Tag Archives: Managing Director

Three B2B travel companies namely RezLive.com, BookonBlueStar.com and Tourism and Leisure Group who are part of Tourism Marketing Alliance (TMA) recently connected with the travel partners of Gujarat and created awareness about the latest outbound travel trends, travel technology and diversification within the travel business. They also updated the local travel partners on the growing outbound business in India which has opened up multiple opportunities for traditional travel agencies to expand their business from ticketing and inbound to outbound tourism. TMA’s Western roadshow touching three cities namely Surat, Vadodara and Ahmedabad concluded with an encouraging response from travel agents, which also reflects the keen interest of the travel partners in the outbound tourism business and constant support for the three global brands, that are, RezLive.com, BookonBlueStar.com & Pearl Tourism and Leisure Group. RezLive.com’s spokesperson Anand Srinivasan, VP – Global Sales & Zaheer Jeddy, National Sales Head, updated the travel partners with innovative offerings of RezLive.com and at the same time updated on one of its kind B2B loyalty programme “rezREWARDS” and their commission based payment gateway model “affiliate.travel” which got appraised by the travel partners. Jayesh Ashar, Managing Director, Pearl Tourism & Leisure Group showcased a portfolio of products across countries from Africa to Australia, Europe and Bali. BlueStar was represented by Bhavesh N Oza, Vice President – International Markets, who spoke about the importance of rail and airline bookings and how they can empower the agents to do better business.

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has appointed T&A Consulting as its official marketing representative agency for South India with effect from October 1, 2018. For the first time, India moved up a spot to become Singapore’s third-largest Visitor Arrival (VA) source market, with 1.27 million visitors in 2017 – a 16 per cent YoY growth, which made India the fastest-growing market for Singapore. Headquartered in New Delhi, T&A Consulting is a boutique advisory firm with an expertise in promoting India outbound tourism. As the official marketing representative of STB, T&A Consulting will be responsible for making Singapore as the preferred travel destination among consumers in South India, promoting quality tourism for leisure and business travel, increasing visitor arrivals and tourism spend as well as engaging with the travel trade. Adrian Kong, Area Director – South Asia, Singapore Tourism Board, said, “Singapore has consistently been ranked among the top most-visited destinations for families, honeymooners, cruisers, business travellers and incentive groups from India. The destination has received over 1 million visitors from India for three consecutive years, with South India being a significant visitor source market for us. With direct flights from nine cities and close travel proximity to Singapore, this region will continue to be an important visitor-ship driver.” According to Tarun Gupta, Co-founder and Managing Director, T&A Consulting, “Our role will be to enhance the positioning of Singapore as a favoured travel destination for travellers from South India. Our team aims to build more affinity for the destination through engagement with the travel trade fraternity and other relevant stakeholders”.

Expanding its overseas portfolio, Sarovar Hotels has announced the signing of its latest project in Africa with Yeha Hotel – A Sarovar Premiere Hotel, a luxury property in Axum, Ethiopia. This development signifies Sarovar’s focus on Africa and the latest addition to its existing portfolio of properties in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia. Yeha Hotel- A Sarovar Premiere Hotel will be a modern, luxurious development with a revolving restaurant and bar. It will also have the latest amenities in conferencing and meeting, a swimming pool, water amusement park and a kid’s playground. In the first phase, it will launch with 78 keys in October 2019, with plan to expand to 222 keys by 2021. Ajay K Bakaya, Managing Director, Sarovar Hotels, says, “The hotel is an important addition to our rapidly growing footprint in Africa and reflects the strong traction the brand is gaining in the region.  We see great growth potential in this market with high demand and this development makes a momentous step in our growth and expansion strategy in the overseas market.” Some of the openings of Sarovar Hotels this year include hotels in Jaisalmer, Gorakhpur, Dehradun, Katra, Lusaka and Dar Es Salaam.  

K V Abul Nazar, Chairman and Managing Director, Akbar Travels recently met with the Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan and handed over a cheque of Rs 1 crore towards the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund. Owing a majority of its growth story to Kerala, Akbar Travels currently has 35 branches in the state, spanning almost all the districts of God’s own country. Currently, the company has a total of 57 IATA approved branches and 40 non- IATA offices across India.

StayWell Holdings has announced the expansion of its Leisure Inn portfolio in South India with the opening of Leisure Inn VKL Kochi scheduled to launch in the last quarter of 2018. The 53-room hotel will mark the group’s second property in Southern India, following the recent opening of Park Regis Aveda in Kumarakom and the first Leisure Inn to open post the acquisition of StayWellHoldings by Prince Hotels. Simon Wan, President & Director, StayWell Holdings, said “We are looking forward to widening our reach in the Southern market. The hotel will offer a unique experience to tourists and business travellers in the region. We are pleased to extend our partnership with the hotel owner, Dr Varghese Kurian, with the opening of Park Regis Lotus Hotel Bahrain early this year and now Leisure Inn VKL Kochi in India. We are committed to offering our guests a range of options when it comes to business and leisure stays at our hotels, and we will continue to look for opportunities to expand our brands, both in India and internationally,” he further added. Rohit Vig, Managing Director, StayWell Hospitality Group India said, “From unbreakable connectivity, through to the design of hotels, today’s guests look for an unmatched hospitality experience when booking their stay, with aspects like comfort and convenience a minimum expectation nowadays. At Leisure Inn VKL Kochi, we understand our guest’s needs and aim to deliver on this. It’s a great addition to the StayWell portfolio.”  

