The New Zealand Government today announced further relaxations in border restrictions, allowing all fully vaccinated international travelers, including India, to travel to Aotearoa (New Zealand) from August 1, 2022. Fully vaccinated Indian visitors will be able to travel to New Zealand without self-isolation on provision of a negative pre-departure test. Negative Rapid Antigen Tests [RAT] will be required on arrival and on day 5/6. New Zealand had been progressively opening its borders from April, first to Australian visitors and then in May to visitors from visa waver countries. Tourism New Zealand’s Chief Executive, René de Monchy said “We look forward to welcoming manuhiri [visitors], family and friends back from August. New Zealand has plenty to offer international visitors from breathtaking landscapes, rare and remarkable wildlife to our rich culture and heritage; our people and place are what make us unique, and we look forward to sharing this with the world again”.  In 2020, Tourism New Zealand in India rolled out the “Messages from New Zealand” campaign which featured everyday New Zealanders sharing video messages of hope and care with their international whānau (family). Through this initiative New Zealand reached out in a heartfelt and genuine way by sending messages of positivity and optimism to Indian travelers. As part of efforts to prepare for the reopening of borders, Tourism New Zealand has also  been supporting travel partners with new resources such as a dedicated marketing hub, regular training sessions and most recently, the launch of a revamped travel trade website.

The New Zealand tourism industry re-connected with the world, this April on TRENZ Connect 2022 through a series of exciting online events. These events are part of TRENZ Connect, a digital marketplace launched by TIA (Tourism Industry Aotearoa) last September to connect international market-ready New Zealand tourism operators with the international travel trade. This year, almost 300 travel and tourism buyers from around the globe with almost 24 from India connected virtually and discussed latest updates from New Zealand, a great indication of the support from the trade for the New Zealand tourism industry. Organised by Tourism Industry Aotearoa, the three TRENZ Connect Online events were a valuable opportunity for participants to talk business and discover new international market-ready products and learn about new developments in New Zealand’s best accommodation, transport, activities, and attractions. “The beauty of the TRENZ Connect platform is that it’s ‘always on’. It allows the international travel trade to access the details of New Zealand tourism businesses 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, no matter what time zone they are in. Participants can start a conversation by sending a message at any time. So, all is not lost if you can’t make it to these particular events,” says Ann-Marie Johnson, Communications Manager, TIA. “TRENZ is a fabulous opportunity for New Zealand to showcase what it has to offer to international buyers. Indian travel trade are our key partners   in our efforts to promote and sell New Zealand to Indian travellers. Looking ahead at the reopening of borders to India later this year, this innovative platform will continue to help us to showcase our new tourism products and strengthen our relationship with the travel trade …

AVIAREPS India is proud to announce that it has been appointed Sales, Marketing and PR representative for travel experiences platform, KKday Singapore. A mobile-first-e-commerce travel platform local experiences with a strong presence across key Asia-Pacific markets, KKday’s main objective is to make travel more accessible and convenient and safe for everyone. “Since 2014, KKday as pioneered the digitisation of tours, activities and attractions and brought them to everyone’s fingertips. With KKday’s app, travellers can discover and book interesting experiences anytime, anywhere. We are excited to appoint AVIAREPS as our Sales, Marketing and PR representative and we believe they will do their best to elevate our presence in Indonesia and India. We look forward to many collaborative opportunities in the months ahead.” Co-Founder, KKday, Wei Chun Liu said. Speaking about the collaboration Ellona Pereira, Head, AVIAREPS India, said, “We are delighted to be given the opportunity to work with KKday Singapore and we will work closely with KKday Singapore to enhance their presence in the Indian Market. KKday has many enriching travel packages and leisure product offerings and we are confident that they will be well-received in the Indian market.” KKday currently hosts over 30,000 travel and leisure products and services in more than 80 countries and 500 cities. In addition. Many of KKday’s products and APAC centric focusing on countries such as Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. KKday covers an extensive range of producs from attraction tickets to transportation to SIM cards, cruises and staycations. With multilingual website and mobile apps, KKday supports both traditional and simplified Chinese, as well as English, Japanese, Korean and many others. KKday’s success is built on innovation, a unique product portfolio and digital-first capability …

Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO, has said that they have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi again thanking him for the steps he has taken in addressing the Indian community in Copenhagen asking the non-residents to send five foreign nationals each from their country to India. “That’s a very good sign of promoting India and if all the Indians abroad start sending five people or motivating them to go to India, I think tourism will flourish in the coming years. We thank the PM for that, and we have again written to him that whatever hurdles we are facing here with the different ministries and departments, need to be addressed immediately and steps should be taken for the same. I’m quite hopeful things will happen in this regard soon,” he mentioned.

