Category Archives: Agents

The Sri Lankan carrier, Mihin Lanka will stop its services effective October 30, 2016. This decision has been made by the Government of Sri Lanka, as part of its long term strategy to restructure the local aviation industry and strengthen the national carrier’s offering and efficiency. Chinthaka Weerasinghe, Manager Northern India, SriLankan Airlines, says, “There are four routes that we will be taking over in India itself; Madurai, Kolkata, Varanasi and Bodh Gaya. With these operations we will be having overall 103 flights in a week from 11 destinations in India. This will make us one of the top five international airlines operating into India in terms of frequency as well as seat capacity.”

FCM Travel Solutions, the Indian arm of the Australia–headquartered Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), announced an agreement to acquire the business interests of South India’s premier travel company, the Rs 750 crore Travel Tours Group (TTG), in a cash and stock deal. Led by Shravan Gupta, TTG is a four decade old company offering a gamut of travel services including leisure, corporate travel, MICE, Visa, inbound, wholesale and FOREX. Commenting on the acquisition, Rakshit Desai, Managing Director, FCM Travel Solutions said “We are thrilled to welcome TTG into the Flight Centre family.  This partnership propels us into an Rs 3,000 crore enterprise and one of the top three players in all the core travel segments we operate in. India is poised to become one of the world’s major travel markets and this partnership will enable us to achieve our goal of being the largest customer focussed travel player in the country.” Shravan Gupta, Managing Director, Travel Tours Group, who joins the board of FCM and assumes leadership of the leisure business said, “We are very excited to be a part of the Flight Centre group and confident that our combined strength will help achieve our ambitious growth plans at a much faster pace. I’m personally looking forward to leading the leisure business, sharing insights and product knowledge, as well as gaining from the global best practices of the Flight Centre group”. The combined strength will give FCM India a national distribution network and strong leadership across businesses and functions. Upon successful acquisition, FCM India will employ over 1,600 travel professionals across 44 locations in 16 cities. The partnership will bring on-board TTG’s brands, that include – Travel Tours, Travel Air, …

Thomas Cook (India) has chosen Rudrapur for the launch of its ‘Thomas Cook Mini’ in Uttarakhand-a strategic deployment of small technology assisted outlets to aggressively harness the growth potential emerging from India’s Tier III markets like Rudrapur. The Thomas Cook Mini outlet at Rudrapur was inaugurated Tilak Raj Behad, Chairman of Uttarakhand State Seed and Organic Production Certification Agency and former Cabinet Health Minister, Govt. of Uttarakhand, in the presence of Ambreesh Rastogi and Ankul Kumar, Associate Vice Presidents, Foreign Exchange, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. Thomas Cook India’s internal research having highlighted the powerful growth potential of Rudrapur (a significant source market for Foreign Exchange segments of Overseas Study/Students, Outward Remittances and Prepaid Cards), the Company conceptualised a strategy of small technology assisted outlets to rapidly penetrate this underserved market, and hence the launch of its innovative Thomas Cook Mini. The Thomas Cook Mini outlet at Rudrapur has been designed optimising space and will be manned by a 2 member team, equipped with technology via mobile devices/tablets for seamless online connectivity to central systems, thus facilitating quick customer transactions.

The Institute of Hotel, Cargo and Tourism Management (IHCTM), a training division of Namaste Tourism, has announced a special trade discount for those who wish to attend its ‘Managing the Travel Business’ program with diploma awarded by International Air Transport Association (IATA) Montreal, Canada. The total fees for the course including the training, examination and registration for IATA along with applicable service tax is Rs 71,300. However, the institute is offering members of the trade a 20 per cent discount on early enrolment before 26 November, 2016. This will take the total course fee to Rs 46,900. This offer is exclusive for the travel trade. Subhash Motwani, Director, IHCTM, says, “The travel industry is changing every day and the Management – level 3 IATA program can equip a tourism professional with the latest global trends of travel and tourism industry. The course will include topics such as Managerial Skills, Negotiation Skills, Special Interest Tours, MICE, Technology In Travel Industry, Financial Management & Accounting, BSP Agent, Billing Reports & Remittance and Marketing.” Classes will be held in Mumbai at Colaba and Mahim centres starting from December 5 onwards.

