Sarovar Hotels has opened Efcee Sarovar Portico Bhavnagar. The 99 room premium hotel was launched in the presence of Mansoor Adil, Executive Vice President, Sarovar Hotels Pvt. Ltd., Komalkant F. Sharma, Chairman & Managing Director, Leela Worldwide Group, Rajesh Ranjan, Director – Development, Sarovar Hotels Pvt. Ltd. and Sanjay Wadhwa, General Manager, Efcee Sarovar Portico. Sarovar Hotels manages three other hotels in Gujarat including Ahmedabad, Gandhidham and Rajkot.Efcee Sarovar Portico offers a calm and peaceful oasis for both business and leisure travellers. The elegant and well-appointed rooms and suites, categorized into Deluxe Rooms, Premium Rooms, Executive Suites and Leela Suite, offer contemporary amenities and personalized service. With state of the art meeting and banqueting facilities, it is an ideal venue for corporate and social events, workshops, exhibitions and weddings. The open air lawn, perhaps the biggest space in the city, is perfect for weddings and can accommodate upto 2000 people. As trade and economic collaborations between Gujarat and the rest of country continue to strengthen, this newest property is well set to cater to Bhavnagar’s business and leisure market. Furthermore, the launch of Efcee Sarovar Portico Bhavnagar is strategically important for the group’s development in the state of Gujarat as it looks to further expand its footprints across newer destinations in the country. Commenting on the launch, Mr. Mansoor Adil, Executive Vice President, Sarovar Hotels Pvt. Ltd., said, “We are delighted to be opening our fourth hotel in Gujarat. Bhavnagar, being one of the major business destinations in the state, is an important addition to our portfolio. With Efcee Sarovar Portico, we endeavor to offer the best of hospitality to all travellers to this region. Our superior banqueting facilities will …

Indifi Technologies, an enabler for SME funding in India, has partnered with DJUBO, a cloud-based hotel tech solution. Under this partnership, over 1400 hotels that are associated with DJUBO, will have the opportunity to avail unsecured loans of up to 50 lakhs within three business days through Indifi technologies. The quick and convenient availability to these loans will be made possible for hotels by simply choosing to share their revenue data from their DJUBO systems with Indifi, to act as proof of creditworthiness. The partnership between DJUBO & Indifi is aimed at making available, convenient & unsecured capital loans for hotels to invest in growth initiatives and improve their guest experience, in addition to the hotel digitization and revenue maximization technology suite already being offered to them by DJUBO. Non-availability of adequate & timely financial aid is a major impediment in a hotel’s upkeep and growth. This partnership will help DJUBO’s client hotels get business loans from Indifi’s extensive lender base with ease, enabling them to invest in modern amenities, service quality and operations, thereby improving guest delight. This positive spiral will result in better room realization, occupancy & profitability over time. Elaborating on the successful association, Alok Mittal, Co-founder and CEO, Indifi Technologies said, “Indifi is committed to solving the credit access issues faced by small businesses across sectors in India. Our partnership with DJUBO creates a seamless platform for hotels, as well as the data infrastructure to enable strong credit quality for lenders.” Sankalp Goel, Co-founder, DJUBO, “We strive to deliver value beyond a regular hotel tech product. DJUBO itself is revenue-focused tech product and on average our clients using the complete DJUBO platform experience, on average, 30-40% …

Vienna attracted a record 47,465 visitors from India in the first 10 months of 2016, registering an increase of 30.4 percent over the same period last year. Tourists from India accounted for 102,701 overnight stays between Jan-Oct 2016, each visitor clocking an average of 2.16 nights, according to Vienna Tourist Board (VTB). “Vienna got an overwhelming response from travellers from India, exceeding the target of 100,000 overnight stays for 2016 by Indian tourists in just 10 months. Indians love to stroll around the fabulously green city, with half its metro area dotted with 2,000 green spaces, 850 parks and 400 species of rose, perhaps unmatched by any other city in the world,” says Isabella Rauter, Public Relations Manager, Vienna Tourist Board. A direct Delhi-Vienna flight by Air India also contributed to more Indians flocking to the Austrian capital, she adds. The global tourist flow into Vienna during the first 10 months of 2016 also grew by four per cent in overnight stays to 12.45 million, and four percent in arrivals to 5.69 million, informed Rauter.

StayWell Hospitality Group has launched its fifth property in India—Park Regis Goa. This is the largest property under the group’s portfolio. Spread over an area of 5 acres in Arpora, Park Regis Goa boasts a magnificent location featuring 96 Rooms & Suites each spread across 5500sqft with modern-décor, soothing warm colors, plush duvets, international standard mattresses and high quality bathroom amenities. Luxurious comfort with expansive, lavish spaces, a private bar and your own private balcony over-looking the plush greens. Simon Wan, CEO & Managing Director of StayWell Hospitality Group, has commented that the opening of Park Regis Goa is just the tip of the Group’s expansion in the region.”With four properties opened and an additional six under development, the growth opportunities for StayWell in India are extremely positive and exciting,” he said. The 96 room resort-style hotel is located in a prime position north of the main city of Goa, within close proximity to Goa’s iconic attractions Baga, Calangute and Anjuna Beaches. Boasting a large outdoor alfresco pool bar, cafe, restaurant, conference facilities, pool and gymnasium, Park Regis Goa will become a new class of accommodation in North Goa. Guest rooms are spaciously designed offering lavish inclusions such as handcrafted amenities, oversized bathtub and a private balcony overlooking lush surrounds. This is the second Park Regis hotel to open in India following the launch of Park Regis Jaipur in July 2015. Rohit Vig, Managing Director for India, StayWell Hospitality Group added that the group’s strategic plan is targeting an area of the Indian market with the biggest growth opportunities.”Ultimately, we are targeting India’s domestic travel segment. With a rapidly growing middle class with disposable income, the market is huge. We …

