Disclosure: Fairfest Media, the company which owns this publication, has been organizing international tourism exhibitions since 1989. Opinions expressed in the above article are the independent views of the author.

by Ravi Shanker Kapoor

MoT attempts image makeover as a job creator

Tourism Australia eyes Indian soaps +10

Ernakulam now a smoke-free destination +14

Bangalore — preferred city for expansion +19

In a bid to get rid of the percep-tion that tourism is only about fun and frolic of the rich, the Union Ministry of Tourism (MoT) has decided to present the sector as one which creates jobs and helps spread prosperity all over the country, cities as well as villages.

Inaugurating the fifth annual convention of the Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI) in New Delhi, Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahai said that his ministry has been able to convince the Plan-ning Commission to regard tour-ism as a sector with enormous potential for job creation. So, in its approach paper to the Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-17), the plan panel said, “The Tourism and Hospitality sector has a key role to play in promoting faster, sus-tainable and more inclusive eco-nomic growth.”

The paper went on to add, “Across the world, the tourism industry is one of the largest gen-erators of employment. In India, the travel and tourism sector is esti-mated to create 78 jobs per million rupees of investment compared to 45 jobs per million rupees in the manufacturing sector.”

This is indeed a welcome change effected by MoT officials and other policy makers, for the elitist perception of tourism has caused, among other things, high taxation and neglect of the sector.

Sahai’s zeal to promote the sector is indeed admirable. He has been actively participating in events and proactively interact-ing with other ministries and state

governments to promote tourism. His ministry’s proposal to organ-ise the first ‘Global Travel Mart’ on 12-12-2012 however, is a clear case of outdated thinking and govern-mental overreach.

There are several reasons why a sarkari travel mart is a bad idea. First, the area is already cramped with competing shows, so another show can only add to overcrowding. In no way would it make things better, as high offi-cials of MoT seemed to reason with this scribe on the sidelines of ADTOI convention. Second, while it may be fine to spend pub-lic money to participate in ‘global’ travel marts to promote India, it is quite another matter to do so to organise one within the country, the reason being good part of a ‘global’ mart, by definition, will be aiming at outbound promotions that the MoT is not supposed to be doing. National tourism

organizations of countries that host world’s largest travel shows do not spend taxpayers’ money on these shows; these are left to the private players.

Even if the MoT had to orga-nize a global travel mart, it will do well to ensure that it is exclusively focused on inbound promotions. It may be aimed at consolidating a plethora of inbound shows spon-sored by the states such as Ker-ala, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Goa. Moreover, it should be ideally in a city other than Delhi, which has not one but two successful inter-national travel marts.

A previous attempt like this in 2000 became highly conten-tious and landed in courts. The idea was quietly buried after the first edition.

As Sahai rightly said at the ADTOI convention, “Whenever government runs something, it messes it up.”

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Travel Agents 02Tour Operators 06International 10India 14Monuments 18Hospitality 19

Food&Beverage 21Technology 22Corporate 23Transport 24Aviation 26Events 28

Expedia has decided to expand its Travel Agents Affiliate Programme (TAAP) from just hotels to other related ser-vices, and is offering attractive commissions for bookings.

Agents can now earn 10% or more on land content and 1.5% on air content for Expe-dia package bookings, regard-less of the airline booked, including low-cost carri-ers. As a trade-off, Expedia will stop paying commission on bookings for standalone

flights. According to Vikram Malhi, country head, Expedia (India), Expedia offers access to numerous carriers which are not available through traditional GDS channels. In addition, there are incen-tive tier schemes for agents, from Standard to Platinum, depending on the booking volume. Expedia TAAP now operates in 15 markets around the world with over 17,000 travel agencies enrolled in the programme.

Agents can get the maximum returns from the luxury travel segment. After a quarterly advi-sory board meeting, a select

group of Passport Online users reported significant increases in business on the books for 2012.

“Our business for 2012

indicates the upscale American traveler is not going to be deterred by an election year. The affluent market isn’t as influenced by what is happening in the market-place or political arena. In par-ticular luxury cruises are ahead for us next year. We are also see-ing FIT clients turn into first time luxury cruisers and lov-ing it,” Passport Online reports. Though there was a bit of a dip in 4th quarter activity compared to the first three quarters of 2011, the business outlook for 2012 was strong.

Expedia beefs up agents programme

Passport Online upbeat on luxury

Singapore’s leading travel agency CTC Tourism Holdings has acquired Park Regis Singa-pore, a 203-room property in the city centre, for S$270 mil-lion (US$207 million). The prop-erty would continue to carry the Park Regis brand under the management of Australia-based StayWell Hospitality Group. It is also taking over an adjoining seven-storey office block, which will be renamed CTC Towers. The company’s growth plans

also include local and regional expansion in inbound tours, corporate travel, MICE and

online businesses, as well as acquisition of F&B and other tourism-related projects.

CTC Tourism Holdings buys Park Regis Singapore

Australia-based Flight Centre Limited (FLT) has come up with the Travelport Universal Desk-top, a solution to easily access and sell airfares and other travel content. Also, travel consultants would be able to access a faster and simpler research and book-ing tool. The application stream-lines the travel booking process

within a single, powerful plat-form. Agents can now gain access to advanced desktop func-tionality, including the ability to seamlessly combine all compo-nents of the travel itinerary and centrally manage profile and pol-icy information, all within the highly configurable desktop. It also provides agents access to

multi-source travel content and pricing, plus breakthrough travel management tools — all through a single platform. The applica-tion will initially be rolled out in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United King-dom, following which it will be extended to the remainder of FTL’s global network.

TUI agents benefit

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Flight Centre to start Travelport Universal Desktop

TRAVeLAGeNTS

Travel agents have greatly benefit-ted from online training modules launched by TUI Travel in August to educate the fraternity about Thomson and First Choice’s dif-ferentiated products. Max Mason, general manager of in-house and third party sales, said this train-ing will equip agents with the knowledge they need to sell more of TUI’s holidays.

The training, split into five modules, educates agents on Thomson’s Sensatori and Cou-ples, First Choice’s Holiday Vil-lage and SplashWorld as well as Thomson and First Choice’s Long Haul product.

It also introduces agents to TUI’s differentiated hotel con-cepts. Participants have to con-form to high levels of quality and must score 100% to be success-ful as TUI UK has set strict pass rates. Agents who pass all five of the modules will be entered into a prize draw to win an Apple pack-age worth over £600. So far, over 562 agents have completed all five modules and a further 174 agents are halfway through, TUI said.

Most travel agencies have not undergone change over time and are failing to connect with their customers, serial entrepreneur and best-selling author Nigel Botterill said in the Elite Travel Group conference held in Jersey.

“Most agents have a list of excuses, including tyre kick-ers (customers who seek advice then book elsewhere), the eco-nomic outlook and competi-tion from the internet,” Botter-ill said. He also pointed out that agents were failing to make use of

their database to regularly con-tact customers. Too many agen-cies are carrying on the way they were doing in 1991 and are not making the effort to update their databases, he opined. Agencies should try to tap the potential of the social media, he added. To increase their visibility and reach, agents must register on Google Places in order to appear on the first page of search results, and use separate telephone num-bers in each piece of marketing activity to track its success.

Agencies need to ramp up

In a recent report released by the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), a majority of the travel agencies today (88%) charge service fees, and trip planning has seen the strongest increase in the average fee amount charged (35%).

The report reveals that amongst agencies that have fees, 94% charge for air bookings, 63% charge for making rail reservations, while 61% assess a fee for trip planning.

The percentage of agencies charging a fee for cruises is also growing — up from 17% in 2007 to 22% in 2010. ASTA’s 2010 Labor & Compensation Report found that full-time agent and management categories showed

strong salary growth in 2010. The 44-page Service Fee report

examines average service fees for air, cruise, tours, car, hotel, rail and other bookings, as well as for such services as visa applica-tion assistance, while the 42-page

Labor & Compensation report, includes benchmarking data on compensation packages, hir-ing practices, salary ranges. The reports examine service fee and compensation changes from an agency’s point of view.

Trip planning takes chunk of service fees

Despite concerns over the recent floods in Thailand, as well as the dismal economic situation in Europe and the US, the Asso-ciation of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA) expects inbound tourists handled by its members to grow by 50% this year. Key markets

such as China and Japan are likely to be the growth drivers as there have been an increasing number of queries about the floods from these countries and members have continued to receive forward bookings for the last three months of the year. The burgeoning Asian

markets are expected to make up for the possible decline in visitor numbers from Europe and the US. Last year, the top nine mar-kets for ATTA were from Asia — China, Russia, India, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Indonesia.

TUI Travel is planning to relegate its low-selling agents to 7% com-mission and is all set to introduce a new tiered commission structure within travel agency consortia for the purpose. Henceforth, members could receive various levels of com-mission depending on their sales of TUI products. Currently, TUI has deals paying about 10% to 12%. TUI now wants to emphasise on driv-ing up retail partners’ performance and therefore is scrapping blanket commission rates for all consortia members regardless of volume.

Texas tourism and representa-tives from Austin, Fort Worth, Dallas, San Antonio, TaxFree Shopping Ltd, Houston and Wildcatter Ranch visited the UK recently to meet with travel agents, tour operators and Trav-elbag consumers to promote the Lone Star State in the UK market. As visitors from the UK make up the second largest group of inter-national inbound tourists to

Texas, the state is keen to promote its latest attractions and offer-ings to travel agents and prod-uct managers in both London and Manchester. Travel agents from Trailfinders in London, North American Travel Service and Thomas Cook in Manchester were treated to exclusive training sessions hosted by Texas Tour-ism and representatives from the state’s partners.

Agents must choose their group ATOL (Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing) very carefully in order to meet the requirements of the new Flight-Plus regula-tions due to come in next year. Members at the Elite Travel Group conference in Jersey were warned that not all consor-tia could cope with the failure of

a large member. The conference also informed that Elite mem-bers will be offered ATOL pro-tection on in-house products from December. The existing Elite Airfares and Elite Hotels systems will be combined into one, through which bookings will be ATOL protected under JTA Travel’s licence.

Agents, tread carefully

ATTA optimistic despite floods

TUI reduces commission

Texas woos Brits

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST · December 2011 TRAVeL AGeNTS 3

The 2011 Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) Tour-ism Forum and Travel Show-case, held during September 29-October 2, in Tokyo, focused

on the recovery of tourism after the devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11. JATA offi-cials estimated over 111,000 peo-ple were in attendance.

Japan showcases tourism potential

e-mail: reservations@hotelkohinoorcontinental.com website: www.hotelkohinoorcontinental.com

Regional Sales Off: Delhi: 00-91-11-45042511 / 9313503319 / 9313083858 e-mail: delhisales@hotelkohinoorcontinental.com Pune: 00-91-20-25535227 / 9371072605 e-mail: punesales@hotelkohinoorcontinental.com Bangalore: 00-91-80-41739000 / 9341001490 / 9342507387 e-mail: bangaloresales@hotelkohinoorcontinental.com

Agents have accused Thomas Cook of poor standards of ser-vice at the TTA Worldchoice conference at PortAventura, Spain. Thomas Cook head of mainstream Ian Ailles admitted that the operator had not lived up to its standards and assured agents that it would sort out its problems. Chris Bailey, of Bai-ley’s Travel, pointed out that a two-and-a-half hours waiting time to get through on the phone to Thomas Cook was costing 10p a minute. Ailles also admit-ted that Thomas Cook had lost

touch with some of its core fun-damentals. To increase sales, he envisaged Thomas Cook would be looking at achieving around 20% distribution through third parties. He said that the firm would make £320 million profit this year despite the three profit warnings Thomas Cook has been forced to issue, and the departure of chief executive Manny Fon-tenla-Novoa. He pointed out that only the UK arm needed turn-ing around as divisions in other parts of the world like Scandina-via were trading well.

The Philippine Travel Agen-cies Association (PTAA) has opposed the government’s move to dissolve 40% ownership restrictions on foreign owner-ship of resorts and other tour-ism businesses. According to PTAA president Aileen Clem-ente, allowing foreigners to own properties and have a major-ity stake will harm the coun-try’s tourism industry. Foreign

business chambers are lobby-ing the government to liberalise policy, arguing that the country should relax investment rules to become regionally compet-itive as an investment destina-tion. According to Robert Sears, Director of External Affairs of the American Chamber of Com-merce of the Philippines, “It is time for the Philippines to open up its economy.”

