Tag Archives: India

With a view to showcase and project the Buddhist heritage and pilgrim sites of India, the Ministry of Tourism is organising the ‘5th International Buddhist Conclave, from October 2 to 6, 2016, in Varanasi-Sarnath in collaboration with the state governments of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The Conclave was inaugurated by Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister for Tourism & Culture on October 2 in New Delhi. Ministry of Tourism has received over 250 nominations from 38 countries such as Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, UK, USA and Vietnam for participation in the Conclave. This year’s International Buddhist Conclave is very special as ASEAN as a Guest of Honour partner and a large participation is expected from ASEAN Countries which are also major source markets for India in general and the Buddhist Heritage sites in particular. Participants in the Buddhist Conclave will include international Buddhist opinion makers, tour operators and media, as well as state governments and domestic tour operators promoting pilgrimages to the Buddhist sites in the country. The Conclave will include Presentations, Panel discussions, Business to Business Meetings between international and domestic tour operators and State Governments, an exhibition highlighting Buddhist attractions in India, as well as visits to important Buddhist sites in and around Varanasi, Sarnath and Bodhgaya. The event will give the participants an opportunity to interact, promote, package and sell pilgrimage itineraries to the Buddhist sites in the country, for overseas visitors. International Buddhist Conclaves have earlier been organized in New Delhi and Bodhgaya (February …

Singapore Tourism Board recently organised a 10-day, six-city road show across key markets in India and Colombo in Sri Lanka. Themed “Extending Hands in Partnership”, the delegation was led by GB Srithar, Singapore Tourism Board’s (STB) newly appointed Regional Director for South Asia, Middle East and Africa (SAMEA). The initiative is envisioned as an annual platform for the region’s trade partners to get updated on the latest leisure and MICE offerings in Singapore. The Singapore delegation comprised representatives from top hotels, cruise liners, attractions, airlines and Destination Management Companies (DMCs), which travelled to the cities of Colombo in Sri Lanka and then to the Indian cities of Pune, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Lucknow and Jalandhar. The sessions saw an enthusiastic turnout from travel trade professionals with an average participation of 135 agents per city. Srithar said, “As we move into the next exciting phase of promoting Singapore to wider audiences in tier II cities, we look to fostering closer strategic and tactical partnerships with the travel trade to entrench the positioning of Singapore as one of the must-see destinations for the Indian audiences.”

In a bid to establish a stronger footprint in the India market, Air Canada has announced expansions in its flights between India and Canada. At a B2B event jointly organised by Destination Canada and Air Canada in Mumbai today, Arun Pandeya, Country Head & GM – India Sub-continent, Air Canada, announced, “We will increase the frequency of our Toronto-Delhi flights from four times a week to daily beginning November 6, 2016.” To cater to the increasing demand from the India market, the airline is also introducing seasonal non-stop flights from Vancouver to New Delhi. “These flights will operate from October 20, 2016 to April 8, 2017. These will be on our Dreamliner 787-900 series and will be the fastest airline to connect these two cities – in 13 hours total,” he added.

The island of Ireland hosted the second annual Ireland Specialists Mega Fam trip from 21 August 21 to August 26, for 12 top-performing agents from six markets that included Australia, China, India, GCC, South Africa and New Zealand. From India Thomas Cook and Vacations Exotica participated in this fam. They travelled to Ireland and battle it out in daily challenges to be crowned the 2016 Emerald Ireland Specialist 2015. The challenges included photo challenges, food challenges and sporting challenges as well as a competitive, high-tech treasure hunt around Dublin City. As well as competing for the title, the agents experienced many of the key visitor attractions. Over 11,000 agents across the world have signed up for the programme since launching in 2013.

India ranked 1st in offering the best value for international and domestic flights worldwide with an average flight cost of $3.25 per 100 kms of travel, factoring in both domestic and international journeys according to ‘The Aviation Price Index’, analysed by Kiwi.com. At the other end of the ranking, United Arab Emirates calculated at a cost over 30 times higher, at $105.71 per 100km of travel. Oliver Dlouhý, Chief Executive Officer, Kiwi.com, says, “We always aim to offer travellers the best possible deals, and hope this ranking informs them on the countries from which they can expect the most cost effective airfare, and assist them in booking the best value journey.” A million fights were analysed to find an average price of domestic and international flights on a low cost and a legacy airline from each of the countries. Domestic flights were calculated by averaging flight costs from the country’s capital to up to five major cities within the country (where available), or a major city in a neighbouring country where no domestic flights were available, whilst international costs were calculated from the capital of each country to up to five international hubs within the same continent. All flights were checked for the same dates of travel (or neighbouring dates where necessary) on- and off-season, taking into account the same destinations and travel scheduling.  China offered the least expensive international flights on both low cost and legacy airlines, at $1.22 and $2.84 respectively per 100km of travel; United Arab Emirates offered the most expensive domestic flights on both low cost and legacy airlines, at $181.38 and $202.36 respectively per 100km of travel; Canada offered the most expensive international flights on …

