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` 50/-Vol. XXVIII Issue 1; January 1st fortnight i ssue 2016 A DDP PUBLICATION Pages : 64+12 Pages Supplement

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JANUARY 1ST FORTNIGHT ISSUE 2016 TRAVTALK 3

MOT’s focus on National Tourism Policy As the New Year begins with assurance of progress in the tourism sector, Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Ministry ofTourism, gives a preview of what MOT has in store for 2016.

2015 has been a chapterof establishing and pro-moting growth in the

Indian tourism industry asseveral initiatives were under-taken by the Ministry ofTourism, such as the develop-ment of the eTV, release ofthe National Tourism Policydraft and formation of theSwadesh Darshan andPRASAD schemes, amongmany others. Ushering in theNew Year with gusto, the MOTis all geared up to make tan-

gible changes that willenhance the overall focus ofthe industry.

Imparting the same mes-sage, Suman Billa, JointSecretary, Ministry of Tourismsays, “In a way, 2015 hasmarked new beginnings forMOT–it was a build-up phasewhere we put several plans inplay. It was a year where weconsolidated and did a lot ofground work for a number ofinitiatives to take off.”Furthermore, he gives a pre-view of 2016 and expresses

that MOT will bring about sub-stantial changes in the tourismindustry. “2016 will be the yearwhere all the initiatives weintroduced in 2015 will comeabout in full swing,” he states.“Things such as the newtourism policy and a differentapproach to publicity andsocial media will set into play.The National Tourism Policy,most likely to come into effectby early 2016, will definitelychange the face of the Indiantourism industry.”

AHANA GURUNG The new tourism policy and a different approach to publicity andsocial media will set into play. TheNational Tourism Policy, most likelyto come into effect by early 2016, will definitely change the face of the Indian tourism industry.

Suman Billa Joint Secretary

Ministry of Tourism

Contd. on page 10

Ushering a new era for tourismAs we welcome the NewYear, the travel industrylooks forward to asignificant upswing. finds out from tourismindustry players about theirexpectations and plans forthe year 2016.

We are expecting the numberof passengers to increase man-ifold this year and severalreforms put in place by theIndian government in 2015 tofurther support and nurture thegrowth of both domestic and

international airlines next year.

Wolfgang WillDirector - South Asia, Lufthansa Passenger Airlines

I believe there is significantscope for expansion of bothtransport infrastructure andthe hotel and accommodationsector, particularly outsidemajor cities and in more rural areas, which would benefit from an increase of

tourism spending in the coming year.

Rajan DuaManaging Director, Udaan

Contd. on page 12

TT BU R E AU


BULLETIN

ADTOI conducted its GeneralHouse Meeting on

December 26 where the topagenda besides taking the asso-ciation forward, was to haveinformative sessions and pre-sentations for the members.Jyoti Kapoor, President, ADTOIsaid, “The main agenda was tohave sessions and presenta-tions. We had a session on theService Tax levied by the government. Also, there was apresentation on Anandpur Sahibwhere members were shownhow culturally rich the place is.Then we had a presentation onBnBnation which is a new ageaccommodation in India.”

Also the ADTOIConvention is in the offing.Kapoor said, “We are planningto hold the convention by thirdweek of March. State tourism

boards are coming forward tohelp us; we are just trying tonarrow down on that and decidewhere to hold the convention.But by January 7 or 10, weshould be able to finalise thevenue and the date.”

According to Kapoorstate tourism boards havebeen helpful. He said, “We areworking with Punjab,

Rajasthan, Madhya Pradeshand J&K. In fact these states want to host us. But weare just waiting for the dates toget finalised.”

He believes that statetourism boards should promotethemselves more to have morevisibility. Kapoor believes thatdomestic tourism is moving for-ward. He said, “Domestic

tourism is the backbone of ourcountry but we need to regu-late it and we need to havestate tourisms to organisemega roadshows becausethey have to create a visibility.Domestic tourism still needs tobe branded because IncredibleIndia doesn’t talk aboutdomestic tourism. I believeIncredible India should be pro-moted within India.”

The Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI) recently helda meeting where insights were given about religious destinations likeAnandpur Sahib and new-age accommodation concepts like BnBnation.

State roadshows needed: ADTOI

AN U P R I YA BI S H N O I

We are planning to hold the convention bythird week of March. State tourism boardsare coming forward to help us; we are justtrying to narrow down on that and decide

where to hold the convention.

Jyoti KapoorPresident, ADTOI


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VIEWPOINT

STATISTICS

The National Tourism Policy, likely to be out in June 2016, is the most-awaited

development of the year.

eTV led to easing of the visa regime to agreat extent as FTAs from January toNovember, 2015, stood at 7.10 million. Thegrowth for many businesses has come fromthe domestic segment. A further rise indomestic tourists is expected in 2016. Bettingbig on this segment, many State TourismBoards are upping their act. They are investingin modern structure and offer a combo ofhistoric and state-of the-art venues and hotels.

Outbound travel will also increaseconsiderably as many countries are targetingIndia. Trends for 2016 show that the youth, the Millennials, are keen on travel. Manyairports will be upgraded as new airlines will be granted permits to operate from severalIndian cities.

Though the implementation of Goods &Service Tax (GST) will remove multipletaxation and bring ease of doing business,everyone is a bit sceptical about the rate atwhich it will be capped. In addition, these taxrates tend to vary across different states in thecountry. This is affecting the growth of theindustry in India and India is losing out to otherlow-cost destinations. GST will offer reprieveto a highly-taxed tourism industry, provided itis capped at a lower rate.

After Marriott International boughtStarwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwiderecently, AccorHotels acquired FRHI HoldingsLtd (FRHI), parent company of Fairmont,Raffles, and Swissôtel chains, consolidatingthe fact that mergers and acquisitions are theway forward in the New Year.

The industry must focus on sustainabilitypractices in the wake of the havoc wreaked by the rain and floods in Chennai. AComprehensive Sustainable Tourism Criteriafor India (STCI) for three major segments oftourism industry has been launched by theMinistry of Tourism (MOT). The tour operatorsapproved by Ministry of Tourism have to signa pledge for commitment towards Safe andHonourable Tourism and Sustainable Tourismto fully implement sustainable tourismpractices.

Let’s work towards growth in tandem withsustainability in 2016!

To a great 2016

Over 15% growth in domestic air trafficIn 2014-15, air passenger traffic in India registered a robust growth comparedto previous year. While the domestic passenger traffic registered a growth of 15.52 per cent, international passenger traffic witnessed a growth of 6.15 per cent during the same period.

In terms of Passenger LoadFactor (PLF), a measure ofcapacity utilisation ofairlines, SpiceJet registeredthe highest PLF of 81.8 percent followed by JetLite(80.1 per cent), IndiGo(79.4 per cent), and GoAir(79.1 per cent).

Market share (%) of top 15 scheduled operators-International operations, 2014-115

Jet Airways 14.47

Air India 11.93

Emirates 11.39

Air India Express 5.23

Qatar Airways 4.05

Air Arabia 3.82

Etihad Airways 3.45

IndiGo 3.18

Saudi Arabian Airlines 3.10

Oman Airlines 2.72

Sri Lankan Airlines 2.68

Singapore Airlines 2.63

Thai Airways 2.53

Lufthansa 2.51

Malaysian Airlines 2.19

Out of total 75 scheduled international Operators, 6airlines accounted for 50 per cent of InternationalPassenger traffic. Jet Airways had the maximum sharefollowed by Air India, Emirates, Air India Express,Qatar Airways and Air Arabia.

More than half of the traffic to and from India isaccounted for by the countries in the Africa & Middle East.

The domestic passenger traffic registered a growth of12.03% (CAGR) over the period from 2005-06 to2014-15 while International passenger traffic grew at9.52% (CAGR) during the same period.

IndiGo

Jet Airways

Air India

SpiceJet

Go Air

Jetlite

Air Costa

Alliance

Air India Express

Indigo

Air India

Jet Airways

SpiceJet

Go Air

JetLite

Air Costa

Alliance Air

Air India Express

Market Share (%) in terms of domestic market demand (RPK)

Domestic Market Share(%) interms of passengers carried

37.5

17.3

15.515.3

9.3

3.6

1.3

In the year 2014-15 in terms of passenger carried, IndiGo had maximum market share followed by Jet Airways, Air India and SpiceJet.

0.80.30.2

34.2

18.0

16.9 15.49.44.4

1.8

1.00.40.3


J A N U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 6 TRAVTALK 7NTO

QHow has the tourismscenario changed

over the last three years?For the last three years we

have been running a new cam-paign—‘It’s More Fun in thePhilippines’. It has a huge fol-lowing and a lot of impact on thetravel industry. This campaign isdifferent from our older cam-paigns in a way that people ofthe Philippines will relate to itbetter. In the last three years,the foreign tourist arrivals to thePhilippines have moved up.However, there has been aslump because of the naturaldisaster and calamities, but weare picking up now.

As far as India is con-cerned there have been chal-lenges too, like that of visa andlack of direct flights. Butdespite that, there have beensome developments, whichhave secured the regularinflow of the tourists from Indiato the Philippines. For exam-ple, while Philippines Airlinesdiscontinued direct flights,there has been more frequen-cy from other air carriers viasome Asian countries. Indiahas overtaken Germany interms of tourist arrivals to thePhilippines, and is now listedat number 12 , while Germanyis at number 13.

QWhat are the new ini-tiatives to promote

tourism?Right now we are focus-

ing on how to drive more fami-lies and weddings into thecountry. This is the new seg-ment we are looking at now. Werecently organised a Fam tripfor the Indian wedding plannersand showcased wedding des-tinations and venues likeBoracay, Cebu and Boholwherein they got to experiencethe nuances of how weddingscan be organised at varioushotels and venues. We areaggressively promoting MICEtoo. In fact, the success of theIndian arrivals to the Philippinescan also be attributed to MICEmovements. DOT India hasbeen successful in attractinglarge numbers of corporate tothe Philippines. Earlier this yearwe had about 500 grouparrivals into the country.

QWhich new destinationsare you promoting?Davao City, on the south-

ern Philippine island ofMindanao, has been identifiedas a luxury destination.However, it’s a little farther fromManila. It takes two hours viaplane to get there. Now, we aretrying to work with SingaporeAirlines and SilkAir to fly out of

India into Singapore and directlyinto Davao. For this, we will bepartnering with Cebu Pacific. Ofcourse, we are continuing topush for Palawan, but now wewill be promoting other islandsof Palawan like Coron, where it’smore about adventure andisland hopping. Bohol too, willnow be treated as a luxury des-tination because the city recent-ly witnessed opening of variousluxury resorts.

meets Glen Agustin, Chief Tourism Operations Officer, Market Development Group, Department of Tourism,Philippines, to understand what makes the destination unique and how they are attracting travellers.

Philippines eyes Indian wedding marketAN U P R I YA BI S H N O I F R O M T H E PH I L I P P I N E S The new campaign is different from our older

campaigns in a way that people of thePhilippines will relate to it better. In the lastthree years, the foreign tourist arrivals to the Philippines have moved up.

Glen AgustinChief Tourism Operations Officer

Market Development Group, Department of Tourism, Philippines

New VenuesDavao City has beenidentified as a luxurydestination

Bohol recently wit-nessed opening of various luxury resorts


GUEST COLUMN

The year gone by was quitesatisfying with respect to

our business growth, customersatisfaction ratings and serviceexcellence achieved by teammembers at World TravelStudio. Apart from further build-ing our dominance in the cus-tomised holidays in the B2Csegment, this year we wit-nessed a huge surge in theB2B business, wherein travelagents across the countryentrusted us to handle VIPclients for their customisedleisure vacation arrangements.

Another highlight was oursuccessful entry into the studytour segment under a newbrand FLEARN. We also wonthe Best Tour Operator Award at the India TravelAwards - West India for thesecond year in a row.

Last year witnessed twovery important developmentsin the travel industry – the saleof its travel business by Kuoniand the merger of Starwoodwith Marriott International. Atthe same time the industry alsowitnessed start-ups set off onthe growth path in travel as wellas the hotel space. Interesting,isn’t it!

Outlook for the yearBased on the current

economic indicators, I feelgrowth will continue to be sub-dued. However, I am veryhopeful that the economy willrecover faster and the initia-tives taken by the central gov-ernment recently should startshowing some positive results.

These are the best timesfor the Indian consumers,

wherein they are being pam-pered the most with a widearray of product options,extreme convenience andquirky service by new age com-panies. Indian consumers arechanging and are far moredemanding than before. This willcontinue as they are exposedto global content and nowdemand world-class servicedelivery. This means that theIndian travel companies willhave to update their servicedelivery process to global stan-dards. Also, this is actually thebest time to travel, thanks to anall-time low price of fuel that hasmade air fares very attractive.

Here is a list of a fewtrends that would influence the travel industry in the coming years:

•BLeisure:With work-lifebalance gaining importanceamongst Indians, more andmore Indians are now increas-ingly clubbing their business tripswith leisure family vacations.

• Self-drive vacations:This segment is set to explodewith Indians seeking absoluteflexibility and desire to indulgein exploratory experiences.Self-drive vacations arebecoming the most preferredmode of vacation.

• Solo travellers: Withchanging lifestyles and aspira-tions, this segment is graduallygrowing in India as well.

• Dominance of smart-phone: These gadgets contin-ue to influence and dominateindividuals’ time and decision-making, pre as well as on-tour

and hence it’s very importantto have an appropriate strategyto integrate the smartphone inone’s service strategy.

• Offline or online: Thisbattle will continue. Purchasinghabits of the Indian customersare changing, but not to theextent the way it’s being pro-jected. With more informationavailable on the net, clients aredoing detailed research.However when it comes toleisure family vacation they arestill booking offline. That’sbecause they get great valueand convenience, when itcomes to investing time andmoney in a well-planned cus-tomised vacation offered by abrick-and-mortar tour operator.

• Experiential vaca-tions: Standard sightseeingtours are becoming passé andclients are looking at newerexperiences and destinations.

One of my favouritequotes by Heraclitus goes,‘There is nothing permanentexcept change.’ Hence, it’s veryimportant to adapt to thechanging environment swiftlyand stay relevant.

Indian travellers are evolving to become far more demandingso it only makes sense for the tour operators to change withtime to remain relevant.

Change and stay relevant

-The author is Haresh Koyande,Founder & MD, World Travel Studio

JTB’s English tours to Europe for IndiansEuropamundo Vacations,

owned by JTB (Japan TravelBureau), one of the largest travel and tourism company inthe world, is introducing Englishguided tours to focus on Indian travellers and theirrequirements.

Europamundo was found-ed over 20 years back and hasgrown at an average rate of 20% annually. Europamundo car-ries 125,000 tourists annuallyfrom 22 Spanish or Portuguesespeaking countries and is oneof the largest coach tour opera-tors in the world.

Riding high on its successin Spanish and Portuguesespeaking markets, Euro-pamundo researched the Indiantravel market to evaluate how itsseat-in-coach product could add

value to middle income trav-ellers as well as the travelagency fraternity in India. Afterseeing the results,Europamundo is now introduc-ing English guided tours with aparticular focus on Indianrequirements. The tours will also

be promoted in other marketswith an interest in English guid-ed seat-in-coach tours.

The company is looking atdistributing Europamundo prod-ucts all over India and Sri Lanka,and is currently targeting themiddle income group who optfor European packages and

provide them the bestPrice/Quality ratio and flexibili-ties that the modern Indian islooking at. According toEuropamundo, the decision toenter the Indian market is basedon the fact that no other marketis growing at a healthy rate of

10-12 per cent and the middleincome group has a desire tosee Europe.

In India, Europamundowill be represented by one dis-tributor in each region.Depending on demand anddevelopment, it may engagemore distributors.


1 0 TRAVTALK J A N U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 6 COVER STORY

Billa comments that MOThas also identified severalparameters that need attentionand further enhancement. Hesays, “We are going to focus ona lot of areas that requireenhancement such as cruiseand film tourism, to name a few.We have already started work-ing on both aspects, especiallywith customs and immigrationto simplify the procedures andnorms and have assigned atask force as well. For filmtourism, we launched the singlewindow clearance for film pro-ducers in Goa in November andsignificant results are expectedin 2016,” he elaborates.Similarly, he mentions that theMinistry is also working on anambitious digital presence,especially on social media.“Soon enough, India will erupton the digital platform,” he says.“We strongly feel that the digitalage is the future and expect toget vendors on board byFebruary 2016.”

In terms of building infra-structure, Billa informs that significant work has alreadybegun. “By the end of thefinancial year, funds to the tune of `1900 crore will beapproved. Till date, approxi-

mately ̀ 1100 crore funds havebeen sanctioned for the devel-opment of tourism infrastruc-ture,” he states.

Moreover, he acknowl-edges the importance of pro-motion of eTV and says thatits logo will be promoted alongwith the Incredible Indiabranding in advertisements ontelevision, print, etc., to drawfocus to eTV. “Nonetheless, itis safe to say that eTV hasessentially taken away amajor shortcoming of thetourism industry,” he adds.“There are larger issues thataffect tourism in the countrylike the state of the economyand the business scene –these are aspects we cannotdetermine, but we are hopingfor a fruitful year with momen-tous changes ahead.”

India to ramp upsocial media presence

Contd. from page 3

2016 ProspectsMOT will focus oncruise and film tourism this year

eTV logo will be promoted along withIncredible India brand-ing in advertisements

GMR Group led DelhiInternational Airport

(P) Limited (DIAL) along withAir Traffic Control (ATC) and MET Departmentannounced its preparednessfor the fog season at the Indira Gandhi InternationalAirport (IGIA).

Sharing his advice totravellers, I Prabhakara Rao,CEO, DIAL, said, “My funda-mental requests to you all,when you are touching Delhi,please see weather report first.That gives you good informa-tion and you can plan well.Secondly, rest assured that thisairport is well-equipped to han-dle fog. However, you all needto understand when it comesto zero visibility; none of us cando anything. Please look at theweather report and when thereis an expectation of dense fog,kindly try to manage your travelaccording to that.”