Thomas Cook to turn around

Philippine agents oppose foreign investment

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in the UK has been accused of “forming a human shield using travel agents” with the objective of “money grabbing”. On Holiday Group Managing Director Steve Endacott has lashed out at the gov-ernment’s reform plans, saying there was a fundamental change of risk moving from the CAA to travel agencies. Endacott said, “The CAA is forming a human shield with agents in front of it,” adding, “It is money grabbing.” Tony Mooney of merchant acquirer First Data opined that agents could see a reduction in the cost of credit card transactions as a result of acquir-ing a Flight Plus licence.

Sunny Land Tours has arranged three Fam trips for travel agents to explore Beirut and Dubai. Agents can also tour both cities jointly with the help of a nine-day, eight-night “Pearls of the Middle East” tour which includes accommo-dation at Hotel Le Commodore in

Beirut and Hotel Byblos in Dubai, all airport/hotel transfers, tours with English speaking guide, some lunches and dinners, and entrance fees. It also features the services of local Sunny Land rep-resentatives. Pricing starts from US$549 per person.

The US Department of Trans-portation (DOT) has fined Amadeus, a global distribu-tion system (GDS), US$95,000 for code-share disclosure vio-lations. Owing to the Ama-deus software, travel agencies failed to disclose to consumers when flights were being oper-ated under a code-sharing

arrangement. The DOT had already sent a notice to air-lines and ticket agents in Jan-uary reminding them of the new code-share disclosure requirements. The DOT also fined five travel agents in May for failing to adequately dis-close code-share arrange-ments on their websites.

The World Travel Agents Asso-ciations Alliance (WTAAA), hosted by the Association of Canadian Travel Agents (ACTA), held its bi-annual board meet-ing and annual general assem-bly over two days in Vancou-ver to discuss issues that affect travel industry professionals across the world and to share

common problem-solving strat-egies. WTAAA chairman Peter

Barlow said agents must have access to all airline content and should be able to easily access and facilitate payment for ancil-lary services through their pre-ferred GDS. Unbundled airfares, ancillary fees, GDS surcharges, airline credit card levies and credit card fraud formed part of the discussion.

Fam trips to Beirut and Dubai

US DOT fines Amadeus

WTAAA board meeting in Vancouver

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST · December 2011 TRAVeL AGeNTS 5

CAA accused of money grabbing

JacTravel, traditionally a tour operator selling the UK from 1975, is now diversifying its port-folio as an online supplier of hotel inventory and setting its sights on properties and business from the Asian region.

According to CEO Mario Bodini, online wholesaling is now contributing to 70 to 80% of business.

Among its inventory of 7,000 hotels, only 15% are in Asia, con-centrated in hubs such as Singa-pore, Hong Kong and Bangkok, while the majority of it is in the UK, Europe and Canada.

Major wholesalers in South Korea, Japan and Thailand are among JacTravel’s key Asian cus-tomers. Other countries such as India, Indonesia and Vietnam are also interested in the UK-based operator. Bodini said JacTravel’s inbound business is steady but not growing at the same level as online wholesaling.

Jac Travel expands

Aurora Expeditions, an expedi-tion cruise operator, is now offer-ing a wider range of activities on its Antarctica programme for the 2012-13 season. The company has added the Akademik Shokalskiy ship to its Antarctic Peninsula programme.

The company will now oper-ate 20 voyages on two ships, in

effect doubling its capacity, besides offering a greater range of voyage lengths (eight to 20 days), and more adventure activities, with kayaking offered on 16 voyages.

Visitors can explore the Antarc-tic Peninsula, Weddell Sea, South Georgia and the Falkland Islands. All offerings include flights to and from Chile or the Falkland Islands.

More expeditions to Antarctica

TouRopeRAToRSWhen tour operators are in trou-ble, customers naturally fear the worst for their holidays. In a tough economic climate there is a risk that a holiday company may fail, be they famous-name brands or smaller outfits. Besides, polit-ical unrest in previously popu-lar destinations Egypt and Tuni-sia, along with floods in Thailand, have been blamed for fewer book-ings and tour operators’ troubles. Indian tourists can take a leaf from the advice the e x p e r t s a t Direct Travel I n s u r a n c e

offered to British holidaymak-ers, whether they’re heading for a weekend in Paris or three weeks in Australia? According to the experts, they should:

- Make sure they are booked with a company covered by the Civil Aviation Authority’s Air Travel Organiser’s Licence (ATOL) scheme. It provides refunds if a tour operator folds and travel home for tourists stuck overseas.

- Take out travel insurance

which includes cover for Sched-uled Airline Failure or End Sup-plier Failure Cover when they book their holiday; this is essen-tial because not all costs of every trip will be covered by ATOL.

- Remember to update their travel insurance if they need to rebook and rearrange their holi-day dates.

Be prepared for the worst

Vietnamese tour operator Luxury Travel and Austra-lia-based The Cape Club have joined hands to bring fully escorted luxury travel ser-vices into Vietnam and South East Asia. The joint venture, christened Cape Lux Trav-els, will develop fully accom-panied concierge services for the travel industry across Viet-nam, Laos, Cambodia, Thai-land, and Myanmar.

According to the agreement, Luxury Travel Vietnam will function as the tour operator while The Cape Club will be the tour manager. A wide variety of activities will be covered by the tours, including wine tast-ing, cookery, antiques appreci-ation, colonial visits and luxury rail journeys.

European Union (EU) anti-trust regulators have rejected a restruc-turing plan by cross-channel ferry operator SeaFrance as the company has not contributed enough to the plan, and the overhaul breached EU state aid rules. A €223 million recapi-talisation plan was also investigated

by EU executives in June.SeaFrance, owned by French

rail operator, runs three passen-ger and vehicle-carrying ferries and handles more than 3.5 million passengers a year on the short Cal-ais-Dover route between the UK and France.

JV for luxury travel in SE Asia

Tui Travel has been featured in the Carbon Disclosure Leader-ship Index for the fourth time in a row, the only tour operator to be featured in this index. The Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index lists those companies that have displayed the most profes-sional approach to corporate

governance regarding climate change information disclosure practices. Companies are scored on their climate change disclo-sure and high scores indicate good internal data management and understanding of climate change related issues affecting the company.

TUI Travel on Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index

EU rejects project

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST · December 2011 TouR opeRAToRS 7

The UK’s largest independent tour operator Cosmos has signed up Amadeus as its technology solutions provider. Amadeus will provide an integrated plat-form to bring together the book-ing of flights, rail and cruises on to one system and build a solid foundation for the compa-ny’s expansion plans for these

areas. Cosmos is now looking to expand its areas of expertise to the escorted touring division, as well as mainstream long haul brand, both of which incorporate scheduled flights. Amadeus will also facilitate cruise sales into Cosmos’ core booking process, thus enabling it to realize growth plans in this area.

Reykjavik Excursions, Ice-land’s leading tour operator, has decided to continue most of its tours throughout the win-ter. Tourists can now enjoy the “South Shore Adventure”, rated four out of five stars on TripAdvisor, throughout the winter months. Nature lov-ers can experience the forma-tions of the waterfalls, Selja-landsfoss and Skogarfoss, as

well as travel along the South coast of Iceland as far as Vik, a small and charming village surrounded by beautiful high bird cliffs. Another scenic tour to the Snaefellsjokull glacier explores the lush valleys, lava fields, and craters that charac-terise the western peninsula of Iceland. All of the company’s tours are guided by profes-sional guides in English.

Leading Bhutan tour operator Yetis & Dragons has started a five-continent tour in a bid to educate people around the globe about Bhutan tourism.

Western countries have a mis-conception about Bhutan as an exclusive, off limits destination, meant only for the wealthy, says a company representative. Yetis & Dragons clarifies that though tourists have to pay a daily tar-iff of US$200 to be in this coun-try, this includes all internal taxes and charges (including the roy-alty), accommodation, all meals, all travel with a licensed Bhuta-nese tour guide, all internal trans-port and camping equipment and haulage for trekking tours in the peak season.

The tour operator adds that a trip to Bhutan is well worth the tar-iff, though through well designed and planned travel packages. In order to reach out to potential trav-elers, the company officials will be visiting various countries, orga-nising seminars, photo and video shows, to bring the mystical Bhu-tan closer to the people.

Winter tours in Iceland

Bhutan tour operator tries hard

India-based travel and tour oper-ator PlanetWildlife.com is seek-ing strategic alliances in the UK and other key markets in Europe, Australia, Asia and the US.

The firm is looking to acquire well-established operators in the wildlife-adventure tours sector with extensive distribution sys-tems in place and catering to the middle and luxury sectors of the market. PlanetWildlife, which was launched simultaneously in Sweden and India just over a year ago, already has sales and representation offices in the UK,

Australia, China and soon will have a presence in the US.

According to PlanetWildlife UK director Nick Ladd, the com-pany will benefit from amalga-mation with established oper-ations in these key markets as they can help with sales dis-tribution and rapid market penetration.

The company’s tailored wild-life itineraries can cater to the strong niche markets in the USA, the UK, Australia, Asia and in selected key European countries such as Germany.

PlanetWildlife on acquisition trail

Cosmos ties up with Amadeus

Ease and security of booking is attracting skiing consumers to booking with a fully bonded oper-ator. An increasing number of ski-ers and snowboarders are arrang-ing their trips with tour operators, which now account for 81% of all snowsports holiday bookings, according to new research.

An annual report from the Ski Club of Great Britain shows that there was a 1% rise in tour operator reservations last season, despite an overall drop of 4% in the win-ter sports market. Since the 2006-07 season, the number of people booking skiing and snowboarding

trips with these companies has climbed by 5%.

The Ski Club of Great Britain highlighted several factors that are contributing to the trend, including value for money, with unfavour-able exchange rates and high fuel prices making it less affordable to arrange holiday components sep-arately and travel independently. BikeToursDirect, in collaboration

with EcoColors Tours, a Cancun-based tour operator, is now adding Mexico, its first North American destination, to its 2012 tour roster.

The agreement was arrived at following meetings at the Adven-ture Travel World Summit in

Chiapas, Mexico. BikeToursDi-rect will now represent EcoCol-ors Tours, which focus on ecosys-tems, history and culture as well as recreation. The guides are also biologists or naturalists.

BikeToursDirect claims pro-ceeds from each tour go to local

Mayan communities. Tours will be priced starting at about US$1,500. BikeToursDirect represents over 50 tour com-panies worldwide and offers more than 200 bicycle tours in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and North America.

Skiers using tour operators

Biking tours in Mexico

Aiming to give a new impetus to domestic tourism, the Associa-tion of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI) organized its fifth convention in New Delhi during November 25-26. The participants—including Cen-tral and state government offi-cials and industry stakehold-ers—discussed various aspects of the sector and stressed on the role of states, with special ref-erence to the theme ‘Unifying Incredible India.’

Inaugurating the conven-tion, Union Minister for Tourism

Subodh Kant Sahai, said, “Sus-tainable, safe, and honourable tourism are the pillars of our pol-icy. The government is primarily focused on inclusive development, integrated with the overall anti-poverty strategy.”

It is time states realized the potential of domestic tourism, he said, adding that emphasis should be laid on intrastate and interstate packages.

Tourism Secretary R. H. Khwaja pointed out that the sec-tor needed an image makeover, as it should not be seen as the

concern of the cocktail circle elite. “The focus should be on a ‘pro-poor’ image.”

ADTOI president Subhash Verma found the unnecessary interstate competition unhealthy:

“I think emphasis should be made on interstate tourism.”

Dr. Jyotsna Suri, chairperson , Ficci Tourism Committee, asked for greater government support for the sector.

Indian tour operators fear tours from mid-January could be affected in the wake of advisories issued by Canada, Australia and the UK to their citizens on travel to India. Such travel advisories are usually taken seriously by corporate travel-lers who might do a rethink before planning their journey.

Travel agents, however, say

they have not yet received any requests for cancellations. The Indian government has reacted strongly against these advisories which could hit the MICE (meet-ings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) category travel. The travel and tourism fraternity also has flayed such “misleading” advi-sories with “vague warnings”.

Riviera, Trailfinders bag awards

Advisories to hit MICE travel

UK travel and tourism opera-tors are at increasing risk of fail-ure as the economic downturn is adversely affecting bookings by holidaymakers.

