Tag Archives: Delhi

Oracle Hospitality along with Airpay Payment Services, recently conducted a closed-door workshop for CIOs and IT Heads of top hotels in Mumbai and New Delhi. About 25 in Mumbai and 37 in New Delhi attended the event. The first India Oracle Hospitality Customer Event had a compelling agenda and was designed to address questions on Oracle Hospitality and the solutions it offers for the hospitality industry. The half day event had three speakers discussing various topics such as technology trends in the hospitality industry in India and globally, and maximising guest services beyond the front desk. This was followed by an overview of its products – OPERA Cloud, Hotel Mobile and Simphony Cloud. Meanwhile Amit Kapoor, CEO & Co-Founder, Airpay, spoke about the payment services company’s association with Oracle Hospitality and how hotels can re-invent consumer engagement on their portals. The two speakers from Oracle Hospitality were Jay Sherman, Senior Manager, Sales Consulting, Hotel POS, Oracle Hospitality (Asia Pacific & Japan) and Travis Macauley, Solutions Manager – Hotels.

Working on boosting regional connectivity, Air India is starting new domestic routes and beefing up frequency on existing ones. A direct flight service to Port Blair will commence from Delhi in May this year. While responding to the constant public demand, Air India will also add second frequency on Delhi-Nagpur-Delhi, fourth frequency on Delhi-Ahmedabad-Delhi sector in March 2017 and second frequency on Delhi-Leh-Delhi sector in the month of May.

As part of its expansion drive and the success of the Delhi- San Francisco route, Air India is set to start another route to the United States and will start direct flight operations on Delhi-Washington-Delhi route in July 2017. This flight will be the fifth direct connection with the US and shall be operated by Boeing 777 aircraft. In addition to this, in May 2017, Air India is looking to offer a real treat to Indian travelers by connecting Bangkok, one of the most favored tourist destinations by starting direct flight operations on Chandigarh-Bangkok-Chandigarh and Kolkata-Bangkok-Kolkata sectors besides starting a second frequency from Delhi.

South African Tourism sets the pace for continued double digit growth in the coming year with its annual roadshow slated for this month. The roadshow will be held in Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai where suppliers from South Africa will network with Indian travel agents. Now in its 14th edition, the roadshow will start with Chennai on 30 January, and then go on to Bengaluru on 31 January, Delhi on 1 February and conclude in Mumbai on 3 February, 2017. About 10 per cent of the delegation will be first-timers and will include hotel chains, airlines, products, attractions, DMCs and local tourism offices. Indian agents will be able to meet representatives from boutique hotel chain Lion Roars Hotels & Lodges, adventure-focused attraction Tenikwa Wildlife, care-rental Multilayer Trade Corporation and DMC Africa Incoming. Domestic airline Safair has also signed up. Additionally, Air Seychelles (which many Indians use to fly to South Africa via Mahe) that is said to be starting a flight to Durban starting March will also be present. Hanneli Slabber, Country Manager, South African Tourism India, said, “Up until the third quarter of 2016, we noted that arrivals had grown by 26.6 per cent in comparison to 2015 and we hope to have closed the year at 27 per cent growth. By September 2016, our arrivals had hit 73,902. This makes India South Africa’s eighth-largest long-haul tourism source market.” The tourism board is expecting between 600-1,000 travel agents to attend the roadshow.

As part of its two year celebration, Vistara has increased its frequency between Delhi and Pune, starting January 9, 2017, to twice a day. The airline now offers a daily morning and evening departure from Delhi, except on Saturdays. The rapidly growing airline connects 20 destinations across India and a fleet of 13 A320s, serving more than 500 flights a week at present. Phee Teik Yeoh, CEO, Vistara said, “We complete two years today and we are still as excited as we were on the day Vistara was born! It is extremely heartening to see that we have carved a niche for ourselves in the Indian aviation industry with our extraordinary products and services. Together with my entire team, I say a big ‘thank you’ to each and every customer and trade partner of ours, who has believed in us and helped us become stronger and more confident. It has been a challenging, yet extremely satisfying journey so far, and we promise to continue offering a seamless, world-class flying experience to our customers.” As part of the second anniversary celebrations, Vistara, in association with the NGO, Round Table India, took off with a group of less-privileged children and enabled a ‘Flight of Fantasy’ for them to Ahmedabad, where they had a day packed with fun-filled and educational activities, including visit to the Gandhi Ashram, play-acting the professions of their dreams at Kankaria Kids City and a boat ride to have the time of their lives. To celebrate the momentous milestone with its customers, Vistara has curated an exclusive menu of delectable desserts like Banana & Praline Bavarois and Toasted Almond & Chocolate Parfait, which is being served on especially designed …

