IndiGo has announced its first non-stop flight and 5th overall flight between Singapore and Bengaluru, which will start from June 30, 2017. The launch of the daily direct flight would offer an affordable and a convenient option on two of the busiest business sectors. Sanjay Kumar, Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo, said, “Both Singapore and Bengaluru are strong business and tourism hubs and attract significant passenger traffic.  It gives us pleasure to introduce a direct flight on Singapore-Bengaluru route which will save flyers upto three hours of travel each way. We have been witnessing an encouraging traffic to Singapore from the cities in the south of India. There is a large Indian diaspora that resides in Singapore and regularly travels to their home to connect with their heritage and loved ones. Increased to and fro flights will not only boost tourism but also provide an affordable fare and a superior travel experience to flyers.”

Tourism Australia, in partnership with Destination New South Wales, marked the 38th year of its annual travel and tourism business-to-business event – the Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE) at the brand new ICC (International Convention Centre) in Sydney. The event took place from May  15-18, witnessing an attendance of over 2,500 travel industry delegates from over 30 countries with participation from 20 Indian travel companies. This is also marked Tourism Australia’s 50th anniversary. Commenting on the occasion, Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager, India & Gulf, Tourism Australia, said, “ATE plays a critical role in facilitating productive links between Australia’s tourism providers and the global distribution network and has an enormous economic impact. Arrivals from India have seen a significant hike in the last few years and platforms such as the ATE play a huge role in making that happen. Over 20 buyers representing as many companies from India attended ATE17 providing them an incredible opportunity to connect with Australian tourism businesses. We believe this platform will help them curate the best of Australian holiday experiences for our Indian travel enthusiasts. We’re confident that ATE will continue to bolster Australia’s inbound tourism sector and grow visitor economy.” India is currently Australia’s ninth-largest inbound tourism market, with over 260,000 visitors spending A$ 1.24 bn as on December 2016. Companies such as Ascon Travels, Cox & Kings, Cutting Edge, Discover your World, FCM Travel Solutions, Grand Travel Planners, Pathfinders Holidays, Peekay Holidays, Pristine Travels, SOTC, Vibrant Holidays, Voyageur Lifestyles, among others, represented India at ATE17, a testimony to the growing popularity of Australia as a tourism destination for Indians. ATE is Australia’s annual business-to-business tourism travel trade event, focussed on building future tourism opportunities for …

According to the data released by DGCA, passengers carried by domestic airlines during Jan-April 2017 were 364.13 lakhs as against 309.35 lakhs during the corresponding period of the previous year, thereby registering a growth of 17.71. The Passenger Load Factor (PLF) for the month saw a considerable increase because of the beginning of the holiday season, with SpiceJet recording the highest PLF of 93.4 per cent as against 91.4 per cent in March. The On-Time Performance (OTP) for Vistara was the highest (87.4 per cent).

GoAir starts two additional flights out of Pune. Effective May 19, the airline will start daily flights from Pune to Bengaluru and Kolkata. The airline will now provide non-stop connectivity from Pune to Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Nagpur, Delhi, and Kolkata. The city of Pune and state of Maharashtra both play an important role in GoAir’s network. The new routes aim at connecting Pune across its network and providing passengers flexible options in planning their travel.

IndiGo has announced the expansion of its network by adding 10 new direct flights. Effective June 10, 2017, the airline will operate ninth flight between Hyderabad and Chennai, its third flight between Hyderabad and Raipur, its sixth flight between Chennai and Mumbai, a second flight between Hyderabad and Pune, and its first flight between Pune and Kochi to strengthen connect between metro cities. With its fleet of 134 Airbus A320 family aircraft, IndiGo now operates 934 daily flights connecting 46 destinations.

Travelport and Indian hotel chain Treebo Hotels have announced a partnership, the inaugural GDS deal for the hotel chain. Headquartered in Bangalore, Treebo Hotels operate across over 34 Indian cities. Under the debut agreement, Treebo Hotels will join over 650,000 unique hotel properties available through Travelport’s Travel Commerce Platform and its distributor in India, ITQ. Enabling Indian and International corporate travelers and travel agencies in over 180 countries, to have real-time access to the chain’s full property inventory. Travelport-connected agencies across the globe will now be able to take advantage of Travelport Smartpoint to search, view and make booking decisions based on travel choice information beyond just rate and availability. Sidharth Gupta, Co-founder, Treebo, said, “We are delighted for striking our inaugural GDS partnership with Travelport and its recognized distributor in India, ITQ. We are confident that this collaboration will empower Travelport-connected agents to choose quality accommodation from across Treebo properties in India during their business visits across major cities and will significantly support our business expand its presence across the globe.” Niklas Andreen, Vice President and Managing Director, Global Hospitality Commerce, Travelport, commented: “We are excited to partner with Treebo Hotels, one of India’s key hotel suppliers and our collaboration with Treebo Hotels will help further establish their position within India’s budget accommodation space. Their wide variety of destinations, accommodation types and price ranges greatly enriches Travelport’s unrivalled choice of global travel content; providing agents and partner companies with countless opportunities to check availability of inventory and make bookings.”