According to the ‘Red Flag Alert’ report by corporate admin-istrator Begbies Traynor, the num-ber of businesses facing ‘critical dis-tress’ has rocketed by 49% in the past year. Moreover, the number of travel companies facing ‘signifi-cant’ distress has gone up 3% year-on-year and 29% in the past three months. The report also pointed out that the travel and tourism indus-try is having to undergo greater hardships compared to the rest of the economy as sectors reliant on discretionary spending are bear-ing the brunt. The rate of increase in ‘critical problems’ in travel and tourism is more than double the 23% year-on-year increase across the economy as a whole.

Begbies Traynor partner Julie Palmer painted a dismal picture, saying cash reserves at travel and tourism companies are typically at their lowest during the fourth quar-ter so the rise in distress during Q3 is a real warning signal.

UK tour operators face economic risk

8 TouR opeRAToRS December 2011 · TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST

UK-based tour operator Cos-mos will complete 50 years of business in 2012 and is including new Europe itineraries and tours priced from as little as US$74 a day to mark the occasion. The company is coming up with sev-eral new offerings such as a Swiss UNESCO World Heritage tour,

an eight-day Leisurely Tuscany and Rome tour, a Grand Tour of Turkey and the likes. Tourists can travel on the Eurostar train from London to Paris on select tours. Cosmos is also offering couples the chance to save $300 when they book their Europe tour with an Emirates airfare.

An estate agent in Auckland, New Zealand, has been arrested and is under trial for organising child sex tours to Thailand on the pre-text of arranging guided tours to the country. The 47-year-old motel and property owner has denied the charges. It is alleged he offered the tours through his website. After an eight-month

police investigation, an under-cover police officer posed as an interested client and the accused was arrested for organising child sex tours and operating and main-taining an objectionable website. The court was told that the web-site did not have any direct ref-erence to sex, but intimated it through “suggestive” language.

Cosmos completes 50 years in business Man held for child sex tours

Riviera Travel and Trailfinders have been voted the best tour operators in the UK by readers of the Telegraph.

Riviera, a 27-year-old tour operator, offers a wide-ranging series of escorted tours, from short breaks and river cruises in Europe to 16-day itineraries across North America, India and the Middle East. Riviera includes every part of an itin-erary — from accommoda-tion and food to the transfers

and taxes. Trailfinders, the UK’s “first independent flight consolidator”which sells discounted long-haul tick-ets was adjudged the spe-cialist independent opera-tor. Business-class travel is also an important part of its turnover, thus making the company a player in differ-ent budgets. Trailfinders has been a serial winner of Tele-graph Travel Awards since its inception in 1998.

ADTOI convention focuses on role of states

A group of 38 tourists from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, have accused their tour operator of cheating them by booking their accommodation at a substan-dard hotel in Goa which did not even provide the basic ameni-ties. The group alleged that they

were cheated by the tour opera-tor as they were promised a three-star hotel and two-night stay in Goa, but none of the services were made available to them. The tour operator claimed that the resort cancelled their book-ings abruptly, thus giving the

operator very little time to find another alternative. “Some of the rooms were filthy but somehow we managed to get better rooms as on the same day another group had checked out. We soon shifted our tourists to a better place,” the tour operator claimed.

IPO for expansion in Europe

Cox & Kings is offering new lux-ury group tours across Europe for 2012. As part of the expansion and diversifying plans, the operator is offering tours to new destinations such as Greece, Poland and Ger-many, a new river cruise in Rus-sia, private gulets in Turkey and private journeys in Norway fea-turing the county’s rail network and cruise options. A nine-day Splendors of Poland tour, priced at £1,295 per person, explores the architecture and attractions of

Krakow, Poznan, Wroclaw and Warsaw. An eight-day tour cov-ering ancient Greece, at £1,155 per person, incorporated the classic highlights of Olympia, Delphi, Mycenae and Epidaurus. Cox & Kings also offers trips on the Danube Express, which explores the region’s most important attractions, including Veliko Turnovo, Bran Castle, Sighiso-ara and Istanbul. There are also cruises on the Turkish Riviera, from £3,245 per person.

Cox & Kings adds new European destinations

Tour operator accused of cheating tourists

Hundreds of Haj aspirants in Jammu and Kashmir have accused Hajeej India, a pri-vate tour operator, of dup-ing them and failing to pro-vide visas to 550 pilgrims. They also demanded refund of their money and for the can-cellation of the firm’s regis-tration. The protestors also alleged that scores of Haj aspi-rants had submitted their doc-uments and package money in 2009. Moreover, the firm has taken money from the aspi-rants for advanced bookings for Haj 2012. According to one of the protestors, each of them has paid more than `1.50 lakh to Hajeej India for the annual

pilgrimage. The pilgrims were scheduled to leave for Delhi on October 30, but the com-pany failed to provided them

the visas. The owner has been arrested and criminal proceed-ings have been started against the company.

Haj aspirants duped

Tour service provider Tourmo-bile, that has been taking tour-ists on sightseeing bus trips to the main attractions in Wash-ington DC, has ended oper-ations. After more than four decades of operation, the open-air trams operated by the com-pany made their last stops on October 31. Tourmobile shut down amidst controversies over

contracts concerning exclusiv-ity on the National Mall. Lower-cost alternatives like DC Circu-lator and Capital Bikeshare also took a toll on the beleaguered company. The firm had been in “tough straits” financially for quite a while now. Tourmobile had the exclusive contract for sightseeing bus tours of Arling-ton National Cemetery.

Washington’s iconic Tourmobile shuts shop

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST · December 2011 TouR opeRAToRS 9

The owner of several travel agencies in central Europe is planning to float an Initial Pub-lic Offering (IPO) by the end of 2013 or early 2014. Czech travel agency Exim Tours, Kartago Tours (Slovakia and Hungary) and Exim Tours Poland will be incorporated into a holding company after which a third of its shares will be offered through an IPO. The overall turnover of the group is around 8 billion Czech crowns (US$436 million), of which the Czech unit accounts for 3.5 billion. The acquisitions will help the com-pany raise its overall turnover to 10 billion crowns in two years. Proceeds from the IPO would be used for acquisitions in Ger-many and France.

Tourism Australia is count-ing on Indian TV soaps to lure more tourists from India. The Balaji television show ‘Bade Acche Lagte hain’ is being shot in Australia and the country’s tourism officials are counting on the show to promote their industry in India.

The soap has over 42 million viewers in just a few months. The team flies to Australia where the stars of the show are shown tak-ing their honeymoon in Sydney. Australia tourism officials are looking at this opportunity to woo more honeymoon travellers from India.

New South Wales tourism in particular is very excited because India is 11th biggest market for the state. Considering the fact that India will become one of the top inbound markets for Austra-lia by 2020, worth $2.25 billion, the excitement around the show is understandable.

Malaysia’s tourism ministry estimates that international arrivals to the country will hit 36 million by 2020, generating an estimated revenue of RM 168 billion in tourist receipts.

If realised, this will mark significant growth from the

24.6 million foreign visitors received in 2010, generating RM 56.4 billion in tourism revenues.

Tourism Minister Dr Ng Yen Yen said this target was achiev-able with the implementation of 12 strategic initiatives under

the National Key Result Areas for tourism such as ‘Luxury Malaysia’ and ‘Agrotourism’. She added that cleanliness of tourist attractions, such as beaches and public amenities, should be emphasised to attract international travellers.

Malaysian tourism on the rise

Ireland plans new strategy for Indian market

With an aim to promote Ireland as a tourist destination in the Indian market, Tourism Ireland is look-ing at attracting MICE, FIT, fami-lies, and Bollywood segments.

Apart from Dublin, the tour-ism board is looking at promoting places like Belfast, Cork and Gal-way. Tourism Ireland is looking at attracting about 18,000-19,000

Indian tourists this year and 25,000-30,000 tourists next year.

“Emirates Airlines, which serves ten routes in the Indian market, will start daily flights from Dubai to Dublin from January 9, 2012,” said Amanda Burns, Gen-eral Manager - Middle East & Asia, Tourism Ireland on the sidelines of the road show held last month in Mumbai and Delhi.

The road show comprised of a nine member delegation of inbound tour operators, des-tination management compa-nies, hotels, transport service providers.

The Visa Waiver policy allows visitors from 16 countries with

a valid UK visa to visit Ireland directly without having to apply for a separate Ireland visa. The scheme has been introduced for

travellers from India, China, Rus-sia, CIS countries and select coun-tries in the Middle East to enhance travel to Ireland.

INTeRNATIoNAL

Tourism Australiaeyes Indian soaps

Golf tourism continues to grow, despite global economic uncer-tainty, and has the potential to drive the tourism recovery, says Peter Walton, chief executive of the Inter-national Association of Golf Tour-ism Operators (IAGTO). Walton was addressing members of Thai-land’s ‘Golf In A Kingdom’ desti-nation marketing programme in Bangkok recently.

Walton said golf tourism had recovered more quickly than other sectors since the 2008 global financial crisis, and that despite continuing problems, the sec-tor was continuing to grow. He cited figures that forecast interna-tional golf tourism would exceed 50 million travellers in 2011, and perhaps reach 55 million, equiv-alent to the level in 2007 before the downturn.

“Golf tourism bounces back more quickly than other sectors,” Walton said. “In established mar-kets, one in three golfers plan to travel in the next 12 months. That is a lot more than in other sectors, like skiing. We also know that golfers spend 120% more per person per day when staying in a resort than other travellers”, he added.

Golf tourism grows despite economic downturn

According to the Singapore Tourism Board, tourism receipts for quarter two of 2011 were esti-mated at $5 billion, registering an 18% year-on-year growth.

All TR (Tourism Receipt) com-ponents saw year-on-year growth. Excluding Sightseeing & Enter-tainment expenditure, Indone-sia ($677 million), P R China ($447 million), India (US $305 million), Australia ($270 million) and the Philippines ($254 million) were

Singapore’s top five TR generating markets for Q2 2011.

All top 10 markets registered growth, except the US and Thai-land. For these two markets, this could be attributed to a drop in business traffic, with Thailand also seeing lower discretionary spend. There was also significant growth in TR from the Philip-pines due to an increase in leisure visitors and corresponding per capita expenditure.

Singapore Tourism receipts up

Belgian tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka have increased by 114.5% during the first nine months of 2011 indicating that Sri Lanka has become one of the most preferred destinations in Asia for the Bel-gians, said Sri Lanka’s Ambassa-dor to Belgium, Luxembourg and the EU, Ravinath Aryasinha.

The number of Belgian tour-ists visiting in this period, which was 7,200, surpassed the previous highest number of Belgian tour-ists who visited Sri Lanka in any given calendar year, which was 6,333 in 2006. A total of 5,398 Bel-gian tourists visited Sri Lanka in

2010, compared to 2,613 in 2009, he added. The 2011 growth pattern

is significant in the context of the average increase in tourist arrivals

recorded from West European countries, which stood at 25.3%, and the overall global increase which was at 34.3% in the corre-sponding 9 months, he said.

It is being said the rapid growth of visiting tourists (Bel-gian) is owing to the aggressive marketing strategies adopted throughout Belgium since the end of the terrorist conflict in Sri Lanka by different tour agencies, including ‘Connec-tions’, with close cooperation with the Sri Lanka Embassy and the Sri Lanka Tourism Pro-motion Bureau.

SL sees rise in Belgian tourists

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST · December 2011 INTeRNATIoNAL 11

Tourism Australia and Jetstar have teamed up to launch a Japanese advertising campaign aimed to boost tourist numbers affected by the March 11 earthquake in Japan.

Tourism Australia and Jet-star have pledged contributing $1.6 million a year in the course of three years to be spent on joint marketing activities in Japan. Tour-ism Australia managing director Andrew McEvoy was quoted, say-ing that like Tourism Australia, Jet-star has ambitious expansion plans for wider Asia and sees sustained and large growth opportunities, led by the greater China market, and numerous South East and North Asian markets including Japan.

Japanese travellers used to be Australia’s biggest tourist market but numbers have dropped since the catastrophe. Tourism Austra-lia is confident the market has the potential to grow, forecasting an increase up to $3.3 billion in tour-ist spending by 2020.

Tourism Australia, Jetstar tap Japan

Piracy, terror attacks threaten East Africa tourismAn increase of Somali piracy activities, kidnapping of tour-ists, and recent grenade blasts in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi are all threatening East African peace and security with a negative impact on tourism growth.

