Category Archives: Agents

Akbar Travels has re-introduced its Super Saver Wednesdays promo that offers zero convenience fee and is valid for bookings done on Wednesdays on the company’s website (www.akbartravels.com) as well as the App. Customers are also exempted from paying service fees on ticket cancellations, reissue, adding baggage and seat selection.

The second leg of this year’s GPS starting July 13 will bring with it another unique programme. Announcing this is Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director, GPS, says, “We have started working with international tourism boards to do an educational workshop for travel agents starting this September-October. Titled ‘GPS Educational Destination Workshop – International’ (EDWIn), it will involve interested agents signing up to travel to a particular international destination to learn about the country at a highly subsidised participation fee.” GPS has already tied up with Singapore Airlines as its international airline partner as well as Genting HK. It is also in talks with various NTOs including Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Korea, UAE, Egypt, Turkey and Greece. GPS will soon launch a similar programme for domestic destination in partnership with various state boards. Agents are requested to register for the same at GPS will shortlist about 20-25 travel agents from each city that GPS travels to. The selection will be based on their level of participation, the number of meetings they do, their level of networking and the amount of business or leads they generate during GPS shows. Anand explains further, “They also have to attend all presentations and sessions. These agents will be chosen to attend these educational workshops that we will conduct in association with the tourism boards. The visits will include hotel inspections, meeting local DMCs and travel agents from that destination and doing activities that they can include in their itineraries. It will turn out to be very cost-effective for them. This will be open only to tier II and tier III travel agents as they are the ones who don’t get enough exposure to …

Online travel company TravelTriangle recently organised a session on GST for travel agents associated with their platform. TravelTriangle roped in reputed law firm Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan Attorneys to facilitate the session, which was conducted by Kapil Kumar Sharma. Aimed at educating TravelTriangle’s travel partners about the impending GST rollout and its implications on their business, the seminar gave attendees an overview of GST and changes in the taxation structure. Changes in law governing the travel industry in context of a marketplace were also discussed, as were the compliance requirements under the GST regime and the grey areas that still exist. Other critical aspects, such as the transition from the current market approach to the ‘One Nation, One Tax, One Market’ model proposed under the GST, were also deliberated over in detail. Speaking on the reason behind the undertaking, Yuvraj Khemani, Finance Controller, TravelTriangle said, “While the GST rollout is expected to benefit all stakeholders in the fast-growing Indian travel industry, the actual impact of the new tax regime is still not completely understood by a vast majority of businesses across the country. This was a knowledge gap that we wanted to address with this session. TravelTriangle always endeavours to support its partners at every step of their business journey and this session was a step in the same direction.” The company has launched a GST guide focussing on the travel-relevant aspects of the GST rollout, and has set up a dedicated email address for agents to mail their GST-related queries. Apart from that, TravelTriangle is also training its internal teams to aid agents with the GST registration process as well as its operational aspects.

Red Apple Travel will be hosting roadshows in 3 cities in July this year. On 18th July, they will start in Chennai, then move on to Ahmadabad on the 20th and finally end in Mumbai on the 21st. Commenting on this, Neha Goenka, Group Director, Red Apple Group said, “The roadshow will be a platform where we will be getting all our destination heads to meet our travel industry partners one on one. It will help them get an insight of our DMC offices and what kind of services we offer. We will be portraying our new products and destinations for this year at the roadshows.”

Tourism Fiji, represented by Mumbai-based Global Destinations in India, has planned a six-city roadshow in the country at the end of July this year. The roadshow will start on July 24 in Mumbai, then reach Kolkata on July 26, moving on to New Delhi on July 27, then to Ahmedabad on July 28 and Chennai on July 31 and finally end at Bengaluru on August 1, 2017. Pranav Kapadia, Founder, Global Destinations, explains, “We will have 10 Fijian partners coming down for this roadshow. These will include hotels, resorts and DMCs.” Global Destinations will also be present at the Global Panaroma Showcase (GPS) 2017 in three cities: Pune, Kochi and Chandigarh.

