The recently-concluded India Travel Mission (ITM) 2016 organised by Tourism Australia every year saw a record number of new suppliers from Australia. This year, which was the 14th edition of ITM, there were at least 17 suppliers that had never participated in any sales mission to India before. This included several participants like Scoot, Visit Canberra, Tourism Barossa, Australian Wine Tour Company, Featherdale Wildlife Park, Sand Dune Adventures, Fire Truck Tours, and Wildlife  Coast Cruises, among others. Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager, India & Gulf, Tourism Australia, said, “Over the last few years, ITM has proven to be a great learning tool for us to grow and strengthen our travel trade outreach in the country. The new Australian products participating at the ITM this year signifies the growing importance of India as a key market for Australia. Tourism Australia is focusing on the Indian market with increased marketing initiatives to reach out to our target audience. The increasing tourist arrivals from India validates that we are heading in the right direction to achieve our India 2020 Strategic goals.” The destination welcomed over 241,700 Indians as of year ended June 2016. Tourism Australia also used this platform to promote the destination through its virtual reality assets, thus showcasing its latest global campaign on Aquatic and Coastal to the Indian trade attending ITM 2016.

Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu has inaugurated Wi-Fi services at eight Mumbai Suburban Railway Stations in Maharashtra viz., Churchgate, Bandra, Bandra Terminus, Dadar Western Railway, Dadar Central Railway, Khar Road, Kalyan and Lokmanya Tilak. The WiFi facility for the visitors and rail users of these eight busy stations of Mumbai Suburban Rail Network has been commissioned by a Railway PSU, RailTel in association with Google for providing high speed state-of-the-art world class internet experience to the commuters. It is being provided at a speed of 1 GBps. A total number of 318 access points, 120 access switches and 30 fibre switches has been installed at these eight stations to provide seamless fast WiFi to the huge number of commuters visiting these stations. In addition to eight stations being launched, RailWire Wi-Fi has been soft launched at eight more stations, Sealdah, Allahabad, Pune, Puri, Tambaram, Chennai Egmore, Hazrat Nizamuddin and Chandigarh. They will be formally launched soon in different parts of the country. During the launch Prabhu said, railway stations are the places where the cross section of the society is available. This initiative is part of bridging the digital divide and providing high speed access network to all rail users. Once implemented this shall be one of the largest public WiFi project in the world. On the occasion of launch, CMD of RailTel said, “Our intent was to fulfill Indian Railway’s vision of providing access to high speed internet to railway passengers through our Optical fiber communication network.”

The Outbound Tour Operators of India has postponed the Turkey educational tour for its members, which was scheduled in the month of September. Guldeep Singh Sahni, President, OTOAI, confirmed the news saying, “Owing to the present situation in Turkey, we have postponed the tour. We will re-assess the situation and will take the call in some time to see when we can organise it again. There is an emergency in Turkey and we do not want to risk taking our members in unsafe conditions.”

A 1.92 per cent seats were sold on the Delhi-Leh route on Jet Airways earning a revenue share of 6.18 per cent in the highest fare bucket on select 20 sectors, as per data from the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Passengers carried by domestic airlines during Jan-Jul 2016 were 560.87 lakhs as against 455.95 lakhs during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering a growth of 23.01 per cent. In July, SpiceJet recorded the highest passenger load factor (PLF) with 92 per cent, followed by GoAir with 90.3 per cent and AirAsia with 85.7 per cent.

The  Lemon Tree Hotel Company announced the formal opening of two new properties in Vadodara and Dahej besides the refreshed upscale property in Ahmedabad, signalling the group’s focus on Gujarat, in their overall expansion plans across India. Speaking on the occasion of the multi-city launch, Rattan Keswani, Dy. Managing Director, The Lemon Tree Hotel Company and Chairman, Carnation Hotels said, “We are excited at our fast paced growth in Gujarat. Being one of the most progressive and investor friendly States in India, we were keen to spread our wings here. Besides our owned hotel in Ahmedabad, the addition of these three properties in Gujarat opens new domestic locations for our existing customers offering them the same refreshing experience and close to home comfort that Lemon Tree is known for.”