East African Community (EAC) Deputy Secretary Gen-eral Beatrice Kiraso has decried the threats posed by piracy on the Indian Ocean waters off the East African coast and the terror-ist attacks by the Al Shabaab mil-itants saying they are a threat to the potential tourist investments and the implementation of the Common Market and Customs Union protocols.

Piracy and terrorism were

increasing poverty and unem-ployment amongst the youth in East Africa, as big and

promising business opportuni-ties fail to operate in fear of ter-rorist attacks.

Tourism is the leading economic wheel for the Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar in Tanzania, said its President Ali Mohamed Shein. He added that 50%of the isle’s population would be involved in tourism activities by the year 2020, forecasting a robust growth of the sector in few years to come.

“Tourism is an integrated indus-try as it features in the development of other sectors like food produc-tion, vegetables and fruits,” he said. According to him, the growth in the key sector in the isle’s economy would help in creating more jobs in local industries, especially those manufacturing drinks, soaps,

processed food and handicrafts. The sector saw an annual growth of 15% and contributed between 25% and 27% to the isle’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Zanzibar forecasts robust tourism growth

The Vietnam government is look-ing forward to wooing a burgeon-ing Indian outbound market, according to Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Deputy Prime Minister, Vietnam, who was in New Delhi recently as part of a high-powered commis-sion led by Truong Tan Sang, Pres-ident of Vietnam.

According to Vietnam National

Administration of Tourism dep-uty general director, very little information is available in India on Vietnam’s travel products and the perception is that Vietnam tours are overpriced.

There is also a shortage of Indian restaurants to cater to visi-tors and a lack of direct flights. All the services from India to Vietnam

stop in Singapore or Bangkok, said Shantanu Srivastava, co-chairman of India - Asean Busi-ness Promotion Council, ASSO-CHAM and managing director and CEO, Ishan International. Direct air connectivity between India and Vietnam would help boost tourism between the two countries, he added.

Vietnam keen to tap Indian outbound

Due to a growing backlog in the parent and grandparent per-manent visa process, Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Ken-ney announced a temporary two-year pause on receiving new appli-cations and introduced the “Parent and Grandparent Super Visa”. The “Parent and Grandparent Super Visa” allows parents and grand-parents to stay in Canada for up

to two years at a time and will be valid for up to 10 years. Applicants will have to demonstrate they have purchased private medical insur-ance and have a written commit-ment of financial support from a child or grandchild in Canada who meets a minimum income thresh-old. The super visa will be effective from December 1, 2011 and average processing time will be 8 weeks.

Canada offers ‘Super Visa’ for family

12 INTeRNATIoNAL December 2011 · TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST

Holidaymakers embarking on a luxury safari in Botswana could soon see one of the country’s most famous attractions granted World Heritage status. Tourism chiefs are keen for the Okavango Delta to be awarded the accredita-tion and are considering making a formal application to UNESCO. Before this happens, tourism minister Kitso Mokaila insisted that people living in the vicinity of the Delta will be consulted. The government will also discuss the issue with their counterparts in Namibia and Angola, as freshwa-ter from both of these countries

settles in Botswana. “They need to be involved so they help us give the site the care it deserves lest we lose it,” the minister commented. Other sites across the African nation such as the Makgadikg-adi Pans and Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve could also be put forward for World Heritage sta-tus in the near future.

Okavango delta to gain UNESCO status

Seychelles’ tourism industry is optimistic that South American market will become one of its important target markets.

David Germain, the Sey-chelles Tourism Board Director for Africa, UAE, and The Amer-icas led a delegation from Sey-chelles tourism to exhibit and participate at the ABAV Exhibi-tion in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in South America which took place

from October 19-21, 2011.This initiative is part of Sey-

chelles Tourism Board’s focus and action plan for an increased market share from the Ameri-cas for Seychelles in the future, to offer South American trav-ellers different holiday pack-age options to visit Seychelles such as “Dubai/Seychelles” and “Africa/Seychelles” holiday package combinations.

Emirates Airlines, Qatar Airways, and South African Airways are all flying direct to Brazil and Argentina from Dubai, Doha, and Johannes-burg, respectively, with good connections to Seychelles. The Seychelles delegation was optimistic that visitor arriv-als from South America (more specifically Brazil ) will grow in the future.

Seychelles optimistic about South American market

Starting January 1, 2012 all tour-ists and business travellers visit-ing Sri Lanka will need to apply for a visa in advance, via a new online Electronic Travel Autho-rization (ETA) system.

The aim is to allow the govern-ment to more efficiently track peo-ple overstaying their welcome. The visitors will pay a processing fee of $50 and may then receive a double-entry 30-day permit. The government will scrap its visa on arrival system applicable to 78 countries, including India.

Travellers from Singapore or the Maldives will be exempted because they are the only two nations who provide Sri Lank-ans with on-arrival visas.

In the wake of sanctions imposed by the United States and the Euro-pean Union, Damascus is looking for new markets, as well as try-ing to broaden or start economic and commercial links with China, Russia, India and other countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Lamia Assi, Syrian tourism minister said the tourism sec-tor had been hit by the flare-up of unrest in the country in mid-March.

Switching to new markets was a coping mechanism. “Of course, the sanctions have negatively and fun-damentally impinged on the tour-ism sector even from the very start of the crisis given the unwarranted measures taken by Western coun-tries” Assi said.

Syria has lately taken to salvage tourism, the country’s second larg-est source of foreign currency, from inevitable breakdown.

Sri Lanka to scrap ‘visa on arrival system’ soon

Syria switches to new markets to salvage tourism

Abu Dhabi has reached a new milestone in its cruise tourism development with the arrival of the luxury ‘MSC Lirica’ cruise ship at Mina Zayed’s tempo-rary cruise terminal, the first to home-port in the UAE capital. Abu Dhabi Tourism Author-ity (ADTA) has estimated that MSC’s decision to home-port the ship in Abu Dhabi will generate up to Dh80 million (around $21.9

million) with direct economic impact on the tourism, airline, accommodation, retail, trans-port, F&B and attractions sectors. Cruise tourism has been priori-tised as a core pillar in Abu Dha-bi’s tourism targets which aim to achieve 2.3 million hotel guests by the end of next year. It anticipates receiving around 170,000 cruise visitors before the 2011/2012 sea-son ends next April.

MSC Lirica expected to generate more revenue

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST · December 2011 INTeRNATIoNAL 13

China’s western regions, Yun-nan, Guizhou and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous provinces, have teamed up to boost tourism as the travel demand from the Chinese citizens is rising with

improving living standards.The increasing number of

travel boosted revenues by 24.2 % to 938.3 billion yuan (US $147.6 billion). According to National Tourism Administration (NTA),

the number of domestic travel was almost 1.4 billion in the first half of this year representing a rise of 14.7% YoY. Zhu Shan-zhong, vice-chief of NTA, is of the opinion that so far a total of 27 provincial-level regions have all highlighted tourism as an important industry to develop.

“The western regions, in par-ticular, are rich in natural scenic resources, ethnic cultures, and red tourism featured by com-memorations of revolution-ary spirit,” Zhu said. “These resources are set to boost the sector in the western regions”, he added.

Western China sees strong rise in footfalls

The Uttarakhand Forest depart-ment has reopened Rajaji and Cor-bett national parks. Large numbers of tourists are expected to arrive at these national parks that were sealed on June 15 this year for the monsoon period. The authorities

hope that in addition to improv-ing the environment and reduc-ing wildlife crime in Corbett’s core zone, encouraging tourism in the Ramnagar and Terai West Forest divisions will also help in the locals’ socio-economic uplift.

Corbett, Rajaji National Parks reopen

In the wake of the success of the anti-tobacco measures taken by the Ernakulam district adminis-tration, the Kochi Corporation and the district panchayat, Ernakulam district has been declared as the first smoking-free tourist desti-nation in the country. Elaborat-ing the technical details validating

the district’s smoke-free status, district collector, Sheikh Pareed said the initiative was launched 18 months ago under the innova-tive ‘Smoke Free’ Ernakulam proj-ect. The first phase targeted con-trolling smoking in public places and effective implementation of the Indian Tobacco Control Act.

A decision to develop the port city of Kakinada into a tourism hub was announced by Andhra Pradesh Tourism Minister V Vas-anthkumar. This will be done in a planned manner to attract foreign tourists and bring in investments from other countries.

“Kakinada city has a great importance from ancient times. Korangi Mada forest in the dis-trict has secured a special spot in the country. Several major com-panies have installed their plants and set up business activities here. The port city will be developed as

a ‘Pensioners’ Paradise’, besides a tourism hub,” the minister said.

A master plan to develop Kaki-nada as a tourism hub is to be pre-pared and a consultancy agency will be appointed to oversee the requirements for the development of the city.

Kakinada to be developed as tourism hub

Ernakulam is now a smoke-free destination

India may soon have its first ever aquarium-based theme park in Sindhudurg district, south of Mumbai and a few kilometres north of Goa, with its own dol-phin stadium, theme restau-rants, water sports facilities, and underwater studio, from within which people can watch sea creatures in their natural habitat. In a bid to develop the tourism potential of the virgin beaches of Sindhudurg, tourism minister Chhagan Bhujbal and

industries minister Narayan Rane, said the project will be a private-public partnership and require 500-600 acres of land.

The project is expected to cost about `400 crore, and the state government will provide viabil-ity gap funding of ̀ 100 crore.

India’s first aquarium-based theme park

Easy film shoot norms in Delhi

Delhi is very soon going to woo more filmmakers. The Delhi Gov-ernment has put into process a plan to draw more filmmakers into the capital. It proposes to make the process of all the permissions required to shoot the film eas-ier. Unlike the present process, where clearances from many

agencies are required to shoot at a certain site, the government is mulling a single window clear-ance. Delhi Tourism and Trans-portation Development Corpo-ration (DTTDC) chief secretary PK Tripathi has written to all the agencies, whose clearance is usu-ally required for film projects.

INDIA

India’s first Formula One Race a grand successSports events in India may just have taken off with the completion of Formula One in Noida, on the outskirts of Delhi. The glamorous sport brought together a heady mix of electrifying speed, celebri-ties, fashion, fun and technology.

Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone told TND that the Buddh International Circuit is one of the best tracks in the world and said that it has lots of inter-esting elevations that the F1 driv-ers loved. “We are happy to be in India. Everything has moved with precision,” he added.

“The Jaypee group did a great

job. It is very significant that an event like this will showcase India and a great opportunity of showcasing India to 570 million viewers worldwide,” he said.

Little wonder then that the first F1 Indian Grand Prix has been awarded the ‘Motors-port Facility of the Year’ award at the Professional Motorsport World Expo 2011 Awards, held in Cologne, Germany.

“This is a very proud moment for us and it feels great to be acknowledged for the hard work that made the inaugural Indian Grand Prix at BIC a resounding

success,” said Manoj Gaur, Chair-man, JPSI.

Professional MotorSport World Expo is central Europe’s leading trade-only motorsport exhibition. It is a meeting place for professionals to exchange tech-nologies, innovations and ideas on how to drive the industry.

by Neelam mathews

Thousands of tourists flocking to Matheran, the small hill station close to Mumbai, will soon travel by swanky new coaches of the toy train with a 3D view of the hills, forests and wildlife. The swanky rail coaches, each costing ̀ 25 lakh, were formally put into service on the Neral-Matheran mini railway train for tourists. The two first-class, five second-class coaches and one guard coach were lined up at Neral station painted in a new

colour scheme — royal blue with narrow white stripes. The coaches will allow tourists to get a three-dimensional view of the green surroundings during the journey. The Matheran Light Railway was

completed at a cost of ̀ 16 lakh and the railway was opened to public on April 15, 1907. More coaches are being planned and expected to arrive soon. The fare for first class is ̀ 210 and ̀ 35 for second class.

India has rediscovered its romance for Kashmir with an unprecedented 10.73 lakh tourists visiting the Valley till September 30. This is believed to be the high-est number of tourist arrivals in the last 25 years, strong evidence of what’s possible if normalcy is given a chance.

Kashmir has surpassed last year’s tourist arrivals of 7.38 lakh,

and the data collected by the state tourism department shows both Indians and foreigners have given the Valley a thumbs up despite apprehensions over security. The number of foreign tourists visiting Kashmir has jumped from a few thousands to about 22,000. Bene-ficiary of the bonhomie is not just Kashmir, but Ladakh and Ama-rnath as well. Visitors keen on

taking in Ladakh’s stunning vis-tas and adventure opportunities doubled to 1.48 lakh this year. The number of Amarnath yatris is at a high of 6.35 lakh - a jump of 2 lakh from last year.

