Category Archives: Movements

Qatar National Tourism Council (QNTC) has appointed Deveekaa Nijhawan to lead the International PR and Communications team, to assist in marketing the destination in key markets as part of the country’s strategy to become a world-leading tourism destination.   Her remit covers key markets including India, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and United Arab Emirates with a focus on engaging and penetrating travel trade and consumer media. Nijhawan is a senior PR professional with over 10 years’ experience in PR & Communications in the hospitality sector. Nijhawan says, “I am very excited to join QNTC and embrace this new challenge. I am looking forward to developing and implementing a holistic integrated PR and Communications strategy to position Qatar as a popular tourist destination, while promoting the country’s rich cultural heritage and diverse offerings.”   As part of the national strategy, Qatar National Vision 2030, QNTC is on a journey to welcome six million visitors a year by 2030, by improving and expanding the country’s tourism proposition with visitor experience at its core. Nijhawan will support the international marketing strategy, while Qatar continues to grow and improve tourism assets, enhance the end-to-end customer experience and invest in service excellence across every touchpoint.   She will execute QNTC’s tailored global communications campaigns, with a focus in key markets. Chief Operating Officer of Qatar National Tourism Council, Berthold Trenkel, says, “We are thrilled to welcome Deveekaa to the team. She will play a pivotal role in delivering our ambitious tourism development strategy. Her extensive PR and Communications experience and knowledge of global markets will help us engage with travellers as we prepare to welcome tourists back to Qatar.”   QNTC’s commitment to developing bespoke …

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Arun Kumar, Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor, Ministry of Civil Aviation as Director General in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Kumar, an IAS officer of Haryana cadre, was heading DGCA as an additional charge since June this year and has now been handed over a full-time charge. He spent time as joint secretary in the aviation ministry before being promoted as additional secretary and now DGCA chief. Kumar succeeds BS Bhullar, who held full-time charge of DGCA as chief from December 2016 to May 2019. Bhullar has now been appointed as chairman of Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA).

The newly appointed, Prahalad Singh Patel, assumed charge as the Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism at his office in Transport Bhawan, New Delhi. The minister holds the portfolio of Minister of State (I/C) for Culture as well. Post assuming office, the minister said, “The tourism and culture ministry have a huge potential. If you look at the different means of earnings and revenue across the world, tourism remains a major source of employment generation. India is a big nation and its cultural identity is expansive. Therefore, preserving our cultural identity, we will take tourism ahead and with full determination we will try and achieve our Prime Ministers objectives. From 2014-2019, progressive work has taken place, we will try to increase the pace of progress and with time we will try and achieve our targets. I believe all the department officials are carrying on their work and the media also play a vital role in tourism and their cooperation is required.”

Arun Kumar, a member of the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) cadre, has been given the additional charge of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Kumar, currently holds the position of an additional secretary at the aviation ministry and will succeed B S Bhullar. Kumar will hold his new position that comes into effect from 31 May’for three months’ or ’till an incumbent is selected’, the aviation ministry said in a statement. Source: Livemint

Chartered accountant-turned-politician, Piyush Goyal has been reappointed as the Minister of Railways. Goyal, who worked as an investment banker before becoming member of Rajya Sabha, has handled several key portfolios in the previous Modi government, including the Finance Ministry in the absence of Arun Jaitley. He has also been Power, Coal and Corporate Affairs Minster in the past. During his tenure as Railways Minister, he announced Railways Zone for Andhra Pradesh named South Coast Railways and was also instrumental in announcing new fast speed train, Vande Bharat Express. Born in Mumbai to Ved Prakash Goyal, who has been a Union Minister in the Vajpayee government, he followed his father’s footsteps and joined BJP in 1984. He holds a stellar academic record and is an all-India second rank holder Chartered Accountant and second rank holder in Law in Mumbai University. He also served on the Board of India’s largest commercial bank, the State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda.

Nitin Gadkari will continue to handle Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, while also handling the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). The minister has been credited for smooth construction and operation of bridges, flyovers and expressways in the previous cabinet. He is also known to have played a significant role in the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. Gadkari earned his spurs as PWD Minister in Maharashtra, by delivering the Mumbai-Pune expressway and 55 flyovers in Mumbai.

