Tag Archives: Delhi

Delhi was declared the consolidated winner in the area of travel and tourism, according to a state survey conducted by World Travel and Tourism Council India Initiative (WTTCII) and Hotelivate. The Capital bagged the Destination Leader Award after an evaluation of 11 key parameters including state expenditure on tourism, tourist visits, presence of branded hotel rooms, GSDP per capita, effectiveness of marketing campaign, urbanisation, road and railway infrastructure, aircraft movement, ease of doing business, and intangible aspects. While it did lag behind in some areas, Delhi aced in most of the categories. Since the Northeastern states did not fare well as compared to other states owing to limited road and air connectivity, Sikkim was declared the winner in terms of overall performance.

Having successfully managed the Thai Visa Application Centres in western India, Cox & Kings Global Services (CKGS), has now been empanelled by the Royal Thai Embassy in Delhi and the consulates in Chennai and Kolkata to expand its services across the country. The new centres located in New Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata are now operational. In the next phase of operations, offices will be open in Tier-II and III cities that have huge traffic from India to Thailand. The service is open to customers and travel agents/tour operators as well. CKGS values its customers and travel agents who avail services from our respective offices. Venku Murthi, Chief Operating Officer, CKGS said, “The expansion of our services on an all-India level is an affirmation of the confidence that the Thai government has in CKGS and we will maintain our professional standards as we move to other locations in India to boost Thailand tourism.” CKGS will provide services such as disseminating visa related information provided and approved by the Thai Embassy and its consulates as well as pre-scrutiny of documents and acceptance of visa application and passports from the general public and travel agents. CKGS was incorporated in 2008 and is a specialist business process outsource agency which focuses on serving Consular sections of Diplomatic Missions. It renders services related to Visa, Passport and other Consular services to various Diplomatic Missions across the globe – key customers being Ministries of India, Italy, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, UAE, Oman and its latest addition is Algeria.

After being away from the Indian market for nine years, Alitalia resumed its operations in the country with a direct daily service between Delhi-Rome. Fabio Lazzerini, CCO, Alitalia, addressed the gathering and said that in 2015, around 4,60,000 people travelled between India and Italy, and the new flight would play a huge role in the growth of tourism between the two countries. “Re-investing in the country, we started the flight to meet the increasing demand. We have a state-of-the-art 250-seater A330 aircraft on the Delhi-Rome route, which has on board wi-fi in all the classes. The Business Class in Alitalia is called the Magnifica with ultra-luxurious service onboard as well as on ground. There is also a Premier Economy, which offers great comfort as well as extra legroom. The Economy Class also gives the comfort of Alitalia with amazing entertainment and meal options. We are starting new flights in our winter schedule this year from both India and Maldives.”

VFS Global recently received authorisation from the Royal Thai Embassy in New Delhi and its Consulates in Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai to process Thailand Visa Application Centres across India. In order to provide convenience to the travellers from across East, West, North and South India, VFS Global has expanded its network of Thailand Visa Application Centres to 13 cities. VFS Global has already been servicing Thailand visas in East, North and South India, with centres in the cities of Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Bengaluru, Gurugram, Kochi and Chandigarh. With the addition of operations in Western India, travellers can now also apply for a Thailand visa at any one of the VFS Global Thailand Visa Application Centres in Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Goa. Vinay Malhotra, Chief Operating Officer – Middle East and South Asia, VFS Global, says, “Thailand has long been a popular destinati0n for Indian travellers, and a long-standing partner of VFS Global. For well over a decade, we have proudly served The Royal Thai Embassy and The Royal Thai Consulate General in India, with nine centres. It is therefore an honour to announce that VFS Global has been authorised to expand its Thailand visa services across India through its network of visa centres in 13 cities.” With Thailand emerging as one of the top destinations for Indian travellers, VFS Global’s appointment as a service provider will greatly benefit the growing volumes of applicants from India. When applying through VFS Global, applicants will be able to avail of the additional benefits on offer across VFS Global’s Visa Application Centres including services such as SMS updates, courier services, online tracking services, among others.

Tourism Ireland conducted its India Sales Mission 2017 in Mumbai and Delhi where 12 representatives from the destination interacted with over 100 leading travel agents and tour operators in each city to update them about the new offerings in Ireland. Ireland is promoting the locations where the famous movie- Star Wars and Game of Thrones television series has been shot. “Almost 70 per cent of Game of Thrones has been shot in Northern Ireland and Star Wars been shot in West Ireland. We feel these on-screen products have a good resonance in India and will drive growth to Ireland,” says Huzan Frazer Motivala, Representative-India, Tourism Ireland. David Boyce, Head-Developing Markets, Tourism Ireland, informed that Ireland recorded over 40,000 Indian arrivals up till August 2017, registering a 34 per cent growth over last year during the same period. The destination hopes to see this number touch 50,000 over the next 2-3 years. Boyce said, “These figures are not our official numbers as we get them only by the year end. However, these have been received from the destinations that Indians visit in Ireland and thus are proof to believe that the growth is robust.”

