Travel Boutique Online has taken equity stake in Deyor Camps, a chain of branded adventure camps in India. Travel Deyor Camps will be leveraging Travel Boutique Online’s distribution of 19,000 agents in India. Deyor Camps was founded by Dheeraj Jain, Chirag Gupta, Aakaar Gandhi and Gautam Yadav. Under the new partnership, Travel Boutique Online will enable its partners to sell branded campsites at more than 45 locations in India. Ankush Nijhawan, CEO, Travel Boutique Online, said, “Deyor Camps is a niche product, which would certainly attract the young, under 30 crowd in India as well as the MICE segment, especially within the Small and Medium Enterprises. The camps offer a great scope for team building. With the new partnership, TBO is exposing the inventory of Deyor Camps to its partners, to further sell this niche product to their customers.” Gautam Yadav, CEO, Deyor Camps, said, “Travel Boutique Online has access to 19000 travel agents, and we are sure of getting good business through that for Deyor Camps.”

Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) price has been hiked by 5.5 per cent for the fifth month in a row. ATF in Delhi was increased by Rs 2,557.7 per kilolitre (kl), or 5.47 per cent, to Rs 49,287.18 per kl, the oil companies announced today. This is the fifth straight monthly increase in rates, the last being on June 1 when prices were hiked by a steep 9.2 per cent, or Rs 3,945.47, to Rs 46,729.48 per kl. In the five increases, ATF rates have increased by 25 per cent, or Rs 9,985.87, per kl since March. ATF rates vary at different airports because of differential local sales tax or value-added tax (VAT). Jet fuel constitutes over 40 per cent of an airline’s operating cost and the latest price increase will add to the financial burden of cash-strapped carriers. No immediate comment was available from airlines on the impact of the price increase on passenger fares. Source: PTI

VFS Global has opened a Turkey Visa Application Centre in Mumbai on July 1. It was inaugurated by Erdal Sabri Ergen, Turkish Consul General in Mumbai.  He was accompanied by other dignitaries from the Turkish Consulate, and members of VFS Global staff. The new facility is located at Urmi Axis Building, Mahalaxmi. This inauguration comes close on the heels of the contract signing between the Government of the Republic of Turkey and VFS Global in March 2016, to roll out centres in 18 cities across India, the Maldives and Nepal, namely Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Goa, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Jalandhar, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune, Puducherry and Thiruvananthapuram in India, and Malé (the Maldives) and Kathmandu (Nepal).

Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation Ltd. (MPSTDC) has announced the third edition of the Madhya Pradesh Travel Mart. To be held from 14-16 October, 2016 at the Hotel Lake View Ashok in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, the event will focus on promoting Madhya Pradesh as a year round destination. Om Vijay Choudhary, Executive Director, Madhya Pradesh Tourism, said, “We are going to increase the scale of the convention and will be inviting more buyers, exhibitors as well as media.” The three day event in Bhopal will showcase the various offerings of the state.

The Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) concluded its national elections on June 30 in Ahmedabad and the new team thus elected will take over office from today. The unopposed Office Bearers include Praveen Chugh as the President, Pradip Lulla as the new Vice President, Aditi Bhende as Secretary and Jayesh Tharani as Treasurer. Zakkir Ahmed is now the Immediate Past President. The seven Committee Members for whom the elections were held include: Basheer Ahmed, Darshan Shah, Rajat Bagaria, Urvashi Gupta, Bharat Shah, Teddy Thomas and Sanjay Gupta. All of them have been re-elected except for Bharat Shah who replaces Jayesh Tharani as the Managing Committee Member.

