Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) participated at World Travel Market, London, to showcase the rich diversity of Maharashtra. Maharashtra pavilion at WTM London 2017 was inaugurated by Jaykumar Rawal, Minister of Tourism, Government of Maharashtra, in the presence of Rashmi Verma, Secretary-Tourism, Government of India, and Aashutosh Rathod, Joint Managing Director, MTDC. This year, MTDC promoted wildlife tourism, heritage tourism, fort tourism, heli tourism, medical tourism, city tours, wine tourism, mine tourism, cruise tourism and wellness tourism. Maharashtra is fast emerging as one of the most interesting and productive state for the travel industry both for leisure and business purpose. MTDC is also focusing on associating with hospitality colleges including ICE to develop and build skills and provide internship to students in MTDC’s resorts at various locations in Maharashtra. Rawal say, “It is wonderful to discover the world under one roof and get encouraged by industry leaders and their innovations in the travel sector. This is a brilliant stage to growour businesses and meet the new stakeholders around the world under one roof. Maharashtra has rich tourist destinations to fulfill the needs of tourists across the globe. Participation at WTM London 2017 was our golden opportunity to aggressively market the tourism inventories, vibrant culture, unique destinations and investment opportunities in Maharashtra.”

FCM Travel Solutions, the Indian subsidiary of Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), Australia, under its retail leisure arm ‘Flight Shop’ has launched Group Inclusive Tours (GITs) in the country. Foraying into the segment, Flight Shop has introduced new exclusive itineraries to Europe specially designed for large group travellers. The service will also offer customers the flexibility to choose dates and destinations in its group tours. Shravan Gupta, Executive Director, Leisure Businesses, FCM Travel Solutions, Indian subsidiary of FCTG, Australia said, “GITs are the biggest segment in the organised travel sector and are growing at 10-12 per cent every year. Travelling in a group costs lesser and is around 20-30 per cent cheaper than travelling solo to any destination. At Flight Shop, we believe that we have the required land and cruise holidays’ expertise to organise unbeatable group tour experiences for Indian travellers. While we want to experiment with the flexible tour concept, which is a pioneering concept in India, our GITs will have fixed departure dates and conventional packages too.” Offering travellers the opportunity to leverage and make the most of the services, Flight Shop has announced ‘Europe on Sale’ Campaign as an introductory offering to their customers. Flight Shop has curated over 200 Europe Group Tour itineraries with departures beginning from April 2018. Flight Shop specialists can also provide individual customization of itineraries for travelers requiring extensions on a trip, etc. Groups are also eligible for discounted deals on ‘Europe on Sale’ itineraries until December 10, 2017. Each tour group will include – Return Economy Airfare with Taxes, Visas, Insurance, Accommodation in Standard Hotels, Meals & Sightseeing as per Itinerary, Ground Transportation in Luxury Coaches and an Independent Tour …

Yatra Online has been shortlisted for the adoption of four monuments including Qutub Minar (Delhi), Ajanta Caves (Maharashtra), Hampi (Karnataka) and Leh Palace (Jammu & Kashmir), under ‘Adopt a Heritage Scheme’ of Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India. The ‘Letter of Intent’ has been given to select companies, including Yatra, for adopting certain monuments under the scheme at the closing ceremony of ‘Paryatan Parv’ held in New Delhi recently. As a part of the ‘Adopt a Heritage Scheme’, Yatra along with the other shortlisted companies will be called ‘Monument Mitras’ or ‘Monument friends’ as they will work towards managing the monuments/heritage sites across India in a planned and phased manner. The objective of this initiative is to increase the attractiveness of the sites, enhance the visiting experience, improve accessibility and engage with the community in addition to providing and managing basic and advanced amenities at these sites. Commenting on the same, Dhruv Shringi, CEO Yatra.com, “At Yatra, we want to create and conserve an India that is enjoyed by all visitors whether Indians, foreigners, residents or tourists, for today and future generations. By being a part of this endeavour to promote heritage and conserve India’s historical legacy, we are committed to give back to the society by putting our community at the very core of our business. Yatra was selected by Inter-Ministerial Oversight and Vision Committee of Ministry after detailed scrutiny of 57 responses ranging from travel industry, hospitality industry and banking industry for adopting monuments.”

Dilip Puri, Former Managing Director and Regional Vice President of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, South Asia, announced his new education venture – Indian School of Hospitality (ISH) with a promise to reimagine hospitality education in India. ISH has partnered with LHC in preparation for an academic certification by Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL), the world’s oldest and top ranked hospitality management higher education institution worldwide. Located at Sector 83, Gurgaon, ISH will be housed within a commercial campus that boasts of state-of-the-art infrastructure and facilities. The campus, which is under development, will be ready by May 2018 for the first intake of students in August 2018. Puri said, “Education in hospitality is the beginning of a journey into a diverse and exciting range of career opportunities, not limited to hotels and food and beverage, or even the corporate world. While more and more businesses in the service sector are reaching out to professionals with a qualification in hospitality, a large number of young graduates are also pursuing entrepreneurial ventures straight out of college.”

GoAir has announced its first daily flight between Jammu and Leh. As part of its new winter schedule, the airline launched 15 new flights including additional flights from Mumbai to Patna; and Delhi to Chandigarh, amongst other sectors. This comes in line with the growing demand from the corporate travellers and upcoming holidays for leisure travellers. With the introduction of the winter schedule, the airline will increase its operations by 26 per cent to 1544 flights per week.

