Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs & Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, recently reviewed the progress of the India International Convention & Expo Centre (IICC) in Dwarka, Delhi. He also asked officials to expedite the works for completion of the Phase-1 of the project. “IICC will serve as a major economic driver helping India capture a larger share of global meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions market,” said Goyal.

After Thailand eased entry rules for international travellers, including pre-arrival and arrival RT-PCR tests, KD Singh, Founder & President, TravelBullz, said, “We are very excited to receive the news from the government of Thailand, lifting all restrictions related to mandatory RTPCR & other requirements before or after arrival in Thailand. We have already seen tremendous response from agents during April but with restrictions going away from 1st of May , the summer season is saved. We already have some operators confirming series and we expect a multi fold increase in travellers in the next two months. To capture the upbeat mood of travellers TravelBullz in association with Tourism Authority of Thailand has launched special campaign Welcome Back to Thailand focusing on KIDS GO FREE , Honeymoon Specials , WORKATIONS & Party in Thailand. Here’s welcoming everyone to the land of smiles.”

The seventh edition of the M!CE Travel Show 2022 concluded successfully in Pune this Sunday. The two-day B2B table top event saw 23 exhibitors meet and interact with 45 key corporate buyers on April 23-24, 2022. Organised by DDP Exhibitions, the exclusive M!CE event plans to replicate this in other cities of India soon. Key exhibitors included Singapore Tourism Board, Oman Air, Oman Convention Bureau and Shangri-La.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that India is going to introduce a special AYUSH visa category. This will facilitate people to travel to India for AYUSH therapy. Also, he added, “’Heal in India’ can become a big brand of this decade.” Wellness centers based on Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha etc. can be very popular, he said.

According Reserve Bank of India data, the money sent abroad by Indians for travel grew threefold from $316.81 million in February 2021 to close to $1 billion ($980.45 million) in February 2022. This is under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) for resident individuals. It crossed the pre-pandemic level of $539.74 million in February 2020. Indians spent about $3.23 billion for travel, sharply down from $6.95 billion in FY20.

Julia Simpson, president and CEO, WTTC has said that the EU green travel pass has now been adopted  by 62 countries. “If we are to survive another pandemic we need to fully integrate a traveller’s health status into their digital travel documents. A good example is the EU green travel pass that has now been adopted by 62 countries. Let us find a single system for the world,” she pointed out.

Julia Simpson, president and CEO, WTTC, at its Global Summit highlighted that the pandemic rewrote the rule book on how we live and how we travel. She said that WTTC is announcing its latest Economic Impact Research which shows that over the next 10 years to 2032 Travel & Tourism is poised to have an average annual growth rate of 5.8%. “By the end of 2022 we will have recovered to $8.35 trillion,” she added.

SriLankan Airlines has recorded its first profitable fourth quarter (Q4) since 2006 for the financial year that ended on 31 March 2022 with a group net profit of USD 1.7 million despite pandemic challenges. SriLankan’s expansion initiative saw the launch of flights to several new destinations in the last year including Seoul; Moscow; Kathmandu and Paris. Frequencies were also gradually increased across the airline’s network in line with the recovery of the global travel industry and demand. The airline has also carried out major campaigns to boost tourism to the country including a major initiative in India, roadshows supporting new routes and most recently sponsoring the popular French annual adventure trail, Raid Amazones, in March of this year. The airline is now back to 75 per cent of the passenger revenue it made pre-pandemic in Q4 of 2019-20. Correspondingly, passenger numbers also rose to near 700,000 for the quarter. Ashok Pathirage, Chairman of SriLankan Airlines stated, “I am pleased to note that we ended 2021-22 on a high note, given our first quarterly profit in many years. The passenger demand remained strong, and revenues continued to recover from the setbacks of the pandemic during the quarter. Our annual expenditure remained within expectations. I am thankful to all our valued employees for contributing towards this achievement.” “We anticipate some headwinds in the first half of this financial year with high fuel prices and a short-term dip in demand to Sri Lanka. We have factored in these challenges and are working towards minimizing the impact with a strong business plan and a sound turnaround strategy to return to full-year profitability. Traffic is expected to recover fully by the end of the year …

Sharing details of this session, Ajay Prakash, President, TAFI, says, “The focus is to explain the nuances of TCS, FEMA and a few other laws and regulations which perhaps not all our members are familiar with. So sometimes they make an error which can have grievance consequences. So we are getting very senior experts from Jayantilal Thakkar & Co in the field to come and talk to our members and educate them and make them aware of what they need to be careful about when conducting business.”

Thomas Cook (India) and its Group Company, SOTC Travel, have been appointed Preferred Sales Agents (PSA) for the Indian market by Emirates Holidays, the tour operating arm of Emirates Airlines. With a strong focus on India, the partnership intends to target India’s Leisure, Business and B-Leisure segments with a portfolio of both ready-to-book and personalised air-inclusive holidays across Emirates’ global network of more than 120 destinations. Thomas Cook & SOTC’s strategic omnichannel model offers extensive touchpoints to customers:  India’s largest retail holiday network and B2B distribution (across its owned stores, Partner franchise outlets and Preferred Sales Agents) coupled with the companies’ website and call centres. Customers and Agent Partners booking an Emirates Holidays with Thomas Cook India and SOTC can enjoy Emirates’ flight services with all Emirates Holidays bookings. Further, customers can avail complimentary meet and greet service at Dubai International Airport (for Dubai destination) as well as 20% bonus Emirates Skywards miles for their bookings. Customers can also enjoy additional benefits such as complimentary upgrades on meal and room plans during their journey. Rajeev Kale, President & Country Head – Holidays, MICE, Visa, Thomas Cook (India) said, “Being appointed the Preferred Sales Agents (PSA) for Emirates Holidays in India is a special win for us. This partnership reflects the confidence of Emirates Holidays in our leadership brands, the strength of our consumer base and our extensive reach across B2C and B2B segments, pan India. With India positioned as one of the fastest growing outbound travel markets, the announcement of our partnership is perfectly timed: the reopening of India’s skies ushering in revival and growth of tourism. Thomas Cook India offers customers and trade partners, the convenience and ease of …