3D view

Kashmir bounty

Two rest-houses would be set up in the Bungus valley in North Kash-mir, forest minister Mian Altaf Ahmad said while reviewing the progress of the project. These rest-houses will be constructed at a cost of `10 lakh in the Valley which is emerging as a potential tourist destination. Construction of the twin projects should be com-pleted soon. “These rest-houses would be instrumental in provid-ing boarding and lodging facilities to the visiting tourists,” he added. The government is taking various steps to develop eco-friendly tour-ist infrastructure at various tourist resorts of the state to strike balance between development and ecology.

Kerala has immense potential to develop and tap the opportuni-ties in medical tourism which is

expected to touch US $4 billion by 2017 in the state.

It is estimated that by 2012, India could achieve a target of $2 billion a year in medical tourism sector. In this sector, growth rate per annum would be around 30%, according to estimates. With the tourism sector bouncing back after the recent downturn, oppor-tunities in innovative con-cepts like health tourism, ayurveda and eco tourism need to be explored.

Kerala medical tourism on the rise

In a bid to improve tourism between the two countries, Subodh Kant Sahai, Minister of Tourism, Government of India, met Jin Matsubara, his counter-part in the Government of Japan.

Sahai discussed opportuni-ties for investment in the tour-ism infrastructure in India to which the Japanese government responded positively and con-veyed that they were keen to invest in Buddhist and Medical Tourism

in India. Matsubara added that Japanese MNC’s were of the opin-ion that India has huge potential to grow tourism in the Buddhist and medical tourism sector and invest-ment in this sector will pay huge dividends to both the countries. He also emphasised the impor-tance of Indian medical systems like Yoga and Ayurveda as both are immensely popular in Japan and showed keen interest in hav-ing more yoga centres in Japan.

India-Japan talks on tourism

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST · December 2011 INDIA 15

Gujarat lion safariGujarat forest authorities have plans to start a second lion safari near Tulsishyam in Amreli dis-trict. This step basically aims to distribute tourist pressure which was triggered by the Amitabh Bachchan ad campaign on the Sasan sanctuary in the state recently, and to avoid any kind of adverse impact on wildlife.

SK Nanda, principal sec-retary, Forest, Govt of Gujarat stated, “During Diwali, about 30,000 people thronged the

jungle to get a glimpse of the lion. Between October 25-31, 2011, an average of 3,000 tourists vis-ited Sasan every day and about 5,000 went to Devaliya zone, a cordoned area which has a siz-able number of lions.”

Tourism Department offi-cials also believe that this new safari will also benefit cities like Ahmedabad and Vadodara as tourists will not have to go all the way to Gir to enjoy the sight of the lion.

Bungus in JK shows potential

The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) has decided to concen-trate on 350 forts in the state to attract tourists and is planning to promote fort-based tourism packages in future. With numer-ous forts with sizeable tour-ist footfalls in the Konkan and western regions of Maharash-tra, the state government has also chalked out a plan, worth nearly `100 crore, which com-prises improving the basic facil-ities. Within this plan nearly 20 forts in the western and Konkan regions are likely to get a major

facelift and are likely to attract more tourists from within and outside the state. The state gov-ernment has already released Rs 10 crore to start the pilot project at the first circuit, which includes Sinhagad, Shivneri, Lohgad, Rajgad in Pune and Harishchan-dragad in Ahmednagar. The sec-ond circuit will connect Pan-hala, Vishalgad and Vijaydurg, while the third will link Lonav-ala to Rajmachi and Sinhagad to Shivneri. The fourth circuit plans connecting Harishchan-dragad to Shivneri and Naneghat to Malshejghat.

After a successful promo-tional trip to potentially new tourism destinations, including Japan and US last year, Goa Tourism has now set its sights down under. A state delegation led by Swapnil Naik, Director Tourism returned recently from Australia and New Zealand where they show-cased Goa as an ideal desti-nation to the urban tourist. “There has been keen inter-est expressed by the travel and trade fraternity in Aus-tralia and New Zealand on adding Goa to the travel itin-erary of the local traveller. This is Goa Tourism’s first attempt to reach out to this distant market and we look forward to making it hap-pen”, said Naik.

Adilabad’s popular Kawal wildlife sanctuary, declared as India’s 42nd tiger reserve by the

environment ministry in June 2011, will soon be enjoyed by tourists. The Andhra Pradesh

Tourism Development Corpora-tion (APTDC) has now decided to develop this as an eco-tour-ism project around the 893 square km-long sanctuary. This tourist spot, spread over an area of about four acres, once com-plete, will have 20 ‘green’ cot-tages along with a restaurant, an interpretation centre (to educate people about eco-tourism) and other outdoor activities for the benefit of visitors. According to APTDC officials, the land acqui-sition for the ̀ 3 crore-worth proj-ect has been completed and work is expected to take off in the next few months.

Kawal to be developed as eco-tourism centre

Goa Tourism courts Australia & New Zealand

MTDC to promote fortsMeghalaya chief minister Mukul

Sangma exuded confidence that Meghalaya will take a lead in pro-moting North-East region as an important tourist destination of the country. Sangma made his statement during the inaugural session of the three-day Shillong Autumn festival that comes with

a theme “Experience the North-East”. The Meghalaya Tourism Development Forum (MTDF) in collaboration with the gov-ernment of Meghalaya is orga-nizing the gala festival, an event that has been attracting hun-dreds of tourists in the past few years. “We have potential in this

sphere. It will generate a lot of economic benefits and create hundreds and hundreds of employment opportunities for the youth”, said Sangma, even as he called on stakeholders to go for an introspection, iden-tify the areas and look for pos-itive results.

Meghalaya will lead in North-East

16 INDIA December 2011 · TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST

In a bid to promote paraglid-ing in Himachal Pradesh, quali-fied pilots of the Indian Air Force (IAF) recently conducted pow-ered paragliding air show in the

International Paragliding Cham-pionship 2011 at Birh Billing in Kangra district. “This is for the first time in aero sports history of Himachal Pradesh that the

Kangra and Mandi valleys wit-nessed the Air Demonstrations Para Motor Air display over Bai-jnath, Palampur and Dharam-shala”, an official said.

The Chhattisgarh Tourism Board has announced attractive offers to attract domestic tourists to expe-rience the exotic beauty of this unexplored place. For the first time, the board is offering special discounts on room rents across all of its properties in the state as well as introducing special fam-ily package tours spanning var-ious tourist circuits in the state, according to a press release.

These new initiatives are being aggressively promoted at

various platforms and events nationally for example, dur-ing the recent Rajyotsav 2011 in Raipur as well as during the ongoing India International Trade Fair 2011 in New Delhi. These are aimed at increasing tourist footfalls to the state during the upcoming year-end tourist season.

The CTB is offering a flat 50% discount on all of its properties across the state for senior citi-zens. This offer has been intro-duced for the first time by the board. To encourage school children to visit the state, expe-rience pristine nature, dense for-ests and learn from the ethno-diversity of this region, CTB is also offering special discounts for school children.

Chhattisgarh Tourism to attract students, senior citizens

Thailand’s decision to raise visa fees for Indian nation-als has been criticised by Indian MICE buyers who warned that the hike would impact business to Thai-land. The hike comes after a visa fee waiver from 2009 till March this year, imple-mented to mitigate the impact of Thailand’s politi-cal riots. The new fee, effec-tive October 1, is ̀ 2,000 (US $40) per person and can go up to ̀ 2,350 including pro-cessing charges. Previ-ously, it was ̀ 1,400.

Thai visa hike

Kerala MP PT Thomas says the Centre has included Idukki in the National Tourism Circuit and has earmarked an amount of `4.85 crore for a project proposed to arrange basic facilities in the main tourism spots in the district. The amount will be utilised based on the project report to be prepared

by Kerala Industrial and Technol-ogy Consultancy (KITCO) which will include activities like the con-struction of a tourist reception centre-cum-interpretation build-ing, rain shelters and pavilions, parking area, landscaping, elec-trification, river side walkway and public toilets.

Centre to invest on Idduki project

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST · December 2011 INDIA 17

Swiss cottages in the backdrop of the Ganga amid a green land-scape. An ideal setting that a tourist craves for during the Mahakumbh. The state tourism department will turn this dream of tourists into a reality during next

year’s Mahakumbh in the city as Swiss cottages will adorn the banks of Sangam. The charge for the Swiss cottage (Double occu-pancy) is ̀ 6,000 per day while the rate of dormitory cottage is `500 per bed per day.

UP Tourism to build Swiss cottages for Mahakumbh 2012

The people of Jharkhand will now have a greater say in promoting tourism. Promising to welcome participation of villagers and for-est dwellers in charting tour-ism plans concerning their land, a board meeting of Jharkhand Tourism Development Corpora-tion (JTDC) chaired by chief sec-retary SK Choudhary decided to take up various projects on a public-private partnership (PPP) mode. It also decided to set up vil-lage tourism development com-mittees to ensure involvement of rural folks staying near tourism hotspots. Many tourist destina-tions such as Netarhat and Paras-nath, including several waterfalls, are located in rural areas. The vil-lage committees would also be

given a share of profits to help the government get a toehold in many tourism-friendly areas that were rebel strongholds. As far as the

PPP model for tourism projects is concerned, the government will focus on the build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) basis.

PPP mode in Jharkhand

Advantage RajasthanWith an aim to address issues concerning overseas Indians and attract entrepreneurs, the ‘world’s largest Diaspora meet’ Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, will be held in Jaipur from 7-9 January 2012. The government is targeting 1,500 del-egates from 150 countries. Bhim Singh, managing director, Raj-asthan Tours said despite slow-down in western nations, they are expecting good number of del-egations from all over the world,

specially from Africa. He added the event will increase the awareness of the city, which is already popu-lar among the domestic and inter-national tourists.

First power paragliding in HP

Soon to turn 500 years, Chan-drapur district in Maharashtra, has been sanctioned funds for Rs 250 crores for its development by the state government.

Seventy one projects in seven categories have been proposed dur-ing the next two years. They include developmental works in infra-structural facilities, civic amenities, conservation of archeological mon-uments and tourism development, sports, cultural, entertainment and educational development, trans-port system and a mechanism to deal with emergencies.

“As many as 21 roads, five public parking and two bridges, including BabupethRoB, would be constructed. Water supply

system would be developed in backward areas. Beautification of entrance gates and major squares, renovation of key administrative buildings and district stadium, construction of botanical gar-den and a hanging bridge over Ramala pond are some major development works planned under penta-centenary celebra-tion,” said Head of Penta-Cente-nary Celebration committee and ex-MP Naresh Puglia.

Government agencies includ-ing PWD, Chandrapur Munici-pal Council (CMC), state archae-ological department and local police department have been asked to prepare draft plans and project estimates.

Palestine has become the 195th member of UNESCO. This will entitle it to contribute in des-ignating World Heritage sites, promoting education around the world, and managing a tsu-nami early-warning system in the Pacific.

The Palestinian application for membership to UNESCO was approved with 107 votes, with 14 against and 52 absten-tions. The United States and Israel have condemned the move and as a result decided

to cutoff funding to UNESCO. U.S. law prohibits United States from funding the UN or any UN agency that grants the Palestine Liberation Organiza-tion the same standing as mem-ber states.

The U.S. contributes 22 per-cent of the UN agency’s operat-ing budget, almost $80 million a year. It cancelled a $60 million payment to UNESCO that was due in November. So did Israel, which transfers $2 million yearly to the UN cultural body.

UNESCO grants Palestine full membership; US and Israel cut off funds

Cumbria in North West England is attracting tourists to witness mem-oirs of history.

Recently, a 1000-year old Viking treasure trove was unearthed on the border between Cumbria and North Lancashire. The casket had

200 pieces of silver jewellery like bracelets, rings, coins, hacksilver and ingots. It seemed to belong to a wealthy Viking Leader.

Barrow Dock Museum’s cura-tor, Sabine Skae, said the new hoard will help put Cumbria and South Lakeland on the map as an important Viking heritage.

Experts at the British Museum in London said the treasure is of “national significance”. The collec-tion is being studied by experts at the British Museum. More infor-mation and images on its findings will be revealed in December.

moNumeNTS

They were the highlights of Mamankam festival but now they are going into oblivion.

The condition of Mamankam monuments has revealed the apathy of the Government to fos-ter relics located in private lands when they’re of no use to the state.

