Category Archives: Agents

Faraway Tree, a B2B operator specialising in holidays packages to the Andaman Islands, will conduct an exclusive, one-of-its kind virtual tour for the trade on Friday, July 24 at 11 am, followed by a extensive product update on the destination. One lucky couple attending the webinar can win a 6N/7D holiday worth Rs 80,000 as per the showcased itinerary. To register, please contact Jaspreet Kaur on 9650196532 or jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com.

After the recent news of Regional Transport Office (RTO) warning travel agents in Uttar Pradesh to obtain registration licenses within 10 days, Siddharth Yadav from the Assistant RTO (ARTO) Enforcement Office in Lucknow has clarified that this license is required only by those travel agents who are into car and bus rentals. Air ticketing agents do not fall under their purview. Interestingly, registration of travel agents and tour operators is part of the tourism policy passed by Uttar Pradesh but which is yet to see the light of day.

The average lead time, i.e. the number of days between booking date and travel date (how far in advance travellers book their trips), for long- haul travel to South Asia is 73 days, according to ForwardKeys.

Efforts put in by TAAI have finally borne fruit as the government has now permitted travel agents to book Vande Bharat flights. “We appreciate Air India, MoCA and NITI Aayog for supporting our initiatives, and look forward to more compliances to support the struggling industry,” says Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI. As of now, flights to USA, Germany (FRA) and France (CDG) have been announced in the coming phase.

Thomas Cook India has signed an agreement with dnata Travel to operate as the Travel Management Company (TMC) to service dnata’s customers as it closes its TMC operation in India. The transition will be completed in the next few weeks. Mahesh Iyer, Executive Director & CEO, Thomas Cook India, says, “Our first focus will be ensuring continuity of service needs.”

Singapore and Bengaluru-based air retailing and payments platform Mystifly has raised US $3.3 M in Pre-Series B financing round from Recruit. This investment will help Mystifly to continue strengthening its product and technology, data science and Machine Learning capabilities, as well as address airline payments inefficiency while weathering the COVID-19 storm.

As part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Initiatives by GPS, agents can now own a booking engine portal, which has been developed by GPS in partnership with Influence Technolabs. Apart from they have also launched GST ready accounting solutions for travel and retail industry in association with Infozeal E-solutions. Harmandeep Singh Anand, MD, Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) has said these two solutions are subscription based. The subscription charges are waived off till 31st March 2021. There is a nominal one-time integration charges applicable based on membership level of GPS.

TravTalk and Etihad Airways are set to host an ‘Agent Connect’ webinar, a live journey of flying through COVID-19, today from 11 am onwards. Travel agents will get the chance to learn about Etihad Airways and UAE’s capital city – Abu Dhabi. To register, please email to jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or call +91 9650196532.

Various travel & tourism associations of Gujarat have met the tourism minister of the state to discuss revival and tourism development plan in the state. Demand seeking industry status was also made along with waiver or relief from the current pandemic. Minister Jawaharbhai Chavda listened to the associations calmly and assured to the needful. A white paper on behalf of all associations was also presented.  

Etihad Airways and TravTalk are all geared up to host an ‘Agent Connect’ webinar, a live journey of flying through COVID, on Thursday, 9th July, 11 am onwards. Agents will get the chance to learn about Etihad Airways and UAE’s capital city – Abu Dhabi. To register, please email to jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or call +91 9650196532.