With a 150 per cent growth in registrations in comparison to last year, GPS Chandigarh managed to outdo itself in this Tier-II city by some margin. “We received nearly 1000 registrations for GPS Chandigarh this year and with the excellent quality of buyers we have brought in, the number of exhibitors saw a growth of 30 per cent, registering 80 exhibitors over 50 exhibitors in the last edition,” revealed Harmandeep Singh Anand, Founder, Global Panorama Showcase (GPS). The show received over 600 buyers over the two days of the B2B session.  One of the key features of GPS this year was the paperless format, which was introduced last year but perfected this year. The use of technology in conducting a major business show like this was very well received by the trade present in Chandigarh who heralded it as a revolutionary and futuristic concept. The exhibitors were especially happy with the quality buyers that the show provided them from key market areas such as Punjab, J&K, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh etc apart from local buyers from Chandigarh. The next stop for GPS this year is Kolkata which will be held from July 27-29, 2017 and is expected to bring to the fore vast tourism offerings from the eastern wing of the country.

  Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI)  has postponed its annual convention, which was scheduled from August 18-20 in Kunming, China. According to a communication shared by TAAI with its members, the association has said that they have not started the registration for the August convention, which was supposed to start on July 5, 2017, owing to few pending approvals and airline seat confirmations. Hence, TAAI has decided to hold the convention at a later date. The new dates and schedule of the convention will be announced soon.

The 4th edition of Madhya Pradesh Travel Mart (MPTM) will be held from October 27-29, 2017 in Bhopal, informed Hari Ranjan Rao, Secretary, Tourism and Public Service Management and Managing Director, Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation. Over 200 national and international buyers and around 100 exhibitors of distinct Indian markets are expected to participate in the mart.According to Surendra Patwa, State Minister, Tourism and Culture (I/C), Kisan Kalyavan and Agriculture Development, Government of Madhya Pradesh, “I am hopeful that this year’s MPTM will open way for more investment in tourism sector in the state. This event will give us the opportunity to create a new tourism policy, water tourism policy, heritage policy, policy of providing accommodation facility centres and home state schemes.” With the theme, Seek-Discover-Explore, the mart will offer a B2B platform to bring together tourism stakeholders and representatives from heritage hotels, conference venues, tour operators and wildlife parks etc. The mart is supported by various trade organisations, like ADTOI, ATTOI, IATO, FAITH, TAAI and TAFI. Rao informed that this year, the number of attendees to the mart is expected to cross over 9 crore. International participants attending the show include representatives from Singapore, Spain, the UK, the US, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Thailand, Poland, Austria, Australia, France etc. Rao said, “The travel mart is an opportunity in which the tourism aspects of the state and the policies ad schemes are conveyed to the investors. In the last three years of the Travel mart in Bhopal, it has been experienced that through this one-to-one discussion with tourists, tourism, hospitality and participants of the hotel industry, the efforts being made for the expansion of the area are also being …

PATA India has partnered with Amity Institute of Travel & Tourism, Amity University, to conducted two training programmes in August and September. “We are confident that Amity University will bring required professionalism in our efforts to provide relevant training to our members and their employees. We propose to hold the following training in August & September, 2017,” said Runeep Sangha, Executive Director, PATA India chapter. The first training session on ‘Hiring for Success’ aims to help small business owners, senior managers & HR managers in their efforts to hire quality resources to deliver the organisations goals and objective. The curriculum of this training program will emphasis on building a job description and specification, role and responsibility, sourcing Identifying candidates through web sources, short listing/screening applicants, interview process, etc. The program will be held on August 25, 2017, at The Claridges Hotel, New Delh from 10 am to 6 pm. The subsequent training session on ‘Optimisation of Social Media in Tourism & Hospitality,’ aimed at supporting the business development efforts of Sales/Marketing Managers, Product Managers and Business Owners, covering related subjects will be held in September, date for which will be announced shortly.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), Government of India (GoI), has granted ‘in principle’ approval for setting up of 18 Greenfield Airports in the country. The list of these airport along with the estimated cost is: Mopa in Goa (approx. Rs. 3100 cr), Navi Mumbai (approx. Rs. 16704 cr), Shirdi (approx. Rs. 320.54 cr) and Sindhudurg (approx. Rs. 520 cr) in Maharashtra, Bijapur (approx. Rs. 150 cr), Gulbarga (approx. Rs. 13.78 cr in initial phase), Hasan (approx. Rs. 592 cr) and Shimoga (approx. Rs. 38.91 cr) in Karnataka, Kannur in Kerala (approx. Rs. 1892 cr), Durgapur in West Bengal (approx. Rs. 670 cr), Dabra in Madhya Pradesh (approx. Rs. 200 cr), Pakyong in Sikkim (approx. Rs. 553.53 cr), Karaikal in Puducherry (approx. Rs.170 cr), Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh (approx. Rs. 448 cr), Dholera in Gujarat (approx. Rs. 1712 cr) and Dagadarthi Mendal, Nellore Dist. (approx. Rs. 293 cr), Bhogapuram in Vizianagaram District near Visakhapatnam (approx. Rs. 2260 cr) and Oravakallu in Kurnool District (approx. Rs. 200 cr), Andhra Pradesh. The timeline for construction of airport projects depends upon many factors such as land acquisition, availability of mandatory clearances, financial closure, etc. by the individual operator. This information was given by the Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha. The construction of airport project depends upon many factors such as land acquisition, availability of mandatory clearances, financial closure, etc. by the individual operator. The State Government of Maharashtra has completed the tendering process and MIAL is the highest bidder.

