ddppl.com TravTalkIndiatravtalkindia.com/pdf/2015/04-apr-2015-1.pdf · 2015. 4. 4. · Dr Sharma said that a museum is being set up by the Ministry of Culture at Lalitgiri. The state

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APRILST FORTNIGHT ISSUE 2015 TRAVTALK 3

The Union Minister ofState for Tourism(Independent Charge),

Civil Aviation and Culture(Independent Charge), Dr Mahesh Sharma met theUnion Home Minister, RajnathSingh in Delhi on March 25 to discuss issues related to the Tourist Visa-on-Arrival (TVoA) scheme.

Singh also approved a Committee under theChairmanship of Additional

Secretary (Foreigners) withthree Joint Secretaries fromthe Ministry of Home Affairs,Ministry of Tourism andMinistry of Civil Aviation asmembers. This Committeewill meet periodically andresolve issues concerningvisa facilitation and tourismpromotion. On the issue ofdistribution of welcome cardsprinted by the Ministry ofTourism at Indian airports totourists arriving in India,Singh assured that instruc-tions will be sent to theBureau of Immigration for tak-

ing urgent necessary actionin this regard.

Regarding the issue ofbiometric collection at airports,it was suggested that during thenext one year 150 countries willbe covered under the TVoAscheme, which includes bio-metric collection on arrival. Theissue raised by the Ministry ofTourism will be resolved as faras foreign tourists are con-cerned. As far as increase innumber of countries and num-ber of airports are concerned,the Home Minister assured the

Tourism Minister that thesesuggestions will definitely beconsidered in taking the deci-sion very shortly.

Singh also promised thatsuggestions regarding doubleentry for TVoA applicants andincreasing the period from onemonth to two months will alsobe examined keeping in viewthe security considerations. DrSharma suggested that theBureau of Immigration officialsshould be given training as theyare the first point of contactswith the tourists. Singh asked

the Tourism Minister to submita proposal to the MHA in thisregard so that the same can beconsidered expeditiously.

MoT & Home Ministry discuss eVisaUnion Home Minister Rajnath Singh and the Tourism Minister met to discuss biometric collection at airports,increase in the number of countries and number of airports for Tourists Visa-on-Arrival, double entry for eVisaapplicants and increasing the visa-on-arrival period from one month to two months.

New Tourism Policy eyes job creationThe new Tourism Policy will be launched on May 15, 2015. speaks to Dr Lalit Panwar,Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, about the focus points of the policy.

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Dr Mahesh Sharma Minister of State for Tourism (Independent Charge)

QNational Tourism Policytalks about job creation

and tourists’ safety, how areyou working towards this?

The Prime Minister has been lay-ing special emphasis on skills and alsoon tourism. Our policy will try to attempt

a synergy between skills and tourism.The thrust will be on how to create jobs for our youth. Any policy for exam-ple, Make In India, is basically designed for manufacturing which leadsto creation of jobs, so our ministry’sthrust will be on creation of as manyjobs as possible for the youths of ourcountry. The Himmat app of the Delhi

police already exists, so when I stresson App it means apps like the HimmatApp, which can be fine-tuned to suit therequirements of the tourist and takecare of their safety and security.

QWhat are the other focuspoints of the Policy?

India is a cultural tourist destinationso another focus area will be on how topreserve the past for our future. If thepast is not good the future will not begood. We have a common minister sothere will be a synergy between thesetwo units. Without culture there is no tourism as well.

PE D E N DO M A BH U T I A

Lalit PanwarSecretary, MoTContd. on page 7

Matters DiscussedThe Home Minister approved

setting up a Committee under theChairmanship of AdditionalSecretary (Foreigners) with 3 Joint Secretaries from MHA, MoT and MoCA asmembers, to resolve issuesconcerning visa facilitation andtourism promotion



BULLETIN

The Union Ministry ofTourism has sanctioned an

amount of ` 50 crore for theNabakalebar Rath Yatra inPuri, Odisha. The UnionMinister of State for Tourism(Independent Charge), Culture(Independent Charge) andCivil Aviation, Dr MaheshSharma said the funds havebeen sanctioned under thenewly launched scheme‘PRASAD’ of the Ministry ofTourism. Dr Sharma said thata museum is being set up bythe Ministry of Culture atLalitgiri. The state will be ben-efitted by the two circuits i.e.Buddhist Circuit and CoastalCircuit under the new schemeof Swadesh Darshan, headded. Puri will also be devel-oped under the HRIDAYscheme of Ministry of UrbanDevelopment, the Ministerexplained. Dr Sharma said thatOrissa will be projected on theinternational map through its

campaigns. The brochure onPRASAD scheme was alsoreleased by the Minister.

Developing Coastal circuitThe union government

will focus more on promoting

the coastal tourism circuit.“India has a long coastline of7,500 km which possessesrich culture and heritage. If this

can be harnessed along withbeach tourism, culture and pil-grim tourism, all states partic-ularly coastal states likeOdisha will be benefited,” DrSharma said. According to theminister, India’s new initiative

to deepen ties with IndianOcean Rim (IOR) countries willdefinitely help to promote intra-regional trade and tourism

among countries of the group-ing. Noting that India has agreat potential of promoting pil-grim and culture tourism underPRASAD scheme, he said theNDA government is givingmore stress on developing,deepening and strengtheningrelations with the IOR coun-tries which have civilisationallinks with India. “

Union Tourism Ministry is trying to fulfill all requirements to facilitate the Puri Rath Yatra2015 including sanctioning ̀ 50 crore for development of tourist infrastructure in Puri.

MoT sanctions ` 50 cr for Puri Yatra

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Sacred RouteHoly city of Puri is

included in the new‘PRASAD’ scheme inwhich 12 religious andholy cities have beenincluded for development

In the scheme oftheme based tourist cir-cuits ‘Swadesh Darshan’,the coastal circuit willbenefit the coast of Orissa

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STATISTICS

VIEWPOINT

The travel industry stakeholders in ourcountry have been busy all this while.

The month of March started with ITB Berlin,which has always been a great barometerof the global tourism business sentiment.Even this time there was a surge in theoptimism spirit at the event and business isgetting better. The recent TAAI conventionalso provided a platform for discussion anddeliberation on the roadblocks ahead. Boththese events opened up the gates fornetworking, relationship building, businessand creating new markets for India. Thesedevelopments clearly indicate moreopportunities for the travel fraternity andbusiness diversification. The moral of thestory is that constant innovation is the needof the hour for the industry. Hopefully, thecoming times will be more fruitful in termsof business opportunities.

Also, we have more good news for ourinbound industry. Fuelled by visa reformsthe Indian tourism industry will grow by 7.5per cent in 2015 according to World Travel& Tourism Council (WTTC). In 2014, theindustry contributed Rs 7,64,200 crore and36.7 million jobs to the Indian economy.Research released by WTTC forecasts thatthe industry's GDP contribution will grow by7.5 per cent and employment by 1.8 percent this year. This also demonstrates thesector’s enduring ability to generateeconomic growth and create jobs at a fasterrate than the national economy. Thus, Indiawill be in the spotlight again.

However, India also needs to recogniseits domestic tourism strength and promoteand develop its domestic destinationsaggressively. It is time that we go beyonddepending on just the `Incredible India’campaign. The domestic traveller now is looking for new attractions and it is time we showcase India to Indians in adifferent manner. The Indian states shouldstart new campaigns to attract this set of travellers. Exploring India in the most cost effective manner should be the next step forward.

Ringing in thegood times

TRAVTALK is a publication of DDP Publications Private Limited. Allinformation in TRAVTALK is derived from sources, which we consider reliable and a sincere effort is made to report accurate information. It is passed on to our readers without any responsibility on our part. The publisher regret that he cannot accept liability for errors and omissions contained in this pub-lication, however caused. Similarly, opinions/views expressedby third parties in abstract and/or in interviews are not neces-sarily shared by TRAVTALK. However, we wish to advice our readersthat one or more recognised authorities may hold different viewsthan those reported. Material used in this publication is intendedfor information purpose only. Readers are advised to seek specific

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TT BU R E AU

Indians made over 18 million outbound trips in 2014, anincrease on the 16 million trips made in 2013. Barely two per centof India’s population currently travel overseas but over the pastfive years the country’s middle classes have increased by over 10per cent. This demographic is set to grow from 32 per cent at pres-ent to 50 per cent by 2030, making it a major source market withtourism boards vying to tap into this potential tourist goldmine

India is expected to increase its business travel and tourismfollowing the election of Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) pro-business government in May 2014. However, outboundtourism will be challenged by the domestic tourism industry, whichis expected to experience a surge in business confidence, shownby its average of nine per cent annually over the historic period

Indian travelers characteristically have been avid business trav-elers with 40 per cent of all departures accounted for by businesstrips. While most of this MICE tourism has been consistently to theAsia-Pacific region, TTIC expects that changing trends in India’s

economy will spur a rise in leisure and VFR travel to the MiddleEast and Europe over the forecast period

Key destinations include Thailand and UAE, as well as increasing visitors to the US. Although outbound tourism is growing, domestic investment could threaten the dominance of international trips

Indian outbound trip lengthcontinues stable growth

The average length of outbound trips (number ofnights) stood at eight nights in 2013, with little change since 2012. However, TTIC expects Indian travelers to increase the length of their outbound trips over the forecast period in line withthe potential economic growth cur-rently taking place. Consequently,length of overnight stays is forecastto increase to nine nights by 2019.

Domestic travel is threatening to overtakeoutbound trips

India is currently experiencing a domestic tourismboom. The number of domestic trips reached over1.3 billion in 2014, representing a 14.1 per centincrease on 2013 figures. This accounts for morethan three-quarters of India’s entire tourism market,more than double the growth rate of outbound depar-tures during 2014. Part of the rise of domestic tourismcan be attributed to growth of lower middle classincomes – the type of domestic consumer who can-not afford the flight prices to journey abroad, but whowant to turn a religious pilgrimage into a family hol-iday. Since 2010, many Indians who once had inten-tions of traveling abroad had their plans curtailedbecause of the sharp fall in the rupee, which lostmuch of its value against the dollar, causing plannedforeign holiday travel to become too expensive formany of the aspiring middle classes. Interestingly,this has increased domestic tourism throughout thecountry with international hotel groups reflecting thisemerging market as Starwood French Group, Accorand the Hilton Group all look set to benefit.

India’s economic rise will introduce a new generation of middle class tourists to overseas travel

Key Statistics of 2014

Total Population 1.23 billion

GDP per capita US$1,564.7

GDP growth 5.4%

Total outbound trips 18 million

Total outbound expenditure US$13 billion

SNAPSHOT

LENGTH OF TRIP

The average length of outbound Indian traveller is expected to increasesignificantly. brings you excerpts of the report titled ‘Insights on theIndia Tourism Market’ by Canadean Travel & Tourism Intelligence Center...

18mn Indians travel abroad in 2014

Source: Canadean Travel & Tourism Intelligence Center


A P R I L 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 TRAVTALK 7COVER STORY

MoT for source markets in eVisa listQHow are you working

towards formulatingthe National TourismPolicy, 2015?

We had a detailed one-dayworkshop where all the top brainsof the Indian tourism industry werethere, we had national-level consul-tations on tourism. On April 8 wehave called all state secretaries oftourism and we’ll also be meetingthe tourism veterans of our countryfor their suggestions. So, we’ll have 6-7 rounds of consultationbefore we begin work on it.

QWith the FinanceMinister calling for e-

visas for 150 countries, howis the MoT working on it?

We already have 44 countriesunder this scheme and in the lastthree months 90,000 visas havebeen issued. The response hasbeen tremendous and now we’ll beimplementing it in two phases, wehave already prepared a list ofcountries from where we arealready getting tourists and sent itto the government. We exactly wentby the percentage of our sourcemarkets, starting from the countrywhere we get the maximum tourists

and then on. We’ll be sending outthe list in two phases, the first listhas countries which are our topsource markets the remaining 50are countries which are our poten-tial markets. The countries for thefirst phase will be declared in thenext 2-3 months, probably by endJune so that we get good bookingsfor the next season.

QWith work starting on the Indian Culinary

Institute what can we lookforward to?

The foundation stone of theIndian Culinary Institute has been laid

by the Tourism Minister and within twoyears the construction will be completeit is being constructed by NationalBuilding Construction Corporation

(NBCC), we’ll offer degree pro-grammes, post graduate degree, doc-torate programmes, anything relatedto the culinary science and art.

Contd. from page 3

MoT workshop on NTP 2015

Tourism Minister DrMahesh Sharma addressedparticipants at a workshopheld on the formulation ofNational Tourism Policy 2015.The representatives from var-ious organizations like IndianAssociation of Tour Operators(IATO), FICCI, NASSCOM,FAITH, Travel AgencyCorporation of India, IndianTourist Transporters Authority(ITTA), Indian Heritage HotelsAssociation (IHHA), All IndiaResort Developers Association(AIRDA) and Association ofDomestic Tour Operators ofIndia (ADTOI) were presentamong others at the meeting.

Dr Sharma said that fromnow on, a new work culturewill be implemented in whicha task will be identified anda person be assigned for thetask. The timeline will also befixed and the implementationwill be closely monitored.Acknowledging the need forsynergy between variousministries of the govern-ment, the Minister appreci-ated the idea of NationalTourism Board which is pro-posed as a part of the newTourism Policy to speed upand promote tourism in thecountry.

The Tourism Ministerexplained that potential ofexisting policy of 2002 hasnot been used fully and thenew policy will use theframework of the existingNational Tourism Policy of2002 to make it dynamic andmeet the challenges thathave emerged in today’sworld including technologicaland global competitiveness.He appreciated the idea of a‘single window portal sys-tem’ for making informationavailable to tourists.

Various issues rangingfrom infrastructure need forconnectivity in remote areas,e-ticketing and safety andsecurity were discussed dur-ing the workshop. The stake-holders related to hotelindustry and transport busi-ness demanded tax incen-tives from the governmentespecially in the off season.

Culture of TourismThe ministry is brainstorming with tourism veterans on the new

tourism policy

The Indian Culinary Institute will be ready within two years andwill offer degree and post-graduate programmes.

The countries for the first phase of VoA will be declared in thenext 2-3 months, probably by end June


8 TRAVTALK A P R I L 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 NEWS

After the grand success ofits first edition, India

Travel Awards is now travel-ling South to the Vizag shoresthis April. The second editionof the India Travel Awards willhonour the achievers of travel,tourism and hospitality industry from the region. Novotel VisakhapatnamVarun Beach is hosting thefirst-of-its-kind event on April 16, 2015.