Last year, the Kerala govern-ment funded the renovation of five heritage sites significant to the festival under the Nila Tour-ism Project with the support of the Archaeology Department. `55.40 lakh was used for the ren-ovation of Kalari, `6.30 lakh for

PazhukaMandapam, ̀ 10.14 lakhs for NilapaduThara, ̀ 12.12 lakh for Marunnara, and `4.55 lakhs for Manikkinar.

As these monuments are on private land, neither the land-owners nor the government are preserving them. The tour-ism department cannot initiate tourist attracting activities until the land is under government’s control. In fact, for the Nilapadu Thara, the tourism department can’t even arrange a walkway to the monument site.

K Madhu, Secretary of District

Tourism Promotion Coun-cil, said, “Discussion is on with land-owners to purchase those blocks of land where the monu-ments are located.Only after the acquisition of land, can we carry out any development work at the monument sites”.

Apathy keeps Mamankam in shambles

Cumbria attracts tourists

Chandrapur turning 500

U.S. President Barack Obama has signed a proclamation to desig-nate Fort Monroe, in Hampton, Virginia, as a national monument. Fort Monroe, a former Army fort, was a safe haven for slaves dur-ing the Civil War. It was the third-oldest Army post. Around 10,000 slaves fled there and were given protection. It also helped prompt President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclama-tion. Fort Monroe would be Vir-ginia’s 22nd national monument

and the 396th nationwide.This is the first national mon-

ument to be proclaimed by Presi-dent Obama during his presidency using The Antiquities Act.

President Barack Obama’s first monument

Newest attractions of Angkor WatThe $4 million restoration proj-ect of the Archaeological Sur-vey of India (ASI) in Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temple complex is progressing. Archaeologists expect to gain insight on Khmer culture during restoration.

Archaeologists recently unearthed two stone Buddhist statues, believed to be the biggest

discovery after the 1930s. The stat-ues are headless but assumed to be 10 feet tall originally.

In addition, another temple complex known as “Banteay Chhmar” i.e. the Citadel of the Cats is being brought to lime-light. It comprises temples, a reservoir, shrines and towers. It was the center of ancient Khmer Empire. It’s considered one of Southeast Asia’s great ancient architectural masterpieces.

Agent Vinod damages Rajasthan heritageSaif Ali Khan- starrer Agent Vinod might be a heroic tale but it’s facing delinquency charges for tampering with historical struc-ture hired for shooting. The crew modified the colour of the model houses in the village and set-up thermacol structures.

A case has been registered against two members of the crew

under various sections of Rajas-than Monuments, Archaeologi-cal Sites and Antiquities Act-1961 and Prevention of Damage to Pub-lic Property Act.

Most of the changes appear temporary and can be washed by water. However, a security deposit of `4 lakh has been taken from the crew. Of this, `1 lakh may be

charged as fine and the remain-ing amount will be used to restore the structures in its original form.

Hoteliers are eyeing Bangalore to expand their avenues in hospital-ity business.

Indian Hotels Company (IHC), East India Hotels (EIH) and Hotel Leela Ventures have set their foot

forward with Bangalore as their dream destination.

IHC recently launched its third Vivanta in the city. EIH too announced its plans to develop a property in collaboration with

Reliance Industries. Hotel Leela has plans to develop premium real estate buildings. Smaller groups, too are looking at the Garden City. Royal Orchid, for instance, is looking at setting up a hotel there.

Bangalore is popular given its conducive business environ-ment. Besides, being an IT hub, it has many expats moving to it. The IT city witnessed an increase of over eight percent in revenue per available room. The average occupancy rate in the city also

grew to 64 percent- up from 60 percent in the first half of the pre-vious fiscal.

This growth is far better than major cities such as Delhi, Mum-bai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Goa, Jai-pur and Pune.

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the catering and ticketing arm of Indian Railway, plans to con-struct budget hotels at around 30 stations across the country. These hotels will focus on passen-gers who stay at stations for short durations and travel by link trains.

IRCTC will start building bud-get hotels at Bhopal Habibganj

Railway Station and Bhu-baneswar Railway Station

in Orissa, to name a few. Though the process of

building the first budget hotel in Bhubaneswar got delayed, the IRCTC

is keen to finish it in time. Civil work has already begun at

the site near Bhubaneswar.Passengers can also now book

a meal at IRCTC by sending SMSs or on phone.

Indian Railways to build budget hotels

Bangalore — preferred city for expansion

HoSpITALITy

Leading hotel chains in Abu Dhabi and Dubai have defended their decision of keeping employees’ passports, citing security for them as a reason.

They say workers’ live in shared accommodation and do not have a safe place to keep their valuables. “Pro-viding secure, fire-proof stor-age for their passports in a cen-tral, easily accessible location gives peace of mind to the work-ers,” said the hoteliers.

The central place is open 24 hours including weekends and public holidays, according to a spokesperson for Jumei-rah, which manages six hotels across the region. The Hilton and InterContinental Hotels (HICH) chains, however take

the consent of the employees before keeping

the passports.Recently, Abu Dhabi’s apex

court emphasized that holding back passports is illegal, but no law or legislation has been formally

written challenging this practice. An International Labour Organi-

zation’s representative stated: “Though withholding pass-ports is not technically a vio-

lation, but the committee on labour standards underlined

that withholding passports or IDs from workers does restrain

their freedom of movement. Such a practice increases their vulner-ability and they are more likely to become victims of forced labour.”

Hotel operators say they are aware the practice is illegal, but their policies do not amount to forced labour. “Employees can request for their passports any time,” said Jenny Atkinson, the vice president of human resources for India, Middle East and Africa for HICH, which has 19 hotels in UAE.

Sheraton Hotels and Resorts will build a hotel in Colombo on a piece of land that was originally offered to a Chinese firm.

A junior economic minister of Srilanka informed that negotia-tion with Sheraton regarding the allocation of land had been com-pleted between the owners and the government. The minister refused to reveal the investment or area of the land offered to Sher-aton. Sri Lanka annulled a $500 million investment deal with Chi-nese weapon and aviation con-glomerate, CATIC, last month

after it refused to sell the beach front land to the state-run com-pany as agreed earlier. The CATIC

deal was among the largest for-eign investment in Sri Lanka since 2009. Analysts say the cancella-tion has created concerns among potential investors.

Hotels defend holding of passports

Sheraton eyes Colombo Sinclairs Hotels and Resorts acquires stake

Sinclairs Hotels and Resorts have acquired a majority stake in Savan-nah Hotels Private Limited, which owns Savannah Sarovar Premiere, business hotel in Whitefield, Beng-aluru, for an undisclosed amount.

It is a 104-room hotel with two res-taurants, conference and banquet-ing facilities, a roof top swimming pool and a health club. The hotel is located close to the International Tech Park.

Budget hotel chain, Tune Hotels, plans to open a new hotel in Ipoh, Perak in March 2012, increasing its total number of properties in Malaysia to 11.

Tune Hotel Ipoh with 121 rooms, will be a part of the host commercial development on a site belonging to the Ipoh City Council. Nearly 60 percent com-pleted, Tune Hotel Ipoh is on track for its March opening. “The

establishment of Tune Hotel will not only escalate the growth of tourism in the state, but also help promote other relevant indus-tries and businesses such as food and restaurants, travel and tours, handicraft, transportation and many others,” said Ipoh Mayor Datuk Roshidi Hassan at the sign-ing ceremony.

Apart from Ipoh, Tune Hotels currently operates hotels in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, KLIA-LCCT Airport, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Johor Baru, Kota Damansara, Bin-tulu, Kota Baru and Kulim.

It also operates hotels in Bali, Indonesia and in London. Tune Hotels group CEO Mark Lank-ester said 30 new Tune Hotels will be opening in the next 15 months.

JW Marriott, is ready to launch JW Marriott Manam Hotel, in the king-dom of Bahrain. The hotel which is expected to open in 2016 will have 274 rooms and suites and 102 resi-dences in Bahrain Bay. It will also have an executive lounge with ocean view; one casual and five specialty restaurants; four lounges, including a lobby lounge and bar, a pool bar, quiet bar and rooftop lounge/bar; and 17,119 square feet of meeting space. It will be the first JW Marriott property in Bahrain.

An associate enrichment pro-gram that includes three main components SuperFoodsRx, WestinWorkout and Breathe Westin has been launched by Westin Hotels and Resorts. The program will introduce the brand’s “Elements of Well Being Platform” to its associates around the world through key touch points.

Meliá Hotels International announced yet another hotel in Wolfsburg, Germany. This will be operated by the Innside by Meliá brand. Located next to the railway station in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, the construction of Innside Wolfsburg, a modern four star hotel with 219 rooms, will start in 2012.

Boston Globe con-firms Hard Rock International is to construct one of its rock-and-roll hotel-casino resort in Mas-sachusetts. The company is teaming up with a local developer to propose the con-struction of a large hotel-casino on

a 100-acre for-mer country club site. Hard Rock and its partner that controls the land, Paper City Development, predict the com-

plex would generate more than $100 million a year in tax revenue for the state.

According to STR Global data, hotels in Hong Kong are doing good business.. Strong revenue per available room (RevPAR) was reported by both Hong

Kong Island (26.1%) and Kow-loon (29.5%). Business and lux-ury travellers prefer Hong Kong Island whereas leisure travellers in mainly mid-tier hotels head for Kowloon. Elizabeth Randall, managing director of STR Global said, “RevPAR performance in Hong Kong now exceeds the highs of 1997 when Hong Kong moved from being a UK colony to

a Special Administrative Region of China.” STR Global currently samples more than 11,300 rooms on Hong Kong Island and more than 11,500 rooms in Kowloon.

Hong Kong’s hotels doing good Tune Hotels signs new hotel

New luxury JW Marriott Hotel

Westin Hotels & Resorts launches new program

Melia to open a new InnsideNew Hard Rock property

20 HoSpITALITy December 2011 · TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST

Centara Hotels & Resorts has opened a luxurious Spa Cenva-ree at the newly-opened Cen-tara Anda Dhevi Resort and Spa Krabi. The serene surroundings offer rituals drawn from Thai-land’s ancient heritage, along with a range of Western treatments.

Agents can inform clients about signature spa treatments that include the Anda Dhevi Sig-nature Massage, which uses fresh herbal coconut compress com-bined with Swedish and Deep Tissue massage. Other treat-ments include anti-aging body care therapies, aromatherapy and herbal wraps, traditional massages inspired by Thai therapies, and foot reflexology.

Besides these treatments, skin-care Jurlique products are used in the spa facials.

The Niran Nirvana cou-ple package has been developed based on rituals traditionally given to brides and grooms before their marriage ceremony.

Spa Cenvaree is Centara’s own 5-star spa brand. The chain oper-ates over 25 luxury spas located in luxury resorts in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, India, Phil-ippines, Maldives and Mauritius. For more information, please visit www.spacenvaree.com.

Luxurious indulgence

PepsiCo is reviewing its market-ing strategies adding innovative solutions.

“You have to localize to win consumers in individual markets. That’s the way forward for food and beverage companies espe-cially in emerging markets, where the markets are smaller and con-sumers are price and value con-scious,” Indira Nooyi, PepsiCo’s CEO said recently.

The F&B giant has also tied-up with Tingyi Holdings Corp, China’s major F&B player. Tingyi, owns the Master Kong brand of instant noo-dles, drinks and snacks and has a market capitalization of $15 billion.

According to the agreement, Tingyi-Asahi Beverages (TAB) will handle the network of 24 bot-tlers in China for PepsiCo to man-ufacture, sell and distribute Pep-siCo’s carbonated soft drink and

Gatorade brands. TAB and Pep-siCo’s current bottlers will have the sole right to distribute Pepsi-Co’s branded beverage products in China. PepsiCo will also provide the alliance access to its global bev-erage innovation pipeline.

The deal is subject to review and approval under China’s Anti-Monopoly Law and approval of Tingyi shareholders. Following the alliance, PepsiCo and Tingyi will control about 20 percent of the Chinese soft drink market.

PepsiCo will receive a five per-cent stake in TAB, worth $55 mil-lion. The alliance will also open Tingyi’s vast distribution network to PepsiCo’s products like sodas, sports drinks and juices in the growing Chinese market. “To win globally, we need to have absolutely the best business partners locally,” Nooyi said.

