Category Archives: Agents

Ahead of ‘The Great India Road Show’ by TravelBullz in Delhi, KD Singh, Founder & President, TravelBullz said that they are coming up with three new destinations in 2020. He adds, “We have just gone live with Dubai. We have come up with a product which takes Dubai to the next level as far as the experience is concerned. For instance, with us, clients get a complimentary one-hour stretch limo ride in Dubai. Coming up in March 2020 are two more new products that we will be offering to the industry – Singapore and Bali. We have already established our Singapore office. This will be followed by Bali over the next couple of weeks.” He further informed that the roadshow will be an annual event where hotels across the UAE, Thailand, Macau, Singapore, Bali, etc will showcase their products.

Upset by the recent proposal by the IT department to impose 5% TCS on overseas remittance as well as sale of overseas tour package, the travel trade has united to file online petitions on the PMO website urging the government to withdraw the same, claims Pradeep Saboo, Partner, Guideline Travels LLP. He said that he realised there was an urgent need to represent the travel trade to the government on this issue. “Even though I am not part of any trade association, I wanted to bring the industry together in some small way. I have started encouraging travel agents and tour operators like me to go on the PMO grievance website and post their contact details along with the message for withdrawing TCS.” The link for this is https://pmopg.gov.in/pmocitizen/Grievancepmo.aspx where the agent will need to fill in the contact details and put in their suggestion. To help with this, Saboo has also created a ready message that they can copy-paste in the feedback box. He started this on Friday, February 14, 2020 and more than 5,000 individuals signed up for this within the first 48 hours. Saboo pleads, “Please spare two minutes to make a difference to our trade which is facing a very difficult time. This will also affect those who sell cruises.” Saboo adds that he will arrange a meeting between the various trade associations and the travel agents and tour operators soon, post which they will look to send a delegation to meet the PMO or the Finance Ministry.

Winner of multiple India Travel Awards, online B2B Destination Management Company TravelBullz will kickstart its two-city roadshow titled ‘The Great India Road Show’ in Mumbai on February 19, 2020. It will bring together more than 50 hotels and attractions from Thailand. The ‘Great India Road Show’ is a unique platform for hoteliers and travel partners to meet under one roof. Over 200 agents are expected to attend the event in Mumbai. TravelBullz will also take this opportunity to announce new products and initiatives to its travel trade partners. It will launch its new, revolutionary B2B online booking engine “Phoenix” – with its enhanced user interface and ease of booking experience for its partners. It will also launch its first-ever B2B dynamic packaging module along with the showcasing destination – Dubai – that has been recently added to its product portfolio.

The Globus family of brands – Globus, Cosmos, Monograms and Avalon Waterways – has launched a completely new online travel specialist programme for 2020. Titled Globus Family of Brands University, the specialist programme offers three different courses for Avalon waterways, Globus & Cosmos and Monograms. To encourage and inspire travel agents, Globus family has announced a gift voucher of Rs. 500/- to all the agents who complete the modules successfully before 29 February 2020. Upon successfully finishing the programme, travel agent partners will receive a host of benefits including a Certificate of Completion and getting showcased on the Globus & Cosmos websites as experts. “We have noticed, on average, about 30 per cent increase in sales from agents who have completed our specialist programmes. If an agent or agency is serious about increasing their revenue, specialising in selling the Globus family of brands increases their knowledge of our vacations manifold and makes them extremely profitable,” said Varesh Chopra, Globus family of brands’ Regional Director, India, South Asia & Middle East.

Arabian Travel Market 2020 (ATM) has appointed Nijhawan Group to assist with the process of identifying premium quality hosted buyers from India and the Middle East region. With over 40 years’ experience in India as a leading travel conglomerate, Nijhawan Group has been sourcing hosted buyers since 2017. Commenting on the partnership, Danielle Curtis, Exhibition Direct ME, Arabian Travel Market, said: “With extensive experience of the Indian and Middle Eastern travel markets, Nijhawan Group is the perfect representative to assist with this year’s hosted buyer programme and to help ensure the recruitment of key, quality players from top source markets such as India. Ankush Nijhawan, Managing Director, Nijhawan Group, added: “We are delighted to partner with ATM for the upcoming travel showcase in Dubai. Over the coming months we are committed to ensuring a high standard of quality buyers who will benefit from meeting with sellers in a focused and organised environment.” ATM 2020 will also work with Nijhawan Group to create content on the outbound travel trends emerging from the Indian market ahead of the launch of a new series of buyer forums and networking events at this year’s showcase which will focus on India, as well as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and UAE.

Bus Big Tours, the leading operator of open-top sightseeing bus tours in the world has announced that Los Angeles-based East West Marketing (East/West) will serve as its partner in India. East West will oversee business-to-business development and serve as the in-market sales agency for Big Bus product training and solutions from February 2020. “The Indian market is of major importance to us, and we’re excited to leverage East West Marketing’s vast trade network to expand our presence in India.” Said Omid Golshan, EVP Global Growth, Big Bus Tours. “The Big Bus digital transformation has allowed its trade partners to integrate faster,” said Rati Dhodapkar, CEO, East West Marketing India. “With these new tools and efficiencies, we’ll be able to bring the Big Bus brand to new partners in India and introduce more customers to the great cities of the world through its iconic hop-on, hop-off sightseeing tours. It’s invigorating to launch this new partnership in India.”

Under the Swachh Bharat Mission, the Ministry of Tourism (MOT) has identified 180 tourist sites for organizing Swachhta Action Plan (SAP) activities during the year 2019-20 to create Swachhta Awareness amongst the tourists, students of schools/colleges and stakeholders across the country. Besides, Swachhta Pakhwada and Swachhta-Hi-Seva activities have also been undertaken by MOT at several locations across the country. Facilities like drinking water, toilet, interpretation centre, wi-fi, illumination, ramps, pathways, publication sale counter etc. are provided at the World Heritage and Ticketed monuments. Further, existing facilities are upgraded as per requirement and its up-gradation is a continuous process.

Online travel company MakeMyTrip on Tuesday reported the elevation of Rajesh Magow as the Group Chief Executive Officer while founder Deep Kalra will take up the role of Executive Chairman.“We believe that separating the roles of Group CEO and Executive Chairman will allow us to focus more on long-term strategic opportunities within and outside India, while maintaining our market leading position in our existing businesses,” MakeMyTrip founder Deep Kalra said.

Elaborating on the series of holidays,  Naveen Kundu, MD, EbixCash, Travel and Holidays says, “With these new offerings, Ebix Cash brings right to the doorstep of every Indian household, aspirational travel to destinations of their choice. Destinations like Europe, Amarica, Africa and Australia, are aspirational not affluent anymore and  we make them affordable. EbixCash, India’s largest financial exchange, is making them affordable, bringing to your doorsteps and available at easy installments. So, I invite you all to Chalo Europe, Chalo Africa, Chalo America and Chalo Australia.”  

Forwardkeys analysis of international departure data has shown that International outbound departures are down 18.5% from India in the period 13th Jan – 25th January vis-à-vis the same period last year. Around Jan 13th the virus outbreak issue started spreading and departures to SE Asia and Hong Kong are most impacted. The 18.5% decline is in comparison to the month of December 2019 where International departures from India saw a 2.5% decline.