Tag Archives: Mumbai

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) offices in Mumbai and Delhi took its the fourth edition of its B2B event ‘Luxurious Pleasure’ to four cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. First held in 2013, Thailand’s ‘Luxurious Pleasure’ roadshow series is an addition to its staple annual roadshow and focuses on high-end holidays such as holidays on private islands and helicopter rides. Explaining Thailand’s focus on luxury, Soraya Homchuen, Director, Tourism Authority of Thailand – Mumbai, said, “Our two-city initiative is now a four-city show with Bengaluru, Kolkata and Ahmedabad now in the fray. We have noticed visible changes in buying behavior. This includes a growth in the number if travellers opting for five-star hotels and villas and a good response to market promotions with prices in the range of Rs 80,000 to Rs 150,000 for a week-long holiday. Today about 25 per cent of the Indian market is checking into luxury hotels and above (villas, private islands and yachts) and this is up from barely 10 per cent when TAT first launched its campaign to target the luxury segment. It is about strategy, sustainability and streamlining the industry with quality as a focus.” Thailand welcomed 1.06 million Indian travellers in 2015 and expects to cross 1.1 million in 2016, having hit over 700,000 Indian arrivals by August already. Homchuen added that TAT wants to grow high-end’s share of the pie by another five per cent. A change in the ratio of men: women travellers is also part of the goal. “Women comprise 23 per cent of the market currently and for this year we would like to bring this up to 30-35 per cent,” she said.

The Royal Thai Embassy New Delhi confirmed the temporary non-issue of visa services from November 21 to 25, according to a spokesperson from the embassy. No reason has so far been stated for the hold in services during the mentioned period. Those who require visas during this period may obtain visa-on-arrival or from Thai Consulates in Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

The Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia in Mumbai organised a two-day expo in the city that brought a huge delegation of Indonesian sellers from various industries together under one roof.  ‘Expo Indonesia 2016’ saw 35 companies participate from industries like travel and tourism, furniture, handicrafts and food. Also participating in the expo was Garuda Indonesia which has announced a direct flight between Mumbai and Indonesia sometime in December 2016, making it the first direct flight to Indonesia. It is considering Bali and Jakarta for this connection. The airline is still working on the schedule and will be loaded in the GDS for sale soon. The Consul General added that they are pushing for more cities between the two countries: Bali – Mumbai, Jakarta – New Delhi  and Chennai – Medan.  On the sidelines of the expo was a seminar dedicated to tourism. Saut Siringoringo, Consul General, Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia, said, “We want to do everything to push relations between the two countries. Indonesia has huge potential in the India market. The achievement of 16 billion USD in trade value between India and Indonesia is no small achievement. We can see this growth even in tourist arrivals from India which grew 68 per cent last year with 2,70,000 Indian tourists visiting Indonesia. This year we expect 3,50,000 – 4,00,000 Indian arrivals into Indonesia.”

Thomas Cook India Limited will be organising a summit titled ‘India Travel Summit’ on November 16, 2016 in Mumbai. It will be a half day conference by invitation only. Abraham Alapatt, President & Group Head- Marketing & Service Quality, Financial Services & Innovation-Thomas Cook (India) Limited. He said, “We looked at our increased stake in both inbound and outbound space in India and we realised that we really didn’t have an India equivalent of something like World Travel and Tourism Council’s Global Summit. So we saw the need to create a platform which would allow everyone in the eco-system to come together. We were hoping somebody does it but it hasn’t happened in the travel space. We wanted a summit where we get the opinion-makers and leaders of the industry and by invitation only to come together for a conversation. We expect a 100-odd people to attend the event. This year is in Mumbai but we are seriously considering doing this in Delhi next year.” The tour operator plans to make it an annual event. The half-day summit will have three sessions lasting an hour each. The first one will focus on visa issues and will have Consul Generals from four countries on the panel. This will be followed by a discussion on India’s outbound market and will have four India heads of NTOs as speakers. The last one will focus on inbound and will have three speakers: Suman Billa IAS, Joint Secretary of (Tourism), Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, Chinmai Sharma, Chief Revenue Officer, Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces and Ragini Chopra, VP (Corporate Communications), Jet Airways. 

Air Seychelles, the national airline of the Republic of Seychelles, has announced a major fleet and network expansion in Europe and the Indian Ocean in 2017. This will see the airline introduce a second Airbus A330 aircraft, commence non-stop services to Düsseldorf, Durban, and increase its existing network to Mumbai. Roy Kinnear, Chief Executive Officer of Air Seychelles, said, “The addition of a second wide-body A330 to our fleet is set to open up significant growth opportunities, enabling Air Seychelles to extend its network footprint in Europe and the Indian Ocean region. In addition to flying to Europe, the Airbus A330 will be used to increase capacity on the airline’s five-per-week regional services to Mumbai, Johannesburg and Mauritius which are currently operated on a narrow-body A320. The introduction of a second wide body A330 will facilitate the upgrading of capacity on Mumbai on Saturdays, Johannesburg on Thursdays and Saturdays, and Mauritius on Sundays, increasing the combined seat capacity on these routes by 23 per cent. This development will allow Air Seychelles to allocate an Airbus A320 to launch flights to Durban, the second point served by Air Seychelles in South Africa, offering 14,171 seats to and from Seychelles each year as well as quick connections over Seychelles to Düsseldorf and Mumbai.”

