Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

The State Government of Karnataka has decided to return the Rs 96 crore under the Swadesh Darshan programme, which was sanctioned by MOT for development of coastal tourism projects in three districts of the state, after not being able to implement the project within the stipulated time. According to CT Ravi, Tourism Minister, Karnataka, reportedly said that the Centre had sanctioned Rs 95 crore for the integrated development of coastal tourism circuits in Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada and Udupi districts in 2015-16. After that MOT also released Rs 19 crore to start the work. However, the state could not make any progress, and thus has decided to return the sanctioned amount. They will now submit a new implementable detailed project report in two months and get it sanctioned again.

Charanjit Singh Channi, Cabinet Minister for Tourism & Culture Affairs, Government of Punjab, has said that the Government is investing around Rs 100 crore for developing heritage tourism. He said, “There are a lot of heritage buildings in Punjab, which we want to develop to attract tourists. Projects worth about Rs 100 crore are being carried out in Punjab for heritage tourism. Apart from that, there are a lot of other initiatives going on in Amritsar, including renovation of all the buildings.” He also adds, “Among other things, we are developing adventure sports activities in Pinkasia, which is in Ropar district. We are also developing a convention centre here. In Chamkaur Sahib, we are beautifying the façade. Also, in Fatehpur Sahib, there is a lot of development going on. In the coming days, one would see more such projects coming up in the state,” he shares. Channi said that while the state’s tourism department is leaving no stone unturned in promoting religious tourism further, it is also focusing on promoting heritage, medical, and eco-tourism.”

The Fern Hotels & Resorts has announced the opening of The Fern Residency in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. This is the 16th hotel which the company is managing in the state. Overall the company’s count has extended to 69 hotels across the country and in Nepal and Seychelles. The Fern Residency, Aurangabad is a 120-room business hotel offering modern-day accommodations, swimming pool and state-of-art banquet halls.  Suhail Kannampilly, the CEO of the company said, “People visiting Aurangabad which is steeped in history will be delighted by the hospitality extended to them. The Fern brand is extremely popular in the state and this property will go a long way in further expanding the popularity.”

Gurgaon-based travel fintech company SanKash and Travel Boutique Online has entered into a strategic partnership. The association will enable the travel agents operating both online and offline to fast track the processing of their travel packages without any hassle and drive double-digit revenue growth. While TBO will bring its reach and distribution, SanKash will contribute its entire payment know-how, operations and technology to the travel agents associated with TBO. They can adopt SanKash’s Monthly Payment Plan and help customers book their dream vacation packages, which will eventually increase their customer uptake and upsell services without money becoming an issue. Aiming to make holiday trips a part of the simple and accessible pleasures of life, SanKash comes as a revolutionary travel fintech company that focuses on helping Travel Agents and Tour Operators provide pay-in-parts / monthly EMI solutions for their travellers. Through this unique value proposition, it intends to create best-in-class customer and partner focused affordability solutions for the travel industry. Sankash is a B2B service that makes payment (loan disbursement) to travel agents bank account instead of customers account, thus empowering the travel agent but enabling customers to travel.

Invest India, the National Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency, has revealed that India aims to become the third-largest aviation market globally by 2024. According to the report, India plans to revive its aviation infrastructure by redeveloping 200 airports and airstrips, thus creating numerous investment possibilities for global investors. The report also states that, Indian carriers plan to increase their fleet size to 1,100 aircraft by 2027.

Hotel Leela Venture said its board has approved the proposed change in name of the company to ‘HLV Ltd’ or some other suitable name, if it is not available. As part of the Brookfield transaction, the word “Leela” would not be a part of the company’s name, Hotel Leela Venture said in a filing to the BSE. The board has also approved the resignations of Rajiv Kaul as President and Rajan Shah, its Chief Financial Officer as they wanted to move to Brookfield. The Company will continue to own and operate the hotel in Mumbai, under the Leela Brand licensed to it by Brookfield. The Company also continues to own the land in Hyderabad and its share of apartments under the joint development project of residential apartments with Prestige Developers in Bangalore, adjoining The Leela Palace Hotel. Source: PTI

VISIT JAPAN Travel & MICE Mart (VJTM) 2019 kick-started in Osaka and will be held till 26 October. The business meetings in VJTM 2019 use a unique appointment-matching system to arrange business meetings in line with needs of both buyers and sellers. This year, the mart concurrently is held with “Tourism ExpoJapan,” as part of one of the world’s largest international tourism event, with an aim to promote the entire tourism industry and activate local economies. Furthermore, with the VJTM being held in Osaka for the first time, Kansai Tour Program (voluntary participation) for buyers and the media to introduce Osaka and the other Kansai areas and help expand buyer knowledge of the region, in addition to the conventional familiarization trip has been arranged.

Alitalia recently launched its B2B community platform, called ‘Alitalia Connect’, in Italy to offer personalised relationship between Alitalia and its B2B customers like travel agencies, companies and SMEs. Now, the Italian carrier is set to launch ‘Group Connect’, a web platform under Alitalia Connect in India on November 13. Group Connect is aimed to manage and speed up quotations and group bookings, revealed Nicola Bonacchi, Vice President, Leisure Travel Sales, Alitalia. Other prominent features of ‘Group Connect’ include requesting an offer, booking a group and having the quotation and the contract in real time, monitoring the contract terms and conditions, changing the reservation (increasing or decreasing the group) and entering passengers’ names in the system. The platform offers increased flexibility, allowing the agent to customise the conditions to be chosen based on customer’s characteristics and period.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation would seek Cabinet approval for privatising half a dozen more airports by the first week of December. The six airports up for privatisation are Varanasi, Amritsar, Bhubaneswar, Trichy, Indore and Raipur. An official source said, “The Airports Authority of India (AAI) board has approved the plan. We will seek in-principle approval of the Cabinet now. Once it is approved, the bidding process would start.”

The Indian Railways has recently announced that all trains services will be stopped to and from Dehradun with effect from November 10 and will be reopened for public on February 7, once the renovation is over. A few trains have been cancelled and others including the Dehradun-New Delhi Shatabdi Express and Nanda Devi Express will start and terminate at Haridwar Railway Station.