Tag Archives: Bengaluru

After launching its new office in New Delhi in partnership with RL Group, Oman Air is now planning to open offices in Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. Sunil V.A., Regional Vice President-ISC, Oman Air along with Chetan Gupta, Chairman, RL Group; Varun Mohindra, Head of Sales & Marketing, RL Group and Vijay Bhatia, President, Bird Group were present for the inauguration. “We have 162 flights operating from India, all connect well to the destinations. With our focus on Europe and Europe GCC, we are now planning to sell the east. We are not just dependent on the online network but also looking at the offline too.” said Sunil V.A. Oman is currently focusing to develop MICE segment in 2018 with a launch of its new airport on March 20, 2018.

South African Tourism (SAT) began its five-city roadshow from February 12-19 with Mumbai, followed by Kolkata, Bengaluru, Delhi and Ahmedabad. The 60-member strong participation from South Africa’s travel trade industry and scale is a reflection of the strong consumer demand witnessed from India. One of the key focus areas is to go create awareness about new destinations such as Oudtshoorn, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, Port Elizabeth and the Drakensberg region. Hanneli Slabber, Regional General Manager, Asia/Australasia/Middle East, SAT, said, “The demands of Indian travellers are in a constant and rapid state of evolution. This makes cross sharing of insights, trends and observations between our Indian and South African partners extremely crucial. We have had South African products being tailored to suit these specific needs as a testament of the value proposition we see in the market.” Alpa Jani, Acting Hub-Head, Middle East/India/South East Asia, SAT, said, “We have always recorded an outstanding response from the Indian travel trade and are eagerly looking forward to seeing the positive impact this roadshow will have towards driving Indian traveller traffic to South Africa in 2018. We are also focusing on customising our engagements and product offerings to suit the unique requirements from each of our target regions within India.”  

Effective March 15, 2018, Jet Airways will commence a second daily frequency from Bengaluru to Singapore. The introduction of the second frequency forms part of Jet Airways’ focus to strengthen its presence in Bengaluru as the carrier’s upcoming third hub, aside from Mumbai and Delhi. The new daily flight, 9W 26 will depart from Bengaluru at 02:05 hrs (IST) and arrive into Singapore at 09:15 hrs (LT). During its return journey, flight 9W 25 will depart from Singapore at 10:15 hrs (LT), arriving in Bengaluru at 12:10 hrs (IST). To celebrate the introduction of the new frequency, Jet Airways has announced special return Economy fares from Bengaluru, starting at INR 11,768 only. These inaugural fares are applicable for journeys commencing from March 15, 2018 onwards. Gaurang Shetty, Whole Time Director, Jet Airways said, “Jet Airways has seen an enthusiastic response from its guests travelling between Bengaluru and Singapore. This second daily service will benefit business travellers who are looking at tapping into India and Singapore’s promising commercial opportunities.” The new frequency will now offer guests from Bengaluru convenient connections to Denpasar/Bali, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur on flights operated by codeshare partners Garuda and Malaysian Airlines via Singapore.

The National Tourism Programme (Ministry of Economy) concluded its three-city roadshow titled ‘Visit UAE’ in Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and finally Mumbai – the city that sees the maximum number of tourists visiting the UAE every year. This is the third roadshow in India in the recent few years. UAE welcomed 2.6 million Indian tourists in 2017. Abdulla Saleh Al Hammadi, Director, National Tourism Programme, said, “It gives us immense pleasure to revisit the city of Mumbai, which my country is familiar with and visits often. India is one of the most promising markets, and the UAE delegation is looking forward to build relationships and further strengthen ties with the people, especially the tourism industry, under the banner of the ‘Visit UAE’ campaign.” The ‘Visit UAE’ roadshow included a huge delegation of tourism officials, airlines, and senior members from the UAE’s tourism and hospitality industry. Local tourism departments included Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing–Dubai, Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority, Ajman Tourism Development Department, Fujairah Tourism & Antiquities Authority, Dubai Police and Dubai Health Authority.

Dusit International recently organised ‘India Roadshow 2018’ as part of its newly-acquired focus on India as a source market for its hotels and resorts. Designed to present Dusit’s ever-growing global portfolio of distinctive properties to the Indian travel trade fraternity, the roadshow featured one-day workshops held in both Mumbai and Bengaluru. B2B sessions along with sessions for wedding planners were also conducted. On both occasions, Dusit executives presented the company’s properties in Thailand, Maldives and Dubai, as well as key openings in 2018 across Bahrain, Bhutan, China, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam. Dusit International is represented in India by its Global Sales Office in Mumbai, headed by Keshwar Bhagat, Director of Sales. Prachoom Tantiprasertsuk, Vice President Sales, Dusit International, said, “As evidenced by the recent opening of our new Global Sales Office in Mumbai, India is a key market for our international properties, and this roadshow is just one of the ways we are actively promoting our brands and hospitality to Indian travellers. Taking into account our own expansion, which will see our current tally of 27 properties top 80 worldwide within the next four-to-five years, we will be well positioned to leverage the rapid growth of India’s outbound market with a plethora of options for MICE and leisure travellers.”

