Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

In order to understand the pulse of the industry amidst these unprecedented times, HVS ANAROCK conducted an anonymous online survey with Hotel General Managers (GMs) in the last week of April 2020. The survey revealed that despite expecting low occupancies, over 71% of the GMs will not discount their rates by more than 20%. Over 42% GMs believe that occupancy would be close to or higher than 50%, while 46% of the GMs believe that occupancy will remain below 40%. The survey revealed that most GMs expect demand to pick up by Q4 2020.

The Uttarakhand government is planning to resume tourism and start the Char Dham Yatra in a calibrated manner after June 8 in an effort to boost the economy. Sharing the information, Madan Kaushik, Cabinet minister and governments’ spokesperson said, “The government is planning to start the Char Dham Yatra but in a limited manner, allowing only limited people amid the pandemic. We will also gradually resume the tourism activities in the same manner as both Char Dham Yatra and tourism are basically the backbone of our economy.” In its latest guidelines, the Centre allowed religious places to open after June 8 along with free inter-state travel of people in a bid to gradually open up the country after lockdown amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Goa Tourism will be focusing on improving their infrastructure as they wait for things to come back to normal, reveals Nikhil Desai, MD, Goa Tourism Development Corporation. “In the coming year, we will focus on domestic market and further consolidate our presence in weddings, M!CE, adventure and leisure tourism. We are also using this time to ramp up our tourism infrastructure to world-class standards and focusing on introduction of new services and products. We are also focusing on completion of Swadesh Darshan projects sanctioned by the MOT. We are looking forward for sanction of financial assistance by MOT for development of UNESCO World Heritage site at old goa under PRASHAD scheme. We are also undertaking work for development of hinterland circuit in North Goa under Swadesh Darshan scheme. So, while we wait for things to come back to normal, we have doubled our efforts on improving the tourism infrastructure,” he said.

Tim Clark, President, Emirates, has said that the UAE flagship carrier could take around four years to resume flying to its entire network. The airline has grounded passenger flights owing to the Coronavirus pandemic and has only operated a few flights since then. “I think probably by the year 2022/23, 2023/24 we will see things coming back to some degree of normality and Emirates will be operating its network as it was and hopefully as successfully as it was,” Clark said in an interview at ATM Virtual 2020. Clark further added that the airline can activate its fleet within 48 hours if they must, but he feels domestic and international flights will start looking up only fort quarter 2021 once global inoculation starts. He doesn’t expect corporate or business travel will go down.

Sharing his view on what’s to come for the M!CE business, Rajdev Bhattacharya, General Manager, Global Travel & Hospitality Services and Way2go, Digital Operations & Platforms for Wipro, says, “With virtual meetings here to stay, corporates will cut down on international travel in the short term, at least till April 2021.” Speaking at the 3rd TravTalk Digital Conclave, he added that this meant that travel agencies would also have to become digital.

Venkataramani Sumantran has been appointed as an Independent Director on the Board of IndiGo, for a period of five years. He is currently Chairman and Managing Director of Celeris Technologies and has held this position since 2014. Sumantran has earlier served as Executive Vice-Chairman of Hinduja Automotive, UK; Executive Director of Tata Motors; and Director, Advanced Engineering in GM-Europe, among other roles.

According to a joint survey report by Thomas Cook India and SOTC Travel, consumers have expressed an interest in a personal touch to their travel booking experience, with 58% opting to purchase holidays through retail outlets or home service (38% retail and 20% home visits). This was followed by 40% opting for online channels (website/App) and 12% stating preference for video chat. Over 2500 consumers across India participated in the survey.

An IATA survey reveals that once the pandemic has subsided and it is declared safe to travel, the one thing that would make passengers feel safer would be being able to see the sanitisation process being performed throughout the aircraft. Providing more insights, the survey also reveals that travellers would be equally convinced of the safety of being in an airport if they’re able to see for themselves its sanitisation.

Though the occupancy rate across hotels in key cities of India has been plummeting for some time now, the sector is hopeful that by Q4 this year, they will be above 40%. This was revealed by HVS General Manager’s Sentiment Survey, where more than 53% respondents said that occupancies in Q4 could be anywhere between 40-50%, maybe even more. In fact, over 42% of the General Managers surveyed believe that occupancy would be close to or higher than 50%, while 46% of the General Managers believe that occupancy will remain below 40%.

CovidSMART is DDP Group’s latest initiative, a programme designed by WHO-certified professionals and ISO-trained individuals to promote safe travel and help build in tour operators & travel agents the confidence to succeed in this industry, once again. To access the programme, you can log on to www.covidElearn.com. Key learnings would include protecting your business during COVID-19, dealing with emergencies and anxiety related to the pandemic and its impact, and the importance of a PPE kit. SanJeet, Director, DDP Group, says, “All our initiatives during this pandemic have been our way of looking after our tourism industry and this is another such programme. Our aim is that every travel professional should accept this fast-paced change, be prepared and be ready to drive tourism in the future. By introducing CovidSMART, we hope to put India in the driver’s seat. Now, it is up to the travel industry to encash this opportunity. I encourage the industry to convey to their partners as well as the Indian travellers that they will now be dealing with a COVID-19 certified specialist, who understands and will guide them through this jungle.”