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Tourism Policy Will Focus On Digitalization, Sustainable And Green Tourism: Arvind Singh

"The pandemic has made us rethink of the future and how do we recalibrate the strategies in view of the recent experiences of the COVID,” Arvind Singh, Union Tourism Secretary, said while addressing a session on ‘Tourism India, Post Covid’ at FICCI’s Annual Convention & 94th AGM. “For international travellers, we have to focus on promoting wellness tourism in a safe and healthy destination. The fact that the vaccination programme has done well and that all the tourism stakeholders have been vaccinated must be highlighted,” Singh added. He highlighted that for domestic travellers, Ministry of Tourism used the opportunity to promote domestic tourism through the webinar series ‘Dekho Apna Desh’. “This is the time for travellers who can’t travel abroad to use this opportunity to explore the country. India also has immense potential for weddings and convention, and these events should be organized in the country rather than taking them abroad,” he said and added that the industry can help the sector by improving the skill sets, services and infrastructure that will give the traveller a world class experience. For the national tourism policy, some of the focus areas are sustainable and green tourism and increasing more digitalization in the sector by making it more user friendly not only for the operators but also for the tourists which will make travel much more convenient. A massive emphasis is given to skill upgradation so creating more centres for skill upgradation for those employed in the hospitality industry and also an online training programme for guides. The policy will also have a host of other incentives and environment that is required to create more investment opportunities in the sector for both domestic and Indian from international sources.

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Deal Activity In Travel And Tourism Sector Up By 9.7% In November 2021 : GlobalData

A total of 79 deals (M&A, private equity, and venture financing) were announced in the global travel and tourism sector during November, which is an increase of 9.7% over the 72 deals announced in October, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company. Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Deal activity in the travel and tourism sector further improved in November following the trend of previous months and this is the third consecutive month of growth in deal activity in the sector. However, the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 virus may dent deal-making sentiments in the coming months.” Deal activity increased in several key markets such as the US, the UK, India and China during November compared to the previous month. However, markets such as Australia, Japan and South Korea witnessed decline in deal activity. The announcement of M&A deals increased by 30% during November compared to the previous month. However, venture financing and private equity deals volume decreased by 9.5% and 27.3%, respectively.

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Hilton Garden Inn Makes Its Thailand Debut

Hilton and GCP Hospitality announced the opening of Hilton Garden Inn Phuket Bang Tao, marking the debut of the award-winning Hilton Garden Inn brand in Thailand. Developed and managed by GCP Hospitality, the 177-room hotel spanning seven stories is strategically located in the island’s prime Bang Tao Beach area, featuring upscale guest rooms near pristine beaches, leisure, entertainment and sporting activities. Christophe Vielle, CEO & Co-Founder, GCP Hospitality, said, "The opening of Hilton Garden Inn Phuket Bang Tao is especially significant for us. It marks the first and only Hilton Garden Inn hotel in Phuket and further confirms GCP Hospitality’s commitment to expand its hotel portfolio in Thailand. This hotel also serves as a promise from GCP Hospitality to bring world-class hospitality to some of the world's most exciting destinations. Bang Tao is a location that perfectly marries nature with urban living – making it the perfect fit for travelers seeking to discover the best that Phuket has to offer." “Being one of the strongest focused service brands in the market, Hilton Garden Inn is rapidly growing throughout Asia Pacific with almost 50 operating hotels and 110 properties in the pipeline. With the opening of Hilton Garden Inn Phuket Bang Tao, we look forward to serving the evolved preferences of modern traveller, expressed through the brand’s signature positive, upbeat service, its luminous spaces and modern amenities, and its stylish and approachable design delivered at an affordable price point,” said Jenny Milos, Vice President, focused service and all suites brands, Asia Pacific, Hilton.

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Emirates To Operate Double Daily Flights To Seychelles

Emirates has announced it will operate double daily flights to Seychelles from 24 December 2021, until 9 January 2022 to serve market demand during the busy holiday season. The added service will offer customers more travel choices, flexibility and enhanced connectivity to the island-nation. Emirates currently operates a daily flight to Seychelles utilising its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. The second daily service will boost tourism to the popular Indian Ocean destination this winter holiday, especially from popular inbound markets including France, Germany, U.K., Russia, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, U.S., UAE, and KSA. From 10 January 2022, the airline will serve the country with 10 weekly flights, including a double daily service on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets can be purchased on emirates.com, Emirates Sales Office or via travel agents. Earlier this year, Emirates renewed its commitment to Seychelles by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Seychelles Tourism Board at Expo 2020. The agreement reaffirms the airline's commitment to the island-nation and outlines various initiatives to promote trade and tourism to the country.