redBus has launched its latest service, called Bus Hire, which would offer customers mini-buses or tempo-travellers if they are seeking to hire buses. Bus Hire will provide a one-stop access to leading chartered bus providers in a particular city who offer best-in-class vehicles and superior service quality. The platform gives transparent and all-inclusive prices along with value added information such as bus photos and convenient payment options to help customers make an informed and suitable choice. This service is presently available in seven cities across India- Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, and Ahmedabad and is soon being extended to other towns. The range of vehicles that customers can choose from is very extensive, and includes luxury buses, regular buses, mini buses, tempo travellers and cars. Prakash Sangam, CEO, redBus.in, expressed his enthusiasm about the new service, commenting, “Often group travel such as corporate outings, weddings and pilgrimages require a full vehicle to be hired. There was no easy way for travellers to connect with multiple vehicle providers to hire a bus of their choice. With our new Bus Hire product, we aim to simplify the process by providing customers with a customised, transparent and quick method of evaluating and choosing among different vehicle options. For charter bus operators, it opens up another avenue for attracting customers and growing their business.” Once a customer provides basic details of his or her desired trip, the bus operators on redBus Bus Hire platform respond with quotations that are transparent and all-inclusive. The base fare, driver charges, tolls, permit fees and taxes are all specified in the quotations. Customers can also view images of the bus before they confirm a booking. Customers can …

SpiceJet will commence its daily direct flight on the Hyderabad–Jabalpur route from December 23, 2016. Hyderabad is the third metro after Delhi and Mumbai that SpiceJet will be serving a daily direct flight connecting Jabalpur. The fares for the Hyderabad-Jabalpur route will start from Rs 3,613 whereas for Jabalpur – Hyderabad route it will start from Rs 3073. Bookings for the routes are currently open.

On 19 December 2016, the Lufthansa Group will receive its first A350-900, which is the most modern long haul aircraft worldwide and will be based at Lufthansa’s Munich Hub. The first regular commercial flight will be from Munich to Delhi on February 10, 2017. “We are looking forward to welcoming our first A350-900 shortly before Christmas. And already in February, our passengers will be able to enjoy a higher level of comfort on their flights to Delhi as we have now made further improvements to key components of the A350-900’s cabin interior. This includes a newly designed self-service area in Business Class, new seats with ergonomically designed cushions in Economy Class, larger screens in all classes and improved broadband internet services,” says Thomas Winkelmann, CEO of the Munich Hub. Once Lufthansa has taken ownership of the aircraft on December 19, the A350-900 will be transferred to Munich during the week leading up to Christmas. Lufthansa Technik in Munich will then install the cabin interior including the new Premium Economy Class as well as other features so that the new flagship aircraft will be ready to be presented to the public at the beginning of February. From February 2017 onwards, Lufthansa will station the first ten Airbus A350-900 aircraft in Munich. The first flight destinations are Delhi and Boston. The aircraft will have space for 293 passengers – 48 in Business Class, 21 in Premium Economy and 224 in the regular Economy Class section. The A350-900 is the most modern and environmentally friendly long haul aircraft worldwide and uses 25 percent less kerosene and produces 25 percent fewer emissions. The A350-900’s noise “footprint” is up to 50 percent lower than that …

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) offices in Mumbai and Delhi took its the fourth edition of its B2B event ‘Luxurious Pleasure’ to four cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. First held in 2013, Thailand’s ‘Luxurious Pleasure’ roadshow series is an addition to its staple annual roadshow and focuses on high-end holidays such as holidays on private islands and helicopter rides. Explaining Thailand’s focus on luxury, Soraya Homchuen, Director, Tourism Authority of Thailand – Mumbai, said, “Our two-city initiative is now a four-city show with Bengaluru, Kolkata and Ahmedabad now in the fray. We have noticed visible changes in buying behavior. This includes a growth in the number if travellers opting for five-star hotels and villas and a good response to market promotions with prices in the range of Rs 80,000 to Rs 150,000 for a week-long holiday. Today about 25 per cent of the Indian market is checking into luxury hotels and above (villas, private islands and yachts) and this is up from barely 10 per cent when TAT first launched its campaign to target the luxury segment. It is about strategy, sustainability and streamlining the industry with quality as a focus.” Thailand welcomed 1.06 million Indian travellers in 2015 and expects to cross 1.1 million in 2016, having hit over 700,000 Indian arrivals by August already. Homchuen added that TAT wants to grow high-end’s share of the pie by another five per cent. A change in the ratio of men: women travellers is also part of the goal. “Women comprise 23 per cent of the market currently and for this year we would like to bring this up to 30-35 per cent,” she said.

In a recent event organised in Delhi, Rare Destinations and Experiences brought together some of their partners who recently have come on board. Shoba Mohan, Founder Partner, Rare, in conversation with TravelTV.News, said that they are aiming for a 44 per cent occupancy and want the partners to do more business. She said, “We started with four properties and now we are 44. We would like to cap it at 50. We want our hotels to start making money out of this. For most of our partners it’s a sustaining business. We are looking at 44 per cent occupancy and to break that barrier and reach 60-70 per cent is actually when they will start making money.”