Tourism Australia and Singapore Airlines have joined hands with the Australian States of Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and Northern Territory, to offer Indian travel enthusiasts subsidised airfares to Australia. The offer features an all-inclusive return economy fare from India starting at Rs. 60,000, with an additional S$20 Changi shopping voucher redeemable during transit, and an A$30 voucher redeemable at Brisbane airport for the first 150 passengers to fly into the city. Aimed at driving visitation to Australia, the campaign will be promoted across television, print and digital platforms. The tactical offer will be live until 15 March 2017 for travel between March 1, 2017 and February 15, 2018, subject to applicable terms and conditions. Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager, India & Gulf, Tourism Australia said “We at Tourism Australia have always perceived air connectivity as one of the strongest pillars for tourism growth, and this has led us to continually focus on our relationship with our airline partners. Singapore Airlines, one of our strongest long standing airline partners, with a significant market share, is indeed a strong partner to promote Australia as a preferred holiday destination, and the campaign devised with them successfully showcases Australia’s myriad of tourism offerings as well as Singapore Airline’s extensive flight network. This initiative is sure to entice Indian travellers to book their next trip Down Under.” Singapore Airlines connects India to key Australian gateways such as Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. The campaign also involves a tie up with SilkAir, the regional wing of Singapore Airlines (SQ), which provides connectivity to Cairns and Darwin. Australia has witnessed a continued growth trajectory in tourist arrivals from India. For the year ended (YE) November 2016 …

TravelTriangle has recently raised $10 million in series B funding from RB Investments. Sankalp Agarwal, Co-founder and CEO, TravelTriangle, said, “We have grown faster than OTAs in the leisure segment and now fast approaching their scale. With the association with RB Investments in this round we will achieve our vision faster. Our success up till now has been the effort of our super motivated team. As we charter the next phase of growth, my aim is to bring together the best in the industry and make TravelTriangle an employer of choice.” This funding round saw participation from existing investors SAIF Partners and Silicon Valley venture fund Bessemer Venture Partners. Within a year of inception, TravelTriangle had raised an angel funding of Rs 60 lakh from a group of individual investors. It then raised a pre-Series A investment of $1.7 million from SAIF Partners in July 2014 and closed series A financing of $8 million from Bessemer Venture in April 2015. Harshavardhan Bothra from RB Investments, said, “What sets them apart are their operators. We see TravelTriangle marketplace as the key beneficiary of fast-growing outbound holiday market and increasing fragmentation of offline travel agents. Increasing consumers expectations and needs make travel agents and related industry players indispensable which results into great opportunity for TravelTriangle. Upon comparing global companies to determine ideal cost structure and margin profile for market dominance in any country, our conclusion is that TravelTriangle is in a sweet spot.”

The Enterprising Travel Agents Association (ETAA) has expanded its reach and membership base with the formation of its East India chapter recently. The association organised its first event for its members in Eastern India on February 4, 2017 in Kolkata. Koushik Banerjee was announced as the interim Chairman for ETAA’s East India Chapter. The event received an overwhelming response from its members and others from the travel trade. Agents from as far as Siliguri were part of this event which was also well represented by other trade associations, SKAL being one of them. Also present were ETAA’s Chairman Emeritus, Karl Dantas; Jagat Mehta, President of ETAA; Chairman of Hospitality, Hotel & Tourism committee, Partha Chatterjee (Skal); and National Jt. Secretary, Dipti Thakoor. This was followed by a brief knowledge session by TrawellTag Cover-More which was conducted by renowned trainer, Aman Koushik and Rajesh Dutta, Director Strategy & Client Relationship. Jagat Mehta, President, ETAA, said, “The event was appreciated by all and it was a good kick-start to our new regional chapter for East India, making us a truly pan-India association with four regional chapters in North, South, West and East India.”

Yatra.com has forged a strategic alliance with the Government of Andhra Pradesh to promote homestays and enhance tourism in the state through their holiday packages. As a part of this partnership, Yatra will list over 200 properties on its website and encourage the growth of homestays in Andhra Pradesh. The MoU was signed during the Partnership Summit at Vishakhapatnam in presence of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu. Through the partnership, Yatra will promote all the state tourism approved homestays, wherein guests can rent a room in the home of a local family (host) or the entire house. This partnership will give the tourists a chance to experience the hospitality of various families throughout Andhra Pradesh and enjoy wonderful home cooked food. Speaking on the partnership, Sharat Dhall, COO (B2C), Yatra.com said, “Homestays as a trend is rapidly gaining popularity in India. As new age travellers seek out unique experiences in the course of their travels, we believe that this kind of non-hotel accommodation has tremendous growth potential in the country. Also, the partnership with Andhra Pradesh Government will provide an alternate source of income for the local population and enhance their livelihoods without straining their existing resources, thereby creating sustainable livelihood and creating large scale employment.”

