G Kishan Reddy, Union Minister of Tourism, has shared that they have set up a 24×7 Multi-Lingual Tourist Info-Helpline on the toll free number 1800111363 or on a short code 1363 in 12 Languages including 10 international languages (German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic), Hindi English for domestic and foreign tourists to provide support service in term of information relating to Travel in India and to offer appropriate guidance to tourists in distress while travelling in India.

Shuja Bin Mehdi, B2B Manager – India, VisitBritain, has shared that with the England Expert e-learn platform, they are addressing product development for England & showcasing gateway cities in order to drive regional dispersal.

According to new research commissioned by Arabian Travel Market (ATM), and conducted at the end of September 2022 by hotel market intelligence and global benchmarking company STR, the GCC region now has over 170,000 hotel rooms under active development (planning, final planning & under construction). This is equivalent to 40% of the GCC’s existing hotel room inventory, a figure almost four times greater than the rest of the world which currently lags behind at an average of 11% under active development compared with existing supply. Danielle Curtis, Exhibition Director, Arabian Travel Market, said: “Between EXPO 2020, the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and Saudi Arabia’s ambitious Vision2030 strategy, the GCC’s hospitality sector development pipeline remains robust in contrast to global hotel development, which is slowing, due to weak economic growth forecasts. “While the hospitality sector’s growth does highlight the region’s increasing popularity on the global stage, it is also indicative of regional government strategy, to diversify GDP growth away from hydrocarbons into tourism, that will help to drive demand still further, over the coming years. The STR report estimates 135,560 existing rooms in Saudi Arabia with an active pipeline of 82,639 rooms, with total room inventory projected for 2030, at over 218,000 rooms. Similarly for the UAE, STR currently tracks more than 202,000 existing rooms with an active pipeline of 48,910 rooms, a combined total of almost 251,000 rooms by 2030. “Interestingly, Ras Al Khaimah, is second only to Dubai, with 5.076 rooms in its pipeline, almost the same amount as Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Fujairah combined,” said Curtis. The UAE’s historic occupancy performance provides a blueprint of what the region can expect as new rooms enter the market. Rooms supply …

Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board (UTDB) has announced a financial incentive scheme of up to Rs.5 lakh per tour operator for tour operators booking international tourists for the upcoming International Yoga Festival (IYF) 2023 to be held at Rishikesh from March 1 to March 7, 2023. This incentive will be offered to tour operators for bringing international tourists to the International Yoga Festival 2023.  For this, UTDB has decided to provide incentive to these tour operators from Rs.10,000 per international tourist up to a maximum of Rs.5 lakh.

International Air Transport Association (IATA) has revealed that in 2023, airlines are expected to post a small net profit of $4.7 billion—a 0.6% net profit margin. It is the first profit since 2019 when industry net profits were $26.4 billion (3.1% net profit margin). In 2022, airline net losses are expected to be $6.9 billion.

Arvind Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism has shared that sustainability commitment needs to come in mainstream in tourism, especially with G20. “There are four tourism track meetings slated to be held during G-20.  It is the ideal time that India should take the leadership position in responsible tourism,” he said.

Cross Hotels & Resorts, along with TravClan, has organised an exclusive webinar for travel trade today at 12pm (IST). Those who want to get a chance to win exciting prizes, register with jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com, or call  +91 9650196532.

Naveen Kundu, MD, EbixCash Travel & Holidays, has said that while they keep doing something new, they are currently consolidating themselves in India because when we acquired companies in 2018-2019, we were hit by pandemic, which was bad. “We had made huge investments in India and it’s time to relaying our foundation and now everything is growing organically, and we are very focused in what we are doing,” he said.

Vishal Bhatia, Country Manager, VisitBritain- India has shared that they have launched The VisitBritain England Expert e-learn platform, in partnership with TravTalk. “The objective is to educate, familiarise and equip our industry partners with destinations across England, priority focus being on the West Midlands region & London,” he said

 WTTC’s Cities Economic Impact Report (EIR), has revealed that by 2032, the travel & tourism sector will directly generate up to 8% of all jobs in the 82 cities analysed in the Cities Report, up from 6.6% in 2019 and a low of 5.1% in 2020.