Category Archives: Agents

Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) hopes the government will consider its suggestions for good governance and ease of doing business for the travel trade. Sharing her expectations on Budget, Jyoti Mayal, President of TAAI, says, “We believe the Budget 2021 should be focused more on spendings to enable economic growth,  what better area to spend in than tourism to generate more cash flow and earnings to enable enhancement of infrastructure.” She adds, “We have already appealed for have a uniform GST across India whereby input tax credits can be taken for services utilised across the country. The GST for tour operators should be at 1.8% with full setoff, being 18% on an average margin of 10%. Interstate credit of GST are not available to travel agents and tour operators on IGST and the same should be considered at par which shall not only benefit the corporates but the consumers are large. The similar being with airlines on the point of departure.” We are expecting the FM to ensure LTC benefits not utilised this year due to the pandemic should be permitted to be carried forward in the coming 2 years. Further to boost the economy all expenses made for travel, tourism, MiCE, adventure, domestic and religious travel, by the tax payer should be fully exempt from income tax for the next 2 years, states Mayal. The FM should also ensure 10% SIES credit to be adjusted completely under income tax. To ensure growth in tourism and all incomes from foreign exchange earnings should be given a tax holiday for a period of 2 years. TCS too to should be rescinded as it serve no purpose of tax collect and …

In a strategic move, the Karvat Group has taken over the reins of the travel ancillary business, and will hereon steer its business in India with sole proprietorship. Dev Karvat will take on the ownership of the entire group’s operations in India as CEO. He says, “The company’s commitment towards the travel trade is as persistent as ever. We are thankful to the Cover-More Group for enriching our experience with their global expertise. We will be happy to welcome them back to India in the future. We are now focusing on India-centric offerings. I am happy to share the launch of a new venture – Asego.”

Of all the hiring in 2020, metro cities of New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai accounted for nearly half of the job postings on Indeed. Maximum aspirants for these jobs, however, emerged  from Jalandhar, Chandigarh, New Delhi, and Lucknow. This was an interesting departure from the top cities in 2019 where job seekers looked for hospitality and tourism jobs, namely popular tourism hubs before the pandemic set in such as Goa, Panchkula, Chandigarh, Guwahati and Delhi.

Kazin DMC has entered into an exclusive agreement with Almaty Multiprofile Clinical Hospital to bring free medical assistance to its travellers as part of standard inclusion in each package. This first-of-its-kind arrangement by a DMC includes door-to-door ambulance service, doctor on call, first-aid assistance and overnight hospitalisation.

STB India Virtual Tradeshow 2021 ‘Charting Our Pathways to Tourism Recovery’, is set to kick-off for East India today, 21 Jan. This is the last edition of the four sessions for the tradeshow. Join us as 48 Singapore stakeholders comprising airlines, attractions, DMCs and hotels ready ourselves to prepare travel and tourism restart. For updates on Destination Singapore, travel trade can subscribe to STB India’s WhatsApp at https://bit.ly/stbindia

EM Najeeb, Chairperson, Confederation of Kerala Tourism Industry and Sr VP, IATO has said that frontline tourism workers in travel and tourism should be given priority for COVID-19 vaccination. “For a state like Kerala, a healthy, robust tourism industry is critical to the overall recovery of the economy as it contributes over 10 per cent of the GDP,” he said.

Sharing his expectations from the Union Budget, Madhavan Menon, Chairman & Managing Director, Thomas Cook (India), says, “I look forward to Government support on soft loans to finance working capital, incentivisng tourism spends by providing income tax concessions, payment of overdue SEIS benefits, easing of indirect taxes and waiving off TCS to help aid recovery.”

Russian authorities have said that flights between Moscow and the capitals of India and three other countries including Qatar, Finland and Vietnam that were suspended since the early weeks of the pandemic, will restart from January 27, 2021, after certain epidemiological criteria were met. These routes will have several flights per week.

Blade India has resumed its by-the-seat service to Shirdi from Mumbai. Mumbai-Shirdi takes 6-7 hours on the road but with Blade, pilgrims can fly to Shirdi in an hour, and be back on the same day. It also offers customers in need of special assistance or a VIP darshan service. It flies from Mahalaxmi vertiport every Monday and from Juhu vertiport on Thursday and Saturday at 11am.

IATO in association with TravTalk University will organise a webinar on Human Resource (HR) strategies in the post-COVID world, today at 11:30 am (IST), where renowned labour law expert, Dr Aditi Kaushal will speak on HR policies, draft of the new appointment letter and help understand new labour laws. Register now at https://event.webinarjam.com/register/210/0vz1oik4