Category Archives: Agents

Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) has launched a new vertical, a first of its kind – Educational Destination Workshop-International (EDWIN), in order to offer education and first-hand experience of various destinations across the globe to the travel agents and tour operators from Tier-II and Tier-III cities. The first workshop will take place in Ladakh from October 11-16. The workshops will be exclusively available to the attendees (exhibitors/ buyers) of GPS 2017 at any of the six cities on first-come-first-serve basis, informs Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director, Global Panorama Showcase. He says, “These workshops are not familiarisation trips and are intended for educational purposes. The aim is to give first-hand experience of the destination to the tour operators and help them add new destinations to their product portfolio so that they can diversify their offerings for the travellers. There is a highly subsidised registration fee of Rs. 17,000 per person, which includes airfare ex Delhi; accommodation on twin sharing basis; meals; sightseeing and transfers and ground handling.” Singh further adds that the participants will be given an EDWIN Destination Specialist certification upon completion of the workshop. The upcoming destinations under EDWIN include Bali, Zanzibar and Malaysia, and many more are in the pipeline.

India Sales Associates has been appointed as the GSA for five-star luxury resort Nusa Dua Beach Hotel & Spa, Bali, and will represent their services in the India market. “The Nusa Dua Beach Hotel & Spa, Bali, trade marked as ‘Authentically Bali’, is an iconic Balinese resort, with 200m of white sandy beach, 382 rooms in varied categories, unique design and architecture, world-renowned spa, superlative personalized services, and multiple leading restaurants, along with a meeting and wedding venue that has a capacity of 30 to 1000 persons; which make it an undoubtedly superior choice for Indians travelling to Bali, and hence a resort for us to build an association with,” said Manas Sinha, Director, India Sales Associates, GSA – Nusa Dua Beach Hotel & Spa, Bali.

Ezeego1.com has opened a new franchise store at Kukatpally, Hyderabad, to cater to the growing travel demands in the capital city of the Telangana state. The outlet will provide all sorts of travel services, like flight and rail tickets, hotel bookings, customised and discounted packages, and cruise holidays from leading travel product suppliers of India and overseas. Ezeego1 will provide the franchisee with complete marketing, technical and store development support. The marketing activity will include print and radio advertising—attractive and preferential commercials. Store development support will include store designing to reinforce the brand’s look and feel. Training and technical support will be provided to all franchisee staff to effectively address the changing technology issues and enhance customer interface. Travellers can choose from a variety of group tour summer packages to domestic destinations like Ladakh, Andaman, Sikkim, Himachal, Goa and Kashmir and international destinations like Europe, South Africa, Dubai, Thailand, Mauritius, Hong Kong and Singapore amongst others. The store will also be able to offer only-veg tours for travellers who have vegetarian or Jain food preference.

Ark Travels, the Preferred Sales Agent for Star Cruises in India, is keen on doing more and more charters for the India market. Explaining this, Kishan Biyani, Managing Director, Ark Travels, says, “Charters deliver more value to customers at almost the same price. Next year, you will see a lot of charters coming in, in co-operation with Star Cruises, from Bangkok and Malaysia, which will be a three-night itinerary. We want to show our partners what charters can offer their clients – multiple entertainment options such as Indian Idol night and DJ party at multiple venues.” Last year, Ark Travels did two charters and this figure rose to eight charters this year. “So far, we have managed to do eight charters. Next year I am planning around 18 charters, almost one every month, from Bangkok and Malaysia,” Biyani reveals.

A pioneer in the Indian travel industry, Mr. Inder Sharma, Chairman of The Select Group, passed away in New Delhi on September 4. He was 85 years old. Mr. Sharma opened the first SITA World Travel (India) office in New Delhi in 1956. Among the many hats he donned includes being awarded the Padma Shri in 1990 by the Government of India for his contribution in the field of Tourism. He was the president of Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) from 1966-69 and 1978-79 and was also awarded by the British Tourism Authority with the Holder of the Keys to Britain Award in 1980, the only Indian to have been so awarded. Mr. Sharma is survived by his wife Dr. Aruna Sharma and his daughter Neeraj and son Arjun. The travel industry comes together in this time of grief and deeply mourns his demise.

Satyajeet Rajan has been appointed as the Director General – Tourism, Government of India. The IAS 1987 Kerala cadre official was previously Principal Secretary of Personnel & Administrative Reforms – Government of Kerala; Managing Director of Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) and has been associated with the Ministry of Defence and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in the past.

