Sanjay Kumar, Chief Strategy & Revenue Officer, IndiGo, has said that all the states shall offer similar rules and regulations for travellers coming in or going out to improve demand. Speaking at the PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry webinar, he said, “The level of confidence is coming back to the public with increased operations. We are seeing slower growth because of the inconsistency of the state governments at various levels, including different rules and regulations in different markets, which is keeping customers away. If all state governments offer similar rules and regulations for travellers coming in or going out, I think we will see an improved situation going forward. It will take another 2-3 weeks before we start to see all the state governments getting aligned to a common working protocol, which will push the demand.”

Union Minister of State for Culture and Tourism (I/C), Prahlad Singh Patel, in a recent virtual conversation said that there will be no need to wait longer for permission to shoot films in any of the monuments of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Patel said that filmmakers will get permission of shooting within 3 weeks after applying online on the ASI website. He further said that this announcement will not only promote the shooting of films in India, but will also increase the popularity of Indian monuments.

Owing to the accumulation of dues over a long period of time, Airports Authority of India has now placed Air India on a Cash & Carry mode at four airports – Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Chennai and Kolkata. The airline will now be required to make payment for parking or landing purposes on a daily or per-flight basis at these select airports.

The Gujarat government has decided to map Statue of Unity Tent City 1 as a wedding venue. Bookings for weddings are now open available Rs 2.5 lakh per package of 50 people. According to reports, the wedding venue has two Presidential Cottages and 60 tents. The single-night offer includes all vegetarian meals, from lunch to breakfast the next morning, welcome drinks, mocktails and starters at the wedding ceremony. There will also be 17 rooms with triple occupancy, and a Royal Cottage for the newlyweds. Apart from providing a seating arrangement for 50 people, a wedding cake and jaimala will be among other things that will be included in the wedding package. Authorities have stated that the picturesque location, with an open-to-sky setting and the Narmada Dam in its backdrop, makes for an amazing location for a destination wedding.

As per an ICRA study, though restricted recommencement of domestic air traffic has begun, this will in no case help the industry to recover lost ground in FY2021. Overall, FY2021 is expected to witness 41-46% de-growth in domestic passenger traffic. However, H2 FY2021 will witness some recovery.

The temple town of Ayodhya has been gearing up for religious and spiritual tourism. It is conducting tourism courses for guides in association with RML Avadh University, Faizabad. These courses will be conducted and managed by the university. The training went on for three days in the last week of June 2020. In the first batch, 150 candidates have been selected for further grooming as guides for religious and spiritual tourism in Ayodhya. These are in line with the anticipated boom in tourism in this sector as more and more tourists are expected from around the world for darshan of Sri Ram Leela. This move is all the more important as the Ram temple is coming up in full swing.

Palladium Hotel Group has begun its summer season with the opening of seven properties: Grand Palladium Palace Ibiza Resort & Spa and Grand Palladium White Island Resort & Spa (July 3), Hard Rock Hotel Ibiza (July 10), Hard Rock Hotel Tenerife (July 30), Bless Hotel Ibiza (July 10), Agroturismo Sa Talaia (July 8) and Palladium Hotel Costa del Sol (July 16).

Etihad Airways and TravTalk are all geared up to host an ‘Agent Connect’ webinar, a live journey of flying through COVID, on Thursday, 9th July, 11 am onwards. Agents will get the chance to learn about Etihad Airways and UAE’s capital city – Abu Dhabi. To register, please email to jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or call +91 9650196532.

Jyoti Mayal, President, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) and Vice Chairperson, FAITH, met Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, on July 2 and discussed the concerns and challenges faced by the members. Some of the major issues discussed in the meeting were airline refunds; challenges faced to retain employees, their salaries and avoid unemployment in the sector; moratoriums and reliefs to trade due to COVID-19 lockdown and loss of business; allowing accredited travel agents to book Vande Bharat flights for Air India and also informing foreign carriers undertaking such flights to permit the same; revival challenges and long-term facilitation for the trade with airlines; protection of the agents from airline defaults and suspension of services; direction from government to airlines on remuneration for promoting the airlines; direction seeking travel agent corporate credit cards to be used for airline ticketing; reduction of credit card merchant fee by banks to below 0.75% so as to promote Digital India for aviation, travel, tourism and hospitality sectors as a whole. Seeking support from the government, Mayal requested Kant to ensure the same and assist in guiding the trade, enable creation of demand for growth, and opportunities for all travel and tourism-related activities.

VFS Global is re-opening Visa Application Centres in some cities for specific visa categories. Countries for which visa services will resume are United Kingdom (from July 6), Italy (July 3), UAE, Turkey, Ireland, Belarus, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Norway, Portugal and South Korea. Applicants will have to schedule an appointment in advance on www.vfsglobal.com. After specific Embassies/Consulates as well as local authorities have given their approval, VFS Global’s centres will accept visa applications for select countries with strict health and hygiene SOPs in place.