Tag Archives: Regional Director

Discussing best practices across the business travel lifecycle, Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) Conference 2018 was hosted at Hotel Pullman New Delhi Aerocity on September 14. Gaurav Sundaram, Regional Director, GBTA India said, “Compared to 2017, in 2018, India is together the seventh largest global market with $38 billion. It is the third largest APAC market with 12 per cent YOY. This is the best time for business professionals. However, these are also times of VUCA, that is, volatility, uncertainty, change and ambiguity. There is a huge disruption potential and inertia by travel business.” The event includes a CXO round-table on creating scalable global travel programmes as well as education sessions on the impact of payment solutions on business travel and duty of care within Indian companies. The forum will feature a trade show highlighting the best-class solution providers within the business travel industry. “With India expected to become the sixth largest business market in the world by the end of 2019, GBTA felt it was crucial to host a series of conferences within this region,” said Sundaram. “Each conference will be unique in its offerings of education sessions, speakers and content and will ultimately help educate the market on global best practices.”  

Booking.com has partnered with Air India to offer the airline’s customers access to over 28.9 million accommodation listings, including everything from homes, apartments, villas to world-class hotels and resorts from the Air India website. Stewart Jones, Regional Director – Strategic Partnerships, APAC, Booking.com said, “Air India makes it the perfect partner for us to showcase our global online accommodation offering to their domestic and international customers. As India is poised to become the third largest aviation market by 2020 with its fast-growing outbound travel market, we are happy to combine our strengths with Air India’s to deliver the best travel experience to travellers across the country.” Madhu Mathen, General Manager – Sales and Marketing, Air India said, “Booking.com’s global reach and unique accommodation offerings is a key reason we chose the online accommodation platform as one of our first accommodation partner. As a member of the world’s largest airline alliance – Star Alliance, Air India has passengers that are globe-trotters. Partnering with Booking.com enables us at Air India to provide our customers a broad & unique variety of accommodation options in any city we fly them to.”  

After successful shows in seven cities across the country, the concluding Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) of 2018 opened at JW Marriot Hotel Pune with over 600 attendees. The first day of the event was inaugrated by GB Srithar, Regional Director – South Asia & Middle East, Singapore Tourism Board; Sunil VA, Regional Vice President – ISC, Oman Air; Sanjay Rao, Aviation Consultant; Vishal Bhatia, Country Manager – India, VisitBritain and Dev Karvat, Founder – TrawellTag & CEO, Emerging Markets, Covermore Group.  

Air India and Ethiopian Airlines, both members of Star Alliance and with an extensive network in their home countries, have agreed to strengthen their cooperation by expanding the current free-sale codeshare agreement, thereby allowing Air India to access Ethiopian Airlines’ network in Africa and Ethiopian Airlines to access Air India’s network in Australia and Hong Kong, in addition to the Indian domestic points. Tadesse Tilahun, Regional Director for Indian subcontinent, Ethiopian Airlines, commented, “The expanded codeshare cooperation between Ethiopian Airlines and Air India gives seamless connection to our esteemed customers. He added, on top of the seamless connection, passengers will get more benefits such as accruing their miles as both airlines belong to the largest airlines alliance – Star Alliance.” “Air India’s esteemed passengers now have access to multiple destinations in the African countries served by Ethiopian Airlines through this expanded cooperation with our long standing partner airline, Ethiopian Airlines, viz through Addis Ababa to Accra, Seychelles, Mombasa, Gaborone, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Kilimanzaro and Zanzibar vv sectors besides the existing access through Addis Ababa to Nairobi, Dar-Es-Salaam, Harare, Entebbe and Kigali vv sectors. Likewise, Ethiopian Airlines customers will be able to access a number of points on Air India network through Delhi to Hong Kong, Melbourne and Sydney vv sectors besides the existing access through Mumbai and Delhi to Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Goa, Jaipur vv sectors”, said Seema Srivastava, Executive Director – Strategy and Planning, Air India.  

Singapore has received over six lakh visitors from India between January to May 2018, reporting a 17 per cent year-on-year increase from 2017. The year 2017 was a record year for STB as visitor arrivals from India had crossed the one million mark for the third time in a row, showcasing the highest growth rate at 16 per cent in comparison with all markets. India also continues to be the top source market for visitor arrivals in the cruise segment for Singapore. Last year, 127,000 cruise passengers from India sailed out of Singapore’s shores, showing a year-on-year increase of 25 per cent from 2016. While speaking about STB’s efforts to showcase Singapore as a destination of choice among Indian travellers, GB Srithar,  Regional Director – South Asia Middle East & Africa (SAMEA), STB, said, “STB has been steadfastly engaging travellers through partnerships and various marketing initiatives. Last year, India moved up a spot to become the third largest source market for Singapore in terms of Visitor Arrivals. We are looking forward to working closely with both Indian and Singaporean travel trade partners to continue the momentum and entice more Indian travellers.” This year, the STB has lined up a series of collaborative initiatives to welcome more Indian travellers to Singapore in 2018. They embarked on an 8-city roadshow from July 16-26 with close to 40 stakeholders to grow their partnership with in-market travel agents. This is part of STB’s ongoing efforts to take the ‘Passion Made Possible’ brand messaging forward and showcase Singapore’s diverse offerings to the target audience.    

