Tag Archives: Barcelona

In order to protect potential long-term housing from being monopolised by tourist-oriented rentals, the city of Barcelona in Spain has proposed a new rule that will allow locals to rent rooms in their homes only for stays of 30 days or more. The city has already taken several measures to limit tourist accommodations made available through platforms like Airbnb.

The annual convention of Network of Indian MICE Agents (NIMA) is set to be held in Taipei, Taiwan from January 20-25, 2019, as stated by Gajesh Girdhar, National Coordinator, NIMA. A destination showcase is also slated to be held in 2019 but the destination is yet to be finalised. NIMA, a four-and-half-years old association, is a network of MiCE agents. “We currently have 136 numbers with a majority from Tier-II, III cities. With zero membership fee, we have always focused on tapping new markets. For instance, in Spain, everybody has their eyes on Barcelona, Madrid and Apjiza, while we tap the Catalonia region where we had our first convention in 2016. So, now people are aware of Catalonia and all the members are promoting it,” explained Girdhar.  

Google’s in-house start-up incubator ‘Area 120’ has introduced a travel guide website ‘Touring Bird’ that lists tours, attractions and activities for travellers in popular travel destinations. ‘Area 120’ is a workshop for the tech giant’s experimental products. So far, the site provides information about 20 cities, including New Delhi, Prague, Chicago, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin and Las Vegas, among others. In the upcoming months, they plan to increase their coverage. “When you select a destination city, you’ll see popular attractions, suggested tours and activities, along with prices, options for free guided tours and recommendations from locals and travel bloggers,” Touring Bird website said. The app comes with a build-your-own package feature wherein users would be able to customise and compare filtered offerings by price and preferences, to find the best match to their plan, along with booking and cancelling provisions. “We’re a small team that’s brought together by a common passion for travel and improving the overall travel experience for others. Most of us have a background in building travel products at Google, and we’re all deeply passionate about solving real user problems in this space,” added the website. Users would also be able to bookmark their favourite activities and recommendations — food, destinations, stays and amusements — to a list and share it with fellow travellers. At present, Touring Bird is available in English for desktop as well as mobile users, globally. Source: IANS

In an effort to promote inbound tourism from important source markets, PATA India Chapter, in collaboration with Ministry of Tourism, will conduct India Tourism B2B Meet to Europe from September 25-October 4, 2018. Meetings are proposed to be held with travel agents and tours operators in Rome, Milan, Frankfurt, Barcelona, Geneva and Paris. The roadshow will commence with an introduction of sellers and a 15-minute Incredible India presentation, followed by a 5-minute product presentation by Air India. Each roadshow will have a two-hour B2B session between Indian sellers and local tour operators and travel agents. All these markets have a variety of travellers representing both high end as well as mid-market. Their interest in India as a preferred destination is well established over many years and is focused on its history, culture, wellness, beach tourism amongst others. Air India will support the association with preferred air fares for delegates participating in these roadshows. 100 per cent of the basic fare will be waived on each ticket as per the applicable booking class for such tickets. Participants will only be charged applicable taxes, fuel surcharge and government levies for travel. Authority for tickets will be issued on a first come first serve basis, only after full non-refundable participation fee has been paid by the participating organisation.