Category Archives: Agents

Indian nationals were the largest group to receive UK visas for Visit, Study and Work categories in the year ending June 2024, said HE Lindy Cameron CB OBE, British High Commissioner to India at the inauguration of the new state-of-art UK visa application facility operated by VFS Global in Delhi on 12 November 2024. UK visa customers from India will now enjoy a smoother process. At VFS Global UK Visa Application Centres (VACs), biometrics will be enrolled first, followed by document scanning for non-digital customers. This change reduces wait times and enhances service under the global UK visa services contract secured by VFS Global in December 2023. Many VACs have also relocated or upgraded to state-of-the-art facilities across India. Lindy Cameron, British High Commissioner to India said: “The UK-India partnership is built on millions of personal connections, shared dreams, and collective aspirations. I’m delighted to launch the refurbished VFS Visa Application Centre for UK visa and passport applications in Delhi. We’re introducing significant improvements in our visa services across India, further strengthening our already excellent visa offering for Indian nationals. The vast majority of Visit, Work and Study visa applications we receive are processed within 3 weeks and there are no caps on visa appointments.” Matt Heath, Visits & ETA Network Deputy Director, UK Visas and Immigration, remarked, “I am delighted to be here, in Delhi, to inaugurate this visa application centre, we extend our sincere thanks to VFS for their outstanding support in facilitating close to a million visa applications for Indian nationals in the recent year ending June 2024. For the last two years, UKVI has consistently met our customer service standards, making visa decisions for visit, work …

CA Krishnan R, Director & CEO, Unimoni Financial Services, said that the award meant a lot to the company. He said, “Our dedicated staff includes destination specialists certified by global tourism boards. Our user-friendly travel portal facilitates easy bookings for flights, hotels, and holiday packages.”

Praising FHRAI’s new Centre of Excellence, Pradeep Shetty, President of FHRAI, says, “This has been a long-standing desire of our federation, as we have often faced challenges when approaching the government regarding policy issues, regulatory bottlenecks, compliance burden, and the overall ease of doing business One of the major gaps we identified was the lack of comprehensive data to support our claims and recommendations. With the Centre of Excellence, we aim to address this gap head-on.”

Underlining the importance of wedding segment for India, DG Tourism, Mugdha Sinha says “Wedding as a market is worth US$ 130 billion with 8 to 10 million annual weddings in India, second only to China. Delhi had the most weddings about 30,000 in one month of November 2023 that energised the whole paraphernalia around the weddings from invites, to wedding planners to apparel, jewellery, gifting, accommodations, logistics, photography, which adds up to the employment generation and contribution to both GDP of economy and creative economy. As a policy maker we also look at issues like permissions, taxes, incentives, that need resolution to make India an attractive destination for Wed in India, for celebrating wedding anniversaries and for honeymooning in India.”  

VFS Global has worked with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland since 2010 and under the new agreement will continue to provide Schengen short terms visa services and Residence permit services including biometric enrolment in 32 countries (including India) across 10 regions. Since 2010, VFS Global has handled more than 8.5 million visa applications on behalf of the Government of Finland. Present were several esteemed dignitaries including Jussi Tanner, Director General Consular Services, Ari Uusikartano, Senior Ministerial Adviser and Director of Information and Documentation at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and Zubin Karkaria, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, VFS Global Group. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland said: “We anticipate a seamless and professional collaboration with VFS Global. In our tender, we especially highlighted the global coverage of the outsourced services, quality of biometrics and technical capacity, quality control, risk management and customer service. The external service provider receives applications, collects biometric data and application fees and forwards them to the missions. It does not make visa decisions. Visa decisions continue to be the responsibility of Foreign Ministry officials.” Jiten Vyas, Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Business Development, VFS Global, said: “VFS Global is delighted that we will continue to serve the Government of Finland as their trusted service provider. We have enjoyed a strong partnership with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and welcome the opportunity to renew our services. We look forward to offering visa applicants best-in-class visa solutions, and a seamless application process across 10 regions globally.”

Speaking about the significance of research and data in the tourism industry, Suman Billa, IAS, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Tourism said, “Being in the sector which is vast and multifaceted, it is essential to have accurate and comprehensive data to inform our decisions. While government data provides a solid foundation, it often captures only one facet of the entire landscape. To truly understand the dynamics of the tourism and hospitality sectors, we must triangulate this data with insights from industry bodies, international organisations like the WTO, and other reliable sources.”

An Amex Trendex India finding highlights that 73% of Indians are using travel credit card rewards, airline miles or loyalty points to manage costs, reflecting a shift toward maximising value during the holidays. Domestic travel remains popular, with 88% opting for trips within India, while international travel is on the radar for 61%.

Puneet Chhatwal, MD & CEO, IHCL, has announced that IHCL has committed to skilling 100,000 workers in hospitality industry by 2030. He stressed that addressing the sector’s talent shortage is crucial for future growth, especially as India’s tourism infrastructure continues to expand.

Accepting the award for ‘Best Transporter – Europe’ Akash Chhabra, Director, Sasta Europe – DMC of Europe and UK, said, “This award is a significant achievement and a privilege for us. I believe it will generate more business for us and allow us to contribute significantly to the industry. Europe is a tough market for transporters, so we hope to support the industry.”

The union tourism ministry has instructed online travel agents and industry bodies to create transparent refund policies and standard operating procedures to handle air ticket cancellation refunds, following numerous complaints from travellers. The ministry has written to companies such as MakeMyTrip, Yatra, EaseMyTrip, Thomas Cook and Cleartrip and industry bodies including Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) and Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), stating there is an “urgent need” to bring in transparency in the cancellation refund process.