Travstarz Global Group continues its growth spree after India and Thailand Offices with the opening of its DMC Office in Mauritius. This was announced by Sucheta Nagpal, Director & CEO, Travstarz Global. “As we look to spread our wings further, we are always looking for Strategic Partnerships and Acquisitions with established local DMCs across the world to bring them under the Travstarz Banner. Travstarz Mauritius is another step in the direction. The Mauritius Office will not only be an inbound DMC for Mauritius but will also look after the Sales & Marketing of our Online Portal www.travelrezonline.com for the Mauritius and other African Markets”, Sucheta Nagpal added. Fardeen Ebrahimsaib, the Director for Travstarz Mauritius says “We have had a strong presence in Mauritius for the past several years with our own fleet of Vehicles, Permanent Airport Representatives and almost all major contracted hotels and we are very glad to be a part of Travstarz Global Group now, which in recent years has been the fastest growing Travel Wholesaler & DMC in India driven by the young and dynamic couple duo of Sucheta and Pankaj Nagpal”.

Starting  October 4, SpiceJet to add new markets like Silchar, Gorakhpur and Aizawl and will operate new flights on routes like Kolkata-Silchar-Guwahati; Kolkata-Aizawl-Guwahati and Kolkata-Gorakhpur-Delhi. Kolkata-Visakhapatnam-Kolkata flights will also start from November 1. To celebrate the launch of the new routes, SpiceJet is offering tickets at an all inclusive introductory fares of – Rs. 2127 for the Kolkaka-Aizawl and Rs. 1899 for the Aizawl-Guwahati sectors; Rs. 3699 for the Kolkata-Silchar and Rs. 4188 for Silchar-Guwahati sectors; Rs. 3210 for the Kolkata-Gorakhpur and Rs. 3335 for Gorakhpur-Delhi sectors. The new schedule will also include additional frequencies with a direct flight on its existing routes of Kolkata-Bagdogra and Kolkata-Guwahati. Sarbananda Sonowal, Chief Minister, Assam thanked SpiceJet for enhancing its air frequency to Assam and other North Eastern States by starting new daily flight sorties connecting North East with other parts of the country. Shilpa Bhatia, Sr. VP, Commercial, SpiceJet, said, “Enhancing the country’s regional connectivity has always been a prime focus for SpiceJet. And with the new aviation policy in place, there is an added encouragement to enter the underserved markets.” SpiceJet intends to add the untapped markets in its domestic network and thereby, enhance regional connectivity. SpiceJet will deploy its Q400 fleet for the newly devised schedule.

The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) has opened bookings at the famous tiger reserves – the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve and Pench Tiger Reserve – for tourists this monsoon. Satish Soni, Joint Managing Director, Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation said, “In India, Monsoons may bring disappointment for wildlife lovers because many parks get closed in this season. But considering that monsoon only further enhances the picturesque beauty of these forest areas and more people are demanding to experience this wildlife experience in the monsoon season MTDC has given them an opportunity to take a nature trail in this season too.” MTDC has its resorts at Moharli Gate located on the edge of Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve and MTDC Jungle Resort in Pench, Sillari, respectively. The gates for Pench Tiger Reserve will be open from Sunna and Mathani entrance points until Tipeshwar Resort.

Internet Moguls, a 360-degree strategic digital solutions company has been announced as an official Digital Marketing Agency for Ramee Group of Hotels. Presently, the Ramee Group operates 42 hotels, resorts and apartments in India, UAE, Oman and Bahrain. As an official digital marketing agency, Internet Moguls will handle all the digital services that includes Website Designing & Development, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, Online Reputation Management to Email Marketing and much more. Moreover, it will also take ‘digital hospitality’ training classes to impart digital marketing knowledge  to its hotel partner. Commenting on their alliance,  V.M (Raj) Shetty, United Arab Emirates- Chairman & Managing Worker-‎Ramee Group of Hotels & Resorts said, “Seeing as this is an era defined by rapid incremental digitalisation, we actively sought out an agency that thoroughly understands the industry and has expertise in their field of work. In the span of 7 years, Internet Moguls has ecxelled in their quality of work and have found themselves serving leading brands in the hospitality industy. We chose to partner with them exclusively for our chain-wide digital marketing needs based on their expertise and their highly passionate dedication to their clients. We are pleased to have them as our partners, and by combining their digital know-how and our services, we hope to grow our businesses in tandem while accelerating growth and development”. Speaking on the same, Avijit Arya, Chief Mogul at Internet Moguls and host of the #AskAviAryaShow added, “Winning the digital mandate from a big chain like Ramee Group is indeed an achievement for Internet Moguls. This win restates Internet Moguls credentials with regards to a full-service, cutting-edge digital marketing agency. We have planned some …

Pradeep Saboo, Partner, Guideline Travels LLP along with Star Cruises organised a thanksgiving outdoor event for its travel partners. The two-day event held at Noor Mahal Karnal from August 20-23, 2016, brought together 225 travel agents from across India for 24 hours of celebrations. They also organised a cricket match for agents on August 21.