Marriott International has added another property to its portfolio in Indore with the opening of the 218-room Indore Marriott Hotel. Neeraj Govil, Area Vice President, South Asia, Marriott International, said, “The Indore Marriott Hotel is an exciting addition to the Marriott Hotels portfolio, our eighth in the country so far. With tremendous growth as a business hub during the past few years, Indore is set to become one of the most sought-after destinations for both leisure and business travellers in India. We are delighted to be a part of this incredible growth story and to bring our inventive service and products to this city” On this occasion, Devesh Rawat, General Manager, Indore Marriott Hotel said, “The hotel is the perfect complement to the destination with multiple experiential spaces. We are excited to foray into the city of Indore and are extremely pleased to welcome our guests at the newest Marriott Hotel in the country,” He further added, “From spacious rooms to delightful dining options and expansive convention facilities, the hotel is thoughtfully designed to create an excellent stay experience.” Other facilities at the hotel include recreational facilities such as the renowned Quan Spa with 5600 sqft of space offering a blend of modern and traditional therapies. The hotel also boasts of an outdoor swimming pool and a fully equipped, state-of-the-art fitness centre. Indore Marriott Hotel is the largest in the state in terms of rooms and meeting space – which covers 55,000 sqft of meeting and banqueting space. The property is located a few minutes away from the airport.

Atout France, France Tourism Development Agency, recently organised its first-ever offsite B2B showcase titled ‘Experience France’ in Goa from October 29 to November 2, 2017. This year, the agency also heralded another milestone – a decade of its independent office in India. The 2017 edition had a strong presence of 24 representatives of French entities buoyed to showcase the limitless possibilities that France has to offer. The delegation included key representatives of regional tourism boards, local tourist offices, hospitality partners, versatile attractions and DMCs from across France. The delegation also included eight representatives from the Auvergne Rhone Alpes region keenly positioning France as a winter destination. The workshop format consisted of pre-scheduled appointments over three days allowing for qualitative exchanges between French professionals and travel companies from key metro cities across India who were present for the event. The Consul General of France to Bombay, M Yves Perrin graced the 10-year celebration at the W Goa. Several networking soirees were organised to facilitate interaction and exchange between the suppliers and hosted buyers. Sheetal Munshaw, Director, Atout France in India, says, “In keeping with the market trends of France being a favoured destination with travel professionals pan India, we thought it opportune to create a common platform to facilitate synergies with travel agents from all over the country opening up and further expanding opportunities to promote France to a more versatile audience. Our delegation also comprised of an eclectic mix of tourism offerings from all over France enabling us to showcase France for all its diversity.”

SOTC Travel strengthened its presence in New Delhi with the inauguration of its first ever signature store in North Delhi at Netaji Subhash Place, D Mall. This new expansion augments SOTC’s distribution and reach in New Delhi. North Delhi, a potential market for SOTC which has been growing consistently year on year has seen remarkable progress with doubled sales numbers over the last 3 years. In an attempt to reach the optimum potential of this market and strive to provide the best pre & post tour experience to customers, SOTC Travel has come up with this unique concept of the first Signature store in the National Capital. Daniel D’souza, Head Sales, India and NRI Markets, SOTC Travel said, “We believe customer experience is the key to make our business successful in this ever competitive and growing tour operators industry. Along with increasing our distribution presence in almost all parts of Delhi/NCR, It is extremely important for us to ensure that we keep delivering up to the maximum potential of these markets and this requires us to enhance and deliver enriching holiday experiences to our customers. The Signature store is one of our efforts to reinvent the buying experience for our customers at our franchise outlets. Its strategic location offers convenience and accessibility to customers providing excellent branding and visibility. Our dedicated sales resources ensure we provide superior service to our customers meeting their every expectation.”

Scandinavia expects to record over 15 per cent growth in Indian bednights in 2017 over 2016 with 350,000 Indian bednigts recorded year-to-date. This information was given by Mohit Batra, India Representative, Scandinavia Tourist Board, during the the Delhi leg of the three-city roadshow being conducted by the tourism board. The roadshow will head to Chennai on November 15, followed by Mumbai on November 16. “We have seen a tremendous growth in interest towards Scandinavia and some markets in the region may have witnessed an upward of 20 per cent growth too. All segments have shown growth, be it leisure, honeymooners or the incentive market from India. Our focus has been Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru but we have also seen interest coming in from other cities as well.”

PATA India will be conducting its 6th Update & Outlook Meeting on November 15, 2017 at The Claridges, New Delhi. Tourism Secretary Rashmi Verma will preside over the meeting. G. K. Chaukiyal, Executive Director, Airport Authority of India, will also give an overview of Regional Connectivity Scheme, near and medium term connectivity plan and how it will support tourism. One of the objectives of this initiative is to take aviation to the hinterland and to the doorstep of the common man. This will contribute towards developing tourism infrastructure and open new vistas for tourism as well.