In an attempt to increase the visibility of Seychelles in the Indian market and increase the number of Indian tourist arrivals to the island, Seychelles Tourism Board conducted tourism promotional roadshows in Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru. This was a follow up of similar roadshows conducted in Delhi and Mumbai in 2014. In 2015, Seychelles saw 183 per cent growth in tourist arrivals compared to 2014 and 85 per cent growth from January-April 2016 as compared to the same period last year. Addressing the travel trade, Sherin Naiken, CEO, Seychelles Tourism Board, said, “We are in India to invite you all to be our partners on the ground here and to work with us to offer your clients and the Indian holiday makers a new holiday destination.” Many travel and tourism industry representatives were present at the roadshows namely, Air Seychelles, Ethiopian Airlines, SriLankan Airlines, Kempinski Seychelles Resort, Eden Island Development Company, Constance Ephelia Resort, Sainte Anne Resort & Spa, Banyan Tree Seychelles, AVANI Seychelles Barbarons Resort & Spa, Le Relax Hotels – Seychelles, Enchanted Island Resort and Savoy Resort & Spa Seychelles, Holidays Box and Akquasun Group. Alain St.Ange, Tourism Minister of Seychelles was also present at the event. Anges explained that India and Seychelles are connected by direct non-stop flight from Mumbai on Air Seychelles with seamless connections from Bangalore with Jet Airways, a partner airline of Air Seychelles and is also well connected with Ethiopian Airlines, SriLanka Airlines, Kenya Airways, Etihad and Emirates. He also added, Indian nationals do not need visas to travel to Seychelles and a range of accommodation establishments are available to suit every budget.

The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has shown his concern about how the increased number of complaints and grievances related to online booking are being redressed. The PM mentioned the same while chairing his thirteenth interaction through PRAGATI – the ICT-based, multi-modal platform for Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation. He asked the concerned officials about the large volume of complaints related to the e-commerce sector, such as booking of tickets and hotel reservations, and the steps being taken to decisively address such issues. The Prime Minister was informed about the steps being taken in this regard, including augmenting the capacity of the National Consumer Helpline. Calling for increased efficiency, and more effective redressal of consumer grievances, the Prime Minister asked the officials for a comprehensive review of the nature of issues, and work towards fixing responsibility and identifying solutions for them. He asked for an effective follow-up action within 10 days.

Air New Zealand has signed a code-share agreement with Singapore Airlines and Silk Air from 6 Indian cities namely Mumbai, Bangaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin & Kolkata. NZ offers a total of 70 weekly flights via Singapore To New Zealand.

Air India is set to commence operations on the Delhi-Washington DC route from April 2017, revealed Ashwani Lohani, CMD, Air India, while addressing a conference in New Delhi . “Air travel is crucial in making India more accessible to the rest of the world and therefore, we are aggressively looking into expansion,” he said. The new route marks the fifth direct air connection between India and the US for the national airline as it currently plies to New York, Chicago, Newark and San Francisco. Lohani also shared that plans to connect Hyderabad to the U.S. and other countries like Singapore and China are being looked into, and will also soon address the demand to connect Delhi and Mumbai to destinations like Los Angeles and Atlanta.

The Australian High Commission in New Delhi has granted a record 150,000 visitor visas during the 2015-16 program year. There were a record 233,000 arrivals from India during 2015, a growth of 19 per cent, which represents the highest growth in the past seven years. India’s ranking improved from eleventh to eighth largest inbound tourists destination for Australia. The High Commission celebrated the big achievement with a function where the visa recipient was felicitated. Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager, India & Gulf, Tourism Australia, said, “I think it’s a remarkable achievement and a significant milestone as far as Tourism Australia is concerned because in 2015 we crossed the 100,000 visa application mark and in just a year we have 150,000 visa application. In fact, the year 2015 has been quite a significant year for Tourism Australia. Arrivals went up by almost 19 per cent and this was the highest growth we have seen in the past 7 years.” Australia’s High Commissioner to India, Harinder Sidhu, said, “It is a landmark achievement. This is the first time ever that we have reached the 150,000-mark in visitor visa approvals in India for a year. One hundred fifty thousand visitor visas is a sign of the growth of the relations between our two countries. I welcome it as a positive milestone. The achievement underlines the fast expanding links between Australia and India. More and more Indians are travelling to Australia for business, tourism and to study in our universities, as well as visit family.”