For the first time, runway09/27 is equipped with threeRunway Visual Range (RVR)devices, which allows flightdepartures upto 400 meters ofvisibility. MET office has installed15 RVR devices at Delhi Airportand three new Drishti RVRs willsoon arrive as reserve RVRs forRunway 10/28.

The operator has alsoincreased the parking baysconfiguration at Terminal-2Apron area where the number

of parking bays has now beenincreased from 21 to 28 fordifferent aircraft types. In con-junction with ATC, DIAL has also introduced Pre-Departure Sequencing tool aspart of Delhi Airport-Collaborative DecisionMaking (DA-CDM).

The three runways – 28,29 and 11 – at the IGI Airportare certified for CAT III B oper-ations, which would allowlanding of the compliant air-

crafts with visibility as low as50 metres.

Talking about the growth,in terms of the number of pas-sengers at the airport, headded, “Compared to 2014, onaverage arrivals have grown byabout 12 to 15 per cent.Domestic growth has beenhigher at 22 per cent and inter-national is about 17 per cent.In 2016, I am expecting agrowth of six to seven per cent.Since aviation is doing well, itaugers for good growth.”

Marcel Hungerbuehler,COO, DIAL said, “Over thelast 12 months we had 45 mil-lion passengers using our air-port and also the numbers of flights have steadilyincreased. We actually had anew record with 1116 flights inone day. This is quite anincrease, and the highestnumbers of passengers in onesingle day, has now exceeded150,000.”

Delhi Airport gears up for the fog season to ensure continuity of flightoperations during Low Visibility Period (LVP). I Prabhakara Rao, CEO,Delhi International Airport (DIAL) and Marcel Hungerbuehler, COO,DIAL, tell more.

Arrivals grow by 12 to 15 per cent

KA N C H A N NAT H

I Prabhakara RaoCEODIAL

Marcel HungerbuehlerCOODIAL


Though the implementationof Goods & Service Tax

(GST) will remove multiple tax-ation and bring ease of doingbusiness, everyone is a bitskeptical about the rate atwhich it will be capped. Joshisays, “The expected quantumof tax between 17 and 27 per

cent will be rather high for theindustry. The hospitality sectorcould be impacted after GSTbecause it would appear thatthe total cost has gone up.Currently, while service tax atabated rate of 4.944 per cent(5.6 per cent after June 1) andVAT at 12.5 per cent is leviedon restaurant bills, after GST,one could see a much higherpercentage of 24-25 per cent(whatever the decided rate is)being charged on the bill.”

Travel and tourism in Indiais a highly taxed industry, whichmakes India expensive as atourist destination. This is affect-ing the growth of the industry inIndia and the country is losingout to other low-cost destina-tions. Inbound tourism is the onemost affected.

Talking about multipletaxation in the industry, Joshisays, “Various taxes are leviedacross the entire industry rightfrom tour operators, trans-porters, airline industry tohotels and these includeService Tax, Luxury Tax, taxon transportation, tax on avia-tion turbine fuel (airline indus-

try), and various taxes ontransportation. In addition,these tax rates tend to varyacross different states in the country.”

As far as tourism is con-cerned, the lower tax policy isbeing followed by most of thecountries across the globe topromote tourism. However,

few countries also levy hightaxes on tourism activities togenerate revenue. Talking aboutthe best policy for GST so as notto impede the growth of thetourism sector, Joshi says, “GSTwill offer reprieve to a highlytaxed tourism industry, providedit is capped at a lower rate.Currently, the taxes are high andIndia has not been able to attract

tourists unlike the neighboringcountries, where the tax burdenon tourists is low. GST regimewill definitely make doing busi-ness easier and reduce paperwork for companies, but taxesshould be capped at 10 per cent. When the tax rate is high, it will negatively impact the revenue model of the companies.”

Goods and Services Tax (GST) will offer reprieve to a highly taxed tourismindustry, provided it is capped at a lower rate. U.K. Joshi, Director,ASSOCHAM, talks about the implications of GST for the tourism industry.

GST will ease doing business J A N U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 6 TRAVTALK 1 1ASSOCIATIONS

GST regime willdefinitely makedoing businesseasier andreduce paperwork forcompanies, buttaxes should becapped at 10per cent

U.K. JoshiDirectorASSOCHAM

E-boarding at Hyderabad airportAshok Gajapathi Raju, Union

Minister for Civil Aviation, recentlyinaugurated E-boarding facility atRajiv Gandhi International Airport(RGIA), Hyderabad, for all domesticpassengers. The E-boarding solu-tion fully eliminates the need tomanual stamping of boarding cardseven for physical boarding cardsissued by CUSS (Common UseSelf Service) machines or thecheck-in counters. Further, it coversend-to-end all the key passengerprocesses at the airport viz. startingfrom entry to terminal and includingcheck-in, security check, boardinggate and finally the boarding bridgecheck before entering the aircraft.Developed in-house, the E-boardingSolution by GMR Hyderabad

International Airport Ltd. (GHIAL),is the first end-to-end e-enabledboarding solution. RGIA is the firstairport in India to have this facility.After getting the approval fromBureau of Civil Aviation Security(BCAS) under the Ministry of CivilAviation (MoCA) in August 2015,GHIAL implemented the E-boardingprocess for all domestic passengersat RGIA. With this, the airport hasembarked on providing a wholenew experience to the domesticpassengers. The innovative end-to-end E-boarding process has trig-gered a paradigm shift in air pas-senger handling process in thecountry, making Hyderabad Airporta pioneer in the field of technologyenabled Airports in India.

KA N C H A N NAT H


1 2 TRAVTALK J A N U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 6 QUICKBYTES

The National Travel and Tourismpolicy establishes an achievablegoal of increasing jobs by attractingand welcoming 20 million interna-tional visitors, who we estimate willspend $50 billion annually, by theend of 2021. India can achieve this

goal in 2016 and beyond by promoting the country better, and enabling and enhancing travel and tourismto and within India.

Surpal S DeoraDirector, Maxxfun Holidays

New recommendations from theTourism Board; critical interventionand support from the government inthe form of the eTV and other priority issues; and the successfulimplementation of policies, willstrengthen and benefit the industry

greatly and contribute to making India even more attrac-tive to the world – this is what we look forward to. Our significant focus will be on contributing to marketing andpromoting India as the finest travel and tourism destination in the world.

Mario HabigManaging Director, Le Passage to India

The Tourism Policy of 2015 projectedIndia as a Must Experience and aMust Revisit destination. To ensurethis, it is imperative to seriously con-sider showcasing India as a safedestination. We need improvementin infrastructure; streamline taxes

levied on tourism products, which are sometimes leviedtwice; uniformity in services provided by multiple providersand have checks in places to ensure all service providersmeet basic guidelines. In 2016 we will promote ourselvesas a major Destination Wedding company.

Vijay DadhichManaging Director, Blue Moon Travels

The government plays a pivotal roleand should consider reinstating taxpolicy 80HHD under the Income taxAct; reduce the taxes on hotels andharmonise inter-state taxes for touristvehicles. This would make the desti-nation more competitive comparedwith other Southeast Asian countries

and make travel industry more lucrative for new entrepre-neurs, creating employment and innovation in our industry.We plan to introduce destinations like Brazil, Peru andArgentina for outbound travel.

Vikas AbbotManaging Director, Vasco Travels

Indian travel industry faced a toughtime admist worldwide fear of ter-rorism and political unrest. It’s verycrucial to have a strong policy fromthe government to take tourism for-ward in such tough times. Inboundtourism was on a lower end in 2015,and we really have to work hard to

see the growth in 2016. Strict policy decisions on safety,cleanliness and easy visa regime must be the priorityfor the government and they must market this to theworld to make India a safe tourism destination.

Ravi GosainManaging Director, Erco Travels

Industry calls for stronger policy

Contd. on page 15

Contd. from page 3

By 2016, about 40 million travellersare expected to visit India.Corporates are setting up theiroffices leading to increase in thetravel. VFR (Visiting Friends andRelatives) is bound to pick up paceand increase outbound travel. Not to

forget medical tourism on a steady move attracting moreand more people to come to India and undergo treat-ments and procedures. Destination weddings add toinbound travel in places like Goa. The top 3 destinationsfor 2016 will be Thailand (Krabi/ Phuket/ Bangkok).

Swati GandhiCo-founder, BookMyTravel Worldwide


J A N U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 6 TRAVTALK 1 5QUICKBYTES

Travel and tourism industry con-tributes nearly 7 per cent to India’sGDP and is expected to experiencea growth of 8 per cent in 2016. Weare expecting the government tobring in vital tax reforms across thecountry to help tourism, improve cur-

rent state of economy and position India as a globallycompetitive tourist destination. Our main agendas for2016 would be to increase awareness about cruise holidays in India with the help of increased number oftrade partners.

Kunal SampatManaging Director, MSC Cruises

The government, in cooperation withvarious state tourisms, is continuallycoming up with innovative plans tocater to this continuing stream oftourists. Infrastructure still remains themost important impediment in realisingthe high potential that the tourismindustry holds for India. Hopefully in

2016, we will surely inch much closer to realising our endeav-our to provide reasonably good accommodation options,better transport network, more tourist centres and safe andclean surroundings for tourists.

Dr. Sumita MisraPrincipal Secretary, Department of Tourism

Government of Haryana

We are working towards improvinginfrastructural facilities in Delhi. Thereare many new projects in the comingyear and initiatives like the ‘EveryOther Day’ Adventure Park. With thecity hosting performers like ZubinMehta and A R Rahman, we expectmore travellers in the coming year.

Kapil MishraMinister of Tourism, Delhi

Contd. from page 12

In 2016, the travel industry canexpect to see an increasing growthin mobile users, further strengthen-ing the need for travel businesses tohave mobile responsive sites andapps. The need to have travel insur-ance is increasingly being felt

among the Indian traveller who is more aware about exi-gencies that may arise during any trip. Personalised prod-ucts and services, perpetual touch points between theservice provider and traveller, and frictionless purchasingwill characterize the traveller’s experience in the future.

Dev KarvatManaging Director, TrawellTag Cover-More India

In the last couple of years manyinteresting travel start-ups havebeen launched in the offline aswell as online space across thecountry and these would influencethe industry in a positive mannerin 2016. Mergers and acquisitions

will continue and we will witness further consolidation.In terms of business growth, based on the current economic indicators, I feel it will continue toremain subdued.

Haresh KoyandeFounder and Mananging Director, World Travel Studio

The online users are on a rise andcan book air tickets and hotels direct-ly. The use of credit cards is gainingconfidence. Domestic and interna-tional tourism boards are publishingoffers with prices mentioned, whichdeprives the travel agent to sell by

adding service charges. Airlines are announcing theircheapest offers, which again are by-passing the agents.IRCTC is another strong competitor to travel agents tooffer all inclusive domestic tours. The introduction andincrease in Service Tax is affecting the trade.

Om PrakashDirector, InORBIT Tours

Contd. on page 16

Better connectivity: route to success



2015 has seen a few paradigm shiftsin the tourism industry as a whole.Backpack holidays, increase in lastminute bookings and budget accom-modation are amongst the fewtrends that were witnessed this year.2016 seems to be a promising year

in travel with the government extending e-visas facilityto a number of countries. Overall, 2016 has tremendouspotential especially for the domestic market with theincreasing number of International travellers on accountof the diminishing value of the rupee.

Amit AgarwalSenior Marketing Manager, Hotels.com

Due to a clear lack of new and sub-stantial developments, thedemand-supply ratio is gettingskewed in favour of supply. Apartfrom some over-supply in marketslike Delhi and Bengaluru, we shallsee a sharp turn in hotel rates.

Adding to this the aggregators who are creating newmarkets and demand for more weekend travel with theiraggressive prices. The opening of new private airportsand the trend of PPP in transportation and unlockingof land at state levels for industry and development willlead to higher demand.

Amit DholakiaManaging Director, Orritel Hotel

We hope the present political tur-moil will settle down and progres-sive measures like the GST will bepassed in parliament, as this will fur-ther boost the industry. From aninbound perspective, the image ofIndia has improved overall. India is

also fairly peaceful and not in the thick of the terrorismdiscussions, so a general sense of safety exists. Indiaalso has the opportunity to project our efforts and suc-cess stories in the sustainable tourism space.

CB RamkumarFounder & Managing Director, Our Native Village

Contd. from page 15

We are very optimistic about themarket’s potential for future growth,particularly as customers becomemore discerning. British Airwaysrecently launched its state-of-the-artBoeing 787-9 Dreamliner connectingNew Delhi and London. British

Airways will continue to improve services for customersrolling out more new aircraft across its worldwide networkas deliveries continue over the next three years. We areconstantly evaluating routes across our network and keepmaking appropriate changes as the markets demand.

Moran BirgerRegional Commercial Manager–South Asia, British Airways

Aiming for the sky in 2016

Contd. on page 18

The year 2016 looks very positivefor the industry. Year 2015 was phe-nomenal, though there was hugecompetition. The new governmenthas just established itself which isa big change after 10 years. Sothere was a little bit of impact and

ups and downs in the market. However, it was quitegood for our business.

Sachin NeneRegional Manager - India, Air Arabia

2016 looks promising for the aviationindustry in India as we expect 2016to carry forward the optimism of2015. Last year was an importantyear as we saw the emergence ofsome new domestic carriers, whichimproved connectivity within the

country. The plans of making India an MRO hub in Asiais an optimistic step as it will put India on the global MROmap and ensure maintenance of domestic carriers inIndia itself.

Sajid KhanCountry Manager, India, South African Airways



Contd. from page 16

To start new ventures in Tier-I andTier-II cities will be our growth model.Qualitatively, adding facilities to ourresorts and targeting specific groupsof weekend and women travellers,attracting talent to our humanresources will be given priority.

Challenges will be to monitor high energy costs by efficientuse of EMS, by implementation of green practices. Totackle high capital costs, poor infrastructural facilities andscarcity of land for new projects, and issues of safety andsecurity are of permanent importance.

Dilip RayEC Member, FHRAI CMD, Mayfair Hotels and Resorts

We hope that the coming year is apeaceful one around the globe asunforeseen events in any part ofthe world affect tourism worldwide.Japan is great as a destinationbecause of the currency ratio ofyen and dollar. Similarly, with India’se-visas rules and successful cam-

paigns like the Incredible India campaign, it’s safe tosay that India is fast becoming the top destination ontourist’s map.

Atul LallVP Operations and GM

The Claridges Hotels & Resorts

India is poised for financial harmonyand if continues on its current trendit is in an excellent position to attractmore events with the success ofrecent events and constant effortsof the government and ministries.Our current trends point out Delhi,Mumbai and Bangalore as the top

three destinations for the coming year.

Davinder JujEAM, Rooms and Business Development

Eros Hotel, New Delhi

Technology: buzzword for 2016

Judging from past trends, 2016will continue to be an extremelyrobust year for the market. Ourfocus on our tech savvy travellercontinues and will be on top pri-ority for 2016 facilitating andencouraging web check-ins. Thetop 3 destinations for 2016 will be

Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand.

Ranju AlexGeneral Manager, Goa Marriott Resort & Spa

As per a Google report, consumerconfidence to do online hotel book-ings is on the rise in India, with anestimated 8.4 million Indians likelyto book hotels online by 2016. Theonline hotel booking industry willbe worth $ 1.8 billion from the cur-rent $0.8 billion. The growth of

Internet has also opened up new opportunities forhotels to market their products through various otherplatforms, including their own website, online travelagencies (OTAs), etc. The top 3 destinations for 2016will be Ladakh, Sikkim and Bhutan.

Shashi RazdanDirector of Sales & Marketing, Golden Tulip Hotels

In 2016, we anticipate higher growthin Ludhiana with rising occupancyand Average Daily Rate (ADR) than2015. Restrained supply growth hashelped us in Noida and we expectto be busier and more profitable in2016. Like last year, RevPAR growthwill continue marginally.

Sonica Malhotra KandhariDirector, MBD Group

At the industry level, prospects lookbright as the vital economic param-eters are stable and showingupward trend. This augurs well forthe overall growth of hospitalityindustry. In 2015, new initiatives bythe government like easier loans forhotel industry, e-visas have been

taken. Consolidation of room aggregators which camein a big way also helped the cause of the industry thoughsome operators felt differently. We at Lords Hotels andResorts established ourselves with e-booking channelsand grew majorly on these by almost 40 per cent.

Rishi PuriVice President, Lords Hotels & Resorts

Gurgaon’s hospitality market hasdemonstrated a strong performancein the past one year despite additionof more inventories and consideringeconomic parameters looking posi-tive Vivanta by Taj, Gurgaon expectsa buoyant 2016. With the opening of

other new hotels in Gurgaon the demand grew at ahealthy pace but since the supply growth was relativelyhigher than expected it created pressure on room rates.However it didn’t have any large scale impact on us sinceour guests belong to the cosmopolitan business segmentthat travel in and out of Gurgaon and are looking out fora strategic location to stay at.

Sumeet TanejaGeneral Manager, Vivanta by Taj, Gurgaon

With the Pune Government’s focusto turn the city into a ‘Smart City’ by2016, we expect speedy growth anddevelopment in the city’s infrastruc-ture. In the upcoming year, we alsolook forward to stronger implemen-tation of government policies, such

as GST, which shall nurture the hospitality industry.However, apart from steady increase in hotel rooms in city,increase in tax structure in terms of Service Tax in June2015 followed by Swachh Bharat Cess in November 2015played a major challenge, as it became difficult for hotelsto justify the same to our customers, especially in the pricedriven market like ours.

Bandish MehtaGeneral Manager, Novotel Pune

Contd. on page 20


QUICKBYTES

The year 2015 has been a great onefor us as the market saw a positivegrowth with a rise in occupancy lev-els and ADRs. The overall markethas seen a 10 per cent growth interms of occupancy. The bifurcationof the state has also gone a long

way in increasing occupancy levels. The Goods andServices Tax (GST) bill as and when introduced isexpected to help the hospitality industry favourably.