Branding and marketing activ-ities will be handled by PepsiCo. TAB will begin co-branding its juice products under t h e T r o p i -cana brand name. “Cre-ative adapt-ability” is essential regarding advertising and market-i n g, c ove r -ing everything from embracing digital media to fostering alterna-tive agency mod-els,” Nooyi said.

PepsiCo says it has big plans to invest in F&B businesses in China. It plans to open

10-12 new plants in China for the manufacturing of soft drinks, noncarbonated beverages and

snacks. It is also looking for-ward to upgrade existing

facilities. Irrespective of its strategies, PepsiCo’s future will be secure in China accord-ing to the PepsiCo/Tingyi agreement, w h e r e b y t h e i r existing five per-cent stake will be increased to 20 percent by 2015. China is projected

to become the world’s largest mar-

ket for bot-tled beverages

by then.

PepsiCo innovatesFooD & beVeRAGe

Difference in credit card tech-nology between the US and the rest of the world is creat-ing issues for travellers. While Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America use the Chip and PIN technology, where cards have their own identification number for verification; US credit cards use the magnetic strip, where merchants swipe the card to ver-ify its authenticity.

Now, most merchants have both technologies available to them, however, some may not

have it. This disparity is a cause of concern for travellers. The newer cards are not easily avail-able. Now credit card companies are taking notice of the issue and testing smartcards that will work everywhere.

Is there trouble with credit cards in US?

TecHNoLoGy

• Karnataka Tourism’s web-site bagged 6th position in the country.

• India State Ranking Survey 2011, puts Karnataka on the 4th spot as a tourist destination.

Karnataka’s popularity on the rise

A click can work wonders. Indian restaurants are turning to tech-nology to give customers a speedy service. New apps on 4th genera-tion iPad tablets and touch tables are replacing traditional waiters.

The demand is soaring and many restau- rants are

working with Indian-based app developers to customize the appli-cations on these devices. Chains such as the Nandhana Group of Hotels and Restaurants Billion-smiles Hospitality, which run South Indies and Bon South, are using iPads for customer orders. “Our speed of service has doubled and relay time has reduced, ” Vijay Abhimanyu, MD, Billionsmiles Hospitality says.

Edo, a Japanese restaurant and Bar at ITC Garde-

nia says it now takes o r de r s o n a n iPad menu card.

Olde Bangalore, a resort hotel near

Bengaluru International Airport, already uses tablet menu and is now planning to offer a more visual experience of their menu to the customers.

Developers are in business. YottoLabs, is integrating the application to social network-ing sites. This will further enable customers to tag an item or ser-vice and send it to their friends on Twitter or Facebook.

TripInsurance.com and e-Travel technologies Inc., have part-nered up to provide travel-lers with late breaking e-Travel Alerts which will give them

information that could affect their travel plans at their desti-nation. These email alerts will be available from the day they buy travel insurance till they

return from their trip and will assist the travellers in planning their journey and also informing them so as to help them be safe and secure when away.

Important alerts for travellers

iOrder

Leisure boats r e g i s t e r e d with Mum-bai authorities have posted a 14% annual growth, ris-ing from 100 vessels in 2004 to 287 in 2010, claims Aashim Mongia, manag-ing director West Coast Marine Yacht Services.

Local cruise business has failed to generate any hype due to insuf-ficient berthing facilities, proper port base and tax policies, while almost 75,000 Indians avail for-eign cruises annually.

Gautam Chadha, a representa-tive of the Royal Caribbean Cruise India said: “World over the cruising industry has grown consistently. Its compounded annual growth rate is 6.5-7%. In India, cruising is

growing 8-10% year-on-year for the last t h r e e - f o u r years. It can improve with better infra-structure”.

Cashing in on the emerging interest, Yacht Charters India is planning to import two sail-ing yachts of 40 feet. Mandwa (Alibaug), Goa and Cochin are pop-ular local destinations, while “Inter-national yacht charters to Greece and Caribbean are increasing,” said Khojesteh Kathawala, general manager, Yacht Charters India.

Yacht buyers are invited to the European shipyards for a first-hand experience before they order for their customized marine toys, says Malav Shroff, managing direc-tor and CEO, Ocean Blue.

UK Business travel robust

Yachting — latest fad

Reed Travel Exhibition, ACTE join handsA strategic partnership between Reed Travel Exhibitions and The Association of Corporate Travel

Executives (ACTE) across all events in their IBTM Portfolio (www.ibtm.com) has been signed.

ACTE will undertake educational sessions on how professionals can maximise utilisation of face time and developing technology for a better corporate travel experience.

Ron DiLeo, ACTE Executive Director commented: “This collaboration is extremely timely, as business travel and meetings continue to con-verge. Face-to-face meetings are vital to business success and a healthy economy. Exec-utives must travel to network and push forward initiatives.

Business Travel News’ 2011 US Hotel Chain Survey is out for cor-porate travelers, to check how their favourite chains have fared in the eyes of the managers, who book travel for businesses.

The survey was done in 13 cat-egories on a one-to-five scale and banked on 519 responses from cor-porate travel department officials. The hotel chains were rated on var-ied criteria, like appearance, qual-ity of room amenities and business amenities in the rooms, the quality of business centers and their over-all price and value.

While Four Seasons grabbed the honours for deluxe hotels, JW

Marriott was voted the best upper-upscale hotel. The other winners in the list included Crown Plaza for upscale hotels, Holiday Inn for midprice hotels, Four Points by Sheraton for select service hotels, Staybridge Suites for upscale extended-stay hotels and Towne-Place Suites for midprice extended-stay hotels.

Favourite hotel-chainsCorporate rate hikes on cards

Amex new President

Starwood Hotels & Resorts is aspiring for a “close to double digit” corporate rate hike in 2012, said Frits van Paasschen, presi-dent and CEO, during the com-pany’s third-quarter earnings call.

Customer demand remains

unfazed by the current economic downturn and the global occu-pancy for the quarter had been 70.9%, 2.2 percentage points rise from a year prior.

The company has seen highest occupancy in North America of

74.2%, up 2.8 percentage points, which Paasschen claimed is “all about rate now”. During the quarter, rates posted a rise glob-ally across all Starwood brands. While rates in Europe increased substantially by 17.6%, Latin Amrica (15.4%) and Asia/Pacific (9.7%) also reported good hikes. Increases in North America (4.8 percent) and Africa and the Middle East (5.7 percent) were more moderate.

The company reported a net income of $163 million for the quarter, compared with a $6 million loss in the third quarter of 2010.

Merchant Services Americas president Kim Goodman has been confirmed by American Express to take up as president of Amer-ican Express Global Business Travel at year-end. Goodman will replace Charles Petruccelli, who “led the Global Business Travel division for 10 years through momentous change and turmoil for the industry,” during which he “globalized the business travel division, redefined its business model, successfully integrated Rosenbluth International and

created industry-leading joint ventures in China, Japan, Italy and Spain,” said Amex, sum-ming up his 36 years of accom-plishments in the company .

coRpoRATe

Having suffered a tough 2011 sum-mer, tour operators fear that the worse is yet to arrive. The latest UK official statistics reveal that lei-sure travel is severely hit, defying the general assumption that Brit-ish consumers would never com-promise on their plans for annual holiday abroad.However, the only respite in these tough times come from the corporate consumers as business travel has shown an upward curve.

Online travel operator, Egen-cia’s 2012 global forecast expects average airline ticket prices for European and American desti-nations to rise by 4% and average daily rate increases to European and American hotels to go up by

2% and 4% respectively.According to a World Travel

and Tourism Council (WTTC) report, business travel spending growth rate at 6.1% is almost the double of leisure travel spending at 3.8%. WTTC president and chief

executive, David Scowsill, said, “Business travel is a fundamental part of the global travel and tour-ism industry. It helps company profitability. It also expands econ-omies, raises incomes and creates jobs.” However, apprehension continues regarding the resil-ience of business travel even as economic downturn grips Europe and the US.

This year China’s railways did more than promised. A statement from the Ministry of Railways said that in the first ten months of the current fiscal, approximately 1.6 billion passengers used railways - up 11.2 percent from the previous year. Railways also transported 3.271 billion metric tons of goods during the same period up by 8.1 percent year-on-year basis. The statement points out emphasis on delivery of major goods such as coal, agricultural produce and

food products in order to meet the demand of industrial production and people’s basic needs as well. According to a ministry state-ment, total transportation com-prises 1.879 billion metric tons of coal, 112.06 million metric tons of oil, 79.15 million metric tons of grain and 70.69 million metric tons of fertilizers and pesticides. The ministry would continue to coor-dinate efforts to respond to mar-ket demand and improve the sys-tem’s efficiency, said the statement.

Railway stations have ample potential to generate revenue through public-private partner-ships (PPP) according to Rail-way Minister Dinesh Trivedi. At the recently held Goa Think Fest 2011, Trivedi said: “The assets of Indian Railways are amaz-ing. So far, nobody has looked at the railway stations with the thought that they can gen-erate revenue. Why can’t we have railway stations like air-ports?” Trivedi said in the 12th Five Year Plan, $1 trillion had been marked for the upgrada-tion of railway infrastructure, of which, 50 percent would come from the private sector.

Railway stations, new growth engines

IRCTC’s special train Britain to arm its ships

Indian Railways latest real time train information service (RTIS) has been jointly developed by Research Design and Standards Organizations (RDSO), Lucknow and Indian Institute of Technol-ogy (IIT), Kanpur. Named “Sim-ran”, the service was inaugurated by Minister of Railways Dinesh Trivedi recently. The system is

working successfully for many trains including 12301 Howrah – New Delhi Rajdhani, 12302 New Delhi – Howrah Rajdhani, 12313 Sealdah – New Delhi Rajdhani, 12951 Mumbai Central- New Delhi Rajdhani and 12004 New Delhi- Lucknow Shatabdi. RTIS will provide information on train location, running position

(whether it is running on time or late), and location with respect to the next stop in terms of kilo-meters. Passengers may also get the train information through SMS by sending a text message “<train number>” to 09415 139139. The Ministry of Railways plans to implement RTIS to track all trains, passenger as well as freight. The project which was approved in Railway Budget 2011 at a cost of `110 crore is likely to be completed by December 2012.

Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron has said ships sail-ing under the British flag will carry armed guards to combat threat from pirates. Cameron in a television interview said, “Ships with armed guards don’t get attacked, don’t get taken for hostage or for ransom.” Brit-ain will introduce licenses for ships operating off the coast of East Africa, the Arabian Sea and other parts of the Indian Ocean.

China railways’ feat

Star Cruises has become the first international cruise line to home-port in Sanya, Hainan, when its 13-deck SuperStar Aquarius anchored at the port in Novem-ber amidst traditional Chinese revelry and festivity.

The leading cruise line opera-tor in the Asia-Pacific held a cer-emony at Sanya Phoenix Island International Cruise Terminal to celebrate the 51, 309-tonnage Superstar Aquarius home port-ing in Sanya with new Sanya-Viet-nam cruise itineraries.

Star Cruises president David Chua, who led the management team to welcome the vessel, said: “We have started promoting the Sanya-Vietnam itineraries region-ally and internationally more than six months ago. Today, we invited over 500 representatives from

international and Chinese travel agencies and media organizations to celebrate the launch.”

The duty-free shopping and MICE facilities have attracted tourists towards Sanya. Super-star Aquarius offers 765 cab-ins with 1,529 lower berths. Its facilities include nine restau-rants and bars offering interna-tional cuisines; karaoke, basket-ball court, golf driving range and outdoor jacuzzi.

TRANSpoRT

Real-time train information by Indian Railways

Indian Rail Catering and Tour-ism Corporation (IRCTC) is offering North Indians plan-ning to visit the religious site of Shirdi Dham a treat dur-ing their December sojourn. It is all set to launch a nine-day

special train from Chandigarh to Shirdi Dham from Dec. 14-22. The Chandigarh- Shirdi Dham will halt at Ambala, Saharan-pur, Bareily, Shahjanpur, Luc-know and Kanpur. Passengers will be charged a return fare of `4,617 inclusive of meals, bed and lodging. Local sightseeing is also included in the pack-age. According to railway offi-cial Praveen Kumar: “We are expecting 100 percent booking as the offer is very reasonable for a middle class family. The passengers in this train will get a chance to visit all three ‘Jyotir-lingas’ during the Bharat Dar-shan.” Information and reser-vation is available at booking counters. Details are available on the IRCTC website. “.

