Tag Archives: Ankush Nijhawan

Kempinski Hotels has partnered with the Nijhawan Group led by MD Ankush Nijhawan, one of the oldest tourism groups with offices in over 40 cities throughout India. Kempinski has opened three Global Sales Offices in India, respectively in Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangalore. Kempinski Hotels recently conducted an impressive roadshow throughout the country in February, in which 12 representatives and General Managers from various hotels were able to re-introduce Kempinski to around 300 trade partners. “Several of our hotels are already enjoying Indian business and have hosted multi-million dollar weddings. Successful Kempinski top destinations dealing with India so far are Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bangkok and Venice,” says Theo Ocks, Vice President—Global Sales, Kempinski Hotels.

As a result of the Indian subcontinent’s growing outbound demand, Dubai Tourism has announced the appointment of Nijhawan Group as its in-market destination representation and trade marketing management firm in India. With over 45 years of experience in India, Nijhawan Group will now be responsible for all trade communications, brand partnership conversations and building crucial trade relationships in the Indian subcontinent to strengthen Dubai’s position in the market. Meanwhile, Cruise Club has been appointed as the representative in India for Dubai Business Events, a division of Dubai Tourism. Based out of Mumbai, Cruise Club’s role is to increase Dubai’s market share from incentive groups and corporate meetings. The team has already begun delegate boosting activity and promoting upcoming events. Issam Kazim, CEO, Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM) said, “India remains a top priority for us, now consistently being the largest source market for tourists to Dubai. This is a feat achieved through years of establishing and building strong trade ties in the market.” Ankush Nijhawan, Managing Director, Nijhawan Group, added, “With our appointment, we hope to capitalise on our extensive network of agents and generate greater growth into Dubai with their support.”

The Nijhawan Group has been appointed as the Tourism Representative in India for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Commenting on this partnership, Ankush Nijhawan, Managing Director, Nijhawan Group, added, “With Indian nationals looking for newer experiences and destinations, the demand for relatively new entrants like Bosnia and Herzegovina is only poised to grow. It is an exciting time for outbound tourism, and the Indian traveller will only benefit from this trend. Since Bosnia and Herzegovina is a new destination in the Indian market, we will actively work with the trade community to enhance their knowledge about the destination as well as help them in curating exciting itineraries for their clients since the country is a treasure trove of history.” Dr. Sabit Subasic, Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to India, said, “Bosnia and Herzegovina is predicted to be, according to World Tourism Organization, one of the fastest growing tourism destinations of the world in the period till 2025. And that prediction is getting confirmed and visible. Bosnia and Herzegovina is already known as a very attractive tourism destination and many tourists from all over the world come to this country. From India, however, we would like to welcome more tourists since we see potential in this market. Therefore, we decided to develop a strategy and promote Bosnia and Herzegovina as a tourism destination for Indian tourists.”

Travel Boutique Online (TBO) Group has launched its budget hotel chain under the brand name- BOHO Hotels. “The focus with BOHO Hotels is to cater to the budget segment of travellers. We believe there is a lot of demand for budget hotels in the market and especially with GST being implemented, we felt it was the right time to venture into the Tier-II and Tier-III cities. To begin with, we have opened the first hotel in Rishikesh. The second hotel will be launched in a few months in Delhi,” said Ankush Nijhawan, Managing Director, Nijhawan Group of Companies. The company will soon venture into other cities like Jaipur, Pune, Hyderabad and Cochin, added Nijhawan.

Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) was inaugurated on January 20, 2016, at Hotel Centre Point, Nagpur in the presence of Satinder S. Ahuja, Honorary Counsul, Consulate of Georgia, Marzban Antia, Vice President, TAAI, Ankush Nijhawan, MD, Nijhawan Group, and SanJeet, Vice Chairman, PATA India and MD, DDP Group, among other dignitaries. Harmandeep Singh Anand, Co-founder, GPS and MD, Jagsons Travels, informed that 108 exhibitors showcased their various products and offerings for the Tier II and Tier III markets. The event was attended by over 600 buyers. “If we see the multiplier effect, then approximately for 108 exhibitors and 1,000 buyers, 100,000 meetings can be done. This is a huge number. We have witnessed 99 per cent success in terms of exchange of e-cards.” The GPS mobile application launched for the 5th edition has been a huge success, Anand informed adding that the application is undergoing constant upgrade. He informed that to facilitate live feed and news, TravTalk will be integrated in the application. In the upcoming events, video conferencing facilities will also be made available to the attendees. “The buyers and exhibitors can maintain the database and keep in touch even after the show. All data can be found at one marketplace which will bring together the big and small service providers as well as all kinds of travel agents and tour operators in the Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Vidarbha a region” he added. He further informed that five per cent of the profit from GPS this year will be contributed to Dr. Amit Samarth, a doctor by profession but a sports and fitness promoter in India, in order to fund his endeavour to compete in race across America challenge in 2017. …