Madhav BellamkondaGeneral Manager, Novotel Visakhapatnam Varun Beach

In the past five years, the growth ofIndian tourist arrivals to Korea hasincreased by over 70 per cent.Korea is now becoming India’s toppriority in terms of a new destina-tion. With flight operations increas-ing to 19 times from a mere six

times a week, the frequency of flights operating betweenthe two countries will triple, thereby bringing about adrastic change for airline business. We look forward toseeing an increase in tourist arrivals from India in 2016.

Byungsun LeeDirector, Korea Tourism Organisation

Counting India among thetop two markets with the

most potential after China,Sharjah has been consistentlyinvesting increased effort andmoney in the market. Havingconducted many annual multi-city roadshows in India, the lastone concluded in December2015, the Sharjah Commerce &Tourism Development Authority(SCTDA) has made it clear thatit is looking to attract familiesand MICE.

H.E. Khalid Jasim AlMidfa, Chairman, SharjahCommerce and Tourism

Development Authority(SCTDA), said, “Sharjah has alot of culture and heritage tooffer. In 1998, UNESCOannounced Sharjah as the cap-

ital of Arab culture. In 2014, webecame the capital of Islamicculture and in 2015 the Leagueof Arab States made us the cap-ital of Arab Tourism. So we are acomplete family destination.

“The emirate has seendouble-digit growth in the last fiveyears. In 2014, we recorded 41per cent increase in terms ofnumbers of Indian hotel guestsat 123,000. So there is hugescope. We already get a lot oftraffic from VFR and businesstravellers and now we want morefamilies and MICE,” he added.

“All seven emiratescomplement each other with

each of them offering some-thing unique. Travellers can seeseven different destinationswith a single visa. We are notvery commercial but we areincreasing our marketingefforts. This will be our thirdroadshow within a year,because we want to be presentin India round the year,” Midfa said.

The recent four-city road-show was conducted in asso-ciation with Air Arabia to devel-op a closer relationship withkey members of the travelindustry and promote both theairline and the destination'stourism offerings.

Sharjah is working towards promoting itself as a family-friendly destination toattract more travellers from India, which is its one of the top two markets.

Sharjah targeting family tourists & MICE

TT BU R E AU

H.E. Khalid Jasim Al MidfaChairmanSCTDA

Rise of India outbound Contd. from page 18

The tourism industry has grown leapsand bounds in 2015. Recognising theindustry and its stalwarts throughestablishment of regional awards isalso very inspiring. Number of Indiantravellers to Canada has been on therise. We hope to achieve double digit

growth by popularising Canada as a great leisure and MICEdestination. The simpler visa processing under the CAN+program and direct connectivity between Delhi and Torontowill also encourage more travellers to Canada.

SanJeetIndia Representative, Destination Canada

India is a promising market for not onlyMunich but also incoming for Germanyas India is one of the faster growingmarkets. Munich Tourism continues torecord a consistent upward growth,year-on-year and saw growth in thenumber of visitor arrivals from India

during Jan–May, 2015 recording a 22.4 per cent increaseover same period in 2014. The upsurge and double-digitgrowth validates that Indian tourists are looking at exploringMunich and hopefully the outbound market from India willcontinue to grow for the benefit of many destinations.

Ashish SaranAccount Head, Munich Tourist Office, India

I feel eTV has been one of thebiggest achievment for the travel andtourism industry in India. In 2016, weshould enhance our top source mar-kets like the US and visit larger partsof the US and identify the marketswhere work still needs to be done.

PATA organised Indian Tourism Business meets in variousdestinations like Montreal, Huston, Chicago and Canada.In Europe destinations like Zurich need attention, whereas Frankfurt and Vienna have been good. In 2016 weshould focus on business development.

Runeep SanghaExecutive Director, PATA India Chapter

With increasing economic growth,we are expecting a potential growthin domestic, leisure and MICE travelin the coming year which will in turnboost revenue from a tourism standpoint and help propel India’s econ-omy. We also believe that the

government is making the right moves and announce-ments like eTV facilities which will help the tourism indus-try flourish.

Deepika AroraRegional Vice – President, Eurasia Wyndham Hotel Group


Destination Canada organised a dinner reception at the InterContinental Marine Drive Hotel to thank the trade for their continuous supportand to introduce Destination Canada's new Regional Managing Director Rupert Peters.

Canada hosts Mumbai trade partners2 2 TRAVTALK J A N U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 6 FAMILY ALBUM


2 4 TRAVTALK J A N U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 6 FAMILY ALBUM

In an initiative to promote Philippines as a preferred wedding destination, the Department of Tourism Philippines India (DOT) organised a Famtrip for Indian wedding planners. The objective of the Fam was to offer the wedding planners an opportunity to view and experience the Philippinesas a perfect wedding destination.

Philippines: Perfect for great Indian weddings


2 6 TRAVTALK J A N U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 6 EXHIBITIONS

Nagpur-based JagsonsTravels is setting the stage

for a bigger Global PanoramaShowcase (GPS) in 2016.Starting from just one city in itsfirst edition, GPS 2016 has grown to cover five cities,starting from Nagpur fromJanuary 8-10, 2016 and thentravelling to Coimbatore(South) on July 14-15, followedby Kolkata (East) on July 21-22, Chandigarh (North) onJuly 28-29 and finallyAhmedabad (West) on August4-5, 2016.

Harmandeep SinghAnand, MD, Jagsons Travels,says, “We are at an advan-tage this year as GPS 2016will be the first event of theyear. It offers great opportuni-ties for exhibitors as well asbuyers. We are planning tohave an equal number ofexhibitors as last year at 100-plus. We will also host 150buyers bringing them from feeder cities by tying up with coach companies. For international buyers, we

are in touch with both our airline partners.”

This year will see a hostof pre- and post-tours toPench, Kanha, Tadoba,Navegaon and Nagzira thatoffer excellent sightings. Anandadded that this year will alsosee the global launch of aproduct–a cruise liner, whichis almost double the size ofStar Cruise Virgo. “We arepositioning ourselves as anevent that can do globallaunches. This will be uniqueto GPS. TravTalk is our premi-um media partner along withTravelTV. Starwood will againbe our global hotel partner,Centrepoint Hotel will be ourvenue partner, and Lavasa willbe present as well,” he adds.

Hosted buyersHe expects good partici-

pation from South East Asiaand the Middle East in thefourth edition of GPS fromDMCs and local operators.This edition will not have anypresentations or business ses-sions on B2B days but January7, 2016 will see about five

workshops of about 45 min-utes each for various tourismboards and others who areinterested. “We are expectingabout 500 attendees in Nagpurand have been aggressivelypromoting the event throughregular mailers, online andsocial media creatives, adver-tisements in media, and of

course word of mouth. Theother four cities will have selectexhibitors with a ratio of 1.5:2in terms of buyers that we willhost. These buyers will be fromsurrounding areas of therespective cities like Patna,Bhubhaneshwar, Darjeelingand Gangtok for Kolkata. Thefirst day will allow exhibitors to

interact with the local buyersand the second day will havecorporate meetings along with a networking evening,”Anand clarifies.

Green expoThe format for this edi-

tion has also been tweaked.GPS has rebranded itself this

year with a new logo in olivegreen. This, Anand says, is toshowcase that the event isgradually going green. Sothere will be no standees and no brochures or leaflets. “We are in talks with a company to offertablets to our exhibitors thatthey can use to showcase

their products. Buyers will alsoget a goodie bag worth `3,000 for registering inadvance, we will have luckydraws and lots of prizes thatcan be won during the show,”Anand says.

“The central India regionneeds a lot of exposure and

that is what we are trying to do with GPS. The numberof agents in Nagpur hasgrown to more than 300 andthis provides a lot of opportu-nities to not only DMCs andrepresentations but alsohotels and large tour opera-tors who have fixed depar-tures,” adds Anand.

The Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) will now cover a total of five cities starting with Nagpur and reap the benefitsof being the first show of the year. It will also showcase the global launch of a product–an international cruise liner.

GPS 2016 takes the green routeHA Z E L JA I N

We are planning tohave an equalnumber ofexhibitors as lastyear at 100-plus.We will also host150 buyersbringing themfrom feeder citiesby tying up withcoach companies

Harmandeep Singh AnandMDJagsons Travels Jagsons to announce NGO Tourism at GPS

Harmandeep Singh Anand, MD of Nagpur-based Jagsons Travels, that organises and pro-motes Global Panorama Showcase (GPS), has said that his company will announce the launchof NGO Tourism. “There are many Indians, specially NRIs and PIOs, who want to return to Indiaand contribute to the welfare of their countrymen. Even foreign tourists want to come here andwant to work with an NGO. To cater to this segment we plan to launch a unique concept of NGOTourism which is probably the first of its kind in the world, at this year’s GPS 2016 on January 8morning in Nagpur. This is the first time that anyone will be focusing on this niche tourism,” Anand said.

The Mediterranean islandof Cyprus has not been

very active in the Indian mar-ket but it wants to remedy thatin the new year by collaborat-ing with major tour operatorsto promote itself as a tourismand MICE destination. It hasalready tied up with ThomasCook with whom it will createpackages. Demetrios A.Theophylactou, HighCommissioner at Cyprus HighCommission, reveals, “In oureffort to market Cyprus inIndia effectively, we have tocreate some partnerships withmajor tour operators here. Sowe have partnered withThomas Cook and are exploring other opportunitiesas well.”

He adds that Cyprus isnot looking to attract the mass-es but instead tap select seg-ments like MICE and specialinterest tourism like sports,adventure and film shoots. “Weare open to tying up with othertour operators who can providesufficient numbers in terms of

quality and quantity. ThomasCook has already coveredsome distance and we arehappy with their strategy. They

will be entrusted to marketCyprus in India by focusing onspecific profile of travellerssuch as corporate and HNIs,”he adds. Cyprus TourismOrganisation will pay an orien-tation visit in January 2016 tostudy the market first hand.

“Visas are the least of theproblems. Our focus is toincrease numbers throughquality tourists. The current fig-ures are too low – around

2,000 in 2014. India has beenneglected for too long so wehave trained our focus here.While we don’t have any direct flights at the moment, airconnectivity is not too bad with many connecting flightoptions. We are working onimproving this, of course,”Theophylactou said.

He reveals that whileCyprus works together with Israel, Egypt and Greeceto promote combined packages in other parts of the world, it has not done it in India as yet. “We will work with both Egypt andIsrael in India soon. We wantto have a trilateral co-opera-tion,” he says.

Cyprus is looking to work with major Indian tour operators forpromotional activities. January 2016 will see a delegationfrom Cyprus Tourism Organisation for an orientation.

Cyprus seeks trade ties

HA Z E L JA I N

Looking AheadCyprus received about2000 Indian travellers in2014

There are no directflights to Cyprus butthere are many con-necting flight options

Demetrios A. TheophylactouHigh Commissioner Cyprus High Commission

In a bid to engage the Indiantravel trade and provide a plat-

form to network withScandinavian professionalsfrom Denmark, Sweden andNorway, the annual three citiesScandinavia Seminar 2015 tookplace in full-swing in Delhi,Mumbai and Chennai. The del-egation at the seminar includednational tourism boards, region-al tourism boards, hotel chains,museums, airports, cruise andvoyage companies, along withDMCs, who travelled to Delhi,Mumbai and Chennai to helpboost the number of Indiantourist arrivals to the region.

Mohit Batra, IndiaRepresentative, ScandinavianTourism Board, comments, “Theseminar received participantsthat included members of seniormanagement, product man-agers, business owners andfront line executives. There wasan opportunity to explore possi-ble business alliances, newproduct development andrenewing past relations. Our aimis to raise awareness of the

Scandinavian region at large–but also raising awareness ofwhat each individual countriesof Denmark, Norway andSweden have to offer,” he said.He further added, “Denmark thisyear has witnessed an increaseof 30 per cent on overnightsfrom India, and Sweden approx-imately 15 per cent on analready higher overnight base.Norway is not yet taking accountof the Indian overnights but thegrowth seems to have beenexponential,” he says.

Speaking at the occa-sion, Per Hotle, MarketDirector Tourism, Asia andNew Markets, Innovation

Norway, says, “Norway has 13different UNESCO heritagesites to offer and is blessedwith a plethora of natural won-ders such as fjords, archipela-go, the famous northern lights,the midnight sun, and a varietyof Nordic cuisine that woulddefinitely appeal to the Indianmarket,” he says.

Lotta Thiringer,Regional Director Growth andDevelopment Markets, VisitSweden, says that bednightsin Sweden are rapidly increas-ing. “India is the third biggestlong-haul market for Sweden,after the US and China,” shesays. “We expect to see a min-imum 15 per cent increase inthe number of Indian touristsarriving by the end of nextyear,” she added.

Flemming Bruhn,Director, Visit Denmark alsosaid, “We witnessed anincrease of 30 per cent ofIndian tourists in 2014-15. Ithink we will see very good figures next year as well and expect at least a 20 percent growth.”

Scandinavian Tourism Board organised the annual three-city Scandinavian Seminar, which included a delegationof 20 Scandinavian partners.

A promising long-haul market

AH A N A GU R U N G

Mohit BatraIndia Representative Scandinavian Tourism Board



Neptune Foundation, an NGO committed to the cause of the girl child and the aged, hosted a polo match at Jaipur Polo Grounds, New Delhi. This wasthe 6th edition of the annual event. The Chief Guest for the noble event was Ratan Watal, Finance Secretary-Government of India, and Sanjana Jon,renowned fashion designer and social activist, was the Guest of Honour.

Neptune Foundation's charity polo match



In commemoration of Bansi Lal Nijhawan’s extensive contribution to the travelindustry, the Nijhawan family organised a gathering and launched his biography‘Bansi Lal ka Jahaaz’ on December 13, 2015. The event was attended by thewho’s who of the travel industry from across the country and abroad. Pennedby Mrinalini Patwardhan Mehra, the biography is an account of B.L. Nijhawan’sjourney to success –from his life in the Royal Air Force during the Second WorldWar, to transitioning into a thriving businessman. The book recounts theexperience of his days in the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC),now British Airways, with various anecdotes that he deems important in shapinghis life, and the trials and tribulations in his career which eventually led tosuccess and expansion. Here are what various industry leaders have to sayabout the man who pioneered the overseas-travel industry:

A fascinating tale of grit and gloryCredit for this occasion goes to Ankush since itwas his idea. After working hard for years, todayI have no regrets because I have achieved whatI wanted and through this biography, I want toshare my experiences with all of you. I amextremely proud to have children who are taking

it to greater heights.

BL NijhawanFounder, Nijhawan

Group

My father is a person who sets rulesfor himself and believed that everythingunder the sky was achievable for him– nothing is impossible. He has alwaysbeen someone who puts importanceon evolving with the changing timesand always stuck to his decisions. Hesays set your goals, work hard with

discipline and you will achieve them, maybe a little later butyou will always get there. His simplicity and love for work ishis driving factor.

Sham NijhawanChairman, Nijhawan Group

I’m delighted to know about the con-tribution that B.L. Nijhawan has madeto the travel industry since 1946. Hisdeep-rooted commitment to bringintegrity, discipline and setting of highstandards are commendable. I sendmy best wishes on the book launchwith his experiences penned down

that will be a great guide for others in the industry.

Letter from Dr. Mahesh SharmaMinister of State for Culture and Tourism (Independent Charge) and Civil Aviation

I first met B.L.Nijhawan in Jalandharand he was represent-ing British Airways dur-ing the time. I havealways been inspiredby his honesty andintegrity and he’s

worked very hard to build an empire forhimself and his successors.

Subhash Goyal President, IATO

The idea of document-ing his life came from anaunt sometime in late2014. It struck as a verygood one since howmany people can saythey have actually lived

to observe so many changes in the industry?It took almost a year to complete this and Ithink the wait was worth it.

Ankush NijhawanManaging Director, Nijhawan Group

When I had just joinedthe tourism industry, Ihad no idea how torun a travel business.B.L. Nijhawan was thefirst person who visit-ed me in my office to

see how I was doing and offered help, if I everneeded any. He gave me his blessings and since then, he has always tracked my progress.

Guldeep Singh SahniManaging Director, Weldon Tours and Travels

Bansi is humble andhardworking, and agood human being.Being straightforward,he would meet everytravel agent himself totalk about businessand offer help. Even

the agents knew that when it comes to busi-ness, Bansi is the person to speak to. That isthe kind of reputation he has in the industry.

Kapil BhatiaExecutive Chairman, InterGlobe Enterprises

It has been a privilegeworking with B.L.Nijhawan. Even at theage of 90, he has someticulously providedminor details and datesof his life with suchclarity. His passion for

learning never ends – even now, he has beenattending classes on how to use smartphonesand laptop; that’s Mr. B.L. Nijhawan for you.

Mrinalini Patwardhan MehraAuthor

Currently, we don’thave a proper frame-work in the industrywhere we can docu-ment the achieve-ments of stalwarts in astructured manner, so

I think it was a brilliant move to get this done.Such documentation is important to recordthe contributions of various leaders so thatthe next generation learns from them.

Kapil KaulCEO – India and ME, CAPA


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J A N U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 6 TRAVTALK 3 5TECHNOLOGY

Anil Parashar is jubilantabout their accomplish-

ments in 2015, which rangefrom bagging awards to cele-brating the first anniversary ofTravelport’s Rich Content and Branding.

In focusSo, what will be ITQ’s

top priority in 2016? “Ourfocus on developing technol-ogy will continue and we willdefinitely provide some newproducts,” says Parashar. “Wewill continue to bringInterglobe synergies by value-addition in different business-es that we are in, get themtogether, and offer customersservices beyond GDS.” One ofthe initiatives ITQ is giving keyimportance to, is theCorporate SocialResponsibility (CSR) by thecompany. Parashar elabo-rates, “We are increasinglyfocusing on the developmentof trade and giving back to thefraternity. For this purpose,close to 300 young womenare being trained to becometravel experts and counsellorswith the help of NGOs and arealso promoting skill develop-ment with the assistance ofvarious trade associationsacross the country. In brief, weare mainly concentrating onthe development of the lessfortunate for their benefit, aswell as the industry,” he says.

