TIRUN announced the longest-ever Singapore cruising home porting season in Asia on Royal Caribbean International cruise line’s Ovation of the Seas, Mariner of the Seas, and Voyager of the Seas. This deployment by Royal Caribbean will run for nine months till next June 2017 with 64 sailings and is expected to take 200,000 guests to ports in Southeast Asia. The sailings will increase Royal Caribbean’s capacity in 2017 in the region by 30 per cent over 2016. Ratna Chadha, Chief Executive Officer, TIRUN, said, “After an immensely successful semi-chartered cruise to Singapore by Voyager of the Seas, it is great news for Indian cruise enthusiasts that Singapore is now going to witness the longest-ever home porting by three of Royal Caribbean’s most magnificent ships. This means more options, more itineraries and more choice along with well-curated Indian delicacies and experiences onboard for vacationers. In addition, attractions such as themed cruises will enhance the propensity of Indian travel-lovers to consider cruise holidays as the ideal way to quench their thirst for exotic vacations with unbridled luxury.”

Costa Cruises, together with the Consulate General of Italy in Mumbai, welcomed guests onboard the Costa Luminosa, for an evening of celebration of Italian hospitality and entertainment.  The Costa Luminosa, which is sailing around the world in 98 days, is currently docked at the Mumbai port as part of its itinerary. The event saw the launch of Festa Italiana 2016 in Mumbai and celebrated the upcoming home porting of the Costa neoClassica in Mumbai from December 2016. Costa neoClassica will be the very first large cruise ship that cruises between Mumbai and the Maldives. Indians can embark on a cruise liner from Mumbai and travel to destinations within India such as Goa and Cochin as well as Maldives and Colombo. Costa neoClassica will perform a series of weekly sailings from Dec 16, 2016 – March 18, 2017. Speaking about the launch, Buhdy Bok, President of Costa Group Asia said, “We are delighted to bring cruising to Indians at their doorstep. For many travellers, the holiday often starts after some sort of a long journey. Now like never before, Indians will have the opportunity to start holidaying — right from their door-step — from India’s largest metropolis, Mumbai.”

Hotel Formule1 has launched two hotels in Nashik and Chennai. With the new openings Hotel Formule1 expands its network across 9 cities in India. “Over the years, Hotel Formule1 has emerged as one the ideal choice for all travellers looking for comfortable, modern yet pocket friendly stay. The opening of Hotel Formule1 Nashik & Chennai OMR, is a step towards growing the brand portfolio keeping in line with the demand in the cities. Our hotels will strive to consistently provide guests a contemporary and refreshing stay experience at a great value,” says Balvinder Sahrawat, Vice-President, Hotel Formule1 India. Located in close proximity to industrial areas and popular tourist spots, the 101-room Hotel Formule1 Nashik has a self-service design concept best suited for business and leisure travellers to the city. Renowned as the holy city for Hindus, Jains and Buddhists, Nashik is one of the most up-and-coming cities in Maharashtra with a vibrant culture and entertainment ethos. Featuring 132 sound proof rooms, Hotel Formule1 Chennai OMR (old Mahabalipuram road), is strategically located amidst the business and IT hub of the city. Despite being an important city for manufacturing, health care, and IT, Chennai has developed as one of the cosmopolitan cities in India that plays an important part in the cultural, intellectual and historical growth of India. Hotel Formule1 rooms are indigenously designed and developed to make the best use of space that is conducive and comfortable.  Each room features a flat screen LED television Wi-Fi internet access and in-room amenities. F and B outlets include a lounge and a restaurant. The brand is the market’s first low-cost brand and it was revolutionized in 1985.  The hotel has a presence across …

A portfolio of seven Premier Inn hotels located in two of Thailand’s top destinations, Bangkok and Pattaya, as well as India’s most visited cities, New Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune and Goa, are being offered for sale through an international tender process with JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group. The tender for bids is scheduled from December 19 to 23, 2016. Owned by UK company Whitbread Hotels & Restaurants International, the portfolio offers two hotels in Thailand with a collective key count of 388: one property is located in the heart of Bangkok’s retail and entertainment precinct, Sukhumvit Soi 11, and is set to be completed in the first half of 2017; the other hotel is minutes away from Pattaya’s popular Second Road and enjoys close proximity to the town’s beaches, retail malls and famous Walking Street. Premier Inn’s India portfolio, comprising five hotels in prime locations in the nation’s best performing cities, will be among the largest hotel portfolios offered in India in recent times, with a total of 583 room keys. “Hotel portfolios with vacant possession, occupying prime central locations and of this scale are rare and hard to come by in the current market,” says Mr Mike Batchelor, Managing Director of Investments Sales, JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group, Asia. “There is an expected high level of interest from global, regional and domestic investors attracted to this opportunity as they are able to immediately rebrand the hotels to the operator of their choice upon purchase.” India continues to be ranked as one of the fastest growing economies in the world with a 2016 forecast GDP growth of 7.6 percent. On India’s growing hospitality investment sector, Paul Chakkrit, Senior Vice President, …

Kerala Tourism has rolled out ‘The Great Backwater Experience’ zone at a special interactive stall in the departure terminal at Indira Gandhi International airport in New Delhi. The initiative uses virtual reality to allow passengers to experience a Kerala experience while waiting to catch their flight. Similar zones are also being set up at airports in Mumbai and Bengaluru. U.V. Jose, Director, Kerala Tourism, said, “The zone is up and functional at Indira Gandhi International airport in New Delhi and visitors can get an immersive experience of sitting inside a ‘kettuvellam’, a traditional Kerala houseboat, floating on tranquil backwaters in a place situated over 2,000 km away. This has been made possible through the innovative use of virtual reality.”

