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Govt needs to better manage such moves

E.M. Najeeb, Chairman, IATO Southern Region, and Chairman & Managing Director, Air Travel Enterprises Group of Companies (ATE), says the decision has badly hit tourists today as thousands of tourists who are in India cannot pay in restaurants, do shopping, or pay for local purchases. “Apart from the stay, which is pre-paid, they can’t do anything else with the foreign exchange they have already taken. People are facing great hardships, queuing up at petrol pumps, there was not enough change at railway stations despite them accepting the 500 and 1000 bills. The government’s step to curtail black money is much appreciated, but I think it should have been better managed and the steps taken by the government shouldn’t have affected the normal people so much. We also have our hospitals and since the concession of accepting the larger denominations is only in government hospitals, private hospitals like us had to treat people for free.

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Travellers can’t spend currency at local shops, restaurants

Debjit Dutta, Chairman, IATO Eastern Chapter and Founder & CEO, Impression Tourism Services, says this bold move has definitely caused an inconvenience for travellers. “Foreign tourists who have recently exchanged money are now facing several problems even to buy food and shop since they are on holiday. Since we are tour operators, our business runs mostly on cash payments so it has hindered business as well. I feel that some facility should have been in place keeping in mind the number of tourists that are affected with this change – such turn of events might just lead them to have a bad impression of the country and go back with the same thing in mind,” he adds.

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Tourists unable to pay monument fee, road tax

Lally Matthews, Hon. Secretary, IATO, says even though its a bold move by the PM, there are some immediate problems. “We are seeing that the clients who are travelling in India are facing a problem in paying the monument fee at the counters. There have been instances at the Taj Mahal as big notes are not being accepted at the counters and tourists are coming back without visiting it. The drivers are unable to pay road taxes and inter-state taxes owing to the same problem. Tourists who have already exchanged money can’t use the money they have in hand and can’t even take the new currency from banks. There are problems for tourist vehicles to pay at petrol pumps. Apart from that, foreign tourists staying in hotels are unable to pay by cash for any services, and the same problem they are facing at restaurants as well. There are also reports that some hotels are even charging 10 per cent extra if a tourist is paying by card,” he concluded.

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Trade has come to a standstill

The travel market has come to a standstill after the scrapping of the 500 and 1000 currency bills, says Guldeep Singh Sahni, President, OTOAI. “Most of our dealings usually happen in cash as not many people use credit cards. However, ever since the announcement, we are not accepting cash from anyone. People can buy the ticket from airport, but not from the travel agent. When a travel agent starts the booking for a tour, there is some advance needed. We can’t take that from the client as of now, and I think this would continue till things become normal, with the new currency flowing in the market,” he added.

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Industry will suffer, but it’s for the greater good

With a view to curb Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) and eliminating black money, the government has decided to cancel the legal tender character of the high denomination bank notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 denominations issued by RBI till now, with effect from November 9, 2016. Tourism Breaking News finds out from industry leaders how this unexpected drive will affect the travel and tourism trade.

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MTDC to assist JICA team for Ajanta Ellora tourism development project

Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) will assist the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) team for the Ajanta Ellora conservation and Tourism Development Project Phase II. JICA India office (JICA, New Delhi) had recently send a letter to Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation regarding the external evaluation of the JICA ID – P150 ( i.e. AEDP – Phase II project). The JICA team will visit the sites between November 27, 2016, and December 24, 2016. Following the visit, studies will continue for almost one year, i.e. up to October 2017. Various respected diverse agencies have also assigned to complete the allocated components which include Central Government agencies such as ASI, AAI along with MTDC and other State Government Institutions, etc. Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation and its branches have completed the assigned components given of the projects (for example, Ajanta Visitor Center and Ellora Visitor Center was completed by work branch of MTDC, Public Awareness by Publicity branch, HRD by Development Branch and IT related work by IT branch).  MTDC has further requested its respective officer to note the tour program and assist JICA team. Satish Soni, Joint Managing Director of Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation stated, “The Ajanta and Ellora Caves are UNESCO World Heritage Sites located in the Aurangabad district in the state of Maharashtra, approximately 400 km northeast of Mumbai.  The Ajanta-Ellora Conservation and Tourism Development Project was initiated in 1992 and Phase I was initiated in March 1993. Phase I was successfully completed in 2004 and phase II was completed in-between year 2004 to 2017. Now external evaluation of phase II will take place in the year 2016 – 2017. Our aim is to conserve the cultural heritage and its surrounding environment, …