Technology talkOf late, talks of a new

payment solution for airlinescalled eNett VANs usingTravelport Smartpoint havebeen making the rounds.“Virtual Account Numbers(VANs) is a payment forumsupported and owned byTravelport,” says Parashar. “Itis a very convenient tool fortravel agents and the travelfraternity. It provides a securepayment mode at a lower costand reduces the risk of fraudsince a unique number isused for each new booking orpayment transaction,” headds. VANs are automaticallygenerated MasterCard num-bers that agents can use tomake secure payments. “Atthe moment, it is not availablein India but it is only a matterof time before it is,” he clari-fies. “The fact is that suchinnovations will give an impe-tus to other partnerships tobuild such products and bringease of travel to the cus-tomers. Technology will bringnew dimensions of develop-ment.” Other products likeITQ’s Trip38—a travel appthat guides you at every stageincluding when your phone is

off, since it is linked to the air-port systems; and Travelport’sRich Content and Branding—a solution provider that allowsairlines to effectively marketand retail their offering to trav-el agencies around the world;are actively contributing inredefining travel commerce.

Point of viewIn Parashar’s opinion, the

Indian tourism industry’s future

seems promising. “India has the youngest population,high disposable income, and while the middle class is bound to double in another five years, the industry is in the cusp ofmajor growth. Strategies such as Make in India and Swachh Bharat, are contributing to the devel-opment of the industry in amajor way,” he concludes.

Addressing some of the latest innovations from InterGlobe Technology Quotient (ITQ), Anil Parashar, President andCEO, talks to about ITQ’s top priorities and gives an outlook on the tourism industry.

Redefining travel commerce solutionsAH A N A GU R U N G We are increasingly focusing on the development of

trade and giving back to the fraternity. For this purpose,close to 300 young women are being trained to becometravel experts and counsellors and are also promotingskill development with the assistance of vari-ous trade associations across the country.

Anil ParasharPresident and CEO, InterGlobe Technology Quotient (ITQ)


3 6 TRAVTALK J A N U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 6 AGENTS

Radisson Blu Hotel Indore iscurrently the only interna-

tionally branded 5-star hotel inthe city and this remains thehotel’s biggest strength andUSP. Bhan says, “Apart frombeing the only internationallybranded hotel in Indore, our din-ing options, which offer optionsbetween a multi-cuisine buffet,specialty Indian dining experi-ence, fine dining Chinese expe-rience or a cozy atmosphere ofour lobby bar remain our USP.The hotel’s rooms are the mostluxuriously and tastefullydesigned rooms in the city. Thehotel also retains the position asa preferred venue for any MICErequirements in the city, due toavailability of flexible and ampleconvention space.”

In Indore, there is a hugegap between demand and sup-ply, with supply outstrippingdemand by almost 50 per cent.Bhan says, “As the economy ofthe city is fast growing, there isgrowth in every sector, pharma-cy, manufacturing, agriculture,FMCG, sports, automobiles etc.”

The initiatives for 2016 ofRadisson Blu Indore, wouldrevolve around two subjects –enhanced service levels andconservation of environment.Bhan says, “We are currentlyworking towards better waste

management and power con-servation project. This enablesus to control our costs as wellas continue to work towardsenergy conservation pledge.”

Indore, historically hasnot been a leisure destination,thus, demand from travel tradesector has always been limit-ed. “In the era of online travelagencies, increase in invest-ment by the tourism ministryto promote tourism in the stateover last few years there hasbeen a steady growth in thesegment. This will especiallybe visible during Simhastha2016. We are forecasting agrowth of 12 -15 per cent inleisure segment for the year2016. The majority of thisgrowth will be via religioustourism due to Simhasta, prox-imity of Mandu andMaheshwar to Indore etc. Thissegment primarily movesthrough travel agencies eitheronline or traditional agencies.Thus, hotel’s team enjoys veryhealthy relations with most ofthe major operators of the cityand India in travel trade seg-ment,” adds Bhan.

Anubhav Bhan, Director of Sales & Marketing, RadissonBlu Hotel Indore, talks about the hospitality market in thecity and the new initiatives by the property.

Tier-II, III: promising markets

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We are workingtowards betterwastemanagement and powerconservationproject

Anubhav BhanDirector of Sales & MarketingRadisson Blu Hotel Indore

With offices in 19 countriesand over 15 years of

experience in the industry,RezLive.com, the global B2Bonline booking system hastaken a leap forward and madedrastic changes in UI, architec-ture and technology to provideits users the best B2B onlinebooking system. It now offers175,000 hotels and apartmentrooms, more than 45,000sightseeing items, over 5,000tours in 500 cities and 5,000transfer options in over 900 air-port and city locations acrossthe globe.

Speaking on the initiative,Jaal Shah, Group ManagingDirector, Travel DesignerGroup and Founder,RezLive.com, said, “We havebeen consistently providing thebest and biggest inventory tothe travel partners globally, bysourcing them through multiplesuppliers and collaboratingwith hotel chains across theglobe. We give our travel part-ners the platform to create theirfuture and prosper together.”

Some of the innovativefeatures that have been includ-ed in the new system areexpress search option, filters

to optimise search, quotationtemplates, option to comparehotels, larger inventory withmapped information, couponcodes, agent dashboard ana-lytics, multi-currency paymentgateway, apart from many oth-ers. Now, travel partners can register free of cost andwith a larger inventory, globaltravel needs will be metthroughout the year. What’smore, assistance from a mul-tilingual team and real-timeonline booking confirmationsat competitive wholesale ratesare some of the additionalbenefits of the upgradedRezLive.com.

To provide a better booking experience, RezLive.com hasgone through a makeover and added a variety of newfeatures, inventory and interface.

RezLive’s new avatar

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We consistentlyprovide the bestand biggestinventory to thetravel partnersglobally, bysourcing themthrough multiplesuppliers

Jaal ShahGroup Managing Director, Travel DesignerGroup and Founder, RezLive.com

Upgraded InventoryRezLive now offers175,000 hotels andapartment rooms, morethan 45,000 sightseeingitems, over 5,000 toursin 500 cities and 5,000 transfer optionsin over 900 airport andcity locations acrossthe globe


J A N U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 6 TRAVTALK 3 7SPECIAL FEATURE


3 8 TRAVTALK J A N U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 6 TECHNOLOGY

Getting familiar with Fiji

Tourism Fiji with Fiji Airways recently hosted eight travel agents from five different cities for a Fam tripto Fiji. The group travelled to different regions and islands in Fiji and stayed at properties popular in theIndian market. Apart from site inspections, the itinerary included various cultural activities and experiencesthat sets Fiji apart from other beach destinations

Niklas Andreen, Senior VP& MD, Hospitality

Commerce, Travelport, spokeabout redefining hospitality. Hesaid, “As travel agenciesevolve, whether there areOTAs or traditional travel agen-cies, more and more hotelbusiness is becoming impor-tant for them; also rental carsto provide a seamless experi-ence to guests. So, we atTravelport have dedicatedlyadded on more hotels in thespace. For every 100 airlinetickets that we sell, we have 48hospitality bookings or seg-ments. 63 million hotel nightsis going to be booked by ourtravel agencies through oursystem this year.

Allison Bell, Director,Sales, Mobile TravelTechnologies (MTT), elucidatedon redefining mobile. “India is anextremely interesting market. Itis moving from e-commerce tomobile commerce. It has a lotof mobile utilisation penetration.India has had some very inter-esting payment aggregations,

much ahead of Europe as wellas the USA.”

Giving few trends to betterbusiness for agents, she said,“Payments are a big thing, mak-ing payments as easy as possi-ble and as integrated as possi-ble is definitely at the top ofeverybody’s agenda, becauseyou want to get that conversionrate up. It’s about looking at bigdata, looking at understandingthe customer, and predictinganalytics; trying to build a storyaround what is that the cus-tomer going to want next. It’sabout how a supplier, how anairline, how a travel manage-ment company, or how an OTA,

actually is engaging with a cus-tomer through mobile. It’s abouthow you use the technology andhave an instant way of commu-nicating with the end customer,the traveller.”

Spokespersons at the Travelport e-volve Middle EastSummit, at the Shangri-La Bosphorus hotel, in Istanbul,Turkey, highlight trends in the industry.

Time to get tech-savvy

KA N C H A N NAT H

Niklas AndreenSenior VP & MDHospitality Commerce, Travelport

Allison BellDirector, Sales, Mobile TravelTechnologies (MTT)

Changing LandscapesTravel agencies relyingon hotels and cars togrow business

Shopping behaviour inhotel space is movingfrom lowest price tovalue of hotel propertyand location

Kanha Village Eco Resort isan eco-friendly, semi-luxu-

ry wildlife lodging facility, situ-ated in the village BodaChhapri in the buffer zone ofKanha Tiger Reserve. Keepingin mind the philosophy of sus-tainable and socially responsi-ble tourism, the property hasbeen developed in ethnic style,with locally available biodegradable materials. Thehotel is the only resort inKanha preserve which offersethnic dwellings with allrequired modern amenities.

“We are focusing on cre-ating awareness on eco-wildlifetourism in domestic and inter-

national market. Responsibleeco-tourism guidelines are fol-lowed to its best in working ofthe resort. Along with wildlifesafari we arrange jungle walk,bird watching, village visit,Yoga/ Meditation programme,etc., as per interest of guests,"says Navneet Maheshwari,

Owner, Kanha Village EcoResort.

Guests can enjoy, relaxand rejuvenate in natural sur-roundings by doing junglewalks, yoga, meditation andhealthy food along with junglesafari. We have a games room,conference hall (for 40 people),TV lounge, library, massageroom, souvenir shop, swim-ming pool, etc. to cater totourists, he adds.

Maheshwari notes thatthe resort has seen increasedonline booking through OTAs. "Safari booking is done 90 to 100 days inadvance so we suggest travel agents dealing inwildlife tours to plan well inadvance," he says.

Maheswari cites inbound,young generation as a growingmarket. However, he empha-sises on more exposure towildlife and eco-friendlytourism. "We need options tomarket eco and wildlife toursand eco friendly propertiesexclusively as it is a niche mar-ket," he adds.

Kanha Village Eco Resort will increase working with travelagents and increase its online presence.

Wellness in the wild

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Navneet MaheshwariOwnerKanha Village Eco Resort


Talking about the USP ofthe company, Prakash

Bang, Managing Director,roomsXML Solutions, says,“We are totally concentratedon B2B engagements and areaccommodation-centric.” Bangexplains that the year 2015has been excellent for thecompany and says, “Despite alittle slowdown at a global level,roomsXML.com has beengrowing steadily. Our year onyear for the last three years isat 55 per cent. The inventorythat we offer has been at thehighest level. CurrentlyroomsXML.com offers 92,518unique properties across theworld. These properties aregenuinely unique as each hotelor apartment appears onlyonce due to the uniqueness ofour system’s de-duplicationtechnology.”

Discussing the responseto the company from the traveland tourism industry, Bang

says, “The response to ourcompany from the industry hasbeen more than overwhelming.Standing testimony to this isthe fact that we do not offer anycredit facilities neither do wesell our inventory below cost.Our growing revenues provethat travel agents are backingour system which signifys theirtrust in our product and serv-ices that we offer.”

Talking about the spe-cial deals for travel trade partners, Bang explains,

“As we do not work to achieveset sales targets, we invest inproduct innovation and support systems. With that inplace, more revenues come our way. We introducetime bound, destination specific deals every now and then for our travel trade partners.”

In 2016, roomXML plansto continue to enhance itsproducts. Elucidating thesame, Bang says, “We are notintroducing any new productsin the coming year but will beworking on product develop-ment and user-experienceenhancement. We are looking at more product inno-vations and sustainable growth in 2016.”

Expressing the expecta-tions from the tourism industry Bang says, “We hopethat the travel and tourismindustry will work on making travel safe and enjoyable for all.”

roomsXML.com has introduced 11 innovations that haveset it distinctly apart from its competitors since its launchin 2007. The innovations are market driven and developedto enhance user experience, efficiency and profitability.

92,000 unique properties

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J A N U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 6 TRAVTALK 3 9INTERVIEW

QWould you agree thatthe Prime Minister’s

foreign visits have donegood for Indian tourism?

While the Prime Minister(PM)’s overseas visits are use-ful, until now their value hasbeen somewhat limited. Duringthis year, foreign tourist arrivalsto India have actually declined,which underscores the fact thattourist arrivals require muchmore than high profile visits.Also, it’s clear that the impact ofsuch visits may not be seenimmediately and need time tofructify. An excellent start hasbeen made, but one has to buildon it. There’s no doubt about thefact that Mr. Modi's visits havebeen more extensive and morehigh profile than perhaps anyother Prime Minister we canremember. Such visits and thepositive response he has beenable to elicit everywhere will cre-ate more interest about India.Naturally there will be a spin - offfor tourism as well.

QHow important havethe visits been for

Indian tourism?That depends on a num-

ber of factors like what the PMis focussing on, how importantthe countries visited are interms of their outbound tourism,and what focus the local mediain those countries are giving tothe visits. All these factors playsa key role. The PM has spokento Parliamentarians in the UK.He has spoken eloquently in the

United Nations Headquarters.And he’s addressed otherforums overseas. These eventsmust have created greaterawareness and interest aboutIndia. There will be follow - upvisits resulting from such inter-ests. But the impact will be onlymarginal, because tourism isnot central to his interactions.

QWhere do you see themaximum gain from

these visits?

The most striking partsof some of the visits havebeen the PM’s interaction withthe NRIs and his ability toexcite and motivate themabout India. The responsehas been phenomenal. Froma tourism point of view NRIsare a major part of theinbound tourism segment.However, if the PM could per-suade each of the NRIs toinfluence at least five of hisforeign friends to visit India,

that will lead to a quantumjump in tourist arrivals.

QWould India’s emerg-ing status as a busi-

ness centre help generatetourism?

We can see that the PM’sfocus has been on business,investment in India and the like.India is again seen as a risingeconomic power and with greatinvestment potential. As aresult there certainly will beincrease of business travel. Butthat will also be marginal.

QWhat follow-up stepshave to be taken in

order to capitalise on thevisits?

Tourism is not high onfocus in the Prime Minister’svisits. That is rather unfortunatebecause he is known as apatron of tourism. The Ministryof tourism and the industrycould leverage these visits togreat advantage. They have tobecome more pro-active sothat they find a place in thescheme of things. They must

request the PM to accord themhigher priority, and to mentiontourism more prominently inhis speeches. Moreover, heshould portray tourism as abusiness opportunity.

The Ministry and theindustry have to jointly mountintensive publicity campaignsand media briefings etc in those countries, synchronisingwith the 1visits. They should takeadvantage of the tremendousgoodwill created by the PM'scapacity to reach out to the people. Like the industry and business delegations thateither accompany the PM, orvisit coinciding with the officialvisit, tourism industry delega-tions must be part of the entireplanning. This would provide ahuge boost.

The situation is clear! ThePM’s overseas visits andspeeches have provided Indiantourism with a potent weapon.How much dividend is gainedwill depend on how this weaponcan be exploited.

Indian tourism industry has a new supporter in Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose overseas trips are bringingthe country’s attributes into focus. It’s now up to the industry to maximise this favourable situation. M.P. Bezbaruah,Permanent Representative (Hon.), UNWTO, puts things in perspective.

Industry needs to capitalise on PM visits

INDER RAJ AHLUWALIA

Such visits and the positive response hehas been able to elicit everywhere will create more interest about India. Naturallythere will be a spin-off for tourism as well.

M. P. BezbaruahPermanent Representative, (Hon.), UNWTO

Prakash BangDirectorroomsXML Solutions

QKindly explain theportfolio of One&Only.Kerzner International is

our parent company, and with-in the portfolio, we now havenine resorts. We started in2002, and it grew with desti-nations in Mauritius andDubai, that’s where our globaloffice is located. We also haveresorts in Bahamas, Mexicoand South Africa. We recentlyre-opened One&Only Palmillain Mexico and the iconicOne&Only Ocean Club hascommenced renovations. It’simportant for us to grow ourportfolio but it's equally impor-tant for us to choose the loca-tions that are unique.

QWhen will India have aOne&Only property? I would love to be in India.

We love this country, and Ithink it is a natural progressionto be here. India has somebeautiful spots in the world. Weare essentially a managementcompany. We look for ownerswho love quality and who can

make our level of investments.Then, we also need to ensurethe unique locations thatOne&Only resorts is known for,which are also there in India.

QWho are your clients?We basically are dealing

with the leisure market. We havecouples celebrating anniver-saries and birthdays and fami-lies are huge for us. We have aspecial thing called Kids Clubwhere, across all our resorts, weoffer an entire day of activities tothe kids. There is an educationalcomponent to the experience

and that is unique to every sin-gle of our resorts.

QHow many Indianguests do you get

each year?The number of Indian

guests varies across eachmarket. In locations such asDubai and Mauritius we see ahigher percentage of Indianguests. However, in locationslike Bahamas and Mexico, weget a smaller percentage ofIndian clients.

How closely are you work-ing with travel agents?

We are working veryclosely with travel agents. Theyare our lifeline. Without ourtrade partners, we wouldn’t bewhere we are today. The tradepartners in the Indian marketare an integral part of the busi-ness landscape. It is importantfor us to secure the distribution.Now that we have them, thereis the part of educating them ofwhat One&Only is all about sothat they, in turn, can articulatewhat the brand values are.

Ivy Kwan, Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Asia Pacific,One&Only Resorts, explains the brand’s portfolio andreveals its plans in this region.

