THAI Smile Airways has commenced its new flights on the Bangkok–Mumbai–Bangkok route. The airline has already been operating since last quarter of 2016 direct flights from Bangkok to Jaipur, Lucknow, Gaya and Varanasi. This new route will help all segments like – leisure, corporate and MICE travellers. THAI Smile operates its Bangkok-Mumbai flights five times a week under the flight no. WE335 Bangkok – Mumbai (BKK-BOM) on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 22.15-01.35 (+1), WE335 Bangkok – Mumbai (BKK-BOM) on Friday and Sunday at 23.55-03.10) and WE336 Mumbai – Bangkok (BOM-BKK) on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 02.40-08.55 and WE336 Mumbai – Bangkok (BOM-BKK) on Monday and Saturday at 04.40-10.55. All flights are served in full service of excellence with complete course of foods and beverages. The foods on board are divided into vegetarian (Vegetarian Jain Meal) and common foods (Non-Vegetarian Hindu Meal). Baggage loading is up to 40 kg for Premium Economy Class or Smile Plus and 30 kg for economy class passengers or Smile Class. Both classes have spacious seats that passengers can select seats without additional charges and can also earn mileages with Royal Orchid Plus (ROP).

After opening a direct flight connection between Brussels and Mumbai last March, Brussels Airlines has welcomed over 60,000 travelers on its flights. The airline now increases its flight offer from 5 to 6 weekly flights during the winter season, offering more flexibility and choice. This week, Brussels Airlines participates to the Belgian Royal State Visit to India and partners up with other Belgian organizations to organise a dance event at the Gateway of India. On March 30, Brussels Airlines inaugurated its direct flights between Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji airport and Brussels Aiport and has since seen its results on the route growing more and more. After a positive 7-month period with an average seat load factor of almost 80%, the airline has decided to invest even more in the route, by adding an extra flight on Saturday, bringing the total to 6 flights per week and additional flight frequency on Saturday. “Our new service received a warm welcome here in the Indian market and we are very happy with the results. Adding this 6th weekly flight confirms our investment in the Indian market. We are therefore, very happy to participate to the Belgian Royal State Visit here in Mumbai. With this spectacular event at the iconic gate of India, we are proud to bring the best of Belgium to India and to emphasize on the importance of the economic bonds between our two countries,” says Bernard Gustin, CEO of Brussels Airlines At the end of 2018, Brussels Airlines gradually renews its long haul fleet with the replacement of 7 of its 10 Airbus A330’s. On board of the entire long haul fleet, the airline will introduce a brand new product with …

South African Tourism has appointed Hanneli Slabber as Regional General Manager Asia, Australasia and Middle East. She has held the reins at South African Tourism’s India office for the past seven years. Slabber hands over to Alpa Jani whom she has worked with for six years and who will function in the capacity of Acting Hub Head, MEISEA, South Africa Tourism. During her tenure at the India office, Slabber has grown to love and understand India. She has developed effective and long-lasting ties with media houses, travel trade, airlines and other authority figures in the travel industry. She has enabled, motivated and led the India office team as it has conquered the various taking the destination to the top of holiday-maker’s popularity charts: from establishing South Africa as a standalone destination, to building aspiration and universal appeal with celebrity, Bollywood and cricket personality associations and making classroom trainings identifiable and interesting. She has been instrumental in helping the South African travel industry understand India better, encouraging them constantly that it will be worth it to tailor not just for India but for the tastes and demands of people various regions/ states of India. Her experience in taking a destination from one-among-many to a must-see safari and adventure hotspot with multi-segment appeal is expected to help South Africa make waves in the Middle East and South East Asia, where South African Tourism has recently set the ball rolling on destination promotion. Prior to her posting in India, she served as Global Product Head for the tourism board, based in South Africa where she learned the intricacies of various markets planning hosted trips for media and travel agents from various source markets. …

India is the most digitally-advanced traveller nation and ranks first in the league table of countries surveyed by Travelport for its Global Traveller Survey, ahead of its Asia Pacific counterparts, China and Indonesia. According to the results of Travelport’s Global Traveller Survey, which had 11,000 respondents across 19 countries, of which 1000 respondents were Indian, Indian travellers were at the top of using the digital assets when it comes to travel. Rabih Saab, President and Managing Director EMEA of Travelport, launched the findings of the report in New Delhi and said, “These findings demonstrate the significance of digital tools for Indian travelers before and during their journeys, though the result is frankly unsurprising for those of us who have been following the digital market here for some time. The findings highlight the need for the $7.6 trillion global travel and hospitality industry to adapt continually to provide responsive, relevant and timely services for customers.” The major findings of the survey revealed that 91 per cent of Indian travelers use peer-to-peer reviews when researching a trip, while 87 per cent use videos and photos posted by their friends as part of their research. A total of 85 per cent Indians use price comparison sites to help them find a good price or package, while 67% use voice search, utilising devices such as Siri or Amazon Echo, when researching a trip, which is 20 per cent more than the global average.

