BKC and March 23 at Pullman New Delhi Aerocity respectively. The event is expected to have representatives from 15 countries representing more than 35 hotels and resorts worldwide, offering travel agents, wholesalers, corporate clients, tourism partners and MICE organisers’ an insight into the group’s new developments, products and services. Entering its 15th year, the event will provide an opportunity to discover AccorHotels’ accommodation trends, news and stunning hotels and resorts from around the world. Exhibitors from destinations such as France, Spain, Netherlands, Turkey, Thailand, UAE,South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, China and Singapore, representing celebrated hotels like Raffles Dubai and Saudi Arabia, RIXOS Turkey, Fairmont Ajman, SO Sofitel Bangkok Singapore, Novotel Amsterdam City and Novotel Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, and more are set to attend the event in each city. “The signature event serves as a great platform for us to interact and share knowledge with our clients and industry partners. With increased international and domestic travel, we expect this year to be the bigger and more exciting than last year, with interesting insights given our enhanced network and leadership position in the Asia Pacific region,” said Arif Patel, Vice President—Sales, Marketing, Distribution & Loyalty, AccorHotels India. 

Trafalgar’s definite departures now extend to 17 countries and five continents. Following its announcement of 100 per cent definite departures to Italy, Ireland, Hawaii and Discoveries, Trafalgar has extended these guarantees to departures covering Europe (Spain, Scandinavia, Scotland, Portugal and Germany), Asia (China and India), Africa (Morocco), and North and South America (Canada, Alaska, National Parks programmes, Southern USA, Peru and Costa Rica). Nicholas Lim, President, Trafalgar, Asia comments, “At Trafalgar, we firmly believe that success breeds success, so we thank our partners for the stellar role they’ve played in the exceptionally positive results we are seeing that have resulted in so many definite departures. We hear you and are always here to turn words into actions to put #AgentsFirst. When it comes to closing sales for 2018, there truly is no time like the present to reap the rewards.” Additional incentives to get clients over the line are early payment deals of 7.5 per cent for payments made before March 29, 2018.  

K J Alphons, Union Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism, in a statement to Lok Sabha revealed that the Ministry of Tourism has sanctioned as much as Rs 460.74 crores for five ongoing Eco Circuit projects. Eco Circuit is one of the 15 thematic circuits identified for development under Swadesh Darshan Scheme – integrated development of theme-based tourist circuits in the country. The projects are sanctioned subject to availability of funds, submission of suitable detailed project reports, adherence to scheme guidelines and utilisation of funds released earlier. The completion of the projects sanctioned under the scheme would result in increased tourist inflow thereby creating employment opportunities for the local community. All the projects are at different stages of implementation. The Ministry provides central financial assistance as one time grant for creation of capital assets under the Swadesh Darshan Scheme in phased manner. Based on the progress made on the projects and utilisation certificate received from the State Governments, Ministry releases subsequent installments of funds. The operation and maintenance of the assets created is the responsibility of respective State Government/Union Territory. The revenue generated, if any, from these assets does not accrue to the Ministry.  

An amount of Rs 5638.87 crore has been sanctioned with release of Rs 2148.17 crore since 2014-15 till date under the Swadesh Darshan scheme of Ministry of Tourism. Under the scheme, 13 thematic circuits have been identified for development namely, North-East India Circuit, Buddhist Circuit, Himalayan Circuit, Coastal Circuit, Krishna Circuit, Desert Circuit, Tribal Circuit, Eco Circuit, Wildlife Circuit, Rural Circuit, Spiritual Circuit, Ramayana Circuit and Heritage Circuit. Meanwhile, under the PRASHAD scheme, 23 projects have been sanctioned to 15 states for a total amount of Rs 687.92 crore with release of Rs 241.28 crore since 2015-16 till date. The objective of the ‘National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual, Heritage Augmentation Drive’ (PRASHAD) is of holistic development of identified pilgrimage and heritage destination.