Seychelles Tourism Board recently organised ‘Appreciation Evenings’ in New Delhi and Mumbai for its key travel trade, airline and hotel partners to thank them for their support. The tourism board also gave away appreciation awards to those travel agents and tour operators who have significantly contributed to the increase in awareness and tourist arrivals to Seychelles from India. Awardees in New Delhi included Destination Travel Services, Makemytrip, TUI and Travstarz. In Mumbai, Holidays Box, Vacations Exotica – Balmer Lawrie, Ottila and Air Seychelles were honoured. Hallmark Elite and Escape Holidays from Ahmedabad were also awarded. Patsy Moustache, Acting Charge de Affairs, Seychelles High Commission congratulated the tourism board team and the travel trade partners for their support.  This was followed by a destination update. Sherin Francis, CEO, Seychelles Tourism Board, was not present at the events but she sent out a message that said, “When we started the India office in 2013, there were just around 2,000 Indians visiting Seychelles. Last year we touched 8,000. This number may seem small in comparison to the several thousands of tourists visiting other destination. But keeping in mind the exclusivity of the destination, our limited marketing budgets and most importantly the short period of time, we are proud of this achievement. The numbers this year so far show similar trend as last year and we are positive that we will cross our target of 2016. Though Seychelles remains the ultimate romantic destination we have seen several families, small MICE groups and adventure sports enthusiasts choosing the islands for their holiday.”

To mark its 10 years in India, Air China announced the resumption of its non-stop service between Beijing and Mumbai from Oct 30, 2016. The flight Mumbai, India to Beijing, P.R.China will operate four times in a week i.e., Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Passengers will also have return flight services from Beijing, P.R. China to Mumbai, India four times a week i.e., Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday & Sunday. Airbus A330-300 has a seating capacity of 301 passengers which offers 30 seats in Business class, 16 seats in Premium Economy and 255 seats in Economy Class. The outbound flight will depart from Mumbai at 02:30 IST and arrive in Beijing at 11:30 CST. The return flight will depart from Beijing at 19:40 CST and will arrive next day in Mumbai at 01:00 IST. In its endeavor to build its brand and increase loyalty among travellers, the airline has launched an offer of 30 per cent discount on base fare.

Hungary witnessed a growth of 70 per cent in Indian arrivals in 2016 till date, while 40,000 Indian tourists visited the country in 2015, informed Mark Kinces, International Marketing Manager, South-East Europe, Hungarian Tourism Agency. This was revealed at the roadshow conducted by Central Europe comprising of Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary in Mumbai and New Delhi in order to promote the region in the Indian market. “We are not only receiving leisure tourists but also mid-sized groups and MICE travellers to Hungary,” says Kinces. According to Emilia Kubik, Asian Markets Project Leader, Polish Tourist Organisation, 26,000 Indian tourists visited Poland in 2015 and the country expects a 10 per cent increase in Indian arrivals by the end of 2016. Kubik also informed that Poland is also planning to introduce a destination specialist programme for the travel trade in 2017. Czech Republic is expecting to receive 50,000 Indian tourists from India by the end of 2016 revealed Karina Vitkova, International Marketing Manager, Long-haul Markets, Czech Tourism while Slovakia has seen a few thousand Indian arrivals and is hoping to increase awareness about the country amongst the travel trade in order to attract more arrivals explains Robert Vincze, Head-Slovak Convention Bureau, Slovak Tourism Board.

Air Canada has announced another direct connection between Mumbai and Toronto starting July 1,2017. India’ financial hub Mumbai and Toronto will now get a thrice a week direct non-stop service starting July 1, 2017 as part of the airline’s global expansion plan. The new announcement comes just after the news of its non-stop flights between Delhi and Vancouver beginning October 20, which too is a three-times weekly flight. Air Canada has also made its Delhi-Toronto flight a daily connection starting November 6, 2016. All these announcements from Air Canada have come within a year of launching the direct flights between Delhi and Toronto on the 3rd November 2015. “Customer response to our Toronto-Delhi service has been extremely positive and hence its becoming a daily service from 6th November 2016 . With the new Vancouver route we are strategically increasing our presence in the important Asia-Pacific market. “said Duncan Bureau , Vice President , Global Sales. The non-stop Dreamliner flights from the Vancouver hub will also offer the shortest elapsed flying time from Delhi to Calgary, Edmonton, Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles .Together with our extensive Western Canada domestic and western US trans border network combined with the seamless connection experience through Vancouver’s US in-transit pre-clearance facilities, position Vancouver to be the preferred gateway hub for trans-pacific travel to and from North America. Air Canada will be the only carrier to offer a direct non-stop service between Canada and Mumbai . These routes will operate year-round with Air Canada’s state-of-the-art Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. The aircraft feature 29 International Business Class lie-flat seat suites, 21 Premium Economy and 247 Economy Class seats, with upgraded in-flight entertainment at every seat throughout the aircraft.

Both runways at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport will not be available for landing and take-off from October 31 to November 28, 2016 on Mondays and Thursdays from 1200 to 1700 hours due to runway maintenance work. Hence, flights schedules to and fro Mumbai will be affected during this period. All passengers flying during that time are requested to check their respective flight status online during this period.