Globus has recently introduced Private Touring in Europe designed for parties ranging from two to two dozen people. Any Europe itinerary can be converted to a Private Touring experience once an itinerary is chosen and the travelling party’s numbers have been confirmed. Of particular interest to travellers looking for a multi-generational experience, there is no age restriction for travellers and even infants can join on the tour. “The biggest opportunity for agents is with friends and family groups,” stated Varesh Chopra, Regional Director – South Asia & Middle East, Globus family of brands. “A Globus Private Tour is a great way to give those groups that perfect balance of logistics support with the personalised delivery of catering to their particular group. For all agents who have those group prospects,reaching out proactively now to suggest a private tour could translate to a nice incremental revenue opportunity along with a great experience for their clients.” Above the brochure price for the regular tour, travellers pay a supplement based on the number of people in the group. The higher the number of guests, the lower the supplement per person.  

The South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC) expects that the number of visitors from India will increase in anticipation of the upcoming cricket series set to be held between India and Australia in Adelaide in December this year. The Adelaide Oval will host the first Test Match, scheduled for December 6-10, 2018, which is expected to attract a large number of Indian visitors to Adelaide. In addition to focusing on attracting honeymooners, families and independent travellers between the age of 25-45 years in the primary markets of Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai, SATC is also working to attract cricket lovers this year. This will be executed through SATC’s influencer, media, marketing and trade partnerships throughout 2018. Commenting on the announcement, Dana Urmonas, Regional Director (India & Southeast Asia), SATC said, “We look forward to hosting Indian cricket enthusiasts and travellers for the Test Match. Adelaide witnessed a surge in Indian tourist arrivals during the ICC India-Pakistan World Cup in 2015 and we’re confident this December will be no different. The match gives us a unique opportunity to showcase Adelaide and its surrounding regions to Indian travellers and cricket enthusiasts alike.” Speaking on Adelaide Oval hosting the game, Laura Robinson, Tourism Manager, Adelaide Oval said, “Adelaide Oval has hosted some historic games in the past and we believe that this time will be no different. India and Australia have shared excellent cricketing ties over the years.”

Travel Air Representations, the B2B wholesale travel division of FCM Travel Solutions, has announced the launch of adventure travel brand, Intrepid Travel in India. It will distribute and promote Intrepid Travel products and services in India. Headquartered in Australia, Intrepid Travel has over 800 different itineraries across Europe, Asia, Africa, North & South America, the Middle East, Australia, and both the Arctic and Antarctica. Joseph K Jose, Vice President & Head – Wholesale, FCM Travel Solutions (India), said, “We are delighted to announce the launch of Intrepid Travel, yet another leading global travel brand, in India. The diverse offerings of Intrepid Travel have been well-received globally and will strengthen our endeavour to address unique requirements of India’s leisure traveller market. Through this collaboration, we aim to offer Intrepid Travel’s bouquet of travel products in the country while focusing on Tier -II and Tier-III markets.” On the partnership, Brett Mitchell, Regional Director – Asia Pacific, Intrepid Group, said “We look forward to working with Travel Air Representations to launch Intrepid Travel to the Indian market”.  Currently Travel Air Representations works with over 2100 agents (Business Partners) across 110 cities and towns in India, with a team of over 110 passionate and professional team members.”

With an array of cruising choices on offer for the discerning travellers, the Globus family of brands is celebrating its 90 years of operation in the travel business. In 2018, the company plans to showcase its nine-decade journey through a revamped corporate website and is also offering a discount of five per cent on all Globus Europe vacations. Varesh Chopra, Regional Director – South Asia and Middle East, says, “Our journey began 90 years ago on March 28, 1928 & now, nine decades later we are still paddling, steering and cruising travelers across the world through the wonders of six continents. We want to thank all our agent partners for being such a strong support for us through this journey. Without them, we would not have been able to achieve this huge success. We want everyone to be able to celebrate this landmark anniversary with us and hopefully toast with us to another 90 years. On this occasion, we are offering five per cent off on all our Globus Europe vacations.”

Ethiopian Airlines has announced that effective March 25 and until October 26, 2018, it will increase capacity in its India operation by deploying the ultra-modern B777 aircraft on its twice daily operation to/from Mumbai and 767-200 aircraft on its twice daily operation to/from New Delhi. Both the B777 and 767-200 aircraft will have flat beds in business class. Tadesse Tilahun, Regional Director, India Subcontinent, Ethiopian Airlines, remarked, “As part of our strategy to expand in India, we have been increasing frequency and upgrading aircraft in the past few years to accommodate the growing demand to Africa. As a customer focused airline, we have the passenger’s comfort level in mind at all times with a view to continuously enhance our customers‘travel experience and meet their growing expectations.” Tilahun further added “India is a very strategic market for Ethiopian Airlines and we are on the final stage of preparation to launch one more entry point to South India. With our 47 years of service to India, the Ethiopian Airlines has played significant role in bringing India and Africa together in general and India and Ethiopia, in particular.”