Category Archives: Agents

Under the banner of AlUla Moments, AlUla’s events calendar published today highlights four festivals including Winter at Tantora which is back by popular demand and celebrates heritage, AlUla Skies, AlUla Arts and AlUla’s Wellness Festival.  The festivals will offer curated experiences of art, culture, music, nature, wellness, equestrian, gastronomy and astronomy. The events will include free and ticketed experiences, with tickets and information available at experiencealula.com. The four distinct festivals will commence on 21 December and run through to 30 March against the backdrop of AlUla’s many timeless wonders. Musical performances will also be back in AlUla with Maraya taking centre stage again as the venue for regional and international acts starting from this October. Winter at Tantora, the very first music and arts festival in the Kingdom returns – now in a six-week format. A stunning Candlelit Symphonic Concert at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hegra will set the tone for the festival season as the opening event.  Equestrian events will include the eagerly awaited new haute couture horse fashion event, Ikmah Fashion Calvary, the return of the competitive Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Endurance Race and the oh-so-chic AlUla Desert Polo. A new Citrus Festival will celebrate AlUla produce and the Harrat Observation Deck with Back to Black restaurant will offer stunning sunrise and sunset views of AlUla from the top of the Harrat Uwayrid. Archaeology and cultural workshops will be introduced at the heritage sites, there will be live immersion shows at AlUla Old Town and in the oasis. Winter at Tantora will run from 21 December to 12 February. From February 2021, the AlUla Arts festival will bring together exhibitions and encounters created by …

IndiGo recently conducted a familiarisation tour for top 10 agents of Indore to Gwalior to help the trade promote Gwalior as a new tourist destination. Also part of the group was TK Jose, TAFI Chairman (MP Chapter). They stayed at the Neemrana Heritage hotel.

Tourism Australia has relaunched its Aussie Specialist Program to make it easier for travel sellers to gain the skills they need to better promote and sell Australia. The Aussie Specialist Program has been given a new look and feel in its 32nd year and the new program has greater personalisation, faster qualifying times and shorter more interactive training modules. The investment comes after many frontline travel sellers turned to the Aussie Specialist Program over the past 18 months to learn and position themselves as champions for Australian travel once borders re-open. Improvements to the Aussie Specialist Program were made in conjunction with more than 400 stakeholders and 1,000 existing Aussie Specialist agents.

EbixCash Travels(Via.com) has taken the initiative to re-engage with the trade by conducting Travel Sub-agent Meets across the country, ensuring all COVID protocols. Naveen Kundu, MD, EbixCash Travel Services (parent company of Via.com) says, “The agenda of these meets is to bring agents out of their COVID shells and offices/ homes, to get back to work and their business. We have been telling the small and medium enterprises that, we as a conglomerate will help you with technology, credit lines, and efficient payment remittances. When the partners and the principles meet, they develop a camaraderie, which will eventually work in favour of customer, suppliers and business.” EbixCash Travels is all out to support, reassure and extend help to its trade partners business. The meets are being conducted to understand challenges and help overcome them.

EbixCash Travels(Via.com) has taken the bold initiative to re-engage with the trade by conducting Travel Sub-agent Meets across the country, making sure that all COVID protocols are followed. Naveen Kundu, MD, EbixCash Travel Services (parent company of Via.com) says, “The aim behind these meets is to bring agents out of their post-COVID shells and from their offices/ homes, to get back to work and their business. These are small and medium enterprises, and we have been telling them that we as a conglomerate will help you with technology, credit lines, efficient payment remittances. When the partners and the principles meet together, they develop a camaraderie, which eventually will work in the favor of the customer, suppliers and the business. We must put in efforts to bring the business to normal, these are the efforts that we are making and rewarding them for staying through with us, even during the pandemic.” Now that the situation is getting better, EbixCash Travels (Via.com) is all out to support, reassure and extend help to its trade partners to grow their business because we believe in developing and keeping the connection personal with the community, and expanding it by creating physical community meetings. The meets are being conducted to have a closed group conversation with the partners to understand challenges and help them overcome them.

Corporate travel in India is making a comeback with 100% recovery across Pharma, Healthcare, Real Estate and Biotech sectors on MakeMyTrip. There is significant recovery in sectors including Manufacturing, Defense & Space, Logistics as well as utilities with professionals returning to travel for work. MakeMyTrip’s recent market study on the recovery trends for the corporate travel segment further indicates that sectors including Financial Services, IT, Consumer goods and Automotive will see relatively slower recovery and are likely to be the last to see a complete recovery as far as corporate travel is concerned.

The resumption of short-stay entry visa processing for Ireland has been announced and has come into effect from 13 September, 2021. Indians fully vaccinated with COVISHIELD can now apply for short-stay entry visas to Ireland. There are no quarantine requirements for fully-vaccinated Indians with COVISHIELD or recently recovered travellers to Ireland. Travellers must fill out a Passenger Locator Form before departure.

In a recent webinar, Kimarli Fernando, Chairperson, Sri Lanka Tourism, revealed that the island nation has launched a US$12 (Rs890) mandatory insurance for a policy of US$50,000 (Rs37 lakh) valid up to one month. “We are using this opportunity to shift gears in tourism. Despite COVID, 2021-2030 has been declared as the tourism decade for Sri Lanka and we see this as a time to do things we did not do in the past. We are creating a strategic development plan.”

The Adventure Tour Operators Association of India (ATOAI) is organising a webinar titled ‘The Great Indian Outdoors at the threshold’ today at 11am. Guest speakers include Dr. V Venu, Additional Chief Secretary, Tourism, Government of Kerala; Rupinder Brar, Additional Director General, Ministry of Tourism; and Brig Ashok Abbey, President, Indian Mountaineering Foundation. The webinar will focus on how the sector can keep up with the growth, and guidelines and regulations that need to be implemented to curb accident rate.

The Indian Railways has recently started two Vistadome train services in Assam and North Bengal. The Vistadome tourist special trains will run between Guwahati and New Haflong in Assam and New Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar Junction in North Bengal. There are jungles, wildlife and tea gardens on the route between NJP and Alipurduar, thus providing a tourist with the opportunity to view the natural beauty of Dooars during their travels.