Niraamaya Retreats has completed the enhancements of its Thekkady property, and the revamped Niraamaya Retreats Cardamom Club is now open for guests. Complementing the existing plantation-style cottages, the newly added rooms are built on stilts to maximise the majestic mountain views. The rooms have cleverly positioned floor-to-ceiling windows, so guests can wake up to stunning views of nature. The interiors, a play of muted tones with pops of colour feature minimal decoration and vibrant art. All rooms will have air-conditioning, a feature exclusive to only a few properties in the region; and amenities such as minibar, Wi-Fi, and luxurious bath amenities.

Global assistance and travel insurance provider, TrawellTag Cover-More has announced a partnership with GoAir India wherein the insurance provider will offer specialised travel assistance services including insurance for GoAir passengers opting for domestic travel. The association rides on Cover-More’s upgrade of their proprietary optimisation platform, ‘Impulse’ which works in real time to offer travel protection plans matching the customer’s profile based on the details provided while booking tickets. Cover-More’s expertise has enabled it to serve clients like Malaysia Airlines, Air New Zealand & Virgin Atlantic. This alliance perfectly marries with GoAir’s motto of ‘Fly Smart’ that is aimed at offering passengers a holistic, quality-assured, and time-efficient service through value for money in fares and services. Dev Karvat, MD & CEO, TrawellTag Cover-More, said “’Impulse’ is the key to our new strategic partnership as it not only equips the travelers with holistic travel protection but also enables our client to enhance ancillary revenue though an agile online technology. Indians are gradually realizing the risks of travelling even within the country and service providers have taken up the onus of educating travellers and ensuring they travel smart and safe.” He added that TrawellTag Cover-More has upgraded its team and infrastructure to provide dedicated support to GoAir in product innovation, claims management and emergency assistance.

India ranks among the top 10 business travel markets with a spend of $ 29.6 billion in 2015. This was revealed in a white paper titled ‘Business Travel in India’ Emerging Trends & Opportunities’ released by FCM Travel Solutions along with KPMG. The report also details business travel spending in top 15 countries across multiple sectors over a period of five years. India is all poised to lead this growth and accordingly by 2030 business travel spending in India will have trebled from the present levels. The paper gives a comprehensive glimpse in to where and how business travellers in India are spending. Asia has become the world’s largest business-travel market, and trends suggest India’s significance within APAC will only grow with time. Rakshit Desai, Managing Director, Flight Centre Travel Group – India said, “In order to understand how emerging trends will impact business travel programs in the near future, it is first important to understand the perspective of business travellers today. Consequently for corporates, managing business travel is becoming increasingly complex, with changing traveller preferences, integration with mobile technology, and strategies adopted by travel suppliers. This white paper helps analyze the disruptive changes happening today and forecasts how they will impact managed travel processes, the Indian business traveller experience and their expectations in the near future. It also examines the impact of technology on the way business travellers would purchase products and services, thereby predicting leading trends until 2030. The report identifies six key business travel trends and reveals new travel behaviours of the future – Increasing number of business travellers relying on user generated content and mobile devices. With an increase in online and mobile booking tools and …

Nepal Airlines Corporation recently organised a get-together for agents in Mumbai. After successfully operating since September 2015, Deputy Director, Marketing and Sales, Archana Khadka had flown down from Nepal especially for the event  to express her gratitude for their sincere efforts in promoting their product. She has assured her full cooperation and support for all the future endeavours. The meeting involved several exchange of suggestion and resolution of queries aimed towards mutual benefits in the longer run. It was attended by all the leading travel agencies like Akbar Travels, Riya Travel, Thomas Cook, SOTC, Kesari, Creative Travels, Atlas Online and TBO along with Nishi Travels, Vision Holidays, and Indo-Nepal Holidays.

The 2017 edition of Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) began in Nagpur on January 19, at Hotel Centre Point. The first day saw education seminars on pertinent issues like GST, art of guerrilla marketing, cyber security etc., where industry experts discussed and clarified various challenges being faced by the travel and hospitality industry. Over 1000 attendees from metro cities along with Tier II and Tier III cities joined the sessions at the show on the first day. The GPS App saw over 600 active users. Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director, Jagsons Travels, and co-founder, GPS, says, “We have been successful in creating probably the first ever e – exhibition. We have had over 1000 registrations for the six education sessions today. The attendees are exchanging cards and their presentations trough the app and the presentations are available in the application even after the event. GPS has become the biggest marketplace in the country.” This year the event is a six city exhibition and will also go to Ahmedabad (July 13-15), Chandigarh (July 20-22), Kolkata (July 27-29), Kochi (Aug 3-5) and conclude in Pune (Aug 10-12).