Preferred Hotels & Resorts announces the addition of 25 new member hotels and resorts across eight countries between August and October 2017. The new hotel additions include: Shahpura House (Jaipur, Rajasthan, India), Alohilani Resort Waikiki Beach (Honolulu, Hawaii), Le Bristol Beirut (Beirut, Lebanon), H10 Metropolitan (Barcelona, Spain), Wanda Reign Wuhan (Wuhan, China). Additional member hotels to join Preferred Hotels & Resorts between August 1 and October 31, 2017 include: • WelcomHotel Dwarka, New Delhi (New Delhi, India) • Shahpura Haveli (Jaipur, India) • Cala de Mar Resort & Spa Ixtapa (Guerrero, Mexico) • Royalton Hotel (New York, United States) • The Maritime Hotel New York (New York, United States) • Green Park Inn (Blowing Rock, North Carolina, United States) • Cork Factory Hotel (Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States) • The Commonwealth (Richmond, Virginia, United States) • Alpenhof Lodge (Teton Village, Wyoming, United States) • The Queensbury Hotel (Glen Falls, New York, United States) • Yurbban Passage Hotel & Spa (Barcelona, Spain) • H10 CUBIK (Barcelona, Spain) • Myconian Naia (Mykonos, Greece) • THE BODRUM by Paramount Hotels & Resorts (Bodrum, Turkey) • Pestana Amsterdam Riverside (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) • Cresta Palace (Celerina, Switzerland) • Turyaa Chennai (Chennai, India) • The Primus Hotel Shanghai Hongqiao (Shanghai, China) • The Longemont Hotel Shenyang (Shenyang, China) • Connect Busan (Busan, South Korea) Preferred Hotels & Resorts is the world’s largest independent hotel brand, representing more than 650 distinctive hotels, resorts, residences, and unique hotel groups across 85 countries.

Vistara has introduced ‘Vistara Getaways’ for user-customisable holiday packages covering flights, hotels, cars, and sightseeing options at attractive package prices. Customers can choose holiday packages for as many as 35 cities in and around Vistara’s network of 21 destinations, at getaways.airvistara.com. The packages include air travel options on Vistara, airport transfers as well as car rental options, and sightseeing tours, and hotel stays in partnership with leading hotel chains such as Taj, Hyatt, Radisson, Le Meridien, and upscale boutique hotels. In addition, ‘Vistara Getaways’ allows travellers to personalise their holiday packages by choosing the duration of holidays, their preferred cabin class for air travel, options to upgrade hotels and the category of rooms, and even upgrade the choice of cars for local transportation. Customer can even choose to split their stay in a city in more than one hotel. Sanjiv Kapoor, Chief Strategy & Commercial Officer, Vistara, said, “Planning the perfect holiday involving air, hotel, car, and sightseeing options can be an arduous and time-consuming task. With Vistara Getaways, the globally experienced discerning travelers of today are assured of having all their holiday needs met via a convenient, online one-stop-shop, and more importantly, with attractive pricing and great flexibility to design their holidays the way they want it, very unlike traditional packaged holidays. The introduction of Vistara Getaways is in line with our promise of providing more options along with a seamless world-class travel experience to our customers.” As part of the launch, Vistara is offering an inaugural discount of flat Rs. 4,000 on the holiday package price for the first 100 customers of Vistara Getaways. The discount is available using the promo code ‘FIRST100’.

Uniglobe Travel and Goomo have entered into a strategic partnership that marks a first-of-its-kind alliance between a traditional travel agent network and an online platform. The partnership will involve deeper collaboration between the Uniglobe franchisees, whereby customers on the Gooomo platform will be able to find a trusted agent and discuss their off-line booking requirements with them. The partnership will serve as an ideal foundation for Uniglobe and Goomo to further expand their omni-channel presence in the booming South Asian travel market and add more diversity to Goomo’s suite of travel products, which can be availed either online or through a specialist agent. Uniglobe Travel South Asia currently has over 60 agency locations across India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka with an annual sales volume of over Rs 3,500 crore. Varun Gupta, CEO, Goomo, says, “Clients have the right to choose the channel they’re most comfortable with while booking their travel. That’s precisely what our partnership with UNIGLOBE promises – a one-stop shop for our clients to access the best online and offline travel deals and products, so they don’t have to bother looking elsewhere.” Raja Natesan, CEO, Uniglobe Travel (South Asia), adds, “Our association with a dynamic platform like Goomo presents a unique opportunity to target both offline and online consumers through the convenience of an omni-channel platform and the assurance of a knowledgeable travel expert. We are excited about our partnership and the value we could unlock by extending our superior travel management services, that offer unparalleled access to professional advice for extensive trip planning, to Goomo’s online client network.” Not just the end-consumer, but even the wide network of Uniglobe Travel agencies across South Asia, stand to benefit …