The visa services, which have been expanded for tourism, medical and business purposes, has been extended to eight countries namely Angola, Rwanda, Niger, Cyprus, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Mali and Burundi, revealed Vinod Zutshi, Secretary – Tourism, Govt. of India. “Apart from this, we are also working on extending the e-tourist visa for five other countries among which Italy, Slovak Republic, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan are included,” he said at a closed-door meeting held in New Delhi. With this announcement, the total count of countries that can avail the e-visa services is 158.

Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation in association with Vidarbha Economic Development Council will be hosting ‘Maharashtra Food Festival’. The six-day festival will be held from December 6, 2016 to December 11, 2016 at the South Central Zone Cultural Centre, Nagpur. The first three days will showcase cultural performances followed by a khadi fashion show to promote the use of khadi material. Madan Yerawar, Hon’ble State Tourism Minister, Government of Maharashtra stated, “The local cuisine of the state is the greatest indicator of the traditions of Maharashtra. Maharashtrian food has created benchmarks all over the world with certain dishes being specialties of the regions or communities. Nagpur is a major and third most populated city of the state of Maharashtra in India and is famous for its culture, cuisine and oranges. This six-day festival will not only boost tourism in the state but will also highlight various facets of the city and will also push local economy.”

RezLive.com, a product of Travel Designer Group, appointed Continental Travel Group as its exclusive General Sales Agent (GSA) for Kenya. With the launch of Kenya office, RezLive.com is slowly and steadily increasing its foot prints in the Africa region and is looking very competitive. Jaal Shah, Group Managing Director of RezLive.com, said, “Our presence in Kenya will strengthen our reach in Africa market and will boost trade from that region. So, this region will contribute to a greater extent to our overall business and will help us to reach out to more travel partners.Wherein Continental Travel Group, which has its roots in the Kenyan Travel Industry for over a decade now, has been offering best deals to its clients, be it domestic or international. By partnering with Continental Travel Group and the experience they bring to the table, will help us to mutually accelerate our success in this market.”

According to a report from Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), Kempegowda International Airport (Bangalore-BLR) will not have flights landing and taking off between 10:30am and 5pm from February 19 to April 30, 2017. The move is to facilitate upgradation work in the existing runway. The release says that operations at the airport will be partially closed for three months next year. The runway will be partially closed during the rehearsals and show timings of the Aero India 2017. Authorities have worked out the flight schedules in the hours preceding and following the closure each day during this period with the Air Traffic Control and all the airline companies that operate in KIA, with the approval of the civil aviation ministry, the statement said. The plan is to build two rapid exit taxiways (RETs) under the existing runway to enhance air traffic movement from 38 per hour to 48 per hour. The enhancement is part of KIA’s total upgradation. BIAL authorities say work has to be completed before the onset of monsoon in May. Other activities related to the building of two RETs will be carried out with minimal impact on airline operations and passenger movement. The airport taxi and BMTC shuttles have also been informed to align their services to accommodate the increase in traffic between 5pm and 10:30am. KIA is also building the second runway towards the southern side of the airport, which is estimated to become functional by September 2019. The second terminal will be operational by 2021. Together, the two terminals will be handling 55 million passengers a year by 2021.

India’s e-visa will now have three components — e-tourist visa, e-medical visa, e-buisness visa. Talking about the various changes in e-visa, Vinod Zutshi, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Govt of India, says, “For the first time in this country, medical visa is going the electronic way and so is the case with business visa. This has been one of the biggest landmark decisions, and it’s going to catapult Indian tourism into a new orbit. The best thing is that the initial period of application, which used to be 30 days, has been extended to 120 days, which is logical, especially for foreigners who plan their travel much in advance.” Talking about the extension of eTV, Zutshi says, “The validity of eTV was just 30 days and it’s been increased to 60 days now. Also, when tourists come to India, they would like to visit other countries of Southeast Asia and come back. We have made e-tourist visa and e-business visa double entry. For e-medical visa, the government has provided triple entry, which is a redeeming feature. Film visa has also been streamlined and rationalised, which has come at the right time and would encourage filming in India.”

Riding high on the success of the first Bharat Parv, the cultural program’s 2nd edition, showcasing the rich heritage of India, will be held on January 26-31, 2017 in Red Fort, revealed Vinod Zutshi. “There will be theme based pavilions by all the states to highlight the country’s diverse culture, along with performances, food stalls etc. The last edition of Bharat Parv was well appreciated and because of that, we’ve decided to have another edition next year.”