Star Cruises home-port in Sanya

The birth of 172 trains on Snow Hill lines will put an end to the 26 years of long service of class 150s trains. London Midland’s Wallace Weatherill commented, “London Midland will be donating all proceeds to the railway children charity which helps these

toddlers to cope up with their dire situation. This special day will be an opportunity for us and the public to say goodbye to an old friend and raise some cash for a good cause.” Tickets cost £20 per adult, £10 per child £50 for a family of four.

London Midland bids farewell to 150 trains

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST · December 2011 TRANSpoRT 25

According to a report by Gulf News, Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has announced the completion of 90 percent of its roads, traffic and pub-lic transport projects at a cost of more than Dhs 60bn. During the last six years, the RTA managed to increase the road network by 29 per-cent as the length of the roads network in the emir-ate increased from 8,715km in 2005 to 11,209km in 2010.

Qatar Railways Company has postponed its plan for a $3bil-lion underground rail line after designs showed the project would run over-budget. The operator of the planned rail network, in early September decided to rethink the design of the West Bay Automatic People Mover due to cost and complexity of building an 11km underground rail line through the

heart of Doha’s new financial dis-trict, says Zawya Dow Jones.

Dubai transport infra on track

Qatar Rail delays plans

India is upset with the Euro-pean Union’s (EU’s) proposal to impose carbon tax on airlines. At the recently held World Travel Mart (WTM) in London, Tour-ism Minister Subodh Kant Sahai pointed out that the tax would only result in hike in ticket prices of long-haul flights from India, China and Japan.

With the plan of reducing car-bon emissions by installing new planes that emit less carbon, the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) demands that aircraft should pur-chase permits that allow them to emit extra carbon dioxide above a preset cap. Disobedience to this rule would include fines and flight suspensions. However, travel agents and operators believe that

this would lead to the Delhi-Lon-don ticket hike of `2,000 per per-son per trip. The hike in the ticket price will equally affect the air traf-fic between India and Europe.

Predictably, India led 26 other countries, including China, against the EU move. Speaking

about ETS, India stated that it “was inconsistent with interna-tional legal regimes” and “violated the Chicago Convention.” Chinese Air Transport Association who is supporting India on this is pre-paring to confront the move in EU courts by this year end.

India against EU carbon tax move

British Rail Minister Theresa Villiers announced recently that the West Coast Main Line will be the next rail service upgraded with extra carriages and addi-tional seats. Virgin Trains have been kept on by the government to operate the service on the West Coast line. Stretching from London to Glasgow, serving

Manchester, Birmingham, Liv-erpool and North Wales, the line will see three new 600-seater Pendolino trains added before December 2012. Besides this, East Anglia Rail Service has also recently been earmarked for an up gradation, including refurbished carriages and extra CCTV installations.

Oceania Cruises is ready to sur-prise people in 2012. It will offer theme cruises for the first time. The new “Signature Sailings” comprises 10 voyages exploring culinary, wine, music health and wellness themes.

Guests will enjoy seminars, hands-on classes, concerts, wine tastings and more. Apart from tips on healthy eating and fitness, guests will also gain insights on enhancing their mental wellness to live life to the fullest.

Depending on the voyage, celeb-rity chef Jacques Pépin, up-and-coming jazz musicians, and noted editors will be special guests.

UK West Coast line upgrade Theme cruises

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) are reducing their stake in India’s listed airline com-panies. According to Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) data, FIIs are pulling out their investments from all the three listed carriers — Jet Airways, Kingfisher Air-lines and SpiceJet. All three have seen a decline in FII stake during this July-September, compared to the previous (April-June) quarter of the current financial year. Jet Airways has seen a decline in FII stake from 5.77% in the first quar-ter of this financial year to 4.67% in the second quarter. Kingfisher

Airlines also has seen its FII stake dip from 3.02% to 2.11% during the same period. The FII stake in SpiceJet plummeted from 10.16% in the first quarter of this fiscal to 6.17% in the second quarter. The huge fall can be attributed to an increase in equity base after allot-ment of 35.90 million shares to the promoter of the company. High crude and the falling rupee have dented the books of Jet, King-fisher and SpiceJet in Q1. They are all likely to report loss in the second quarter as well. Jet fuel prices have increased by 40% in the past year.

Royal Bank of Scot-land is looking to sell its non-core assets and has asked four poten-tial buyers, all foreign bidders, to submit final bids for its Dub-lin-based RBS Avi-ation Capital. State-c o nt r o l l e d C h i n a Development Bank is one of the interested

buyers. RBS Aviation Capital is the world’s No. 5 plane lessor by fleet value. The unit was first put up for sale in 2009 but the process was put on hold following the financial crisis. It has now been earmarked for sale and the auction is being run by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

FIIs pulling out of

airlines

Jet Airways has started a B-737-800 daily flight from Thiruva-nanthapuram to Sharjah from October 30, making it the air-line’s 10th daily service from India to the United Arab Emir-ates (UAE) and the 22nd Jet Air-ways flight from India to the Gulf. Jet Airways currently operates to 24 international destinations and also has a daily flight from Kochi to Sharjah. The airline’s

daily Gulf operations include Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dubai, Doha, Kuwait, Muscat and Shar-jah, as well as Jeddah, Riyadh and

Dammam from Mum-bai, Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad.

The European Union (EU) has been lobbying airlines flying to and from Europe to purchase carbon credits or face a fine. However, the US does not want to be part of the carbon emis-sions cap-and-trade system. The US succeeded in pushing though a statement that was adopted by the International

Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) governing council saying international airlines should be exempt from the EU cap-and-trade scheme as major-ity of the countries sided with it. This ICAO resolution can bol-ster the case of the US when the European Union’s carbon trad-ing plan for airlines kicks in.

ICAO backs US on carbon emissions

Air India cuts down Kerala-Gulf services

Four bidders vie for RBS Aviation Capital

Air India has reduced the number of flights on the busy Dubai and Sharjah routes. It has cancelled five services from Kerala to the Gulf region as part of the winter sched-ules, an airline source said.

There will be only five Dubai-Thiruvananthapuram flights now against seven flights per week earlier. Sharjah-Thiru-vananthapuram flights too, have been reduced from five per week to three per week.

AVIATIoN

Jet Airways introduces Gulf flight

The third India-US Aviation Sum-mit, hosted by the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) together with India’s civil avia-tion agencies, clearly indicated a warming of business relations.

Things have come a long way since the launch of the US-India Aviation Cooperation Program, a bilateral public-private partner-ship signed in 2007.

Now, despite the bureaucratic system, headed by some real able people like Secretary Ministry of

Civil Aviation, Nasim Zaidi, not only has Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA) been signed, but onNov 18, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced the completion of a bilateral agree-ment between the U.S. and India that will allow for the recipro-cal certification of aviation prod-ucts. The Implementation Proce-dures for Airworthiness (IPA) will enable a more efficient exchange of aviation products.

The IPA details the scope and nature of the cooperation estab-lished in the framework set up

in BASA Executive Agreement signed by the FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt and the Secretary of Ministry of Civil Aviation for India, Nasim Zaidi, on July 18, this year.

In addition to discussions on the opportunities and resources available to address India’s grow-ing aviation sector, USTDA, part-nering with Metron Aviation, signed a grant with the Airports Authority of India to fund a tech-nical assistance project support-ing the implementation of an advanced air traffic flow manage-ment system and pilot.

by Neelam mathews

US eyes opportunities in India’s infrastructure

With Asia’s growing economic stature, Asian airlines are now seeking a realignment of the global regulatory framework. The region’s airlines are tasting com-mercial success in a highly com-petitive environment, thus gaining in importance and influence at the forefront of the global air transport industry. The region’s airlines are now raising their voices against ineffective regulation and exces-sive taxes and charges imposed by governments, especially those of Europe and the US. There are

disagreements regarding the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, the UK Air Passenger Duty (APD) and new passenger handling rules in the US. According to Andrew Herdman, director general, Asso-ciation of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA), the regulatory agenda is still largely driven by the US and EU, but with Asia already repre-senting the world’s largest avia-tion market, the region also needs to play a more active role in driving the global regulatory agenda on key aviation policy matters.

Dubai’s aviation industry has achieved great success since the 50 years of its inception, with the United Arab Emirates emerging as a regional epicentre for trade, commerce and tourism, rein-forced by the quality of its infra-structure, political stability and its progressive attitude towards the aviation sector. The leader of this success story has been the Emirates airline, which was established in 1985 with capital of a mere US$10 million, two aircraft and a small team of professionals. When it started out in 1969, Dubai International Airport was a small base handling only a handful of carriers. Today, the airport is one of the world’s major hubs with 150 airlines flying to 220 cities.

Dubai airport underwent major modernization in the 1970s as a new three-storey terminal, a new control tower, additional taxiways, lengthening of the run-way, and improved airfield light-ing and landing instruments came up. Etihad Airways started flights from Abu Dhabi in November 2003 while Air Arabia, the Arab world’s largest low cost carrier, was also founded in the same year. Ras Al Khaimah’s RAK Airways was established in February 2006 and most recently Dubai saw its second airline, flydubai, the coun-try’s second budget carrier, taking to the skies in July 2008. A second airport is now all set to start oper-ating in Dubai, which will become the world’s largest once complete.

The first phase of Dubai World Central-Al Maktoum Interna-tional airport is already open for cargo, and passenger operations are expected to follow next year. The aviation sector is expected to contribute US$44.5 billion to Dubai’s GDP by 2020, up from the current US$22 billion. And the sector will account for 32% of GDP by 2020.

Airline operator Emirates is planning to start daily services from Hyderabad to Dallas and Seattle via Dubai. KP Venugopal, Emirates sales manager, Andhra Pradesh, said plans have been finalized to launch the Dallas ser-vice on February 2, 2012, and the Seattle service on March 1, 2012. According to Emirates’ market estimates, there are about 1,500 passengers flying to Dubai and

Seattle each month from Hyder-abad, mostly corporate travellers and the visiting friends and rela-tives (VFR) segment. The inaugu-ral offer in the economy class has been fixed at ̀ 52,900 (return fare) to Dallas, and `56,550 to Seattle. Also included in its plans are to connect Hyderabad to St Peters-burg and Baghdad in November this year and Buenos Aires and Rio in January next year.

Emirates to launch new flights from Hyderabad

Dubai aviation, a success story

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST · December 2011 AVIATIoN 27

The directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) has directed all domestic carriers to pro-vide free drinking water to air passengers. The DGCA has enforced the regulations as during the flight, humidity in

the cabins decreases and water intake is must for passengers in such conditions. Several passengers had complained to DGCA chief EK Bharat Bhushan about airlines charg-ing for drinking water.

All airlines must provide free drinking water

AAPA for more proactive role of Asia in global aviation

eVeNTS London, 7-10 November 2011

The 32nd World Travel Mart (WTM) 2011 took place in London in November this year. It was attended by more than 28,000 visitors as opposed 26,908 visitors of WTM 2010, which is an increase of 5%. Amongst the exhibitor-invitees, 7,614 visited the event on the first day, which is specifically restricted for the invitees.

The Speed Networking session that took place before the exhibition opened had 204 exhibitor-invitee buyers and 457 exhibitors taking part in it. This was the first time this event took place and was aimed at giving exhibitors and buyers more time to connect.

Along with that, The International Council of Tourism Partners (ICTP), an organization that focuses on the advancement of quality and green growth issues in the tourism industry, was launched in the Seychelles stand at WTM.

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST · December 2011 eVeNTS 29

CITM, Kunming, 27-30 October 2011

The 13th China International Travel Mart (CITM) 2011 opened in the capital city of China’s Yunnan province, Kunming, on 27th October and was a 4-day event. Exhibitors from 46 countries attended the fair.

As a special feature of this year’s CITM, tourism officials and travel agencies were given the opportunity to meet their Chinese counterparts.

30 eVeNTS December 2011 · TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST

Singapore, 19-21 September 2011

ITB Asia 2011 in Singapore, attracted 7,511 trade visitors which is a 14% increase from 2010; whereas, 91 countries were represented in the event, which is a 50% increase.

Japan was the official partner country, and took the opportunity to dispel some myths that might be hurting their tourism industry due to the recent disasters. Hilton Worldwide, their official partner hotel will also return next year in support of the event.

ITB Asia had a big line-up of conferences which covered issues related to business travel, technological advances, boutique hotels, luxury hotels and luxury travel.

Post the success of the fourth edition of ITB Asia 2011, Messe Berlin, the organisers of the event, announced that they will increase the exhibition floor space by 15% for 2012.