The award statuette,Maya celebrates the grandeurof tourism. It imbibes the bestrepresenting the power tochange the industry. Based onan online voting system, thewinners will be awarded aftera thorough jury analysis of thevoting, making the awards fairand unbiased. Nominationsare awaited for various cate-gories, which include sectorslike aviation, domestic andinternational tourism boards,hotels and resorts, travelagents, technology partners

etc from the southern regionof the country.

Sharing more detailsabout the event, SanJeet,Mentor, India Travel Awards

said, “The awards are a truespecimen of the contribution ofvarious companies/individualsto take tourism to a differentlevel. These awards are aimedat recognising extraordinary

efforts of people who havemade the real difference. Afirst-of-its-kind formal black tieevent, India Travel Awards willmake a difference to the indus-try by accommodating recog-

nition for regional talent, there-by raising the bar.”

According to MadhavBellmakonda, GeneralManager, Novotel

Visakhapatnam Varun Beach,this is a great initiative. “I amreally happy that we are thechoice for the 2nd India TravelAwards in the South. This givesmany an opportunity to travel tosee the hotel and experienceour services. Recognition ofgood work always results inmotivation and better perform-ance. With the expansion andnetwork of DDP Publicationsincreasing every day, I feel thisaward ceremony is seen in pres-tigious light for all in the industryand a great way to give back tothe travel fraternity,” he opined.

Setting a new bench-mark for the hospitality industry, the hotel has madepreparations galore for theevent. Bellmakonda pointedout, “We are well equipped tohost this event with our three USPs. The three USPsof our property are 12,000 sqft convention hall with seven break-away hallsattached to the conventioncentre; the 225-all sea-facing-room inventory in the hotel and another 400 roomsavailable within three km radius.”

As India Travel Awards now travels to South for its second edition to honour the achievers ofthe travel, tourism and hospitality industry from the region, Novotel Visakhapatnam VarunBeach is all set to host the mega event.

India Travel Awards on Vizag shores

TT BU R E AU

The three USPs of our property are12,000 sq ft convention hall

with seven break-awayhalls attached to the con-vention centre; the 225-all

sea-facing-room inventory inthe hotel and another 400

rooms available withinthree km radius

Madhav BellmakondaGeneral Manager, Novotel

Visakhapatnam Varun Beach

Mark your calendarThis second edition of the India Travel Awards will

honour the achievers of travel, tourism and hospitalityindustry from the region.

The event will take place on April 16 at NovotelVisakhapatnam Varun Beach

Based on an online voting system, the winners willbe awarded after a thorough jury analysis of the voting

Platform ticket tocost Rs 10 fromApril 1

The Ministry ofRailways has decided toupwardly revise the rate ofplatform ticket to Rs 10per ticket from Rs 5 perticket. The revised ratewill be charged on plat-form ticket to be issuedfrom April 1, 2015.Directions have been sentto all zonal railways toprint the revised tickets ontop priority and ensuresupply to all stations wellin time. However, till suchtime the tickets are print-

ed, the existing stock oftickets may be used withthe rate corrected with astamp. Wherever platformtickets are issued throughSPTM & UTS or othermachines, their softwaremay to be modified to col-lect the revised rate. TheMinistry of Railways hasdelegated the power toDivisional RailwayManagers (DRMs) toincrease the rate of plat-form tickets beyond Rs 10to regulate rush at plat-forms during specificrequirements like fair,rally etc.


Betting big on outboundtravel and in a bid to offer

more facilities to the outboundtravel agents, OTOAI haslaunched a new website.

Talking about the new develop-ment, Guldeep Sahni,President, OTOAI said, “Theprimary concern is to make ourassociation prominent in theonline space. We have now

geared up to become visible inthe social media platform.Through our dedicated web-site, we have seen an increasein engagement of membershere. The site has becomemore interactive now. We havegiven our OTOAI members a

password and login id. Oncethey log in, they can view allthe recent happenings in theindustry. They will also be ableto post discussions about theoutbound industry here.”

Elaborating on the fea-tures of the website, SidharthKhanna, Head-IT, OTOAIpointed out, “There is a lot ofinformation on the website andwe will be putting a lot of added

value in it during the course oftime. The members can sendmessages to us and we cansend a direct reply. They willhave their own inbox for suchinteraction. There is also a lotof information on destinationsand all of the various work-shops and events that happenworldwide. We will also have alot of visa information, trainingmodules and some specialistprograms available.”

The launch of the websitein Delhi also included a briefingto the members about how theycan benefit from the website andall the information available onit. The association is also bring-ing in two new members to theirEC committee – Karan Anand,Head of Global Marketing, Coxand Kings and AnkushNijhawan, Co-Founder & CEO, Travel Boutique Online,Sahni informed.

A P R I L 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 TRAVTALK 9ASSOCIATIONS

The newly launched website of the association will give OTOAI members a password and login id. Once theylog in, they can view all the recent happenings in the industry. says OTOAI president Guldeep Sahni.

OTOAI’s new website a hit with members

ME G H A PAU L

Through ourdedicatedwebsite, wehave seen anincrease inengagement ofmembers here

Guldeep SahniPresidentOTOAI

We will also havea lot of visainformation,training modulesand somespecialistprogramsavailable

Sidharth KhannaHead-ITOTOAI

Online WisdomOTOAI members will also be able to post

discussions about the outbound industry here

They will have their own inbox for such interaction

There is also a lot of information on destinationsand all of the various workshops and events that happen worldwide


1 0 TRAVTALK A P R I L 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 GUEST COLUMN

Danish poet Hans Andersononce said, “To move, to

breathe, to fly, to float, to gain allwhile you give, to roam theroads of land remote, to travelis to live.” Travel has been a partof every individual’s living, everyorganisation’s need, and everycountry’s growth story. Oneindustry that has only evolvedover the vast period of time isthe travel and hospitality indus-try, going hand in hand, pro-gressing day by day.

Through the age, the waypeople travel has changed andthe way decisions are beingmade has become simpler,thanks to the simplicity of gettingaccess to information in theirpalms. It’s the era of DigitalDelight and information availableon click of a button. Traditionally,travel has been a need in searchof food, clothing and shelter andthen adding to business, oppor-tunities, leisure and knowledge.Hospitality industry caters to theneed of home away from home,a concept which started as pro-viding shelter to the traveller in

a new land on barter and even-tually grew up to becomingworld class hotels and accom-modation services, providingoptions to everyone at everybudget to find a place to stay,eat, relax and rejoice.

The Gen Y of travel andhospitality has gone digital andhow…. not just surfing internetto get information, but doingactual transaction, gettingdetailed information of everydestination on the itinerary, get-ting reviews on social media,comparing costs and destina-tion, sharing other traveller expe-rience and almost getting thecomplete picture of the locationbefore even stepping in there.Mobiles, tablets, web servicesand now electronic wearable aredriving sales and suggestive sell-ing, in turn giving returns to theservice providers and drawing inmore consumers. We now haveMobile boarding passes, MobileRoom key access, Mobile checkin and check outs in hotels, elec-tronic tickets, restaurant menuson tablets/mobiles, order taking

and final billings – all in onetouch. Today more people havesmart phones/mobiles thanavailability of clean drinkingwater; run time decisions on dis-tress inventory is being taken ondigital platform for both airlinesand hotels resulting in maximis-ing revenue and data sharing isfast and efficient.

The Gen Now and theGen Next is only going to getmore technology savvy andfast. People don’t want to waitfor a travel agent to deliver ticketor hotel to share fares, theywant it quick and efficient, theywant to be in control of theirdecisions to travel and living.

Therefore, everyadvancement in customer experi-ence through digitalplatform is going togive the serviceprovider more footfalland a destination,more happy visitors.

In our organisation aswell, our focus is to constantlyupgrade our services usingtechnology and giving betterand faster booking and dataexperience to our agent part-ners, corporate and direct cus-tomers. Our new travel app hasbeen launched recently and weare seeing significant usageand download of the same.

Buoyed by rapid growth in technology, the travel and tourism industry is makingadvancement in customer experience through the digital platform, to give theservice provider more footfalls and a destination more happy visitors.

Clicking on the digital path

(The writer is Manish Raj, Vice President &

Business Head - CorporateTravel Services, Via.com)

Air Arabia hosts key travel trade in Mumbai

Air Arabia, the first andlargest low-cost carrier (LCC)in the Middle East and NorthAfrica and the first interna-tional low-cost carrier to fly toIndia is soon to complete adecade of operations in India.To celebrate this milestone,the airline hosted a traveltrade dinner and was attend-ed by Adel A. Ali, airlineGroup Chief Executive Officerand senior management. AirArabia raised a toast to thecontinual support extended bythe travel trade fraternityresulting in Air Arabia’s suc-

cessful operations in India.

Air Arabia operates over112 weekly flights from itshub in Sharjah to the 13 citiesin India. Air Arabia has a fleetof new Airbus A320 aircraftwith a 32 inch seat pitch,which gives the best leg roomof any economy class travel.The airline also provides visaassistance to passengers fromIndia. With Air ArabiaHolidays, the airline offersattractive packages to a widerange of international holidaydestinations.


In India to promote Croatiaamong the travel trade, HE

Amir Muharemi, Ambassadorof Croatia, Embassy of Croatiain India, has big plans. His aimis to bring the destination clos-er to Indians. “Croatia receivesalmost 12 million tourists from

all over the world. It is alreadyvery well known in Europe andnow we are trying to spreadawareness about it outside ofEurope in new Asian marketslike India,” he said on the side-lines of a travel trade exhibitionin Mumbai.

Visa facilitation company,Udaan India, has partnered upwith Uniline, a South EastEurope DMC, to launch‘Namaste Croatia’ initiative.Muharemi said, “With the helpof ‘Namaste Croatia’ initiative,

we will strengthen the already-existing relations but also starta new chapter. In order to facilitate this, I will also be trav-elling throughout India this yearto encourage tourism and trade ties between both the countries.”

Rajan Dua, MD, UdaanIndia, said, “We plan to marketCroatia by designing packagesspecific to Croatia, combiningBosnia and Austria and with thehelp of our clientele of over8,000 travel agents. Promotionsfor ‘Namaste Croatia’ will bedone aggressively in the Indianmarket. We will also be organ-ising road shows in India to sup-port Croatia.” Udaan India willalso soon get the official man-date as accredited visa agent

for Croatian visas, havingprocessed over 1,000 visasdaily on an average acrossIndia in 2014.

MICE groups main focusThe main focus areas for

2015 are MICE and organisedgroups but also leisure groups.“Croatia is so beautiful anddiverse and once Indians dis-cover it, we will observe whatcreates the biggest interest

among them – what they likeand enjoy the most. We have somany things that we knowIndians will adore, like verygood climate, good food, warmhospitable people and it is veryclean and safe. I’m very confi-dent that we will get excellentresponse from India,” theAmbassador said.

Dua added, “Croatia isan ideal destination for MICE,

FITs, destination weddings aswell as film shoots. He alsoadded that July and Augustare the high seasons whileanytime from April toSeptember can be consideredfor visiting the country.”

Footfalls can only go upWhile Croatia has

observed almost negligibleIndian tourists so far with lessthan 1,000 visitors in 2014 that

included business travellersand family holidays, the recentappointment of the ambassa-dor in September 2014 willspeed up better facilitation forIndian travellers. Croatia isalso in the process of issuingSchengen visas in the next six months.

“We are now at the verybeginning. So far we receivedIndian tourists who were part

of groups going somewhereelse. They were not targetingCroatia. But slowly we areopening Croatia to tourists asa final destination and we arenow creating itineraries spe-cially for Indian tourists,”Muharemi said. Agents willsoon see roadshows andfamiliarisation trips beingorganised in association with the Croatian tourismboard.

As the latest entrant in the Asian market, Croatia is advancing strategically. It may be a newbie in India but alongwith Udaan India it has its game plan ready with ‘Namaste Croatia’ as its first move. In the offing is a roadshowand familiarisation trips for agents.

HA Z E L JA I N

A P R I L 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 TRAVTALK 1 1NTO

Croatia focusses on MICE groups in 2015

HE Amir MuharemiAmbassador of CroatiaEmbassy of Croatia in India

Rajan DuaMD, Udaan India


1 2 TRAVTALK A P R I L 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 VISA

Now, visit two nations with one visa!The British-Irish Visa Scheme, launched last month, has been introduced in India and China. Tourism Ireland and VisitBritainrecently held a road show in Delhi to officially launch the scheme and promote the destinations. asks Feilim McLaughlin,Ambassador of Ireland to India and tourism officials from both the countries about the development.

SA M A P T I DAS

This is a mutual recognition of thevisa scheme that we havelaunched with UK, Ireland’sneighbour. There is going to beone visa that will be valid for boththe countries. It’s an enormousdevelopment for us as we areworking very hard to increase thevisitor’s numbers into Ireland.People in India are not much

aware about Ireland being a green and clean destination. I thinkthat it has got a lot of potential in terms of scenery and golftourism. We are working hard to encourage people to look atIreland as a destination that they can add on to their trip toBritain. It’s only a short hop across the water. Last year we hadabout 25,000 Indian visitors registering a growth of about 20per cent. This visa scheme is important for us and it will definitelyincrease the growth in visitor numbers.

Feilim McLaughlinAmbassador of Ireland to India

We are very excited to launchthe Irish-British visa scheme inIndia. It’s a joint visa and onecan travel between Britain andIreland on either Irish or Britishvisa. If someone is going toIreland first then he needs toapply for an Irish visa and getinto Dublin, finish the tour ofIreland and then move on to UK. For all short stay visa applications, the visas will be stamped at the bottom asBIVS that means British–Irish visa scheme.

The percentage of visitors has been growing at about between 15-20 per cent on a year to year basis. We estimate between 20,000 to 23,000 people visit Ireland annually.

Huzan Fraser MotivalaRepresentative India, Tourism Ireland

This is a great initiative. It’sawesome working togetherwith our colleagues fromTourism Ireland as well as theIrish Embassy. This has beenin works for a long time and weare happy that this has beenlaunched finally by both thegovernments. India is fortunate-ly one of the only two markets globally along with Chinawhere this BIVS scheme has been introduced.

