Vishal Bhatia has been promoted to take on the role of Country Manager – India at VisitBritain effective immediately. Based in Mumbai, he will be taking on the day-to-day aspects of VisitBritain’s operations in India. He has been associated with the tourist board since February 2013 when he started out as Deputy Manager and subsequently appointed as the B2B Manager. Bhatia was Interim Country Manager from June-December 2016. He has been integral in delivering the India strategy, while leading on all B2B activities in the market. He was also instrumental in delivering the first joint co-operative partnership under GREAT in 2013. Bhatia has extensive market knowledge and expertise of the local travel landscape. Shuja Mehdi who is based in VisitBritain’s Delhi office will also assume a new role and be responsible for all trade activity as the B2B Manager. On his appointment, Bhatia says, “I thank our travel partners and the travel trade at large for their continued support over the years and look forward to working closely with them.”

The National Capital Region is all set to witness the 5th Global Hospitality Conclave (GHC) at The Leela Ambience Gurgaon on January 6, 2018. The conclave, an independent initiative by the alumni of the erstwhile Oberoi School of Hotel Management (OSHM), now The Oberoi Centre for Learning & Development (OCLD), brings together a host of industry leaders to discuss the trends and developments in the hospitality, travel & aviation industry. GHC will see the participation of Pramod Bhasin, Vice Chairman Emeritus, Genpact; Jan Tissera, President, Travel Click; Ajay Singh, Chairman & Managing Director, Spice Jet; Puneet Chhatwal – Managing Director & CEO Indian Hotels; and Shyam Saran, Indian career diplomat, IFS as keynote speakers. Panel discussions will be held on topics such as Disruptive Innovation, Tourism Trends and a session themed Young Turks with young achievers. Organised annually, the Global Hospitality Conclave sees participants from across the world who have been part of The Oberoi Group in a leadership position. The objective is to get the Oberoi Hotels alumni together annually, who are presently employed in different sectors across the world and creating a platform of knowledge exchange, experiences and networking opportunities.  

In a bid to tap the South Indian market, the Department of Tourism, Jammu & Kashmir organised a familiarisation tour for the travel agents from Chennai and Bengaluru who visited Pahalgam, Gulmarg, Yusmarg and Srinagar city. The department is planning an aggressive marketing campaign, including roadshows and seminars in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka this month to counter negative media publicity which has affected tourist flow to Kashmir. The hosted travel agents were all praises for the hospitality they experienced during their visit to the state. The visit included recce to budget, high-end properties and houseboats, the valley’s main USP. Source: UNI

Anticipating a significant increase in Indian arrivals into the Philippines, the Department of Tourism (DOT), Philippines signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Singapore International Airlines (SIA) on December 12. Through the one-year collaboration, DOT and SIA will undertake joint marketing initiatives that will implement activities to promote the Philippines to the Indian market through social media, familiarisation tours, roadshows, among others. The agreement was signed by Benito Bengzon Jr., Undersecretary, DOT  and Campbell Wilson, Senior Vice President for Sales and Marketing, SIA at the Makati Diamond Residences, Philippines. “The India market is growing at a very fast rate. In fact, we are expecting to reach 100,000 arrivals by end of 2017. This joint agreement is envisioned to sustain and further strengthen this growth in the coming years,” said Bengzon. He also disclosed that the department is not only looking at the headcount but also with the revenue it would generate. According to Wilson, this mutually beneficial agreement will pave way for a positive impact on the country’s tourism industry. “We are confident we can increase visitor arrivals; it is an honour to bring our passengers anywhere in the Philippines,” he said.  

The India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) has signed a transfer agreement with Rajasthan government on December 9 to transfer Hotel Jaipur Ashok to the state government. As per the agreement, Hotel Jaipur Ashok located at Collectorate Circle would now be operated and managed by the Rajasthan State Hotel Corporation Ltd, with new identity ‘Hotel Jaipur’. The agreement was signed by Piyush Tiwari, Director – Commercial & Marketing, ITDC and Nihal Chand Goel, Additional Chief Secretary – Tourism, State government in the presence of Rashmi Verma, Secretary, Minister of Tourism, Govt of India; Ravneet Kaur, Chairperson and Managing Director (CMD), ITDC; Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Govt of India and other dignitaries. ITDC executed transfer documents for transferring the hotel to the Rajasthan government at a negotiated price of Rs 14 crore. Earlier on September 5, a tripartite memorandum of understanding (MoU) was executed among ITDC, Ministry of Tourism and Government of Rajasthan for transfer of Hotel Jaipur Ashok to the state government at a negotiated value of Rs 14 crore without any liabilities and encumbrances.  

