Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

Rupinder Brar, ADG, Ministry of Tourism, is planning to do small boutique roadshows, some of which will be led by the Minister, while others will be led by senior MOT officials or regional directors. “The idea is to do events which will have around 35-40, or maximum 50 people, including trade, hoteliers, media and we hope to showcase new and nearby itineraries. With this we are hoping to drive domestic demand and create confidence. Some of them will also involve citywalk, where citizens will also be invited. While some roadshows have already started at regional director level, and we are hoping that the minister will kickstart the same in early December. We are hoping to start from Ahmedabad and ten go to Kevadia.”

IATO and TravTalk are organising a motivational session by Roshan Suhail, the renowned communication coach and keynote speaker on Friday 27th November, 2020 at 11:30am. The session titled, ‘Staying up’ will be fruitful in helping the trade to sail through these tough times and prepare ahead. To register, call Jaspreet 9650196532 or email: jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com.

Zen Cruises has announced the sale of its premium cruise line brand- Jalesh to Waterways Leisure Tourism, part of Sant Chatwal promoted Dreams Hotel Group. The restructuring also involves the acquisition of the brand’s entire digital interface, technology, customer database, travel agent partner network backend. Waterways have also hired existing executives and employees of Zen Cruises.  

Ras Al Khaimah International Airport is gearing up to receive the first commercial flights from SpiceJet on November 26, 2020. Operating an initial schedule of twice-weekly flights, SpiceJet’s first tranche of services will operate from Delhi on Boeing 737-800 with a 189-passenger capacity. The flight will depart Delhi at 22:30 and land in RAK at 00:50.

Kazin Travel Consultants has forayed into education by launching ‘Kazin Edu’ in association with ISM EduTech that owns and operates universities in Almaty, Tbilisi, Dushanbe and Bridgetown, Barbados. “Kazin will appoint channel partners to enrol students, and hopes to empower agents with the new vertical,” says Rohit Shorey, Founder Director, Kazin Travel Consultants.

An Amadeus consumer research conducted with 6000 travellers across India, Singapore, France, Germany, UK & US found that technology plays a crucial role in supporting recovery as 4 in 5 (84%) travellers said the technology would increase their confidence to travel in the next 12 months.

Madan Prasad Bezbaruah, Secretary-General, Hotel Association of India (HAI), has said in a statement that Government should immediately open online applications for hotels to claim the benefits under SEIS for FY 2019-20. “We appeal to the Government of India to make the online application process available to hotels. These benefits are offered to hoteliers as a fixed percentage of their annual net foreign exchange earnings. The incentive enables hotels to subside input costs of imports and facilitates Indian hospitality to match global standards of hotels that a foreign tourist is accustomed to.  Given the hardship that hotels are going through since March, this delay may prove to be a crippling injury to an industry that is struggling with a force majeure scenario. The request to allow the hotels to avail the SEIS benefits that have already accrued to them for the year 2019-20 is fair and legitimate and should be acceded to. It is not a concession,” he said. HAI has urged the government to look into the matter urgently and has submitted a representation to Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) to this effect. They claim that the process will go a long way in providing some relief to the hospitality sector which has been heavily burdened with high fixed costs of salaries, utilities, and licenses, etc.

The 2-day virtual roadshow organised by The Tourism Office of Spain in India will have regional tourism boards, hotels and DMCs from Spain who will focus on restarting tourism into Spain from India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. Elisa Robles-Fraga, its Director, says, “We are organising our annual show virtually for the very first time.”  

The Goa government is drawing up a new standard operating procedure (SOP) for hotels amid the ongoing tourist season. “We are in the process of issuing guidelines for hotels, which will make it mandatory for them to reserve one room as an isolation room on their property,” said CM Pramod Sawat. Any guest who tests positive for COVID-19, but is asymptomatic, can be put up in the isolation room on hotel premises.  

Keeping the new demands of travellers in mind, Tourism Ireland India’s recent webinar focussed on hotels, attractions and COVID safety measures. Huzan Fraser Motivala, its India Representative, says, “Self-drive tours will be popular and one of the best ways to experience Ireland is through self-drive.Indian visitors will definitely increase in 2021-2022.”