Category Archives: NTO (National Tourist Offices)

From the US, the highest number of bookings happen in September and October, accounting for 21% of all bookings. Even in January there is a peak of 10% from US. From United Kingdom there are 2 periods of peak bookings— January, which accounts for 12% of booking volume and the period September to November, which accounts for 29% of booking volume. Both USA, UK have two peak periods, reveals an analysis of time of actual 2019 inbound bookings data to India by Forwardkeys, from 3 important long-haul source markets – USA, UK and Australia. Australia, being in the Southern Hemisphere has one peak booking peak period – July August September which account 32% of all bookings.

According to the data released by South African Tourism office in India, Mumbai continued to be the leading source market for South Africa in India. Between January to June 2019, around 43% of total Indian visitors to the Rainbow Nation were from Mumbai. Delhi managed to be the second leading source market for the destination in India contributing 21% of the total Indian visitors during the same period. One thing remained common for both cities – the summer and winter holiday months of April, May and December emerged as preferred travel months among Mumbaikars as well as Delhiites for their South Africa trips. With 81,316 Indian arrivals as of October 2019, the destination board shared a positive outlook for the Indian market, noting that as of September 2019, total spends by Indian travellers in South Africa had reached a four-year high. The average length of stay witnessed a year on year increase of 8% in the first half of 2019.

Travel Nevada will host a webinar for travel agents on 24th January. For registration and more details on the event, please contact, Ritesh Ahluwalia at ritesh.ahluwalia@buzzindia.in or +91 9818576755. Over 500 agents from across India are expected to participate. Through this, agents will learn about the key highlights of the destination and will be educated on what makes Nevada an ideal destination for Indian tourists.

In a bid to attract the Indian outbound travellers, Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) has launched its brand new ‘Your Japan 2020’ campaign, aimed at offering special experiences and never-before kind of offers to Indian visitors. Through the campaign ‘Your Japan 2020’, JNTO wants to invite visitors globally to experience Japan their way through events. This high magnitude campaign began on 1st January and will extend till end of this year; that is 31st December 2020. JNTO, through its premeditated partnership is allowing travellers on an economical trip to Japan as both, domestic and international airlines are handing out phenomenal discounts. Yusuke Yamamoto, Executive Director, JNTO said, “The year 2020 is highly crucial for Japan as all eyes would be on our destination for hosting the World Olympic Games. In order to make every individual’s visit to our destination enthralling, JNTO has made conscious efforts in planning. We have categorically focused on each areas of traveler’s interest and spread activities all around the year starting from 1st January to 31st December 2020. We are extremely thrilled to host each one of you in Japan and are certain that your visit would be something, which you would never forget. Through our new campaign “Your Japan 2020”, we would like to invite more and more Indian to come and explore Japan to the fullest the way you want it to be.” Japan witnessed 11,700 Indian tourist arrivals in December, posting 13.9% SPLY hike. Moreover, 175,900 Indians visited Japan from Jan-Dec’19, posting a phenomenal 14.2% year-on-year hike. In addition, 2020 also marks the year of Olympic and Paralympic Games in Japan, and hence the country is set to welcome visitors from across the …

The Penang Convention & Exhibition Bureau (PCEB) launched its annual roadshow to India in Mumbai as part of the Penang Roadshow to India 2020. The objective is promoting Penang as the preferred destination for corporate and association meetings, conferences, and incentives, and leisure travel. Capitalising on Penang’s rising popularity in India, the Penang Roadshow to India will host, in each of the four cities, a B2B engagement session with participating Business Events and leisure travel buyers from India. Led by Hon. Yeoh Soon Hin, Penang State Minister for Tourism, Arts, Culture and Heritage, and Ashwin Gunasekeran, Chief Executive Officer of PCEB, the roadshow is supported by a Penang delegation of 14 partners, including hotels, destination management companies, attractions, professional conference organisers and event experts. Also accompanying the Penang delegation is Hon. Satees Muniandy, Penang State Assemblyman for Bagan Dalam. Also joining the roadshow is PCEB’s strategic airline partner, Malaysia Airlines. PCEB is also launching the Penang Specialist Programme designed for the Indian market. The Programme will equip select outbound travel, MICE, wedding and filming agencies with first-hand knowledge of Penang through a full day workshop conducted in each city concurrently with the B2B engagement session. Among the incentives that the Penang Specialists can qualify for are special incentive for group sales of 100 pax and above, famil opportunities to Penang, opportunities to attend PCEB’s training and networking programme in Penang and India, and much more. The certification of the Penang Specialist Programme is valid for three years upon which qualifying members will be invited for recertification. The workshop is conducted by Ms. Katharine Chua, the Managing Director of Penang’s Tropical Spice Garden. “The number of Indian travellers to Penang has …

