Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

The two-day Gulf Travel Show (GTS) concluded successfully with more than 2,500 buyers from 59 countries who met 40 exhibitors from across the world. The first-ever two-day virtual event of the region witnessed more than 3,000 one-to-one meetings between suppliers and travel agents, tour operators, tourism boards, airlines, hotels, TMCs and international agencies.

The first direct flight operations from Kalaburagi, Karnataka to Hindon Airport, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh was recently flagged off under the RCS-UDAN (Regional Connectivity Scheme – Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik). The officials of Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Airport Authority of India (AAI) were present at the launch.

Tour operators from Maharashtra have started the ‘Unlock Kashmir Tourism Campaign’ with support from the Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Department, for which a 70-member delegation of travel operators from Mumbai visited Kashmir. Since the tourism industry in J&K took was shaken post COVID, tourism department of J&K supported this initiative and invited the trade and media to promote tourism sector in the valley.

Accor has added India and Turkey to its Middle East & Africa region. Under the newly expanded region would come a portfolio of over 84,000 rooms across 400 hotels. This regional expansion brings an increased pipeline of over 112 properties, scheduled to open in the coming 24 months, bringing the overall number of keys close to 110,000 rooms. “The addition of Turkey and India to our already diverse region means that we will be able to consolidate the existing relationship and work that has been accomplished over the years and centralize it into a collective effort. It is in a strategic but natural move that we are integrating India and Turkey to our portfolio with long term plans in sight for the future of the region,” says Mark Willis, Chief Executive Officer, Turkey, India, Middle East & Africa for Accor.

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. It will include meetings between buyers and sellers, product presentations, plus interesting panel discussions and contests with prizes to be won.”

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.