Munich Tourist Office, India, has launched a specialist-training program called Munich Travel Guru for the travel trade. The programme builds on the theme ‘Simply Munich’ and engages the travel trade through 10 online informative modules. The participants will have to score a minimum of 90 per cent in each module to proceed to the next level. Once the participant clears all modules and becomes a Munich Travel Guru, certificate will be issued online and the early birds will be rewarded. SanJeet, India Representative, Munich Tourist Office, said, “We have been actively working with our travel partners with an objective to create the buzz and help build business for Munich City. The program has also been designed specially to enhance knowledge of the frontline staff through extensive education and sell packages to Munich more effectively.” As per the latest statistics, Munich has recorded a year-on-year growth of 21 per cent during January–June 2016 in Indian visitor arrivals and 14 per cent growth in Indian overnights.

The global leader in guided holidays Trafalgar, is delving deeper into Asia with the introduction of three new destinations — India, Sri Lanka and Laos. Travelling in groups of up to just 26 guests, each journey offers clients an in-depth and intimate exploration into this part of the world where modern meets ancient. Boasting nine new itineraries and three new destinations, Trafalgar’s Asia 2017 programme features an expanded range of Mini Stays to provide agents with options to sell Asia’s most exciting urban centres to clients looking for an immersive city experience. The new 13-day Leisurely Rajasthan with Mumbai is Trafalgar’s first itinerary exploring the riches of India with stays in vibrant cities such as Jaipur and Mumbai and the chance to see how #TrafalgarCares is helping Delhi’s street children through its support of the Salaam Baalak Trust. Trafalgar will also be heading across the Palk Strait on the new 11-day Wonders of Sri Lanka. From learning how Ceylon tea is made to rehabilitating orphaned elephants with #TrafalgarCares, there is no better way to explore this tropical island. The bite-size South East Asian gem of Laos completes the trio of new destinations and features on the 11-day Secrets of Cambodia with Laos. Learn about the exceptional work being done at the ‘Lao Friends Hospital for Children’ with #TrafalgarCares and immerse in local customs at a family hosted dinner in beautiful Luang Prabang.

Sri Lanka is emerging as a high potential incentive destination and corporate venue for employee incentive trips and business meetings, having witnessed an impressive growth of over 15 per cent YOY, with over 233,000 MICE visitors from India in the past six years, according to data from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. Thomas Cook (India) recently hosted an exclusive corporate event in collaboration with Sri Lanka Convention Bureau and SriLankan Airlines to harness the demand for MICE travel to Sri Lanka across mid and large Indian corporates and SMEs. TCI’s internal research and consumer analysis reiterates the significant and growing opportunity of India’s corporate segment, with interest for Sri Lanka as a MICE destination having grown by 15-20 per cent YOY over the last three years. The exclusive corporate event in Mumbai was attended by the crème de la crème of the corporate world, Saroja Siresena, The Consul General of Sri Lanka in Mumbai, and Bollywood celebrity Jacqueline Fernandez.

India continues to lead all markets with a 23.3 per cent rise in domestic traffic in June, propelled by strong growth in real consumer spending as well as by the fact that airlines are adding airport pairs and frequencies. This was revealed in International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) global passenger traffic data for June. Demand for domestic travel climbed 5.7 per cent this June compared to June 2015, while capacity increased 4.3 per cent, causing load factor to rise 1.1 percentage points to 83.2 pre cent. All markets reported demand increases with the exception of Brazil. Domestic RPKs account for about 36 per cent of the total market. The global passenger traffic data for June showing that demand (measured in revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) rose by 5.2% compared to the year-ago period. This was up slightly from the 4.8% increase recorded in May (revised). However, the upward trend in seasonally-adjusted traffic has moderated since January. June capacity (available seat kilometers or ASKs) increased by 5.6%, and load factor slipped 0.3 percentage points to 80.7%. “The demand for travel continues to increase, but at a slower pace. The fragile and uncertain economic backdrop, political shocks and a wave of terrorist attacks are all contributing to a softer demand environment,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO.

The Union Cabinet has approved signing of the Air Services Agreement between India and Mozambique. Presently there is no Air Services Agreement between India and Mozambique. To promote the air connectivity between the two countries, the two sides initiated the process of consultation in 2011 to finalize the text of Air Services Agreement. The draft text of the Air Services Agreement (ASA) has been finalised in consultation with Ministry of Finance (Deptt. of Revenue/Deptt. of Economic Affairs), Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Law & Justice (Deptt. of Legal Affairs). The major features of the Agreement include multiple designation of airlines by each party. The designated airline of each party can enter into cooperative marketing arrangements with the designated carriers of same party, other party and that of a third party. This agreement allows designated airlines of either countries to establish offices in the territory of other country for the promotion and sale of air services. The designated airlines of the two countries shall have fair and equal opportunity to operate the agreed services on specified routes. Apart from the above, the ASA also has the provisions relating to revocation or suspension of operating authorisation, principles governing operations of agreed services, commercial opportunities, safety and security related clause etc. that were incorporated in the line of Indian model ASA.