Tag Archives: Lubaina Sheerazi

Seychelles Tourist Office, India recently conducted a seminar for local hoteliers, DMCs, tourism board head office and other establishments in Seychelles. The seminar is aimed at defining the Indian market and presenting its nitty-gritties to the local travel trade fraternity of Seychelles. The event witnessed speeches on the cultural and behavioural differences between the two countries by three eminent speakers from India. These included Ashutosh Mehere, COO Alliances, Cox & Kings, India; Jai Bujhwala, Founder, Holidays Box; and Parthip Thyagarajan, Founder, WeddingSutra.com. Sherin Francis, CEO, Seychelles Tourism Board, was also present at the event. She said, “The seminar was one of its kind and highly informative for all our private sector partners. It created awareness about the diversity of India and answered many questions about the trade and tourist behaviour. It certainly created a high inquisitiveness about the market among the locals which is a great sign for developing further relations with the Indian market.” Lubaina Sheerazi, COO, Blue Square Consultants, Seychelles Tourist office India, explained the cultural diversity and uniqueness of the Indian market setting stage for the speakers. She says, “We were happy with the reception of the seminar and glad that our agenda of bringing out the differences between any other market and India for Seychelles had been met. The speakers gave some highly thought provoking inputs which will certainly better equip the private sector to cater differently to the Indian audience and allow us to further expand our vision for the destination.”

Blue Square Consultants has been appointed as the sales and marketing representative for Iceland Travel, a leading DMC (Destination Management Company) in Iceland. With this new addition, Blue Square Consultants has once again achieved its objective of representing clients from ‘unique’ destinations in India. Having started its operations in 1937, Iceland Travel has been a premier travel company, tour operator and DMC in Iceland offering top-quality services. The DMC offers diverse product categories that will suit Indian agents, such as escorted tours, day tours and self-drive tours in Iceland. Iceland as a destination is gaining popularity in India because of its vast and varied landscape filled with volcanoes, glaciers, black sand beaches, lava fields, and remote fjords. Jakobina Gudmundsdottir, Director of Sales & Marketing, Iceland Travel, says, “Recently, we have witnessed an increase in Indian enquiries to travel to Iceland. To foster this growth, we needed to have a strong representation in India. We felt that Blue Square Consultants is the apt partner to have in India because of their excellent track record; highly professional team and undisputed knowledge of Indian travel trade and travelers. We are confident that through this association we will witness a positive growth in the number of Indian visitors to Iceland.” Lubaina Sheerazi, COO, Blue Square Consultants, says, “We had conducted Iceland’s maiden roadshow in India earlier this year in association with Promote Iceland which was valuable for the delegation including Iceland Travel. We are confident that our association with Iceland Travel will not only be beneficial for them but also for Iceland as a destination as it has something new to offer to Indian travellers.”  

The Sultanate of Oman in association with the national airline Oman Air will conduct multi-city roadshow for the travel trade in India during September. The roadshow will commence on September 19 at Park Hyatt, Hyderabad; September 21 at The Oberoi, Kolkata; September 23 at Courtyard by Marriott, Ahmedabad; and conclude on September 26 at JW Marriott, Pune. Lubaina Sheerazi, India Representative – Ministry of Tourism, Oman says, “In 2015, we witnessed 17 per cent growth in Indian arrivals and in the first six months of 2016 too we have seen a positive growth. Encouraged by these figures and to penetrate better in tier II cities, we have decided to conduct the roadshow in Pune, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. This year, we also identified Kolkata as a new market for Oman and will be conducting our first roadshow in the city. With this new addition, Oman has made presence in 8 Indian cities with Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai being our main source markets.” Representatives from Ministry of Tourism, Oman along with a 15-member delegation representing hotels, DMCs and attractions in Oman will interact with key travel agents and tour operators from India. The roadshow will follow a pre-fixed meeting format whereby the invited travel agents will get adequate time to meet each delegate from Oman.

Oman received 299,022 Indian arrivals last year recording 17 per cent growth in 2015 over 2014. Oman’s National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) released the figures from India which highlight an increase in inbound numbers. The statistics also reflect a growth of 60 per cent in Indian arrivals to Oman in the last five years. Lubaina Sheerazi, India Representative, Ministry of Tourism, Oman, said, “The increase is very encouraging and reflects all the hard work we have put in promoting and marketing the destination in India. Since 2014, we started promoting Oman as an ideal wedding destination for Indians as Muscat is close to India. Our efforts were rewarded as we witnessed several large-scale weddings take place in the last two years. Many Indians are now visiting Oman for destination weddings. MICE has also seen an increase and to attract more MICE activities this year, our efforts are aimed at increasing interactions with tour operators and corporates.”