The Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH) has suggested an upper GST rate of 12 per cent for the tourism and hospitality industry and handed its detailed recommendations to the Ministry of Finance. The industry comprises of air travel agents, business exhibition services, hotel and hospitality services, tour operators, rent a cab and vacation ownership. The representation has been made considering strategic forex, employment, economic and GST rationale and rates for tourism, travel and hospitality sector of India. An upper limit of 12 per cent has been suggested for hotels and hospitality and vacation ownership segment. For the air travel agents the recommendation was given to continue presumptive rate on all income and keep GST at 1 per cent or less. For the tour operators, FAITH requested to introduce a presumptive rates mechanism of GST at 1.2 per cent considering difficulty of getting GST input credits from unorganised sector and the burden of compliance of registration with different states. It has been requested to exempt outbound tour operators and business exhibitions selling outbound from India from GST since provision of services are out of India. In the case of rent a car, a GST rate of 5 per cent has been suggested failing which, maximum 12 per cent has been deemed acceptable. FAITH has urged for a special GST exemption on forex income for tour operators, hotels and businesses earning forex if it can be a criteria with MoF for GST. Addressing the adventure tourism industry, FAIH has requested MoF to consider special GST exemption based on J&K and a very high component of local, unorganised labour involved.

Thomas Cook (India), in a focused initiative to capture smaller, yet high potential local leisure markets, has conceptualised a unique customer outreach – going local- right to its customer’s doorstep. Given the demand for its ‘Grand Indian Holiday Sale’ Thomas Cook India has announced an extension, with a special Weekend Mega Holiday Sale, an on-ground activation across five key catchment localities in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai (Ghatkopar, Kandivali, Juhu, Fort and Vashi), carefully selected basis high potential demand. The venues are well located and popular with local consumers, offering optimal space for both the high traffic and interactions anticipated. This is targeted towards its high potential Maharashtrian and Gujarati customers. The weekend sale bonanza offers customers a range of attractive deals and the advantage of spot discounts up to Rs. 40,000 per person on Thomas Cook India’s holiday packages, with an added incentive of a ‘Child Travels Free’ or its Holiday pe Holiday Free’ offer on select international tours. For customers who pay the entire amount upfront, Thomas Cook India offers a further discount of up to nine per cent on select international departures. Rajeev Kale, Thomas Cook India’s President & Country Head – Leisure Travel, MICE said, “Our customers are increasingly emerging from small local pockets within larger cities, and our intent was to reach out to our customers by going local- right to their very doorstep! The Grand Indian Holiday Sale extension over the weekend will be available at 5 highly popular venues across key catchment localities across Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. Mumbai currently contributes more than 15 per cent to our holiday business and given the high growth potential, we intend to leverage this market to the …

Asia Pacific region’s hotel exhibition by AccorHotels – AccorHotels Showcase took place in Delhi at the Hotel Pullman New Delhi Aerocity. The participating hotels were from 19 different countries and about 50 international as well as national hotels from the group were participating in the showcase. More than 250 buyers and sellers had visited the showcase halfway through. AccorHotels Showcase kicked off its 2017 India leg on March 22 at Sofitel Mumbai BKC. The forum is a good opportunity for networking and for educating the people about the different brands that Accor offers. Exhibitors from globally sought-after destinations such as France, Spain, Malaysia, Indonesia, UAE and Singapore were present at the event, representing celebrated hotels like Fairmont Ajman, SO Sofitel Singapore and Sofitel Singapore Sentosa Resort and Spa, Pullman Paris Eiffel Tower, Swissôtel The Bosphorus Istanbul, Novotel Madrid Center and more. Accor hotels from India such as Novotel Ahmedabad; Novotel Visakhapatnam, Varun Beach; ibis Bengaluru City Centre, ibis Styles Goa Calangute are also participating.

The largest North Eastern state has signed MoU between four key partners to work together to promote and attract tourists to the state. The partners include OxigenWallet – the official e-wallet partner for the department of tourism, MakeMyTrip – the official partner in the online travel portal category, Travel Agents’ Association of India (TAAI) as the official partner, and Fly Wings – the partner for hospitality training. This was announced at the state’s first conclave in New Delhi which was graced by Kiren Rijiju, Union Minister of State for Home, Govt. of India, along with other dignitaries like Ajay Singh, CMD, SpiceJet. Arunachal Pradesh is heavily cashing in on the adventure segment and is fostering awareness through adventure festivals like the three-day Mechuka adventure festival held in November 2016. Speaking at the conclave, Dr Joram Besa, Tourism Secretary, Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh said, “The state is investing to become the adventure and exotic tourism hub of India. The role of tourism partners in building awareness and encouraging on the unique attractions this state offers is paramount. In 2017, we expect the number of tourist arrivals to grow exponentially.” The state received over 3.5 lakh tourists in 2016.