Thomas Cook India has opened a new Gold Circle Partner outlet in Bikaner. The Thomas Cook Gold Circle Partner programme is an exclusive partner programme for tour operators and travel agents in India that helps in increasing the brand’s presence and reach across the country. With this programme, the Gold Circle Partner reaps benefits of a brand association with Thomas Cook, along with knowledge sharing, training and expertise to manage a travel business. In addition, a Gold Circle Partner is empowered to provide customers with a wide range of travel and financial products & services, including sales & marketing support for customer retention and further new business development, thereby enabling them to reach out to a larger customer base. Rajeev Kale, President & Country Head Leisure Travel & MICE at Thomas Cook India Limited said, “We have observed that India’s Tier II and III markets exhibit immense potential for growth and we want to be a catalyst in this key opportunity. Bikaner is a ]new market for our travel and travel related businesses and we believe that the city offers tremendous potential to cater to a diversity of retail consumers such as business families, government employees, and business and leisure travelers. Our newly opened outlet in Bikaner is located in a well-known commercial hub- right in the heart of the market.” With this new Bikaner outlet, Thomas Cook India’s network in Rajasthan extends to 10 locations across the state, offering its customers easy access via 2 owned branches in Jaipur and Udaipur and 8 Gold Circle Partner outlets (3 in Jaipur, and one each a Kota, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Alwar and now in Bikaner).

All guides with licences issued by ASI and Additional Director General, Tourism, are valid and can enter all the Centrally Protected Monuments including Fatehpur Sikri, till fresh licences are issued under the new Policy, informs Pronab Sarkar, President, IATO quoting Supreme Courts’ order on IATO’s writ petition. IATO had sought clarification on the restricted entry of Regional Level Guides and State Level Guides at Fatehpur Sikri, where only local guides were being allowed to work. This was causing financial burden on IATO members as they had to pay guide fee to their Regional/State Level Guide and the local guide.

Singapore Airlines (SIA) and the Lufthansa Group are further expanding their partnership agreement to provide customers enhanced connections and new codeshare destinations. The expanded codeshare ties will provide SIA customers access to over 20 new routes on Lufthansa- and SWISS-operated flights, to and from points in Europe via the transfer hubs of Frankfurt, Munich and Zurich. In turn, Lufthansa and SWISS customers will be able to access new points via SIA-operated flights between Singapore and destinations such as Canberra, Dusseldorf and Wellington. SIA’s regional subsidiary, SilkAir, will also progressively introduce new codeshare flights with the Lufthansa Group. The expanded codeshare operations are the result of a joint venture agreement signed between the two airline groups in November 2015, which aims to deepen co-operation in key markets in Europe, Southeast Asia and Southwest Pacific. The new codeshare flights will be progressively made available for booking through SIA’s various booking channels.

Heading into 2017, Changi Airport will be offering more flight options for travel to India. A total of 13 weekly services will be introduced between now and the end of the year, representing an addition of nearly 2,300 weekly one-way seats to India. From 20 November, Air India Express will launch 4x weekly services to Kolkata. It will also step up its Chennai services, newly-launched in October, from 5x weekly to daily services.  Meanwhile, Jet Airways will be launching a new daily Singapore-Bangalore service from 14 December; this follows after the airline boosted capacity by switching to a wide body aircraft for their daily Singapore-Mumbai flights earlier this year. Since the beginning of this year, Changi has welcomed two new city links to India – Amritsar and Jaipur – both operated by Scoot, which is a new entrant into the India market. With new routes, increased frequency of services and upgauging of various aircraft this year, seat capacity on India routes has also seen a year-on-year increase of 20.3 per cent. Today, India is Changi Airport’s seventh largest country market, accounting for 6.1% of the airport’s total passenger traffic.  For the first ten months of this year, passenger traffic to and from the India market rose 5% year-on-year to reach 2.94 million movements.  For the month of October, India had the strongest year-on-year growth (+12.4%) among Changi’s top ten country markets. In 2015, Changi Airport saw a record 3.43 million passengers travelling between Singapore and India. Today, Changi is connected to 15 cities in India, with flights operated by nine airlines. Singapore is a popular transfer hub for travellers between India and Australia, and between India and Indonesia. With strong …

Switzerland Tourism announced the launch of its winter campaign for 2016 and ‘Nature wants you back’ campaign for summer 2017. The campaign was launched in presence of the tourism partners of Switzerland – Davos Klosters, Bernina Express, St Moritz and Glacier Express, hopes to further increase and sustain the double digit growth of 16% seen in 2015-2016. With an initial focus on the winter tourist, Switzerland Tourism will showcase the multiple options like skiing, sledging and snowboarding for the active traveller and Christmas markets, open air hot springs and igloo stays for the more relaxed visitor looking for pure white relaxation in winter. The summer focus for the campaign too will be packed with an array of activities such as sky-diving, wakeboarding, canyoning, etc. combined with Switzerland’s best touristic and nature highlights. Claudio Zemp, Director – India, Switzerland Tourism, said, “In India we see people getting more adventurous these days. They do not only want to take a cable car up a mountain and take pictures but also want that thrill and rush which one gets while doing adventure sports. With a versatile and energetic personality like Ranveer Singh on board, we would like to showcase that Switzerland is not only about scenic beauty but also has many activities and adventures to offer to the more experiential Indian traveller. Winter is coming up and is an absolutely beautiful time to visit Switzerland. One can enjoy various winter activities and explore their hidden passion for adventure with sports such as skiing, snow-shoe trekking, tobogganing. Ranveer’s next trip is going to be in winter.” Ritu Sharma, Deputy Director, Switzerland Tourism India, said, “Our new campaign is all about telling people that holidays …