The year 2013 was a record year for us as we receivedaround 375,000 Indians. This was a 10 per cent hike com-pared to the previous year. In 2014 also till September, therewas a six per cent hike. It was a record of record for us. So,this year we definitely hope to continue the record with thelaunch of this visa scheme.

Shuja-Bin-MehdiB2B Executive-North & East India, VisitBritain

In a bid to encourage busi-ness and investment opportu-nities, South Africa hasannounced that it has startedoffering three-year multiple-entry visas to business trav-

ellers, including travel agents.Announcing this development,His Excellency Pule Malefane,Consul General of South Africain Mumbai, said, “We want tooffer the red carpet instead of

red tape to Indian travellers.The three-year multiple entryvisas will be extended only toindividual business travellersthat includes travel agents asthey are required to travel to

South Africa for business mul-tiple times. There is only onepre-condition that those avail-ing this facility do not stay inSouth Africa for an extendedperiod of 30 days.”

SA offers 3-year multiple entry visa to travel agents



1 4 TRAVTALK A P R I L 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 NTO

Dressed in traditionalScottish kilt, Vineet Lal,

Senior Marketing Manager -Emerging Markets, VisitScotland, looks every bit thepart. He was recently in Indiaon a sales mission visitingMumbai and New Delhi withtwo suppliers from Scotland.

“India represents greatpotential for us in terms of thegrowing middle class. Thenumbers coming to Scotlandfrom India are increasingbecause Scotland’s productslike its landscape, whiskeytrails and castles have a verygood fit with Indian consumers,particularly the HNIs and fam-

ily. It’s a market we want tofocus on now,” Lal says. Latestfigures of 2013-14 showScotland receiving in excess of30,000 Indian visitors. Butthere are visitors from Londontoo and getting an accurate fig-ure is difficult.

Bollywood ScotlandAhead of its 2015 sales

mission to India, VisitScotlandhas created a special onlinemap, Bollywood Scotland,which highlights dozens ofScottish locations that havedoubled up as backdrops forsome of hit Bollywood films.

Lal reveals, “We have 23Bollywood movies shot inScotland and we have incorpo-

rated a Bollywood toolkit withbanners and buttons into ouronline agent specialist program‘Scots Agents’. The agents aredirected to our website that willhave a PDF of the map, itiner-aries and suggestedBollywood trails.”

The map, along with amarketing toolkit, will be madeavailable to the Indian traveltrade, while consumers canalso access it directly. The map

showcases 23 Indian films thathave been shot in Scotland,including Dev Anand's ‘MainSolah Baras Ki’ and KaranJohar’s ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’.

Qatar Airways, that hassponsored the BollywoodScotland map, will be startingdaily services betweenEdinburgh and Doha from 1stMay, 2015. This will allowIndians travel options betweenIndia and Scotland.

India sales missionVisitScotland is also

slowly increasing its interac-tion with the Indian traveltrade. Lal adds, “We are look-ing to work with a number oftrade associations such asOTOAI, TAAI and TAFI andtrade partners for our annualtravel trade fair in Scotlandwhich will take place fromApril 22-23, 2015. We want toget our message across totheir members and offer themtraining. We will also conductfamiliarisation trips toScotland and our expo is agreat opportunity to bringthem to Scotland and makethem meet the local suppliers.We are hoping to host about30 agents from India this year.”

The NTO participated inSATTE this year for the firsttime. “Budgets are always achallenge for us so we look atcreative ways of stretchingour budgets. We have beenconducting workshops inDelhi and Mumbai and hope

to return in autumn by whichtime we will have a moreextensive training program.We can also do it virtuallythrough webinars which wecan set up for agents through-out the country. We are think-ing of tapping Punjab,Ahmedabad and Pune. Wedid go to Bengaluru last yearand hoping to go back nextyear,” Lal reveals.

With 23 Bollywood movies that chose Scotland as their backdrop, it is only natural for VisitScotland to chooseBollywood as its selling point. Agents can now use the NTO’s Bollywood toolkit in its training program to lure thedramatic Indian traveller.

Experience cinematic Scotland

TT BU R E AU We are looking to work with a num-ber of trade associations such as

OTOAI, TAAI and TAFI and trade part-ners for our annual travel

trade fair in Scotlandwhich will take placefrom April 22-23, 2015

Vineet LalSenior Marketing Manager

(Emerging Markets)VisitScotland

2015 is the Year of Food and Drink, a celebration of Scotland’snatural larder and the role that food and drink plays in shaping itseconomic success. A series of themed months will create an appetitefor key areas of Scotland’s food and drink industries – from seafoodand whisky to berries and high-quality meat.

Year of Food and Drink 2015

Beyond CastlesVisitScotland has created

a special online map,Bollywood Scotland, whichhighlights dozens of Scottishlocations that have doubledup as backdrops for some ofhit Bollywood films

Qatar Airways, that hassponsored the BollywoodScotland map, will be starting daily servicesbetween Edinburgh andDoha from 1st May, 2015

QWhat kind of numbers areyou expecting in 2015

post the Cricket World Cup?Indian visitors to Australia are

expected to increase from 160,000 in2012-13 to 298,000 in 2022-23, thatindicates an average annual growth rateof 6.4 per cent. By then, India will movefrom its current ranking of beingAustralia’s eleventh-largest singlesource visitor market to eighth. Tourismfrom India is also currently worth anestimated $192 million Australian dol-lars to the NSW economy. The NSWgovernment’s goal is to double visitorexpenditure to NSW by 2020. In orderto achieve this, Destination NSW isdeveloping a long-term strategy.

QWhat activities have youplanned with the travel

trade in India? We have been working with

trade partners to develop and promote‘Jhappi Time’ packages. The Indiantravel industry has recognized thepotential of the campaign, with sevenkey partners promoting and sellingpackages and airfare offers. In addi-tion to consumer advertising, a pro-

gram of targeted trade advertising wasundertaken as well as trade trainingand education on the range of expe-riences, events, and products on offer.Destination NSW also conducts reg-ular familiarisations and training forthe Indian travel trade to develop newprograms to promote Sydney andRegional NSW. In fact, we recentlyheld our ‘Focus on India’ trade missionin Sydney this February which includ-ed the largest-ever trade family toSydney and Regional NSW destina-

tions for 30 key agents from India inpartnership with Air India.

QWhat are the other tacticsthat are part of your

strategy?There is a strong focus on part-

nership campaigns with airline andtravel trade partners. Priority seg-ments are adults 25-55 years, earn-ing 45,000+ AUD per annum, livingin Mumbai, Delhi or tier II cities. Ourcore focus is on VFR, families, and

honeymooners/couples. We will con-tinue to engage with the tradethrough hosted trade programs andevents, training workshops, collateralsupport for marketing and partner-ship campaigns. We will also contin-ue to work closely with airline part-ners that offer connections betweenIndia and NSW. These includeSingapore Airlines, Air India andMalaysia Airlines. Events such asVivid also form part of this focus.

QDo the India initiativescome with an increase in

budgets? Over the past two years,

Destination NSW has increasedinvestment in India. Now, we haveincreased investment in partnershipwith the Indian travel trade to under-take joint marketing programs to pro-mote travel to Sydney and NSW.

QIs there any specific rea-son why DNSW chose to

showcase Snowy Mountainsthis year?

An important part of DestinationNSW’s work is to encourage visits toour regional destinations across NewSouth Wales, which offers diverse land-

scapes and experiences from coastalcities and drives to pristine rainforests,mountains and the Outback. TheSnowy Mountains also known as theSnowies, is just one such famous andpopular NSW region. Indian travellersknow about Sydney’s spectacular har-bour and the Harbour Bridge, but thisbeauty extends beyond our pristinewaterways to skiing in the mountainsand our pristine rainforests. We are alsopromoting touring routes including theLegendary Pacific Coast on the NSWNorth Coast visiting Coffs Harbour andByron Bay as well as the BlueMountains and Hunter Valley.

With a long-term plan in mind, Destination New South Wales is keeping it simple and focussing mainly on thetravel trade. Sandra Chipchase, CEO, Destination New South Wales, speaks to about activities and plansfor its trade partners in India.

DNSW bets big on trade partners

HA Z E L JA I N We will continue to engage with the tradethrough hosted trade programs and events,

training workshops, collateralsupport for marketing andpartnership campaigns. Wewill also continue to workclosely with airline partnersthat offer connectionsbetween India and NSW

Sandra ChipchaseCEO, Destination New South Wales

Quick FactDestination NSW has invested in

a new film ‘Unindian’, which starsformer Australian cricketer, BrettLee, who plays opposite Indianactress, Tannishtha Chatterjee.Directed and produced by Anupam Sharma, UNINDIAN has been filmed exclusively in New South Wales




NTO

Good news came alongwith the successful culmi-

nation of Egypt’s EconomicDevelopment Conference onMarch 15, 2015 held in SharmEl Sheikh. The destinationreceived commitments ofinvestment and long-term

loans of more than USD 100billion from all over the world.

Giving more informationon this, Ismail A. Hamid,Egyptian Tourism Counsellorand Regional Director (India &Far East), General Consulate ofA.R.E. says, “A delegation of 45delegates from India was alsopresent. With this initiative,Egypt will be back on thetourism map. We are alreadyseeing good response fromIndia with a 24 per cent increasein January-February 2015 ascompared to the same periodlast year,” he said. His target forIndia now is reaching one milliontourists by 2017. Egypt has alsore-initiated a lot of activities forthe travel trade. “We are doing aroadshow in April end-Maybeginning in four cities. We havefinalized New Delhi, Mumbaiand Bengaluru so far. The fourthwill either be Kolkata or

Hyderabad. For Chennai, whichis a huge pilgrim market for us,we will be making a separatecampaign dedicated to theChristians,” Hamid reveals.

The NTO participated inOTM this February as well asSATTE. Since the new financialyear starts from July, Hamid

said that they would have moreconcrete and detailed plansthen. “I will be planning for theentire year and plans for thenext fiscal year will be moreconcrete. By then, I would havealso understood the Indian mar-ket well,” he says.

Change of imageThe priority for Egypt now

is to change the image of Egyptas a country of the pyramids andthe sphinx. “While Egypt has thepyramids, it also has other prod-

ucts like beautiful sea, top divingdestinations in Sharm-el-Shaikh,beautiful landscape inAlexandria, MICE facilities, shop-ping, food, culture, etc that notmany travellers know. I want tobring this aspect of Egypt in theforefront,” Hamid states.

Another important agendafor Hamid is to make the desti-nation packages cheaper toattract the middle class fromIndia as well. “Since the cost oftravel to Egypt is high, it attractsmostly high-end tourists bydefault. My aim is to reduce thetrip budget and we are doing thisby introducing more products onthe Red Sea. The hotels arecheaper here so I want theagents to suggest their clientsto look at Red Sea as their baseand make day trips from thereto other places like Luxor orAswan to bring down the costwhile enjoying water sports onthe Red Sea,” Hamid reveals.

The Tourism Counselloris also looking to facilitate char-tered fights and more air con-nectivity from India. Hamidsays, “If we manage to get anLCC flying between India andSharm El Shaikh or Hurghada,the ticket costs will dropsharply. We have been talkingwith some Indian LCC carriersbut any development will takesome time.”

After a long silence from its tourism authority in India, Egypt hasrestarted dialogue with the travel trade. The NTO has designedan extensive blueprint for the market.

Egypt back on tourism map

HAZEL JAIN

With this initiative, Egypt will be backon the tourism map. We are already see-

ing good response from India with a24% increase in Jan-Feb 2015 as com-

pared to the same period last yearIsmail A. Hamid

Egyptian TourismCounsellor and Regional

Director (India & Far East)

Pyramid tourism

Indian hotelier in UK honoured

Arun Jaitley, Minister of Finance, Govt. of India (L) presents the NRI Foundation Excellence Award to Ramesh Arora,India Travel Awards Winner and Managing Director, Montcalm Hotels, London in the presence of Baroness Verma,Member of Parliament, UK and Ashok Verma, Chairman, NRI Foundation (Extreme right). Ramesh Arora has seen four decades of transformation in the hotel industry. He was honoured as the TourismAmbassador at the India Travel Awards 2014 held in London. At the helm of the largest privately owned hotel groupin London, Arora has been instrumental in managing the group, consisting of three brands, 24 properties and 2400rooms. With a strong belief in technology and led by consumer insight, Arora embraced the initial online bookingtrend. Being ahead of the times, undoubtedly paved the way for the group’s enviable growth.

Egypt tourism will be conducting road show inApril-end in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru andeither Kolkata or Hyderabad. For Chennai a separatecampaign will be dedicated to Christians

Need for LCC flying between India and Sharm ElShaikh or Hurghada for cheaper air travel tickets


1 8 TRAVTALK A P R I L 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 AVIATION

The national flag carrierof Nepal resumed its com-mercial operations in Indiaafter two years. The BirdGroup has been awarded thecontract for GSA (Bird

Travels) Pan India , as wellas for Ground HandlingServices (BWFS) at Delhi.Brand new Aircraft A320 –‘Sagarmatha’ of NepalAirlines Corporation (RA)started its operation on

Delhi-Kathmandu routes onFebruary 27 this year,scheduled four flights aweek with A320 aircraft .Effective May 1, 2015, RAwill be operating 10 weekly

flights in and out of Delhi.Nepal Airlines has alsoannounced the Introductionof new flights and routesfrom May 2015 connectingBengaluru and Mumbaifrom Kathmandu .

Nepal Airlines airbus’first flight to New Delhi

Flying HighTravelling by air is the preferred choice foroutbound Indians, with over 17 million trips in2014, which is expected to increase to 19 million by 2015

Effective from April 15, 2015IndiGo will launch new

daily non-stop flight onDimapur – Kolkata route whichwill further operate to Delhi andhence connect Dimapur toDelhi (via Kolkata).

With this, Dimapur will be33rd domestic and 38th overalldestination on IndiGo’s list. Theairline will also operate 9thdaily non-stop flight betweenDelhi–Kolkata and 4th daily non-stop between Delhi and Varanasi.

Speaking on the occa-sion, Aditya Ghosh, President,IndiGo, said, “The announce-ment of new flights to and fromDimapur is a progressivestep and a landmarkoccasion for us. I on

behalf of the IndiGo teamthank Hon’ble Chief Minister ofNagaland TR Zeliang for get-ting IndiGo to launch and con-nect Dimapur on its network.We are sure that steps takenby the state govern-

ment in order to connectDimapur with the national cap-ital will boost trade, businessand tourism and benefit thou-sands of customers. AddingDimapur in our network is tes-timony of our commitment

towards con-nectivity acrossthe country’scorners bringingmore and morepeople closer totheir dreams

and new opportunities. It is ourconstant endeavour to providemore flexibility of choice for ourcustomers as IndiGo continuesto offer them on time, hasslefree and always affordable fly-ing experience.”

