Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

B2B hotel booking portal, GRN Connect has won the prestigious TravTalk-WTM World Travel Leaders Award for having a positive impact on tourism and hospitality industry in India. The B2B operator with access to around 400,000 hotels and 200,000 villas and more than 30,000 on- and -offline agents in 108 countries access its inventory was announced winner during a virtual ceremony where businesses were nominated by WTM Official Media Partners. Getting recognised for embracing the mantra- recover, rebuild & innovate, Deepak Narula, Managing Director, GRNConnect said, “Our business ground to a halt at the peak of the pandemic, and we quickly started to rebuild our business for the future by identifying areas where we could make a difference to our suppliers and partners.”

Alitalia has announced that they will restart the flights from Rome (FCO)-Delhi (DEL)-Rome (ROM) on 2nd March, 2021. The non-stop flights between Rome (FCO) and Delhi (DEL) will resumed and will operate 3 times a week ex Delhi on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday and ex-Rome on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.  Starting March 27, Alitalia will resume with daily operations.

On 2nd Nov’20 at midnight, Airport Authority of India’s (AAI’s) senior officials exchanged Memorandum of Understanding & handed over Lucknow Airport to Adani Group. A.K Sharma, APD, Lucknow exchanged symbolic key in accordance with concession agreement & future development of the airport.

Tourism Authority of Thailand- New Delhi, organised Loy Krathong Festival at Radisson Blu Plaza Delhi Airport, one of the first physical events hosted by a NTO after COVID struck. The event saw in attendance travel trade stalwarts from the NCR regions networking and enjoying the festivities after a long time.

Only 60% of the pre-COVID traffic is allowed to enter the country from a border control perspective, revealed a recent CAPA India report. The report states, “Although foreign business travellers and OCI holders are once again permitted to enter the country, India remains closed to leisure visitors, VFR travellers (unless they are NRIs or hold OCIs) and medical tourists. Only 60% of the pre-COVID traffic is allowed to enter the country from a border control perspective. Of which the majority is expected to defer travel given the risks and inconvenience associated with international travel at present.”

Rakesh Verma, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, shares that there is a need to market India as a M!CE destination. “We have to aggressively market India as a MICE destination. The Government has to back the industry in bringing more events and conventions. Our missions abroad can be of great help. It impacts tourism, hospitality, event management and host of other people in the supply chain. India has great potential for MICE industry. The challenge is how to build a string brand India for conventions and events, while backing it up by delivering on the premises. The Government and the industry must jointly build India as a MICE destination.”

Learn about new business opportunities with Thomas Cook India in a webinar today at 3pm where Romil Pant, Senior VP – Holidays, Thomas Cook India, will take participants through its ‘Assured’ Program, and unique domestic products and services. Participants will also receive vouchers worth Rs 2,000. To sign up, contact Jaspreet Kaur at jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or 9650196532.

Randhir Singh Vaghela, IATO Chairman (Gujarat Chapter), says, “The Statue of Unity is becoming a great destination for tourism. And the latest development of seaplanes being launched on October 31 has added another feather to its cap. Believe me, there are so many activities added at the Statue of Unity that it is now a minimum two-night destination and we are hoping that it will soon become one of the global destinations that every tourist would like to visit.”

IATA has enhanced its Travel Industry Designator Service (TIDS) and will also no longer charge travel agencies to use the service. TIDS is an IATA programme which provides a unique identification code for travel agents and sales intermediaries who are not IATA-Accredited agents and are located outside of the USA.

FHRAI has welcomed FSSAI’s enforcement rules making registration mandatory for home-cooked food sellers, whether operating from home or from dark kitchens. “FSSAI has responded to our plea and is taking to task any such unregulated and illegal dark kitchens. Quite a few of these are actually funded and run by the Food Service Aggregators (FSAs) to escape responsibilities attached to operating restaurants legally,” says Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, VP, FHRAI.