Meant for leisure

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Ivy KwanVice President, Sales & MarketingAsia Pacific, One&Only Resorts


Global Business TravelTrends

Talking about the chang-ing trends of business travel,Charlwood said, “Technology isat the foot of all this. Businesstravellers can research the mul-tiple avenues of how they con-duct their travel. There was atime when the corporationmade the decision, but now theindividual wants to have theflexibility of making his/her owndecision, which is a problem forthe corporation from the costperspective. So, one of the roles

of the travel agent is to makesure that they blend both theseopportunities to the satisfactionof both the individual and thecorporation and technologyfacilitates that.”

Bringing expertise tothe table

The demand for expertisein any field is growing and thetrend seems to be consistentwith business travel as well.Ritika Modi, RegionalPresident, Uniglobe Travel said,“Business travel in India ischanging dramatically. Mostlycorporate companies are notlooking at just order takers, butmore at consulting and expert-ise. And they want people toanalyse and guide them better.So travel consultants have to bebetter prepared and move awayfrom being order takers.”

Uniglobe growth storyCurrently Uniglobe has 40

plus agency owners with morethan 55 locations in South Asia.Modi added, “The gross annual

turnover of all these agencies iscurrently over 3000 crore and Ibelieve that the number will bemore than double in the nextfive years.” She added, “We asa group have grown by morethan 16-20 per cent internation-ally. In domestic we have grownby about 10 per cent in terms ofthe volume of business thatwe’ve done. And it may not havebeen because of the samegeneric business but because

of the corporate accounts we’veadded. When it’s the downturn,we look at the opportunities we can get out of that situation andI believe that it’s this time whenwe can go and talk to cus-tomers and show them howbetter we could help managetheir travel spend.”

Rupee fluctuation With reference to the

fluctuating value of the rupee,

she said, “If I look at the GlobalBusiness Travel Association(GBTA) study, I see that the totaltravel market for India is 25 bil-lion. So there are lots of corporations, which are growing. I believe there havebeen certain number of corpo-rations that are looking to travel.They may have downsized, forexample in the class (instead oftravelling first; they may now betravelling business class).

However, there has been a littlebit of restraint and cost cuttingin terms of the number of tripsthat they would make. But thisalso means that we have to pickup more corporate accounts onthe other side. So we have seenthat the Uniglobe system isgrowing in terms of number and volumes. However, attritionis always there, which is normal. But a lot of corporationshave also reduced their

travel spend as compared toprevious years."

spoke to U Gary Charlwood, Board Chairman & CEO, Uniglobe Travel and Ritika Modi, Regional President,Uniglobe Travel, to find out more about the company’s growth story.

Bringing travel consultancy to the forefrontJ A N U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 6 TRAVTALK 4 1TECHNOLOGY

So, one of the roles of thetravel agent is to make sure

KA N C H A N NAT H

U Gary CharlwoodBoard Chairman & CEOUniglobe Travel

Ritika ModiRegional PresidentUniglobe Travel

Fact FileUniglobe has over 40agency owners at 55locations in South Asia

Gross annual turnoverof these agencies isover 3000 crore

FINAL_JANUARY-1ST-2016:TT Layout 1/12/2016 10:15 AM

QHow does it feel to beleaving India? It is difficult for me to say

goodbye to India after 15 yearsof calling it my home, to wakeup one day and not find myselfin Mumbai but in KualaLumpur. It still has to sink inbecause there is a lot of attach-ment. I have worked only nineyears in the head office but 15years abroad. It’s a differentculture back home – morebosses and bureaucracy. Here,I was free to do a lot of thingswhile referring to the headoffice. So fitting in with the localculture in Malaysia will be a challenge.

QHow was your experi-ence here?People ask me how I sur-

vived here for so long. It wasvery difficult for me initially, withsetting up the India office. But Itold myself that somebodyneeds to do this job and takeone day at a time. Just enjoy thestint here and do your best. Soin order to make things easierand be accepted by the people,I decided to dance along withthem – whether it is bhangra,Kathakalli or the lungi dance!And it worked. I was acceptedby the travel industry wholeheartedly.

QHow was it workingwith the trade here?The relationship I have

built with the trade over theyears is based on trust and bothsides honour that trust. Thetrade, especially the travel asso-ciations, have given their whole-hearted support to Malaysiaand assured its inclusion in theirpackages. I am extremely grate-ful for this. For instance, in 2003during the SARS threat, we sawa lot of cancellations. TAAI wason the verge of cancelling theirconvention in Malaysia but theystill went ahead. Hats off to theindustry for the confidence theyhave shown in me. They never

considered me a foreigner;many of them even spoke to mein Hindi. Their acceptance levelwas very high and that mademy journey here very smoothand easy.

QAny advice you wantto share with the

incoming director?I have learned that one

needs to massage people’sego here. Also, it is a

good idea to have a plan B because it is difficult for peo-ple to say they don’t know something. But I alwaystell expatriates that if youcome here thinking that youcan’t trust Indians, they can’texpect to be trusted by them.The new person will also take over as the Chairman of ASEAN PromotionalChapter for Tourism (APCT)–India Chapter.

J A N U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 6 TRAVTALK 4 3NTO

Saying goodbye is never easy, especially after 15 years. But Manoharan Periasamy, Director of Tourism Malaysia inMumbai, is leaving by end of 2015 with fond memories of India and the people he met here, specially the travel fraternity.

Manoharan bids adieu

HA Z E L JA I N The trade, especially the travel associations, have given their whole-hearted support to Malaysia andassured its inclusion in their packages.

Manoharan PeriasamyDirector of Tourism Malaysia in Mumbai

GlobalHospitalityConclave datesannounced

Global Hospitality Conclavewill take place on 8th January2016 at The Leela AmbienceGurgaon Hotel & Residences.The conclave would serve tobe a useful lever and a strongplatform for participants toproject their capabilities andopportunities to the industryelite from across the globalhospitality spectrum.


AVIATION

Mumbai-based BaronAviation has launched an

online platform calledBookMyCharters to book privatejets and helicopters that inte-grates about 12 operators cur-rently who have listed 40 aircraft.This allows travel agents andtour operators to offer a newservice to their clients. RajeevWadhwa, Chairman and CEO,Baron Aviation, said that it willreach out to segments likecelebrities, politicians, corporate,HNIs and inbound traffic throughvarious channels including touroperators and tie-ups withhotels. “This new initiative willbring aircraft owners and userson a single platform. We havededicated dashboards of aircraftowners and operators, makingus the only platform to have this.BookMyCharters has a live feedabout availability with instantquotes – not estimates. The por-tal is mobile-friendly and thereis no charge for registration.”

He added that the compa-ny plans to tap end travellersthrough tour operators and trav-

el agents soon as they provideaccess to a ready market. “Thisis a user-friendly and quick toolto book a private jet that auto-mates several manual process-es and crunches multiple vari-ables through our advancedalgorithms to reduce the entireprocess of searching and quot-ing an aircraft in as much timeand ease as it takes to book anairline ticket online,” he said.

BookMyCharters expectsto grow the existing market by30 per cent, bringing in newcustomers especially from non-metro cities and inbound trafficthat can book and pay online.“The total charter market cur-

rently stands at ` 1,800 croreand expected to grow to ̀ 5,000crore by year 2020. We alreadyhave 12 operators with 40 air-crafts right now and will bebringing onboard five moreoperators with 10 aircrafts intotal. We will have pan-Indiapresence and operational in allseven hubs,” he said. The com-pany also plans to reach out tomature markets like Americaand Europe and emerging mar-kets like Africa in the comingyears, either directly or byengaging partnerships withlocal players. Some of the keyfeatures of BookMyChartersinclude — option to select air-craft, book and pay online, con-firmed bookings, assignedconcierge post booking, and24x7 availability.

The new online marketplace for private charters by BaronAviation allows agents and tour operators to offer a newvalue-added service for their clients.

Now book charters online

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Rajeev WadhwaChairman and CEOBaron Aviation

Key FeaturesOption to select aircraft,book and pay online,confirmed bookings,assigned conciergepost booking, and 24x7availability

ICPB’s new governing boardelected at 28th AGM

Chander Mansharamani ofAlpcord Network Travel & conferences ManagementCompany, was elected as thenew Vice-Chairman of IndiaConvention Promotion Bureau,at the 28th Annual GeneralMeeting at Hotel Samrat,Chanakyapuri, on December21, 2015. Amaresh Tiwarifrom A T & Seasons VacationsTravel, is the new HonorarySecretary of ICPB. TheImmediate Past Vice-Chairmanwas Captain Swadesh Kumarof Shikhar Travels (India). Theelection for the governing boardof ICPB happen every alternate year, and this year it was held under the supervision of D. Venkatesan,Assistant Director General (TT) as Returning Officer. ICPB is a management oriented organisation thathas been promoting and establishing India as a preferred MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions &Exhibitions) destination. The Chairman of ICPB is automatically the Joint Secretary, Tourism, Governmentof India – Suman Billa.

The rest of the members in various categories are as follows:

Active Category:

� Hotels: Saurabh Bhargava from Taj Hotels Resorts & Palaces� Airlines: No valid nominations were received� Travel Agents: Gunjan Suri from Thomas Cook India and Naveen Chibber from Orient Express� Tour Operators: Ajay Vinayak from Palomino Hospitality and Vineet Batra from Eastbound Tours & Travels

Private Limited� Congress/Convention Centres: Sudeep Sarcar of India Exposition Mart Ltd (IEML)� Pro fessional Congress /Convention Organisers: Amit Saroj of Attitude Events� Professional Exhibition Organisers: Sanjay Soni of Incredible DesignAllied Category:

Avinash Browne of Sun Business Machines Pvt. Ltd. and Ripudaman Singh Chauhan from Translink Express

Chander Mansharamani Vice ChairmanIndia Convention Promotion Bureau

Amaresh Tiwari Honorary SecretaryIndia Convention Promotion Bureau


4 6 TRAVTALK J A N U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 6 AGENTS

Relaxed event licensing norms in Delhi and Mumbai are a win-win situation for the events and experiential marketingindustry. The announcement assures all the permissions required from the state government through one window only.

spoke to industry experts to find out how worthy this move is for the travel fraternity.

Industry’s take on single window clearance

VA I S H A L I DA R

With the stategovernments inDelhi andMumbai becom-ing aware of thedifficulties andproblems facedby events andentertainmentindustry in getting

clearances and with the assurance that theywill set up a single window clearance system,it is a welcoming move and step that will bringevents and shows of international standardsto the two metros. It will also attract interna-tional companies to hold events. We alsoexpect the fear of last-minute cancellations,due to police clearances, to be taken care of.

Guldeep Singh SahniPresident, OTOAI & Managing

Director, Weldon Tours & Travels

Single window is a major step ahead, with farreaching benefits for all parties concerned.Single-window licensing process will bring inbenefits in terms of effectiveness and value. Itwill bring in greater transparency, cost effective-ness and equal opportunities for companies,bringing direct benefit for clients also. It will alsotake care of red tapism, stringent licensingprocess and corruption. This empanelment will

make events an organised line of business for Delhi and Mumbai in thelonger run and may also attract substantial inbound event business.

Syed A AsimExecutive Director, Bonton Holidays

This is definitely a positive step towards mak-ing both the cities – Delhi and Mumbai veryattractive destinations for events. This willprovide structured and time bound processto obtain approval from nodal agency –avoiding last-minute stress and uncertainties,which usually deter most of the large eventcompanies undertaking quality events incities since international clients are increas-

ingly requesting suppliers to offer guarantees in the areas of deliverablesand compliance.

Amit AggarwalManaging Partner, Wish Bone India

We welcome the stand taken by EEMA to cre-ate a single-window licensing process forevents and are delighted to know that theGovernment is supporting them in this initia-tive. This is a good initiative that will be bene-ficial for both the public and private partners.Also the change in the entertainment taxdepositing framework for EEMA members isa big boon to the industry and number of tick-eted and corporate events in the city will see an increase. There will alsobe a drastic change in the cost that will be incurred in organising events.

S D NandakumarHead Special Interest Tours, Tour Operating- Kuoni India

Holding large scale events in big cities likeMumbai and Delhi was a big hassle beforeas the taxation policies for these events hada tedious and a lengthy process. Hence, cor-porates always preferred doing their eventsin smaller cities. But now the goverment ofthese cities have joined hands and done acollaboration with Event and EntertainmentManagement Associations (EEMA) to solveand resolve these issues, lot of these problems have been rectified bystreamlining the process, by starting the ‘single window licensing. It isa win-win situation for the companies and travel agents handling events.

Rashmi PisalAssociate Director MICE & Leisure Travel, Harvey India Tours & Travels Pvt Ltd

The Indian hotel industry isestimated to touch $1.8

billion by 2016, up from a cur-rent total size of $800 million,according to a report fromICRA. The share of onlinehotel bookings is 16 per centof the total hotel bookings cur-rently and is expected toreach 25 per cent in 2016which implies that around 8.4million Indians are likely tobook hotels online by 2016, up from 3.5 million in 2014.

The deepening penetra-tion of Internet usage andsmartphones has led toincreased booking of hotelsthrough online portals andapplications in recent times.Online accommodation reser-vation services like OYORooms, ZO Rooms, Room onCall are gaining popularity.These budget hotel roomaggregators are revolutionis-ing low-cost accommodationin India with on-the-go

room booking facility usingtechnology.

Travel agents form animportant sales network for allbudget hotel room aggrega-tors. Discussing the associa-

tion with agents, Kavikrut,Chief Growth Officer, OYORooms, says, “We have tied upwith more than 2000 travelagents and consider the net-work an important source ofcorporate, leisure, and pilgrimtravellers." Adding to theimportance of the travel agent

network, Dharamveer SinghChouhan, CEO and Co-founder, ZO Rooms, says, “Weliaison with travel agents tohave a robust outreach andincentive programs are in placefor them. We engage with the

agents through regular meet-ings, conferences; arrangedemo and property showcaserounds with them.”

Talking about the benefitsto agents and hotels whichpartner with the aggregators,Kavikrut explains, “Travel

agents benefit as we have avast network of 30,000 roomsspread across 140 cities,across various categories. Alarge inventory is offered tothem and easy availability ofrooms ensures a hassle-free

booking process even in thecase of bulk bookings. OYOassigns them an account man-ager which is the single pointof contact for everything relat-ed to bookings.”

Attractive commissionrates are an incentive for

agents who sell an addedinventory. Chouhan explains,“We provide our agents withbest commission rates andthey in turn, value the trustand business quality offeredto them. We offer them thereach and product qualitywhich helps them acquiremore and more customers.”Kavikrut adds, “We have excit-ing offers and deals running,at regular intervals, for travelagents and for corporate com-panies doing bulk bookingswith us like an exclusive‘Bangkok Chalo’ offer for travelagents booking bulk roomnights with us through whichif travel agents met a certaincriterion we gave her/him afree trip to Bangkok.”

Discussing the marketingplans and initiatives to increaseoccupancy and RevPar,Chouhan says, “We worktowards revenue maximisationof each property, and use tech-niques like dynamic pricing. Wesee the average price anddemand elasticity and are

clocking an occupancy of over95 per cent in better-perform-ing pockets and over 80 percent overall.” Kavikrut adds,“Hotel partners typically seetheir occupancy increase fromas low as 20 per cent to ashigh as 90 per cent post thepartnership. While this auto-matically increases the rev-enue flow, we also enable them to earn alternative revenue streams.”

The hotel room aggrega-tors target different segmentsof the hospitality industry.Pradeep Sajjan, CEO, Roomon Call, explains, “There is ahuge inflow of foreign trav-ellers in India who come formedical and leisure tourism toIndia. We have marketing ini-tiatives which are planned indifferent languages accordingto the countries.” Chouhanadds, “As we cater to all kindsof travellers, our target groupsvary in demographics. In caseof Zostel, almost 80 per cent of our consumers areinternational.”

Online accommodation reservation services like OYO Rooms, ZO Rooms and Room on Call are changing theface of the online hotel booking segment of the Indian hospitality industry. finds out their association andbenefits for the travel trade.

Room aggregators reach out to agents

AN K I TA SAX E N A

Kavikrut Chief Growth OfficerOYO Rooms

Dharamveer Singh Chouhan CEO and Co-founderZo Rooms

Pradeep SajjanCEORoom on Call


4 8 TRAVTALK J A N U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 6 YOUNGLEADERS

The International TourismFair, Fitur, the Instituto

Tecnológico Hotelero (ITH) andthe World Tourism Organisation(UNWTO) are organising a newedition of Fitur Green, which willtake place as part of Fitur fromJanuary 20 to 22. Under thebanner of ‘Innovative and sus-tainable management: a com-mitment to the tourist,’ the sev-enth staging of this forum willhave as its keystone subject therenewal of tourism according tocriteria of sustainability andsocial responsibility.

Directing the tourismindustry towards sustainabilityis a necessary step not only in

reducing the environmentalimpact of their activity but alsoin positioning destinations and

businesses to enable them tomeet the needs of a tourist pro-file that is increasingly aware

and who is no longer contentwith receiving a quality servicebut is also interested in havingtheir stay make the least pos-sible impact on the environ-ment. This is why sustainabilityis an issue in which the different tourism agents have to become involved, both in the public and in the pri-vate sphere.

All of these issues will give shape to the FiturGreen 2016 programme,which will be divided into the-matic areas, one for each ses-sion: ‘Nearly-zero-energy

hotels, the potential forchange’; ‘The business returnof sustainability: the dominoeffect’; and ‘Renewables asthe sustainable driving forceof tourism.’

In addition, during itsstaging, Fitur Green will holdthe ‘2nd Meeting of the Thinktur/ ITH Club for Trends inSustainability and EnergyEfficiency,’ which will attract the presence of the heads ofthe sustainability and energyefficiency area of hotel chains, hotel SMEs and inde-pendent hotels.

The Fitur Green 2016 Forum will feature success cases, initiatives, projects and real experiences to show howthe tourism management of the destinations, from a perspective of sustainability and local development, leadsto an improvement in their inhabitants’ quality of life and favours economic stimulus.

Fitur 2016: sustainably renewing tourism

TT BU R E AU

Two mantras thatworked for me

To hit the road leading tosuccess, one has to be drivenby a clear sense of purposeand passion. Also, I believethat one cannot take this jour-ney alone. Hence, having a cul-ture of collective ownership inthe team and converting yourvision into the group's vision isextremely crucial.

