Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

Vadodara’s Surya Palace has been rebranded to Grand Mercure Vadodara Surya Palace. Strategically located in proximity to Vadodara’s business district and corporate hubs, the hotel is the first Grand Mercure to launch in the state of Gujarat. “We are delighted to associate with AccorHotels and rebrand Surya Palace as Grand Mercure Vadodara Surya Palace. The hotel has always resonated with Vadodara, its people, art and culture. An appreciation of craftsmanship and a commitment to elegance are woven throughout the hotel,” said Piyush Shah, Managing Director, Jindal Hotels. Featuring 146 well-appointed guest rooms including five suites, Azure an all-day dining restaurant, Vanilla a delicatessen, an outdoor pool, a fitness and wellness centre, the hotel is a mere 2 minute drive from the railway station and 10 minutes from the airport. “The rebranding of Grand Mercure Vadodara Surya Palace gives us an opportunity to showcase the property as our 48th hotel in the country and highlight AccorHotels’ growing network in the region. It further strengthens our presence in Gujarat as AccorHotels’ first upscale property in the state and West India,” said Jean-Michel Cassé, Chief Operating Officer, India & South Asia, AccorHotels. “Grand Mercure is a cultural touchstone in each destination, capturing guests’ imagination and bringing local stories to life.” The launch of Grand Mercure Vadodara strengthens AccorHotels’ presence in Gujarat. The group will further augment its presence in the state with the opening of a Mercure hotel in the divine city of Dwarka in Gujarat later this year, outlining the importance of West India as a market for AccorHotels. Additionally, through the setup of a new Global Sales Office structure in the country, AccorHotels has consolidated its brand portfolio under a single …

TAAI Western Region will sign an MoU with Malaysia Tourism on June 22, 2017 in Mumbai to offer training workshops to its members in the Western Region. The workshop is titled ‘Malaysia – Beyond KL’ and will be offered to frontliners and representatives of tour operators. The association also launched a concise booklet on Malaysia that features 1,001 packages and aims to serve as a ready-reckoner for agents who want to sell the destination. Sampat Damani, Chairman Western Region, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI)adds, “Fourteen states from Malaysia have worked out detailed packages in this booklet along with pricing. Agents just need to look at it.”

The Israel Ministry of Tourism (IMOT) will conduct multi-city roadshow in India this August to continue to enhance commercial ties with the Indian travel fraternity. The roadshow will be held in a networking workshop format and will commence in Mumbai on August 21 followed by Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and will conclude in Chennai on August 30. Hassan Madah, Director, IMOT, said, “We have been witnessing historical growth from India this year. We have already recorded 33 per cent increase in tourist arrivals in the period of January to May 2017 over the same period in 2016. Our aim is to receive 60,000 Indian tourists by end of 2017. This roadshow will help us in achieving our goal as it will strengthen business opportunities for the Indian travel trade who are looking to promote Israel as a tourist destination. We are confident that through the roadshow, Indian travel agents will be able to build new connections and increase their knowledge of the various tourism offerings in Israel.” Israel achieved an increase of 13 per cent in 2016 over the previous year with a record of 44,672 Indian tourists visiting the destination. The statistics released by the Israel Ministry of Tourism also revealed 42 per cent growth in Indian arrivals to Israel in the month of May 2017 compared to the same period in 2016.

South Australia continues to record strong growth in the Indian market with a surge in its latest visitor and spend numbers. With the recent results, India is now the eighth-largest source market for South Australia. The International Visitor Survey results released by Tourism Research Australia indicate a 30 per cent rise in the number of Indians travelling to South Australia as of March 2017. Moreover, the Festival State also saw an additional spend of $23mn as compared to the last year, which is reflected in the steep 130 per cent rise in spends. The average year-on-year growth over the last three years, both in terms of visitor and spend figures, has been steadily increasing at a rate of 8.33 per cent and 39.7 per cent respectively. Commenting on the results, Dana Urmonas, Regional Director (India & Southeast Asia), South Australian Tourism Commission, said, “India has always been an important growth market for us and we are happy to see Indians increasingly opting to travel to South Australia. We will continue to focus on the India market and toward this we will be rolling out some exciting initiatives over the next year as well. Our target segments will continue to include families, honeymooners and independent leisure travellers in the age group of 25-45 in primary markets of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai.” Data provided by a recent Consumer Demand Project conducted by Tourism Australia indicate that South Australia has been moving up the consideration set of Indians looking to travel to Australia for leisure purposes. According to the report, Kangaroo Island in South Australia is ranked number three on Indian traveller’s consideration list after Sydney and Melbourne. Some of the sought …

Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January to May this year were 465.87 lakhs as against 396.04 lakhs during the corresponding period of the previous year, thereby registering a growth of 17.63 per cent. This was revealed by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) after analysing the traffic data submitted by various domestic airlines in May 2017. SpiceJet recorded the highest Passenger Load Factor (PLF) of 94.3 per cent, while IndiGo came out the winner in terms of On Time Performance (OTP) at 85 per cent.

