Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

Booking.com unveiled how Indian travellers plan their trips in Travel Trends for 2024. According to the report, 61% of travellers book flights and 37% book event tickets well in advance. Car rentals, restaurant reservations, and even taxis are either booked along with the accommodation or left until closer to the trip date.   

Dato’ Muzafar Shah Mustafa, High Commissioner of Malaysia in India, said, “We hope that the visa-free program we’re offering to India will be reciprocated by the Indian government, granting visa-free access for Malaysians. There’s significant interest among Malaysians to explore India, and such reciprocity would be greatly appreciated.” 

As per CAPA India, almost 250 narrowbody aircraft are likely to be deployed on routes up to 5 to 7 hours range from India. This would be 2.5 times the current deployment of aircraft. This expansion will create significant network deployment and strategic challenges for airlines to be able to find sufficient markets for such capacity.

Sharing updates about IATO during its monthly meeting, Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO, said, “After the general election when the new government is formed, ‘Chalo India Roadshows’ will take place. He revealed that they will launch a social media global campaign from ATM in Dubai which will start from 6-7 May aimed at fostering growth in M!CE.

According to CAIT, Knot Worldwide, and Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, India’s wedding market is the second largest in the world, next to the US. The forecast expects 40 crores weddings to take place in the next 15 years. As per Wedding Wishlist, over US$50 bn Indian Wedding market is expected to grow at a 30% CAGR.

Rail Europe invites the Indian outbound travel trade to attend an exclusive webinar on Eurail passes as well as booking passholder fares on agent.raileurope.com today at 3pm. Participate in the quiz and win exciting prizes! For more information, write to jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or 9650196532.

At the inauguration of ITC Ratnadipa in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sanjiv Puri, Chairman and Managing Director, ITC, said, “ITC Hotels plans to open more hotels in neighbouring countries. The brand which opened 22 new properties in the last 24 months, plans to add another 70 hotels in the next five years in India as part of expansion plans in the hospitality sector.:

Ankit Hakhu, Director, CRISIL Ratings, said, “Taking off from the strong base of last fiscal, passenger traffic growth will continue its momentum in fiscal 2025 and rise more than 10% to over 415 million. Continuing economic growth, opening of more airports and improving regional connectivity are providing the tailwinds necessary for domestic traffic growth.”

Highlighting India’s growing importance in the global travel market, Bernstein in its report said, “India is on its way to emerge to 5th place in outbound travel spending by 2027, reaching $89 billion compared to its current 10th position at $38 billion in 2019. The country is also expected to become the 3rd largest domestic travel market by 2027, with expenditures reaching $174 billion, up from $127 billion in 2029 when it held the 5th position.”

Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director and CEO, IHCL, said, “Re-imagined Gateway, is a full-service hotel offering in the upscale segment, an ideal fit to capture growth opportunities in emerging micro markets in metros and Tier II and Tier III cities. The brand roll-out starting with 15 hotels will commence with launches in Bekal and Nashik.”