China Southern Airlines has launched two new connections — Guangzhou-Adelaide and Guangzhou-Toronto. Starting December 7, 2016, the double daily flights would offer further connections for Indians travelling to these destinations, especially with a great frequency on the airline between Delhi and Guangzhou. Chen Yongguang, General Manager, China Southern Airlines, announced the new connections at an evening of cocktail and dinner at The Lalit, New Delhi, in the presence of representatives from the travel trade and media. He said that the new flights would be beneficial to Indians travelling to Australia and Canada, and that too at a good price.

Ginger Hotels has announced the opening of 90-room Ginger Vapi. Strategically located 7 kms from the railway station on the Mumbai-Surat highway, Ginger Vapi is in close proximity to the GIDC industrial area and provides convenient access to the city’s thriving industrial sector. The hotel offers free Wi-Fi, a multi-cuisine restaurant, a well-equipped fitness center, reliable security and efficient meeting facilities. The hotel is also a great option for travelers visiting the Daman and Jampore beaches. Sharing his thoughts on the opening, Rahul Pandit, MD & CEO, Ginger Hotels, said, “We are proud to expand our presence in Western India with the opening of Ginger Vapi, our fourth hotel in Gujarat. Ginger is the pioneer and the largest chain of branded budget hotels in India with a resilient promise of safety, cleanliness, relaxing sleep experience, refreshing shower experience, a hearty breakfast and seamless Wi-Fi. We assure travelers of a consistently pleasant experience with us.”

Singapore Airlines’ sixth A350-900 is the 10,000th aircraft delivered by Airbus. The delivery milestone was celebrated at a special ceremony in Toulouse attended by Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong and Airbus Group CEO Tom Enders. “Singapore Airlines is honoured to be receiving the 10,000th aircraft that Airbus has delivered. Airbus aircraft have contributed greatly to Singapore Airlines’ successes over the decades, and we are proud to be sharing in this important milestone with our longstanding and trusted partner,” said Goh. Enders added, “We are especially proud to celebrate this milestone with Singapore Airlines – one of our longest-standing customers and a true partner. Today, the SIA Group operates aircraft from across our complete product line and with the highest levels of technical excellence. There is no better endorsement for our products and we thank the entire SIA Group for its ongoing confidence, partnership and support.” Singapore Airlines placed its first order with Airbus in 1979, for the A300B4. The SIA Group has since operated aircraft from all of Airbus’ product lines – the A300, A310, A320, A330, A340, A350 and A380 families. The SIA Group currently operates aircraft from all of Airbus’ in-production product lines. The A350-900 is the newest addition to the Singapore Airlines fleet. The Airline is the largest A350-900 customer with commitments for 67 firm orders, including seven of the ultra-long-range A350-900ULR variant. Singapore Airlines is the launch customer for the A350-900ULR, for which deliveries will begin in 2018. The aircraft will be used to re-launch non-stop flights between Singapore and the US cities of New York and Los Angeles. The A350-900 delivered has a special “10,000th Airbus Aircraft” logo and will be used to launch …

A three-day International Ellora-Ajanta festival organised by MTDC in association with Divisional Commissioner Aurangabad was inaugurated by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at the Ellora Caves. Jaykumar Jitendrasinh Rawal, Minister of Tourism, Government of Maharashtra, visited the monuments, caves, Bibi ka Maqbara and Panchakki in Aurangabad and discussed about the cleanliness and preservation of the historic monuments with the ASI officials and tourism officials. To boost tourism flow of the historic city of Aurangabad, a meeting with all the stake holders like the Aurangabad hotelier, travel agents and taxi drivers’ association also took placed with Rawal, where he also proposed that work skills and development sessions will be conducted for the rickshaw and taxi driver in Aurangabad. He also discussed in length about the ideas on how to make Aurangabad the top most visited city in India. In the stakeholders meeting, Rawal, announced “Aurangabad is a historic city in Maharashtra state of India. The city is known as the tourist hub, surrounded by beautiful historic monuments, a visit to this city is truly a cultural as well as an architectural delight for the tourist; it’s a great privilege for us to have such marvelous creations around us. We are all responsible for the cleanliness and preservation of these monuments. If the city and the environment around the monuments are clean and maintained, it will boost the tourism in the city. Aurangabad will also host tourism conclave every year and will also host rediscovery of Ajanta caves centenary year 2019 very soon. The department of Tourism, Government of Maharashtra is keen on aggressive marketing in International market to amplify tourism in Maharashtra.”

AccorHotels has come back with its Super Sale, offering up to 40 per cent off plus free breakfast at more than 2,800 hotels and resorts across five continents – including over 500 in Asia Pacific. Guests can enjoy 40 per cent off plus free breakfast for members of Accor Plus or 30 per cent off plus free breakfast for Le Club AccorHotels’ members and the general public. From cycling through South America to relaxing on the beaches of Thailand or Indonesia or touring the majestic cities of Europe to enjoying a scenic drive along the coast of Australia, the AccorHotels Super Sale promises more value for holiday. Bookings must be made directly at www.accorhotels.com and with rates from as little as $20 per room night, there is almost no excuse not to book yourself a getaway. The sale applies to selected hotels across AccorHotels’ Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery, Grand Mercure, The Sebel, Novotel, Suite Novotel, Mercure, ibis, ibis styles and ibis budget hotels worldwide. Bookings can be made online from 10 to 21 October for members of Accor Plus and Le Club AccorHotels’ members from 12 to 21 October. The general public can book from 17 to 21 October, for stays from 1 December 2016 to 30 April 2017.

The Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari has said that India and Germany are all set to collaborate on projects for improving rail connectivity of Indian ports. He said the two countries will work together on projects worth Rs one lakh crore being implemented by the Indian Port Rail Corporation Ltd (IPRCL). The Minister held detailed discussions with his German counterpart and Infrastructure Minister Alexander Dobrindt and his delegation in New Delhi today, regarding the modalities for such collaboration. Secretary Shipping Rajive Kumar, Secretary Road Transport & Highways Shri Sanjay Mitra and other Senior Officers of the two Ministries were also present. Today’s meeting comes under the backdrop of an MoU signed between Indian Port Rail Corporation Ltd (IPRCL) and the German Railways Deutsche Bahn (DB) for cooperation on modernization of rail port connectivity and port rail facilities of Indian ports, during the Maritime India Summit earlier this year . For efficient evacuation of cargo from the Ports and to reduce logistics cost, last mile rail connectivity of Ports is extremely important. Indian port Rail Corporation Ltd. has been set up specifically to work in this area. It was proposed in today’s meeting to form groups with representatives of IPRCL and DB to identify areas of cooperation and potential projects, as also to identify cost effective new rail technologies that can be implemented. This would help bring in foreign investment and cost effective, environment friendly, innovative technology for the port rail connectivity projects. Gadkari further informed that Germany has also been invited to cooperate in the development of inland waterways, including manufacturing of barges. In the transport sector, discussions were held on cooperation for developing vehicle …

A joint working group of Indian Railways and German Railways will be formed to work on safety in rail operations with a view to help in the “Zero Accident Mission” of Indian Railways. The Working Group would look into the training, technology and processes for improving the safety. This was discussed during the meeting between Union Railways Minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu and the visiting German Federal Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure Alexander Dobrindt at Rail Bhavan. This working group on safety would be a deliverable on inter-government consultations tentatively planned in Berlin in May, 2017. The German Minister also extended invite to Indian Railway officials to visit Germany to see their technology and safety systems. The two sides held wide ranging discussions on many specific areas of mutual interest in rail sector. The areas include speed raising, capacity increase of passenger & goods transport lines, safety, energy efficient rail operations, education & training, high speed rail, standards & norms and station development. In a significant suggestion, the Indian Railway Minister requested the German side for extending their proposal of  high speed(300 kmph +) rail study of Mysore -Bangalore –Chennai Corridor to Vijayawada city of the important State of Andhra Pradesh also. It was pointed out that High Speed Rail Connectivity through Mysore -Banglore –Chennai-Vijayawada Corridor will give boost to the regional development and will link the important States of Southern India.  The German Minister acknowledged this request of extending scope of study to include Vijayawada and assured to look into this positively. The study which is fully funded by German Government is likely to start from January, 2017. The German Minister welcomed Indian Railways’ Station Redevelopment Programme along with …

Durga Das Publications (DDP) / TravTalk was recognised for its contribution and support extended to the 63rd Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) Convention held in Abu Dhabi from October 14-16. The award recognised the media support that the publication extended to the convention. A live streaming of panel discussions was disseminated amongst the delegates attending the conference. Many delegates also joined in the live streaming which allowed them to be a part of the convention despite their physical absence. The Convention discussed various industry issues on the theme- Tomorrow Begins Now; Rise Above the Routine. Stalwarts from the aviation, hospitality and tourism industry shared their opinions about the way forward for the industry in order to perform and not just survive.

Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA) was recognised for its contribution and support extended to the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) Convention. The destination was appreciated by the travel agents attending the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI ) Convention who were taken on a pre-post familiarisation tour to the emirate. Ras Al Khaimah offers a variety of tourism products to its visitors from adventure, landscape, leisure, honeymoon products and now is even targeting the weddings and MIC segment from India. The tours were aimed to inform and educate the travel agents about the various tourism products that the emirate offers and also helped them understand the various segments of clientele that they can do business with at this destination.

Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation has successfully concluded the 3rd edition of Madhya Pradesh Travel Mart, from Oct 14-16, at Hotel Lake View in Bhopal. About 70 international buyers from 28 countries, 135 domestic buyers and 45 sellers were part of the 3-day exhibition. The event was inaugurated by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan along with State Tourism Minister Surinder Patwa, MPTDC Chairman Tapan Bhoumik, IATO President Pronab Sarkar, ADTOI President P.P. Khanna, and ITTA President Krishan Dutt Yadav. Hari Ranjan Rao, MD, MPTDC, said, “This is the 3rd MPTM and the success of this mart can be best evaluated by buyers and sellers, more so for the sellers. All the sellers have been very happy with the planning of this event. Sellers’ feedback is that choice of buyers is very good. They feel that buyers are serious, and they have done their homework and research. Most of the buyers are first-timers, which is a good thing. We have also increased the number of sellers. Of course, we are not satisfied yet because the scale has to be much larger, but it’s the right beginning. “