Ankush Nijhawan, MD, Nijhawan Group, “I think this increase in service tax is just the trailer for GST to set in. The government has made a soft opening to what GST will have in store at 14-18 per cent. Given this move, the tourism and hospitality industry has to brace itself for high tax rate when GST will be implemented. The prices will shoot up in short term and the effect will be seen on outbound as well as domestic travel. The increase in prices of holidays sold as packages will result in travellers to pay more and the business will be impacted temporarily. However, we need to wait for what GST has in store when it is implemented in June this year.

Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) has appointed Ankush Nijhawan, MD of Nijhawan Group, as its Executive Director with immediate effect. Talking about this development, Harmandeep Singh Anand, Co-founder, GPS, said, “We are pleased to announce the appointment of Ankush Nijhawan as Executive Director of GPS and I am sure this move will help us in making GPS one of the leading travel shows in India in Tier-II & III market space.” Anand added that his expertise will further assist in elevating GPS’ position and achieve its objective to educate and empower the travel fraternity in Tier-II and III markets. “GPS is all about innovation, involvement, engagement and excelling to reach acommon goal, which is to explore and unleash the tourism potential that lies in the Tier II & Tier III cities of India. Commenting on his appointment, Nijhawan said, “I am happy to be on board with GPS and our collaborative efforts as a team will further strengthen GPS to establish it as India’s only B2B travel show for the Secondary markets of recognition. We will offer our expertise in bringing more number of quality buyers to GPS as there is a new generation of travellers in Tier-II and III cities and educating and reaching out to travel trade in these markets become important. With our agent network, we are confident that, we will achieve in getting the right buyers to the show. Also with our international relationship and exposure, we are confident in influencing global exhibitors to participate in GPS. Anand says, “For GPS Nagpur(scheduled for January 19 to 21, 2017), the first event for the GPS 2017 calendar, nearly 70% of exhibition space has been sold with confirmations from …

Aitken Spence Travels, the leading destination management company in Sri Lanka has appointed the Nijhawan Group as their representatives in India. Announcing this partnership, Ankush Nijhawan, Managing Director, Nijhawan Group shared that Nijhawan Group has been the representing partner for Aitken Spence Hotels, Sri Lanka since 2013 and this initiative has been taken to further strengthen this collaboration in India and to maximise the numbers from India to Sri Lanka through Aitken Spence Travels. Suranga Ratnayake, Assistant Vice President, Aitken Spence Travels, stated that with and an estimated annual inbound volume of 130,000 tourists, Aitken Spence Travels is backed by a reputation of being the most professional in the business. He added that Aitken Spence Travels is fully diversified in to every aspect of tourism related activities namely; leisure, eco, adventure, MICE, shore excursions for cruise liners and luxury tours. The company is the only Destination Management Company to be accredited with the ISO 9001:2008 certification, and its operations conform to 14001:2004 environmental standards in compliance with Carbon Neutral status.

In a strategic equity partnership, Travel Boutique Online and FxKart.com, an online market place for money-changers have come together to offer foreign exchange facilities to travel agents. Abdul Hadi Shaikh, CEO, FxKart, explains, “We have done a deep integration with the TBO portal. TBO agents can log on to their existing TBO platform, access the forex tab and get the best rates for forex in the city. Fxkart’s innovative instant forex deal discovery platform lets authorised money changers in the market bid for the best price in real time offering agents the best deal. Once the order is booked, the customer service finalises the deal and a seamless forex delivery takes place.” Shaikh further informs that travel agents can get commissions on every deal booked through options like per deal basis or percentage mark-up. Ankush Nijhawan, Co- Founder, TBO Group, informs that within two days of the launch of the product, there were 300 travel agents who searched for forex requirement on the platform, transacting business volume worth over a million dollars without any marketing of the product. “Our vision with the product is to disrupt the way the foreign exchange business is done in the B2B space,” says Nijhawan.