Tag Archives: New Delhi

SOTC Travel strengthened its presence in New Delhi with the inauguration of its first ever signature store in North Delhi at Netaji Subhash Place, D Mall. This new expansion augments SOTC’s distribution and reach in New Delhi. North Delhi, a potential market for SOTC which has been growing consistently year on year has seen remarkable progress with doubled sales numbers over the last 3 years. In an attempt to reach the optimum potential of this market and strive to provide the best pre & post tour experience to customers, SOTC Travel has come up with this unique concept of the first Signature store in the National Capital. Daniel D’souza, Head Sales, India and NRI Markets, SOTC Travel said, “We believe customer experience is the key to make our business successful in this ever competitive and growing tour operators industry. Along with increasing our distribution presence in almost all parts of Delhi/NCR, It is extremely important for us to ensure that we keep delivering up to the maximum potential of these markets and this requires us to enhance and deliver enriching holiday experiences to our customers. The Signature store is one of our efforts to reinvent the buying experience for our customers at our franchise outlets. Its strategic location offers convenience and accessibility to customers providing excellent branding and visibility. Our dedicated sales resources ensure we provide superior service to our customers meeting their every expectation.”

The Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia, Mumbai successfully concluded its annual mission titled ‘Expo Indonesia 2017’ in Mumbai. The three-day exhibition is being organised with the aim to promote Indonesian trade, tourism and investment and promotes opportunities in Indonesian in these sectors. The event saw participation of 47 Indonesian companies who displayed a wide range of Indonesian products. The delegation also included Indonesian travel and tour operators as well as Indonesian airlines who met with the Indian trade to promote Indonesian tourism product. It was attended by Saut Siringoringo, Consul General of the Republic of Indonesia, Mumbai, Jaykumar Rawal, Hon’ble Minister for Tourism, Government of Maharashtra, Officials from the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia, New Delhi, official from the Indonesian Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), Indian Trade & Tourism associations, leading Indian business entrepreneurs, travel and tourism industry from India and Indonesian companies investing in India along with the exhibitors.    

Having successfully managed the Thai Visa Application Centres in western India, Cox & Kings Global Services (CKGS), has now been empanelled by the Royal Thai Embassy in Delhi and the consulates in Chennai and Kolkata to expand its services across the country. The new centres located in New Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata are now operational. In the next phase of operations, offices will be open in Tier-II and III cities that have huge traffic from India to Thailand. The service is open to customers and travel agents/tour operators as well. CKGS values its customers and travel agents who avail services from our respective offices. Venku Murthi, Chief Operating Officer, CKGS said, “The expansion of our services on an all-India level is an affirmation of the confidence that the Thai government has in CKGS and we will maintain our professional standards as we move to other locations in India to boost Thailand tourism.” CKGS will provide services such as disseminating visa related information provided and approved by the Thai Embassy and its consulates as well as pre-scrutiny of documents and acceptance of visa application and passports from the general public and travel agents. CKGS was incorporated in 2008 and is a specialist business process outsource agency which focuses on serving Consular sections of Diplomatic Missions. It renders services related to Visa, Passport and other Consular services to various Diplomatic Missions across the globe – key customers being Ministries of India, Italy, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, UAE, Oman and its latest addition is Algeria.

After extensive renovations, The Oberoi, New Delhi, will reopen on January 1, 2018. The hotel has commenced reservation on its website or on phone. The Rs. 500 crore-revamp project which was slated to reopen in April next year will be completed ahead of schedule. Built in 1965, the Oberoi New Delhi was closed two years ago for renovation, will have 218 rooms. It will become the first hotel in India to have an air purifier to address growing concerns over the air quality in the national capital.

In 2017, up until August, Spain recorded as many as 86,000 Indian tourists, registering an approximate growth of about 50 per cent in 2017 over the same period in 2016, informed Ignacio Ducasse Gutierrez, Director, Tourism Office of Spain – Mumbai, during the Spanish Travel Show in New Delhi. This year, Spain Tourism is organising its annual roadshow in three cities – Delhi, Ahmedabad and Chennai. “We have seen a huge increase in the number of Indian tourists travelling to Spain in 2017 and we hope to increase this number further. Since our roadshows are an annual affair, we try to cover different cities every year. Next year we will reach out to other cities which we have never visited before like Nagpur and Jaipur apart from the ones we have covered this year. We are expecting around 100-150 travel agents and tour operators in each city for the roadshows,” said Gutierrez. Various tourism boards and regions of Spain participated in the show which included Madrid Region, Barcelona Premium, Andalucia Tourist Board, Costa del Sol Tourist Board, Galicia, Castilla y Leon Tourist Board and AVE Cities Network. Various travel agencies and hotels like Europamundo Vacaciones, Warq Events and Holidays, Century Incoming, Melia Hotels International and Palladium Hotel Group etc. also showcased their products to the travel agents in the various cities.

