Category Archives: Agents

FCM Travel Solutions, the Indian subsidiary of Flight Centre Travel Group Australia, has launched its two new stores in prime locations of Nashik and Aurangabad in Maharashtra. This strategic expansion augments FCM Travel Solutions’ distribution and reach to seven outlets in the state of 40 Travel Money outlets and 32 Travel Tours stores across India. FCM has identified Maharashtra as a high-potential market and the company has thus chosen Nashik and Aurangabad and the state as a key driver of its all-around strategic plan. This includes focused expansion in viable metros/mini-metros and tier II and III markets of Maharashtra, and offering consumer-empowering Product-Service portfolio. Commenting on the aggressive expansion, Gagan Malhotra, Vice President- Foreign Exchange, FCM Travel Solutions, India, says, “The latest additions in Nashik and Aurangabad is a reinforcing of our strategic intent at FCM Travel Solutions- to expand our footprint across key markets. Maharashtra has been a powerhouse in our success story and these new outlets in prime retail locations will take us a step closer to our consumers’ doorstep! With our distinctive and innovative consumer-centric services witnessing a strong uptake, our foreign exchange business is witnessing an impressive 133 per cent growth over last year.”

SriLankan Airlines has completed 25 years of its operations to Delhi. Speaking at the press conference to announce the celebrations,  , Chinthaka Weerasinghe, Manager- Northern India, SriLankan Airlines, said, “We started operations way back in 1979 to start with Chennai and Mumbai. Delhi was the fifth destination that we started operating in 1993. We started with two flights a week and now we have expanded to two flights a day. In fact, Delhi has become one of the highest revenue generating areas for SriLankan Airlines network. Indian market is doing very well and it is the highest revenue generating and tourism generating market for us. We are expecting about 4.5 lakhs of arrivals this year with the growth of 15 per cent, which is very good and the growth has also been very encouraging.” Subhash Goyal, Chairman, STIC Travel Group, GSA- SriLankan Airlines, said, “It is a historical day for SriLankan Airlines because we complete 25 years and we are happy that we had a very successful inning as a GSA for the airline.”

MakeMyTrip has announced the appointment of Vipul Prakash as Chief Operating Officer for MakeMyTrip and Goibibo. In this role, Prakash will be responsible for developing and executing  strategic direction and priorities of the company. He joins MakeMyTrip from PepsiCo where he was last serving as Senior Vice President–Beverage Category for PepsiCo India region. Rajesh Magow, Co-Founder and CEO–India, MakeMyTrip, said, “We are excited to welcome Vipul to our leadership team. His rich experience of two decades at PepsiCo spanning geographies, deep understanding of consumer market and expertise in industry leading operational practices are truly invaluable. We are confident that his proven track record and extensive experience will extend MakeMyTrip’s upward trajectory.” Speaking about his new role, Prakash said, “MakeMyTrip is an iconic brand that has played a defining role in shaping the online travel space in India. I have been truly impressed with the company’s institutional expertise and relentless focus on serving customers better. I look forward to drive the next phase of innovation and growth through operational excellence.” Prior to joining MakeMyTrip, Vipul was associated with PepsiCo for 20 years. In his previous role, he was responsible for delivering revenue growth, share and brand equity for PepsiCo’s beverage portfolio of five brands. Vipul joined PepsiCo in 1998 and held various positions in marketing and franchise, at sector and global levels. In 2007, he relocated to the US, where he spent three years on the International Beverages Marketing team and moved to Dubai in 2010 to head the Foods and Beverages Innovation department for PepsiCo Asia, Middle East and Africa before moving back to India.

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has launched the second wave of its ‘Passion Made Possible’ brand campaign in India with an evening of fun and entertainment for the travel trade, media and influencers – focusing on the Socialiser tribe offerings available in Singapore. Held at Verbena Brewpub & Skygarden in Kamala Mills, the event featured performances by Singapore’s noted artistes – Wayne Liu aka DJ KoFlow, the turntablist icon and Yung Raja who mixes his lyrics in both English and Tamil. The STB launched the new brand identity ‘Passion Made Possible’ in August 2017 to showcase the destination’s unique attitude and mindset- a passion-driven, never-settling spirit of determination and enterprise that constantly pursues possibilities and reinvention. As part of this, the STB introduced the concept of passion tribes and unveiled four specific tribes, namely Foodies, Collectors, Explorers and Progressors. For its second wave, the campaign will shine spotlight on the Socialiser, Action Seeker, and Culture Shaper passion tribes for encouraging Indian travellers to indulge in their passions in Singapore. Speaking at the launch, GB Srithar, Regional Director, South Asia, Middle East & Africa, highlighted the importance of why the Socialiser tribe would be appealing to Indian consumers, “We are keen to engage the young and fun-loving Indian travellers. Show them a different side of Singapore, in addition to being a great family destination. From the coolest indie gigs and the biggest international concerts to eclectic music festivals, raves and jazz nights, Singapore has a diverse and vibrant music and event scene. This will appeal to the lifestyle- and entertainment-seeking travellers. As we launch wave 2 of our brand, we invite our Indian visitors to come, make new friends or re-connect …

Indian travellers are avid users of sharing economy apps and services compared to other APAC travellers, reveals ‘Amadeus Journey of Me’ report. According to the report, Indian travellers are embracing these services with 73 per cent using apps like Uber, Grab, Lyft, Ola, Didi Chuxing etc to get around during me trip, compared to only 37 per cent in the rest of APAC. Apart from it, almost half (48 per cent) use Airbnb, couch surfing for stays, more than the 29 per cent APAC average. The research, Journey of Me Insights: What Asia Pacific travellers want has been conducted in collaboration with YouGov.