The Thomas Cook India (TCI) Group has announced the completion of the acquisition of a significant part of Kuoni’s global DMS network. As a part of this acquisition, the Thomas Cook India Group will now include leading Destination Management Specialists (DMS) like Asian Trails (APAC), Desert Adventures (MENA), ATM-Australian Tours Management (Australia), Allied T Pro (North America), Private Safaris (Eastern Africa) and Private Safaris (Southern Africa) under its network creating a seamless delivery capability for the group and its B2B and B2C customers across 21 countries and 4 continents. Post the acquisition, The Thomas Cook India Group, with over 6500 employees across 21 countries and a combined revenue in excess of Rs. 8700 crore (over $1.34 billion) has been -transformed into one of the largest travel service provider networks headquartered in the Asia-Pacific region. With this move, The Thomas Cook India Group’s travel business network has now expanded with the addition of 17 new countries, increasing its footprint to now cover 21 countries. The Group, which prior to this acquisition, comprisied Thomas Cook (India), SOTC Travel, TCI-SITA and Kuoni Hong Kong had a network spanning 4 countries – India, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Hong Kong. Commenting on this development, Madhavan Menon, Chairman & Managing Director, The Thomas Cook India Group., said, “This acquisition of a significant part of Kuoni’s Global Destination Management network represents an important milestone for a rapidly growing Thomas Cook India Group, as we deliver on our stated strategy of rapid expansion in the Asia Pacific region. Now with a significantly enhanced global footprint across 4 continents and 21 countries, we have over 6500 employees serving customers across the world under some of the most respected brands …

Travkart, the travel service portal from Holidays by Sahibji, has collaborated with Planet Abled to offer specially designed itineraries for travellers with disabilities. The first travel brand to enter such a collaboration, Travkart will introduce an ‘Accessible Travel’ tab on its website which can be used by the travellers with disabilities to browse and book curated holiday packages. Manheer Singh Sethi, Co-founder, Travkart.com, said, “Awareness about special travel needs is highly inadequate in India and people with disabilities find it difficult to be accepted as a part of the society. We are enthusiastic about syncing our synergies with such a unique organisation as Planet Abled and bring about a big social change in the travel industry. This collaboration will make Travkart the first travel brand to introduce a dedicated section offering accessible and curated travel packages for disabled individuals, and will set a new service benchmark in the Indian travel and tourism industry.” Planet Abled is a first-of-its-kind travel company that provides inclusive and accessible travel solutions and leisure excursions for people with disabilities modified to suit their special needs. Planet Abled works with the concept of “Universal Design”, focusing on giving people with different disabilities and non-disabled, a platform to come together, so as to create an inclusive group for a unique human interaction. The underlying belief being, our Planet is our common inheritance and ‘Everything Is For Everyone’. It organizes scheduled group tours, customized tours, romantic tours and local city day tours where persons with disabilities can travel alone, with groups or with friends and family. Neha Arora, Founder, Planet Abled, commented, “Travelling to new locations always brings a sense of apprehension for people with disabilities as well …

Flight Shop, the leisure brand of Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), Australia, in India opened its first retail store in Surat and second franchise outlet after Hyderabad. With the launch of this store, FCTG, Australia now has 17 operational Flight Shop stores across India. Spread over 1100 sq. ft., the Flight Shop outlet in Surat is based in VIP High Street, and will cater to the needs of up market urban consumers – families, business travellers, honeymoon couples and groups of travellers. Shravan Gupta, Executive Director – Leisure Businesses, FCM Travel Solutions India (the Indian arm of Flight Centre Travel Group, Australia) said, “Over the last few years, Surat has grown to become one of the fastest developing cities in the country with constantly rising travel demands of two to three trips in a year per household. As an affluent market driven by diamond and textile merchants, Surat is one of the highest contributors to the GDP amongst other emerging metros such as – Jaipur, Vishakhapatnam and Lucknow.” Flight Shop stores are spread across Mumbai, Delhi, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi and via a combination of owned branches and newly opened franchise outlets. FCTG, Australia plans to open 50 more Flight Shop stores across the country in the next two to three years.

The Goods and Service Tax (GST) Council has considered revision of tax on hotel rooms and decided that while those in the range of Rs 2,000-Rs 7,500 a day tariff would face 18 per cent tax, rooms with daily tariff above Rs 7,500 would be taxed at 28 per cent. This comes as a slight relief for the hospitality and travel industry, especially in comparison with the initial rate of 28 per cent being levied for hotels charging over Rs 5000 per night. However, Arun Jaitley, Union Finance Minister, has said that the GST on restaurant service in 5-star hotels would attract 18 per cent tax.

Cox and Kings (C&K) has launched four Holiday Clubs in New Delhi which will offer customers a variety of experiential holiday options. Travellers can select from various holiday divisions of C&K to enable travel, getaway goddess and trip 360. The purpose behind launching these lounges is to mark its presence in areas where there is heavy footfall of consumers. “We launched four lounges in Connaught Place, Rajouri Garden, South Extention and MGF Metropolitan mall. Delhi is one of our key markets and these concept stores will provide the customers with a unique shopping experience,” said Karan Anand, Head Relations, C&K. He further added that these stores will complement the existing points of sales that C&K has in New Delhi with an aim to be present where the customers would most likely shop. The company is going to market these stores along with their trade promotion strategies.