IndiGo has alsolaunched eight new flights con-necting Delhi to Lucknow,Lucknow to Patna and Patnato Kolkata. Effective March 29,2015, IndiGo will also com-mence its second daily non-stop flight between Delhi andIndore and fourth daily non-stop flight between Mumbaiand Indore, while also intro-ducing two new flight timingson the Mumbai-Raipur route."Having flown over 88 millionpassengers across the globe,we at IndiGo are determinedto provide the best travel expe-rience to all our customers. Itis our constant endeavor toprovide more flexibility ofchoice for our customers asIndiGo continues to offer themon time, hassle free andalways affordable flying expe-rience,” Ghosh added.

IndiGo has announced the launch of eight new flights between Delhi, Lucknowand Patna, besides starting new daily non-stop flights on Dimapur-Kolkataroute making it the 38th destination on the airline’s list.

IndiGo now flies to Dimapur via Kolkata

TT BU R E AU Adding Dimapur in our net-work is testimony of our

commitment towards con-nectivity across the country’s

corners bringing moreand more people closer

to their dreams andnew opportunities

Aditya GhoshPresident, IndiGo



2 0 TRAVTALK A P R I L 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 INTERVIEW

Tourism is one of the largestindustries in the UK and

the country’s seventh highestexport earner. The contributionof inbound tourism to the UKeconomy continued to grow in2014, with latest provisionalfigures showing a record 34.8million international visitorsspending a record amount,£21.7 billion.

Taking over this new role,Sally Balcombe, CEO,VisitBritain is looking to growtourism and boost marketingand promotional programs.According to Balcombe,“Britain is forecasting yetanother major increase intourism for 2015. The volumeof inbound tourism is expectedto be up 2.5 per cent, andspending is expected to be upby 4.5 per cent preparing foranother record year”.

A step in the right direc-tion is VisitBritain’s brand newflagship event, ExploreGB. It

provides Great British & Irishtourism suppliers and destina-tions with an opportunity tomeet and do business with upto 261 hosted internationaltravel buyers from 40 coun-tries. ExploreGB is a two-dayworkshop filled with pre-sched-uled, one-to-one appoint-ments.

Balcombe highlighted thevalue of ExploreGB in helpingBritain boost its tourism.VisitBritain will continue to holdthe event at venues outsideLondon to showcase regionaltourism. This year the eventwas held at Ascot, and nextyear VisitBritain will organiseExploreGB in Liverpool. “First,we wanted to give an opportu-nity for U.K. businesses of allsizes to connect with buyersand international travel agentsin order to reach new markets,”says Balcombe. “To put thefocus on the entire country, theevent location will vary eachyear to gain regional spread.We also showcase Britain tohundreds of international buy-

ers through the fam trips”. Thisyear VisitBritain planned tripsfor 261 buyers on 13 uniqueitineraries throughout England,Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

Discussing their marketingstrategy, Balcombe highlightsthat this year’s Countryside isGreat campaign is an effort toget visitors something differentand focused on rural tourism.“This will be followed this fall bya new campaign, Culture is

Great, which focuses on con-temporary British culture andcity life, covering the full rangeof arts, film and TV, performingarts and music. This campaignwill be promoted in India byautumn 2015.” The year will con-clude with promotional activitiesaround the much-awaitedJames Bond film.

Further highlighting theimportance of the travel trade,especially from India,

Balcombe discusses the newlyimproved BritAgent online des-tination education program,which will debut at the end ofMarch. The goal of the redevel-oped program is to increaseinteraction, engagement andrewards for the trade. There willbe new training models andagents will be rewarded forcompleting them. She adds,“VisitBritain will roll out themodified BritAgent Programmefor the travel trade in March. This new BritAgentProgramme will have addition-al features, which guaranteesmore rewards for the travelagents who participate suc-cessfully in the programme.After the launch, the pro-gramme will be updated by tak-ing feedback from the agents.The objective is to put togetherwhat is best for the agents anddeliver it after knowing therequirements of the agents ineach market.”

Last year Britain wit-nessed its best year forinbound tourism, with 34.8 mil-

lion inbound visits and tourismspending of £21.7 billion. Indiaranked 17th as an inboundsource market with provisionalfigures indicating a 6 per centincrease over 2013’s 375,000visitors. “Our ambition is to wel-come 40 million internationalvisitors annually by 2020,” con-cludes Balcombe.

With provisional numbers indicating a six per cent increase in arrivals from India in 2014, VisitBritain continuesto be a popular choice. Under the new leadership, the first edition of their international workshop ExploreGBreceived an overwhelming response.

Revamped BritAgent module unveiled

TT BU R E AU After the launch, the programme willbe updated by taking feedback from

the agents. The objectiveis to put together what is

best for the agents anddeliver it after knowingthe requirements of

the agents in eachmarket

Sally BalcombeCEO, VisitBritain

Modified VisitBritainNewly improved

BritAgent online destinationeducation program willdebut at the end of March

India ranked 17th as aninbound source market withprovisional figures indicat-ing a 6% increase over2013’s 375,000 visitors.

In 2015, VisitBritain planstrips for 261 buyers on 13unique itineraries through-out England, Scotland,Wales and Ireland



2 2 TRAVTALK A P R I L 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 AGENTS

VisitBritain organised its first flagship event Explore GB. The two-day event provided British and Irish tourismsuppliers with an opportunity to meet and do business with 261 hosted international buyers from 40 countries.

spoke to a few agents and got their feedback on the show and the destination.

Discovering the treasure called Britain

DE V I KA JE E T

“The core event of ExploreGBwas top notch and intense! Youmeet a lot of suppliers for an initialintroduction in a very time effec-tive manner. I have actually comeback with a list of suppliers whomI know I will work with, closely.The ExploreGB fam trip wasanother highlight which was wellplanned and executed.”

Munind ShahDirector

The Travel Planners

“ExploreGB was an eye openerfor me in introducing new prod-ucts to the market. As we havestarted self driven tours sincelast year, as UK provides an ulti-mate environment for travelerswho prefer self drive. We havelaunched an exclusive footballpackage in May, which is adream football journey, a sevenday fully packed exciting journey that would definitely surprisetravelers with its inclusions, which is gaining popularity in theChennai Market.”

Sriharan BalanDirector – AdministrationMadura Travel Services

“Britain is really ‘GREAT’ in termsof history, culture, food, sports,and its great attractions all overthe country. It’s not just London,that is iconic, but other places likeWales, Scotland and Ireland aresymbolic of their great history andcultural heritage. Then there isthe historic link between the twonations and a prime example isthat there are more Indian restaurants in the UK than any othercountry in Europe.”

Lokesh ChawlaDirector

Xtra Mile Travel & Education Services

Britain is a must see destinationfor all travellers who are lookingforward to international travelespecially from India. Britain is abeautiful country blessed withnatural beauty and open sur-roundings. The weather, althoughcold, is not unbearable and there-fore, attracts Indian traveller.

Vijay Mohan RajManaging Director

Uniglobe Sameera Travel & Tours

“Britain offers a complete holidayexperience to the customer.Cities such as Birmingham offervibrancy of a modern metropolis,castles like Warwick and Windsoroffer history and culture. TheCotswold countryside offers sce-nic beauty, serenity. The ease offinding Indian Cuisine and thefriendly people adds to the sense

of comfort for Indians travelling across Britain.”

Anahita AvariDirector

TravelOptionz Holidays

Britain is a perfect blend of historyin a modern perspective. Fromthe lively bustling streets to idyllictraditional villages, sandy costalresorts to wildlife, Britain haseverything to offer. Easy accesswith five international airportsand various sea ports and con-venient internal travel optionswith the global local language of

English has boosted its value as preferred destination to travel.Splendid shopping experience and the global culinary treatadds to the value to visit Britain.

Sandeep ShettyGeneral Manager- products and operations, World of Wonders

I discovered there's much moreto Britain then what it's famousfor. To start off, one can't shrugoff its history and culture. It wasevident across castles, thefamous theatres and universities.Next, the architecture is trulybreathtaking. The cuisine wasincredible - ranging fromEuropean to Indian. Although,

the weather was chilly, it was pleasant and I would recommendFebruary / March to be a good time to visit the UK.

Shameem ShaikhAssistant Manager – Product

Travel Tours

ExploreGB was an event whichreally helped us get in touch withall the various suppliers underone roof. The biggest challengein our business of organizingFITs is having a reliable partnerin Britain. This event gave me abig opportunity of finding the bestand most reliable partners acrossBritain. I even got to learn about

so many other very unique suppliers like Capital Centric whowould allow you to book a meal for your clients online.

Ajay KursejaDirector

Fairdeal Travels

ExploreGB was a great platformand I think they succeeded indrawing our attention to otherdestinations and experiencesbeyond London and Scotland.We will soon introduce new prod-ucts as well as further sparkle ourexisting GB product portfolio,keeping in mind requirements ofour clients, who are always in

search of new destinations and unique experiences.

Haresh KoyandeIndia Travel Awards Winner & Founder and Managing Director

Worldtravelstudio.com



Q How is the Indian market responding to

Amsterdam as a destination?The Indian market is getting

more and more important forAmsterdam. We have a lot of Indiancompanies in Amsterdam so wehave a lot of Indian people employedin these offices, but now we seemore and more tourists coming in

from India to Amsterdam. In 2014,the Indian hotel stays was thestrongest climber in Amsterdam. Thenumbers might not be a lot, but rel-atively we see that the numbers aresteadily climbing up. There has beenan increase of 34 per cent year-on-year. We also have French Italiansand Americans coming in but there the percentage increase is not so high, this rise in Indian arrivals is huge.

QWhich Indian markets areyou focusing on?We are targeting big markets like

Delhi and Mumbai, these are the twomost important markets. We are alsolooking at where people can travel andwhere we have good connectivity. Thisis for the first time we are venturinginto the India market and we want tosee how it works for us, we have started with Delhi and Mumbai, so thisis like an experiment. We have a

PR agency here, and we’ll see howfurther we can go. For instance evenif we want to concentrate on a marketlike Bengaluru we do not have anydirect connectivity from there, so weneed to think about how to take care of that. We have a very big air-port, which is the 4th largest airport in Europe after London, Frankfurt and Paris. Connectivity is indeed very important and is a major deter-minant for this.

Q How have Indianschanged the way they

travel?More and more people from

India are coming to visit and experi-ence Europe and are comfortablewith the idea of visiting Europe. Andin order to cater to them we alsohave many Indian restaurants whichare only increasing in number. Therestaurateurs also see plenty ofopportunities. We are concentrating

on the middle class who arenow travelling all around andopting for 10-day trips toEurope. We want Amsterdam

to have a bigger part in that.The visa process is also notvery complicated; it is prettyeasy getting a visa forAmsterdam.

Q How do you intendto work with travel

agents?We want to work very

closely with travel agents as well and since this is thefirst time we are coming toIndia we want to use thisopportunity to build relation-ships with them.


Amsterdam Marketing, Chief Executive Officer, Frans van der Avert says Indian arrivals to Amsterdamincreased by 34 per cent in 2014 compared to 2013 and that they want to work closely with Indian agentsto promote the destination among Indian travellers.

Indian travellers are now going Dutch

PEDEN DOMA BHUTIA

In 2014, theIndian hotel stays was thestrongest climberin Amsterdam.There has beenan increase of 34 per cent year-on-year

Frans van der AvertChief Executive OfficerAmsterdam Marketing

Exploring I amsterdam

In 2014, the Indian hotelstays saw an increase of 34 per cent year-on-year

Amsterdam has the 4th

largest airport in Europeafter London, Frankfurt and Paris

Not very complicated visa process


A P R I L 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 TRAVTALK 2 5AGENTS

QTell us about the achieve-ments of Udaan over the

last 23 years.We were focused on our core

domain - ‘visa facilitation’ and havescaled heights in our journey of 23years. We started with visa facilitationat a time when IATA travel agenciesused to have runner for visas and thenumber of visa agencies was quitelow. Envisioning the impact of technol-ogy in our lives, Udaan India was thefirst company to launch its Visa Portalin the year 2000. This gave us a lead-ing edge over all other visa facilitatorsand made Udaan India a distin-guished leader in the travel industry.Udaan India has always been a trend-setter in the visa industry and with thisinnovation we pioneered the onlineVisa Tracking System. The talents ofthe industry coupled with innovativesolutions and our pro-customerapproach help us in delivering qualityservices while ensuring security andsustainability.

QLike Croatia, would youlike to tie up with any

other destinations?

We surely look forward to pro-mote new, offbeat destinations. Newthings are in the pipeline which will beupdated as we move forward.

QHow easy or difficult is itto promote such less pop-

ular destinations like Croatia?A lot of efforts are required to

promote less popular destinations. Butpeople nowadays look forward to goto new destinations rather than com-mon ones. You get to explore more insuch destinations. Fortunately a goodteam and support of Amir Muharemi

along with participation in travel fairs,road shows, e-campaigns etc havecreated a lot of curiosity among peo-ple about Croatia.

QHow has the visa sce-nario changed in India

ever since you entered intobusiness?

Tremendous changes havecome in the visa scenario. Earlier itwas more manual and the documen-tation was tedious. As Indians areamong the top five travellers in theworld, a lot of countries have intro-

duced Visa-on-Arrival, eVisa option to frequent them who haveUK/US/Schengen visas.

QDo you think it is going tochange?Yes, certainly. We have seen a

lot of changes in the span of 23 yearsand more changes will come in thefuture. With globalisation, people andplaces have come closer and hence,the desire and need for internationaltravel for leisure, business, study etchas increased.

QAre there any new initia-tives that you are going to

take this year?Namaste Croatia is one of our

new initiatives and Foreigner RegionalRegistration Offices (FRRO) is thedomain which Udaan is focusing uponthe coming financial year. We willassist foreigners with the followingservices-Registration/De-Registrationof Expats, Visa Extension/ResidentPermit Extension, VisaConversion/Entry Conversion/ExitPermit, Address Change/DuplicateRP/ New Passport Entry, MOHAClearance etc. With our PAN Indiapresence, process driven approach,

escorted & assisted personalisedservice, strong language capabilities-special Japanese helpdesk etc,Udaan endeavours to provide best-inclass FRRO facilitation services.

