Tag Archives: New Delhi

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.

In a bid to promote its products and offerings, NBTC Holland Marketing hosted its sales mission in New Delhi in association with Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Jet Airways. Carola Muller, Global Travel Trade Manager, NBTC Holland Marketing, said, “ India is an important and growing market for Holland and we want it to grow further. In fact, India is pour fastest growing market and we foresee a 15 per cent rise in arrival numbers by the end of this year.” The three-city sales-mission will now go to Bengaluru and Mumbai to educate the trade about íts destination and products. Other partners for the mission include Blue Boat Company, Efteling, Henri Willig, ITO Tours and Madurodam.

India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) has performed remarkably in the first quarter of the current financial year 2017-18. The total turnover in quarter ending June 2017 increased to Rs.109.60 cr as compared to Rs. Rs. 91.42 cr in the corresponding quarter last year. The PSU registered Net Profit Before Tax (PBT) at Rs. 25.19 cr as compared to Rs. 14.30 cr in the corresponding quarter last financial year i.e. 2016-17, which is an increase of 76.15% from last year. The details were announced at the Board of Directors’ meeting of the company held on August 14th, 2017 at The Ashok, New Delhi.

Jet Airways has launched three direct flights from Indore to Jaipur, Ahmedabad and New Delhi. In addition, Jet Airways also started new daily flights from Silchar in southern Assam to New Delhi, Kolkata and Guwahati. All flights started on July 16, while flight from Indore to Ahmedabad started on July 17. With the three new launches, Jet Airways will operate a total of nine flights from Indore.

Steven Dixon, Regional Manager-South and South East Asia, Tourism New Zealand, said that they recorded 54,928 tourist arrivals from India for the year ending May 2017, an increase 15.2 per cent while holiday arrivals were up 10.3 per cent (26,320). He also informed that the total length of stay of Indian travellers in New Zealand for the year ending May 2017 is 48.3 days with holiday being 12.4 days. Tourism New Zealand conducted its annual travel trade event, Kiwi Link India in New Delhi, which allows one-on-one meetings for Indian travel agents, product managers and planners to interact with New Zealand operators. Tourism New Zealand introduced the new, improved version of the 100% Pure New Zealand Specialist Programme at the event. A total of 35 tourism operators from New Zealand, four airlines, Immigration New Zealand and Indian delegates from 42 companies participated in the event. Tourism New Zealand also hosted key buyers from around India in New Delhi for the two days of the event.

The biennial election for Travel Agents Association of India’s (TAAI) Northern Region will be held on July 21, 2017, at The Claridges, New Delhi. Revealing this was Rajan Sehgal, Chairman Northern Region, Travel Agents Association Of India (TAAI). “The nominations are open till July 18, post which we will come to know the final list of nominees,” he said. Neeraj Malhotra, Hon. Secretary Northern Region, TAAI,also revealed that the elections will take place after the annual general meeting of the association and the new executive committee will be announced on the same day.

GoAir is set to increase its operations between Bengaluru and New Delhi from June 24, 2017 with the launch of a third daily direct flight between the two cities. The flight will leave Bengaluru at 11:35 hours, reaching Delhi at 14:20 hours. A return flight will leave Delhi at 15:05 hours and reach at 18:00 hours. The new additional service has been introduced in response to a growing demand in this sector, particularly from corporate travellers. With this addition, GoAir now flies 1225 weekly flights between its 23 destinations serviced.