Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

According to the latest data from HVS ANAROCK on the Indian hotel industry, hotel occupancy improved from approx. 10% in April 2020 to almost 26% in September 2020 as the hotel industry currently cruising on domestic leisure travel & outbound Indian luxury travel. Corporate demand is still subdued and will remain constrained at least for the short term.

A new team was elected unopposed for TAAI’s Uttar Pradesh & Uttarakhand Chapter during a mid-term election that took place in Lucknow. The new office bearers include SMA Sheeraz as Chairman, Swati Dimri as Secretary, and Mohammed Khalid Shah as Treasurer for the term ending July 2021. The chapter currently has 88 members.

According to data received from Cleartrip, flight booking volumes have doubled since July-August due to significant amount of pent-up demand and have reached around 50% levels of the last year.

Officials from Gujarat Tourism recently met up with two national and three regional travel trade associations in Kolkata along with other travel agents and tour operators in order to promote tourism offerings in the state, particularly the Statue of Unity in Kevadia. Around 85 people attended this event at Hotel Astor. Gujarat is also planning to conduct fam trips for the trade-in smaller groups of 25 pax. Present at the occasion were Nilanjan Basu, Secretary of Travel Agents Association of Bengal; Koushik Banerjee, Chapter Chairman of Enterprising Travel Agents Association; Kamal Gupta, Secretary of Association of Tourism Service Provider of Bengal; and Supratim Sinha, Secretary of Travel Agents Hoteliers & Travellers.

Aloke Singh has taken charge as the new CEO of Air India Express with tenure of three years. The former Senior Advisor- Airline Consulting, CAPA South Asia who has also worked with Oman Air as Chief Officer Network Planning takes over from K Shyam Sundar, who was leading the airline since March 2014. The profitable low-cost arm of Air India reported its highest-ever net profit of Rs 412.77 cr in financial year ending March.

Gujarat Tourism has been conducting multi-city roadshows across India to promote its tourism offerings at the Statue of Unity in Kevadia. They have so far conducted B2B meets at Chennai, Bengaluru, Raipur, Kolkata, Patna, Nagpur, Lucknow, Indore, and Bhopal. The state department is also participating in WTM Virtual to promote Statue of Unity among other things.

In India, regional aviation has always been a great business proposition on paper, says Varun Kumar, Team Leader – Consulting & Research at CAPA India. “In reality, it is extremely difficult to create a long-term sustainable business model for regional aviation in our country. Carriers such as Air Mantra, Air Pegasus, Air Costa and Air Carnival ceased operations within a span of few years, with some not lasting beyond a year,” he adds.

Commenting on the possibility of physical events, Dr. Mario Hardy, CEO, PATA, says, “While China has re-started full-scale domestic events and exhibitions with strict health protocols, not many other destinations have. No country has really started cross-border events due to borders still being closed and the risk of spreading the virus. I believe we will see most events being conducted virtually in 2021 with some being hybrid where local participants come together at a physical venue.”

The Assistant Director of Tourism in Leh, Jigmet Namgail, met with members of three tourism associations to discuss adventure and winter tourism – All Ladakh Tour Operator Association (ALTOA), Ladakh Mountain Guides Association (LMG) and the India Mountaineering Foundation (IMF). The team discussed the promotion of adventure and winter tourism in Leh. Ladakh government plans to set up a ski institute in Kargil to promote winter sports.  

Air China has been rated 4.1 out of 5 on the Safe Travel Score for the Asia Pacific region by Safe Travel Barometer. Air China, among Asia Pacific’s largest airlines, emerged as the leading airline in the region with a Safe Travel Score of 4.1 out of 5, having carried out various traveller health and safety initiatives. Air China was among the first carriers globally to resume domestic services after the COVID-19 outbreak grounded its fleet earlier in 2020. While the airline had basics covered such as mandatory face masks and sanitizers for passengers, it also initiated fogging of aircraft before or after every flight.