QAnything that you wouldlike to addI think it is high time that visa

industry should become more organ-ised and all visa facilitators shouldhave good understanding and healthycompetition. Rather than just reducingservice charges to gain edge overeach other, we should face challengestogether and mutually work on makingit more organised.

With the completion of 23 years, Udaan India is now gearing up to foray into untapped destinations. Rajan Dua,Managing Director, Udaan India tells about the strategies and roadmap ahead and how essential it is tohave a good pan-India presence.

Off-beat places: Udaan’s new mantra

SA M A P T I DAS Namaste Croatia is one of our new initiatives

and Foreigner RegionalRegistration Offices (FRRO) isthe domain which Udaan isfocusing upon the coming financial year

Rajan DuaManaging Director, Udaan India

23 and counting...Udaan India has been a

trendsetter in the visa industry andpioneered the online Visa Tracking System

Foreigner Regional RegistrationOffices (FRRO) is the domainwhich Udaan is focussing uponthe coming financial year


2 6 TRAVTALK A P R I L 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 HOTELS

Q Tell us somethingabout your property.

Constance Le Prince Mauriceis a small property located ona private peninsula. It is a wildpiece of land surrounded bymangroves, almost 60 acres.It is a private piece of land,surrounded by a lagoon, nei-ther too deep nor too chirpyand perfect for people who arenot great swimmers or for kids.We do propose a lot of watersports facilities here. There arethree restaurants and 89 keyswith six different room cate-gories. We have one uniquefloating restaurant which is theonly one on the Indian Ocean.The wine cellar holds morethan 25,000 bottles comingfrom 17 different countries. Weserve all sorts of food includingvegetarian, as we know that itis very important to have veg-etarian food for Indians. Wealso have two golf courses andall guests who stay with us canget access to them for free.

How important is the Indianmarket for you? What is thepercentage of Indian arrivals?

For the time being we are tar-geting the high end clientele.We didn’t really market ourproperty in India as such. Wehave been focussing mostly onthe European market till now. Ithink China, Russia and Indiaare the forthcoming important

countries so it is important forus to be able to promote ourhotels to get more awarenessand attract more clientele.

Q What is the USP ofthe hotel?

The hotel is located on theEast coast that is probably the widest coast of Mauritius.Another important thing

is that the hotel is facing the North and people get thesun all day long. It is very sheltered in the winterseason because of the majorwind blowing from theSoutheast side. We have a bigkids club and two big golf courses.

QHow was 2014 foryou?

It’s been much better as wehave been suffering since thelast four years because of therecession in Europe. Thebusiness is picking up. TheUK market is still strong inMauritius alongwith theFrench and German market.We are targeting occupancyof sixty per cent in the forth-coming year.

Q Are you taking anynew initiative this

year? The hotel has been refurbishedcompletely two years ago.Eventually we are planning torenovate and expand the kidsclub. So this is probably one ofthe main targets and we aregoing to be busy consolidatingour assets.

Christophe Plantier, General Manager, Constance Le PrinceMaurice, Mauritius tells about the USP of the propertyand the company’s new initiatives for this year.

Eyeing better Indian clientele

SA M A P T I DAS

Christophe Plantier General ManagerConstance Le Prince Maurice, Mauritius

Christophe Plantier, General Manager, Constance Le Prince Maurice was recently in India on his maiden visit to promote the property and invite more Indian guests.A fun filled get together was organised in New Delhi by Constance Hotels & Resorts which was attended by some renowned faces of the travel trade.

Constance hosts Indian travel trade

Sarovar Hotels hassigned a 50 room

and cottages SarovarPortico at MashobraHills, Shimla. It is a run-ning hotel which will berebranded as a SarovarPortico by May 2015this year, or earlier.Owned by AB Tools,the hotel will be namedas Marigold SarovarPortico, Mashobra. Thisdevelopment repre-sents an important linkin Sarovar’s expansionin the leisure segment.

The resort offers a virtualbonanza for nature-walk lovers

and trekkers. The resort offersa platform to its guests to expe-rience nature and his real selfon one hand and on the other

acquaint oneself with the coun-try life in Himalayan Villages.

The cottages at theresort are made of HimalayanStone, which are a unique andspecialised specimen ofShimla architecture. Besides,the hotel will offer all modernfacilities including all day din-ing, restaurant, bar, swimmingpool, gym and spa, meetingrooms, banqueting facilities,conferencing and destinationweddings and other services required for a goodfour-star hotel.

Mashobra Hills will soon be home to Marigold Sarovar Portico,with 50 rooms and cottages after the company rebranded anexisting hotel, seen as a leap in the leisure segment.

Mashobra welcomes Sarovar

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Across India and Beyond...The company manages and franchises over 70 opera-

tional hotels in 48 destinations in India and overseas, underSarovar Premiere, Sarovar Portico, Hometel, Radisson, ParkPlaza and Park Inn brands

With 12 regional sales & reservations offices locatedacross India, Sarovar Hotels & Resorts is one of the largestand most diverse hotel management companies in India.



Starwood Hotels & Resortsopened Le Méridien

Gurgaon, following therebranding of an existing hotel.In Asia Pacific, Le Méridien ison track to open eight newhotels this year at vibrant loca-tions such as Paro, Bhutan;Dhaka, Bangladesh; Ho ChiMinh City, Vietnam; Putrajaya,Malaysia and Qingdao andLeshan, China.

“Le Méridien is enjoyinga strong growth momentumworldwide, resonating with cre-ative and curious minded trav-

ellers who have an affinity forarts, culture and cuisine,” said

Brian Povinelli, Global BrandLeader, Le Méridien and

Westin. “As India’simportant hospitalitymarket with tremen-dous growth potential,Gurgaon has longbeen on our short listof dynamic Indiancities that share ourbrand passions. Weare confident that LeMéridien Gurgaon willprovide a unique expe-rience, unlocking the

destination throughlocally influenceddesign, program-ming and cuisine.”

The hotel fea-tures 285 guestrooms, including 22suites, with contem-porary furnishings; arenovated signaturedining venue, latestrecipes; and a newLongitude Bar. Re-interpreting the lobbyinto a social gather-ing place, the hubexperience isdefined by fourunique elements:large-scale artworkin high impact areas; the sen-sory experience, illustratedthrough Le Méridien’s signa-ture scent, sound and use oflight and a 24-hour-curatedsoundtrack by French BossaNova band Nouvelle Vague.Other hotel amenities include1,600 square metres of confer-ence and meeting space, cov-ering a divisible ballroom with

an eight metres tall ceiling andarea of 390 square metres thatopens to lush green lawns.

Povinelli added, “In longterm we are very optimisticabout India. It is going to pick apace. With a conversion strategywe also expedite on the newproperties coming into the LeMeridien brand. We are going to

open around 11 hotels in theworld this year, among whichfour are in India. This is a bigfocus for the brand in India.”

Talking about the potentialof the brand, Dilip Puri,Managing Director, India andRegional Vice-President, SouthAsia, Starwood Hotels &Resorts said, “It was always a

challenge for us to revive andreposition an iconic globalbrand. It has taken time buttoday I am proud that almost allof our existing Le Meridienhotels have either completed orin the process of completingsome major renovations. Thisyear we are likely to open thelargest number of Le Meridienhotels in the South Asia region.”

Puri informed that thenext Le Meridian is going toopen in Mahabaleshwar. Asecond hotel will open in Paroin Bhutan and a large LeMeridian is opening in Dhakatowards the middle of theyear. David Hopcroft,General Manager, LeMéridien Gurgaon, Delhi NCRsaid, “It is an important occa-sion as we welcome ourguests to Le Méridien,Gurgaon, Delhi NCR. We lookforward to helping our guestsunlock this unique destinationthrough a redefined, contem-porary experience.”

2 8 TRAVTALK A P R I L 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 HOTELS

With many more Le Meridien hotels opening this year, the one in Gurgaon, Haryana has been launched recently amidstfanfare. Brian Povinelli, Global Brand Leader, Le Méridien and Westin and Dilip Puri, MD, India and Regional VP, SouthAsia, Starwood Hotels & Resorts tell about the brand which continues to mark its presence around the world.

Le Meridien debuts in Gurgaon

TT BU R E AU With a conversion strategywe also expedite on the

new properties coming intothe Le Meridien brand. Weare going to open around 11hotels in the world this year,among which four are in India

Brian PovinelliGlobal Brand LeaderLe Méridien and Westin

Sterling Holiday Resorts,India’s leading LeisureHospitality and VacationOwnership company, haslaunched a unique edutain-ment program at its resorts inan effort to contribute to savethe sparrow from goingextinct. Sterling’s ‘Save theSparrow’ initiative is a part ofthe Company’s ongoing effortto be eco-friendly. Other ini-tiatives include encouragingSterling’s guests and mem-

bers to help in water conser-vation and in maintaining aclean environment. Sterling isalso actively taking part in thenationwide Swachh BharatAbhiyan campaign throughmonthly cleanliness drives inthe vicinity of all its resortsand offices. Speaking on the initiative, RameshRamanathan, ManagingDirector of Sterling HolidayResorts said, “Our Save theSparrow initiative is aimed atraising environmental con-

sciousness among childrenand their families. We focusedon the sparrow as its popula-tion is depleting at an alarm-ing rate. The initiative is runas an edutainment program atour resorts conducted througha workshop which includes aDo-It-Yourself (DIY) kit. Thekit comprises of a drawstringbackpack, a bird house, a birdbath and an instruction guide.By doing so Sterling hopes tohelp impact the sparrow pop-ulation positively.”

‘Save the Sparrow’ initiative launched

ExpandingStarwood

Le Meridian is going toopen in Mahabaleshwar.

Another hotel will openin Paro in Bhutan

A large Le Meridian isopening in Dhaka towardsthe middle of the year.

Around 11 Starwoodhotels are opening in theworld in 2015, amongwhich four are in India

This year we are likelyto open the largest

number of Le Meridienhotels in the South Asia region

Dilip PuriManaging Director, India and Regional Vice-President, South Asia, Starwood Hotels & Resorts



Durban has been showcased in alot of Hindi and vernacular Indian

movies but there are so many morepicturesque destinations in the KZNprovince. This is what the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Film Commission wantsto highlight. In fact, Durban is knownas ‘Little India’ because of the largeIndian population so the filming crewgets a mix of warm South African andIndian hospitality. The KwaZulu-NatalFilm Commission is focussed on mak-ing the province a film production cen-tre. Its mission is to offer supportthroughout the value chain to the localand international film industry stakeholders.

QWhat was the agenda ofyour India visit? KwaZulu-Natal Film Com-

mission's agenda was to meet andbuild relationships with the key decision-makers in the Indian film industry andto promote KwaZulu-Natal as the destination of choice. KZN FilmCommission recognizes that India is abig player in the film industry and as aprovince KZN has a number of syner-gies with India as we have the highest

number of Indians than any other cityoutside of India. Attending the IndiaInternational Film Tourism Conclavein Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbaiwas a grand experience as we got tointeract with different players in India.We are looking forward to hostingsome of them in our province soon.

QDid you meet any direc-tors? We had very good meetings with

production houses such as Yash RajFilms, makers of Dhoom, severaldirectors and producers including

Aashish Singh, Marijke deSouza, B.Vijaya Kumar, and Aditya Bhat tomention a few. We plan to investheavily in marketing ourselves toensure that key decision-makers areaware of our exciting offering. Webelieve that we can gain furthertourists by specifically packagingthose regions and specific locationslike hotels, etc where the stars inter-acted during the production.

QWhat was the feedbackyou received from the

production houses?

This was a successful trip inthat we achieved our objectives, butwe still have a long way to go. Weneed to convert the conversationsinto actual productions in our region. There is a keen interest toexplore other regions of the countrysuch as KwaZulu-Natal which provide fresh and exciting locations.The feedback from various stake-holders has been very positive withexcellent referrals from well-knownIndian filmmakers.

QAre you planning to offermore facilities to encour-

age film shoots?We are actively promoting

investment into new studios to furtherattract productions into the region.Currently, we offer 20 per cent rebateon qualifying spend in South Africa,if you do post production you get 25per cent. There is an MOU with theIndian government and if we get atreaty signed with India the rebateincreases to 35 per cent. We have aclose working relationship with SouthAfrican Tourism in India and with ourregional body - Tourism KwaZulu-Natal - we explore collaborative mar-keting of the region.

QHave the previous filmsled to an increase in

tourists? We are currently undertaking

research into the impact of film ontourism and have no doubt that thereis a positive influence. Moving forward,we will be more aggressive andfocused on packaging specific prod-ucts around film tourism.

QWhat kind of numbersdoes the KZN province

records from India right now? As per South African Tourism's

report, provincial distribution share ofarrivals for Q4 2013, about 22.7 percent of the total Indian arrivals visitedKwaZulu Natal.

The KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Film Commission, that was visiting Mumbai to participate at the India International Film TourismConclave 2015 recently, is set to begin fulfilling its mandate to make the province a film production centre. Carol Coetzee,CEO of KZN Film Commission, speaks about her plans to attract more Indian filmmakers to shoot in KZN province.

KwaZulu-Natal: New pit stop for movies

HA Z E L JA I NCurrently, we offer 20% rebateon qualifying spend in South

Africa, if you do post productionyou get 25%. There is an MOUwith the Indian governmentand if we get a treaty signedwith India the rebate increases to 35%

Carol CoetzeeCEO, KZN Film Commission


Bollywood connectionSome of the popular movies

shot in Durban include Race,Welcome, No Entry, Fida, HeraPheri among others. UpcomingBollywood films Aankhen2 andHappy Anniversary are going tobe shot in Durban



3 2 TRAVTALK A P R I L 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 RAILWAYS

Rail Europe, the leader indistribution of train tickets

and rail passes, hasannounced that families trav-elling with a selection of railpasses to visit Europe nowhave access to free rail travelfor children. This offer is avail-able for Eurail Passes, theSwiss Travel Pass, GermanRail Pass and BritRail Pass.

Family-friendly advan-tages:� Up to two children

between the ages of 4and 11 can travel for freewith an adult who is a

holder of a Eurail GlobalPass, Eurail Select pass,Eurail Regional Pass andEurail One Country Pass.

