Category Archives: Agents

South Africa-based SA Forest Adventures has appointed The Strategy Store as their representative in India with effect from September 2016. Talking about the appointment, Clinton Lerm, Owner, SA Forest Adventures, says, “The Strategy Store will focus on our promotional and marketing activities as well as sales for India. Looking at the growing number of visitors from India to South Africa year on year, we believe that this market has a vast potential. This initiative will help us position ourselves, in our key growth market, India.” Sherry Varma, Founder, The Strategy Store said, “I have very emotional connect to South Arica, having worked as a Marketing & Communications manager with South African Tourism in Mumbai for five years. We are extremely happy to be assigned the task of handling marketing, sales and public relations activities for SA Forest Adventures in India. SA Forest Adventure’s competitive packages and quality of services will help us to develop and multiply their market share in India.” SA Forest Adventures offers a massive range of adventure activities for travellers in and around Cape Town. With offices in Cape Town, Piekenierskloof, Kleinmond, Hermanus and Caledon, there is always assistance on hand to book and enjoy activities, including white-water rafting, zip lining, quad biking, river tubing and sand boarding. Add in the country’s spectacular natural beauty, this product is an outstanding offering for Indian adventure travellers.

Udaan India has launched Udaan Destination Marketing Conglomerate (Udaan DMC). The company, which has been a frontrunner in visa facilitation, has ventured into the new realm two years after marketing Croatia. Sumit Banerji has been appointed as the Chief Commercial Officer for Udaan DMC. Rajan Dua, MD, Udaan DMC said that with the new venture they can offer more products to their existing clients and ensure good business in the market. He also informed that they will be opening a new office in Noida for Udaan India, and all their offices across the country will also have a team for Udaan DMC.

Anna Davidyan, Founder, Travel Armenia, a luxury DMC for Armenia, Georgia & Azerbaijan, has appointed Vineet Gopal, Director, Representation World, as its representative for India. Gopal says, “We have been appointed as the India representative for Armenia. It will open new opportunities for Indian travellers travelling to Armenia. Armenia is a scenic country offering great nightlife and experiences. It is very well connected to India through Dubai, just 3 hours away from there. Visa is also not a problem. It will attract good MICE business from India. It is already getting a lot of MICE groups.”

TUI – Meetings & Incentives has announced that it is being rebranded as Pacific World India. Explaining this brand migration, Naveen Rizvi, Executive Director, Pacific World India, says, “Pacific World is the MICE setup of the TUI Group globally at present with presence in over 34 countries. The move comes as a strategic initiative to combine MICE Expertise of our global team with local knowledge to handle Meetings and Incentives within India and overseas. It will however be business as usual for our associates; only the brand name changes, nothing else. The parent company Le Passage to India Tours and Travels Pvt. Ltd and the management remain unchanged, as does the team handling the Meetings & Incentives. Our partners will now receive requests from us with the new brand name. The brand name change will have to be communicated to the concerned people in their organization.”

Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) will release a detailed FAQ on service tax for the travel industry that is available on the GPS mobile application free of cost. Keeping up the initiative of being an e-event or green event, GPS has made the service tax ready-reckoner available to the travel trade through the GPS event app. It will further continue to add a lot more information relevant to the travel and hospitality trade  through this application. GPS is organised by Nagpur-based Jagsons Travels. Harmandeep Singh Anand, Founder, GPS said, “We want each and every travel agent to understand and know about service tax, how it has to be applied and implemented in the day to day travel business. To educate the travel trade we had conducted workshops on service tax  at all the five shows of GPS 2016. The handbook will be online by September 10, 2016. Agents can download the GPS app available on Android and iOS platforms. Users can also send us their queries related to service tax on tax@gps-india.com, which will be addressed. The presentation that we had made on service tax to all the attendees at GPS is also uploaded on the application.”