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Thailand ends 30-day restriction on public entertainment and festivities

The Thai Government has lifted the 30-day restriction on public entertainment and festivities, informs the Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau (TCEB). Now entertainment venues, musical, theatrical and festive celebrations will resume operations as normal. This allows all business events and festival events to proceed as usual. However, business travellers are invited to respect the traditions of mourning and to act and dress appropriately during this time. Accordingly TCEB has advised all business travellers to Thailand to continue with their travel plans as normal, and to recheck programmes in case of changes.

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Booking.com launches platform for travel agents

Booking.com has announced the initial test pilot of Booking.com for travel agents, the first iteration of a new platform designed specifically with the unique needs of travel agents in mind. The platform features a suite of easy-to-use tools that empower travel industry professionals to seamlessly make and manage accommodation reservations for their clients via Booking.com. “We’ve seen increasing numbers of travel agents using Booking.com to manage bookings for their customers,” said Bryan Batista, Senior Director of Global Partnerships at Booking.com. “We’re pleased to now offer professional travel agents a platform and a programme that has been created just for them, with the special features they need to easily book and manage reservations for their clients, as well as the choice, diversity and seamless experience that they’ve come to love and rely on from Booking.com.” Booking.com for Travel Agents is an extension of the company’s existing Affiliate Partner Programme and leverages technology and infrastructure being developed for Booking.com for Business. Travel Agents who join the platform will be eligible for similar partner benefits as all Booking.com affiliate partners.

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Thomas Cook to host closed-door summit in Mumbai on Nov 16

Thomas Cook India Limited will be organising a summit titled ‘India Travel Summit’ on November 16, 2016 in Mumbai. It will be a half day conference by invitation only. Abraham Alapatt, President & Group Head- Marketing & Service Quality, Financial Services & Innovation-Thomas Cook (India) Limited. He said, “We looked at our increased stake in both inbound and outbound space in India and we realised that we really didn’t have an India equivalent of something like World Travel and Tourism Council’s Global Summit. So we saw the need to create a platform which would allow everyone in the eco-system to come together. We were hoping somebody does it but it hasn’t happened in the travel space. We wanted a summit where we get the opinion-makers and leaders of the industry and by invitation only to come together for a conversation. We expect a 100-odd people to attend the event. This year is in Mumbai but we are seriously considering doing this in Delhi next year.” The tour operator plans to make it an annual event. The half-day summit will have three sessions lasting an hour each. The first one will focus on visa issues and will have Consul Generals from four countries on the panel. This will be followed by a discussion on India’s outbound market and will have four India heads of NTOs as speakers. The last one will focus on inbound and will have three speakers: Suman Billa IAS, Joint Secretary of (Tourism), Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, Chinmai Sharma, Chief Revenue Officer, Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces and Ragini Chopra, VP (Corporate Communications), Jet Airways. 

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Direct Gorakhpur-Badshahnagar Express starts

Railways Minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu flagged off  the 15069/15070 Gorakhpur-Badshahnagar (Lucknow) Express at Rail Bhawan through video conferencing.  Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain graced the occasion with his presence. Chairman, Railway Board, A. K. Mital, Member Traffic, Railway Board Mohd. Jamshed, other Railway Board Members and senior officials were also present.  Local Members of Parliament of Gorakhpur and other districts were also present to grace the flag off function at Gorakhpur end. Prabhu said that Uttar Pradesh is a big and populous state and thus it requires better railway network. He said that Gorakhpur is a big city which has historic importance too, this new intercity train service will help the Gorakhpur people to grow in social and economic terms. Gohain said that the rail is the cheapest mode of travel in India. Thus, Railways intends to expand rail network throughout the length and breadth of the country so that every citizen can be benefitted. He said that Railways will introduce some more new trains services soon.

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