How I got into this business

There were basically twothings that really inspired meto get into this business—onewas to build a unique and aninnovative business and the

other, to makea dif-

fer-

ence to as many lives as pos-sible. My aspiration enabledme to come up with the idea ofstarting a travel assistanceservices company, which wasa very nascent concept backthen. Also, hailing from aninsurance dominating familybackground gave me theopportunity to understand thetravel insurance business in a betterlight and evolve it to suit today’srequisites.

My strugglesIt has been a journey of

discovery and learning. Likeany other business, we havehad our share of highsand lows. The chal-lenges were enor-mous like anygrowing businesshad to face, rightfrom the percep-tion of the cus-tomer to theoperational

issues thatemerged fromtime-to-time. We

have grown from asmall enterprise of amere 10 people in asingle-office to a full-fledged MNC with

staff strength of 500 inacross 57 branches inIndia over a period of10 years. Our part-nership with Cover-More, world’s lead-ing dedicatedprovider of travelinsurance andmedical assis-

tance has propelled ourgrowth and goodwill. I feelvery fortunate to havebeen part of this everevolving industry for thelast 15 years and to have

been accepted by all the

lovelypeople ofthis industry.

I enjoy my workbecause…

The travel industry is fas-cinating and colourful. Travelmakes people’s dreams cometrue. So being in this industryenables us to be the caretakersof travellers. We are constantlydeveloping new and innovative

protection products, which isexciting. It brings us a sense of achievement when we seeTrawellTag Cover-More launcha fantastic new offering into themarket. With this in mind, I cansay that I don’t have onefavourite aspect of my line ofwork – I have many.

My biggest motivationWhen you are following

your passion, you actually don't need a better motivatingfactor to keep you going. As forpeople, my biggest motivationhas been my beautiful wife and my entire team who havestood by me like a rock in this long but exciting roller-coaster ride.

Not one to shy away from a challenge, Dev Karvat, Founder and CEO, TrawellTag Cover-More,India, aspired to build a unique and innovative business, which ledhim to start a travel assistance services company.

I learned early in my career that it's not only the desire to suc-ceed that drives you toward your goals but it's the hard workand commitment that takes you to the next level. I would liketo urge the younger generation to never let success get on totheir head because if you think you have achieved your greatestsuccess, you clearly have decided to stop pushing yourself.

Message to the youth

Dev Karvat won the Face ofthe Future Award at the 2014

West India Travel Awards

Face of the Future: Dev Karvat

HA Z E L JA I N


QWhat is your agendafor 2016?Club7 Holidays will con-

tinue to have its standardgroup departures and otherproducts across leisure andMICE with a few popular addi-tions in terms of new itiner-aries, new upcoming destina-tions and newer attractions.

QTell us about the USPof Club7 Holidays?We believe in honest and

transparent prices. Club7’sbiggest forte is customer care.Our passengers have grownyear on year. There is always asense of loyalty.

QWhat are the factors tochoose top destina-

tions in 2016? As far as the factors to

choose the destinations areconcerned, a sense of securityis involved. Also the cost of cur-rency, diverse products offered,shopping and experiential trav-el, shall contribute to top des-tinations in 2016.

QWhat are your expec-tations from NTOs in

terms of packages anddestinations?

NTOs should continuewith destination trainings, Famtrips, Corporate Fams andother marketing support activities as these help us inworking closely with the organisations.

QWhat are the leisureactivities or post con-

ference activities usually indemand?

It all depends on the des-tination. A lot of people arequite keen on shopping, mas-sage, spa and nightlife.

QPlease share the newhappenings in MICE/

travel industry? Thailand continues to see

an increase in inbound num-bers because of the ease of

visas. Domestic destinationsare becoming increasingly popular. Hyatt and Marriott continue to be the favouritebrands for corporate events.People are considering long-haul international travel likeParis, East Europe, etc.International travel seems to bethe best reward for performingemployees for most companies.Hence, this trend is gainingmomentum.

The winner of the Entrepreneur of the Year at the West India Travel Awards, 2015– Aparna Basu Mallik, CEO,Club7 Holidays shares the latest trends in the industry.

Outbound travel gains momentumTT BU R E AU People are considering long-haul international

travel like Paris, East Europe, etc. Internationaltravel seems to be the best reward for performingemployees for most companies. Hence, thistrend is gaining momentum.

Aparna Basu MallikCEO, Club7 Holidays

J A N U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 6 TRAVTALK 4 9AGENTS

Top outbound destinations in 2016Canada and USA are becoming popular and people are more open to longhaul destinations for MICE.Spain, Greece and SouthAfrica have also gained popu-larity. The Philippines,Thailand and Singapore con-tinue to be among the top des-tinations because of ease ofvisas, prices and other things.

Delhi in DemandIn the span of one year, Delhiairport catered to as manyas 40 million passengers,who flew to 58 domestic and62 international destinations.That’s equivalent toArgentina’s total populationand nearly four times thepopulation of Greece.



Emirates Airlines recently organised its ‘Emirates Football Tournament 2015’ in which BCD Travel emerged as the champion team. Held at HotfulArena in Mundhwa, Pune, the tournament had 16 teams competing with each other. Earlier this year, Emirates had also hosted a two-day cricketmatch for its trade partners. The tournament was co-sponsored by Amadeus and Star Cruise in association with along with two leadingtravel associations–The Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) and the Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI).

Agents get together for common ‘goal’


As part of its marketing devel-opment strategy, the

Department of Tourism,Philippines, has branded 100BEST buses in Mumbai in asso-ciation with Kesari Tours.Navritu Kaushal Rai, AccountDirector, Philippines TourismMarketing Office, India, said,“The Philippines offers its visitorsa wide variety of attractions andactivities for a perfect vacation.

This initiative of branding BESTbuses is in accordance with ourcurrent market developmentstrategy. We are promoting thePhilippines as a luxury, MICEand wedding destination and ourfocus is on consumer-driven

campaigns. The BEST busesride all over Mumbai and there-fore branding bus-backs givesus visibility and a high numberof eyeballs. Our joint partnershipwith Kesari Tours for this cam-paign reinforces our commit-ment and support towards ourtravel partners.”

Speaking on this market-ing initiative, Zelum Chaubal,Director (Kesari MICE), KesariTours, said, “This joint campaignwill create more awareness andcuriosity for the Philippines as atravel destination. The main purpose of this campaign isbranding and awareness aboutthe destination.”

Sharing her perspectiveon other ways in which thePhilippines can create astronger brand recall, she addsthat increasing visibility throughtravel partners, hoardings,advertisements, talks, and train-

ing workshops will help.“Another thing that has workedfor other international destina-tions is promoting itself througha big-budget Bollywood movie.The Philippines has the poten-tial to be popular among Indians— it has beaches, adventure,snorkelling, scuba-diving,nightlife, shopping, good infra-structure, and Indian food. Wehave done a few small groupsbut real breakthrough is yet to

be achieved. We will definitelypromote the destination with thesupport of the tourism board,”she adds.

The year 2015 turned outto be quite positive for DoTPhilippines, and its marketingcampaign, ‘Visit the PhilippinesYear 2015 (VPY 2015)’, whichis an invitation to experience ‘It’sMore Fun in the Philippines’,was a big hit.

Speaking about how pop-ular Philippines is for MICE,Chaubal says, “Corporates arelooking for newer destinationsbeyond the usual. Philippines isa good option. To promote anydestination, a direct flight andease of visa are key ingredients.Philippinesis gaining popularityand quick visas — which couldcome in three working days —will help to promote thePhilippines.”

To create more awareness among the growing Indian outbound travellers, the Department of Tourism of Philippinesrecently conducted a marketing campaign of branding 100 BEST buses in Mumbai in association with Kesari Tours.

Philippines brands BEST buses in MumbaiTT BU R E AU

Navritu Kaushal RaiAccount Director, Philippines TourismMarketing Office, India

Zelum ChaubalDirector (Kesari MICE)Kesari Tours

J A N U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 6 TRAVTALK 5 1NTO


5 2 TRAVTALK J A N U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 6 ATTRACTION

Get the aerial view of the Niagara Falls, experience the thrill of Edgewalk at CN Tower and shop local delicacies at Ottawa Farmer’s Market—Canada packs the right punch for everyone this winter.

NIAGARA FALLSNiagara Falls is the collective name for three waterfalls that

join the international border between Canada and the UnitedStates. From largest to smallest, the three waterfalls are theHorseshoe Falls, the American Falls and the Bridal Veil Falls. TheHorseshoe Falls lie mostly on the Canadian side. Hear the wall ofroaring water that was perfectly carved during the ice age morethan 12,000 years ago and feel its spray as it rushes by.

Travellers can experience the grandeur through JourneyBehind the Falls. The elevator takes the visitors 150 feet downthrough bedrock to tunnels behind the falls and visitors stand inthe mist and witness the natural spectacle of the falls around

them. One can also ride into the heart of the falls aboard the Hornblower Niagara Cruises.The view is dotted with multiple rainbows making it all the more spectacular. Get onboard one of the Niagara Helicopters, which take visitors on a flight with awe-inspiring views. These seven-seat helicopters fly over just about every major site in Niagara. The wonder ofthe falls is not limited to only daytime as you can view the falls at night with various colourchanging light displays.

The journey at Niagara Falls does not end right there. One can visit CliftonHill for eclectic fun. From a giant skywheel to a Dinosaur Adventure

Golf; there is something for everyone. Movieland WaxMuseum, House of Horrors, and Wax Hands Emporium aresome of the attractions there. Also visit the Bird Kingdom,

which is a large indoor free flying aviary; go toInniskillin Winery for a tour and wine tasting.Finally, end your trip with shopping at theOutlet Collection with great offers.

OTTAWAA short flight from Billy Bishop Airport will take you

to the city of Ottawa. It is a cosmopolitan city on theOttawa River. One should visit the Ottawa Farmer’sMarket at Lansdowne Park for a fresh produce of localfruits, vegetables, meat, arts and crafts. Visit the GlebeNeighbourhood to experience the village life. A must-seesite is the Parliament Hill. The buildings are home toCanada’s federal government. A guided tour of thepremises takes you through the chambers and also to theworking library which is most spectacular unit inside thebuilding. You can also walk down to the Royal CanadianMint, which houses the collector’s coins and view the artof gold and silver coin making. While in Ottawa, you musttry the Beaver Tails pastry — a real Ottawa delicacy.While in Ottawa one can stay at the historic Lord ElginHotel, centrally located to many downtown attractions. Tounwind and reenergise at the end of the trip visit theNordik Spa–Nature.

CANADA CANADA Something for everyone

TORONTOToronto sits on the northern shore of Lake Ontario and has a shoreline stretching 43 km featuring sandy beaches,

marinas and working ports. For that only-in-Toronto experience, there are must visit places to find the essence of thecity’s past and present. You can take a city tour and shopping tour through Yorkville, Queen West and Kensington forvintage foods, organic coffee, and gourmet cheese shops. A must-visit is atop the CN Tower. One can book a lunch ordinner reservation at the 360 Restaurant, which features delicious food combined with a magnificent revolving view ofToronto more than 1,151 feet below. It also has access to the LookOut and Glass Floor levels of the CN Tower. Strollalong the highest sidewalk at the CN Tower’s Edgewalk. Being the world’s highest full circle hands-free walk on a 5 feetwide ledge encircling the top of the Tower’s main pod, 1168 feet (116 storeys) above the ground; visitors walk in smallgroups, while attached to an overhead safety rail via a trolley and harness system. The Royal Ontario Museum is amuseum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Canada. Another must to visit place is a One of a KindShow featuring work of artisans. One must also go to the Christmas market, which takes place at the Distillery HistoricDistrict in Toronto from November 20 to December 20 every year. It recreates the magic of traditional EuropeanChristmas markets and features family-friendly entertainment, food and merchandise from around the world. Forhistory and art lovers a must visit site is the Aga Khan Museum.

Niagara Falls

Clifton Hill

Clifton Hill

Toronto skyline Library at Parliament Hill

Destination

KA R I S H M A KH A N N A F R O M CA N A DA


INDIA TRAVEL AWARDS5 4 TRAVTALK J A N U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 6

Best Tour Operator OutboundThe award ceremony is an exciting experience and great platform which recognises the good efforts of the industry. In 2016, I feel, weneed to be more professional, bring in more products, and digitise ourproducts to meet the demand and competition of technology. I am pos-itive about the growth of the tourism industry but at the same time I feelthere will be a demand of non traditional products and destinations inthe coming year.

Samina MunshiDirector, N. Chirag Travels

Best Visa Facilitation CompanySince travellers like to explore their options, newer destinations willcome up in 2016. The offbeat countries have done exceptionally well.In 2016, it is expected that Eastern Europe will come up in a big waybecause till now there is no need for a biometric visa which is seen asa problem by a few. Unstable factors affecting tourism are expected tosettle down in the coming year. We are promoting Croatia in a big way,like conducting a Fam for 75 to 90 potential tour operators of the MICEand FIT segment of tourism.

Rajan DuaManaging Director

Udaan India

Best Customised Tour OperatorThese awards are an inspiration for us. We hope to come out strongerand improve ourselves in 2016 and become the best travel company.The competition from the industry acts like a push to perform betterand do good work.

Anish MunjalDirector

India Loves Holidays

The award ceremony is an excellent boost to the morale. An award like this is very encouraging for all. Rajasthan has been one of the focal points of tourists coming to India.Rajasthan is the epicentre of culture and colours and no journey is complete without experiencing this state. The private enterprises are doing good work with so many travelpartners and organising fairs in the state that it is bound to increase exposure and travel to this destination in 2016.

Gajendra Singh KhimsarMinister of Industries, Sports and Youth Affairs, DMIC & NRI, Government of Rajasthan

Best Business ProfessionalThe India Travel Awards is like the Oscar award for the travel andtourism industry and most key players look forward to this ceremony.With a population of 1.3 billion in India, there is a huge potential fortravel to grow as more people have started travelling and there is somuch untapped potential for consideration.

Sandeep BhattManaging PartnerEximius Business

Best Luxury ResortThe award ceremony at Crowne Plaza Jaipur Tonk Road is a brilliantopportunity to showcase this new property and the city. With the econ-omy getting a boost, the tourism industry will grow in 2016. Factors likeFDI in tourism and Make in India are initiatives that are way forward.Tourism is on the growth trajectory. 2016 will see a boost in businessand leisure travel. The supply has been enough but demand has beenlittle less in the previous year, which shall catch up with economy opening up in 2016.

Nikhil VahiSenior Vice President

Hospitality Operations & Development, DS Group

Best Travel Management CompanyTravel has become a trending industry especially with the Prime Ministertravelling to various countries. It is a step in marketing India in the globalmarket. The India Travel Awards is an event, which enables networkingand recognises the achievers. We feel very encouraged and motivatedand these awards are an inspiration for us.

Pradeep AgarwalRegional Sales Head, B2B

Bonton Holidays

Best Car Rental Company2016 looks like a promising year. Inbound has been slow and low in2015 but will surely catch up and do well in the coming year. The domes-tic tourism segment has done very well in the last year and outboundtravel is on a growth trajectory and this will continue in 2016.

Sunil C. GuptaDirector

Travel Bureau

New Year brings good cheerNorth India Travel Awards 2015 held in Jaipur concluded the year on a high note. finds out from the winners what it feels like to be appreciated for hard work and how they plan to change the face of the industry in the New Year.

Gallery of LegendsThe policies in travel and tourism industry are still underway and weare eagerly awaiting them to come into function. We have launcheda ‘Women in Aviation’ India Chapter, which is the chapter of the USInternational Body. I believe that in our industry, the number of womenin aviation is limited to the pilots and stewardess. There are so manyopportunities with new government in place, which will open newavenues for ladies in this industry in 2016.

Radha BhatiaChairperson

Bird Group

DDP TraiblazerThe India Travel Awards is a great initiative and the fact that it has hap-pened in Jaipur, will create more publicity for this city. The inbound seg-ment of tourism came down considerably in 2015 but domestic tourismsegment did well. Rajasthan Tourism, is working on improving the infra-structure in the state and with Resurgent Rajasthan and signing ofMoUs worth ` 3,000 crores, it is going to generate more awarenessand reach to various sectors of travel and tourism.

Bhim SinghManaging Director, Rajasthan Tours and President, Federation of

Hospitality and Tourism of Rajasthan

DDP Game ChangerIt is a great feeling to be recognised by the industry, which motivatesus to work harder. In 2016, we are hoping that the upward string con-tinues and there is stability in all sectors of tourism. In the coming yearwe hope that adventure tourism will increase more as the notion thatthis form of tourism is unsafe, is changing. There are more than twomillion adventure tourists. Almost 73 per cent of the Himalayan rangeis in India, which opens amazing opportunities for nature and adventuretravellers. We are working very hard with the government and statesto bring out this form of tourism better.

Ajeet BajajFounder and Managing Director

Snow Leopard Adventures



Best Travel Technology ProviderDespite the tourism industry experiencing a dull overall, we have fortunately not had a slow down. In fact we saw a 30 per cent growthin business. With our UAE office, 2016 will be a year focussed on international business for the company.

RajanDirector-Sales

Zillious Solutions

Best Debut Travel PortalIndia Travel Awards is like the Filmfare or Grammy award for the traveland tourism industry. 2015 has been a good year with its share of upsand downs. We are expecting a good growth in the coming year espe-cially with the backing from the new government. Inbound tourism inIndia will grow better and outbound tourism, which is anyway doingwell, will continue to grow. Despite the rupee fluctuation or the Paristerror attacks, people will continue to travel.

Sucheta NagpalDirector

Travstarz Holidays and Destinations

Best Luxury hotelIt is a pleasure to be here. It is interesting to meet the industry underone umbrella and I thank the organisers for such a great event. In 2016,the factors of growth will be concentrated on the fact that with a stablegovernment at the centre and the state, tourism industry is getting itsdue share of importance and diligence. The foreign tourists coming toIndia will pick up and with the right perspective, tourism industry isbound to grow better.

