Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

Baywatch Travels has launched curated sailing experience brand Baywatch Sailzz. Manish Kriplani, MD, Baywatch Travels, announced the new venture, saying, “Baywatch Sailzz is our answer to fresh outdoor experiences, where we offer curated sailing experiences for birthday, dinner, sunrise, sunset cruise and other celebrations. We have our international medallist skipper Chinna Reddy who will assist with the entire experience around Chennai Harbour and the Bay of Bengal.”

Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of Tourism & Culture, conducted a meeting with officials of MOT on ‘Adopt A Heritage’ scheme. Officials present in the meeting included Yogendra Tripathi, Secretary, MOT; Meenakshi Sharma, Director General, MOT; and Rupinder Brar, Additional Director General, MOT.

Sunil Kumar, President, UFTAA, has said that the association has initiated a concept of Zero Risk with IATA that can protect the agents and airlines from any future risk to either parties. “The current scenario has reflected our unpreparedness to protect the monies of the stakeholders and the customers, owing to the challenges the agencies had to go through. In an evolving scenario, it is time that such a Zero Risk to either of the stakeholders is envisioned through IATA’s governing resolution and we be better prepared to handle such crisis, if it would ever come up in future,” he says. Towards this, all Global Federations of Associations which are part of IATA’s PAPGJC have come together and a working group is getting created with terms of reference of the committee meeting the expectations of all. “This working group will involve representatives of airlines, agency associations, and IATA. This is anticipated to be finalised by January and thereupon the working group can deliberate to plan a great legacy for the future which does not pose any risk or threat to our customers or agencies. We eagerly look forward to this working group to be able to come up with a favourable solution for the industry and its stake holders,” Kumar adds.

Ministry of Tourism (MOT) has shared the draft guidelines of the Champion Sector Scheme, ‘Incentive To Tour Operators For Enhancing Tourist Arrivals To India’ with the industry for their comments. The scheme is aimed towards extending financial incentives to Foreign Tour Operators (FTOs) of short haul / long haul countries or Inbound Tour Operators approved by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, on a pilot basis

TAFI is preparing to hold its elections in January 2021. Pradip Lulla, Acting President & VP, TAFI, says, “We will first hold all our chapter elections followed by our national elections around mid-January. While chapter elections could be held physically, the national committee election could either be virtual or through postal ballot.”

Darpan Jain, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, has said that as part of Champions Services Sector, an amount has been earmarked for development of tented accommodation in the Buddhist Circuit. “We are aware that people from China and Southeast Asia travel to places of Buddhist interest, but don’t come to India,” he said.

GB Srithar, Regional Director, India, Middle East & South Asia, Singapore Tourism Board, has revealed that the theme of the STB India Virtual Tradeshow 2021 will be ‘Charting Our Pathways to Tourism Recovery’ which, according to him, will heighten or hasten the pace for increased partnerships and alliances among NTOs and their partner friends.

The Board of Enterprising Travel Agent’s Association (ETAA) has decided to waive the annual membership fee for Financial Year 2020-2021. Members who have paid membership fee for three years, valid till March 2021, will get an extension till March 2022. This was announced at ETAA’s virtual AGM on December 18.

According to Thomas Cook India’s travel survey for December 2020, confidence to travel is on the upswing, with 67% Indians willing to travel within the next 6 months.

Meenakshi Sharma, Director General, Ministry of Tourism, was on a three-day visit to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, during which she visited Uma Maheshwaram, Mannanur, Farhabad, Alampur and Hyderabad in Telangana, as well as SriSailam in Andhra Pradesh. These sites are being developed by the respective state governments under MOT’s Swadesh Darshan and PRASHAD schemes.