Category Archives: Agents

EM Najeeb, Chairperson, Confederation of Kerala Tourism Industry and Sr VP, IATO has said that frontline tourism workers in travel and tourism should be given priority for COVID-19 vaccination. “For a state like Kerala, a healthy, robust tourism industry is critical to the overall recovery of the economy as it contributes over 10 per cent of the GDP,” he said.

Sharing his expectations from the Union Budget, Madhavan Menon, Chairman & Managing Director, Thomas Cook (India), says, “I look forward to Government support on soft loans to finance working capital, incentivisng tourism spends by providing income tax concessions, payment of overdue SEIS benefits, easing of indirect taxes and waiving off TCS to help aid recovery.”

Russian authorities have said that flights between Moscow and the capitals of India and three other countries including Qatar, Finland and Vietnam that were suspended since the early weeks of the pandemic, will restart from January 27, 2021, after certain epidemiological criteria were met. These routes will have several flights per week.

Blade India has resumed its by-the-seat service to Shirdi from Mumbai. Mumbai-Shirdi takes 6-7 hours on the road but with Blade, pilgrims can fly to Shirdi in an hour, and be back on the same day. It also offers customers in need of special assistance or a VIP darshan service. It flies from Mahalaxmi vertiport every Monday and from Juhu vertiport on Thursday and Saturday at 11am.

IATO in association with TravTalk University will organise a webinar on Human Resource (HR) strategies in the post-COVID world, today at 11:30 am (IST), where renowned labour law expert, Dr Aditi Kaushal will speak on HR policies, draft of the new appointment letter and help understand new labour laws. Register now at https://event.webinarjam.com/register/210/0vz1oik4

TOFTigers, the Travel Operators for Tigers India Wildlife Association, will conduct a 10-part series of virtual destination knowledge and sustainability sessions, starting from January 13, 2021 at 2pm to educate the trade about nature destinations and sustainable travel. Ritu Makhija, Sustainability Manager says, “The idea is to share knowledge and expertise to the entire travel community.”

Around 80 travel agents from Mumbai got together for a casual sun downer at the open-air restaurant Canto in Lower Parel while observing all safety protocols. The event held on Sunday January 10, 2021 evening was co-hosted by Guideline Travels, Dream Cruises and One Above. With beach wear as the dress code, the party gave the fraternity a chance to let their hair down, play some fun games and indulge in team-building activities.

With emerging cases of new COVID-19 strain, the British government will introduce pre-departure COVID testing requirements for all inbound passengers to England effective 4 am, 15th January.

Ankush Nijhawan, Co-founder, TBO Group and Managing Director, Nijhawan Group, has been appointed as the Chairperson of the FICCI Outbound Tourism Sub Committee. In his role, his contribution and perspective will help in outlining the road map for a robust regulatory policy for the promotion of the travel & tourism sector. Nijhawan said, “I am honoured to be appointed as the Chairperson of this sub-committee. With the support of our stakeholders, I am confident that FICCI will be able to achieve greater heights in the tourism industry.” Jyotsna Suri, congratulated, saying, “We intend to work on a more focused way for each and every sub sectors of Travel, Tourism & Hospitality which will be very crucial for the revival.”

IRDAI has proposed a standard travel insurance policy with common coverage and policy wordings. Its draft guidelines issued on December 28 stated, ‘The standard product shall have the basic mandatory covers as specified in draft guidelines which shall be uniform across the market. The product may be both an individual product and a group product.’