Switzerland has created a single platform in Mumbai to represent key Swiss interests in diplomacy, trade and investment as well as tourism, along with the continuation of providing consular services to Swiss citizens. The new and integrated set-up located in Nariman Point is considered as a milestone for Switzerland’s presence in India’s financial capital. In February 2016, the visa section in Mumbai was closed and visa processing within India was centralised at the Embassy in New Delhi. Subsequently, the Consulate General was reorganised internally with allocation of additional resources to the culture and public diplomacy department within the new scope of activities. The renovation of the offices began simultaneously. After completion of the remodeling, the Swiss Business Hub India and Switzerland Tourism have come under the single roof of the Consulate General. The grand opening of the new state-of-the-art offices took place on 26 May, 2017. Consul General Martin Bienz welcomed Ambassador Jacques Pitteloud, Director, Directorate for Resources, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Andreas Baum, Ambassador of Switzerland to India, Daniel Küng, CEO of Switzerland Global Enterprise, Jodok Brunner, BBL at the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the new premises. The celebrations continued in the evening at the Trident Hotel followed by a music programme by musicians Sanjay Divecha and Varun Venkit. Ambassador Andreas Baum announced the new public diplomacy campaign for 2017-2018 which will be ‘70 years of Swiss-Indian Friendship, Connecting Minds Inspiring the Future’. The gala reception was attended by representatives from the diplomatic, business and culture communities in Mumbai. The Consulate General of Switzerland in Mumbai was the leading visa-issuing office within the Swiss network abroad, providing up to 80,000 visas per year.

Munich has witness strong gains in the number of Indian arrivals in February 2017, recording an increase of 40 per cent in comparison with the last year. Additionally, there is also an increase in the bed nights, which has grown to 31.46 per cent. “This huge rise in the Indian arrival figures to Munich shows that India has successfully maintained a position of one of the top source markets for the Bavarian capital. We are hopeful that through extensive promotion of the destination among the travel trade and consumers, a steady will be maintained throughout the year,” Minoti Gupta, Manager–Sales, Munich Tourism.

Mumbai Port will soon be among the three Indian ports in the country that will be able to offer e-visa facilities to international cruise passengers. Revealing this, N.S. Rathor, Chairman, Western Region and Regional Chapter Chairman, Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO), says, “I was part of the meeting between Sanjay Bhatia, Chairman, Mumbai Port Trust, and the Bureau of Immigration officials who have principally agreed to allow the port to offer e-visa facilities by December 2017. Currently, only Mangalore, Goa and Kochi offer this.” Talks are on to offer this service from Chennai seaport soon. Foreigners will then be able to enter India through five seaports — Mumbai, Kochi, Chennai, Goa and Mangalore — with electronic visa (e-visa), in addition of 16 airports where the facility is available.

The Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) recently organised a seminar with noted Service Tax expert Manish Gadia, Partner, GMJ & Co to talk on GST and to reply to member queries. The session mostly touched upon how GST is likely to affect inbound agents. Himanshu Agashiwala, Chairman, Maharashtra Chapter, IATO, said, “Everyone has been discussing about GST and so we decided to conduct this session in Mumbai. We saw a fantastic response with more than 75 members attending the event. We even welcomed a couple of non-members from the trade.” The association also discussed a few state-related issues before the session including the scarcity of guides, transport tax and upcoming events. Agashiwala also urged members to get more active and help out the committee in various tasks, including volunteering for the Hotel Inspection Committee that IATO is a part of.

Leading travel agency JTB Corporation is set to acquire Kuoni Global Travel Services. This was revealed in an official statement by Kuoni Group Travel Services. The transaction will create opportunities to increase business in the growing markets across the world through extension of local product offerings and expanding the complementary global MICE services. The statement said that the parties have agreed not to disclose further details regarding the purchase price or their contract. The acquisition is subject to approval by the relevant competition authorities and compliance with any other local legal requirements. The parties are contemplating to complete the transaction once all such approvals have been obtained and all local requirements have been complied with. There will be no imminent changes to the current company structure, and the company entities will continue to operate their businesses independently during the transition period. Reto Wilhelm, CEO, Kuoni Global Travel Services, informed, “JTB is one of the biggest and most respected market players in our industry. Joining JTB provides our company with the best positioned owner, which will help realize the full potential of Kuoni Global Travel Services. We will be able to further enhance our service and products for customers, while creating scale and efficiency.” Eijiro Yamakita, President and CEO of the European Regional Headquarters, JTB added, “Kuoni Global Travel Services is one of the world’s leading travel companies with an important presence especially in Asian leisure and corporate groups visiting Europe. The acquisition offers an excellent opportunity to be a unique operator by gathering the network and knowledge. It enables the provision of detailed services to meet each customer’s needs with high added-value and the expansion of the inbound business.”