During the month of April 2017, total of 1.14 lakh tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 0.7 lakh during the month of April 2016, registering a growth of 63.4 per cent. The January-April 2017 period saw a total of 5.82 lakh tourists who availed e-Tourist Visa as compared to 3.91 lakh during January-April 2016, registering a growth of 48.8 per cent. Tourists from UK (21.6%) availed the most number of eTVs, followed by USA (10.2%), China (6.1%), Russian Fed (6.1%) and France (5.1%). The top five ports in tourist arrivals on e-TV during April, 2017 were New Delhi Airport (48.6%), Mumbai Airport (20.4%), Dabolim (Goa) Airport (7.2%), Bengaluru Airport (5.4%) and Chennai Airport (5.1%). The number of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in April 2017 were 7.40 lakh as compared to FTAs of 5.99 lakh in April 2016 with a growth rate of 23.5 per cent. FTAs during the period January- April 2017 were 35.85 lakh with a growth of 15.4 per cent, as compared to the FTAs of 31.08 lakh with a growth rate of 10.1 per cent. The percentage share of FTAs in India during April 2017 among the top five source countries was highest from Bangladesh (23.07%) followed by USA (10.65%), UK (10.51%), Germany (3.28%) and Australia (3.15%), while the percentage share among the top five ports was highest at Delhi Airport (29.20%) followed by Mumbai Airport (15.48%), Haridaspur Land checkpost (12.88%), Chennai Airport (6.56%) and Bengaluru Airport (5.67%).

The Lufthansa Group has introduced an integrated group booking tool- Book-a-Group for flights with Austrian, Lufthansa and SWISS. This tool is exclusively accessible to tour operators, consolidators and travel agents. With this single online tool, travel agents will be able to request group journeys for ten persons or more from any segment of travel like group of private individuals, business travellers or tourists, with the three network airlines in any combination and bookings can be made with immediate confirmation. “With the new, integrated ‘Book-a-Group’ tool, we have been able to implement a further step in the harmonisation of our products and services across all network airlines. This will make it even easier for our ticket intermediaries to make group enquiries and bookings with the Lufthansa Group”, explained Dieter Vranckx, Vice President Sales Asia-Pacific, Lufthansa Group Airlines. This tool is available in 14 different languages. Upon enquiry it will deliver an offer and price quote in real time. The commercial conditions for group journeys have been improved and standardised in one single contract valid for all the Group’s hub airlines. Another significant addition is booking option for short term bookings. In future, it will be possible to cancel bookings within the last 60 days before the actual flight, at no charge, from 72 hours after the booking from a single point of contact. The tool will also  allow to make enquiries for bookings involving combinations of flights with further members of Lufthansa Group Airlines (Brussels Airlines and Eurowings), as well as with many other Lufthansa partner airlines. This will allow ticket intermediaries and travel agency staff to offer their customers an even wider network of routes, as well as improved availability.

BookMyForex, a marketplace for retail foreign exchange and private remittances, will now offer travel insurance that caters to a wide range of customers with different demographic profiles, purpose of travel, etc. Sudarshan Motwani, CEO & Co-founder, BookMyForex said “Travel insurance is an extremely important aspect of planning a trip, which, unfortunately, often gets neglected as travellers are not fully aware of its numerous benefits. Travellers should choose a travel insurance plan that suits their interests well. At BookMyForex, apart from foreign exchange available at the best rates, travellers would be facilitated with an assortment of travel insurance plans which cover a wide gamut of parameters. Through our customised products catering to different individuals’ needs and preferences, we provide the most impeccable travel insurance plans so that you remain calm and enjoy your travel worry-free while we remain on the lookout for your well-being.” BookMyForex as an IRDA authorised agent offers two types of travel insurance plans- Travel Prime Coverage and Travel Elite, which comes with three categories Travel Elite Silver, Travel Elite Gold and Travel Elite Platinum and caters to all age groups, corporates and families etc.

Israel received nearly 350,000 tourists–the maximum number of tourists in a month ever–in April 2017, almost 40 per cent increase from April 2015. The country received 15,000 visitors from India between January–April 2017, which is an increase of 26 per cent over the same period in 2016. Tourism Minister Yariv Levin said, “When there is clear policy, we see results. Every month, we are witnessing exceptional statistics that illustrate the progress we are spearheading in the tourism industry and its tremendous contribution to the Israeli economy and workforce. This important and exciting milestone is part of a positive trend that has been taking place over the last half year or more. I hope and believe that, with hard work, we will continue to reap the benefits of this investment.” In January–April 2017, 1.09 million tourist entries were recorded, an increase of 26% on the same period in 2016 (850,000).  964,000 tourists arrived by air, 24% more than the same period in 2016