In a bid to stimulate the India market and achieve its new milestone of doubling numbers by 2030, South Africa has announced an e-visa regime for the India market on a pilot basis. Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, Hon. Minister of Tourism, South Africa, who was in Mumbai to interact with key travel trade partners said, “We want to remove the barriers for the India market to visit South Africa and for this we will introduce an online visa application system from the third week of January this year. This will be on a pilot basis for now and we will look at introducing it formally by April this year.” About 32 key agents attending the morning session where they discussed ideas on how they can push numbers from India.

VisitBritain successfully concluded its roadshow in New Delhi with over 250 travel trade partners in attendance. Agents from Delhi, Punjab, West Bengal and Gujarat attended the event, which had a total of 42 exhibitors representing destinations, attractions, DMCs and products from across Britain. New destinations which were in focus were Birmingham, Manchester and Lake District. Leading the delegation was Vishal Bhatia- country manager India, Visit Britain. Shuja Bin Mehdi, B2B manager, Visit Britain revealed that they have got an overwhelming response in both Mumbai and Delhi, which shows the interest the agents have in the destination. With such a response they will hopefully organise the roadshow once again next year.

VisitBritain successfully concluded the Mumbai edition of its two-city sales mission yesterday with more than 250 key travel agents and tour operators attending the event. The New Delhi edition will be held on January 15, 2020. Sharing more information on it is Vishal Bhatia, Country Manager, India, VisitBritain, who says, “We received a phenomenal response in Mumbai with more than 250 trade partners attending the event to engage with the delegates from the UK. We had 35 suppliers at the roadshow with a total of 42 delegates. A lot of the suppliers from the UK are here for the first time like the Grasmere Gingerbread, The Spires Service Apartments and Sterling Travel. This will be the biggest contingent ever from the UK participating in this India Sales Mission, which speaks volumes about the demand they see from India and the kind of confidence we have in the market. The UK Visas & Immigration is also part of this.” The last such sales mission was conducted in 2017 in Pune with 22 suppliers from the UK who met 90-odd hosted buyers from India. He added that some agents had also travelled from outside Mumbai from cities like Pune and even Rajkot in Gujarat to meet the suppliers. Bhatia adds, “There is a big contingent from north of England as well. Marketing Manchester has been working extremely closely with us over the years and we have 20-odd suppliers coming from the north who are capable of holding big MICE groups as well – like the Lancashire Cricket Club where the India-Pakistan match took place in June last year.”

Nepal will develop night tourism in Kathmandu and will be focusing on M!CE tourism from India, revealed Lila Bahadur Baniya, Officiating Director, Nepal Tourism Board, while addressing the delegates at the Nepal Sales Mission, organised by Nepal Tourism Board, the National Tourism Organization (NTO) of Government of Nepal, in Amritsar. Nepal Sales Mission, is travelling to 9 Indian Cities from 6th January to 1st February 2020. The event has successfully concluded in Amritsar and will now go to other Indian cities of Chandigarh, Jaipur, Indore, Surat, Pune, Trichy, Trivandrum and Kochi. The mission is aimed at bringing all the travel trade partners together to update about various destination of Nepal and educate regarding the recent developments in Nepalese tourism. The sales mission is important for Nepal as Nepal is celebrating Visit Nepal Year 2020 with an objective to bring 2 million tourists in Nepal. The Nepalese delegation is led by Lila Bahadur Baniya, along with  Robin Regmi, Officer-India & South Asia Unit. The delegation has 9 private companies/DMCs representatives and is looking forward to interacting with 80 agents and 20 Media Person from each of the 9 cities.

Tourists from India and China can visit Malaysia for 15 days without a tourist visa effective January 1. Throughout 2020, they will be able to enter the country for up to 15 days by using the electronic travel registration and information system – either individually or through travel agencies in their respective countries. However, the tourists must enter and exit Malaysia only through authorised airports or entry points. According to a statement from the government, these tourists will be able to travel to Malaysia three months after registration. Upon arrival, visitors must produce proof of sufficient cash for expenses, credit card or bank card, and produce their travel itinerary in Malaysia. They should also have a valid return ticket. In addition, the 15-day period cannot be extended, and these tourists cannot apply for any other passes under the Immigration Regulations 1963.