Category Archives: Agents

The Goods and Service Tax (GST) Council has considered revision of tax on hotel rooms and decided that while those in the range of Rs 2,000-Rs 7,500 a day tariff would face 18 per cent tax, rooms with daily tariff above Rs 7,500 would be taxed at 28 per cent. This comes as a slight relief for the hospitality and travel industry, especially in comparison with the initial rate of 28 per cent being levied for hotels charging over Rs 5000 per night. However, Arun Jaitley, Union Finance Minister, has said that the GST on restaurant service in 5-star hotels would attract 18 per cent tax.

Cox and Kings (C&K) has launched four Holiday Clubs in New Delhi which will offer customers a variety of experiential holiday options. Travellers can select from various holiday divisions of C&K to enable travel, getaway goddess and trip 360. The purpose behind launching these lounges is to mark its presence in areas where there is heavy footfall of consumers. “We launched four lounges in Connaught Place, Rajouri Garden, South Extention and MGF Metropolitan mall. Delhi is one of our key markets and these concept stores will provide the customers with a unique shopping experience,” said Karan Anand, Head Relations, C&K. He further added that these stores will complement the existing points of sales that C&K has in New Delhi with an aim to be present where the customers would most likely shop. The company is going to market these stores along with their trade promotion strategies.

The Q Experiences, a luxury travel company in India, has launched an exclusive 11 day trip for only 200 people to Antarctica. The expedition, which is a part of their Curated Journeys segment, will start from Ushuaia, capital of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina on December 9, 2017. Travellers would be on board ‘The Great Majestic Explorer’, which is a sleek yacht with 132 staterooms and suites. Speaking about the unique expedition, Vasim Shaikh, Founder, Q Experiences, said, “Curated Journeys are constant endeavour at the Q. With the launch of the White Continent, we aspire luxury travel to unsurpassed heights and focus on rare destinations that Indians are yet to explore.” Also, the ship would have on board Michelin-starred chef Atul Kochhar to curate Indian delicacies for guests on board.

Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) signed an MoU with Travel Agents Federation of India to promote tourism between India and Malaysia. The MoU was signed the roadshow organised recently by the associations along with Tourism Malaysia at the Royal Plaza, New Delhi, which had Malaysian tour operators, product owners, as well as Indian travel agents. The objective of the road show was to create good connection between tour operators from both countries and increase the number of arrivals from India to Malaysia.

Following close on the heels of national travel trade associations, the Maharashtra Tour Organisers Association (MTOA) recently conducted a seminar on the impending GST for its members in Mumbai. It was conducted on June 5, 2017, by noted Service Tax expert Manish Gadia, Partner, GMJ & Co, who conducted similar sessions for TAAI as well as IATO. Sudhir Patil, President, MTOA, says, “We welcome the new GST regime though there is a lot of fear factor attached to it. Complications are expected. But I hope that more seminars will help us make this a smooth transition.” The association also launched its website (www.mtoa.co.in) on the same day.

Cox & Kings Global Services (CKGS) has announced the opening of Algeria Visa Application and Information Centres (AVAIC) at six different locations including Mumbai. The main centre in Mumbai is located at Dalamal Towers at Nariman Point. The other AVAIC s are based in Pune, Ahmedabad, Goa, Indore and Chennai, respectively. The Centres will cater to all categories of Visa such as tourist, business, work, family, cultural and press, accepting applications from states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. With this move, CKGS will become the main service provider for Algeria Visa in West and South India. The Mumbai VAC was inaugurated by His Excellency Hamza Yahia-Cherif, the Ambassador of Algeria to India in presence of the senior CKGS officials. Speaking on the occasion, His Excellency Hamza Yahia-Cherif said, “We are pleased to appoint CKGS as our representative to manage the Algeria Visa Application centre in India. We want to encourage more and more Indians to consider travelling to Algeria and at the same time provide a seamless experience in applying for visas. These centres will ensure that Indian travellers find a faster and reliable way to obtain visa to visit Algeria.” Commenting on the new mandate, Venku Murthi, Chief Operating Officer, CKGS, said, “We are happy to know that the Embassy of Algeria has put their trust in our proven expertise. All 6 centres in India will be committed to ensure excellent visa services to applicants who want to travel to Algeria. We are confident, this partnership will make visa processing quicker and easier for travellers.”