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has launched its new campaign ‘Amazing Thailand Tourism Year 2018’. Speaking about this is Soraya Homchuen, Director, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Mumbai, who says, “For 2018, TAT has launched a new campaign ‘Amazing Thailand Tourism Year 2018’ to support the government’s national tourism development plan featuring an action-packed schedule of unique Thai local experiences and international events. In the coming year, the emphasis will be on inclusive tourism, that maintains a balance between the economy, environment and benefits for Thai society. This campaign will see the Thai travel and tourism industry move into a new era of development and further underscore its new status as a nationwide movement that yields significant benefits for national security, the economy, society, well-being and foreign relations. The campaign’s overarching objective is to ensure that Thailand remains a Preferred Destination and delivers a Quality Product, thus boosting the average length of stay, expenditure and repeat visit. In 2018, the marketing strategy will continue to position Thailand as a ‘Preferred Destination’.” Homchuen observed that Thailand is naturally blessed with a busy schedule of annual cultural events that appeal to both domestic and international audiences and said that they were delighted to see increasing number of tourist arriving in Thailand. The video campaign will highlight activities based on 13 core niche products that include sports, gastronomy, maritime tourism, wedding and honeymoon, medical and wellness, community-based tourism, leisure, green tourism, night tourism, MICE, trade fairs, B2B marketing activity and logistics. Some of the local Thai events that will take place in 2018 are Thailand Tourism Festival (January 2018); Thailand International Kite Festival/Thailand Marathon (Songkhla/Bangkok, February 2018); International Balloon Festival (Korat, May 2018); …

Fern Hotels & Resorts is on an expansion spree not only in India but in neighbouring Nepal as well and is all set to close the financial year with three operational properties with a total of 233 keys, reveals Suhail Kannampilly, COO, Fern Hotels & Resorts. The company recently started managing the 73-room Summit Hotel, a Nepali-styled boutique hotel located 7 km from Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu. “The Fern Residency, Bharatpur in Nepal is a 48-key property which will be operational by the end of the current financial year,” Kannampilly informs. The company will also be managing another 112-room upcoming hotel property in Kathmandu under The Zinc brand. It is scheduled to be operational by year end as well. The company is looking to increase the key count to 500 in Nepal during the course of the next 18 months and aims to become one of the biggest hospitality players in Nepal by having presence in key destinations like Pokhara, Lumbini, Nagarkot, Biratnagar. The company already manages a chain of six boutique island resorts in Seychelles. “As of now we are managing seven properties outside India and will add two more to our kitty by the year end taking our tally to 9”, he said. “In the Indian market we are going to open a property every single month in the current financial year and are expecting to reach a figure of 59 operational properties,” he adds. “Our long-standing relationships with local Corporates and the Travel Trade, along with our strong connects with all the key OTAs, ensures volumes are driven into all our hotels from all these key channel partners”, he further elaborated. The company has appointed a full-fledged …

Cathay Pacific Airways conducted a series of sales blitz and workshops in Ahmedabad, Pune and Mumbai to mark the reintroduction of its Premium Economy Class and the increase in capacity on flights from Mumbai. Cathay Pacific used to operate Premium Economy until October 2015. The airline has introduced the Boeing 777-300ER aircraft on the Mumbai–Hong Kong route from October 30. Rajesh Menon, Regional Sales & Marketing Manager-South Asia, Cathay Pacific, said, “We are thrilled to share these new developments in Cathay Pacific with our key trade and corporate partners. It is their support that has encouraged us to increase capacity on this route and reintroduce our Premium Economy cabin, which will provide even greater convenience and give our customers another reason for choosing Cathay Pacific.” Workshops were held for the travel trade fraternity in Mumbai which consisted of interactive sessions and covered a range of topics that include Cathay Pacific’s product and service, network and connections, loyalty programme, destination guides etc. This was followed by a week-long sales blitz that included a competition for the travel agents to upload their most fun picture on Cathay Pacific’s Facebook page. The Boeing 777-300ER aircraft will operate on the daily CX 660 service from Mumbai to Hong Kong and CX 663 flight from Hong Kong to Mumbai. This will mark a 21% increase in passenger capacity and 67% increase in cargo capacity out of Mumbai on Cathay Pacific flights.