Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal recently said that the services exports has touched an all-time high of around USD 250 billion (about Rs 19 lakh crore) in 2021-22. “We have achieved the USD 250 billion target despite the fact that sectors like tourism and travel was hit by the COVID pandemic” he said at a briefing. The previous highest level was USD 213 bn (Rs 16 lakh cr) in 2019-20.

Suprio Banerjee, Vice President & Sector Head, ICRA recently said, “Domestic passenger traffic for FY2022 is estimated at 84 million, YoY growth of 59%, marginally higher than our estimate of 80-82 million, although it is 40% lower than pre-Covid levels. For March 2022, the average daily departures were at 2,588, higher than the average daily departures of 2,308 in March 2021, and notably higher compared to 2,023 in February 2022. The average number of passengers per flight during March 2022 was at 132, against an average of 135 passengers per flight in February 2022. Elevated ATF prices aggravated by geo-political issues will remain a near-term challenge for the industry and will be a key determinant of profitability for the industry.” 

Tourism Australia has set a target to achieve pre-Covid levels in terms of tourists arriving from India. The tourism agency has lined up a series of campaigns to attract traveller from India and has pinned hopes on the ICC Twenty-20 World Cup scheduled to be held in Australia later this year that would further aid the tourism sector, Tourism Australia Country Manager Nishant Kashikar said.

Union Minister for Tourism, Culture and DONER G. Kishan Reddy inaugurated the Conference of Amrit Samagam. During the inaugural day of the 2 days’ Amrit Samagam Conference,  G. Kishan Reddy also launched the Utsav Portal. The Utsav Portal website, a digital initiative launched with the aim to showcase all the events, festivals and live darshans across India to promote different regions of the country as popular tourist destinations worldwide. 

After a gap of two years, Kerala Tourism organised its first B2B meet in the Spanish capital Madrid and the Italian city of Milan, showcasing a range of its new tourism initiatives and popular destinations before the leading stakeholders of tourism and hospitality industry in the two European cities. Kerala participated in BIT Milan Trade Fair to build confidence in the market and include the state back in the itineraries of tourists from the European continent 

Palladium Hotel Group the internationally renowned Spanish hotel chain represented by Global Destinations in India recently hosted exclusive cocktail dinners for their top 50 priority travel and trade partners in Mumbai and Delhi. The evenings were graced by The Consul General of Spain Fernando Heredia Noguer along with The Director of the Tourism Office of Spain in India, Elisa Robles in Mumbai, while Delhi saw the presence of Deputy Head of Mission, the Embassy of Spain, Montserrat Momán Pampillo and Incharge of Consular Section, Embassy of Spain, Helana Escorial Lopez in attendance. Sandra Polo Canudas, Asia & ME Commercial Director Palladium Hotel Group presented insights on Palladium’s hospitality and newly established regulations for hassle-free travel for Indian visitors. She touched upon Spain re-opening borders, all ready to welcome Indians back. The guests were acquainted with the gamut of brands under the Palladium Hotel Group and were informed about the upcoming projects & developments in Spain. The evenings were full of sparking conversations with the travel fraternity exchanging tête-à-têtes over cocktails. The events presented an opportunity to reconnect with travel & trade partners in India to showcase the diverse brand portfolio the hotel group has to offer. Canudas said, “After 2 years of meeting virtually it is delightful to meet our key Stakeholders in-person. India continues to be one of our focus markets for Outbound travel. We look forward, to continue increasing our footprint in India and to further our brand presence. With international travel now open, we are ready to spoil our Indian visitors with an array of experiences, fantastic cuisine, and stunning vistas!”

Rupinder Brar, Additional Director General, Tourism, has informed that for promotions and campaigns currently, they are going to remain in the digital space. “It has a wide outreach at minimal cost. It creates an effective campaign and also in terms of user profile, most people these days prefer the digital space for getting information for bookings for looking at user generated reviews. Hence, we believe that this is a space that will create informational height for incredible India. There will be a lot more users in digital space and in terms of the content, there is so much diversity in the country that we will continue to bring the different offerings of India as we go along with the opening. Also, there is a lot of excitement within the travel industry as well,” she says.

Ajay Singh, CMD, SpiceJet shares that apart from ATF, excise duty is another issue that the aviation industry is dealing with. “It’s not just about bringing ATF under GST, it’s also excise duty, which is around 11%. The excise duty was hiked at the time when oil prices went down. Now that oil prices are at a record, excise duty is not coming down. Hence, we need to be very cognizant of the fact that aviation sector has suffered huge losses. It’s a chronically ill industry,” he said.

In a bid to further boost air connectivity of North Eastern Region with the rest of the country, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has approved a Scheme – ‘Providing air connectivity and Aviation infrastructure in North Eastern Region (NER’” to promote air connectivity in the NE states and, if required, to develop infrastructure for air connectivity. As part of this scheme, two important development will take place – first flight of Made in India HAL Dornier Do-228 from Dibrugarh in Assam to Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh. Alliance Air will be India’s first commercial airline to fly Indian made aircraft for civil operations. There will also be inauguration of First FTO (Flying Training Organization) for North Eastern Region at Lilabari, Assam.

The travel agent fraternity of Andhra Pradesh welcomed RK Roja Garu, the new Tourism Minister for Andhra Pradesh. K. Vijay Mohan, President of Tours & Travels Association of Andhra (TTAA), as well as ADTOI Chairman for Andhra & Telangana, said, “We look forward to working closely with the new minister for promoting tourism sector in the state.”