Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

Sharing his comments on the Government of India announcing 100% capacity for flights, Rajeev Kale, President & Country Head- Holidays, MICE, Visa, Thomas Cook India, says, “We welcome the Government’s announcement permitting domestic carriers to operate at 100 percent of their pre-Covid capacity from October 18, 2021. With the return of consumer confidence in air travel coupled with a surge in holiday demand for the festive season (across Dussehra-Diwali and then Christmas-Year end), the announcement could not have come at a better time. Additionally, the increased capacity will ease pressures on the supply side – with cascading impact on air fares. From a Corporate MICE a perspective too, the increased capacity offers significant scope for domestic incentive groups serving to catalyse overall recovery for the  travel and tourism industry.” Indiver Rastogi, President & Group Head – Global Business Travel – Thomas Cook (India) & SOTC, says, “Its about time that Indian Aviation opened up, we’ve been seeing flights filled up to the hilt till now; adding capacity will increase flights across routes therefore giving travellers more choices of timings thereby making it convenient for business travelers to manage their schedules and boost the confidence of travelers . This will also bring some relief on fares as airlines will seek to fill the capacity. We hope to see more flights put on the business/metro routes. We are witnessing a steady return of business from our corporate travellers and our SME segments and this announcement will infuse positivity, auguring well for much needed revival of the overall sector.”

As Thailand prepares to re-open its borders to the World, TravelBullz and the Tourism Authority of Thailand prepares to welcome Indian guests back to Amazing Thailand through Indian Travel League. ITL will be a weekly campaign with a total of 4 rounds, starting on 20th of October. Each week a match would conclude with a wordplay format quiz. The goal is to to generate interest, awareness and educate sellers about the destinations and hotel & attraction partners. To register, click on: https://travelbullz.in/itl  

Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI, has said that in the tech era upgrading ourselves and our businesses is the need of the hour. “Post pandemic, I can assure that our fraternity will come out with the most innovative solutions. Even though our services are right-now being experienced and gauged only online by a set of travellers, however, we are doing our best to facilitate smooth, and hassle-free travel for customers from every aspect. We are now offering marketing solutions based on technology and upgraded ourselves by facilitating training programmes. However, to hand-hold and support our customers we need to come on ground,” she said.

SpiceJet has partnered with Thrillophilia, allowing customers to book tours, activities and experiences even before the start of the trip. The strategic partnership will enable SpiceJet passengers to choose and book from more than 24,000 handpicked activities and experiences across 55+ countries. Travelling on budget or luxuriously, whether it’s a family trip, a romantic honeymoon or simply an adventure tour, the platform will offer carefully designed packages to ensure one enjoys a great travel experience every single time. Shilpa Bhatia, Chief Commercial Officer, SpiceJet said, “Planning a vacation should be seamless and enjoyable which is what we aim to offer with this partnership with Thrillophilia. Customer centricity is at the heart of everything we do at SpiceJet and this is yet another step in that direction whereby customers can avail the best of both domestic and international travel experiences on a platter.”

IHG Hotels & Resorts has signed a management agreement with Dinesh Kumar Choudhary (HUF) for a new hotel – Holiday Inn Express & Suites Jaipur Karoli Bagh located at Gopalpura Byepass, in the capital of Rajasthan. The brownfield hotel featuring 141 rooms is expected to be operational by the first quarter of 2023. Sudeep Jain, Managing Director, South West Asia, IHG Hotels & Resorts, said, “We are thrilled to announce the signing of a new Holiday Inn Express & Suites hotel in Jaipur and solidify our presence in the state of Rajasthan. With a rich culture, history and cuisine, Jaipur is one of the most popular tourist destinations of India. With diverse guest profiles visiting the city, there is an increasing need for mainstream accommodation, and we are confident that Holiday Inn Express & Suites Jaipur Karoli Bagh will be a great choice for travellers looking for a simple and engaging hotel stay experience.

Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Minister, Civil Aviation, met Manohar Lal Khattar, CM, Haryana, recently and discussed many aviation related issues. After the meeting Scindia revealed that a heli-hub would be developed in Gurugram. Khattar further announced that the Haryana government has decided to reduce value added tax (VAT) rate on sale of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) to 1% from 20%.

Ronojoy Dutta, CEO & Whole Time Director, IndiGo, has said that he is very bullish on international opportunities. “The reason I’m bullish is we have a fantastic geography and our four-corner strategy. We can fly seven hours from Delhi, seven hours from Mumbai, seven hours from Kolkata seven hours from Chennai and that gives us a circle, which goes to something like Moscow, Barcelona, Nairobi, Manila, Beijing, Shanghai. It’s a very wide circle and it’s a high growth circle as well. Most of the traffic right now is carried one stop. Hence, one thing that COVID has taught us is the amount of demand we got from places we hadn’t considered on our radar to the CIS countries to Milan to Manila.”

In a meeting with industry associations on overseas promotions, Ministry of Tourism has proposed in that they wanted to declare 2022-23 as Visit India year, starting from August 15, 2022. “However, we suggested that it should start from January 1, 2022. If they want Visit India Year to be successful and meaningful, they should provide some incentives to the tour operators or tourists who want to visit India. Otherwise, it’d remain just a slogan,” he suggested.

Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) and Event and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA) have jointly planned to organise a nationwide campaign to sensitize industry stakeholders including the Police as well as general public about hotels or wedding venues not requiring to obtain license for playing any sound recording for marriage and related social or religious functions held at the venues.

Tourism Malaysia is participating for the third time at the third edition of the Gulf Travel Show (GTS) from 12 to 14 October 2021. As a platinum partner, Malaysia is having its own virtual pavilion with 13 booths consisting of Tourism Malaysia Dubai, Tourism Malaysia Jeddah, Langkawi Development Authority (LADA), Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC), together with three DMCs/tour operator partners, one product partner, as well as five hotels and resorts from the island of Langkawi. Following this year’s participation, Manoharan Periasamy, the Senior Director of Tourism Malaysia’s International Promotion Division for Asia & Africa says that GTS 2021 is a platform that allows industry players to share the development and implementation of safety for domestic and international travellers in preparation for reopening the borders, especially for the Middle East market. “Malaysia has successfully completed the vaccination of more than 90 per cent of its adult population against COVID-19, and as a result, domestic tourism has fully reopened effective Monday, 11 October 2021. In the meantime, Tourism Malaysia is gearing up in preparing to welcome more tourists and also continuing in promoting the #WeMissYou campaign ahead of the reopening of our international borders that is expected after we achieve 90 per cent complete inoculation nationwide,” says Manoharan. Nasaruddin Bin Abdul Muttalib, Chief Executive Officer of LADA adds, “On 16 September 2021, the government has announced the reopening of Langkawi as the pilot project for Malaysia’s domestic travel bubble, aimed at reviving the nation’s tourism industry. Langkawi has become the first holiday destination in Malaysia to open its doors to domestic tourists who are fully vaccinated. The visitors are also subject to the standard operating procedures (SOP) compliance and are required …