The Tourism Office of Spain – Mumbai, along with Ibiza Tourism, will conduct an exclusive webinar titled ‘Know Ibiza’ for the travel trade today at 3pm IST. Sign up today for the Spain Specialist Program (SSP) and register now to attend the webinar. The webinar will conclude with an exciting quiz on the destination and the winner will leave with a free trip to Ibiza. For more information, write to jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or 9650196532.

Travel technology vendor Sabre said it’s seeing corporate bookings recover steadily. During an earnings call, Sabre CEO Sean Menke said, “We’re encouraged. The underlying piece of this is that corporations are happy to have their employees back on the road. So unless there’s a hiccup relative to more Covid cases, we’re moving towards recovery.”

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the 11th edition of Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) today, opening one of the largest tourism industry congregation in Kochi. The conclave is expected to boost Kerala’s revival of tourism sector through business meets over two days. It will have caravan and adventure tourism among its focal themes, alongside responsible tourism.

The Hotel Association of India (HAI) has submitted a recommendation to the Director General of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Santosh Kumar Sarangi urging the Directorate to review the Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme (EPCG) and provide relief to the struggling industry. The association has highlighted that, at the time of availing the duty benefits under the Scheme, no one could have envisaged the impact of Covid and the resulting dip in the foreign currency earnings.  In light of the changed economic and geo-political scenario, HAI has said that it is imperative to review the EPCG policy and provide relief for the industry to survive and be able to fulfil its obligations under the scheme. Hotels are facing huge challenges of liquidity, revenue losses, negligible foreign exchange earnings, high costs that are mostly fixed in nature and several other operational difficulties. Hotels require more time to fulfil obligations under the scheme. The industry body also requested the government to not issue notices to hotels, propose punitive action against them for non-fulfillment of obligations and not encash hotels’ bank guarantees. HAI pointed out that the hospitality sector is one of the most impacted industries due to the pandemic. Hotels were closed for almost 6-8 months during 2020-21 and re-opened in phased manner. The aftermath of the second and third wave has left a dent on the sector’s road to recovery. It added that the hospitality industry is expected to be back to pre-covid levels only by FY24-25.   RECOMMENDATIONS SUBMITTED BY HAI ·    5 Years Extensions: In addition to the currently available extensions as          per the EPCG guidelines, it is requested to provide additional 4 years extension for all …

Africa’s Travel Indaba officially opened today with a call for the continent to work collaboratively to drive tourism growth, so as to accelerate the sector’s recovery. Held at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre, over 634 and 625 buyers took their place at the travel trade show, as it opened its doors after a three-year hiatus. Minister of Tourism Lindiwe Sisulu opened the trade floor, effectively putting into motion 22,000 scheduled meetings between exhibitors and buyers. “Africa’s Travel Indaba is a springboard for the continent to achieve even greater levels of recovery. We are here because we have a collective responsibility to reignite the African continent’s tourism growth and economy.” Sisulu called for greater collaboration among African countries to advance tourism on the continent, particularly when it comes to domestic and regional travel. “As we do business, we must remember that our continent is also our own market.  All countries in Africa have potential for domestic tourism growth. Intra-continental tourism from Africa’s rapidly growing economies and growing middle class is an opportunity begging to be explored. We need improved collaborative efforts between our countries to achieve this.” Sisulu said all role players in the industry must continue to drive growth in tourism numbers by bringing together a range of Africa’s best and most unique stories and products from across the continent, and connecting them with buyers from across the world. She added that the event is about reigniting the spark in old relationships and building new, meaningful connections. “As a sector, we are here to cement our partnerships and collaborations. It can only be to our benefit that we are a sector committed to sharing ideas and knowledge, in a bid …

  After the launch of a pre-paid solution targeted to international visitors in 2019, Bouygues Telecom has gone a step further and launched MyEuropean eSim, a new digital product. The telephone operator is supported in this endeavour by Atout France, the France Tourism Development Agency, and its worldwide network of 30 offices, that will help showcase the development of its solution. With My European eSim, a pre-paid offer with an e-SIM, Bouygues Telecom ensures that visitors stay connected constantly while on holiday in France and the rest of Europe. Thanks to a dematerialised SIM card, users will no longer need to keep several phone devices to keep in touch with their network of contacts back home while travelling abroad. The eSIM, which can be accessed via a QR code, allows for simple and immediate use of My European eSim.  The offer, which includes a 20GB data package to be used in France and Europe, unlimited calls and SMS, €25 credit for international calls, is designed specifically for visitors travelling in France and Europe who want to stay connected. My European eSim can be purchased online on Bouygues Telecom’s website or through the local travel trade, such as tour-operators, retail agencies and OTA who have joined Bouygues Telecom affiliation programme. India is a resilient market that shares a strong and stable relationship with France. A deal friendly market, the product offering provided by the My European eSim will be a perfect match with not only the needs and requirements of the Indian traveller planning a French holiday but also with MICE, corporate movements or even students pursuing their higher studies in France. In order to improve the travel experience, My European …