Category Archives: Agents

Thomas Cook (India) and its Group Company, SOTC Travel, have been appointed Preferred Sales Agents (PSA) for the Indian market by Emirates Holidays, the tour operating arm of Emirates Airlines. With a strong focus on India, the partnership intends to target India’s Leisure, Business and B-Leisure segments with a portfolio of both ready-to-book and personalised air-inclusive holidays across Emirates’ global network of more than 120 destinations. Thomas Cook & SOTC’s strategic omnichannel model offers extensive touchpoints to customers:  India’s largest retail holiday network and B2B distribution (across its owned stores, Partner franchise outlets and Preferred Sales Agents) coupled with the companies’ website and call centres. Customers and Agent Partners booking an Emirates Holidays with Thomas Cook India and SOTC can enjoy Emirates’ flight services with all Emirates Holidays bookings. Further, customers can avail complimentary meet and greet service at Dubai International Airport (for Dubai destination) as well as 20% bonus Emirates Skywards miles for their bookings. Customers can also enjoy additional benefits such as complimentary upgrades on meal and room plans during their journey. Rajeev Kale, President & Country Head – Holidays, MICE, Visa, Thomas Cook (India) said, “Being appointed the Preferred Sales Agents (PSA) for Emirates Holidays in India is a special win for us. This partnership reflects the confidence of Emirates Holidays in our leadership brands, the strength of our consumer base and our extensive reach across B2C and B2B segments, pan India. With India positioned as one of the fastest growing outbound travel markets, the announcement of our partnership is perfectly timed: the reopening of India’s skies ushering in revival and growth of tourism. Thomas Cook India offers customers and trade partners, the convenience and ease of …

A rise in dark tourism—where travelers visit historical sites of death and disaster—is creating ethical challenges for authorities, according to GlobalData. The data and analytics company notes that site managers should tread carefully to avoid trivializing the event being memorialised. The report reveals that the ethical implications is one of four main challenges for dark tourism, alongside keeping experiences authentic, over tourism, and questions over integrating technology. Steps should be taken to ensure that the tours are responsible and educational. For instance, the 9/11 Ground Zero Museum Workshop hosts student and educational tours on a regular basis.

This summer, World Architecture Travel (WAT) will take guests on an exuberant self-driven tour through the landlocked country in the heart of Balkans. This less-explored beauty of a place reveals many untold stories, cultures and ethnicities as you pass by. It’s chaotic past and the hustling present is just a flight away. From Belgrade’s world-class nightlife to the diverse cultures of Kladovo, Nis, Novisad, explore Serbia in all its glory. Watch the landscapes unfurl as you drive by the Danube River. The food and the exotic cuisines adds to the magic of this trip. Drive on your own and start your adventure with an experienced team of travelers.  Explore the country like never before, in the comfort of premium cars and excellent hotels. Embark on an unforgettable 7-day trip road trip and drive at your own pace with a route map guide, a fully equipped luxury cars with all mechanical support and necessary backup across Serbia. This drive is over 1500 Km in about 7 days through the natural sceneries. An experienced team shall brief you at the beginning of each day and will be present on route for any assistance throughout the travel.

Malaysia has finally lifted sanctions on its border on 1st April 2022, marking the end of travelling restrictions into the country. Leveraging this new development, Tourism Malaysia has decided to embark on its first roadshow to six major cities in India from 18th until 30th April 2022, after more than two years of hiatus. The roadshow kicked off in Delhi, followed by Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Chennai. The mission is headed by Manoharan Periasamy, Senior Director of the International Promotion Division (Asia & Africa) together with Malaysia’s tourism fraternity which consists of three Malaysia-based airlines, 22 travel agents, four hoteliers, and four product owners. India remains and has been one of the top market sources for Malaysia and has contributed 735,309 arrivals (+22%) in 2019. Apart from its objective to instil confidence among Indians to feel safe to visit Malaysia once again, the roadshow aims to provide a platform for the industry community to bounce back and steer the tourism sector back to its former glory, if not better. “This is the right time to be back in India, and planning for this roadshow is very opportune. The resumption of scheduled international flights from India coincides with the reopening of Malaysia’s international borders,” said Manoharan. “We are thrilled and enthusiastic to welcome Indian travellers back on exciting, new value-driven and action-packed itineraries to witness the best and latest of what Malaysia has to offer. There is so much to explore after two years, especially with the newly opened outdoor theme park, Genting SkyWorlds, the wedding venues such as refurbished Sunway Resort in Kuala Lumpur, Desaru Coast situated on Eastern Coast of Johor, Lexis Hotels and Resorts at Port Dickson …

