Leading travel search engine, KAYAK has officially announced its entry into the Indian market. The company provides innovative travel tools to help people search, plan and manage their travel. KAYAK helps travellers get the information they need before they book and offers tools and features to assist them throughout their trip. The website and mobile app search hundreds of travel sites at once so that travellers have the information they need to make the best decisions. Commenting on the launch, Imbert Fung, Director Southeast Asia and India at KAYAK said, “India is a rapidly growing travel market and has continued its impressive growth over the past several years. In addition, the Indian online travel market has immense potential, with increasing penetration and acceptance across domestic and international markets. We have exciting plans for KAYAK in 2017 and setting up operations here is a fantastic step towards making India one of our core markets. While we have had a presence here for a while and feel we understand the Indian user, we are now greatly enhancing our local presence by setting up country operations with Abhijit Mishra at the helm as the country manager for India.”

Flyeasy, the Bengaluru based regional carrier, has acquired 74 per cent stake in grounded carrier Air Pegasus. A memorandum of understanding has been signed between the two and the promoters plan to resume Air Pegasus services with two ATR-72 aircraft from March 1. The airline will induct 24 planes in four years, including six this year. “We are making an initial investment of Rs 26 crore in Air Pegasus for 74 per cent stake and this will be used to clear dues and resume operations. In the later phase, we will invest Rs 60 crore in the airline,” said Rajesh Ebrahim, Managing Director, Flyeasy. He further informed that his company is pursuing plans to secure permit for Flyeasy, and is in talks with lessors for Airbus A319 aircraft. “Our plan is to create a nationwide network, one with ATRs on Tier-II and Tier-III routes in the south (Air Pegasus) and with Airbus aircraft for long-thin traffic routes,” he added. Air Pegasus began operations in April 2015 with ATR aircraft and flew to eight destinations from Bengaluru, but was forced to suspend operations last July following a cash crunch. (Source: Business Standard)

As a part of the systematic efforts to provide education to the underprivileged kids, Cox & Kings Foundation- the philanthropic arm of Cox & Kings Ltd along with The Mamta Trust, has set up a new pre-primary school for underprivileged kids in Pune. The school will provide quality education, nutrition and care to the youngest and most vulnerable children in the area.  The admissions for the new academic year are open and once started, the school will run in two batches a day with almost 100 enthusiastic children. With quality education, the children will also get smart uniforms, daily nutritious snacks and stationery and learning supplies.  All these are free of cost except a small token fee of Rs. 200 which is charged to acknowledge the parents’ dignity. This also helps them to value the education that their children are receiving.

Air India has launched a new flight from Delhi to Kochi to Dubai, which would be starting from February 1, 2017, revealed Ashwani Lohani, CMD, Air India. Talking at an informal meeting, he said, “The Delhi-Kochi sector is an important an busy sector and hence the new flight has been started. This would further offer connection to Dubai, allowing people from Kochi to go to Dubai, which too is a popular route.” Other than that he revealed that in the international sector Air India will be starting a total of 6 routes and around 22 flights in the regional sector, which would eventually come under the government’s Regional Connectivity Scheme.

TMI Academy of Travel, Tourism & Aviation Studies, has recently been appointed by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, to train students from the Backward Classes in Tourism. More then 2000 students will be trained all over India in 2017  by TMI Academy. This is under the direct supervision of National Backward Classes Finance & Development Corporation under the Ministry. The trainees will be certified by National Skill Development Corporation. Trained students will be placed by TMI Academy in the industry.

A total of 162,250 foreign tourists arrived in December 2016 on e-Tourist Visa (eTV) as compared to 103,617 during December 2015 registering a growth of 56.6 per cent. The UK (22.4%) continues to occupy top slot followed by USA (16.4%) and Russia (7.7%) amongst countries availing eTV facility during December 2016. The number of e-Tourist Visa availed by foreign tourists visiting India during the month of December, 2016 has registered a substantial growth rate over the corresponding month of 2015. During January-December 2016, a total of 10,79,696 tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 4,45,300 during January-December 2015, registering a growth of 142.5 per cent. This high growth may be attributed to introduction of e-Tourist Visa for 161 countries as against the earlier coverage of 113 countries. The percentage shares of top 10 ports in tourist arrivals on e-Tourist Visa during December, 2016 were as follows: New Delhi Airport (36.6%), Mumbai Airport (23.1%), Dabolim (Goa) Airport (13.6%), Chennai Airport (6.0%), Bengaluru Airport (5.1%),Kochi Airport (4.7%), Kolkata Airport (2.5%), Hyderabad Airport (2.4%), Trivandrum Airport (1.9%) and Ahmadabad Airport (1.7%).