The Israel Ministry of Tourism has appointed Sammy Yahia as Director of Tourism for India and Philippines. Effective 3 June 2019, Yahia will be taking over his new position, before which he was the Director of Marketing & Communications for Israel Ministry of Tourism from 2012 to May 2019. During his tenure there, he was awarded ‘Employee of the Year – Civil Service Commission’ and received a certificate of appreciation from the Minister of Tourism and the Director General for his valuable contributions. Commenting on the appointment Yahia said, “The arrivals from India have amassed expectations in the last few years to present some record-breaking numbers. While keeping the current momentum going, the goal is to place India as one of the top global source markets for Israel. Besides the metropolitan cities, continuing to capture Tier II cities would be the strategy to lure travellers to consider Israel for a leisure holiday offering dynamic experiences catering to varied interests. Having said this, our office will aggressively work towards increasing connectivity between India and Israel by introducing new airlines to service the route.” Yahia will be replacing Hassan Madah, who was at the helm of the Indian market for many years.

Srijit Nair has recently joined Rail Europe as the Regional Sales Director, Greater India (India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan). He will be based in Mumbai. He worked previously as the General Manager – Sales, heading the NRI business (International Markets/Non-Resident Indian) in the B2B and B2C sales structure at Thomas Cook India Ltd. Prior to that role, Nair was responsible for leading the B2B business channels for the Western and Southern regions at Thomas Cook India. He was actively involved in building the franchisee model, new acquisitions of franchisee partners and with a focused approach on B2B space specially with the Preferred Sales Agents and the travel agents. Nair has done Masters in Marketing Management from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies as well as received a post graduate diploma in Tourism & Travel from Garware Institute, Mumbai and Bachelor of Management Studies from University of Mumbai.

VFS Global has appointed Jiten Vyas and Vinay Malhotra – both Regional Group COOs – as members of the company’s Executive Board. The Executive Board (EB), in collaboration with the Board of Directors, plays a pivotal role in the compamny’s strategic decision-making across various business verticals and its functions. The addition of  Vyas and Malhotra, with their respective vast individual career experiences, will further strengthen the EB to bring in the wider operational business perspective, in light of the company’s growth strategy. Vyas, a UK citizen, who joined the company in 2003 is responsible for all business operations in Africa (including Turkey), CIS and Eastern Europe, Europe and Americas and Australasia. Malhotra, an Indian citizen,  who joined the company in 2013 is responsible for all business operations in Middle East, South Asia and China. Both of them have handled various leadership responsibilities across geographies for the company, and are also responsible for the strengthening of key client government relationships. Zubin Karkaria, CEO, VFS Global, commented, “We are proud to have dynamic and experienced leaders of the calibre of Jiten and Vinay, who have been instrumental to our global success in growing rapidly and serving now 62 client governments. As we further expand our scope of business, we look forward to having their considerable and combined expertise add value to matters of strategy and corporate development.”

After the Annual General Meeting of the World Travel & Tourism Council, India Initiative (WTTCII), the company has appointed many office bearers for the year 2019. Rajeev Talwar, Chief Executive Officer, DLF, has been appointed as the Chairman, WTTCII for the year 2019. Talwar, who served as the Vice Chairman, WTTCII for the year 2018, takes over from Sunder G Advani, Chairman & Managing Director, Advani Hotels & Resorts (India). Ajay Singh, Chairman & Managing Director, SpiceJet, has been unanimously appointed as the Vice Chairman, WTTCII for the year 2019. KJ Alphons, Minister of State for Tourism (Independent Charge) for Tourism and Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Tourism, along with former officials of Ministry of Tourism, SK Misra and VK Duggal felicitated the new team. On his appointment, Talwar said, “WTTCII has three main asks from the government — firstly, Airline Turbine Fuel – ATF must be included under GST; secondly, the 28 per cent on hotel rooms is hurting – GST should be pegged at 5 per cent for rooms of transaction values of Rs 5,000 and 12 per cent for transaction values of Rs 5,001 to Rs 15,000, along with ITC. Lastly, a tourism board to handle the marketing of Incredible India. Today, destination marketing has to be more deft, sharp, agile and cannot be strapped with bureaucratic procedures. A tourism board with inclusion of public and private stakeholders will make brand India successful. We would also need avenues to open up new markets, take, for instance, China; we are 4-6 hours away from major Chinese cities. China’s huge outbound of 130 million trips is every country’s envy and a prime source market, yet we are unable to tap the Chinese outbound. We need to be connected to …