Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

Austrian National Tourist Office (ANTO) is organising a webinar titled ‘Tirol-Your dream destination 2022’ for the travel trade today, 25th February, 2022 at 3 pm IST. Attendees would be able to explore the various offerings of Tirol through the online show. Register on https://event.webinarjam.com/register/366/rymlobq7 or contact jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or call +91 9650196532. 

Pradeep Panicker, Chief Executive Officer, GMR Hyderabad International Airport, has revealed that the new terminal of the airport will be ready by next year and will take the capacity from 12million to 40 million. He was speaking at a special meet organised between Sr delegates of GMR Hyderabad and the tourism committee of FTCCI to discuss tourism opportunities in the state.

To provide further updates on the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) between Singapore and India & Sri Lanka, Singapore Tourism Board will be organising another round of webinar exclusively for the Indian & Sri Lankan travel trade. The ‘Welcome Back to Singapore’ webinar will be held on Monday, February 28 at 11:30am IST/SLST. The virtual session will also touch on Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight operations and the customer experience at Changi Airport and Jewel Changi Airport. To register, contact jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or 9650196532

In a shocking discrimination against IATA agents based in India, Air India has restricted sale of tickets from India to Canada to its city offices and web platform. IATA agents based here cannot issue India-Canada tickets, while travel agents worldwide, including the OTA’s having offices outside India, can access and sell AI inventory to Canada. Lodging a protest with Air India in this regard, AI has been practicing this since the onset of the pandemic. Abbas Moiz, general secretary, TAFI, said it is disappointing to see this discrimination by the new management, the TATA Group, too.

Tourism is designated as an industry, and as such, it will benefit from government tariffs and levies in accordance with Industry norms. On Wednesday, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot presented the state budget for the years 2022-23. According to him, the tourism and hospitality would be recognised as a separate industry in the state. The budget’s main focus was on jobs and healthcare.

Following a competitive review process, Cenizaro Hotels & Resorts has commissioned BRANDit, a specialist in tourism marketing, as its integrated marketing agency in India. The Residence by Cenizaro resort collection, with Maldives and Mauritius at the forefront, will help stakeholders and further enhance the brand’s presence in the India market. BRANDit will fortify Cenizaro’s sales, marketing and PR strategies with a brand-new outlook as part of its mandate. Henry Ngo, Chairman of Cenizaro Hotels & Resorts, said “We are pleased to welcome BRANDit as our new partner in India. We look forward to working with the team to increase visibility for The Residence by Cenizaro portfolio and drive operational growth across different target segments of Leisure, MICE and Celebration. India is a priority market for Cenizaro owing to a vast market size and accessibility to many of our resorts, especially Maldives and Mauritius.”

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released data showing growing momentum in the recovery of air travel as restrictions are lifted. IATA reported a sharp 11% increase for international tickets sold in recent weeks in proportion to 2019 sales. The jump in ticket sales comes as more governments announce a relaxation of COVID-19 border restrictions. An IATA survey of travel restrictions for the world’s top 50 air travel markets (comprising 92% of global demand in 2019 as measured by revenue passenger kilometers) revealed the growing access available to vaccinated travelers. 

Dubai on Tuesday removed the requirements for Indian travellers to undergo rapid RTPCR at Indian airports before departing to UAE. An advisory issued by the Dubai Airport updated the travel requirements for passengers from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan.  The fresh advisory requires Indian nationals to produce a negative COVID-19 test certificate taken up to 48 hours before the scheduled departure of the flight, from an approved health service provider. The passengers will require to undergo a PCR test upon their arrival in Dubai. 

Singapore based travel tech leader Mystifly today unveiled an extension Multi-City Search feature to their existing Airline Shopping and Retailing Hub (ASRHub) platform. The new Multi-City Search is an advanced flight search feature that makes searching and booking consecutive one-way flights between multiple destinations quicker, easier and tapping into multiple local pricing in a single request.  

Cordelia Cruises will conduct a webinar for the travel trade highlighting new opportunities for them today at 3pm IST. The webinar will highlight the popular products and services as well provide updates and news for the 2022 travel season. To register, contact jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or 9650196532 or register directly at – https://event.webinarjam.com/register/365/wy0z2b3lw