Tag Archives: India

Vishal Bhatia, Country Manager, VisitBritain- India has shared that they have launched The VisitBritain England Expert e-learn platform, in partnership with TravTalk. “The objective is to educate, familiarise and equip our industry partners with destinations across England, priority focus being on the West Midlands region & London,” he said

Further to the lifting of the Air Bubble Agreement in India and to the necessary governmental approval, Air France-KLM and IndiGo, India’s leading carrier, have implemented the extensive codeshare agreement announced in December 2021. With this partnership, Air France and KLM will ultimately offer their customers access to 30 new Indian destinations and a large number of round-trip combinations for both business and leisure purposes. Customers will be able to fly to the destination of their choice with one single booking. Flying Blue members will also be able to earn miles on all routes covered by this agreement. On departure from their respective hubs in Paris and Amsterdam, Air France and KLM already serve four destinations in India: Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru. On departure from the multiple points in India, Air France and KLM will open up their global network of over 300 destinations to IndiGo customers, with more than 120 destinations in Europe and about 50 in the Americas. Henri de Peyrelongue, EVP Commercial Sales Air France-KLM stated: “We are very proud at Air France-KLM to be the first major European airline group to initiate cooperation with IndiGo. This codeshare agreement will allow us to increase our local footprint and to improve connectivity between India – one of the fastest growing markets – and the rest of the world, via our Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam-Schiphol hubs. For our customers this means an enhanced network with as many as 30 new destinations in India, as well as increased roundtrip possibilities for both business and leisure travel.” Sanjay Kumar, Chief Strategy & Revenue Officer, IndiGo said, “We are pleased to commence the partnership with one of the strongest European …

Bali has opened to fully vaccinated travellers from 19 countries including China, India, and France. The UK is not on the list yet. However, visitors to the island still need to serve a five-day quarantine period in a hotel. Around 82% people in Bali are fully vaccinated, which is one of the highest vaccination rates in Indonesia. The Government has released the full list of countries and have said they expect hotel and flight bookings to pick up over time.

The Philippines will lift travel restrictions on passengers coming from 10 countries beginning September 6, Malacañang announced on Saturday.”President Rodrigo Roa Duterte approved the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) to lift the current travel restrictions in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia starting Sept. 6, 2021,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement.

The United Arab Emirates has lifted the ban on transit flights from India. Travellers will have to still submit a negative RT-PCR report of a test taken 72 hours prior to departure. Final destination approval would also have to be provided, the authority said, adding that UAE departure airports would arrange separate lounges for transiting passengers. The ban has been lifted for 10 other countries as well, including Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The Israel Ministry of Tourism, India Office will conduct a virtual presentation for the Indian travel trade on Tuesday, 13 July at 3pm IST. The session will highlight various offerings on leisure and MICE. To sign up, contact Jaspreet Kaur on 9650196532 or jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com. Highlighting the importance of the India market for Israel, Sammy Yahia, Director of Tourism (India & Philippines), Israel Tourism, says, “In the last year, the travel industry around the world has experienced significant challenges, especially in the Indian trade. With new travel relaxations being introduced every day I believe that in the next few years, India will lead the international travel boom with many Indian travellers itching to experience new international destinations.  Before the pandemic, Israel welcomed over 65,000 tourists from India, setting a new record for us. I feel that in the coming months and year, when things normalise, we will double the number of arrivals from India to Israel.”

Etihad Airways and EL AL Israel Airlines have launched their joint codeshare network and reciprocal loyalty agreement for frequent flyers. EL AL will add its ‘LY’ code to Etihad’s existing twice weekly service between Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv. This new partnership is planned to include India as well from August 1 besides five other countries.

India has finalised an air bubble agreement with Sri Lanka, making it the sixth such arrangement in SAARC region and the 28th in total, which would allow the operation of special international passenger flights between the two countries. All the eligible passengers will be able to travel between the countries in the near future, according to a tweet from Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA).

Haitham Mattar, who presently serves as Senior Advisor at Saudi Ministry of Tourism, will take over as Managing Director of India, Middle East & Africa (IMEA) at IHG Hotels & Resorts April 18th onwards and will be based at their Dubai office. This is Mattar’s second stint at IHG, having previously spent 11 years at the company between 2000 and 2011 in different capacities.

Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is set to connect virtually with Indian stakeholders through CruiseWorld India 2021 on April 6, 2021, revealed GB Srithar, Regional Director, India, Middle East and South, STB. Themed ‘Charting our Pathway to Cruise Recovery’, the event will bring together key cruise lines and cruise agents stakeholders, highlight the safe, gradual resumption of cruise operations in Singapore and provide destination updates.