SOTC Travel strengthens its presence in Bengaluru with the inauguration of its first-ever experiential store offering Virtual Reality (VR) experiences. SOTC created a first-of-its-kind customer experience zone where customers can be inspired by the different destinations through VR’s for real time experience of the key destinations that SOTC provides like New Zealand, South Africa and other destinations like Australia, Abu Dhabi, South Korea. The store at St. Marks Road comprises of a digital screen that features video itineraries of destinations and holiday experiences for the customer which could be viewed from an iPad. Speaking about the launch, Daniel D’souza, Head Sales, India and NRI Markets, SOTC Travel, said, “We believe customer experience is the key in making our business successful in this competitive and growing industry. It is extremely important for us to ensure that we keep delivering and enriching holiday experiences for our customers. Virtual Reality technology will allow us to know the clients’ needs before he even knows what he wants.” He further added, “The store is one of our efforts to reinvent the buying experience for our customers. Its strategic location offers convenience and accessibility. We ensure that we provide superior service to our customers by meeting their every expectation”.

To reach out to the domestic market, Kerala Tourism is organising a string of Partnership Meets in Mumbai, Pune, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Kolkata, Patna and Delhi in the 1st quarter of 2018. At the Partnership Meet in Mumbai on January 09, Kadakampally Surendran, Minister for Co-Operation, Tourism and Devaswom, Government of Kerala, said, “To ensure the accomplishment of an ambitious target of a 100% increase in arrival of foreign tourists and 50% in domestic tourists in five years, a tourism regulatory authority has been formed. This would help put a stop to any unhealthy practices and guarantee better intervention of the Tourism Department through scrutiny and a licensing system.” The new Kerala Tourism Policy also forms a major highlight of this year’s domestic campaign. The revamped fare with an array of new tourism products was showcased at Mumbai today.

Establishing the growing importance of emerging domestic sectors from South India, IndiGo has announced Vijayawada as its 50th destination on its route network. Effective March 2, 2018, the airline will operate daily direct operations connecting Vijayawada to Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai. In line with company’s growth strategy, the airline has also inducted a brand new Airbus A320 NEO aircraft into its existing fleet, taking the overall count to 150 aircraft. Aditya Ghosh, President and Whole Time Director, IndiGo said, “It gives us immense pleasure to introduce services from Vijayawada. 2017 has been a great year for growth and expansion as the airline clocked many milestones. In the coming years, we will continue to expand our network to meet the requirements of both business and leisure travellers.” The launch of Vijayawada comes just after the carrier’s first ATR flight on Hyderabad-Mangalore sector on December 21, 2017; boosting regional connectivity. IndiGo will also commence operations from Rajahmundry and Tirupati in January 2018.

In an attempt to cater to the growing travel demands across markets, Ezeego1.com has recently opened a series of eight new franchise stores across Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Dhule, Uttarakhand, Guwahati and Amritsar. These stores will provide services like flight tickets, hotels, packages, rail holidays and cruise holidays through a single platform from a diverse mix of travel suppliers offering the best in class services. The company will provide the franchisee with an active marketing, technical and store development support. The marketing activity will include print and radio advertising, attractive and preferential commercials while the store development support will include store designing to reinforce the brand’s look and feel. Training and technical support will be provided to all franchisee staff to effectively address the changing technology and enhance customer interface. Neelu Singh, CEO and Director, Ezeego1, said, “Distribution is the key to success in the growing travel market and the opening of our new franchise stores in these markets will help us gain a foothold. Our offerings are curated from a slew of travel aggregators and we enable and distribute it through our platform.’’

InterContinental Hotels Group has partnered with SAMHI to rebrand approximately 2000 rooms (operating and under construction) within its India hotel portfolio, to Holiday Inn Express® hotels. The recently signed portfolio comprises 14 hotels, including 10 open hotels across key cities such as Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai. The additional four hotels are under construction. The signing sees IHG grow its pipeline by 41 hotels, positioning IHG as one of the largest players in India’s growing midscale hotel market. All hotels in the portfolio will be closed while they are being refurbished and upgraded with the latest design directives, to ensure the portfolio is fully representative of the Holiday Inn Express brand globally. The hotels will feature the next-generation design, several additional public areas and feature brand hallmarks to enhance guest service delivery. Commenting on the announcement, Sudeep Jain, Vice President, Development, South West Asia, IHG said: “It is with great pride and excitement that we are announcing our partnership with SAMHI for conversion of their existing mid-market hotel portfolio in India to Holiday Inn Express. This is a significant move towards establishing IHG as a leading player in the midscale hotel segment in India, while we continue to build on our upscale and luxury offering in the country with InterContinental Hotels & Resorts and Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts.” Jain added: “With this signing, we now have close to 60 hotels open and in the pipeline, across the Holiday Inn Brand Family. SAMHI is keen to accelerate Holiday Inn Express’ highly efficient operating model and engage the brand’s growing familiarity in the country. Holiday Inn Express is the rest and go hotel brand that delivers a …