Effective October 29, 2017, and as part of the airline’s forthcoming Winter schedule, the new daytime service – 9W 116 will depart from Mumbai at 0905 hrs.to arrive in London Heathrow at 1335 hrs. (Local time). On its return, the planned departure for 9W 115 from London Heathrow is at 1530 hrs. (local time), arriving in Mumbai at 0555 hrs., giving guests a head start to their day in India’s economic capital. Air travel between India and the United Kingdom has shown a steady annual growth of nearly 10 percent over the last few years. The new flight will boost Jet Airways’ passenger and cargo capacity between India and the United Kingdom by almost 33 percent, allowing the airline to capitalise on the growing round-the-year demand being witnessed from EU and non-EU countries to India and other emerging economies, on the back of fast expanding relationships in the areas of trade, commerce, tourism, culture, and, education. The third frequency enhances onward connectivity over London Heathrow to North America with partners Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic. Jet Airways will now offer improved connection time and 13 destinations over London Heathrow to North America including Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Newark, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Salt Lake City and Washington (Virginia). Jayaraj Shanmugam, Chief Commercial Officer, Jet Airways, said, “Jet Airways is delighted to offer a third non-stop service between Mumbai and London Heathrow. The new frequency will enable us to offer our guests seamless connectivity, choice and convenience with partners Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic over London Heathrow with a single baggage drop and through check-in. Our world-class experience together with our signature Indian hospitality, …

The board of Cox & Kings Ltd. has approved the demerger of its foreign exchange division into a separate financial services company to be named Cox & Kings Financial Service Ltd. (CKFSL). The demerger is effective April 1, 2017, and is subject to High Court and other regulatory approvals. Whilst the Tours & Travels and Foreign Exchange (‘Forex’) businesses are complementary in nature, the businesses operate quite distinctly from each other. The Forex business has 125 licenses across India to provide foreign exchange to captive customers as well as to third-party customers. Peter Kerkar, Chief Executive Officer, Cox & Kings Group, said, “Strong macro drivers coupled with a strategic brand presence will enable CKFSL to flourish. There are abundant, large-sized avenues for natural product diversification and the timing of this demerger is most opportune.” The working capital needs of the Forex Business are quite different from those of the Tours & Travels business. With a view to enable the Forex business to capitalize on growth opportunities in an independent manner it has been decided to demerge the business into a separate company. The demerged entity has the potential to grow substantially as a standalone business with separate financing and operations and focused leadership and management attention. The opportunities as well as risks and competitive environment within the Forex Business are distinct and the said business is capable of attracting its own set of investors and strategic partners, lenders and other stakeholders. It is proposed that the Forex Business of the Company be demerged and transferred to the Resulting Company, a wholly owned subsidiary company of the Company, so as to maximize value for all the stakeholders of the Company. In …

Flag carrier Air India has announced direct flights between New Delhi and Copenhagen thereby adding its 11th destination in Europe. Starting from September 16, these flights will operate thrice a week. “We aim to serve 37,500 passengers each way for the entire year. If we touch that figure then we will make it a daily service,” Ashwani Lohani, Chairman and Managing Director, Air India, reportedly said at an event. This is the third international flight launched by the national carrier this year, besides services to Washington from July 7 and to Stockholm from August 16, Lohani added. In his Facebook post last month, the CMD had also announced plans to connect Los Angeles from September 1 as well as Tel Aviv, Nairobi and Dallas this year. In 2016, traffic between the two countries grew by 10.1 per cent, according to a statement issued by the Embassy of Denmark. The number of visas to Denmark issued in India increased by 20 per cent compared to the year before, the statement added. Copenhagen airport is the third busiest airport in northern Europe and averaged 726 daily departures and arrivals in 2016 and served a total of 29 million passengers. (Source: PTI)

Following the commencement of first flight between Delhi and Shimla under regional connectivity scheme, Air India’s wholly owned subsidiary Alliance Air will begin its second flight service under Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) scheme on Delhi-Gwalior-Indore-Mumbai route starting May 31, 2017. The newly launched flight service will be operated by the 70-seater ATR 72-600 all economy class aircraft. Delhi-Gwalior, Mumbai-Indore and Indore-Mumbai routes will not fall under regional connectivity scheme while benefits of the scheme will apply on other routes that is Gwalior-Delhi with fare of Rs. 1830, Gwalior-Indore with fare of Rs. 2500 and Indore-Gwalior with fare of Rs. 2500. Operating three days a week on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, flight 9I 628 will depart from Delhi at 0950hrs and reach Gwalior at 1050hrs. The onward flight from Gwalior will depart at 1120hrs to reach Indore at 1235hrs and then leave Indore at 1305hrs to land at Mumbai at 1450hrs. Flight 9I 627 on Mumbai-Indore-Gwalior-Delhi route will leave Mumbai at 1030hrs and reach Indore at 1215hrs. The flight will then leave Indore at 1250hrs to reach Gwalior at 1400hrs and furthermore, the flight from Gwalior will leave at 1430hrs and land at Delhi airport at 1530hrs.

InterContinental Hotels Group has announced the launch of National Sales Office (NSO) in South West Asia (SWA) offering a central point of contact for IHG’s growing number of hotels in the region. The NSO is headquartered in Gurgaon and has team members located in key cities, including Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. The NSO team consisting of 28 associates will support hotel-based sales teams in SWA and corporate sales teams around the world, in growing business, loyalty and customer satisfaction in the market. IHG has doubled its scale in the SWA region (India, Nepal, Sri Lanka & Bangladesh) in the last four years, to 30 hotels across 14 cities, and is set to double the number of properties in three to five years as it opens 39 hotels in its development pipeline – increasing presence to 23 cities*. The NSO will represent 30 IHG hotels across SWA including InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express to cater to the corporate demand for transient travel and MICE, as well as demand from international government bodies and institutions. Speaking on the launch Shantha de Silva, Head of South West Asia, IHG, said “Following a successful pilot with positive feedback from owners and key account representatives, we have opened the NSO to provide clients with a central point of contact through which to book IHG hotels and raise brand awareness in this fast-growing market.”