Maharashtra contributes most tourists to Australia followed by Delhi. Speaking in New Delhi, Nishant Kashikar, Country Head-India and Gulf, Tourism Australia, said, “Tourism Australia first started its representation agency in Delhi before setting up their office in India. We have developed a great relationship with the travel trade in the city of Delhi and have seen great growth from this market. We have had almost over 32,000 tourists only from the state of Delhi, who travelled to Australia last year. These tourists contributed almost close to 165 million Asutralian dollars, which is an increase of 26 per cent as compared to the previous year.”

Air Arabia along with Sharjah Tourism Board recently launched its inaugural service to Baku. To promote this new flight along with the various tourism products that the destination offers, Destination Azerbaijan conducted roadshows in Delhi and Mumbai to meet with the leading DMCs and hotels from Baku (Azerbaijan). The new route, aimed at boosting tourism in the country, marks Air Arabia’s entry into Azerbaijan with a fast-emerging appeal for tourism. Flights to Baku, the financial hub of Azerbaijan, will depart from Sharjah connecting to India cities like Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai. Air Arabia currently operates flights to 124 destinations from five hubs across the Middle East and North Africa.

Thomas Cook (India) has strengthened its presence with the opening of four new outlets in Delhi’s Rajouri Garden, Pitampura, Lajpat Nagar localities and Jodhpur in Rajasthan. This expansion augments Thomas Cook India’s distribution and reach in North India to 42 consumer access centres: 13 owned branches and 29 Gold Circle Partner (franchise) outlets. Thomas Cook India’s data has revealed high demand from India’s north markets, with strong growth of 25 per cent for January- August 2017 against the same period of the previous year. The year has seen significant uptake for favorites like USA & Canada, UK, France, Switzerland and Asia’s Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia; equally for Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Emerging strongly are destinations like Hungary, Czech Republic, Croatia, Romania, Japan and Bali, as also exotic locales like Georgia and Azerbaijan. Rajeev Kale, ‎President & Country Head Leisure Travel & MICE, Thomas Cook (India), said “North India is a powerful source market for us at Thomas Cook India and we are witnessing strong growth of over 25% y-o-y across our leisure travel businesses lines. Our strategic intent is to maximise on this market potential via organic expansion and we’ve carefully selected high footfall centres for our new outlets in prime catchment locations within the larger NCR metro market; also Jodhpur in Rajasthan. Our new outlets give our customers in North India (across families, business travellers, millennials, senior citizens, students and NRIs) access to Thomas Cook’s experts right at their doorstep!”

Tourism Secretary Rashmi Verma reportedly said that the Ministry of Tourism is considering setting up government-run offices in key markets such as the US, the UK and Russia to attract more visitors to India. It will also set up facilitation centres to address queries of tourists at airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru. With Incredible India 2.0 campaign expected to be launched in September, Verma reportedly said the ministry will run market-specific campaigns on it in different countries through local and electronic channels as well as digital media. “A synergy between Incredible India campaign and overseas markets will get us better results. Our offices in different countries would work on a hub and spoke model which will be in sync with our PR agency. This time the states are also complementing our plans and the industry can plan campaigns around it. Our spends are higher than last year,” said Verma. Source: Economic Times

Air India has launched its first non-stop flight, the Dreamliner B-787, to Stockholm, Sweden, from Delhi. The inaugural flight had an all-female crew on board. The Dreamliner will fly thrice a week, every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday and leave Delhi at 14.50 hours and reach Stockholm at 18.40. The return flight will leave Stockholm at 20:40 hours and reach Delhi at 07:20 hours next day. According to an official statement, with an increase of passenger volume between India and Sweden by 50 per cent in three years, the direct flight is likely to further bolster the growing relationship between India and Sweden. The launch event on August 16, included lighting of lamp, cake and ribbon cutting ceremonies, was held at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi in the presence of Air India Chairman Ashwani Lohani and Chargé d’Affaires of Embassy of Sweden Gautam Bhattacharyya. The flying time of passengers will be reduced by at least 2 hours. Ashwani Lohani, Chairman, Air India said, “We are confident that Air India’s first foray to Scandinavia would add new dimensions to trade, commerce and tourism between the two countries – India & Sweden.”