Tag Archives: Kolkata

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.”

Effective October 12, GoAir will commence services from Hyderabad. The new schedule will introduce daily non-stop flights connecting Hyderabad to Chennai, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar and Kolkata. Hyderabad will also be connected to Port Blair via Bangalore which will provide leisure travelers additional travel option. This latest addition to GoAir network reflects the airline’s phase of growth with a focus on scaling up operations gradually in the coming weeks while strengthening the value proposition to suit customer’s demand. With the new additions of aircraft in coming months, GoAir will operate up to 184 daily flights by the end of December from current 144 daily flights. Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, CEO, GoAir, said, “Hyderabad is a key market in South & Central India and a significant base for business and tourism in the region. Adding Hyderabad with its ideal geographical location, we reinforce our commitments towards connectivity across the country. It is our constant endeavor to provide flexibility of choice to our customers along with on time, convenient and affordable flying experience.”

The maiden edition of Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) Kolkata opened at ITC Sonar, Kolkata with 450+ attendees on Day 1. The show was inaugurated by Harmandeep Singh Anand, Co-founder, GPS, Rajeev Duggal, CEO, Lavassa, Sunil Kumar, President, TAAI, and other TAAI Managing Committee members. The show will conclude in Coimbatore next week.

Singapore Airlines is planning to launch an additional weekly flight to Kolkata by the end of this year. This would mean that starting  December 2016, the airline’s existing thrice weekly direct service between Singapore and Kolkata will increase to four flights per week. There will be an additional Wednesday flight adding to the Monday, Friday and Saturday departures from Kolkata. SIA’s Kolkata flights depart Singapore’s Changi Airport at 2055 and arrive in the West Bengal city at 2240. The return flights then leave Kolkata’s Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport at 2355 and arrive back in Singapore at 0640. Flights are operated using a twin-aisle Airbus A330 aircraft and complement SilkAir’s service on the same route.

Come August, TravelShop Turkey is organising workshops for the travel trade in New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, and Bengaluru. The 6-city workshop will begin with New Delhi on August 1, then move to Ahmedabad (August 2), Mumbai (August 3), Kolkata (August 4), Chennai (August 5), and Bengaluru (August 6). The workshops will showcase Turkey’s latest programs for the Indian market. Participants will also get an oopportunity to learn how to sell Turkey as destination, meet with Culture & Tourism Counsellor, TST staff, Turkish Airlines staff, meet with Turkish hotels, and win free Fam trips all around Turkey. “As we know Indian market is very sensitive, specially for food, jain, veg and non veg. thats why it would be good for you to come and get the latest information for visa, payment methods, guides, itineraries, activities, night life and transportation,” said Murtaza Kalender, General Director, TravelShop Turkey.

Suresh Periwal, Managing Director, Clubside Tours and Travels, has won the prestigious Gallery of Legends award at the East India Travel Awards 2016 in Kolkata. With over 40 years of experience in the travel trade, he has been instrumental in putting the eastern region on the tourism map of the country. He is the founder President of the Eastern Himalayan Travel and Tour Operators association and was the Chapter Chairman of IATO for North Bengal and Sikkim Chapter last year.

Vistara has launched its inaugural flight to India’s cultural capital, Kolkata from IGI airport, Delhi at 07.20 am on June 10. Kolkata will now be directly connected to Delhi via double daily flights offering convenient same-day return options in both directions. The one-way fare on this route is Rs 6980, plus taxes. Kolkata travellers will also be able to experience Vistara’s Bengali food festival on-board its flights starting today till June 16, as well as relish the traditional sweet of Bengal, Kheer Kadam, on all its flights until June 14. Kolkata is Vistara’s fourth destination in the east and the fifth metro in the country. This new addition to Vistara’s expanding network will enable leisure, corporate and pilgrimage travellers who especially come to visit the famous religious places like Dakshineswar and Kalighat to enjoy Vistara’s ‘new feeling’ and its world class travel experience with direct connectivity to the capital.

Commencing on June 28, the new service will depart the Chinese city’s Xiaoshan International Airport at 1905, arriving at Kolkata’s Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport at 0210 the next day. The return service will then leave Kolkata at 0300 and arrives back in Hangzhou at 0955.China Eastern will deploy a single-aisle Airbus A320 aircraft on the route.The new route will make a stop in Kunming, southwest China, in both directions. This marks an extension of the existing Kunming-Kolkata route which China Eastern first launched in 2007.

National carrier, Air India has become the first airline to launch self check-in kiosks for its domestic fliers that aims to make the check-in process expeditious. The exclusive service presently covers 26 domestic centers at Aurangabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Calicut, Coimbatore, Cochin, Chennai, Goa, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Jamnagar, Jodhpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Nagpur, New Delhi, Mumbai, Mangalore, Raipur, Rajkot, Trivandrum, Udaipur, Visakhapatnam and Varanasi. Under this initiative, started on May 1, 2016, customers can procure the boarding pass by using the self-check-in kiosks also known as CUSS (Common Use Self Service) near the check-in area at the airport.

India’s low-cost airline GoAir has introduced two new flights from Patna to New Delhi and Bengaluru. The airline discontinued its Patna-Kolkata service and introduced these routes. According to Santosh Kumar, Assistant General Manager – Air Traffic Management, Patna airport, “The proposal submitted to director general of civil aviation (DGCA) was for additional eight flights. However, a few operators later withdrew their proposals.” With the introduction of the new routes, the Patna airport now operates 42 flights daily.