The Registry Collection, the world’s largest luxury exchange programme, announced its affiliation with two new properties, Ramada Kumbhalgarh in Rajasthan and 1 Khandala Valley in Maharashtra. Both these resorts make for a perfect weekend getaway for travellers. Ramada Kumbhalgarh is located in the westerly range of the Aravali Hills of the Rajasthan district, about 82 km from Udaipur. The latter is nested on the Western Ghats and is a private, secure, gated community that sprawls over 37 acres. Commenting on the affiliation, Sabina Chopra, Managing Director, RCI India said, “Ramada Kumbhalgarh and 1 Khandala Valley are great additions to our growing affiliate network. Our affiliation with Ramada and Khandala Valley will add to our members’ choices of high-quality properties in premium holiday destinations, allowing us to provide amazing vacation experiences to our members and create memories that will last a lifetime.” The Registry Collection, part of  RCI, is an exclusive programme with 200 affiliated properties in more than 40 countries and approximately 50,000 members. It provides members with access to an elite global network of the finest vacation properties at some of the world’s premier destinations.

Sterling Holiday Resorts is set to launch its latest resort in Jaipur. With this launch, Sterling now has increased its holiday network to 34 resorts across the country. This is Sterling’s second property in Rajasthan, underlining the importance it gives to expansion in India’s foremost tourist destination. Sterling Holiday Resorts has signed a management agreement with Atharva Hotels and Resorts for Sterling Jaipur. Located on the Jaipur-Ajmer NH-8, Sterling Jaipur is spread across 6 acres of land and is divided into two wings: the Palace and Cottage wings. The architecture is inspired by the world-famous Rajasthani art and architecture. There are 45 luxurious rooms in the resort. Speaking on this occasion, Ramesh Ramanathan, Managing Director, Sterling Holiday Resorts stated, “Rajasthan is at the heart of cultural experiences and attracts tourists from different parts of the world. This resort will further bolster “Brand Sterling” in providing experiential and immersive holidays to its guests.” Commenting on this partnership, NBS Raathore, Partner, Atharva Hotel & Resorts said, “We are delighted to work with Sterling and we believe “Brand Sterling” brings immense leisure hospitality expertise, and with this launch we look forward to establishing Sterling Jaipur as a premier resort.” The resort offers extensive recreational and meeting facilities, which include a conference hall, three spacious lawns for banquet and weddings facilities, spa and swimming pool, two restaurants and a rooftop resto-bar.

In a move that highlights its dominating position in the activities and experiences space, Cleartrip has tied up with Haryana Tourism as its exclusive online booking partner for tours and activities in the state. Cleartrip will now enable its users to easily discover and book a variety of experiences, including visits to museums, amusement parks and kids gaming zones, recreational activities, day outings to Haryana Tourism’s resorts and visits to the renowned Yadavindra Gardens (formerly Pinjore Gardens), a historic 17th century garden in Mughal architectural style. Ankit Rastogi, VP- Accommodation and Activities, Cleartrip, said, “We are glad to be the first OTA chosen by Haryana Tourism as its exclusive online booking partner for activities and tours. Haryana is a much-admired destination among weekend travellers in North India as well, who travel several miles to visit the gardens, forts, palaces and other popular sites in the state. However, the inability to plan these visits by booking them online often leads to inconvenience. The biggest benefit of this partnership will be to our customers, who will now be able to conveniently discover and book a variety of tours and activities online on a single platform.” Vikas Yadav, Managing Director, Haryana Tourism, said “The aim behind making our inventory of tours and activities available on Cleartrip is to extend greater convenience by bringing ticketing online and ensure a larger footfall of travellers to the state.”

Ginger has signed a new hotel in Bharuch, a key city of Gujarat. The brand is already present in six cities in the state with hotels under development in Surat and Sanand. With this new addition, Ginger will have 10 hotels with a combined inventory of close to 800 rooms in Gujarat. Deepika Rao, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Ginger said, “We are delighted to expand our presence in Gujarat and enter Bharuch by partnering Hotel Sethna Plaza Annexe. The modern day Bharuch is one of the biggest industrial areas in the state. The hotel will be ideally located to cater to the business guests.” With 55 comfortable rooms, an all-day diner, a banquet hall and a fitness centre; the new Ginger is located just a few minutes from the railway station amidst a commercial hub catering to chemical, textile and pharmaceutical companies. The hotel is a management contract and is slated to commence operations in 2019.    

Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) has appointed Suhas Diwase as its new Managing Director. Currently, he is also working as the Chairman and Managing Director of Maharashtra State Warehousing Corporation. Prior to taking up his appointment as Managing Director, MTDC, Diwase worked in various districts at several positions. He was Director of Disaster Management and CEO of Pimpri-Chinchwad New Town Development Authority and Collector of Bhandara district. Diwase said, “It’s a pleasure to take over in my new role at Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation. Tourism is one of the most important and rapidly growing sectors in India contributing significantly to the economic development of our country. Therefore, my focus would be to develop and analyse and understand the present tourism avenues in Maharashtra through new programmes and policies aimed at developing and sustaining tourism in the state.” Diwase holds a Master’s degree in Horticulture. He has also done Public Administration from The Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore. Currently he is perusing Ph D in Disaster Management.