Category Archives: Agents

Rupinder Brar, ADG, Ministry of Tourism, has said that it has emerged from her discussions with industry stakeholders that the most significant enabler in the times to come is the safety factor and that there is need for harmonisation of quarantine rules across states. “People have to feel safe to travel, which means safety protocols need to be in place, but equally important is to create the perception of safety, for which, the Government, associations, industry and citizens should work together. In order to create ease of travel, we also need to create harmonisation around the rules within different states, owing to local conditions,” she said.

KD Singh, Founder & President, TravelBullz, announces a new feather to its cap with the launch of a new destination – Maldives – on the occasion of its tenth anniversary. “It is a momentous day for TravelBullz as we complete ten years of redefining B2B travel business. We started from India and expanded to Thailand, Hong Kong, Macao, Dubai, Bali and Singapore. Today, I’m happy to announce Maldives as another destination that we will offer,” he reveals.

After 20 stellar years in the Indian and global travel trade, Hema Manghnani joins forces with Silicon Valley-founded StreetGooser.com, one of the fastest growing technologies developed to redefine the business of mid-size accommodation worldwide. As VP – Business Development, Hema will head global strategy and revenue of cloud-based StreetGooser, developed by technocrat/CEO John Varghese. StreetGooser is an intuitive, revolutionary technology solution that connects mid-size properties to a diversified audience and redefines their distribution strategy.

A new report by McKinsey & Company states that in addition to table-stakes safety initiatives, brands must differentiate themselves and re-engage their travellers with visible, communications-based cues, such as notifications about health status of destination city and personalised notes on importance of testing and other safety measures.

Airline and travel management company, InterGlobe Air Transport (IGAT) has launched its new website. IGAT provides diverse expertise across passenger and cargo sales, which will be showcased through a modern, well-organized, and easy to navigate website. It has been revamped to address the need of the current business landscape and is in-line with the company’s mission to provide its customers with the resources and tools to understand the experience and gain knowledge about the company’s three decades in the business. Commenting on the launch of the refurbished website, Siddhanta Sharma, President & CEO, InterGlobe Air Transport, said, “The business landscape has tremendously changed over the last few months with the global pandemic. In an era when every business is moving online, we felt there was a need to refurbish our digital presence to address the need of the hour.  We are delighted to launch our new user-friendly brand website, which will make all relevant information on our services easily accessible to our customers across the globe. By investing resources in the focused development of a modern age interface, we have ensured that the website allows prospective customers to find business-relevant information with the utmost ease. We are confident that this new website will not only serve our existing customers but also be instrumental in landing new business for the company.” The website is designed to deliver a smooth experience by enabling efficient navigation between passenger services, cargo services, car rental and other pages. InterGlobe Air Transport has worked with Multia – the design division of Multiversity Group  to completely revamp its website – www.interglobeairtransport.com

With the aim to educate the travel trade about the eight big cats, wildlife conservation and sustainable tourism, a Kolkata-based tour operator Time Travels is conducting a 35-series live webinar starting from August 10. The hour-long webinars with have 35 experts from nine countries speaking on their area of expertise. Supriya Khaitan, CEO, Time Travels  and Co-Founder of FOMONoMore, says, “We created a big team of experts from all walks of wildlife who wished to address the need for conversations, and this led us to establish FOMONoMore.”

TAAI President Jyoti Mayal was given an exclusive opportunity and invited on 13th August 2020 to have a Joint Meeting with Tourism Minister Prahlad Singh Patel and Minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri. Suggestions were taken on: – Creating Demand & Supply for the growth of domestic tourism in India. – Opening of routes as per demand & study in Udaan scheme for destinations in North-East India, Khajuraho, Orchha, Dehradun & more. – Better use of International Airports. – Helicopter charters. – Opening up of skies for Domestic as well as international routes. Discussion on airline refunds was made along with other points including challenges of the trade due to pandemic and changes required to enhance the business of travel and tourism by agents. Both the ministers along with Director General Tourism Meenakshi Sharma and ADG – Rupinder Brar and Dy. Secretary, Civil Aviation Usha Padhee were present in the meeting, who assured full support and encouragement to the trade.

Recent statistics from ForwardKeys have claimed that Delhi-Mumbai and Mumbai-Delhi have been the top 2 most searched domestic routes in India in July 2020. However, In July 2019, Delhi-Goa and Goa-Delhi were the top 2 most searched routes.

The #TogetherThailand digital campaign by TAT India has entered into the second week where ‘Food experiences in Thailand’ will be the key theme. The contest for Pan India travel agents and OTAs will focus on local food, street food, cooking class, food tours (tuk-tuk and bus tour), and Indian food in Thailand.

Subhash Goyal, Hony. General Secretary, FAITH has suggested that India Tourism Mart (ITM) will be held by the end of November 2020. “This will help in promoting India to the tour operators all over the world.  Last two years, we had 250 buyers, this year in the virtual mart we hope to interact with more than 500 leading travel agents and tour operators from all over the world,” he said. Goyal also thanked the  Tourism Minister for agreeing to organise a joint meeting of the Indian travel agents and tour operators with the Minister of Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri to sort out the pending issues of the tourism industry with Civil Aviation. FAITH also suggested for better coordination an Inter-Ministerial Task Force be formed chaired by the Tourism Minister consisting of mainly with Tourism, Civil Aviation, Commerce, Home, External Affairs & Railways along with the members of the tourism industry. An Inter-State Task Force should also be formed which should include all State Tourism Secretaries.