Tag Archives: Managing Director

Amsterdam is the new European hub for Jet Airways with the airline launching daily non-stop flights from India to the Netherlands capital. Starting March 27, Jet Airways will operate two daily non-stop flights from Mumbai and Delhi, to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Jet Airways will also operate a daily flight connecting Amsterdam to Toronto. The move would in turn offer seamless connections between India and Toronto via Amsterdam. The airline has also entered a code share agreement with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Delta Airlines. Gaurang Shetty, Wholetime Director, Jet Airways, said, “The main agenda behind this move was to offer greater choice and better connections for our guests. The partnership with KLM and Delta would enable us to offer seamless connections from India to key destinations in Europe and North America.” Jos Vranken, Managing Director, NBTC, Holland Marketing, said, “India has been a very promising source market in our portfolio of international guests, and we are confident that with the increase in connectivity through Jet Airways and its partners- KLM and Delta, there will be acceleration of growth from the Indian market to the Netherlands.”

Sarovar Hotels & Resorts has opened a brand new property ‘Kalyan Hometel’ in Vandalur-Chennai. A contemporary business hotel, with 108 rooms and suites, was formally launched by Anil Madhok, Managing Director, Sarovar Hotels & Resorts. The room rates start at Rs 3,450++. Speaking on the occasion, Madhok said, “The existing demand-supply gap in this industrial town offers huge opportunity for hospitality brands. This allows us great prospect for our brand Hometel which is designed to provide unmatched facilities at value for money price. We are happy to associate with the Kalyan Grand Stay Pvt. Ltd. who is taking initiative to invest and promote this destination which has great potential. Hotels in Tier II and III cities are seeing major hospitality developments and will continue to be some of the most attractive locations for our future investments. Some of our new openings this year include Sarovar Portico hotels in Dehradun, Bhavnagar, Bengaluru and Raipur and we will be soon reaching out to newer destinations like Amritsar and Greater Noida.” K. Saravana Prakash, Managing Director, Kalyan Grand Stay Pvt. Ltd., said, “Facilities at the hotel include an all-day dining with bar and a fitness centre compliment the overall guests experience. Banquet & conference spaces along with business centre make it a perfect venue to host trainings, workshops, product launches, exhibitions, weddings and other social events. We are glad to partner with Sarovar Hotels & Resorts and we look forward to providing a memorable stay to business travellers to Vandalur”.

Trans India Holidays Group, one of India’s leading offline travel agencies, is now entering the online travel space with its new venture BigBreaks. It aims to touch the unreached aspect of travel planning, and customise travel plans to meet customer requirements to the last detail. Kapil Goswamy, Managing Director, BigBreaks, said, “Unlike other OTA’s which are primarily technology companies selling travel, we are a travel company adopting the latest internet technologies to give our clients the advantages of lower costs, wider variety and the convenience of 24×7 bookings. Being a late entrant in the online space may mean that other OTAs already have an established presence in the field, but it also gives us a unique advantage of having a clear picture of what needs improvement in the industry. We have modeled our services to remove the problems existing in the industry including lack of flexibility in product offering, poor responses from Customer Service teams, slow and tedious refund processes etc.  It is these important customer requirements that we seek to fulfill.” According to a survey by US-based Travel Consulting Firm Phocuswright, the size of the Indian travel market in 2014 stood at Rs 90, 000 crores, out of which the share of online travel market was just Rs 36,000 crores.

Sriram Rajmohan has been appointed as CEO and Managing Director of Club7 Holidays Limited with immediate effect. He is currently an Independent Director in Club7 Holidays Ltd and has been instrumental in securing relationship with various tourism boards, adding new corporate customers and growing the relationship with the trade partners. In the last two years of his association with the Centrum Group he has brought in tremendous value to the group through on-line visa and other travel products. Prior to joining Centrum Group, Rajmohan was the Group CFO of Kuoni Travel India.

Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) website will be made into an online booking portal to allow tour operators and tourists to sell and book packages to Goa at discounted rates. Private tour operators will be provided a login ID which will allow them to load their packages into the system and sell them based on commission rates, built into the portal. “We will be the first tourism board to launch such a service. A tourist can combine various activities with the packages like hot air balloon ride, paragliding, bungee jumping amongst other new products on the website, making Goa a 365-day destination. Even though we own the new product offerings, the services will be offered by the private sector where we will only be the facilitator and hand hold them for proper delivery,” said Nikhil Desai, Managing Director, GTDC. Goa Tourism is expecting at least 400,000 tourists to visit the state over three days during Goa Carnaval from February 6-9, 2016, Desai said during a press conference in New Delhi. Dilip Parulekar, Goa Tourism Minister, was also present. Parulekar said, “Goa Carnaval is one-of-a-kind event and people come from all over the globe. While the spirit of this celebration is contagious, we have taken into account aspects of safety, security and cleanliness which will ensure that the celebration is a truly memorable one.”