Palladium Hotel Group the internationally renowned Spanish hotel chain represented by Global Destinations in India recently hosted exclusive cocktail dinners for their top 50 priority travel and trade partners in Mumbai and Delhi. The evenings were graced by The Consul General of Spain Fernando Heredia Noguer along with The Director of the Tourism Office of Spain in India, Elisa Robles in Mumbai, while Delhi saw the presence of Deputy Head of Mission, the Embassy of Spain, Montserrat Momán Pampillo and Incharge of Consular Section, Embassy of Spain, Helana Escorial Lopez in attendance. Sandra Polo Canudas, Asia & ME Commercial Director Palladium Hotel Group presented insights on Palladium’s hospitality and newly established regulations for hassle-free travel for Indian visitors. She touched upon Spain re-opening borders, all ready to welcome Indians back. The guests were acquainted with the gamut of brands under the Palladium Hotel Group and were informed about the upcoming projects & developments in Spain. The evenings were full of sparking conversations with the travel fraternity exchanging tête-à-têtes over cocktails. The events presented an opportunity to reconnect with travel & trade partners in India to showcase the diverse brand portfolio the hotel group has to offer. Canudas said, “After 2 years of meeting virtually it is delightful to meet our key Stakeholders in-person. India continues to be one of our focus markets for Outbound travel. We look forward, to continue increasing our footprint in India and to further our brand presence. With international travel now open, we are ready to spoil our Indian visitors with an array of experiences, fantastic cuisine, and stunning vistas!”

The travel agent fraternity of Andhra Pradesh welcomed RK Roja Garu, the new Tourism Minister for Andhra Pradesh. K. Vijay Mohan, President of Tours & Travels Association of Andhra (TTAA), as well as ADTOI Chairman for Andhra & Telangana, said, “We look forward to working closely with the new minister for promoting tourism sector in the state.”

The Department of Tourism of Rajasthan Government on Wednesday signed an MoU with the Federation of Hospitality and Tourism of Rajasthan (FHTR) for organizing the Rajasthan Domestic Travel Mart (RDTM) 2022. The MoU was signed between the Director of Tourism, Nishant Jain and the President of FHTR, Apurv Kumar in the presence of Principal Secretary, Tourism, Gayatri Rathore. She Rathore said that the objective of the MoU is to promote Rajasthan as the most favourable tourist destination nationally and informed that the second edition of RDTM will be organized from July 22-24, 2022 at Birla auditorium, Jaipur.

SriLankan Airlines has geared up for a busy Summer 2022 by increasing the number of scheduled flights by 40 per cent to match pre-pandemic levels and meet the growing demand for air travel as the industry continues to recover. The frequency increases will come into effect across SriLankan’s network of online destinations with the start of the airline’s summer flight schedule. The new schedule will facilitate smoother operations for the airline and offer customers greater flexibility, convenience and connectivity. One of the most significant changes is in SriLankan’s operations to India, which were scaled down considerably at the height of the pandemic. India recently reopened their skies for commercial passenger flights after two years of closure. In celebration of this encouraging development, SriLankan will be nearly doubling the number of weekly flights to India to over 100.  Other planned frequency increases to cities in the Indian Subcontinent include the operation of an extra weekly flight each to Gan, Maldives and Lahore, Pakistan. SriLankan is further planning to match the weekly number of flights to Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Muscat and Seychelles in the Middle Eastern and African regions to its pre-pandemic level of operations. Frequencies to certain destinations in the Far East and Oceania would also be gradually increased in the coming months. Daily flights have already been introduced to Kuala Lumpur, while daily flights will be operated to Melbourne by May and to Bangkok and Jakarta by July of this year. Further, an additional weekly flight has been scheduled for Narita starting from July 2022. New destinations are also part of the plan and commercial passenger flights to Seoul, Korea are to be launched in May 2022. SriLankan Airlines earns …

Sharing new developments at Asego, Dev Karvat, Founder & CEO, Asego, revealed, “We are about to launch our all-new tech platform which will allow our partners to issue policies on-the-go in just 3 clicks. Furthermore, we have moved to a multiple underwriter model which will provide our partners more flexibility and freedom to customize products and services as per their customers’ needs.”

Flying Konkan Devgad Zipline is the first of its kind adventure sport activity along the coastal region of India, was launched and thrown open to public earlier this year. Co-founded by  IT engineers turned entrepreneurs, siblings Vaishnavi Joil & Srikant Joil  introduces coastal ziplining to the Indian population as a unique adventure activity along the coast, offering breathtaking views of the pristine coast, and thrilling break from the niche ‘water sports’ category. Over the past decade, the popularity of adventure sports tourism has seen an upward trend among tourists of all age groups and backgrounds. Among them all, ziplining is one of the most popular, safe and adventurous activity so far, for those seeking an adrenaline rush but in a comparatively safer set-up, while taking in the natural beauty of the destination.  And while India currently has several ziplining options, including popular locations in Rishikesh and some in Rajasthan, Goa and even in Maharashtra, the Indian coast has so far remained isolated to ziplining. But Flying Konkan Zipline is changing all of that! A true labor of love, the Flying Konkan Zipline was conceptualized as a curious idea in 2016, and finally took shape and materialized in January 2021, after years of meticulous research, planning, permissions, paper work and several trials. However, the pandemic and the lockdown in 2020, was a pivotal point in the way the venture would shape out eventually. Speaking about the journey and the vision, Vaishnavi Joil, Co-Founder, Flying Konkan Devgad ZIpline, said, “Devgad has been our family native and we have spent several summer vacations as children, relishing in the mangoes and exploring the beach. However, during the lockdown when we moved here to work …