IHG Hotels & Resorts has signed a management agreement with Dinesh Kumar Choudhary (HUF) for a new hotel – Holiday Inn Express & Suites Jaipur Karoli Bagh located at Gopalpura Byepass, in the capital of Rajasthan. The brownfield hotel featuring 141 rooms is expected to be operational by the first quarter of 2023. Sudeep Jain, Managing Director, South West Asia, IHG Hotels & Resorts, said, “We are thrilled to announce the signing of a new Holiday Inn Express & Suites hotel in Jaipur and solidify our presence in the state of Rajasthan. With a rich culture, history and cuisine, Jaipur is one of the most popular tourist destinations of India. With diverse guest profiles visiting the city, there is an increasing need for mainstream accommodation, and we are confident that Holiday Inn Express & Suites Jaipur Karoli Bagh will be a great choice for travellers looking for a simple and engaging hotel stay experience.

Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Minister, Civil Aviation, met Manohar Lal Khattar, CM, Haryana, recently and discussed many aviation related issues. After the meeting Scindia revealed that a heli-hub would be developed in Gurugram. Khattar further announced that the Haryana government has decided to reduce value added tax (VAT) rate on sale of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) to 1% from 20%.

Ronojoy Dutta, CEO & Whole Time Director, IndiGo, has said that he is very bullish on international opportunities. “The reason I’m bullish is we have a fantastic geography and our four-corner strategy. We can fly seven hours from Delhi, seven hours from Mumbai, seven hours from Kolkata seven hours from Chennai and that gives us a circle, which goes to something like Moscow, Barcelona, Nairobi, Manila, Beijing, Shanghai. It’s a very wide circle and it’s a high growth circle as well. Most of the traffic right now is carried one stop. Hence, one thing that COVID has taught us is the amount of demand we got from places we hadn’t considered on our radar to the CIS countries to Milan to Manila.”

In a meeting with industry associations on overseas promotions, Ministry of Tourism has proposed in that they wanted to declare 2022-23 as Visit India year, starting from August 15, 2022. “However, we suggested that it should start from January 1, 2022. If they want Visit India Year to be successful and meaningful, they should provide some incentives to the tour operators or tourists who want to visit India. Otherwise, it’d remain just a slogan,” he suggested.

Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) and Event and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA) have jointly planned to organise a nationwide campaign to sensitize industry stakeholders including the Police as well as general public about hotels or wedding venues not requiring to obtain license for playing any sound recording for marriage and related social or religious functions held at the venues.

Air India’s divestment process is finally successful with TATA Sons’ SPV – Talace Pvt Ltd, winning the bid of the national carrier for Rs 18000 crore. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs  (CCEA) – empowered Air India Specific Alternative Mechanism (AISAM) comprising of Amit Shah Union Minister for Home Affairs and Cooperation; Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs; Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry and Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Civil Aviation Minister, approved the highest price bid of M/s Talace Pvt Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of M/s Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd for sale of 100% equity shareholding of Government of India in Air India along with equity shareholding of Air India in AIXL and AISATS. The winning bid is for Rs 18,000 crore as Enterprise Value (EV) consideration for AI (100% shares of AI along with AI’s shareholding in AIXL and AISATS).  The transaction does not include non-core assets including land and building, valued at Rs 14,718 crore, which are to be transferred to GoI’s Air India Asset Holding Limited (AIAHL). The process for disinvestment of Air India and its subsidiaries commenced in June 2017 with the ‘in-principle’ approval of CCEA. The first round did not elicit any Expression of Interest. The process re-commenced on 27 January 2020 with issue of Preliminary Information Memorandum (PIM) and request for Expressions of Interest (EOI). The original construct as per the January 2020 PIM envisaged (i) pre-determined, fixed amount of debt to be retained in AI (with balance to be transferred to Air India Asset Holding Limited (AIAHL) and (ii) the sum of certain identified current and non-current liabilities (other than debt) to be retained in AI and …

Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels has announced the signing of Zone Connect Darjeeling in West Bengal. Zone Connect brand falls under Zone by The Park portfolio. Currently, the hotel is undergoing phased upgradation and is being primed to open its doors to welcome guests in the coming winter season. The 65-rooms hotel is a perfect fusion of tastefully crafted contemporary décor with wooden flooring, state-of-the-art infrastructure, and modern amenities. Vikas Ahluwalia –General Manager and National Head – Zone by The Park Hotels, said “This strengthens our position in the East along with Zone by The Park, Kolkata and our upcoming hotel Zone by The Park Dimapur, which is expected to open by the end of this financial year.”

Around 13 companies are sitting with approvals from (SEBI) for their Initial Public Offering (IPOs), which could result in over Rs 13,000 worth of public issues into the primary market. These companies include Go Air, Pradeep Phosphates, and Fincare Small Finance Bank, which could soon come with the public issues, revealed Axis Capital. Within this financial year, around 24 companies have successfully made their stock exchange debuts.

World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) research has shown that if the right measures are followed by governments across the world, travel and tourism jobs could surpass 2019 levels – up 20.1% year on year, to more than 349 million. Julia Simpson, WTTC President & CEO said, “Last year, 62 million travel & tourism jobs were lost globally, and our data shows a rise of a meagre 0.7% this year. If governments can start looking internationally and support travel & tourism with simplified rules to enable the safe return of travel, there is the opportunity to save jobs and boost economic wealth.”

All flights from Pune Airport will not operate for 14 days from 16 October 2021 to 29th October 2021, owing to runway resurfacing works, revealed Airport Authority of India- Pune on its Twitter handle as per the information received from Indian Air Force (IAF).