OYO has launched early check-in up to 7 days prior to booking. This facility is being offered free of cost in many OYOs, and at a nominal charge in others. With this launch, OYO claims to be the first hotel brand in the world to offer guaranteed early check-in to guests. OYO’s Sunrise check-in is now live both on its website and mobile App. Customers can easily identify, select and book hotels that offer confirmed early check-in. In addition, guests can also modify their existing booking and secure an early check-in. Speaking on launch, Ritesh Agarwal, Founder & CEO, OYO, said, “Despite changes in the way we live, travel and work, the hotel industry across the world continues to follow the outdated concept of a standard check-in time. Nowadays, travel is no longer about following prescribed itineraries. At OYO we understand our guests and build features tailored to their needs. With Sunrise check-in travellers can plan their mode of travel, duration and trip-itinerary in a better way, without being constrained by the check-in time.”

Genting Hong Kong announced the official river conveyance of Genting Dream, the newest ship for the Dream Cruises line, that began on Sunday, September 18 in Papenburg, Germany. After Genting Dream’s official handover ceremony from Meyer Werft to Dream Cruises scheduled for October 12, the ship will begin her epic ocean voyage that will take her from Germany to Gibraltar, through the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez Canal, across the Indian Ocean with visits to India, Singapore, Vietnam and Hong Kong before ending at her new homeport in Guangzhou, China on November 13. The river conveyance marks the official start of Genting Dream’s journey from her birthplace at the Meyer Werft shipyard to her first home in Guangzhou, China where she will begin service on November 13, 2016.

On the occasion of World Tourism Day 2016, under the theme of ‘Tourism for All – Promoting Universal Accessibility’, the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) relaunched www.PATA.org designed with greater ease for those with hearing impairments, colour blindness and physical disabilities. “As we recognise and celebrate the vital contribution that travel and tourism contributes to the world, both socially and economically, we understand that both the public and private sector must share the responsibility in affording all people the opportunities of experiencing the incredible beauty and diversity of our world, regardless of race, colour, religion, gender, age and disability,” said PATA CEO Dr. Mario Hardy. “We have taken the first steps in making sure all people may access the valuable information and insights available on our website and we hope to be an example for other organisations to follow.” Using guidelines provided by the World Wide Web Consortium, the redesigned website provides greater ease for those with hearing impairments, colour blindness and physical disabilities. New features added to the website allow screen reading software to read all content of the website, enable a reduction in required physical motion to navigate, reduces contrast of colours for better reading and allow for the easy adjustment of text size. Dr. Hardy added, “We hope to bring greater knowledge of this issue and we will continue to look for avenues to incorporate them within our advocacy messages and activities.”

Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism & Culture will flag off the ‘Swachh Paryatan Run’ from Transport Bhawan to India Gate in New Delhi on the occasion of World Tourism Day on Sept 27. The Minister will also flag the ‘Special Sightseeing Tour of the Monuments and Museum in Delhi arranged for Divyang Children’ organised by India Tourism, New Delhi. Among the other activities organised by India Tourism, New Delhi, the Minister will award rewarding Ministry of Tourism offices, its organisations and also hold a painting competition.

States like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh exchanged 86 MoUs, aggregating close to Rs 15,000 crores during the inaugural edition of Incredible India Tourism Investors Summit (IITIS) 2016. Gujarat exchanged MoUs close to Rs 9000 crores, Karnataka with Rs. 2600 crores, Rajasthan with Rs. 1000 crores, Uttarakhand with Rs. 500 crores and Chhattisgarh with Rs. 12 crores. Also, B. R. Shetty Group is keen to invest Rs. 450 crores and Costa Cruise Rs. 750 crores and Triveni Singapore close to Rs. 800 crores in the country. Vinod Zutshi, Secretary-Tourism, Government of India, informed that IITIS will be held annually to boost tourism and will be supported by World Bank. The next edition of IITIS will be organized in September 2017. “World Bank is supporting India’s Buddhist Circuit development and will provide support for sustainable tourism development including through funds,” said Cecile Fruman, Global Director, Trade and Competitiveness, World Bank. At the Summit, organized by Ministry of Tourism (MoT) in partnership with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Tourism Finance Corporation of India, Zutshi also announced various initiatives like setting up of a task force headed by Secretary-Tourism, with membership from relevant ministries, state governments, and industry associations to undertake strategic planning; setting up of an investor facilitation desk to handhold investors and facilitate projects and organising investor meets in states with the support of MoT.

GAA SpeedJet Aviation in association with Jet Airways recently provided on-ground training to its students from the current batch of cabin crew and ground staff at a leading flying club in Madhya Pradesh. GAA SpeedJet students got exclusive access to airplanes Cessna 152 and Cessna 172 along with hands-on experience of the Simulator. Jet Airways, on its part, offered students lessons in ground duties – including airport check-in, passenger and cargo handling. GAA SpeedJet Aviation is a partnership between Gulf Aviation Academy (part of Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company, the investment arm for the Kingdom of Bahrain) and domestic aviation training institute SpeedJet Aviation. Jet Airways is India’s premier international airline which operates flights to 67 destinations, including India and overseas.