In a  move to develop civil aviation infrastructure in the state, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Government of Haryana for creating a world-class international aviation hub in Hisar. The MoU was jointly signed by Ashok Sangwan, Advisor Civil Aviation, Civil Aviation Department (DCA), Government of Haryana and Anil Gupta, General Manager (Business Development), AAI in the presence of other officials on December 11. Sangwan appreciated the role of AAI in creating, upgrading, maintaining and managing civil aviation infrastructure and airspace in the country. Gupta reiterated AAI’s commitment in assisting the Haryana goverment for creating and developing world-class civil aviation infrastructure in the state.

Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) this November were 10.05 lakh as compared to FTAs of 8.78 lakh in November 2016 and 8.16 lakh in November 2015, according to the latest data released by the Ministry of Tourism. The growth rate in FTAs in November 2017 over November 2016 was 14.4 per cent as compared to 7.6 per cent in November 2016 over November 2015. FTAs during the period January- November 2017 were 90.1 lakh with a growth of 15.5 per cent over the same period of previous year, as compared to the FTAs of 77.83 lakh with a growth of 9.4 per cent in January-November, 2016 over January-November, 2015. The percentage share of FTAs in India during November 2017 among the top 15 source countries was highest from Bangladesh (16.77 per cent) followed by USA (14.77 per cent), UK (9.93 per cent), Russian Fed. (4.41 per cent), Canada (4.39 per cent), Australia (3.96 per cent), Malaysia (3.50 per cent), Germany (2.90 per cent), France (2.51 per cent), Sri Lanka (2.32 per cent), China (2.26 per cent), Singapore (2.04 per cent), Japan (2.03 per cent), Thailand (1.87 per cent), and Rep. of Korea (1.31 per cent).

Visit St Petersburg India announced the opening of its office in Mumbai. Located at the Russian Centre of Science & Culture at Peddar Road, the office was inaugurated by Elena Fedorova, Deputy Chair of the committee for Industrial policy & Innovation, Government of Saint Petersburg. The event was attended by delegates from St. Petersburg, MTDC, MCGM, TAAI, TAFI and leading travel agents. Evgeny Pankevich, General Director, Saint Petersburg City Tourist Information Bureau, said, “There has been an increase of interest in tourism from India to St. Petersburg and by the end of this year, we expect to record 1,00,000 Indian tourists to Russia which is an increase of 30 per cent. We see this as a good opportunity and therefore, we opened the tourism office in Delhi earlier this year and now we are here in Mumbai. This is a great moment to open the office as we are celebrating Days of St. Petersburg in Mumbai, marking the 50th anniversary of St. Petersburg and Mumbai’s sister –city status that was established in 1967.” The new office in Mumbai will give Visit St. Petersburg a strategic access to some of the most important source market regions in western and southern India.

Singapore Airlines (SIA) and SilkAir have signed a codeshare agreement on the group’s low-cost subsidiary Scoot flights that will give their customers access to more than 130 destinations across the SIA Group network. Under the agreement, SIA will progressively add its ‘SQ’ designator code while SilkAir will add its ‘MI’ code to Scoot-operated flights between Singapore and more than 30 destinations served only by Scoot within the SIA Group. The codeshare arrangements will begin with Scoot flights serving Athens, Clark, Gold Coast, Hat Yai, Ipoh, Krabi, Kuching and Palembang. The new agreement will enable SIA and SilkAir customers to travel on single-ticket itineraries to these codeshare destinations, which means that their boarding passes and baggage tags will be issued up to their final destination at the first point of check-in. Tickets will be progressively made available through the various booking channels.

The Enterprising Travel Agents Association (ETAA) recently organised a two-day weekend programme for its members in and around Mumbai held at RMP foundation- UTTAN. The rejuvenating weekend was attended by 40 travel agents. ETAA organised team-bonding activities with the support of Adventure Holidays, followed by a knowledge session to help agents improve their business skill by renowned business coach R Muthye. Apart from music and dance, members also participated in a yoga session.