Vinod Zutshi, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, attended FITUR 2017, organised by Ifema in Madrid, encouraging the Indian travel fraternity at the first large-scale travel show for this year. FITUR in its 37th year has seen almost 10% more exhibition space, 62,494 square meters, and a 6% increase in direct stand holders with a total of 755 displaying the offerings of 9,672 companies, configure a professional business platform which sees its international offerings reinforced by 9% in terms of main standholders. UNWTO has picked FITUR as the venue for kicking off the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development.

In its statistical analysis for last month, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) informed that  the number of passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-December, 2016, were 998.88 lakh as against 810.91 lakh during the corresponding period of the previous year, thereby registering a growth of 23.18 per cent. According to the data, domestic air passenger traffic increased by 23.91 per cent during December to 95.52 lakh from 77.09 lakh reported during the corresponding month of last year. In November 2016, the passenger traffic had risen by 22.45 per cent to 89.66 lakh. SpiceJet registered the highest passenger load factor (PLF) during the month under review at 93.7 per cent followed by Indigo at 91.4 per cent and GoAir at 90.7 per cent. “Not only have we scored a hat-trick with the best on-time performance (OTP) for the third consecutive month in a row, we have also recorded over 90 per cent passenger load factor for 21 successive months,” said G.P. Gupta, Chief Administrative Officer, SpiceJet. The data showed that SpiceJet led the industry with 70 per cent punctuality rate at four major airports of Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. It was followed by Jet Airways and JetLite (64.3), Vistara (64.2), GoAir (63.6), IndiGo (61.6), and Air India (59). The data also highlighted that IndiGo led the industry with the highest market share of 41.6 per cent, followed by Jet Airways (15), Air India (13.3), SpiceJet (12.8), and GoAir (8.00). Vistara reported a market share of 3.2 per cent, followed by AirAsia India (2.8), JetLite (2.5), Air Costa (0.6), Trujet (0.4) and Air Carnival (0.1). (Source: Hindustan Times)

Working on boosting regional connectivity, Air India is starting new domestic routes and beefing up frequency on existing ones. A direct flight service to Port Blair will commence from Delhi in May this year. While responding to the constant public demand, Air India will also add second frequency on Delhi-Nagpur-Delhi, fourth frequency on Delhi-Ahmedabad-Delhi sector in March 2017 and second frequency on Delhi-Leh-Delhi sector in the month of May.

As part of its expansion drive and the success of the Delhi- San Francisco route, Air India is set to start another route to the United States and will start direct flight operations on Delhi-Washington-Delhi route in July 2017. This flight will be the fifth direct connection with the US and shall be operated by Boeing 777 aircraft. In addition to this, in May 2017, Air India is looking to offer a real treat to Indian travelers by connecting Bangkok, one of the most favored tourist destinations by starting direct flight operations on Chandigarh-Bangkok-Chandigarh and Kolkata-Bangkok-Kolkata sectors besides starting a second frequency from Delhi.

International tourist arrivals grew by 3.9% to reach a total of 1,235 million, according to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer. Some 46 million more tourists (overnight visitors) travelled internationally last year compared to 2015. The year 2016 was the seventh consecutive year of sustained growth following the 2009 global economic and financial crisis. A comparable sequence of uninterrupted solid growth has not been recorded since the 1960s. As a result, 300 million more international tourists travelled the world in 2016 as compared to the pre-crisis record in 2008. International tourism receipts grew at a similar pace in this period (complete 2016 receipts results will be reported in May). “Tourism has shown extraordinary strength and resilience in recent years, despite many challenges, particularly those related to safety and security. Yet, international travel continues to grow strongly and contribute to job creation and the wellbeing of communities around the world”, said UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai. By region, Asia and the Pacific (+8%) led growth in international tourist arrivals in 2016, fuelled by strong demand from both intra- and interregional source markets. Africa (+8%) enjoyed a strong rebound after two weaker years. In the Americas (+4%) the positive momentum continued. Europe (+2%) showed rather mixed results, with double-digit growth in some destinations offset by decreases in others. Demand in the Middle East (-4%) was also uneven, with positive results in some destinations, but declines in others.