To provide further updates on the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) between Singapore and India & Sri Lanka, Singapore Tourism Board will be organising another round of webinar exclusively for the Indian & Sri Lankan travel trade. The ‘Welcome Back to Singapore’ webinar will be held on Monday, February 28 at 11:30am IST/SLST. The virtual session will also touch on Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight operations and the customer experience at Changi Airport and Jewel Changi Airport. To register, contact jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or 9650196532

In a shocking discrimination against IATA agents based in India, Air India has restricted sale of tickets from India to Canada to its city offices and web platform. IATA agents based here cannot issue India-Canada tickets, while travel agents worldwide, including the OTA’s having offices outside India, can access and sell AI inventory to Canada. Lodging a protest with Air India in this regard, AI has been practicing this since the onset of the pandemic. Abbas Moiz, general secretary, TAFI, said it is disappointing to see this discrimination by the new management, the TATA Group, too.

Tourism is designated as an industry, and as such, it will benefit from government tariffs and levies in accordance with Industry norms. On Wednesday, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot presented the state budget for the years 2022-23. According to him, the tourism and hospitality would be recognised as a separate industry in the state. The budget’s main focus was on jobs and healthcare.

Following a competitive review process, Cenizaro Hotels & Resorts has commissioned BRANDit, a specialist in tourism marketing, as its integrated marketing agency in India. The Residence by Cenizaro resort collection, with Maldives and Mauritius at the forefront, will help stakeholders and further enhance the brand’s presence in the India market. BRANDit will fortify Cenizaro’s sales, marketing and PR strategies with a brand-new outlook as part of its mandate. Henry Ngo, Chairman of Cenizaro Hotels & Resorts, said “We are pleased to welcome BRANDit as our new partner in India. We look forward to working with the team to increase visibility for The Residence by Cenizaro portfolio and drive operational growth across different target segments of Leisure, MICE and Celebration. India is a priority market for Cenizaro owing to a vast market size and accessibility to many of our resorts, especially Maldives and Mauritius.”

The #TwosDaySale is being offered for the first time in India at Crowne Plaza Chennai Adyar Park. This open-house event will be held at the hotel on Tuesday, February 22nd from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., when visitors may come and choose from a variety of special offers tailored for the occasion, including room stays, event packages, and restaurant eating specials. A birthday celebration stay on 22/2 for INR 2222 + taxes is one of the many interesting options available. Earn 22,000 IHG Reward Points for events booked on that day, plus buy two get two free buffet lunch coupons and a slew of other deals. These offers can be purchased on that day and used over the next two months.

Cordelia Cruises will conduct a webinar for the travel trade highlighting new opportunities for them on Wednesday, February 23 at 3pm IST. The webinar will highlight the popular products and services as well provide updates and news for the 2022 travel season. To register, contact jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or 9650196532. To sign up directly, click on https://event.webinarjam.com/register/365/wy0z2b3l

Rupinder Brar, ADG, MOT, revealed the plan to unveil an e-marketplace that is a follow up to the IITFC programme. “This e-marketplace for booking guiding services and providing data services will be launched on 8th Mar, creating a great platform for travellers to contact a guide directly.” We’ll also promote it for women, offering them employment as well as flextime,” she said.

As per GlobalData, there were 73 deals declared in the global travel and tourism sector in January 2022, a decrease of 27% from the 100 deals announced in December 2021. Deal activity decreased across the board (under coverage). Deal activity was sluggish in most of the key markets.

With many people eager to get back on the road, new research from Bounce finds that the cheapest month to visit Jaipur is March. The study looked at the average nightly cost of a 3* hotel in 70 of the world’s most popular tourist sites, comparing both months of the year and days of the week. Jaipur is the second most cost-effective location in the world, with Dubrovnik, Croatia, in first position and Santiago, Chile, in third.

Ajay Prakash, President of TAFI, has emphasised the importance of working with the government to devise a method to protect travel agents’ funds. “We must now continue to build on this as a team to ensure security for our travel agents.” Payments to principals by travel agents constitute unsecured credit, and we must ensure that some type of system, such as escrow, guarantee, or underwriting-based methods are in place to keep travel agents’ money safe. We look forward to engaging with the government on this,” he said.