Rashmi Verma, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, flagged off a cycle rally at India Gate, New Delhi as part of the ‘Paryatan Parv’ of the Ministry of Tourism. The rally was organised to create awareness about tourism, environment and sustainability. Around 75 riders participated in the rally. It concluded at Qutub Minar, New Delhi. The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, in collaboration with central ministries, state governments and stakeholders is organising this Paryatan Parv across the country from October 5 to 25, 2017. It is being organised with the objective of drawing focus on the benefits of tourism, showcasing the cultural diversity of the country and reinforcing the principle of ‘Tourism for All’.

India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC), conducted its 52nd Annual General Meeting at The Ashok, New Delhi. Chairing the meeting, Ravneet Kaur, IAS, Chairperson & Managing Director, ITDC, announced that corporation closed the year with a turnover of Rs. 495.14 crore during 2016-17. The net profit before tax has been recorded to Rs.17.52 crore during 2016-17. Also, the board declared and approved a dividend of 13.30 per cent amounting to Rs.11.41 crore approximately in the meeting held on May 30, 2017. Other Board of Directors present during the meeting included Piyush Tiwari, Director (Commercial & Marketing), Pradip Kumar Das, Director (Finance), government nominee directors and independent directors. The CMD announced that ITDC has shown a significant improvement in the operational efficiency. Overall occupancy during 2016-17 was 58 per cent as against 52 per cent during 2015-16 with flagship Hotel ‘The Ashok’ recording highest turnover of Rs. 152.91 cr during 2016-17. The board said that a big push is being given to connect ITDC with new customers especially with younger generation through print and social media. Steps are being taken to make ITDC website more attractive and user friendly.

Chander Mansharamani has been re-elected as Vice Chairman of India Convention Promotion Bureau (ICPB) for another two-year term. Amaresh Tiwari and Girish Kwatra will also continue on their respective posts of Hon. Secretary and Hon. Treasurer. This was declared during the association’s 30th Annual General Meeting and Elections for the Governing Board held at The Ashok in New Delhi which was also attended by Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India and Chairman, ICPB. New appointments were made in the Hotel, Tour Operator and Congress / Convention Centres categories. The two new appointments in the hotel category were Hemant Mediratta and Saurabh Bhargava & Abinash Manghani (due to a tie for the second post). Gunjan Suri and Naveen Chibber took up the two new posts in the travel agency category while Ajay Vinayak and Anuj Wadhwa took the two posts in tour operator category. The post for the Congress / Convention Centres went to Sudeep Sarcar. Talking about the key priorities for the bureau now, Chander Mansharamani, Vice Chairman, ICPB, said, “the government has been looking at us as the frontal organisation for marketing India as a convention destination. Keeping that in mind, we are completely invested to take things to the next level. Currently we have outlined three core areas to focus on; first is market creation wherein creating our chapters and bidding of international conferences will be a part of that. Market creation will involve conducting roadshows both in India and international markets. The second priority is Visa, lobbying and making the entire process easier to get a visa for delegates attending conferences in India and thirdly we want to sensitise the central and state governments on the …

A new campus of Indian Aviation Academy was launched in Vasant Kunj, New Delhi. P. Ashok Gajapati Raju, Minister of Civil Aviation, Government of India, inaugrated the campus in the presence of R. N. Choubey, Secretary, Civil Aviation; Dr. Guruprasad Mohapatra, Chairman, Airports Authority of India (AAI); Dr. Dewakar Goel, Director, Indian Aviation Academy (IAA) and Kumar Rajesh Chandra, DG, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS). The academy is a joint venture by BCAS, AAI and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

A pioneer in the Indian travel industry, Mr. Inder Sharma, Chairman of The Select Group, passed away in New Delhi on September 4. He was 85 years old. Mr. Sharma opened the first SITA World Travel (India) office in New Delhi in 1956. Among the many hats he donned includes being awarded the Padma Shri in 1990 by the Government of India for his contribution in the field of Tourism. He was the president of Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) from 1966-69 and 1978-79 and was also awarded by the British Tourism Authority with the Holder of the Keys to Britain Award in 1980, the only Indian to have been so awarded. Mr. Sharma is survived by his wife Dr. Aruna Sharma and his daughter Neeraj and son Arjun. The travel industry comes together in this time of grief and deeply mourns his demise.