Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

Giving an insight into how well the market is growing, Brent Anderson, Regional General Manager for South & South-East Asia, Tourism Australia says, “Right now, we are tracking it at about 86 per cent of the pre-pandemic numbers. That reflects the fastest comeback to ground zero, which is 100% of what we had in 2019. A really conservative forecast of what we should see by the end of June 2023 which is our financial year, is about 10 per cent growth out of the India market. This is while the other markets will still be going towards their respective pre-pandemic level numbers. So it is pretty amazing to see how quickly India has rebounded, recovered and growing.”

VFS Global, opened an India Visa Application Centre (IVAC) for the Indian High Commission in central London to help deal with the surge in demand for visa applications since the opening of international borders and relaxation of Covid guidelines. Indian High Commissioner, HE Vikram Doraiswami said, “The number of appointments we have been able to do has increased to about 40,000 per month.” He also announced that a new process is being introduced for group tourism.

Post the successful launch of its first global campaign since 2019, IF YOU SEEK, Tourism New Zealand unveils its first global trade incentive campaign for travel trade as part of the global campaign. As part of the campaign, two lucky Indian travel sellers will get to experience New Zealand first hand and will be joined by travel sellers from Australia, Germany, Japan, North America, Singapore, South Korea and the UK. Sellers will get to indulge in New Zealand experiences that have been highlighted as part of the campaign.

Ethiopian Airlines and TravoCure Healthcare, the medical travel division and a subsidiary of Akbar Group of Companies headquartered in India, announced their recent Medical Tourism Partnership in order to facilitate services for passengers traveling from Africa to India for medical reasons. This will see both parties conduct joint promotional activities to highlight India as a medical tourism destination for its modern medical technologies at internationally accredited hospitals and clinics. One of the sectors expanding globally at great pace is the medical tourism industry. Recognized as a trusted provider in this industry, Akbar Travels’ main focus through TravoCure Healthcare has always been to offer a plethora of support services in medical and wellness travel to patients anywhere in the world through the 7000 support staff employed in their vast network of over 200 offices across India including those at airport counters. Therefore, with its latest collaboration with Ethiopian Airlines, passengers traveling to India from Africa for medical reasons will receive discounts for feasible medical treatment through the Akbar Travels Group. This step is to further the company’s mission to offer high-quality healthcare to for lower costs. Ethiopian Airlines is among the first to initiate a step in providing more convenience and discounted air fares to its medical travelers. Being the first ever Airline to actively participate towards the future success of the medical tourism industry offering a more seamless travel experience for medical travelers, the airline will also be providing better travel packages to medical tourists at affordable costs. Thus, travelers who were once in a dilemma to visit a destination can now confirm their plans, as they can manage their expenditure and costs while managing a convenient tour. Tigist Eshetu, …

Speaking at the 94th Edition of ‘Mann Ki Baat’ recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, highlighted the importance of various festivals, celebrations and sports like Chhath, National Unity Day, Janjatiya Gaurav Divas , Gurupurab, Navratri and National Games in uniting people and bringing out the spirit of Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat. He said, “The way art, sports and culture came together during the National Games in Ahmedabad, it filled all with joy. They also shared a lot of pictures of Gujarati food and Navratri on social media. After all, through games like these, one comes to know about the diverse cultures of India.”    

Airbus Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) and Executive Vice-President, Christian Scherer said, “India is the largest market in the world for our flagship commercial product, the Airbus A320, and on average we will deliver to India more than one aircraft every week for the next ten years.”

Highlighting some of the common practices followed by hotels to ensure transparency and price parity Arif Patel CCO, ITC Hotels said that when clients approach them via different wedding planners, they maintain price parity with all wedding planners. 

Tour-activity-attraction is the third largest component of the tour industry claims Farshid Rahimkhani, CEO & Co-Founder, Turpal. “Majorly 70-80 per cent of this segment is handled by local travel agencies and online operators”, he said. 

Gyan Bhushan, Economic Advisor, Ministry of Tourism, said that about Rs 2600 crore is the total value of output of homestays in India. “One can imagine the kind of jobs that are created in homestays, which is one of our objectives to promote homestays.   

Global Destinations announces the launch of their luxury representation vertical ‘Wanderlust Marketing’ with a  focus on luxurious and captivating travel brands and experiences. Under this vertical, Global Destinations aims to curate a compendium of unique and exclusive travel providers offering them comprehensive marketing solutions while delivering the most exclusive, bespoke and memorable experiences from around the globe to discerning luxury travellers. Pranav Kapadia, Director Global Destinations shared, “Experiential Luxury travel from India has grown leaps and bounds and continues to be on a rise. The stagnancy of the pandemic has set the pace for many travellers to look for unique and distinguished experiences. The emergence of experiential luxury travel is one of the outcomes of the pandemic, where Indian travellers now look to engage in luxurious at the same time immersive, meaningful, and sustainable travel. With the launch of Wanderlust Marketing, we are glad to be able to cater to this growing niche traveller segment.” As its premier partner on-board it introduces ‘The Nanee’ a unique 18 room, bespoke boutique oasis in the heart of Bhaktapur, Nepal, providing stylish and comfortable accommodation with purposed handcrafted experiences and services. The boutique property is scheduled to open doors to travellers in early December 2022. Situated in the world heritage historical city of Bhaktapur – an ancient Newar city in the eastern corner of Kathmandu Valley in Nepal, The Nanee is located about 13 kilometres from the capital city Kathmandu. With uniquely designed rooms, it is dedicated to connecting travellers from around the world and creating a unique memorable experience, in the ‘Museum of Life’. Their key purpose is to provide a comfortable oasis where guests connect, experience the living heritage of Bhaktapur and …