Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

Thomas Cook (India) has announced a strategic partnership with Euronet Worldwide, to introduce significant additional benefits on its unique prepaid travel cards—Thomas Cook Borderless Prepaid multi-currency and One Currency cards in India. Euronet becomes the exclusive technology partner for Thomas Cook India’s unique prepaid travel card programmes: Borderless Prepaid and One Currency. The Borderless Prepaid multi-currency card is a secure and convenient way to carry 8 global currencies in one card (US Dollar, Great British Pound, Euro, Canadian Dollar, Australian Dollar, Japanese Yen, Singapore Dollar, Swiss Franc), with benefits of emergency cash, surcharge-free ATM withdrawals in certain countries and insurance against fraudulent transactions. The Thomas Cook One Currency Card is USD loaded and guarantees a zero cross currency conversion fee across the globe. Thomas Cook’s prepaid travel cards can be used across merchant outlets, online portals and ATMs globally. All cards issued by Thomas Cook India will be hosted and managed on Euronet’s payments processing and card issuing platform. This platform not only offers the routine features of a prepaid card system, but is configurable to help Thomas Cook roll out customised options to meet specific customer needs – across business, leisure, b-leisure, student, etc.

After successfully launching direct daily flights from Delhi and Mumbai to Amsterdam last year, Jet Airways is all set to commence a new connection between Bengaluru and Amsterdam. Ragini Chopra, Vice President – Corporate Affairs & Public Relations, said, “Jet Airways will start its third daily flight from Bengaluru to Amsterdam starting October 29, 2017, and would connect the IT capital of India to Holland. Amsterdam has proved to be an excellent gateway for Jet Airways, from where we connect to the entire Europe and the US through onward flights on Jet Airways as well as our codeshare partners including KLM Royal Dutch Airlines as well as DELTA Air Lines.”

In a bid to promote its products and offerings, NBTC Holland Marketing hosted its sales mission in New Delhi in association with Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Jet Airways. Carola Muller, Global Travel Trade Manager, NBTC Holland Marketing, said, “ India is an important and growing market for Holland and we want it to grow further. In fact, India is pour fastest growing market and we foresee a 15 per cent rise in arrival numbers by the end of this year.” The three-city sales-mission will now go to Bengaluru and Mumbai to educate the trade about íts destination and products. Other partners for the mission include Blue Boat Company, Efteling, Henri Willig, ITO Tours and Madurodam.

The Minister of Tourism, Government of Maharashtra, Jayakumar Jitendrasinh Rawal, met the delegates from Wakayama Prefecture to discuss tourism potential between the two countries. Also present at the event were other dignitaries like Vijay Waghmare, Managing Director, MTDC, and Aashutosh Rathod, Joint Managing Director, MTDC. The international delegates included Hiroyuki Tsui, Director General, International Planning Division, Wakayama Prefecture Government, and Onishi Tatsunori, International Planning Division, Wakayama Prefecture Government. The Japanese delegates from Wakayama Prefecture also explored the well-known Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat to see the traditional way of washing clothes.

The Department of Tourism, Government of Karnataka, reportedly plans to promote tourism in the state through special tour packages for the Dussehra festival. The department, through its arm Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC), intends to launch the ‘Dasara Special Tour Package’ in the Golden Chariot, the only luxury tourist train in South India, run by KSTDC, to promote this state festival. The first trip will run from September 23 to 25, and the second from September 29 to October 1. The train will depart from and arrive at the Yeshwantpur railway station in Bengaluru. Priyank Kharge, Minister for Information Technology, Bio-Technology, Science and Technology and Tourism, Government of Karnataka, reportedly said, “This initiative of KSTDC provides an excellent opportunity to people to experience royalty on board, which would showcase the Nadahabba, the Mysuru Dasara and its grandeur.” KSTDC has also planned curated royal walks to allow guests to explore the heritage-rich city of Mysuru. Guests will be offered a gold pass to witness the Dasara and cultural programmes in front of an illuminated Mysuru Palace. Source: Hindu Business Line

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.

Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) has launched special Ganesh Darshan tours for the devotees in Mumbai, Pune and Konkan region to celebrate 125 years of Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav. On this occasion, MTDC is promoting Ganpati mandals, which was started by Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak in Mumbai. Ganesh Darshan tours will not only surge tourism in the state, but also give a chance to foreign and domestic travellers to be a part of the celebrations. The tours will include sighting of the most popular Ganesh pandals in Mumbai, including Lalbaug-cha-Raja, Ganesh Gully, GSB Mandal, Fort-cha-Raja, Fanaswadi Ganesha, Jitekarwadi Ganesha and Bramhansabha Ganesha. The tour will commence from Prabhadevi, from where dedicated 45-seater AC buses will take tourists on this devotional ride. These tours have started from August 26 and will continue till September 5, 2017.

Starting October 3, 2017, Chandigarh airport will limit daily flight operation timings for upgrade and repairs, according to a report in The Economic Times. The report stated that the airport will stop functioning from 3 p.m. to 5 a.m. daily. The move was opposed by airlines citing inadequate advance notice. The Federation of Indian Airlines opposed the plan and asked the Indian Air Force, which owns the airport, to shift renovation timings to night to minimise impact. Airlines had planned to increase daily flights from 74 to 84 in the winter schedule, and closure every afternoon will affect 28 flights, they said. Reduction in operation timings could lead to a 35-40 per cent drop in passengers and flights, the federation said. International and domestic passenger traffic at Chandigarh increased 42 per cent to 216,694 in June, 2017, according to the data on the Airports Authority of India website. Source: The Economic Times

Vistara has announced that it will resume its daily flight services from New Delhi to Varanasi starting October 10, 2017. In March this year, the airline had discontinued its services to the holy city in Uttar Pradesh owing to operational issues. A statement by the airline read, “Vistara is delighted to reintroduce daily non-stop flights between New Delhi and Varanasi starting October 10.” The TATA-SIA airline has also launched introductory one-way fare of Rs 1,500, without taxes, to attract customers for the route.

Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) has announced Turkey as the venue for its next convention, which will be held from October 27-31, 2017. The 4-night, 5-day convention is planned to be held at two different locations in Turkey and entail pre- and post-convention tours for the delegates, according to an official document released by the association. However, their names have still not been announced.