� Families traveling withkids under the age of 16in Switzerland can booka Swiss Travel Pass andsave with the SwissFamily Card, which

allows children 6 to 15years of age to travel freewhen accompanied by aparent or legal guardian.The card is free, simplyrequest one at the timeyou purchase your SwissTravel Pass.

� The German Rail Passoffers a free child travel

for up to two childrenaged 6 to 11 accompa-nied by their parents.

� For several BritRail Passproducts, one child aged 5to 15 can travel free with anadult on a BritRail FamilyPass. All additional childrenages 5 to 15 will receive aspecial reduced rate.

The interactive map onthe new Rail Europe websitewill help customers select thecountry of their choice andthe rail passes which bestcorresponds to where theywant to go will be displayed.Customers just need to know the number of days they are planning to stay in a

particular country or region to book the appropriatepass and validity. Pass holders also benefit frombonuses which are includedin their rail pass. They can gethotel discounts, free public travel or ferry dis-counts, when available.

Rail Europe has made travelling for families and groups in Europe easier and cheaper this summer. Among themany offers it is offering is free rail travel for children and unbeatable prices on a selection of products.

Children now travel free in Rail Europe

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Kids Day-outFor several BritRail Pass

products, one child aged 5 to 15 can travel free withan adult on a BritRailFamily Pass. All additionalchildren ages 5 to 15 will receive a specialreduced rate

Rail Europe spring promotionsIn partnership with major European railway companies and Eurail, Rail Europe is lining up several promotions, includingdeals for top sellers like Eurostar, Thalys, France Rail Pass, German Rail Pass and Eurail Global Pass.

Thalys exclusive fares:First Class - 64 betweenParis & Brussels, 74between Paris &Cologne, 78 betweenParis & Amsterdam and48 between Brusselsand Amsterdam. Sales dates: 27/03/2015Travel dates: 01/03/2015– 30/06/2015

Eurostar exclusive fares: Travelbetween London and Paris orBrussels for 39£ in Standard Class or99 in Standard Premier withEurostar.Sales dates: until 20/03/2015Travel dates: 02/03/2015 – 27/08/2015Rail Passes: 20% discount for FranceRail PassSales dates: Until 06/04/2015Travel dates: Up to 6 months fromissuance date. Valid on 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9days within 1 month passes.

Free additional days included in theEurail Global PassTravellers get 2 to 5 additional days oftravel included for free in their EurailGlobal Pass. Conditions: 2 additional days offered fora 15-day pass. 3 additional days offeredfor a 21-day pass. 5 additional daysoffered for a 1 month rail pass. Sales dates: 1 February – 31 March2015Travel dates: Pass must be activatedwithin 6 month.

20% discount forGerman Rail Pass Sales dates: 01February 2015 – 31March 2015Travel dates: 01February 2015 – 31May 2015.

One free day for a selection ofEurail One Country Passesand Eurail Regional PassesUntil 28/04/2015, when book-ing a Eurail pass, one freeadditional day of travel isoffered! Sales dates: Until 28/04/2015Travel dates: Up to 6 monthsfrom issuance date


NEWS

Cruise Norway has carveda niche for itself in the

Expedition Voyage sectorwith over 27 years of combined experience in theUSA and India. With an over-all growth of 84 per cent in2014, and their client’sincreasing desire to explore the remote and exot-ic, they have decided to position themselves as a dedicated operator for

Authentic Expedition Voyagesto untouched lands.

John Ambat, ExecutiveVice President, ExpeditionVoyages says, “We are very proud to announce thelaunch of our new companyExpedition Voyages.

2014 has been asuccessful year for us, with an overall growthin USD turnover of 84 per cent ascompared to 2013.

Revenue margins toohave shown a healthy growthof 59 per cent over the previous year.”

Expedition Voyages willcontinue operations seamless-ly. It will remain the oldest trav-el partner in India (2007) aswell the GSA for the hundredyear old Norwegian ShippingCompany Hurtigruten, whosefleet of 12 ships sails to theeco-fragile Polar Regions of the Arctic and Antarctic. Ambat

says, “We continue to repre-sent Silversea, the Ultra-Luxury shipping company, whosail to over 500 destinationsWorld Wide, including somenew exotic new destinationsmentioned earlier. Partneringwith G-Adventures andPoseidon Expeditions, we offera wide spectrum of Expeditionvoyages to the dedicatedadventure seekers, right fromthe North Pole to the South Pole.”

He adds, “One of ourmajor strategies is to investsubstantially on web marketingthrough Google ad-word cam-paigns, besides other forms ofmarketing. Innovative initia-tives, like purchasing ‘mar-ketable’ domains, have led tocreating dedicated websites,which are product specific.”

With the launch of the new company – Expedition Voyages,Cruise Norway is celebrating an exciting phase in the eightyears they have operated in India. With this the team looksforward to making exotic and pristine locales easilyaccessible to the clients.

Expedition Voyages launched

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Thai Airways and Tourism Authority ofThailand support Caddies golf tournament

Thai Airways International, Tourism Authority of Thailand and Royal Thai Embassy supported Caddies Welfare TrustMembers Charity Golf Tournament that was held at the Delhi Golf Club on the February 27, 2015 to raise supportingfunds for medical care of caddies. Thai Airways sponsored a grand prize consisting of two return air tickets sectorDelhi/Bangkok/ Delhi and two nights three days stay in Thailand.

Espen FjermerosCEOExpedition Voyages

John AmbatExecutive Vice PresidentExpedition Voyages

Shanthini ManoharGeneral Manager (Marketing)Expedition Voyages


Ramoji Film CityI am very glad that India Travel Awards has come to South India. It is a big encouragement for any organisation to receive an award. Tourism is a businesswhich certainly requires more boost. As compared to the GDPs of all the countries worldwide, I think we have a lot to learn in India. India Travel Awardswill encourage the organisations to put their best to the business.

Rajiv JalnapurkarCEO

World Travel Studio.comWest India has a lot of potential. I think it contributes about30 per cent to pan India. With Visa-on- Arrival beinglaunched by the government, tourism will get a big boost.Similarly, after achieving the India Travel Award, everyonein the travel industry will get a big encouragement andwork harder.

Haresh KoyandeFounder and Managing Director

South Africa Tourism We are absolutely moved to get this award. It means somethingwhen you know that over three lakh people are voting for thisaward. It is an encouragement for everyone in the office. We havean extremely hard working team for South Africa tourism in India.There is a huge commitment from the head office so, theconfidence that one has on the destination is worth it.

Hanneli SlabberCountry Manager

Summit Hotels and ResortsI think it is a good thing to have awards to felicitate peoplewho work so hard. This is the first time that I've seen thisinitiative being taken. There are so many people who areworking in different fields, from village tourism to gettingtourists to this region from different parts of the country.If we can improve the infrastructure, then we will beamong the best.

Sumit MitrukaManaging Director

Incentives and Conference PlannersI think it is great to have an award ceremony organised specificallyfor East India. I would like to give a ‘Thumbs up’ to this as it isrecognising the achievements in the travel industry in this region.The awareness about a certain region depends on propercampaigning and the award will surely lead to the same for EastIndia.

Sunaina ChatterjeeChief Executive

roomsXML SolutionsIndia Travel Awards is very encouraging and a big step taken. WestIndia is a big market which is gradually developing and with awardsbeing organised specifically for this region, I am sure everyonehere in the travel industry will get encouragement to keep up thegood work.

Prakash BangManaging Director

Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel Hyderabad Banjara HillsIt is a great initiative that has been taken to recognise the traveltrade in South India separately. Otherwise, we generally see thatmost of the awards happen for pan India. Many hotels are comingup now in each of the regions so they can be recognised andencouraged to do better work.

Rajneesh MalhotraGeneral Manager

Clubside Tours & TravelsIt is an excellent idea to organise awards region wise. Each and every region has potential. But East India especially, is a budding marketand has mostly been ignored as compared to North or South India. So, I think East deserves to be a part of the travel industry and thisaward will turn out to be a huge encouragement.

Sumit PeriwalChief Executive Officer

Centrum DirectAll the regions of India have equal potential. We need toencourage more on that. We need to make it convenientfor the foreign tourists wherever they travel. All facilitiesshould be present there. I see a lot of potential in this fieldand this kind of awards will encourage us to make it better.It will help us to connect with the travel community and willtake us an inch forward to know the travel industry better.

Harendra ChoudharyGeneral Manager (North & East)

India Travel Awards supports, promotes and develops the Indian travel and tourism industry by identifying and rewarding excellence in the travel industry. Award winners from all the four regions share their moment of pride

with after receiving the award.

Recognising powerhouse of talent3 4 TRAVTALK A P R I L 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 INDIA TRAVEL AWARDS

Country Inn & Suites By Carlson,MysoreI think it's very important because South India isa key market in tourism whether it is Kerala,Andhra Pradesh or Karnataka. All these statesare upcoming tourist destinations and I think theyall have potential. This award will give a lot ofvisibility to our hotel and the kind of facilities thatwe have. It will also boost Mysore as a destinationwith garden and palaces.

Pankaj SaxenaGeneral Manager



3 6 TRAVTALK A P R I L 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 AVIATION

2014 was a momentous yearfor Etihad Airways and the

first quarter on 2015 has con-tinued to be exemplary. Theyear ended with the launch ofits new aircrafts A380 and B787taking the skies and welcomingthe much-awaited Residenceby Etihad. “As we have done somany times in our short history,we are reshaping the landscapeof modern air travel in our own way. This is a culminationof many years of hard work and tremendous endeavour by hundreds of people both in our airline and outside,” says James Hogan, Presidentand Chief Executive Officer,Etihad Airways

The flagship aircraftsushered in the New Year withdistinctive new livery and allnew cabin interiors, whichinclude the ultra-luxurious

Residence by Etihad, the onlythree-room suite in the sky.

“Inspired by traditionalEmirati design patterns andfacets of our home Abu Dhabi, the bold and excitingnew aircraft livery reflects ourstrong and proud Arabian her-itage in a fresh and modernway,” adds Hogan.

The Residence by Etihadfeatures a living room, sepa-rate ensuite shower room, andbedroom, and as another firstin the airline industry, a dedi-

cated Butler. Measuring 125square feet in total, TheResidence by Etihad is locatedon the forward upper deck ofthe A380 and is for single ordouble occupancy.

The A380 is also the onlyEtihad Airways aircraft to offerthe first apartment, which is acomplete living space with areclining lounge chair and an ottoman.

“With the launch of theseaircraft, we usher in a new eraof unparalleled luxury, comfortand service. These innovationsrepresent our vision for thefuture,” he adds.

Etihad Airways has alsocompleted a Korean FinanceLease for its second newAirbus A380 aircraft and isgearing up to add to its fleet.The transaction, which is struc-tured as a 15-year, fixedcoupon full-payout financelease, is the first ever Koreanfinancing to be arranged cov-ering the entire cost of a brand new A380 aircraft.Hogan adds, “We are delighted

to have engaged so positivelywith Korean investors, therebysecuring strong interest from Korean institutions in the course of our first entry into the Korean market, which we see as a potentiallyfruitful longer term partnershipfor us in the future.”

Etihad Airways will take delivery of four A380s and three Boeing 787-9s in2015. The airline also unveileda new cabin crew uniform. It’sthe first major uniform re-launch since the airline’s formation in 2003 and incorpo-rates the same colours usedfor the cabin interior and new aircraft livery.

Etihad Airways transformed expectations of commercial air travel by offering The Residence by Etihad. Now asthe airline completes a Korean finance lease for its second A380, gets you more details on the aircraft.

Etihad’s three-room suite in the airDE V I KA JE E T

We are delighted to haveengaged so positively withKorean investors, therebysecuring strong interestfrom Korean institutions in

the course of our firstentry into the

Korean market

James HoganPresident and CEO,Etihad Airways

Growing FleetThe much-awaited

Residence by Etihadlaunched along with aircrafts A380 and B787taking the skies

Ultra-luxuriousResidence by Etihad: theonly three-room suite inthe sky with a dedicatedbutler

Etihad Airways hasalso completed a KoreanFinance Lease for itssecond new Airbus A380 aircraft

The Residence A380

The Lobby, A380 Upper Deck


AVIATION

Cricketing skills counted themost on this pitch as 384

members of travel trade con-

verged as part of 32 teamsover the weekend at theEmirates Airlines’ two-daycricket match titled ‘Emirates

Cricket Trade Tournament2015 in Mumbai.

Held at the PoliceGymkhana Grounds, the match

started at 9 AM on March 21with Mumbai Masti emergingas the winners late evening onMarch 22. Abacus co-spon-sored the Emirates CricketTrade Tournament includingtech gadgets to the BestBatsman, Bowler and Fielder.The main prize was, however,the magnificent Emirates tro-phy that was revealed at a net-working party on Friday.

Never a dull moment After the first day of

clashes between the variousteams, it all boiled down to twosemi-final matches on March22 for six overs each withBrussels Diamond v/s MumbaiMasti and Amsterdam Magicv/s Rio Rogers. While MumbaiMasti defeated BrusselsDiamond by making 52 runs,Rio Rogers won their matchwith 65 runs in just 5.3 overs.However, Mumbai Masti wasthe clear favourite and won thefinal match by 13 runs amidstloud cheering. India’s famousex-Test Cricket Captain, DilipVengsakar was present to giveaway the final prizes.

The cricket match hosted by Emirates Airlines for its tradepartners saw impressive turnout even on a weekend.Even though the winning team took away the tournamenttrophy, the travel fraternity was the ultimate winner.

The tussle of the trade

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It was a very goodinitiative byEmirates. Thecricket matchbrought membersof the tradetogether and whatbetter way to dothis than cricket

Emirates Airlinetapped into anational passion.What a metaphorfor our space!Players forgetwho they workedfor and it was allabout team effort

There was somuch camaraderieon the ground onthose two daysbetween players.Everyone forgotwho they workedfor and justenjoyed the game

Marzban AntiaManaging DirectorFans on Stands

Jeetendra SawhneyManaging DirectorAbacus India

John NairVP and Head (Corporate TravelIndia), Cox & Kings

Winning TeamMumbai Masti emerged

as the final winner afterdefeating the opposing team by 13 runs


Taking centrestage at ITB BerlinITB Berlin in Germany this year witnessed an increase in trade visitors, longer duration of stay of trade visitors and exhibitors. The India Pavilion also won thesecond prize for the Best Stand in the Asia, Australia and Oceania category. Showcasing its cultural heritage at the fair, brand India was projected throughmarketing ‘Incredible India’ with the help of outdoor media by branding buses and outdoor backlit billboards. Evoking the Buddhist heritage of India, the Pavilionwas built with the Sanchi Stupa in the middle and trade partners all around.