According to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, destinations worldwide welcomed 901 million international tourist arrivals between January and August 2017, recording 56 million more than in the same period of 2016. This corresponds to a robust 7 per cent increase, well above the growth of previous years. With upbeat prospects for the remaining months of the year, 2017 is set to be the eighth consecutive year of continued solid growth for international tourism. South Asia (+10 per cent) led growth in Asia and the Pacific (+6 per cent), followed by South-East Asia (+8 per cent) and Oceania (+7 per cent). By UNWTO regions, growth was strongest in Africa (+9 per cent) and Europe (+8 per cent), followed by Asia and the Pacific (+6 per cent), according to a survey by experts for the UNWTO Confidence Index, who evaluated the May-August period very positively. “Tourism is a major economic engine and employment generator, contributing to the improvement of livelihoods of millions of people around the world,” stated UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai. Among the top 10 markets, international tourism expenditure grew fastest in China (+19 per cent), the Republic of Korea (+12 per cent), the United States (+8 per cent) and Canada (+7 per cent).

Kerala Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran launched a unique initiative, Ayurbodha at the World Travel Mart in London to enlighten tourists with the basics of Ayurveda. The newest product of the Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) aimed at blending tourism and knowledge of Ayurveda. Under the initiative, a traveller can stay at any of the KTDC resorts and learn about the ancient medicinal stream of Ayurveda. The focus would be on basic home remedies and diet regimes, Ayurvedic practices for the rejuvenation of body and soul, secrets of pressure points, basics of ‘panchakarma’ treatment and the history and use of medicinal plants. The traveller goes back not only enlightened but also with a certificate for gaining knowledge of Ayurveda. “Ayurveda, as a wellness system and a mainstay tourism product, has been largely confined to treatments and massages. While Kerala is known as a destination for spending serene and peaceful holidays, our time-tested tradition of the ancient Ayurveda can enrich every visitor’s experience,” Surendran said.

Hoping to cash in on the growing leisure travellers in the city of the Taj, VITS Hotels Worldwide has launched a four-star property, VITS Agra. Chandrakant Shetty, Chief Executive Officer, VITS Luxury Business Hotels says, “Agra is a world renowned tourist destination, home to the Taj Mahal and also called city of love. We are delighted to launch our property in the city that would enable us tap the growing potential of tourist inflow.” VITS Agra offers 60 rooms with three categories- deluxe, suite and executive deluxe, each boasting of tastefully adorned décor, luxurious ambience and modern services. Each room is replete with amenities ranging from Wi-Fi connectivity, 24-hour room service, tea/coffee maker and an attached bathroom with complimentary toiletries. With major tourist attractions namely the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Akbar Tomb and Jama Mosque in close proximity, the hotel boasts of aesthetically designed rooms and suites ideal for business and leisure alike. VITS Luxury Hotels currently operates nine properties located and has an inventory of 600 rooms with host of banqueting, conferencing, restaurant and lifestyle facilities.

The India pavilion at the World Travel Market 2017, the leading global event for the travel industry, was abuzz with activities for the trade and consumers alike. Addressing a press conference, Rashmi Verma, Secretary-Tourism, Government of India, launched the all-new Incredible India website which will be going live from December 25.  At the three-day exhibition underway at the ExCeL-London from Nov 6-8, Incredible India showcased a lively celebration of spiritual tourism. The India stand laid special emphasis on the development and promotion of tourism for the North East States with an objective of showcasing the largely untapped tourism potential of the region. The Secretary highlighted the new initiatives for promoting tourism in India. “India Tourism has been going at a fast pace. We have jumped 25 positions as per World Tourism Forum, our ranking has improved from 65 to 40. In terms of international tourist growth in our country, last year it was 9.7 per cent as against the international trend of 3.5 per cent. This year so far it has been very encouraging and it has been at a high of 15.6 per cent. In terms of foreign receipts our growth has been commendable. The international growth has been 2 per cent, ours has been about 8.3 per cent (2016). The growth has been there but still there’s a long way to go.” Verma informed that recently India celebrated tourism fortnight with a focus on encouraging tourism. The MOT started campaigns called ‘Tourism for All’ and ‘Dekho Apna Desh’, focused on domestic tourists as well as NRIs, encouraging them to come to India not only to visit their relatives but also witness the diverse culture of the country. She pointed …

In a bid to streamline its sales process, SOTC has introduced a new sales app called ‘Engage’. The mobile sales app empowers field representatives to close deals on the go from anywhere. Sales representatives can now deal with last-minute scenarios. This allows users to customise the app for their business, close deals faster, use marketing features to turn consumers into customers and deliver customer service immediately. Daniel D’souza, Head Sales, India and NRI Markets, SOTC Travel said, “The sole purpose of introducing the app was to boost the team’s sales productivity while giving the team the core sales tools needed to grow the business. With mobile data reiterating the Indian travellers’ shift to ecommerce, as pioneers in the travel services space, we are pleased to present the new sales app.” The app simplifies the sales and booking process for the sales user, enhances customers’ experience and lowers risk of errors. Users can now record bookings and confirm packages while they are on the go.