R MuraliGeneral Manager

ITC Rajputana Jaipur

Best Hotel in the Middle EastIndia is one of the biggest markets for us. In 2016, it is expectedthat we will witness more rate wars. The challenge that the hotel industry may face is more concentrated on fares than struggling for occupancy.

Sona RawalDirector- Sales

JW Marriott, Deira, Dubai

Best Business HotelWith the Modi government, the enhanced visa facilities have devel-oped business but we are hoping that the coming year is going tobe better with more tourist influx. A lot of international hotels areinvesting in India and with so many chains coming to India, compe-tition will increase. We are targeting secondary and tertiary marketslike Hampi and get more clientele to the city.

Sumit KumarGeneral Manager

Hyatt Place Gurgaon Udyog Vihar

Best B2B Travel Portal2015 started pretty well, but in the later part of the year with terroristactivities in France and Russia, the outbound tourist figures from Indiawould certainly be affected. However as it is said that human memoryis short and on the way forward, people are still going to travel in 2016.I hope factors like oil prices and global terrorism are controlled for thetourism industry to grow. The fundamentals of outbound tourism inIndia are very strong and the numbers should grow in 2016.

Ankush NijhawanManaging Director, Nijhawan Group and Co-Founder & CEO

Travel Boutique Online

Best Software Solution ProviderWe are enhancing our technology and upgrading mobile applications.We are increasing suppliers on the portal and shifting to digital mar-keting. 2016 will be a year which focuses on technology and digitisationof tourism products and the need of the hour is that the tourism industryembraces the change happily.

Meenu SachdevaManaging Director and Co-Founder

TI Infotech

Best Travel Agency2015 was not the best year ever, but we have been pushing forward.India is the best destination to go to, especially North India. The eTVwill help in generating more number of tourists coming to India in 2016and many new initiatives are expected to flow in the New Year.

Maud Le BarsGeneral Manager

Shanti Travel

Best MICE OperatorIn 2016, I feel, with the ease of visa facilities and new circuits comingin various destinations, we will see better growth in inbound and MICEtourism segments. We are also focussing on the incentive tourism market, which has huge potential.

Chetan KapoorGeneral Manager-Sales and Marketing (Inbound)

Wish Bone India

for travel industry leadersBest Luxury TrainTravel from and in India has increased over the few years. The numberof outbound travellers is expected to reach 50 million in the next 10years in comparison to 20 million right now. However, this is still lessas compared to China, which stands at 120 million. Outbound tourismis going to grow. The focus area will continue to be Europe and Americaapart from newer destinations. We are launching exclusive packagesfor the customers. With our 170 offices in India, we are trying to reachout to the inner circuits of Tier II and Tier III cities.

Sanjeet JoherVice President, Combined Buying Group Asia Pacific and

Middle East, The Deccan Odyssey by Cox and Kings

Best Rail Tour OperatorWith the new government in place, there are so many new initiativesbeing taken for the travel and tourism industry to grow. The marketingof the country is going to be crucial in getting more business in theyear 2016.

Mainish S SainiDirector

Worldwide Rail Journeys

Best International Airline2015 was not very good as per our expectations. Economic growth of the country and the promotion of the country in other sourcemarkets will definitely impact the number of tourists coming to India in2016. We hope to cover our losses from this year with better business in the New Year and definitely hope for some new initiativesfrom the industry.

Surendra SharmaDistrict Sales Manager

Oman Air



The Indian travel fraternity assembled to raise a toast to Bansi Lal Nijhawan, the founder of the NijhawanGroup, in honour of his widespread contribution to the industry. In commemoration, his biography ‘Bansi Lal kaJahaaz’, penned by Mrinalini Patwardhan Mehra, was officially launched at the exclusive event which was attendedby the crème de la crème from the travel trade sector.

A story of perseverance FAMILY ALBUM


National8-10 Chennai Travel & Tourism Fair14-16 Kochi India International Travel

Mart Cochin15-17 Mumbai India International Travel &

Tourism Exhibition15-17 Bengaluru Travel & Tourism Fair22-24 Coimbatore Holiday Expo 22-24 Nagpur India International Travel Exhibition29-31 Delhi SATTE New Delhi

International20-24 Madrid, Spain FITUR28-31 Istanbul, Turkey EMITT

JANUARY

National4-6 Kolkata India International Travel Mart6-8 Chandigarh India Travel Mart12-14 New Delhi TTF & OTM18-20 Mumbai Outbound Travel Mart21-23 Agra Uttar Pradesh Travel Mart26-28 Vijaywada IITE

International9-11 Abu Dhabi, UAE IBTM Arabia 11-13 Milan, Italy BIT13-14 Brisbane, Australia Travel Expo17-19 San Juan, Routes American

Puerto Rico21 Adelaide, Australia Travel Expo23-24 Melbourne, Asia Pacific Meetings and

Australia Incentive Expo (AIME)24-25 London, UK TTE24-25 London, UK BTS

FEBRUARY

National3-5 Mumbai IAAPI Amusement Expo4-6 Kolkata IITM11-13 Raipur Indian International Travel Exhibition

(IITE)TBA Ahmedabad Gujarat Tourism Mart*

International6 Darwin, Australia Travel Expo6-8 Manila, Philippines Routes Asia9-13 Berlin, Germany ITB10 Singapore AHDA, Asia Hotel Design Award 10-11 Moscow, Russia Luxury Travel Mart Spring Edition23-26 Moscow, Russia Moscow International Travel and

Tourism Exhibition (MITT)29 Feb Tokyo, Japan International Luxury Travel2-Mar Market 30 Mar Kiev, Ukraine UITT1-Apr

MARCH

National8 TBA India Travel Awards-South & East

International1-3 Cape Town, S. Africa Cape Getaway Show3-6 Sicily, Italy Connections Luxury

APRIL

4-6 Cape Town, International Luxury Travel MarketSouth Africa Africa (ILTM Africa)

6-8 Cape Town, World Travel South Africa Market Africa

7-9 Baku, Azerbaijan Azerbaijan International Tourism Fair (AITF)

12-14 Beijing, China China Outbound Travel Tourism Mart (COTTM)

14-16 Siberia SITT (TOURSIB) 17-19 Stuttgart, German Travel Mart

Germany20-22 Almaty, Kazakhstan International

Kazakhstan Tourism Fair (KITF) 22-24 Xian, China CXSRITE 23-26 Knakow, Poland Routes Europe24-27 Montreal, Canada Rendezvous Canada25-28 Dubai, UAE Arabian Travel

Market (ATM) 29-31 Sao Paulo, Brazil World Travel Market

Latin America

International6-8 Shanghai, China Corporate Travel World7-9 Durban, Indaba Expo

South Africa19-22 Shanghai, China World Travel Fair10-13 Rotorua, Trenz

New Zealand29 May Malaga, Spain Connections Meetings1-Jun

MAY

International9-12 Seoul, Korea World Travel Fair

South Korea 15-17 Chicago, USA IBTM America 16-19 Hong Kong, International Travel Expo

SAR China 19-22 Phuket, Thailand Connections Luxury24-26 Beijing, China BITE30 May Shanghai, China International Luxury Travel 2 Jun Market Asia (ILTMA) 31 May Dhaka, Asian International Trade & Tourism5 Jun Bangladesh Expo

JUNE

NationalTBA Hyderabad Travel & Tourism Fair (TTF)*TBA Kolkata Travel & Tourism Fair (TTF)*

International11-12 Melbourne, Australia Travel Industry Exhibition18-19 Sydney, Australia Travel Industry Exhibition

JULY

National3 TBA India Hospitality Awards -

West & South4 TBA India Cargo Awards - West & South5 TBA India Travel Awards - West8-9 Mumbai SATTE Mumbai WestTBA Mumbai India International Travel Mart *

International7-8 Beijing, China China Incentive Business

Travel Market (CIBTM)30-Aug Miami, Florida La Cita 1-Sept

AUGUST

NationalTBA Gurgaon India International Travel Mart*

11-13 Ahmedabad TTF

18-20 Surat TTF

24-26 Mumbai TTF

International7-9 Jakarta, Indonesia PATA Travel Mart

8-10 Ho Chi Minh City, International Travel ExpoVietnam

15-16 Moscow, Russia International Trade Fair forLuxury Travel

18-21 Europe Connections Meetings20-21 Paris, France MAP Pro Le Monde A Paris21-24 Moscow, Russia Meetings Industry & Business

Travel RUSSIA22-25 Tokyo, Japan JATA Tourism Expo Japan

24-27 Chengdu, China World Routes

26-29 Riviera Maya, ILTM America Mexico

27 Kiev, Ukraine Luxury Travel Mart

27-29 Bangkok, Thailand Corporate Travel World Asia-Pacific

29-1 Oct Astana, Kazakhstan Astana Leisure30 Almaty, Kazakhstan Luxury Travel Mart

SEPTEMBER

NationalTBA Pune TTF*

International4 Moscow, Russia Luxury Travel Mart Autumn Edition

TBA Moscow, Russia PIR Hospitality Industry*

TBA Kiev, Ukraine Tour Expo*

5-7 Kiev, Ukraine Ukraine International Travel Market

5-7 Tashkent, Tashkent International Tourism FairUzbekistan

13 TBA Emirates Awards*

16-19 Rio de Janero, Connections Luxury Brazil

18-20 Las Vegas, USA IMEX America

19-21 Singapore ITB Asia

20 Birmingham, UK Group Leisure & Travel Trade Show

21-23 Montreal, Canada International Tourism & Travel Show

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

InternationalTBA Shanghai, China Marintec China*

1-3 Chengdu, China CITE

DECEMBER

For more details, contact: [email protected] dates shown on the annual event calendar are subject to change. Please refer to Event Talk in TravTalk to track the changes in dates

* TBA: To Be Announced

National23 TBA India Hospitality Awards -

North & East

24 TBA India Cargo Awards - North & East

25 TBA India Travel Awards-North

TBA Guwahati Travel & Tourism Fair Guwahati*

InternationalTBA Taipei, Taiwan Taipei International Travel Fair*

4-6 Bremen, Germany Reiselust

7-9 London, UK World Travel Market (WTM)

7-9 Shanghai, China FHC China-Retail & Hospitality

29-Nov Barcelona, Spain IBTM World 1 Dec

April Contd....

April Contd....

Event TalkFINAL_JANUARY-1ST-2016:TT Layout 1/4/2016 4:00 PM

OPPORTUNITY

November blitz by Akquasun

Agents from Delhi and Jaipurexperienced the hospitality ofAkquasun Group and com-fort of Sri Lanka Airlines on afamiliarisation trip organizedto Sri Lanka and Maldives.Akquasun Lanka andAkquasun Maldives jointlydesigned a relaxed butinformative itinerary for theseagents. The accommodationin Colombo was at OZOColombo and The Kingsburyhotels. In Maldives, the staywas arranged at the ParadiseIsland Resort Maldives andSheraton Maldives Full MoonResort & Spa.


J A N U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 6 TRAVTALK 6 1CLIPBOARD


6 2 TRAVTALK J A N U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 6 MOVEMENTS

Nasir Shaikh, General Manager, Courtyard by Marriott PuneChakan, believes nothing energizes him more than spendingquality time with family. “Whenever I get time to rejuvenateand recharge, there is nothing that works for me better than

spending time with my son Ayaan andwife Farheen. It brings instant energy

and positivity. Other than this,expressing myself on the canvas

is something that helps me tochill. I am spiritual at heart andI do like to meditate and

connect with God in my ‘me’time.” He strongly agrees with the

Dalai Lama when he says, “Oncea year, go someplace

you’ve neverbeenbefore.”

Anuraag Bhatnagar, General Manager, St. Regis Mumbaiand Area General Manager India, Starwood Hotels & Resorts,says when he gets time off work he likes to catch up onmovies. “I am fond of cinema and try to watch new films at

the theatre or classics at home.” A fewtimes a year, Bhatnagar plansholidays with his family. “I bid afarewell to all hotels in my regionfor a holiday with my family. Witha heavy heart I leave the hotelier inme behind and travel for the sheerjoy of the experience. I favour

London for its constant activity andParis for its spectacular food.

With so many trips,even my familymembers have theirown list ofrecommendationsand personalfavourites inthese cities,” hesays.

Vijayan Gangadharan, General Manager, Four Points bySheraton Pune, is a wine lover and enjoys exploring newcultures and cuisines. “I like interacting with people andengaging them in conversation, learning their culture, food

and travel habits. I truly enjoy swirlingon my tongue a nice full bodied

red wine and trying out newwines.” Gangadharan alsolikes watching and playingsports like football, cricketand hockey. “I look forwardto when I get quality time to

immerse myself in a goodread. I love Kashmir, Manali,

mountainous northern Italy,Dusseldorf,

Huan Hin,Goa, andMalaysia.”

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

Kuoni GroupDubaiDhiren Savla, Chief Information Officer (CIO) of VFS Global and SVP& Head of Global IT (Shared Service Centre) for Kuoni Group, has

been appointed as Group CIO of Kuoni Group. In thisrole, he is responsible for providing strategic lead-

ership to the IT function and strengthening thecompany’s global IT delivery model across

geographies. He will be based in Dubai andwill concurrently continue in his current VFSGlobal role. In the past, Savla has held various

leadership positions within Merrill Lynch,G.E. Shipping and IL&FS in

India. He is a graduatefrom the University ofMumbai with adegree inEngineering.

Jet AirwaysMumbaiJet Airways has announced that Gaurang Shetty, whole-timeDirector of the carrier, will be the acting CEO of thecompany after Cramer Ball, resigned from hispost as CEO. The new appointment will beeffective from February 29, 2016. Shetty,who has over 35 years of industry expe-rience and has been with the companyfor over 19 years. Shetty is a Bachelorsin Science and joined the company in1996 as General Manager - Marketingand was promoted to Vice President -Marketing in 2004. Prior to joining thecompany, he was with BritishAirways as its MarketingManager - South Asia.

Hyatt RaipurRaipurTushar Garg has been appointed as Director Sales & Marketing atHyatt Raipur. He holds a diploma in Hospitality and TourismManagement from Australia and completed Hotel Management from

Glion Hotel School, Switzerland. Garg startedhis career as a Management Trainee in oneof the Preferred AAA Diamond Ski Resortsin Vermont USA. Upon completion of thesame he worked in India with JaypeeVasant Continental Hotel, New Delhi asDuty Manager, later he moved to The Lalit

as Duty Manager. Garg held the post ofDirector of Sales and Marketing at the Park

Inn by Radisson, Gurgaon beforejoining Hyatt Raipur.

WelcomHeritage HotelsNew DelhiSunil Gupta has taken over as the Chief Executive Officer ofWelcomHeritage Hotels. He brings along an experience of 30 yearsin the hospitality industry and is associated with ITC Hotels since

1995. He has served at various positions atITC Hotels in the span of 20 years. For the

past 7 years, he was the General Managerat ITC Rajputana, Jaipur and after this richtenure he has now been appointed as theCEO of WelcomHeritage Hotels.

India Exposition MartGreater NoidaSudeep Sarcar has been promoted as Vice President of IndiaExposition Mart Limited (IEML). Sarcar joined India Expo Centre &

Mart as General Manager in 2011. With morethan 21 years of extensive global experi-

ence; he has successfully broughtGreater Noida on international conven-tion and exhibition industry map. Withbig ticketed events such as Auto Expo-the Motor Show, FDI World AnnualDental Congress and India Handicraftsand Gift Fair series, he has convertedGreater Noida as one of the most

sort after MICE destination in India and Asia.

Fraser SuitesNew Delhi Erum Khan has been promoted as the Manager Marketing FraserSuites, New Delhi. She is a marketing specialist with 12 years ofexperience with leading companies. She haspreviously worked with Political Express(Newspaper & Magazine), the IndianInstitute of Corporate Affairs, andBureaucracy Today Magazine. Apart frommarketing, she is skilled at events man-agement, PR and office administration.Khan holds a Master's Degree in EnglishLiterature from Kanpur University.

Jameson Inn Hotel KolkataSandeep Basu has been appointed as General Manger at JamesonInn Hotel at Kolkata, managed by Cygnett Group of Hotels. Basu, anHotel Management graduate from NIPSSchool of Hotel Management & PostGraduate Diploma in MarketingManagement has had a notewor-thy career spanning 17 years inthe hospitality industry. He startedhis career with The Park Hotelsand was mostly associated with ITC.

Department of Tourism, GoaGoaSanjeev C. Gauns Dessai has taken over as the new Director ofthe Department of Tourism, Goa with effect from December 15,2015. He replaces Ameya Abhyankar, IAS.Dessai will oversee the department’s rolein the maintenance of the state’s beach cleanliness, beach safety, touristpolicing, master plan and all othertourism policies.

Thomas Cook India MumbaiMadhavan Menon has been redesignated as Chairman andManaging Director by Thomas Cook India. Menon has steered thecompany as Managing Director since 2006. Heholds bachelors in business from GeorgeWashington University, USA, and MBA,Finance & International Business, GeorgeWashington University, USA. He comeswith an experience of over 33 years. Hisprevious assignment prior to joining TCILwas as Chief Operations & AdministrativeOfficer of Birla Sunlife Asset Management,Citibank and ANZ Grindlays Bank. Hisexpertise spans over Banking,Finance and Travel-relatedForeign ExchangeManagement.


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

of the same month at New Delhi PSO, New Delhi - 110001, RNI No.: 53492/1991Date of Publication:30-12-2015

QTell us about the important tourismcircuits in Jammu & Kashmir.There are a number of tourism cir-

cuits starting from Jammu, Vaishno Devi,Patnitop, Bhadarwah, Kashmir, Pahalgam,Sonamarg, Srinagar, Kokernag, Verinag,Aharbal and Kargil, Pangong and Nubrain Ladakh. The government is also workingon developing products such as orchardtourism; education with a special empha-sis on IT and skill development and foodtechnology, as these sectors can be pro-moted outside the state and in turn pro-mote the tourism circuits.

