Category Archives: Agents

Online travel company Yatra has announced that it has provided notice of termination of its pending merger agreement with Ebix, Inc. and sought substantial damages from the latter over “breaches of representations, warranties and covenants in the merger agreement and an ancillary extension agreement”. Separately, starting April 2020, Yatra had already implemented cost reduction initiatives, resulting in 58% fixed cost savings in May 2020 vs March 2020, and 70% savings as compared to March 2019.

Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA) collaborates with Yatra.com, one of India’s leading online travel agency for Vidhik Sewa App, a COVID-19 helpline, to help anyone who needs assistance and requests for basic services. This app is an initiative of the Delhi State Legal Services Authority to provide, help and aid to individuals in the city. Apart from Legal Services, the app covers crucial services such as food, shelter, clothes, medicines, sanitary napkins, and others. Yatra.com supported this initiative of Delhi State Legal Services Authority in pursuance of its Corporate Social Responsibility to ensure that in these unprecedented times, help reaches to those in need, in all possible ways. Commenting on this initiative Manish Amin, Co-Founder & Chief Information and Technology Officer, Yatra.com, said, “At this crucial time when COVID-19 poses a national challenge, we have collaborated with Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA) to develop Vidhik Sewa App. This app act as a platform to provide individuals in Delhi with crucial services like food, shelter, medicines and more during unprecedented times like these. Backed by our strong technologically innovative solutions, we aim to provide a seamless experience to the users of the app.” Speaking on the association, Kanwaljeet Arora, Member Secretary, Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA), said, “In the prevalent situation, the initiative to launch the app will help ensure that justice is not delayed and access to judicial service is unrestricted. Additionally, we will extend essential services through the app. This association with Yatra.com for the app will help in extending our services to those in need and unable to avail them physically due to restricted movement.” The app is available in Hindi and English on the …

After receiving overwhelming response in the first three editions of its digital conclave, TravTalk is back with its Digital Conclave 4.0, which is scheduled to take place on 9th June where attendees can learn about reducing fear and establishing confidence in the tourism landscape again. The theme of the conclave is based on re-engineering tourism and will feature speakers such as Meenakshi Sharma, DG, Tourism, Government of India, Arjun Sharma, Chairman, Select Group and other during the course of three sessions starting at 10 am. The first session is titled as ‘Building and Enabling Tourism: What will the Restart Look like? The second session is based on ‘Revenge Tourism- When do we Restart’, while the third one is named as ‘PPP based, India Tourism Board? A practical vision for the future’. These sessions include eminent speakers such as EM Najeeb, Kamal Hingorani, Guldeep Singh Sahni, Riaz Munshi, Sunil VA and Arif Patel.

EbixCash Travel & Holidays, earlier known as Mercury Travels has launched a brief survey to gain the views of its business associates, which can help the company design future travel offerings post COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement, the company said, “While the world continues to embark this journey through the Global crisis and discover new ways to combat the situation, we would like to assure you that safety and well-being of our customers remain to be our topmost priority while reinforcing the existing protocols for addressing public health issues”. The survey is open now and can be accessed at www.surveymonkey.com/r/EbixCash    

According to a joint survey report by Thomas Cook India and SOTC Travel, consumers have expressed an interest in a personal touch to their travel booking experience, with 58% opting to purchase holidays through retail outlets or home service (38% retail and 20% home visits). This was followed by 40% opting for online channels (website/App) and 12% stating preference for video chat. Over 2500 consumers across India participated in the survey.

CovidSMART is DDP Group’s latest initiative, a programme designed by WHO-certified professionals and ISO-trained individuals to promote safe travel and help build in tour operators & travel agents the confidence to succeed in this industry, once again. To access the programme, you can log on to www.covidElearn.com. Key learnings would include protecting your business during COVID-19, dealing with emergencies and anxiety related to the pandemic and its impact, and the importance of a PPE kit. SanJeet, Director, DDP Group, says, “All our initiatives during this pandemic have been our way of looking after our tourism industry and this is another such programme. Our aim is that every travel professional should accept this fast-paced change, be prepared and be ready to drive tourism in the future. By introducing CovidSMART, we hope to put India in the driver’s seat. Now, it is up to the travel industry to encash this opportunity. I encourage the industry to convey to their partners as well as the Indian travellers that they will now be dealing with a COVID-19 certified specialist, who understands and will guide them through this jungle.”

Sunil B Satyawakta, Director, Civica Travels Pvt. Ltd, and Former Chapter Chairman (UP & Uttarakhand), TAAI, feels strongly that all IATA agents should re-negotiate the terms with IATA. He explains, “I am expecting that our ticket sales will be down at least 50 per cent in the next financial year. Keeping this in mind, we must ask IATA to bring down our bank guarantee and our targets by a minimum of 50 per cent. Normally the amount of financial security is based on an agency’s 20-day average turnover in last 12 months. Submission deadline for Bank Guarantees is 24 June, 2020 for period 1st July 2020 to 30th June, 2021. As the circumstances are unlikely to change in the coming 12 months, we must voice this concern to them before that.”

The Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH) has proposed a Tourism Aid & Restructuring (TARP) Package to the Tourism Minister to seek specific measures for Indian Tourism from the Prime Minister and from the Finance Minister. In a document released by FAITH, the association shares that TARP is a comprehensive six steps plan, which addresses both supply and demand measures. The association released the six-step guideline after the tourism industry did not find any mention in the stimulus package announced by the Government. The six steps, in brief, are: Tourism Fund, Option of a Drawdown against Income Tax & GST, Tourism Tax & Statutory Holiday for FY 2020-21, RBI Support, Specific stimulus to different segments of Indian tourism, Agenda for National Tourism Task Force

Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/C), Tourism & Culture, Govt. of India, has said that they will be releasing new post-lockdown protocols for accommodation units, so that the clients can feel confident about travelling as well as overall safety. “Our objective is to revive demand as soon as possible. One way we can do this is to help overcome the fear of health while travelling. The ministry will soon be releasing new post-lockdown protocols for accommodation units to give confidence to clients to travel and stay safely. We are also coming out with a set of recommendations for different segments—travel agents, tour operators, transport operators, and facilitators/guides,” he shared in an interview to Hindustan Times.

Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) will be held virtually across the world this year. GPS Virtual will be held at a global stage in July or August, instead of physically going to different Tier II, III cities because of the COVID-19 crisis. Harmandeep Singh Anand, MD, GPS, revealed that the event will be attended by around 10,000 people and that it will be an annual feature apart from the physical event, which will be further fine-tuned. “We have developed the technology to host the virtual event. In fact, we already had the tool in place. There will be around 200 exhibitors, which would come from India and across the world. The prices will be competitive and GPS members would also be benefit,” he shared.