IndiGo launched its first #FitToFly gym under a one-of-its-kind initiative #FitToFly programme at Sanganer police station near Jaipur International Airport, in order to promote fitness. Rolled out in December 2016, #FitToFly is aimed at providing means and inspiring people to pursue their fitness goals. Especially designed for police personnel, #FitToFly gyms are fitted with state-of-the-art equipment and machinery. Sanjay Aggarwal,  Commissioner of Police, Jaipur inaugurated the first #FitToFly gym in the presence of Kumar Rastradeep, Deputy Commissioner of Police; Summi Sharma, Vice President, ifly IndiGo; and Ajay Jasra, Director, Corporate Communications, IndiGo. Also present at the event were J S Balhara, Airport Director Jaipur; CISF Commandant R. K. Singh, and members of IndiGo team.    

India’s national carrier Air India is looking to add new routes between India and North America. Speaking at the CAPA India Aviation Summit 2017 in Mumbai, Pankaj Srivastava, Director Commercial, Air India, revealed, “We want to expand in North America and are exploring new routes like Houston and Dallas. We currently cut down travel time between the two continents by at least 10 hours.” He added, “There will also be a tenth destination in Europe soon. We are thinking of Scandinavia, and looking at either Glasgow or Copenhagen as options. We are also looking at increasing our flights into Australia and intend to take it to five flights into Sydney and five into Melbourne.”  

The annual masterclass on Indian aviation — the CAPA India Aviation Summit 2017 — started on a positive note, albeit with a caveat. This was reflected in the introductory address made by the summit chairman Kapil Kaul. Speaking at the conference in Mumbai, he said, “The next financial year is expected to be the third consecutive year of domestic growth above 20-25 per cent. That should mean profitability, strengthening of the industry, more jobs and more competitiveness. However, this projection could also be misleading and possibly leading us to risks.” The two-day summit started on Feb 8 and will end the following day with a half day conference on corporate travel.

A Tripartite Memorandum of  Understanding (MoU) for implementation of tourism projects in Jammu and Kashmir was signed between Ministry of Tourism, NPCC & NBCC and Government of Jammu and Kashmir. The MoU was signed in the presence of Vinod Zutshi, Secretary, Tourism and the signatories for the MoU included Suman Billa, Joint Secretary , Ministry of Tourism; Shamim Ahmad Wani, Managing Director, J&K Cable Car Corporation;  K K Sharma, Executive Director, NPCC; and Alok Rastogi, Chief General Manager (BD), NBCC. The Prime Minister announced the Development Package (Reconstruction Plan) for Jammu and Kashmir on 7.11.2015. The Ministry of Tourism under the new initiative -Development of Tourism in the State–New Projects has sanctioned two projects to NPCC and NBCC in J&K for being implemented this September. Integrated Development of Tourist facilities at Gulmarg–Baramulla–Kupwara–Leh to NBCC for Rs. 96.92 crore and Integrated Development of Tourist facilities at Mantalai–Sudhmahadev–Patnitop in Jammu & Kashmir to NPCC for Rs.  97.82 crore. Major components sanctioned under the projects are Yoga centre, wellness SPA, Log Huts, heliports, Open air theatre, walking trail, landscaping, solar lighting, solid waste management & public amenities etc.

U&I Holidays is out again with its annual roadshow devoted only to Bali and it is bringing more than 32 suppliers from the region to interact with travel agents in India. The show will travel to six major cities in India and offer great insights into the wonderful world of Bali. Starting with Chennai on February 6, it will head to Bengaluru on February 7, Kolkata on February 9, New Delhi on February 10, heading to western India on February 13 in Ahmedabad and finally touching Mumbai on February 14. Apart from Bali, U&I Holidays is also a DMC for Maldives and its Maldives team will also be present to discuss further business avenues during the same event.

The latest scheduled airline in India — Zoom Air — which received an air operator’s permit (AOP) on February 3, might start operations from Pasighat airport in Arunachal Pradesh. The airline will launch its scheduled commercial operation on Delhi-Kolkata-Durgapur-Delhi route on February 12. The airline is in talks with the Arunachal Pradesh government to connect the newly built airport. Koustav Mohan Dhar, Executive Director and CEO, Zoom Air has reportedly revealed that they are awaiting clearances from the state government as well as the DGCA.