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Emirates in close touch with Indian authorities; keen on flight services at full capacity once conditions permit

Gulf carrier Emirates, which currently serves nine destinations under the air bubble pact with India, is looking forward to operate at its full capacity in the country once the conditions permit and is in close contact with Indian authorities for the same. The coronavirus pandemic has crippled the aviation sector, which is slowly on the recovery mode amid easing of restrictions, including travel curbs. Against this backdrop, Emirates Vice President, India & Nepal, Mohammad Sarhan, said the airline has ramped up flight frequencies globally and expects to return to profitability over the next 18 months. "In line with the easing of travel restrictions worldwide, we've ramped up flight frequencies across our network and deployed our iconic A380 aircraft on 25 destinations. We're well on the path to recovery. We've restored 90 per cent of our pre-pandemic network, and we expect to return to profitability over the next 18 months," he told PTI. He also said that last month, the airline announced it will be retrofitting 105 aircraft in its fleet with the "highly lauded" premium economy class cabin, taking the travel experience to new levels. Currently, the airline serves nine destinations in India, utilising its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. These services are being operated under the air bubble arrangement between India and UAE. "Given the latest developments, we are in close contact with the local authorities, and we look forward to operating at full capacity once conditions allow us to do so," Sarhan said. Under an air bubble agreement between two countries, international passenger flights can be operated by their respective carriers to each other's territories subject to certain conditions. Scheduled international commercial flights to and from India remain suspended since March 2020 in the wake of the pandemic and the suspension has been extended till January 31, 2022. Currently, overseas flights are operated under bilateral air bubble agreements with various countries. India has air bubble agreements with 34 countries, as per the civil aviation ministry website. To a question on the steps being taken by Emirates for reducing carbon emission, which is considered a key factor in the fight against climate change, Sarhan said it has made efforts and that it operates a young and modern aircraft fleet with an average age of 6.5 years. At the Dubai Airshow last month, the airline signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with GE Aviation to develop a programme that will see an Emirates Boeing 777-300ER, powered by GE90 engines, conduct a test flight using 100 per cent Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) by 2022 end, he noted. Emirates is also a member of the Clean Skies for Tomorrow coalition, established by the World Economic Forum (WEF), which is supporting a transition to SAF as part of a pathway towards carbon-neutral flying, he said and listed various other measures, including using sustainably made blankets using 28 plastic bottles for economy class passengers on long haul flights.

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IATO announces next convention in Bengaluru; Aurangabad to be the host in 2023

At the onset of the 36th Annual Convention in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) has made the advance announcement regarding their conventions in the next two years. On Day 1 of the annual trade event organised at The Leela Gandhinagar, the apex inbound tourism body announced that the next convention will take place in Bengaluru in September 2022, which will be hosted by Karnataka Tourism. They further declared that the IATO will gather for their 38th Annual Convention in Aurangabad as Maharashtra Tourism has been confirmed as the host for the event in 2023. Confirming the news, Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO, in a conversation with ETTravelWorld, said that they are elated to make the announcement after receiving a very good response from various states to host their convention. “It has been officially announced by the Karnataka Tourism that they will be hosting the 37th IATO Convention in Bengaluru. By the time, the announcement was made, we also received confirmation from the Principal Secretary – Tourism, Government of Maharashtra that they will host the 38th convention in 2023 at Aurangabad and we have happily accepted that also,” he mentioned. The IATO President further mentioned that they are in conversation with other states too for the convention in 2024, one of them is reportedly Odisha. Direct connectivity to Aurangabad from different cities might pose a challenge for the transportation of attendees, but the IATO President expressed optimism that the situation will get better in two years. “We will see what problems are regarding flights and tickets and other connectivity challenges to Aurangabad, but I am quite hopeful that we will have more flights by the time the convention is held,” Mehra said. IATO last hosted a convention in Bengaluru in 2009 and is yet to take the IATO event, which is famous for being the most popular trade gathering in the industry to Aurangabad, Maharashtra. The association has been holding its annual convention since 1983 in various cities in India to showcase new and emerging destinations to its members. IATO convention is an industry event dedicated to bringing together hundreds of senior-level business travel experts from all over India to learn and share and network over business sessions related to the latest trends and developments in the travel & tourism sector.

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