Travel Agents Association of India- Northern Region has elected Neeraj Malhotra, Co-founder and CEO, Ganpati Travels, as its new Chairman, while Gaurav Dogra, Founder, Plan Your Holiday, is the new Honorary Secretary. Gurdevinder Singh of Bhagwant Travel and Tours has been elected for the position of Treasurer for 2017-19. Malhotra said, “I am thankful to the team of TAAI-NR for their support and faith in me. Going forward, our first agenda is to consolidate the members and also focus on increasing membership during our term. Since our industry is going through tough times with the implementation of GST, we will be conducting various knowledge sessions to address and explain to the members how they can work under this regime. Also in collaboration with various organisations like PHD Chamber of Commerce and CII, we will be holding education seminars for our members to increase the information quotient. We are also looking at offering value additions to our members like education conferences abroad, more familiarisation trips to learn about new destinations and sell them to increase their revenue arm.” TAAI Northern Region also plans to partner with multiple tourism boards to conduct learning sessions for its members.

The second edition of Global Panorama Showcase in Chandigarh took off from where it left Ahmedabad last week, with a packed crowd and a plethora of business opportunities for the trade. The first day saw select product presentations from the likes of InterGlobe Technology Quotient, FXKart, Tourism Office of Spain, Genting Hong Kong, Sahibji Group of Companies and Voice of Chandigarh. This was followed by the much-awaited session on GST by CA Manish Gadia from GMJ & Co which gave the present representatives of the travel trade valuable insight into the workings of GST. Day 2 will commence the B2B sessions and with that it will bring to the front the tourism potential of this Tier II city.

Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-June 2017 were 561.55 lakhs as against 475.79 lakhs during the corresponding period of previous year, registering a growth of 18.03 per cent. This was revealed in data released by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). SpiceJet recorded the maximum Passenger Load Factor (PLF) of 94.5 per cent while Vistara ruled in terms of O Time Performance at 86.1 per cent.

Airfares in India are forecast to see an 8.7 per cent hike in 2018, according to the 2018 Global Travel Forecast. The Asia Pacific region will see a 2.8 per cent rise in airfares in 2018, with domestic demand increasing in India and China. The report has been prepared by GBTA Foundation in partnership with Carlson Wagonlit Travel, and with the support of the Carlson Family Foundation. The report suggests that global airfares are expected to rise 3.5 percent in 2018; hotel prices are expected to be 3.7 percent higher; and ground transportation such as taxis, trains and buses are expected to rise only 0.6 percent. Jeanne Liu, Vice President – Research, GBTA Foundation said, “The most successful programs will have to keep a watchful eye on both geopolitical risks and a rapidly-changing supplier landscape as they re-evaluate strategy often and adapt as necessary.” “The higher pricing is a reflection of the stronger economy and growing demand,” said Kurt Ekert, president and CEO, Carlson Wagonlit Travel. “The global numbers from this forecast should be considered strong leading indicators of what 2018 will mean for global businesses, as we anticipate higher spending.”

SriLankan Airlines launched a new four-times-a-week service to Coimbatore on July 16, which took its online destination count to 41, which is the highest ever in Sri Lanka’s aviation history. The airline recently launched flights to Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. Also, seasonal flights to Gaya and Varanasi will resume in August, which would bring SriLankan’s count to 126 scheduled flights a week to 14 destinations in India. This would mean that the airline will serve more Indian points than any other international airline. SriLankan completed the recently ended Financial Year 2016/17 with an improved financial performance and a reduction of its Unit Cost. Since the beginning of the new FY 2017/18, SriLankan has recorded a reversal of the declining yields that it had witnessed in the prior year.