Stayzilla.com and Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited (TCGL) signed an MOU to jointly promote and market homestays and alternate stays in the state of Gujarat. The MOU was signed and exchanged by  S.J.Haider (IAS), Principal Secretary (Tourism) of Gujarat Tourism in the presence of Hon. Union Minister of State for Tourism and Culture, Dr. Mahesh Sharma and Hon. Tourism Secretary, Vinod Zutshi, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. Under this agreement, Stayzilla and Gujarat Tourism will share the current base of homestays on each other’s digital platforms to bring more awareness on homestays in Gujarat. Stayzilla will also aid verification procedures and jointly promote the concept of homestays in the state. All homestays registered with TCGL will receive technological and operational support to run. Also, Stayzilla & TCGL will jointly conduct education and training sessions for TCGL registered homestays on best practices such as online usage, content management, operations and expense management, which will benefit the hosts of the homestays. The company is closely working with various state tourism departments for joint promotion and marketing of homestays. Stayzilla has recently signed MoUs with Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation and Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board to enhance homestay concept among the travelers in these states. There have been around 600 workshops conducted pan India, at various locations, with the hosts from different corners, out of which about 80 workshops were conducted in various towns and cities of Gujarat. This has helped in boosting homestay supply in Gujarat over the last 6months, thereby bringing up the number of verified homestays in the state to over 400. Commenting on this announcement, Ankit Rastogi, Vice President, Marketplace, Stayzilla said, “We, at Stayzilla, have maintained …

Club Vistara (CV), the airline’s frequent flyer program has undergone a revamp and now offers faster earning points, redemption and elite tier upgrades. The program has also introduced a Platinum membership as its highest tier, in addition to the existing CV Gold and CV Silver membership tiers, and has launched a two-track scheme for elite tier qualification based on points accrued or flights flown. Phee Teik Yeoh, CEO, Vistara said, “In response to the evolving needs of our frequent flyers, we have enhanced our program and introduced new features that are relevant and important to them.” Elaborating on the revamp, Sanjiv Kapoor, Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer, Vistara, said, “When we set out to redesign Club Vistara, we started by asking frequent flyers of Vistara and other airlines what they would want to see in their ideal program. We asked them what they valued most, and also what were their key pain points across different loyalty programs. We then designed the program to reflect what we heard. Not only is it now the fastest rewarding loyalty program, it is also the most generous. Importantly, Elite level benefits can be enjoyed by customers regardless of class of travel or fare paid. It is truly a program by frequent flyers, for frequent flyers.” For existing members, Club Vistara’s new tier qualification criteria will be applied retrospectively which will result in automatic tier level upgrades for many members. With major expansion plans in pipeline, Port Blair, the airline’s 18th destination in India will be launched on September 30th while its fleet is expected to grow to thirteen aircrafts over the next four weeks.

Oman Air will reportedly connect Indian cities like Kolkata and Ahmedabad in 2017. “Oman Air is waiting for traffic rights to be finalised to start its operation to Kolkata and Ahmedabad in India,” an Oman Air spokesperson said. Oman Air currently operates 126 weekly flights from Muscat to 11 destinations in the Indian market, which totals to 21,147 seats. In 2015, the airline started operating flights to Goa, its 11th destination in India. To woo the tourists from India, Oman’s tourism ministry recently conducting roadshows in Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Pune. The road show started at the Park Hyatt in Hyderabad on September 19. Later, it moved to Kolkata on September 21, Ahmedabad on September 23 and will end at JW Marriott, Pune on September 26. The road shows have been organised to meet Omani tourism representatives, including hotels, DMCs and national carrier Oman Air, with the members of Indian travel trade in four cities. Events will include pre-arranged meetings between the Omani delegates and Indian travel agents. According to statistics, Oman received 299,022 Indian nationals last year, reflecting a 17 per cent growth in 2015 from 2014. This year, the Ministry of Tourism has identified Kolkata as a new market for Oman.

South Africa-based SA Forest Adventures has appointed The Strategy Store as their representative in India with effect from September 2016. Talking about the appointment, Clinton Lerm, Owner, SA Forest Adventures, says, “The Strategy Store will focus on our promotional and marketing activities as well as sales for India. Looking at the growing number of visitors from India to South Africa year on year, we believe that this market has a vast potential. This initiative will help us position ourselves, in our key growth market, India.” Sherry Varma, Founder, The Strategy Store said, “I have very emotional connect to South Arica, having worked as a Marketing & Communications manager with South African Tourism in Mumbai for five years. We are extremely happy to be assigned the task of handling marketing, sales and public relations activities for SA Forest Adventures in India. SA Forest Adventure’s competitive packages and quality of services will help us to develop and multiply their market share in India.” SA Forest Adventures offers a massive range of adventure activities for travellers in and around Cape Town. With offices in Cape Town, Piekenierskloof, Kleinmond, Hermanus and Caledon, there is always assistance on hand to book and enjoy activities, including white-water rafting, zip lining, quad biking, river tubing and sand boarding. Add in the country’s spectacular natural beauty, this product is an outstanding offering for Indian adventure travellers.