Registering over 1 million flight and bus ticket bookings on its travel marketplace in August, Paytm will further invest Rs 300 crore on its travel business as it plans to launch new categories and ancillaries owing to its exponential growth. The flight bookings have been driving a 4X month-on-month growth and the company expects twice the growth over the next six months. Paytm’s bus tickets segment recently turned break-even while the hotels section is expected to break-even soon. Abhishek Rajan, Vice President, Paytm, said, “We have seen exponential growth in all categories and will soon offer new services to our customers. Leveraging Paytm’s significant market penetration and strong brand proposition, we hope to grow India’s online travel booking pie by introducing new customers from tier II, III towns and cities to this category.”

Australia-headquartered Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) has expanded its portfolio in India with the launch of FCM Incoming focusing exclusively on inbound travel. FCM Incoming will focus on leisure travel experiences in and around the Indian subcontinent, including Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan. Prashant Narayan has been appointed as Country Head, FCM Incoming. He will be responsible for brand expansion with a specific focus on building inbound holiday solutions for individual and group requirements of leisure travellers. FCM Travel Solutions and Flight Shop MD India Rakshit Desai said, “FCM Incoming has been launched to delve into the potential of the Indian subcontinent as an inbound market, and showcase the regions rich offerings to a global audience.” Narayan joins FCM Incoming with an experience of over 22 years within the service industry. Prior to this, he was associated with Thomas Cook as COO-inbound business and was also a member-executive committee of Thomas Cook (I) Ltd.

Caper Travel Company is all set to launch a new transport company. According to Bharat Bhushan Atree, Managing Director, Caper Travel Company announced about the new venture at the cocktail evening they hosted for their partners in the travel trade. He revealed that initially they will start off with 100 luxury cars, which will have GPS and state-of-the-art software for tracking movements, to ensure the safety of their clients.

Thomas Cook India Limited’s education and training vertical, Centre of Learning, felicitated 270 students of the 2015-2016 batch at its fifth Convocation Ceremony held at the Indian Merchants Chamber, Mumbai. The ceremony was graced by the Chief Guest Craig Astridge, Regional Head, Marketing and Commercial Services, Asia-Pacific International Air Transport Association. Other guests at the event included Lokesh Matta – Regional Training Business Development Manager, South Asia at International Air Transport Association (IATA) along with Soraya Homchuen – Director, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Abraham Alapatt, President & Group Head – Marketing, Service Quality, Financial Services & Innovation, Thomas Cook (India), and Smeeta Gulvady,‎ Vice President & Head- Centre of Learning at Thomas Cook (India). The Centre of Learning Convocation Ceremony honoured its students who had successfully completed the Travel Professional Program, a Post Graduate Course in Travel & Tourism Management, Certificate Course in World Tour Management, IATA. Scholarship certificates and special prizes were awarded to top performers of Centre of Learning’s Travel Professional Program – a Post Graduate course in Travel & Tourism Management.

Threeland Travel, an inbound operator for Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar represented by Global Destinations in India organised an eight day familiarisation trip for key travel trade agents in Vietnam in August 2016. The visit showcased cultural, leisure and historical offerings of Vietnam such as the Temple of Literature, boat ride to the three caves of Tam Coc, trip to My Son – to discover the hidden treasure of the Cham culture, discovering Cu Chi tunnels, a network of over 200km of tunnels and more. Pruthvi Khetani, General Manager – Mumbai, Global Destinations says, “The Indian travel trade fraternity plays a great role in highlighting not just the usual offerings of the country but also educating potential travellers on various activities they can experience in Vietnam. It is culturally rich destination that offers a wide range of leisure experiences to travellers. More importantly, it is easily accessible from India, which makes it preferred for visitors of different age groups. The teams of Threeland Travel and Global Destinations worked tirelessly to make this visit a grand success.” The journey extensively covered activities from the South to North of Vietnam including a trip to two remaining sanctuaries in Hoa Lu, witnessing show of water puppetry, cruising through the rock formations of Halong Bay, visiting the glamour town of Hoian, boat cruising in the canals of Ben Tre, exploring Ho Chi Minh City and dinner on Indochina Junk Cruise.