Tag Archives: Kolkata

Anup K Chatterji, GM-HRD, ITDC, claimed that skilled manpower is the key to boost tourism in the country. Speaking at The Travel India 2016 conference held at The Oberoi Grand, Kolkata, Chatterji said, “Servicing the sector with skilled manpower effectively is a pre-requisite for the actualization of tourism specific expectations. This is both an imperative and a challenge.” Addressing a gathering of important government dignitaries, industry captains and international business delegations from China and Bangladesh, he put emphasis on the need to meet the demand of skilled and trained manpower and to bridge the current skill gap in the hospitality sector. Speaking on the increasing demand for skilled manpower in the sector, Chatterji talked about ITDC’s effort to provide hospitality education to students as well as certifying and upgrading skills of existing service providers. “Ashok Institute of Hospitality & Tourism Management (AIHTM), a hospitality training institute and the HRD division of India Tourism Development Corporation aims to work towards making a difference to the academic culture for the students by offering a globally competitive curriculum and infrastructure.” He further added, “Looking at the future requirement, AIHTM is focusing more on job-oriented short term and long term courses, with a recently launched three year degree course in Hospitality and Hotel Administration in affiliation with the National Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technology.” 

United Kingdom (UK) granted over 360,000 visitor visas, until September 2015, a 16.5 per cent increase year on year, according to recently released statistics. With the commercial partner VFS, UK offers 15 visa application centres across India, more than in any other country. Visa application centres are situated in Delhi, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Mumbai South, Mumbai North, Pune, Ahmadabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Cochin, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Jaipur and Goa. A number of premium services are offered to the UK Visa applicants at the Visa Application Centre (VAC). VFS Users can avail walk in appointments where urgent travellers or those who have missed their appointment, can pay Rs 2537 to get a walk in appointment. Digital Assistance is provided in filling out the visa application form on the visa4uk website. The staff reads out questions on the form, and records the answers verbatim on behalf of the applicant for an extra cost of Rs 400. Group Appointments is available for group travellers who can apply at the same visa application centre at a particular time and day. This service is extended to all groups including tour operators, large families, conferences etc for Rs 500 per application. Travellers can pay for their visa by cash at the VAC, using VFS Global’s Credit Card at an additional cost of Rs 1000 per transaction. Certification service enables travellers to keep hold of their original documents. Applicants need to bring original documentation to the VAC to show VFS staff, who photocopy the documents and send to the decision hub along with the application. This service costs Rs 50 per document page. In 2015, India became the second country to benefit from the British Irish Visa Scheme, allowing Indian …

After successfully conducting multi-city roadshows pan India in 2015 along with the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), South Africa Tourism is back with its second round of shows in Kolkata (January 18, Monday), Delhi (January 19, Tuesday), Hyderabad (January 21, Thursday) and finally reaching Mumbai again (January 22, Friday). These shows will strive to give greater insight into the wide selection of experiences that South Africa has to offer – from adventure to shopping, nature and culture.