Emirates has introduced a new service to enable customers to use their laptops and tablet devices until just before they board their flights to the US. Emirates customers travelling to the US via Dubai will be able to utilise their laptops and tablet devices on the first part of their journeys, and also during transit in Dubai. They must then declare and hand over their laptops, tablets, and other banned electronic devices to security staff at the gate just before boarding their US-bound flight. The devices will be carefully packed into boxes, loaded into the aircraft hold, and returned to the customer at their US destination. There will not be any charge for this service. Passengers on US-bound flights starting their journeys in Dubai are encouraged to pack their electronic devices into their check-in luggage in the first instance, to avoid delays. Customers should be aware that there will be a detailed search of all hand baggage on non-stop flights to the US from Dubai. They should therefore declare their devices before the search, or ensure their electronic devices are packed into their check-in luggage in the first instance. Sir Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline said: “Our aim is to ensure compliance with the new rules, while minimising disruption to passenger flow and impact on customer experience. Our new complimentary service enables passengers, particularly those flying for business, to have the flexibility to use their devices until the last possible moment. Once on board they can still stay connected on their mobile phones. Our historical data shows that on Emirates’ US flights, 90% of passengers using our onboard mobile and Wi-Fi connectivity services do so via their smart phones. Only …

The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) in association with Western Coalfields Limited (WCL) has introduced mine tourism in Nagpur to showcase the abundant coal mining resources in Maharashtra and outline the intricacies of coal mining. It has started selling packages that are valid from March 31, 2017 to April 30, 2017. Tourists will get to descend 500 metres below the surface into the WCL coalmine in Saoner near Nagpur to experience the hardship of miners and learn about the machines involved. Additionally, they will also get an opportunity to tour an eco-park and visit the open cast mine in Gondegaon. The one-day itinerary costs Rs. 650 and includes transport, lunch and security equipment.

SpiceJet has launched its latest international route—Kolkata to Dhaka— which would fly daily. Kamal Hingorani, Senior Vice President & Head Inflight Services and Customer Experience, SpiceJet, revealed that they have started their seventh international route to Dhaka. He also said, “We are very proud about it. There is another international route — Delhi-Bangkok, which is going to start on April 14 and will be a non-stop daily flight. There is a lot more on the cards for us.”

The Travel Corporation (TTC) has asserted its ongoing commitment to its travel agent partners with the launch of a new training initiative, the TTC Agent Academy. With this, Trafalgar, Contiki, Insight Vacations and Uniworld invite agents to sign up on the new e-learning platform. It showcases the four core brands of Trafalgar, Contiki, Insight Vacations and Uniworld via a series of interactive, user-friendly modules and is complemented with a 90-second video animation highlighting the key benefits of the scheme. The Agent Academy has been created with the aim of facilitating effortless sales, and the new e-learning platform offers a simplified manner in which agents can easily build their knowledge of the award-winning family of brands to make their roles more financially rewarding and to keep their clients coming back. The first phase of a reaffirmed long-term commitment to working together and winning together, the TTC Agent Academy is designed to instil greater understanding and confidence in selling; from comprehending the depth of TTC’s global network, to what makes each brand innovative and unique, to the scope of travel solutions available for their customers. Encompassing The Trafalgar Academy, ContikiU, Insight Tour Specialist and Uniworld River Cruise Specialist, all brand programmes provide valuable content that’s accessible online 24/7, offering the ultimate in flexibility. Brett Tollman, TTC’s Chief Executive said, “Our latest trade initiative has been crafted with the success of our valued partners in mind. At TTC, we believe that travel consultants have the best job in the world and we have worked hard to create an inspirational programme to make selling more fun and easy for them. It is our hope that enrolment into the TTC Academy will reward travel agents …

Under this partnership, all domestic and international accommodations available on Booking.com will now be available on Paytm with unique promotions and offers. The company’s latest partnership will complement its aggressive efforts to tap into this segment while enabling Booking.com to offer its wide assortment of over 1.1 million accommodation options to Paytm’s 200 million strong wallet user base. Commenting on the occasion, Abhishek Rajan, Vice President – Paytm said, “Paytm’s travel marketplace has been focused on offering a seamless experience across the widest range of booking options. Our partnership with Booking.com will help us offer our customers the choice to book from over a million accommodation options across the world at the most attractive prices.” David Peller, Director Strategic partnerships, APAC at Booking.com, added, “There’s never been a more compelling need for digital payments and the removal of friction caused by payments in ecommerce in India. As the world’s leading online accommodation platform, we’re happy to partner with Paytm to enable their customers to effortlessly select the perfect place to stay, anywhere in the world.” The online hotel booking service on Paytm has seen a major uptake in bookings since last year owing to increasing mobile penetration and adoption.

The Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) has launched two campaigns that offers incentives for exhibitors as well as attendees from India. The delegation led by Kanokporn Damrongkul, Senior Business Development Manager, Exhibitions Department, TCEB, were in Mumbai to launch these two campaigns. The ‘Exhibiz in Market’ campaign is its latest drive towards expanding exhibition space at international exhibitions in Thailand. Damrongkul reveals, “India is an active participant in Thailand’s trade shows, contributing 2.92 per cent of total overseas exhibitors in 2015. The majority of them exhibited in the food and agriculture sector followed by automotive and health and wellness. TCEB’s Exhibiz in Market scheme is a new funding initiative conceived to generate pavilions at international trade shows in Thailand. The scheme offers financial assistance between USD 1,500 – USD 5,500 for leaders of commercial pavilions between 36 sqm and 250 sqm in size.” The other scheme called ‘Connect Business Campaign’ offers incentive of USD 100 per person for attendees with a mazimum of 300 pax per show.