Guidelines for wellness and yoga tourism in India will be released on June 21 on the occasion of International Yoga Day while the policy for medical tourism in India will be announced in three to four weeks subsequently, informed Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State (Independent charge) for Tourism and Culture, Government of India. This was announced during the third meeting of the National Medical and Wellness Tourism Promotion Board (NMWTPB) where members of the board discussed ways to improve the structure of the policy and make it more comprehensive. Sharma said, “Medical and wellness tourism plays a major role in overall growth of tourism. India offers some very intricate treatments at one sixth the cost in comparison to many countries; have the best professionals and the most acclaimed paramedical staff. To harness the potential of this segment, we are going to divide the segment in two phases. On June 21 we will release the guidelines for wellness centers, spas and yoga centers for tourism purposes. We have asked the members of the Board for suggestions to prepare a draft Medical Tourism Policy, which will be then reviewed and later released in a matter of three to four weeks. We are also working on a dynamic, interactive web portal which will be one stop shop for medical value travel needs. The purpose is to standardise the rates of various services, provide a list of medical tourism providers and offer a single window system to medical and wellness tourism in a transparent manner.” Rashmi Verma, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, added that generally medical and wellness tourism are seen as separate entities but the NMWTPB is a landmark committee where …

Come July 1, Indians flying abroad will not have to fill departure cards. According to an order issued by the Union Home Ministry, “It has been decided to discontinue the practice of filling up of the departure card by Indians at all international airports with effect from July 1, 2017.” This is one of the steps by the government to ensure hassle-free movement of Indians travelling abroad. However, those going out of the country via rail, seaport and land immigration check-posts need to fill the embarkation card. The Home Ministry has said that the information shared by the passengers is available in the system from other sources as well. This would reduce the time required to complete immigration related formalities by passengers and would also allow airports to handle larger number of people.

Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu flagged off Gandhi Darshan Special Tourist Train on June 17, 2017. In order to commemorate the centenary celebration of Sabarmati Ashram associated with the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, Ministry of Railways has decided to run Gandhi Darshan Special Tourist Train covering all the important tourist places under Gandhian Circuit. The train will be operated by its PSU IRCTC. Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu flagged off this train through video conferencing from Bandra, the train started its journey from Sabarmati on June 17 (Saturday), the centenary day of Sabarmati Ashram in the presence of Gujarat Chief Minister, Vijay Rupani. This Gandhi Special Tourist train will cover all the important destinations like Wardha, Motihari, Bettiah, Gaya, Varanasi, Allahabad and Surat connected with India’s freedom struggle movement & Mahatma Gandhi. The train will be on a special tour for 10 days from June 17 to 26, 2017.

The Australian High Commission and Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection have announced that all Indian nationals will be able to lodge visitor visa applications for Australia online from July 1, 2017. The Acting Australian High Commissioner to India, Chris Elstoft, said eligible Indian nationals can now apply online for a visitor visa through the Department’s ImmiAccount portal. Online application offers benefits such as 24/7 accessibility, electronic payment of the visa application charge and the ability to check the status of applications lodged online. With the applicant’s permission, the online form can be completed by a third party such as a family member here or in Australia, a travel agent, or its contracted visa application centre, VFS. “Processing times for these visas will now be faster, as both applications and supporting documentation are immediately available to the processing office. This is good news for every Indian visitor to Australia, whether they are travelling for business or pleasure,” Elstoft said. Being able to check the status of an application online, as soon as it is finalised, will allow Indian applicants to finalise their travel arrangements as soon as possible. “With the rising popularity of Australia as a holiday destination, there has been a significant rise in demand for Australian visas in India. There were more than 265,000 Indian visitor arrivals from July-Mar 2017, an increase of 15.4 per cent compared to the same period last year,” he adds.

Thailand Travel Mart 2017 has ended a successful two-year run in the northern capital of Chiang Mai, and will move to the resort city of Pattaya next year. The event was attended by 423 buyers from 56 countries. Although the main markets of China, India, Russia, Europe and the UK dominated the list, the focus on buyers from the eastern European countries, Latin America and South Africa. Moreover, first-time buyers comprised 47.8 per cent of the total. The theme “Delivering Unique Experiences” was designed to be in line with the overall tourism marketing slogan. All the pre and post-tours were specially selected to include the spectacular range of Royal Projects, Northern Thai museums, restaurants, community-based products and heritage sites in line with that theme. This year, the show was attended by 362 sellers from Thailand and the neighbouring Mekong countries, the vast majority of whom were small & medium sized hotels and boutique resorts emerging by the dozens all over the country. Giving exposure to these SMEs, most of whom cannot afford to attend the large global travel trade events, is  a primary objective of the TTM+. The first knowledge-transfer session was held on the first day, led by Minister Kobkarn on community-based tourism. She was followed by speakers talking on crisis management, culinary tourism and the digital economy. On the third day, around 600 participants from travel & tourism training institutes and entrepreneurs in Chiang Mai benefitted from a day-long seminar series by TAT executives and some of Thailand’s leading private sector executives on market trends. One of the key highlights of the event was a showcase of indigenous products reflecting the best of Northern Thai culture, arts and …