Keys Hotels expands its portfolio in North India with its 4th hotel in the region—Keys Lite Mayfield hotel in Gurugram. Located in sector 44, Keys Lite Mayfield is targeted towards both corporate and leisure travellers. Anshu Sarin, CEO, Berggruen Hotels, said, “Gurugram is an important market for Keys Hotels. Though it is located just over 30 kilometers southwest of national capital New Delhi, the city has emerged as a major finance and technology hub in its own right. We see it as one of the major gateways to North India and, crucially, the new hotel allows us to establish our presence in the region.” Berggruen Hotels currently has 22 hotels in 20 cities.

During the month of October, 2017, a total of 1.76 lakh foreign tourists arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 1.05 lakh during the month of October, 2016 registering a growth of 67.3 per cent. During January- October 2017, a total of 12.43 lakh foreign tourists arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 7.81 lakh during January- October 2016, registering a growth of 59.2 per cent. The percentage share of top 15 source countries availing e- Tourist Visa facilities during October, 2017 was as follows: UK (18.2%), USA (9.7%), France (6.3%), Germany (6.0%), Australia (4.3%), Russian Federation (4.1%), Canada (3.9%), Thailand (3.7%), China (3.7%), Korea (Rep.of) (2.6%), Spain (2.3%), Oman (2.2%), Italy (2.2%), Netherlands (1.9%) and Malaysia (1.6%). The percentage share of top 15 ports in foreign tourist arrivals on e-Tourist Visa during October 2017 was as follows: New Delhi Airport (53.0%), Mumbai Airport (16.6%), Bengaluru Airport (5.5%), Chennai Airport (5.3%), Dabolim (Goa) Airport (4.5%), Kochi Airport (3.5%), Kolkata Airport (2.5%), Hyderabad Airport (2.4%), Amritsar Airport (2.0%), Trivandrum Airport (1.1%), Ahmadabad Airport (1.0%), Jaipur Airport (0.7%), Gaya Airport (0.6%), Calicut Airport (0.4%) and Tirchy Airport (0.4%).

Air Canada has been on an expansion spree in India. The airline will make its Delhi-Vancouver-Delhi flight a daily service from December 1. Margaret Skinner, Director, Sales—EMEAI, Air Canada, said, “We are delighted with the response we’ve got from the Indian market, and we like that India is a growing market and the economy is strong. We are seeing business coming from all market segments—corporate, leisure and students, and it’s a good mix of business for us. Our Toronto-Delhi service went daily very quickly. Now our Delhi-Vancouver service will get daily soon. It’s four times a week currently and will go daily from December 1, 2017. Air Canada’s Mumbai-Toronto flight is four times a week and we would like to see all these services get daily year round.”

The number of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in October, 2017 was 8.76 lakh as compared to FTAs of 7.42 lakh in October, 2016 and 6.83 lakh in October, 2015. The growth rate in FTAs in October, 2017 over October, 2016 has increased to 18.1 per cent, compared to 8.6 per cent in October, 2016 over October, 2015. FTAs during the period January-October 2017 were 79.96 lakh with a growth of 15.8 per cent over same period of the previous year, compared to FTAs of 69.05 lakh with a growth of 9.6 per cent in January- October, 2016 over January- October, 2015. The percentage share of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in India during October, 2017 among the top 15 source countries was highest from Bangladesh (21.66%) followed by USA (11.57%), UK (10.23%), Sri Lanka (3.79%), Canada (3.36%), Germany (3.17%), Australia (3.07%), France (2.81%), Russian Fed. (2.81%), Malaysia (2.76%), Japan (2.44%), Thailand (2.10%), China (1.93%), Nepal (1.66%) and Rep. of Korea (1.48%). The percentage share of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in India during October 2017 among the top 15 ports was highest at Delhi Airport (32.56%) followed by Mumbai Airport (14.02%), Haridaspur Land Check Post (11.29%), Chennai Airport (6.10%), Bengaluru Airport (5.19%), Kolkata Airport (4.55%), Gede Rail Land Check Post (3.02%), Cochin Airport (2.70%), Dabolim (Goa) Airport, (2.58%), Hyderabad Airport (2.53%), Sonauli Land Check Post (1.86%), Ahmadabad Airport (1.77%), Ghojadanga Land Check Post (1.64%), Amritsar Airport (1.53%) and Trivandrum Airport (1.20%).

Dream Cruises has announced that its inaugural vessel, Genting Dream, will be home-ported year-round in Singapore starting from December 3, 2017. This marks a first for Singapore to host a new and large-scale 151,300-tonne cruise ship year-round. The ship will call at more than 10 ports in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam during 2018. Naresh Rawal, Vice President Sales, Star Cruises, Dream Cruises & Crystal Cruises, added, “Apart from this, we are also waiting for the launch of World Dream sailing, the second ship under Dream Cruises, from Hong Kong. We also have something lined up for the new year with Crystal Air’s six-night itinerary that includes Sydney and Honolulu from December 30 to January 4, 2018.” The privately-owned luxury jet has the highest staff-to-guest ratio with Crystal Skye butlers, fine wines, Champagnes and premium spirits, networking area, a bar, 88 handcraft, fully-reclining Crystal Exclusive Class flatbed seats, state-of-the-art in-flight entertainment system and complimentary Wi-Fi.