QWhat is the state governmentdoing to promote tourism?We plan to publicise our convention

centres in a big way as MICE is an importantsector for the state. We also support Fam trips. A helicopter service at `10,000 to the resorts of Pahalgam andGulmarg from Srinagar Airport gives youthe thrill of an aerial view of destinations likePahalgam, Sonamarg and Gulmarg. Suchservices will also promote heli-skiing,adventure tourism, golfing, and incentiveand conference tourism. With state-of-the-art venues like Pahalgam Club, Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre(SKICC), and five-star chains like Starwood,Hyatt, ITC and Radisson eyeing the valleywill help in boosting tourism. We are creatingwaiting lounges at the gondola stations andpost-event activities in the city. We need tochange the perception and focus on domes-tic market. We want to create J&K as no off-season destination of the country.

QHas eTV facility helped inincreasing the number of

tourists coming to the state? Yes, it has really helped the city and

increased tourist footfall in the state.

QAre there any special packagesfor travel agents that the state

offers? We have announced a number of

packages for travel agents from theJammu and Kashmir Tourism Corporation(JKTDC) to book properties. For high-endcustomers, we can customise packagesas per their requirement and give the mostaffordable packages in the country.

QAre you looking at any PPP mod-els to boost tourism in the state?

Our government has announcedmany models to improve our holdingcapacity. The cabinet has approved thepolicy and we are hopeful to upgrade ourinfrastructure. With high-end hotel brandsand private stakeholders in the hospitalitysector investing in a big way to improve

the tourist footfall, we are hopeful to havea cascading effect on related sectors likehandicraft and hospitality.

QWhat are the provisions for safe-ty of tourists in the state?We are keen on planning a complete

safety policy which is an important aspectfor all our investors. Safety measures withthe provision of dedicated security person-nel and life-guards at major tourist desti-nations are very important.

QWhat are the lean period strate-gies of the state? Winter, especially December

onwards, is a lean period for us. We wantto utilise Gulmarg during this period andhave also announced winter and New Yearpackages, national skiing championshipsand ice skating. We also want to promotePatnitop as a winter sports destination.

QWhat are the strategies to mar-ket the state in the international

market?Every year we see about two crore

people travel outbound, but our domesticmarket is quite huge. We want people tovisit the state and we are keen to tap thedomestic market first.

QTell us about the states conven-tion facilities and centres?

The Pahalgam Club is a completedestination, constructed at a cost of ` 24crore, and can accommodate about 270people. It has a banquet hall with an audi-torium, multi-cuisine restaurant, a coffeeshop, a four-lane bowling alley, swimmingpools, gym, a beauty salon, a library cum

reading room and 21 luxury suites. With such spaces, we invite large corporate houses to hold their confer-ences every year.

QWhat are the issues and chal-lenges in MICE industry?We would like to emphasise on

skilled manpower where guides, driverscan be well trained to enhance tourismculture. We are also going to introduceprogrammes in colleges with special fac-ulty to train manpower and manage skillbased enterprises in the state.

QWhat is the state tourism’s agen-da for 2016?We will ensure that tourists get the

best of facilities. Be it pilgrim, golfing, her-itage, shopping, cuisine or destinations,we are looking to improve our infrastruc-ture in the next 2-3 years and be the bestdestination as far as infrastructure is con-cerned. Our main focus will be on thedevelopment of entertainment parks, lightand sound shows, air safaris, river andlake cruises. We also plan to focus on newproducts like eco-tourism and ruraltourism. The local resorts have tied up withfive-star chains to improve high-endtourism in the valley. Hopefully, 2016should be a good year for us as we wantto promote adventure tourism, golfing, pil-grim tourism in J&K and Ladakh.

Farooq A. Shah, Secretary Tourism, Jammu and Kashmir and Managing Director,Jammu & Kashmir Tourism Development Corporation (JKTDC), plans to promoteadventure, spiritual, golf, heritage and rural tourism in the state.

J&K promotes adventure, MICE

VA I S H A L I DA R

With high-end hotel brands and privatestakeholders in the hospitality sectorinvesting in a big way to improve thetourist footfall, we are hopeful to have acascading effect on related sectors

like handicraft and hospitality.

Farooq A. ShahSecretary Tourism, Jammu and Kashmir

and Managing Director, JKTDC


A DDP PUBLICATION JANUARY 1 ST FoRTNighT iSSUe 2016 TRAvTAlk 1dd

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Maya in North honours achievers The best known faces and brands of the travel industry gathered to commemorate the achievers of North India Travel Awards on December 8, 2015. The awards ceremony was held at Crowne Plaza Jaipur Tonk Road.

Gajendra Singh Khimsar, Cabinet Minister of Industries, DMIC, NRI, Sports & Youth Affairs, Govern-

ment of Rajasthan was the Chief Guest for the evening. The black tie event brought together more than 120 attend-ees for an exciting evening celebrating tourism excellence.

Jaipur was chosen for the awards because it is an enthralling historical city and the gateway to India’s most flamboy-ant state. The city’s colourful, chaotic streets ebb and flow with a heady brew of old and new. SanJeet, Mentor, India Travel Awards said, “These awards sig-nify the growth of the industry, which has developed immensely in the last few years. Encouraged by the enormous success of India Travel Awards in other regions, we wish to continue with this. India Travel Awards is a platform which

recognises and applauds the true leaders of the fraternity, to acknowledge the emerging leaders. We are proud to have been instrumental in helping it flourish, and will continue with our endeavours.”

Radha Bhatia, Chair-person, Bird Group, joined the Gallery of Legends, while Bhim Singh, Man-aging Director, Rajasthan Tours and President Fed-eration of Hospitality and Tourism of Rajasthan, was declared the DDP Trail-blazer. DDP Game Changer was Ajeet Bajaj, Founder and Managing Director, Snow Leopard Adventures, while Mittu Chandilya, CEO and Managing Direc-tor, AirAsia India, was announced as the Face of the Future. Pankaj Nagpal was pronounced the Entrepreneur of the Year.

India Travel Awards supports and promotes the Indian travel and tourism industry by identifying and rewarding excellence, and inspiring its practition-ers to continuously raise the standards of their products and service offerings. Based on a unique system of jury judg-ment and voting, these awards are fair and unbiased. The formal ceremony was

glitzy, glamorous and was graced by the who’s who of the travel industry. India Travel Awards is supported by the Government of India, Ministry of Tourism and is now hailed as one of the most esteemed awards in the tourism industry of India.These awards are also braced by esteemed trade bodies like Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI), Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI), Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) and IATA Agents Association of

India (IAAI).

India Travel Awards runs and gov-erns a comprehensive programme across a range of awards developed to recognise the industry’s most vital sec-tors and product offerings. Awards are presented across four regions—South, East, West, and North.

TT Bureau

Winners of North India Travel Awards with their trophies at Crowne Plaza Jaipur Tonk Road

(L-R): Dr. Tanushree Pandey, Mrs India 2015 and SanJeet, Director, DDP Group, unveiling the special edition on North India Travel Awards at the event

2 TRAvTAlk JANUARY 1 ST FoRTNighT iSSUe 2016 NORTH INDIA TRAVEL AWARDS

Gallery of leGends

ddP Game ChanGer

entrePreneur of the year

ddP trailblazer

ddP faCe of the future

radha bhatia, Chairperson, Bird Group joins the ‘Gallery of legends’. She is felicitated by Gajendra singh Khimsar, Minister of Industries, Sports and Youth Affairs, DMIC & NRI, Government of Rajasthan, tanushree Pandey, Mrs India 2015 and sanJeet, Director, DDP Group

ajeet bajaj, Founder & Managing Director, Snow Leopard Adventures, is the ‘ddP Game Changer’. He is felicitated by Gajendra singh Khimsar, Minister of Industries, Sports and Youth Affairs, DMIC & NRI, Government of Rajasthan, tanushree Pandey, Mrs India 2015 and sanJeet, Director, DDP Group

The award was given to Pankaj nagpal, Managing Director, Travstarz Holiday & Destinations by Gajendra singh Khimsar, Minister of Industries, Sports and Youth Affairs, DMIC & NRI, Government of Rajasthan, tanushree Pandey, Mrs India 2015 and sanJeet, Director, DDP Group

bhim singh, Managing Director, Rajasthan Tours & President, Federation of Hospitality and Tourism of Rajasthan becomes the ‘ddP trailblazer’; he is felicitated by Gajendra singh Khimsar, Minister of Industries, Sports and Youth Affairs, DMIC & NRI, Government of Rajasthan, tanushree Pandey, Mrs India 2015 and sanJeet, Director, DDP Group

mittu Chandilya, CEO & Managing Director, AirAsia India was named the ‘ddP face of the future’. The award was received on his behalf by suhail bhalla, Manager-Sales & Distribution, and Pawan nagpal, Commercial-Sales & Distribution and given by Gajendra singh Khimsar, Minister of Industries, Sports and Youth Affairs, DMIC & NRI, Government of Rajasthan, tanushree Pandey, Mrs India 2015 and sanJeet, Director, DDP Group

JANUARY 1 ST FoRTNighT iSSUe 2016 TRAvTAlk 3

best hosPitality Professional

most enterPrisinG hosPitality Professional

best b2b travel Portal

best business Professional

best hosPitality sales & marKetinG Professional

best inbound travel Professional

best budGet hotel brand

Chief Guest Gajendra singh Khimsar, Minister of Industries, Sports and Youth Affairs, DMIC & NRI, Government of Rajasthan being honoured with Pearl Trophy ‘Maya’

The award was given to tekla maira, Director, Global Sales India, FRHI Hotels & Resorts

The award was given to amit rana, General Manager, Holiday Inn Chandigarh Panchkula

The award was given to travel boutique online and was received by ankush nijhawan, Managing Director, Nijhawan Group & Co-Founder & CEO, Travel Boutique Online

The award was given to sandeep bhatt, Managing Partner, Eximius Business

The award was given to dhananjay saliankar, Regional Director, Starwood Sales Organisation, South Asia

The award was given to Khalid Khan, Executive Director, Le Passage to India, Tours & Travels & President, Rajasthan Association of Tour Operator (RATO)

The award was given to Clarks inn Group of hotels and received by sahil bhargav, General Manager, Clarks Inn Jaipur, rahul banerjee AVP Operations, Clarks Inn Jaipur, and nitin srivastav General Manager Sales & Marketing, Clarks Inn Jaipur,

4 TRAvTAlk JANUARY 1 ST FoRTNighT iSSUe 2016 NORTH INDIA TRAVEL AWARDS best CorPorate travel ComPany

best hotel in the middle east

best WeddinG and miCe hotel

best lCC airline

best softWare solution Provider

best Global distribution system (Gds)

best travel aGenCy

best luxury train

The award was given to dnata and received by its Head-Human Resources, Joseph fernandes and Business Head, Special Project & Partner Management, nippun Juneja

The award was given to JW marriott, deira, dubai and received by its Director Food & Beverage, bhavesh rawal and Director-Sales, sona rawal

The award was given to Crowne Plaza Jaipur tonk road and received by its General Manager, ashwani K Goela

The award was given to airasia and received by its Manager-Sales & Distribution, suhail bhalla and Commercial-Sales & Distribution, Pawan nagpal

The award was given to ti infotech and received by its Senior Vice Presidents, ajay arora, darshan sharma and Managing Director & Co-Founder, meenu sachdeva

The award was given to travelport Galileo and received by its Regional Head North, anoop tewari and Chief Commercial Offices, Interglobe Technology Quotient, sandeep dwivedi

The award was given to shanti travel and received by its Chief Relationship Officer, neeraj Kumar and General Manager, maud le bars

The award was given to the deccan odyssey by Cox & Kings and received by its Vice President, Combined Buying Group Asia Pacific and Middle East, sanjeet Joher

JANUARY 1 ST FoRTNighT iSSUe 2016 TRAvTAlk 5 best emerGinG travel Portal

best nto

best mid-marKet hotel

best travel manaGement ComPany

best business hotel

best international airline

best rail tour oPerator

best luxury resort

The award was given to hotel expertz.com and received by its Directors, raman Kehar and rajan Kehar

The award was given to destination Canada and received by its Sr Manager Sales, sonia Prakash and Account Director, richa Chopra

The award was given to rK sarovar Portico, Srinagar and received by its Managing Director, saddam zaroo and General Manager, Shafiul Alam Ishaque

The award was given to bonton holidays and received by its Regional Sales Head B2B, Pradeep agrawal and Executive Director, sayed a asim

The award was given to hyatt Place Gurgaon udyog vihar and received by its General Manager, sumit Kumar

The award was given to oman air and received by its District Sales Manager - Jaipur, surendra sharma

The award was given to Worldwide rail Journeys and received by its Director, mainish s saini

The award was given to namah, Jim Corbett national Park and received by Senior Vice President, Hospitality Operations & Development DS Group, nikhil vahi

6 TRAvTAlk JANUARY 1 ST FoRTNighT iSSUe 2016 NORTH INDIA TRAVEL AWARDS best destination manaGement ComPany

most versatile ComPany-aviation & travel

best innovative teChnoloGy ProduCt

best visa faCilitation ComPany

best travel teChnoloGy Provider

exCellenCe aWard for best food & beveraGe in the middle east and afriCa

best luxury tour oPerator

best debut mid-marKet hotel

The award was given to sthi holidays india and received by its Director Operations, Paras arora and Director-Sales & Operations, Gagan Kumar

The award was given to eximius business and received by its Vice President-Business Initiatives, raman Kapoor and Vice President, Corporate Affairs, ajay bhadwal

The award was given to travel boutique online and received by ankush nijhawan, Managing Director, Nijhawan Group and Co-Founder & CEO, Travel Boutique Online

The award was given to udaan india and received by its Managing Director, rajan dua

The award was given to zillious solutions and received by its Technical Associate, nishant Gupta, Senior Technical Associate, Payal Kumari and Director Sales, rajan

The award was given to J W marriott, deira, dubai and received by its Director-Sales, sona rawal and Director Food & Beverage, bhavesh rawal

The award was given to terra ignota tours and received by its Managing Director, nitin sambhi

The award was given to Crystal sarovar Premiere, Agra and received by its General Manager, lokesh Kumar upadhya

JANUARY 1 ST FoRTNighT iSSUe 2016 TRAvTAlk 7 best debut travel Portal

best boutique tour oPerator

best tour oPerator outbound

best Customised tour oPerator

best heritaGe hotel

best mid-marKet hotel Chain

emerGinG hotel Chain

best heritaGe resort

The award was given to travelrezonline.com and received by its Managing Director, Travstarz Holiday & Destinations, Pankaj nagpal

The award was given to Go explore and received by Director, Far & Beyond Journeys, shishir Parab and Managing Director, shalini dugar, Go Explore

The award was given to n. Chirag travels and received by its Managing Director, riaz munshi and Director, samina munshi

The award was given to india loves holidays and received by its Director, anish munjal

The award was given to ajit bhawan Palace, Jodhpur and received by its General Manager, ajay upadhyay

The award was given to mansingh Group of hotels and received by its Managing Director & CEO, bharat Kumar

The award was given to ds hotels & resorts and received by its Senior Vice President, Hospitality Operations & Development DS Group, nikhil vahi

The award was given to Welcomheritage Khimsar fort & dune and received by Gajendra singh Khimsar, Minister of Industries, Sports and Youth Affairs, DMIC & NRI, Government of Rajasthan

8 TRAvTAlk JANUARY 1 ST FoRTNighT iSSUe 2016 NORTH INDIA TRAVEL AWARDS best Gsa

best miCe oPerator

fastest GroWinG travel teChnoloGy Provider

best tour oPerator

best City hotel

best luxury hotel

best Car rental ComPany

best exPeriential tour oPerator

The award was given to Group Concorde and received by navneet sharma, Regional Manager, China Airlines and Payal mehta, Business Manager, Group Concorde

The award was given to Wish bone india and received by Assistant General Manager-Sales & Marketing (Inbound), Chetan Kapoor

The award was given to e-care technology labs and received by its Co-Founder and VP-Technology, harish sharma

The award was given to travel Care and received by its Managing Director, arun Choudhary

The award was given to holiday inn amritsar ranjit avenue and received by its General Manager, divakar shukla

The award was given to itC Grand bharat, Gurgaon and received by Sales & Marketing Manager, suvarna mani Pradhan and General Manager, ITC Rajputana Jaipur, r murali

The award was given to travel bureau and received by its Associate, suyash Gupta and Director, sunil C. Gupta

The award was given to Journey sutra and received by shishir Parab Director, Far & Beyond Journeys, and shalini dugar Managing Director, Go Explore

JANUARY 1 ST FoRTNighT iSSUe 2016 TRAvTAlk 9 best airPort hotel

best travel retail store

hosPitality Partner

beveraGe Partner

best CorPorate hotel

best boutique hotel

airline Partner

The award was given to ibis delhi airport and received by its Director of Rooms, anuj Chaudhry

The award was given to Craft house, the metropolitan hotel & spa and received by monisha Gupta

The award was given to Crowne Plaza Jaipur tonk road and received by its General Manager, ashwani K Goela

The award was given to aspri spirits and received by its Assistant Manager-Trade Marketing (North and East), Prateek vijay Pandey

The award was given to ramada Jaipur and received by its Director of Sales, anmol narang and General Manager, harsh Kumar

The award was given to flute boutique hotel, Jaipur and received by its Director, rachna

The award was given to airasia and received by its Manager, Commercial-Sales & Distribution, Pawan nagpal

North celebrates crowning 10 TRAvTAlk JANUARY 1 ST FoRTNighT iSSUe 2016 NORTH INDIA TRAVEL AWARDS

of travel & tourism starsJANUARY 1 ST FoRTNighT iSSUe 2016 TRAvTAlk 1 1

ddppl.com travtalkindiatravtalkindia.com/pdf/2016/01-jan-2016-1.pdf · 2016. 1. 1. · ddppl.com...

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