The number of Indians visiting London is set to increase by 90 per cent by 2025, according to official data released by London & Partners, the business arm of the Mayor of London’s office. Last year, London received 0.27 million Indian visitors which is expected to increase to 0.52 million in the next eight years. In terms of spend Indian visitors to London from India spent 258 million pounds (USD 333 million) in 2016, which is projected to rise to 721.2 million pounds (USD 931 million) by 2025, marking a 180 per cent increase, according to the data. “Visitors to the capital bring huge benefits. The industry boosts London’s economy, as well as supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs and showing the world that London is an open, welcoming and diverse city,” said the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan at the launch of a new Tourism Vision for London. Besides India, the other fastest growing markets for visitors to London by 2025 include China (103 per cent growth), the US (43 per cent) and the UAE (43 per cent). For the new Tourism Vision, London & Partners has collaborated with more than 100 of the capitals tourism leaders, including the Greater London Authority, Gatwick Airport, Hilton and the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, to define a new vision for the tourism industry. “As a combined force, we believe that if this vision is realised, tourism will drive economic growth and stimulate the city’s cultural scene, support even greater numbers of jobs and strengthen London’s reputation as an open and welcoming city,” L&P said. The vision states that the growth in visitor numbers is not a given with increasing competition from …

In a bid to tap into the growing corporate travel segment in India, MakeMyTrip has launched MyBusiness, a convenient, transparent and efficient self-booking tool on the MMT app. The tool will help keep control in the hands of the company while providing corporate travel benefits and savings for all. Speaking at the launch, Rajesh Magow, co-founder and CEO-India, MakeMyTrip said, “MakeMyTrip has always been an enabler of change in the way Indians travel, our focus and investment in MyBusiness underlines our sense of purpose in changing the way corporate India moves. We have an aggressive plan in place to tap into this fast-growing business travel market by moving complex offline processes to a convenient and efficient online booking experience for employees and employers alike.” Ranjeet Oak, Chief Business Officer, MakeMyTrip, said, “For most organisations, business travel spending is the second largest expense, and the entire process allows certain amount of discrepancies and reimbursement issues later on. SME corporates are contributing to 70% of the flourishing Indian corporate travel business and with MyBusiness, we are empowering the entire ecosystem, by establishing the ‘Choice’ with the traveller, ‘Control’ with the company and ‘Benefits and Savings’ for all.” MyBusiness will not only make businesses of any size avail best corporate travel deals but will also bring down friction in the expense process. By introducing the new corporate wallet on MyBusiness, the companies will be able to reduce payment inefficiencies, liabilities and potential corporate card abuse—in turn providing employees and companies greater flexibility. This would be supported via dedicated corporate helpdesks which will be operational 24×7.

VFS Global has completed the acquisition of visa service provider TT Services (TTS). The transaction enables VFS Global to leverage on core competences and brands and to further enhance operating performance. UK-based TTS is a provider of integrated visa processing solutions with global presence and a comprehensive portfolio of services. The company operates 51 application centres in more than 35 countries and has 216 employees and offers a range of visa services for its client governments, partners and applicants. Zubin Karkaria, CEO of VFS Global Group, says, “TT Services has, like VFS Global, extended industry experience of more than 15 years and is a trusted service delivery partner for its clients. I see a strong fit by TTS joining VFS Global. This will enable us to further enhance and extend our services towards our client governments and visa applicants.” The change of control will have no bearing on the business operations of the parties and act as a catalyst to improved services and enhanced client and customer satisfaction.

Travel agents providing online ticketing and other services will be liable to deduct one per cent tax at source under the GST regime as they have been classified as e-commerce operators, the CBEC said. Under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, an e- commerce operator is required to collect 1 per cent of the net value of taxable supplies made through it. The amount so collected is called tax collected at source or TCS but this provision has been kept in abeyance for the time being. Online travel agents have been classified as e-commerce operators (ECO) and so they have to deduct TCS. The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), in a fresh set of frequently asked questions (FAQs), said the TCS requirement would not apply to someone selling own products through a website. Only applicable GST for the goods would be levied in that case. Electronic commerce or e-commerce means supply of goods or services, including digital products, over elect .. electronic network and an e-commerce operator is a person who owns operates or manages the electronic platform for e-commerce, it said. “Online travel agents providing services through digital or electronic platform will fall under the category of ECO (e- commerce operator) liable to deduct TCS under Section 52 of the CGST Act, 2017,” the CBEC said.