To cope with the characteristic trait of last minute travel bookings that the Indian market has become notorious for, Trafalgar has resorted to offering early bird discounts that its trade partners can extend to their clients. Speaking about this was Nicholas Lim, President – Asia, Trafalgar, who was in Mumbai for the opening of the company’s new office. “We started quite successfully to get Indians to book early two years ago. But the team has had a hard time this year. We have been urging them to book earlier. As a result they are missing out on the opportunities, trips get full and we are unable to squeeze them in. Sometimes Indian travellers decide to book one week before the departure. Other markets like the US, Kiwis, Australians, book six to nine months in advance. Here in Asia, and its not just in India, travellers are late bookers. We are hoping to change that over a period of time.” To counter this, Trafalgar offers small incentives to the trade and the consumer. “We have early payment discounts to encourage Indians to book early. The closer you move to the departure date, the more expensive it gets. So we start with a 10 per cent discount, that goes down to 7.5, and then five per cent. For instance, travellers who book between June 1 – 30, 2017 for any itinerary in our brochure for September 2017 can avail 10 per cent off on any departure. In fact, we made a decision in March 2017 to guarantee every single departure in our brochure all the way to October 2017. An agent doesn’t have to worry about a departure getting cancelled. We give …

Leading travel agency JTB Corporation is set to acquire Kuoni Global Travel Services. This was revealed in an official statement by Kuoni Group Travel Services. The transaction will create opportunities to increase business in the growing markets across the world through extension of local product offerings and expanding the complementary global MICE services. The statement said that the parties have agreed not to disclose further details regarding the purchase price or their contract. The acquisition is subject to approval by the relevant competition authorities and compliance with any other local legal requirements. The parties are contemplating to complete the transaction once all such approvals have been obtained and all local requirements have been complied with. There will be no imminent changes to the current company structure, and the company entities will continue to operate their businesses independently during the transition period. Reto Wilhelm, CEO, Kuoni Global Travel Services, informed, “JTB is one of the biggest and most respected market players in our industry. Joining JTB provides our company with the best positioned owner, which will help realize the full potential of Kuoni Global Travel Services. We will be able to further enhance our service and products for customers, while creating scale and efficiency.” Eijiro Yamakita, President and CEO of the European Regional Headquarters, JTB added, “Kuoni Global Travel Services is one of the world’s leading travel companies with an important presence especially in Asian leisure and corporate groups visiting Europe. The acquisition offers an excellent opportunity to be a unique operator by gathering the network and knowledge. It enables the provision of detailed services to meet each customer’s needs with high added-value and the expansion of the inbound business.”

The board of Cox & Kings Ltd. has approved the demerger of its foreign exchange division into a separate financial services company to be named Cox & Kings Financial Service Ltd. (CKFSL). The demerger is effective April 1, 2017, and is subject to High Court and other regulatory approvals. Whilst the Tours & Travels and Foreign Exchange (‘Forex’) businesses are complementary in nature, the businesses operate quite distinctly from each other. The Forex business has 125 licenses across India to provide foreign exchange to captive customers as well as to third-party customers. Peter Kerkar, Chief Executive Officer, Cox & Kings Group, said, “Strong macro drivers coupled with a strategic brand presence will enable CKFSL to flourish. There are abundant, large-sized avenues for natural product diversification and the timing of this demerger is most opportune.” The working capital needs of the Forex Business are quite different from those of the Tours & Travels business. With a view to enable the Forex business to capitalize on growth opportunities in an independent manner it has been decided to demerge the business into a separate company. The demerged entity has the potential to grow substantially as a standalone business with separate financing and operations and focused leadership and management attention. The opportunities as well as risks and competitive environment within the Forex Business are distinct and the said business is capable of attracting its own set of investors and strategic partners, lenders and other stakeholders. It is proposed that the Forex Business of the Company be demerged and transferred to the Resulting Company, a wholly owned subsidiary company of the Company, so as to maximize value for all the stakeholders of the Company. In …

Expedia Travel Agent Affiliate Program (TAAP), the largest global travel agency affiliation program, has appointed Dex Group as its GSA in India with effect from May 21, 2017. This association will increase the number of travel agents in the TAAP by up to 20%. Dex Group, with a history of 50 years in India’s travel industry including representation of various international airlines in India, will henceforth be responsible to promote and manage sales distribution of Expedia TAAP in India. With Expedia TAAP, travel agents can search and book competitive rates at over 321,000 hotels, 400 airlines, plus thousands of rental car companies, dynamic packages, and attractions worldwide.