TrawellTag Cover-More has partnered with Yatra.com as it establishes itself in the e-commerce segment. TrawellTag Cover-More India Founder & CEO, Dev Karvat, said “We will now provide our travel insurance and global assistance services to Yatra customers opting for both domestic and overseas travel. The association enables us to provide customised benefits for both leisure and corporate travellers. Our business model for Yatra.com focuses on changing customer needs and forecasted travel risks. The backbone of this model is a one-of-its kind software IMPULSE, an analytics engine that collects a feed of traveller data from the booking platform and crunches this in real time to generate customised offers for the travellers. With ease of integration, this cloud hosted tool customizes travel protection products with an exceptional speed of customer data processing.” Dhruv Shringi, Co-founder & CEO, Yatra.com said: “TrawellTag Cover-More was a natural choice as we share a common commitment; creating the most convenient travel experience for our customers. They bring along with them an impressive product range and technical know-how, more than a decade of domain expertise and a global presence which extends their service offering worldwide.”

In an effort to promote positive social values through art and encourage young artists, Cox & Kings, in association with David Hall Art Gallery presented an art exhibition in Mumbai titled ‘Imprints: Mapping memories’ by artist Reshma Thomas in the presence of Rika Jean-Francois, CSR Commissioner ITB Berlin and Sandeep Dayal, (Head- Sales, BD, Special Projects, Inbound Travel) Cox & King and Jose Dominic, CEO, CGH Earth.

The centre plans to issue chip embedded e-passports, which can be incorporated with passports so as to verify information electronically, by next year. Minister of State for External Affairs V.K. Singh reported said that fully digital passports that could be even carried in mobile phones would be introduced in the second phase. Singh was talking to media persons during a visit to the Regional Passport office. He said that facilities for e-passports are being installed and it is expected that all fresh passports to be issued from next year would have the chips incorporated in it. The minister also said that once the delay in police verification process is sorted out through electronic passing of information, the time required for issuing passports could be minimised. In reply to a question, Singh said the restrictions imposed on overseas recruitment of nurses and female domestic workers had helped curb the exploitation in the sector. Singh, who had recently visited Saudi to help those stranded there following job losses, said the Saudi government is cooperating in getting the claims of Indian workers from Saudi employers. He also advised those still going to Saudi to take up employment to be cautious and go through genuine channels. Earlier in the day, Mr Singh reviewed the working of the Passport Sewa Kendra, Kollam also. (Source: PTI)

South Africa-based SA Forest Adventures has appointed The Strategy Store as their representative in India with effect from September 2016. Talking about the appointment, Clinton Lerm, Owner, SA Forest Adventures, says, “The Strategy Store will focus on our promotional and marketing activities as well as sales for India. Looking at the growing number of visitors from India to South Africa year on year, we believe that this market has a vast potential. This initiative will help us position ourselves, in our key growth market, India.” Sherry Varma, Founder, The Strategy Store said, “I have very emotional connect to South Arica, having worked as a Marketing & Communications manager with South African Tourism in Mumbai for five years. We are extremely happy to be assigned the task of handling marketing, sales and public relations activities for SA Forest Adventures in India. SA Forest Adventure’s competitive packages and quality of services will help us to develop and multiply their market share in India.” SA Forest Adventures offers a massive range of adventure activities for travellers in and around Cape Town. With offices in Cape Town, Piekenierskloof, Kleinmond, Hermanus and Caledon, there is always assistance on hand to book and enjoy activities, including white-water rafting, zip lining, quad biking, river tubing and sand boarding. Add in the country’s spectacular natural beauty, this product is an outstanding offering for Indian adventure travellers.

Udaan India has launched Udaan Destination Marketing Conglomerate (Udaan DMC). The company, which has been a frontrunner in visa facilitation, has ventured into the new realm two years after marketing Croatia. Sumit Banerji has been appointed as the Chief Commercial Officer for Udaan DMC. Rajan Dua, MD, Udaan DMC said that with the new venture they can offer more products to their existing clients and ensure good business in the market. He also informed that they will be opening a new office in Noida for Udaan India, and all their offices across the country will also have a team for Udaan DMC.

Anna Davidyan, Founder, Travel Armenia, a luxury DMC for Armenia, Georgia & Azerbaijan, has appointed Vineet Gopal, Director, Representation World, as its representative for India. Gopal says, “We have been appointed as the India representative for Armenia. It will open new opportunities for Indian travellers travelling to Armenia. Armenia is a scenic country offering great nightlife and experiences. It is very well connected to India through Dubai, just 3 hours away from there. Visa is also not a problem. It will attract good MICE business from India. It is already getting a lot of MICE groups.”