3 8 TRAVTALK A P R I L 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 FAMILY ALBUM


A P R I L 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 TRAVTALK 3 9FAMILY ALBUM

Travel trade converge in Berlin

Contd. on page 41



QAny takeaways from theTAFI convention? The convention was successful

despite all the obstacles especially theweather challenge in Istanbul airport

and the heavy snow and rain in theregion a few days before the conven-tion. We realised that we should havea plan B, which we did and becauseof that we succeeded in holding theconvention as per plans.

Also, when you have profession-al speakers and an interesting sched-ule, people will attend and you willhave a fruitful convention. The conven-tion was an eye-opener for the agentswhere they saw with their own eyeshow safe the country is, even safer

than their own cities, and how modernand developed with well-maintainedattractions Israel is. They also sawhow Indians were welcomed in Israel.The impact is greater when peopleexperience it for themselves.

QIs the budget for Indialikely to increase this

year? The final budget for this year is

still unknown because of the electionthat happened on March 17. We arenow waiting for the coalition to beformed and the budget to beapproved. Till then, we will work as perlast year’s budget. According to plans,the budget will increase during theyears and we will invest in projectsafter we evaluate them.

QWhat kind of visa relax-ations is Israel looking at?Israel has facilitated the visa

process in India in recent years andthe visa is done through VFS.Regarding group visa which is doneby the DMCs in Israel through theInterior Ministry in Israel, we want toreduce the number of members from10 to five people. We are working onthat and hopefully it will happen soon.

QWhat is the ministrydoing to improve air con-

nectivity between India andIsrael?

The Ministry is offering a safetynet agreement to the companies andwe are trying to convince Indian car-riers to fly to Israel. It’s a financial deci-sion and we claim that if it is econom-ically worth it to ELAL to fly all theseyears, then it should be worth it forothers as well.

QWhat activities have youplanned for the agents

this year?We will conduct roadshows and

cultural events in different cities. Wehave also increased our budget forjoint promotional activities.Familiarisation tours will also happenfor those who are keen to invest in thebusiness along with corporates for theMICE segment.

QWhat kind of numbers areyou expecting this year?We are expecting to reach

50,000 this year with more MICE andleisure travellers. We think that it willbe 45 per cent pilgrimage, 35 per centleisure and 20 per cent MICE. Thecities of Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru,Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad,

Kolkata, Cochin, Vadodara andNagpur have shown good potential.

QCan you share detailsabout your specialist pro-

gram? So far, more than 720 agents

have registered just two months afterits launch. We will soon announce thewinners of the tickets. We will come upwith a second program in the nearfuture with more information about thedestination. We are promoting the pro-gram with our media partner who is dis-tributing more prizes for agents whoregister and complete the program.

With the recently-concluded TAFI convention it is time for Israel to take feedback and work towards making thedestination easy for agents to sell in India. Hassan Madah, Director (India), Israel Ministry of Tourism, talks aboutthe measures it is taking for this.

Easy visas, better connections to Israel

HA Z E L JA I N

We are expecting to reach50,000 this year with more

MICE and leisure travellers. Wethink that it will be 45 per centpilgrimage, 35 per cent leisure

and 20 per cent MICE

Hassan MadahDirector (India), Israel Ministry of Tourism

Discover Israel Israel has facilitated the visa

process in India in recent years andthe visa is done through VFS.Regarding group visa which is doneby the DMCs in Israel through theInterior Ministry in Israel, chancesare the number of members may bereduced from 10 to five people

In India to officiate the openingof TrawellTag Cover-More’s

second office in Mumbai,Group CEO of Cover-More,Peter Edwards said thatCover-More will grow opera-tions in India to tap into thegrowing outbound travel vol-umes and continue investing inthe Indian business, withoutrevealing any figures for this.He said, “My aim was to visitMumbai and Delhi to meet keyexisting and potential business

partners and understand theIndian market.”

Global SIM for IndiaRevealing plans for the

India market, Dev Karvat, MDof TrawellTag Cover-More, India,said, “The agenda withCoverMore coming in is not toexpand in terms of offices but tobring in more specialised prod-ucts – risk and non-risk both –within the travel insurancespace. There are a lot of prod-ucts that we want to launch. Onthe non-risk side, Cover-More

has specialist travel-relatedproducts like medical assistanceand Cover-More Global SIMcard. These are the productsthat we would look at to be inte-grated into our current offerings.”

“The Cover-More GlobalSIM card has been running verywell in the Australian market sowe are in the process of testingthe same thing in India and cre-ating the right infrastructure toactually start selling that product.We don’t have a timeline in placeat the moment but I would say

about six to 12 months’ time. Weare in the testing phase rightnow,” Karvat added. TrawellTagis currently focused on the B2Bplatform and committed to itstravel agent partners. “We arenot thinking of going B2C andhave been conducting our travelagents engagement programquite successfully. We complet-ed eight cities last year and we plan to cover another 15cities this year, engaging those who actually sell travelinsurance across the counter,”Karvat said.

The company is planning to integrate a lot many specialist travel-related non-risk products that Cover-More already has in itscurrent offerings. Among them are products like the Cover-More Global SIM card that is currently being tested in India.

TrawellTag forays into non-risk products

TT BU R E AU We are looking to part-ner with Indian airlines

and are already in discus-sion with a couple of them.

There are about four airlinesin India and we would

like to work with allfour of them

Dev KarvatMD, TrawellTag Cover-More, India


Berlin plays host to tourism fraternityA P R I L 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 TRAVTALK 4 1FAMILY ALBUM


ATTRACTIONS

For more information, contact us at: [email protected]

APRIL 2015NATIONAL9 Mumbai MICE Roadshow, Korea Tourism

Organization14 Jaipur Best of Australia, Tourism

Queensland & Tourism Victoria15 Chandigarh Best of Australia, Tourism

Queensland & Tourism Victoria16 Visakhapatnam South India Travel Awards17 Indore Best of Australia, Tourism

Queensland & Tourism Victoria19-21 Jaipur Great Indian Travel Bazaar21 Coimbatore Best of Australia, Tourism

Queensland & Tourism Victoria21 Bengaluru Tourism Ireland- Visit Britain

INTERNATIONAL

14-16 Beijing China Outbound Travel & Tourism Market

14-16 Shanghai IT & CM China 201515-17 Cape Town WTM Africa22-24 São Paulo WTM Latin America

MAY 2015NATIONAL8-10 Cochin Hoteltech Kerala25 Chennai B2B Roadshow,

Oman Tourist Office27 Bengaluru B2B Roadshow,

Oman Tourist Office29 Delhi B2B Roadshow

Oman Tourist Office

INTERNATIONAL

4-7 Dubai Arabian Travel Mart9 - 11 Durban Indaba 2015, South African

Tourism21-23 Dhaka Bangladesh International Tourism

Fair (BITF)26- 29 Ontario Rendezvous Canada 2015,

Canadian Tourism Commission

JUNE 2015NATIONAL

1 Mumbai B2B Roadshow, Oman Tourist Office

10 Kolkata Why Spain? – Presentation & Networking Dinner for Travel Trade

10-12 Bengaluru India International Travel Mart

11 Ahmedabad Why Spain? – Presentation & Networking Dinner for Travel Trade

11-13 Pune India Hospitality Expo

12 Pune Why Spain? – Presentation & Networking Dinner for Travel Trade

INTERNATIONAL

21-25 Melbourne Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE)

JULY 2015NATIONAL13-14 Mumbai Kiwi Link India workshop,

Tourism New Zealand13 Goa Learn South Africa14-15 Ahmedabad Learn South Africa16 Jaipur Learn South Africa17-19 Chennai India International Travel Mart20 Jalandhar Learn South Africa20 Kolkata Thailand Road Show22 Lucknow Learn South Africa22 Delhi Thailand Road Show23 Kolkata Learn South Africa 24 Mumbai Thailand Road Show24 Mumbai Learn South Africa 24-26 Hyderabad Travel & Tourism Fair25 Pune Learn South Africa 27 Hyderabad Learn South Africa 28 Chennai Learn South Africa 29 Trichy Learn South Africa 30 Chennai Learn South Africa 31 Bengaluru Learn South Africa 31–Aug 2 Kolkata Travel & Tourism Fair

Exotic, yet cultured and historic with spectacular islands, Thailand attractsmany tourists round the year. features a quick review of top 6 placesyou must experience while in the kingdom.

TT BUREAU

6 must-visit places in Thailand

Amphawa DistrictAmphawa is 63 km west of Bangkok and it makes

a day trip destination. It is home to floating market whichcuts through Khlong (canal) Amphawa and a small com-munity of vintage cafés, restaurants and wooden shop-houses selling artsy souvenirs, books and Thai sweets.Besides the floating market, the riverside scenery, laid-back ambience reminiscent of a past era and a lineupof waterfront boutique guesthouses are the reason forits popularity.

Wat Khanon TempleMore than 300 Nang Yai puppets are well preserved in this temple near

Amphoe Photharam. Nang Yai is an old form of Thai entertainment with shadowplay puppets. The performance involves manipulating puppets made of cowhidein front of a backlit white screen with musical and narrative accompaniment.It prompted master craftsmen of the Royal Court to create a set of Nang Yaipuppets which they called Phra Nakhon Wai, or Shaking the City. The puppetswere used for royal functions and special occasions.

Sampran Riverside ResortSampran Riverside, formerly known as Rose

Garden Riverside, is a family-run property nearBangkok. Visitors can experience authentic Thaiway of life here. It is a 70-acre riverside propertywhich is more like a community rather than a typ-ical resort. The facilities in the property include afour star hotel with 160 rooms, six Thai housesaround a lake, Arusaya Spa, four restaurants, 10meetings rooms and a 10-acre Organic Farm.

Resort Bann Amphawa Resort & Spa at SamutSongkhram

Baan Amphawa Resort & Spa offers a retreat on the bank ofthe Mae Klong River which blends traditional Thai houses withcontemporary Thai luxury to create a haven of historical eleganceamong the lush tropical landscape. It invites to get close to theriver of life with the comfortable and relaxing privacy home-like 61units in traditional Thai house. Each unit is placed in tropical gardencreating the perfect hideaway from the crowd.

Ractchaburi’s local factory of Dragon EarthenWater Jars

Ratchaburi used to be the hub for ceramic wares. Foryears, they used water jars and slowly due to the Thai people’schanging lifestyle, the jars started to diminish. Ratchaburi’sceramics ware market was also affected by world economic cri-sis. The demand in ceramics ware had decreased by 30-40 percent. At present most of the jar makers, including small-scaleones, are wiped out by this wave of lifestyle changes. There aresome surviving handful ones in Ratchaburi.

Farmer’s Market (Talad Sukjai)Sampran Riverside got engaged with the local

community to open a weekend farmer’s marketcalled ‘Talad Sukjai’ in November 2010, for thosewho practice organic farming. Regular tests are car-ried out every two weeks to ensure toxic chemicalsare not used and monthly workshops related toorganic farming and holistic health are provided tovisitors. The community market has its own directentrance and is open every Saturday and Sundayfrom 10:00 hrs to 17:00 hrs.



AGENTS

Equipped with years of expe-rience, Mumbai-based The

Byke Hospitality now owns andmanages eight hotels acrosscategories ranging from three-star to four-star properties inpopular tourist destinations.Having perfected the art of

hospitality, the hotel companyis now about to launch twomore properties.

Speaking about the newexpansion plans is MihirSarkar, Vice President, TheByke Hospitality. “We will beadding two more properties toour fold this year. The first onewill be a business hotel inThane in Mumbai and the sec-ond one will be our first inter-national resort in the UnitedKingdom. This will be in the Isle

of Wight in the coming fewmonths,” he revealed.

Explaining the strategyfor promoting these properties,Sarkar adds, “Our aim is togrow in the metros where thereis a vacuum of good hotels interms of quality accommoda-tion facilities with customizedbudget. Each of our propertiesharnesses the best-in-classtechnology in tune with globaltrends so that we can deliverservice as per international

standards. We employ a teamof highly-trained staff that dis-plays efficiency and compe-tence, while extending warmthto all our guests.”

All properties of The Byketakes pride in serving vegetar-ian, multi-cuisine dishesenriched with natural andauthentic flavours. “Our chefsdelight in using the finest ofingredients to excite the paletteof all our patrons,” Sarkar says.

Revealing the demogra-phy of its clientele, Sarkar saysthat the religious and touristsectors have been the group’sstronghold for a long time. “Asfar as the metros were con-cerned, we have generallystayed away from them. Butnow with new properties com-ing up, we want to tap that mar-ket as well. We will thereforeventure to cover major metros.We are currently looking atdestinations of touristic importance like Lonavala,Mahabaleswar, Agra andShimla,” he states.

A fast-emerging name in the hospitality sector with luxury resorts and boutiquehotels under its banner, The Byke Hospitality is leveraging its years ofexperience to expand and add more properties to its portfolio.

Byke Group to add more hotels in 2015

TT BU R E AU Our aim is to grow in themetros where there is avacuum of good hotelsin terms of qualityaccommodation facilitieswith customized budget

Mihir SarkarVice PresidentThe Byke HospitalityGrowth Story

Byke Hospitality owns and manages 8hotels across categoriesranging from 3-star to 4-star properties in popular tourist destinations

The hotel company isnow about to launch twomore properties

Religious and tourist sectors have been thegroup’s stronghold for along time

Inspired by a mission to enrichevery guest experience, one

person and one moment at atime, The Residence collectionis renowned for creating relax-ing environments that reflect

the destination, complementedby bespoke hospitality thatmakes every guest feel as ifthey belong.

Anjum Lokhandwala,Founder and CEO, OutboundKonnections, that representsThe Residence luxury hotels,

talks about how it promotes theproduct in the growing luxuryoutbound market in India.“Mainly operating in the B2Bmarket, we promote theresorts in the traditional andemerging markets throughroad shows, trade fairs,

tele-marketing, co-branding, direct sales through meeting B2B agents and famil-iarization trips.”

She adds that while thefocus has always been theleisure market, they will nowalso target the incentive,

weddings and the events segments.

