Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

During a webinar hosted by FHRAI, Suman Billa, Director, UNWTO, said, “UNWTO estimates a drop of 50-60% in the international tourist arrival this year. It will take 2-3 years to bounce back. To survive, we will have to create a domestic market. We also need harmonisation of protocols in each state.”

Announcing a new movement started by a few in the wedding industry, Rajeev Jain, Director, Rashi Entertainment, said, “If there is no auspicious date for birth, or death, then why should there be an auspicious day for weddings? To revive our industry, we have started a campaign called ‘Har Din Shub Hai’ to tell clients to fix weddings on any day so they get cost benefits and hotels and planners get business throughout the year. This will be virtually launched on 29 September.”

Rajesh Mudgill, Hony. Secretary, IATO has informed that Ministry of Tourism has proposed a new category called green shoots or stand-ups for granting recognition to start-ups. “Anyone starting a new business will be able to apply for MOT recognition without any specific capital or turnover requirement. This can earn them a provisional recognition valid for 3 years,” he said.

The Tour Operators and Travel Agents Association of Gujarat (TAG) has initiated a campaign to promote domestic tourism. A five-member team from TAG will embark on a historical 36-day road trip across India, starting off from Surat on September 18. The team will cover around 18,000 kms visiting 34 states and UT capitals (except Andaman & NicoBar and Lakshadweep) while showcasing their landmark monuments and Covid-ready hotels. Pankaj Gupta, President, TAG, shared that the team will be led by Rajiv Shah of Surat-based agency Network Tours & Travels. They will essentially cover around 500kms per day. The entire trip is largely self-sponsored.

Hasan Patel, Director, Tripjack, announces an exciting competition for the travel trade based on the IPL matches. “This is a fantasy league for agents and will run for the entire duration of the games. All agents can sign up for this and win prizes every day – free hotel stays, air tickets, gifts, loyalty points redeemable on any future bookings. We encourage everyone to sign up and participate!” he says. To participate, agents can visit https://tripjack.com/cms/ipl-static-page to sign up for the competition.

Ebixcash Tours & Travels has become the preferred travel & forex partner of 5 IPL teams. The company will handle travel needs of players and provide end to end support including charter flights, ground transportation, foreign exchange, hotel rooms and event insurance coverage.   A fully owned subsidiary of Ebix Inc., EbixCash has announced that it is handling the travel needs for five of the eight franchises involved in an 82-day Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket sporting extravaganza in Dubai. Under the leadership of Naveen Kundu, Managing Director, EbixCash Tours & Travels, EbixCash has been able to secure this prestigious assignment. As a part of this engagement of EbixCash independently by five of the IPL Franchises, EbixCash is handling approximately 19,000 plus hotel room night bookings for four franchises, chartered flights for five franchises, ground transportation for two franchises, foreign exchange needs for the entire entourage of four of the teams and event insurance coverage for one team. Kings XI Punjab, Delhi Capitals, Rajasthan Royals, Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings are the five franchises who have engaged EbixCash Tours and Travels for varied travel needs of each of the franchises. Sharing his views on the deal, Kundu says, “We are honoured to have been chosen as the vendor of choice by the majority of the IPL franchises. Their decision was made easier with EbixCash emerging as the only end-to-end services provider who could handle their varied needs under one window. Our depth of products and services, international expanse, travel expertise and the past record was instrumental in us being selected for this prestigious engagement.” Robin Raina, Chairman of the Board, President & CEO, Ebix, said, “In COVID-19 times, …

Mandeep S Lamba, President (South Asia), HVS ANAROCK, during a webinar, has advised hotel owners in India to not sell right now. “This is not a great time to sell. But if your cash flows are not holding out and you have no other way of managing it, then there is no option but to sell. Other than that, I would advise everybody to hold on because valuations will be a little depressed if you sell now. So the best advice I can give hotel owners is that if you have the ability to manage your cash flows for the next 12 months, then just hold on,” he advises.

The Principal Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance, Sanjeev Sanyal, said during a webinar for FHRAI members, “We have, through the one-time loan restructuring option, offered to alleviate the financial burden on businesses. If for any reason this provision is not working, then the government wants to take your feedback and work on an action-plan to make it work. If this means that the banks, for some reason have displayed inhibition in co-operating with the businesses trying to avail of the government’s scheme, then we will take necessary action to rectify it.”

Subhash Goyal, Secretary General, FAITH, has revealed that the Association is in discussion with Ministry of Tourism to host a hybrid ITM by the end of this year. He said, “One interaction with the government has happened; and we are still in the progress of deciding how we are going to conduct it, whether it will be entirely virtual or hybrid. However, we will have ITM by the end of this year and we hope to announce the exact dates very soon.”

Global Panorama Showcase has tied up with Airlines Technology by TWAI, to offer NDC (New Distribution Capability) by IATA to agents in India at an affordable price. Harmandeep Singh Anand, MD, GPS, says, “NDC technology is the new solution and is the new normal, and it will be very useful to more than 4,000 IATA agents.” To this, Trideep Aggarwal, Co-Founder and Director, Airlines Technology by TWAI, adds, “Last couple of years, airlines have been pushing for NDC which allows them to distribute new things which they were not being able to do earlier. At the end of last year, we were in discussion with Varun Bansal, the CEO of Airlines Technology, as we were looking for enhancing our product offerings by having NDC on our platform. At the beginning of this year, we acquired Airlines Technology, and since then we have been merging everything with our platform. We are one of the largest NDC aggregators in the world. As of now, there are about 19 airlines on our platform, and we will have around 23 by the end of this year.”