The 23rd Europamundo Convention 2018 was recently held in Moscow (Russia), where Luis Garcia Codron, Director General, Europamundo Vacations; Berend Lund Christian, Director—Corporate Planning, Europamundo Vacations and Alejandro de la Osa, Director—Commercial, Europamundo Vacations addressed the invitees. The convention was attended by distributors and commercial teams from 41 countries. The distributors present from India included Akbar Holidays, Cox and kings, MakeMyTrip and Travel Tours. Aparna C Basumalik, Country Head, Europamundo, said, “This year, we were glad to be hosted in Russia for the three-day long convention. The entire family of Europamundo gathered to meet, work and spend a great time together.” She further added, “At the convention, we were able to share the next season’s brochure with our travel partners. The global brochure has 300-plus products. With all the programmes included, it is certainly the most robust brochure in the market.” Talking about the future plans, she mentioned, “In 2019, we will have several new introductions— Mexico, Philippines, Costa Rica and for travellers who prefer to have Indian meals in addition to the central Europe and east Europe we will have Spain too.” “This year too, Europamundo Vacations had a sterling performance carrying nearly 1,80,000 passengers on all tours put together. The Global Tours in their third year focused on the English-speaking market and recorded a 100 per cent growth with the many new countries like Canada/New Zealand/Singapore joining the sales force. India shone with over 30 per cent of the market share,” Basumalik said.

VFS Global has signed a contract with the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic for providing visa services in 10 countries including India. The other countries to get visa application centres for Slovakia via VFS Global are China, Kazakhstan, Palestine, Belarus, Russia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Egypt. The rollout of 38 visa application centres is expected to be completed by December 2018. Under the new contract, VFS Global will accept both short and long-term visa applications on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic. Chris Dix, Head – Business Development, VFS Global, said, “We are excited about our new partnership with the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic. The countries where we will be operating are markets where VFS Global has worked for several years and whose travellers are familiar with our services and expertise. We are also pleased to have the opportunity to serve our new clients in new locations, and bring applicants in these locations the same benefits and high-quality service that we have been offering our customers worldwide for the last 17 years.”

Bharat Bhushan Atree, CMD, CTC Holding, received the TravTalk-WTM World Travel Leaders Award for Hi-Life Tours at the recently held World Travel Market in London. The World Travel Leaders Awards honours companies and individuals for their outstanding contribution to the industry over the last 24 months voted for by the WTM Media Partners. Speaking on the occasion, Atree said, “Awards like these keep us motivated and eggs us to work harder and harder. It puts us on the global recognition platform because this company is catering to online tourism and it makes a lot of difference when such organisations recognise us for our good work. We hope to get a lot of positive response from our partners, who have been wanting to work with us but have been thinking about it, a recognition from a platform like this will instill more confidence among them.”

AbhiBus has bagged the online bus ticket reservation system project from the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC). The online system provides an option for users to reserve bus tickets on the official website of KSRTC. Doing it online gives users an opportunity to access booking and reserve their bus tickets 30 days in advance. AbhiBus will also deploy a user-friendly mobile app for KSRTC that can be used for reserving ticketing through their mobile phones. Kerala becomes the fifth state road transport corporation in the country that AbhiBus would be engaged with after Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh. Commenting on the engagement with KSRTC and the unique system for Sabarimala pilgrims, Sudhakar Reddy Chirra, Founder & CEO, AbhiBus said, “AbhiBus is the pioneer in the service of creating online bus ticket booking platforms for private bus operators and State RTCs in the country. Our success over the years and the wide reach we enjoy stands to testify the technological supremacy AbhiBus enjoys in the space we operate in. With the signing of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation, AbhiBus now has its strong presence spread to all corners of South India.” In addition to the regular engagement with the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation, AbhiBus has deployed unique time-slot-based bus ticket reservation system for pilgrims visiting Sabarimala. KSRTC will use this unique system for selling bus tickets online for chain services operated between Nilakkal and Pamba for the convenience of pilgrims.  

TBO Group hosted its first roadshow for its preferred hotel partners in India. The roadshow, with 30 hoteliers from Las Vegas, Baku, Dubai, Maldives and Thailand,  travelled across three cities starting with Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai. The event brought together 700 decision makers from the Indian travel fraternity resulting in almost 8,000 business meetings across the three city footprint. Ankush Nijhawan from TBO Group said, “This is a first initiative from the TBO Group to engage our India B2B partners first-hand with our preferred hotels to enthuse a sense of confidence and transparency. This one-on-one interaction with hoteliers will ensure a seamless experience for our partners, their groups and FIT requirements as facilitated for them through the TBO online Portal.” The roadshow was spearheaded by Andy Tan, Global Director –Contracting and Supplier Partnerships, TBO Group who led the delegation of hoteliers comprising Sales Directors and General Managers from leading hotels Like Wynn – Las Vegas and Encore, Pan Pacific Hotels group, AccorHotels, Park Hotel Group, Hilton London Metroplole, Papillon Group, Fairmont Baku, Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts, to name a few. All roadshows featured 30 raffle draws, conducted for all attending B2B partners. 85 lucky winners won for themselves hotel room nights coupled with special privileges at various partner hotels.