3-city roadshowThe company recently

concluded a three-city road-show in New Delhi, Mumbaiand Nagpur and hosted agents

over cocktails and din-ner to thank them fortheir support. “Theresponse was verygood as The Residencebrand is well estab-lished in the marketnow. Nagpur is anemerging market for us.This year, we haveplanned familiarisationtrips for the trade. Wealso plan to reach out totier II and III cities andconduct product train-ing. We are looking atsubstantial growth asthe market is now famil-

iar with the brand and its serv-ices,” Lokhandwala adds.

Observing some trendsin the market, she says thatIndia is now a mature luxurymarket and the number ofhigh net-worth traveller’s aregrowing at a fast pace. “Family

holidays and honeymoonersare the trend and they areseeking luxury getaways.Indians are now morefocussed in terms of choosingthe destination they want totravel to, and from the desti-nation the right products theywant to experience. TheResidence being a luxuryproduct has huge potential in this changing Indian market,” she adds.

Lokhandwala says thatdestination-wise there is anincrease of almost 20 per centin terms of Indian arrivals.“These numbers look to dou-ble up in the coming season,”she predicts.

Slated to expand thecollection further are four newopenings: a resort on theisland of Bintan in Indonesia,a second resort in Maldives,and two in Tunisia – one willbe a desert resort in Douz which is the gateway tothe Sahara, while the otherwill be a historical gem in the UNESCO World Heritage-protected TheMedina of Tunis.

The Residence by Cenizaro offers guests a new online experience to explorethe group’s four luxury hotels. Represented in India through OutboundKonnections, it is aggressively tapping the India market.

The Residence: Home away from home

TT BU R E AU

Indians are now morefocussed in terms ofchoosing the destinationthey want to travel to, andfrom the destination theright products they wantto experience

Anjum LokhandwalaFounder and CEOOutbound Konnections


A P R I L 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 TRAVTALK 4 5CLIPBOARD


4 6 TRAVTALK A P R I L 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 MOVEMENTS

The Orchid MumbaiMumbaiRaj Panda has joined The Orchid Mumbai as the F&B manager.Before joining Orchid he was working in the same capacity at

Ramada Gurgaon Central, Gurgaon. His keyskills include pre-opening of various restau-rants, administration and operations of foodand beverage, staff training, troubleshoot-ing and implementing improvement pro-cedures as well as documenting operating

procedures and financial management. Rajstarted his career at Marriot

Welcom, New Delhi. Healso worked for Soy,Dubai as an assistantmanager.

The Ramada Plaza JHVVaranasiSandeep Bhatnagar has been appointed as General Manager atThe Ramada Plaza JHV, Varanasi. In his new role, Bhatnagar will be

responsible for creating high standards, engag-ing experiences for guests and foster inno-vation to create differentiating guest expe-riences. He comes with over 15 years ofexperience in setting up operationalexcellence and key deliverables across

cross-cultural teams. Prior to this,Bhatnagar was with The

Grand, New Delhi asEAM rooms division,The Jai Mahal Palaceas Front Office manag-er, among others.

Kesari ToursMumbaiPramod Dalvi has been appointed as VP, Public Relations atKesari Tours. He will be responsible for co-ordination with

tourism boards, airlines, government bodies,cruises, DMCs, conducting lectures oncea week at the academy, value addition toC&C department, managing social media,CRD, future plans, assisting HR andadmin for manpower selection, co-ordi-

nation for road shows, and overseeing theforex department. He has more than

40 years of experience, havingworked with Thomas Cook

India, Carlson WagonlitTravel, Korean Airlinesand FCH Centrum.

Dilpreet Singh Bindra has been appointed as Director ofOperations at JW Marriott New Delhi Aerocity. Bindra started hiscareer as a management trainee in 1996 atTaj Mahal Palace and Towers Mumbai andworked as Assistant Manager In Foodand Beverage operations at the hotel fortwo years. Following a long stint at TajPalace, he became the GM at TheGateway Resort, Damdama Lake in Feb2014, opened the new resort andworked there for 6 monthsbefore he left Taj group tojoin J W Marriott, Aerocityas Director of Operations inNovember 2014.

The 523-room JW Marriott Hotel New Delhi Aerocity has appointedAshish Nehra as the Food and Beverage Manager at the hotel.Ashish Nehra started his career with theOberoi Group at The Oberoi, Amarvilas,Agra as a Front Office assistant fromFebruary 2004 to May 2006. Graduatingfrom Oberoi Center of Learning andDevelopment in 2008, he joined TheOberoi, New Delhi from July 2008 toDecember 2011 and held various respon-sibilities as the Assistant Manager Foodand Beverage. In December 2011, he movedto Wildflower Hall, Charabra, Shimla asthe F&B Service Manager beforemoving to The Oberoi, Udaivilas,Udaipur in August 2013.

Aakar Lords Inn, SaputaraGujarat Aakar Lords Inn, Saputara, Gujarat, has appointed Prabir Chakias Operations Manager. He brings with him more than 14 yearsof experience in the hospitality industry withspecialisation in F&B Operations. Priorto his new role, he served as ExecutiveAssistant Manager at The Duke Retreat.He is a Hotel Management graduatefrom IHRM, Kolkata. In his new assign-ment, he will be independently respon-sible for the entire operations and F&Bof the hotel.

Carlson Rezidor Hotel GroupGurgaonCarlson Rezidor Hotel Group has appointed Zubin Saxena as VicePresident, Development, South Asia. Zubin is based in Carlson

Rezidor’s Gurgaon office in the NationalCapital Region. In his new role, Zubin isresponsible for driving development inSouth Asia and growing its hotel portfoliothrough management and franchiseopportunities. Zubin has over 15 years

of experience and expertise in real estatefinance, development and strategic plan-

ning and operations in the hospitalitysector. Prior to joiningCarlson Rezidor, he held therole of Director,Development, SouthwestAsia at IHG.

ITC Hotels ChennaiAnil Chadha has been appointed as Area Manager South & GeneralManager for ITC Grand Chola. In his new capacity, Chadha will over-

see the hotel’s operations and also provideinsight about the nuances of the ITC GrandChola Dynasty, its Responsible Luxury andto elevate the hotel to a world class luxuryhotel. In addition to this he will also overseeoperations of other ITC Hotels in Bengaluru,Kerala, Hyderabad and Chennai. With over22 years of hospitality experience, Chadha's

previous roles spans successful terms withother ITC Hotels including ITC Maurya,

New Delhi, ITC Gardenia,Bangalore, ITC Windsor,Bangalore, ITC Mughal, Agra

and ITC Sonar, Kolkata.

Hyatt Regency GurgaonGurgaonRoger Wright has been appointed General Manager of HyattRegency Gurgaon. He joins the 451-room Hyatt Regency Gurgaon

with over 30 years of international hotelexperience. Wright has led twelve 5-starand 5-star deluxe business and leisureHyatt and internationally branded hotelsacross the Asia and Pacific Region. Hisknowledge of hotel operations, positioning,

financial and strategic focus will play a vitalrole in further developing the hotel. A native

New Zealander, Roger first joined Hyatt as pre-opening Director of Rooms of the Hyatt Regency

Fiji, moving on to various Hyatt Regencyproper ties including the Hyatt

Monterey in California.

Vijay Wanchoo, Sr Executive Vice President & GM, TheImperial New Delhi says he is a hill-lover. “I love heading out

to lesser known spots. Having roots in Kashmir,hence for me Srinagar is a heaven, truly.

I am a mountains person and Shimlais an equally attractive destinationas my grandfather and father livedthere for many years,” he says. Avegetarian by choice, Wanchoo says,“It is quite difficult to find yourchoice of cuisine in many countriesbut it’s always a memorable

experience, each time I travelabroad.” In his free time,

Wanchoo likes tofollow up on sports,specially cricket, andsurf the net.

Though this was his first visit to India, Christophe Plantier,General Manager, Constance Le prince Maurice, jokingly says

that he is mostly working all the timebut when he is not he escapes toIndia. He says, “I am mostlyworking but if I am free I lovedoing a lot of water activities likekite surfing, wind surfing, divingand water skiing.” Plantier lovesvisiting South Africa andSingapore, especially forshopping. He also loves going

back to Europe but not very oftenas he believes that after 20 years

of work experience, he is now more

Mauritian thanFrench.

Anne Busfield, General Manager, Holiday Inn GoldenMile Hong Kong, says she loves to go for hiking in

Hong Kong whenever she is notworking. Anne says she also loves

to travel in India to experience itsrich culture. “The best thing

about Hong Kong is you can goin the wilds and go hiking, outin the vegetation, in the freshair. One can take a bus or tramupto The Peak, which is

the highest point in Hong Kong. Also,travelling comeswith my job but Ilove to travel toIndia. This isbecause of its richhistory and thefriendly nature ofpeople here. So

every time I am hereI long for extendedtrips,” she says.

Talking People is a special dedicated corner, created as a sounding board for who’s who of the Indian and International travel industry. With Talking People, it is our endeavour to bring you face-to-face with people.Contributed by: Anupriya Bishnoi and Samapti Das

JW Marriott Hotel, AerocityNew Delhi



Postal Reg. No.: DL(ND)-11/6044/2015-16-17; WPP No.: U(C)-178/2015-17 for posting on 1st-2nd and 16th-17th

of the same month at New Delhi PSO, New Delhi - 110001, RNI No.: 53492/1991Date of Publication:30-03-2015

QIn his budget speech theFinance Minister mentioned

providing resources toKumbalgarh and other hill forts inthe state. What is happening inthat direction?

Kumbhalgarh and other hill forts likeAmber, Chittorgarh, Gangron, Jaisalmer,and Ranthambore have been declaredWorld Heritage Sites by the UNESCO. Thestate government will be doing the needfulto develop these hill forts. That the UnionBudget has earmarked funds for its devel-opment is surely a welcome step. We arealso making efforts to enlist fresco paint-

ings of Shekhawati region and step wellsof Abhaneri, Bandikui and Bundi in theUNESCO heritage list in the future.

QHow is the Central FinancialAssistance of ̀ 10,781.01 lakh

given to the Rajasthan Govt. during 2009-14 being utilised?

The funds are being used to developtourism infrastructure, new circuits, upgra-dation of museums and monuments.

QWhat are your focus areas forpromotion of tourism in 2015?There are a number of focus areas for

Rajasthan, among them are MICE, spiritual,health and wellness, adventure, wildlife andwedding. It would be appropriate to mentionhere that in the latest budget the state government has given high priority to thetourism sector. For instance, there is a 68%hike in allocation for tourism art and culturein 2015-16 vis-à-vis the last financial year. Asum of `35 crore has been earmarked forthe development of tourist destinations whileanother ̀ 20 crore has been earmarked forthe development of various museums andpanoramas. The travel mart, Great

Indian Travel Bazaar, will be once again held in Jaipur. The year 2015 will finally see Rajasthan becoming an all-importanttourism hub. There will be development in new circuits, infrastructure, and increasein night tourism, creation of more rooms and the launch of the revised Tourism Unit Policy. We are also hoping for improvedair connectivity in cities like Kota, Udaipurand Jodhpur.

QWhat is the tourist influx thatyou are looking at this year?

Have you developed any new cir-cuit for promotion this year?

There has been an increase of 9%on the arrival of tourists in the financial year

2014-15. With concerted efforts both inmarketing as well as development of infra-structure and new circuits – it is hoped thatincreasingly more tourists will visitRajasthan. The state is developing themega desert circuit (Jaisalmer-Jodhpur-Bikaner-Sambhar-Pali-Mount Abu) at thecost of `50 crore. The state is also plan-ning new circuits on ‘handicrafts’, ‘birding’and ‘spirituality’.

QFor the first time, forts andmonuments will

remain open atnight. What was thetourists’ reaction?

Well, we haverecently begun nighttourism with the AmerFort. The response hasbeen encouraging withover 200 tourists and vis-itors each evening. Thenumber is graduallyincreasingly. In times tocome Night Tourism willalso be introduced inother forts and monu-

ments. Adequate arrangements are beingmade for security. The Sound and LightShow is already operational at Amer Fort,Jantar Mantar, Kumbhalgarh and AkbariQuila in Ajmer. More monuments will soonhave this facility.

QThe Archaeological Survey ofIndia is planning to open the

5,000-year-old Kalibangan site for tourists. How are you planningto develop the site?

Since ASI is opening the Kalibangansite, the state government will surely lookinto how the area can be developed andits connectivity improved.

QWhat are the MICE opportuni-ties that you plan to tap?We will be pitching Rajasthan as an

ideal destination for MICE. In fact, a largenumber of hotels have been successfullyorganizing prestigious international con-ferences and conventions. The newly-developed Jaipur Exhibition & ConventionCentre (JECC) at Sitapura near Jaipurhas become a popular venue for MICEevents. Jaipur’s Birla Auditorium is knownpan-India for its prestigious and interna-tional conferences.

QHow has swine flu affectedtourism in Rajasthan?There has been negligible effect of

swine flu in tourist arrivals in the state. Thesituation is under control.

QWhat are your expectationsfrom Rajasthan Divas 2015?The expectations are that the event

becomes a popular annual draw for the vis-itors and tourists. We are hoping that theRajasthan Festival will attain the samedimensions as the Jaipur LiteratureFestival in terms of popularity.

Talking about the focus areas for promotion of tourism in 2015, Principal SecretaryTourism, Government of Rajasthan, SK Agarwal says they are looking at better airconnectivity, developing new circuits, and the launch of the revised Tourism Unit Policy.

Mega desert circuit @ ` 50 crore

PE D E N DO M A BH U T I A

The state is developing the mega desert circuit (Jaisalmer-Jodhpur-Bikaner-

Sambhar-Pali-Mount Abu) at the cost of ` 50 crore. The state is also planning

new circuits on ‘handicrafts’, ‘birding’ and ‘spirituality’

SK AgarwalPrincipal Secretary, Tourism

Government of Rajasthan

Tourism OasisEfforts being made to enlist fresco paintings of

Shekhawati region and step wells of Abhaneri, Bandikuiand Bundi in the UNESCO heritage list

` 35 crore has been earmarked for the development oftourist destinations while ̀ 20 crore has been earmarked forthe development of various museums and panoramas

The Sound and Light Show is already operational atAmer Fort, Jantar Mantar, Kumbhalgarh and Akbari Quila in Ajmer


Documents

ddppl.com TravTalkIndiatravtalkindia.com/pdf/2015/04-apr-2015-1.pdf · 2015. 4. 4. · Dr Sharma said that a museum is being set up by the Ministry of Culture at Lalitgiri. The state