Marriott International has appointed Anuraag Bhatnagar as Multi-Property Vice President, Luxury, India. He will be part of the Luxury APEC Market leadership team led by Victor Clavell. Bhatnagar has been with Legacy Starwood for 16 years now. He previously served as the Area General Manager of India and concurrently the General Manager of The St. Regis Mumbai. In the role, he successfully handled 12 hotels in six different cities of all Legacy Starwood brands including the core responsibility of leading the first St. Regis property launched in South Asia in 2015, as General Manager. A doyen of the hospitality industry with an innate understanding of the luxury landscape, Bhatnagar will now be at the helm of Marriott International’s luxury portfolio for the Indian market. He was also the Legacy Starwood Security Champion for South Asia and a member of OSAC (Overseas Security Advisory Council), United States Department of States Bureau of Diplomatic Security. He is an avid spiritualist and seeker. His fitness regime is a must and he enjoys his leisure time watching movies and listening to music.

In a bid to create awareness about digital payments and cashless banking in the wake of demonetisation, India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) organised an interactive awareness program for its employees in association with State Bank of Hyderabad. During the awareness program, various available modes of cashless transactions such as POS machines, e-wallet, mobile banking, online banking, using apps such as SBI Buddy, SBI Freedom etc. were demonstrated and explained in detail. Umang Narula, Chairman and Managing Director, ITDC, said, “It’s a matter of great satisfaction and pride that this workshop was organised. The government is promoting cashless transactions to overcome the acute shortage of lower denominations. In my opinion, this is a good move as digital transactions ensure transparency and proper payment of taxes.” He appealed to the employees and the young trainees to join the digital system of operations at the earliest as the nation is moving towards the cashless mode of transactions. The program was also graced by Piyush Tiwari, Director Commercial and Marketing, ITDC, Pradip Kumar Das, Director Finance, ITDC, and Vinayak Garg, Chief Vigilance Officer, ITDC.

Rajasthan tourism department has initiated the formulation of a new tourism policy. Nihal Chand Goel, Additional Chief Secretary-Tourism, Government of Rajasthan, informed that the department has started consultation process with various stakeholders on a range of elements to be incorporated in the new policy and the tourism department plans a huge campaign in the coming days in the conventional as well as new emerging mediums to lure tourists to the state in a big way. “Rajasthan tourism will kick-off a multi-modal and a multi-crore global marketing campaign, inspired by the Incredible India campaign, and the success of states like Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat in recent times,” he said. Besides organising music and folk festivals, new exhibitions and events for tourists will be organised to allow enable tourists to spend more time in the state. Goel further added that upgrading tourist facilities are a priority for the department which includes infrastructure like integrated plan for roads, tourist police, cleanliness drives and government-to-government partnerships. The launching of intra-state aviation connectivity between Jaipur, Udaipur and Jodhpur is also part of the initiative to save time for tourists who require speedy travel modes, added Goel.

Air India is allowing up to 40kg and 50kg of free check-in baggage for economy and business class passengers respectively on Boeing 747 Delhi- Mumbai service. Passengers flying on Delhi-Mumbai route will have an opportunity to experience flying the airlines’ legendary ‘Queen of the Skies’ and can avail this facility from January 7, 2017. Presently, Air India allows 25kg in economy class and 35kg in business class of free check-in baggage on its flights as compared to 15kg offered by other airlines. Air India is the only carrier to operate the 423 seater, four engine jumbo jet wide body aircraft called, B747 on the busiest route of India. Air India is also offering attractive fares starting from Rs.15000 onwards for travel in First class till January 15, 2017, a service that is being offered only by the flag carrier.