Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

Jyoti Mayal, President, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), recently said that TAAI’s organisational elections for the term 2024 – 2026 will be held along with the Annual General Meeting (AGM) before the end of September 2024. Elections for various TAAI’s chapters are being held across the country.

After the Ministry of Tourism (MOT) approached the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) for the inclusion of several tourism routes for providing better air connectivity to pivotal tourist places, 53 tourism routes were operationalised by MoCA under the RCS-UDAN. Additionally, 48 helicopter routes are connecting hilly regions of the nation.

Sharing how Amadeus’ Air Distribution revenue grew 10.7% in the first half of 2024, driven by growth in volumes and unitary revenue, Luis Maroto, President & CEO of Amadeus, says, “Our Air Distribution bookings increased by 2.9% in the first half of the year, on the back of a normalization in global air traffic growth. Our volume performance was complemented by a positive 7.6% revenue per booking evolution. We also continued advancing on our NDC strategy.”

Suman Billa, Additional Secretary, MOT, has said that India could have one taskforce that looks at the ‘macro side’ picture, but there is also a need to have four or five taskforces that work on sector-specific issues. “I think there is a clear case for making four or five taskforces, but we will figure out how to structure them,” he said.

According to CRISIL Ratings, rising domestic tourism and increasing propensity to travel overseas will expand revenue of India’s tour and travel operators by a robust 15-17 per cent this fiscal. The growth in revenue will be on a high base of last fiscal, when revenue jumped ~40% year-on-year to about ₹14,500 crore, surpassing the pre-pandemic peak by ~20%.

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Tourism & Hospitality Skill Council today in New Delhi, Rajan Bahadur, CEO, THSC, said, “Our vision is to skill 1 million youth by imparting CSR & RTD training, training of trainers, assessors & master trainers, apprenticeship promotion empowering industry partners, conducting job fairs, placement felicitation and providing international jobs by 2030.”

The FICCI-Nangia knowledge paper reveals that India’s outbound tourism market is projected to reach over US $55.3 billion by 2034, from the estimated more than US $18.8 billion in 2024, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 11.4 per cent. India’s online travel market is expected to grow at 10.5 per cent CAGR between 2024-29 — from US $17.24 billion to US $28.40 billion.

The Ministry of Tourism has said that for the promotion of adventure tourism in India, it is important that the policies for adventure tourism destination should focus on infrastructure that is important to adventure tourists. This includes clear signs, well-trained guides and clean trails. The National Strategy emphasizes strict regulation enforcement to guarantee safety and service standards because of the inherent risks in adventure activities.

Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO, announced that Port Blair seaport has been officially designated as an e-visa port. This move comes as a response to IATO’s request made last August during Mehra’s visit to Port Blair, where he met with the Port Blair Governor. “We are thrilled to share that the Government of India has approved our request to introduce e-visa facilities at the Port Blair seaport,” Mehra stated. The implementation of e-visa services at Port Blair is expected to streamline the entry process for visitors and further promote the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as a premier travel destination.

According to its Mid-Year Report for its Asia Pacific Visitor Forecast 2024-2026, PATA predicts strong gains in Asia Pacific international visitor arrivals for 2024. This update underpins the prior report’s prediction of strong annual growth in international visitor arrivals (IVAs) into and across Asia Pacific, exceeding pre-pandemic 2019 levels for the first time in 2024 under the mild scenario, and by 2025 under the medium scenario. However, challenges persist as the severe scenario predicts arrivals in 2024 to remain 31% below 2019 levels, and 13% below the benchmark by 2026.