Category Archives: Movements

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 …

The Ministry of External Affairs has eased the process of issue of passport by allowing applicants to submit any one of their photo identification cards with date of birth (DOB) as proof of DOB. Applicants of passports can submit any one of the following documents – Birth Certificate, PAN card, school certificate, Adhaar card, driving licence, or election card, etc. as proof of date of birth. The online passport application form now requires the applicant to provide the name of father or mother or legal guardian, i.e., only one parent and not both. This would enable single parents to apply for passports for their children and to also issue passports where the name of either the father or the mother is not required to be printed at the request of the applicant. The total number of Annexes prescribed in the Passport Rule, 1980, has been brought down to 9 from the present 15. No attestation/swearing by/before any Notary/Executive Magistrate/First Class Judicial Magistrate would be henceforth necessary. Married applicants would not be required to provide Annexure K or any marriage certificate.

Tourism New Zealand has announced the appointment of Stephen England-Hall to the position of Chief Executive at Tourism New Zealand. He will commence in the role in early April 2017, based in Auckland. He will join Tourism New Zealand after three years as Chief Executive at Loyalty New Zealand and prior to that Chief Marketing Officer with Syncapse Corporation and Chief Executive Officer for Razorfish in London. England-Hall was born in Papakura and spent his teenage years in the Manawatu. He has worked across New Zealand, the United Kingdom and North America as a senior executive of leading digital marketing, data and technology companies. He holds an MBA from Cambridge University and also attended Victoria University in Wellington

Sabre Corporation’s board of directors has appointed Sean Menke as President, CEO and a member of Sabre’s board, effective Dec 31, 2016. Menke will succeed Tom Klein, who has served as president, CEO and board member since 2013. “After an extensive search of qualified candidates, the board unanimously concluded that Sean is the right choice to lead Sabre. Since his arrival last year, Sean has demonstrated that his strong industry knowledge and expertise coupled with his decisive, results-oriented management style are an effective combination. These traits will help Sabre drive innovation as the travel industry’s technology leader and serve the needs of airlines, hotels, travel agents and travelers alike.  I look forward to working with Sean to make this happen,” said Larry Kellner, executive chairman of Sabre’s Board of Directors. Menke joined Sabre in October 2015 and currently serves as executive vice president of Sabre and president of Sabre Travel Network, Sabre’s largest line of business.  Under Menke’s leadership, Sabre Travel Network has won major new business opportunities, increased global market share and secured Sabre’s position as the leading global distribution system in three of its four major operating regions (North America, Latin America and Asia-Pacific), and successfully extended new multi-year agreements with many of its largest global travel management companies, online travel agencies and travel retailers.  In addition, he has led the innovation that enables the sale of more customized fares and ancillary products through Sabre Travel Network and strengthened the technology solutions that will be offered to travel agencies next year as part of the launch of the new Sabre Red platform.  Prior to Sabre, Menke served as CEO of Frontier Airlines and held senior executive positions at …

Dhananjay Kumar is the new General Manager at The Suryaa. With over 21 years of experience, having worked with brands such as Radisson Blu Hotel (Chennai), Hilton (Chennai), Technopak Advisors Private Limited (Gurgaon), The Claridges Hotel (New Delhi), Shangri – La (New Delhi), The Oberoi Hotels and Resorts, The Park Royal (New Delhi), DLF Hospitality (Gurgaon), & Hyatt International. His last assignment was with Radisson Blu Marina as General Manager. Kumar’s last stint at The Suryaa was as a Resident Manager for a year in 2012. He specialises in hotel operations, revenue management, performance enhancement, best practices implementation, setting up process and implementation, organization development and human resources and training. Throughout his career DJ has been certified with various recognitions for commendable work in the field of hospitality.

AirAsia India has announced that Amar Abrol will be taking over the reins from Mittu Chandilya as the CEO of AirAsia India. Effective April 1, Abrol, who has over 20 years of experience, will be in charge of the low cost airline. Abrol was most recently the CEO of Tune Money, a start-up that aims to deliver low-cost financial products in South East Asia. Before joining Tune Money in 2013, he spent 19 years with American Express, leading diverse teams across multiple markets including Hong Kong, Singapore, UK, India and Malaysia. Born and raised in India, Abrol graduated from Delhi University and is a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Abrol said, “AirAsia India is poised for strong growth. I look forward to leading the team and together, giving many more Indians the opportunity to access the exciting promise of Indian civil aviation.” Chandilya’s contract ends March 31, 2016 but he will continue with the company until the end of April to ensure a smooth transition of the CEO role. Chandilya has led AirAsia India from June 1, 2013 and under his leadership, the airline has established a fleet of six aircraft, covering 12 routes and carrying over 1.8 million passengers. In the most recent quarter of operation, October-December 2015, AirAsia India clocked a 134% growth in passenger traffic as it flew over half-a-million customers, and operated 3,376 flights as compared to 1,444 flights in the same period of 2014. Chandilya said, “The past three years has been a rewarding and enriching journey for me and AirAsia India. I am delighted that AirAsia India is today a customer-preferred airline in the sectors that it operates. I …

Jet Airways’ Chief Financial Officer, Amit Agarwal has been given additional responsibility of Acting Chief Executive Officer with effect from March 1, 2016. Agarwal joined Jet Airways in December 2015 and has more than 24 years of experience having held leadership positions in India, Europe and North America. Naresh Goyal, Chairman, Jet Airways, said, “Amit will spearhead the Executive Management Committee of Jet Airways in delivering our strategic objectives. Jet Airways has made demonstrable progress towards achieving long-term sustainable profitability, having recorded three consecutive profitable quarters. Our business performance clearly demonstrates that our efforts are showing positive results.”