This summer, explore the spectacular coral islands of Okinawa in the Pacific Ocean. For long, Okinawa has been regarded as the “World Capital of Longevity”, the secret lies hidden in its relaxed environment, the rich nature and unique lifestyle of the local people. Come and experience its diversity: indulge in marine sports or just relax at the beautiful beaches, luxurious resorts & spas; pamper your family at Okinawa World & Churaumi Aquarium; escape to nature in the untouched sub-tropical forests; discover World Heritage sites and Okinawa's traditional 'Ryukyu' culture – the birthplace of Karate.
Okinawa is a side of Japan, you've never seen…
For more details, log on to www.okinawastory.jp/en
Contents June 2013
Vol 8 | No 5 | Pages 48
Chairman of the Board
Viveck Goenka
MARKET
Editor
Tourism empowers women in remote Ladakhi villages ............................06 Associations join hands to build FAITH....................................................07 Seven Sister states attract repeat travellers ................................................08 Ethiopian Airlines to start services to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in July 2013 ............................................................................09 J&K Tourism looking at investors to set up hotels and resorts in the state ............................................................................10 WB govt's new industrial policy to focus on tourism sector ......................11 Singapore continues reinventing the destination ......................................12 CTC focuses on MICE with Business Events Canada ................................13 Taj Group keen to expand in African market ............................................14 Interveiw with Vishwanath Alluri, founder and executive chairman, IMImobile ..............................................................................................15
Reema Lokesh* Assistant Editor
Steena Joy Associate Editor
Sudipta Dev CONTENT TEAM Mumbai
Sayoni Bhaduri, Kahini Chakraborty Kolkata
Joy Roy Choudhury Advisory Board
Ankur Bhatia, Vijay Chadda, Saroj Datta, Ashok Fenn,
ded Inclu Drinks e t i d holic Unlim Non-Alco s / olic ruise Alcoh all our C on
MANAGEMENT
Subhash Goyal, Cyrus Guzder, Zubin Karkaria, Ashwini Kakkar, Khursheed Lam, Tej Sahni, Alok Sawhney, Prem Subramaniam MARKETING Deputy General Manager
Harit Mohanty Chief Manager
Emmanuel Fernandes Manager
Sunil D'costa CIRCULATION
Mohan Varadakar PRODUCTION General Manager
B R Tipnis
An African arena ....................................................................................20 Synergy in Sydney....................................................................................23 Rediscovering a Great destination ............................................................26 Action packed ATM 2013..........................................................................28 A season for Ayurveda..............................................................................31 EDGE
Cruises in Greek Islands, Mediterranean Baltics, Fiords, Caribbean
Manager
Bhadresh Valia Layout
Ratilal Ladani, Kiran Parker
All Inclusive system! Unlimited drinks on all our ships.
Asst. Art Director
Surajit Patro Chief Designer
Child
Pravin Temble
free
Senior Graphic Designer
Rushikesh Konka Photo Editor
Sandeep Patil
Holistic approach to sustainable tourism........................................... A change is coming Your Way.......................................................... Express TravelWorld Reg. No.-MH/MR/SOUTH156\2013-15 RNI Reg. No.MAHENG/2005/15993 Printed by The Indian Express Limited and published by Ms Vaidehi Thakar on behalf of The Indian Express Press, Plot No. EL-208,TTC Industrial Area, Mahape, Navi Mumbai - 400710 and Published from Express Towers, 2nd Floor, Nariman Point, Mumbai - 400021. (Editorial & Administra-tive Offices: Express Towers, 1st Floor, Nariman Point, Mumbai – 400021) Editor Reema Lokesh* Copyright @ 2011
The Indian Express Ltd. All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction in any manner, electronic or otherwise, in whole or in part, without prior written permission is prohibited.
June 2013
34 37
Cruise insurance available
LIFE
A role model for RT .................... ....................................................43 REGULARS
Editor’s Note ........................................................................................4 Appointments ....................................................................................39 Weekend ............................................................................................45 www.expresstravelworld.com
GSA in India: GRIFFON, 4 Cusrow Baug, Colaba, Mumbai 400 001. Tel.: 022 22045014, 22045019 Fax: 022 22830461 Email: sales@griffontravel.com Website: www.GriffonCruises.in
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EDITOR’S NOTE
Go beyond here is always so much said and deliberated on the potential and possibilities that India has to offer as a tourism destination. The India tourism story caters to a variant of buyers from the first time inbound visitor to the very own domestic traveller. For the first time inbound traveller, India ranges from being intimidating to interesting from shocking to spiritual. It is definitely all about experiential tourism which by its very nature is subjective, intangible and abstract. The general domestic traveller who is budget conscious needs to plan his vacations way in advance to get the most desirable transport seats especially on the Indian railways or an airline before the prices go soaring. Whichever the case may be, India is a destination that needs its own share of advance planning to get the best value, both tangible and intangible.
T “India is in serious need of more accessible tourism circuits, which logically demands its share of infrastructure in terms of connectivity and accommodation”
There are tourism campaigns being heavily marketed both nationally and internationally with the public and private sector going all out to rope in the customer from within and outside, but are we totally ready as a tourism product to provide a seamless tourism experience or are we left with very few options and circuits which are genuinely tourism friendly that cater to all ages? India is in serious need of more accessible tourism circuits, which logically demands its share of infrastructure in terms of connectivity and accommodation. Apart from circuits, we need to redesign the tourism product to make it an all season destination. If one delves seriously, there are very few options to explore during the summers in India. Apart from a handful of hill stations and few states in the north, India needs to introduce more summer friendly destinations and improve the facilities for tours in these areas. The unexplored north east can be one of the potential areas. On the luxury front, India is probably one the best tourism products in the world. Luxury surely comes with a price but it is interesting to note that luxury heritage options are opening up doors to a new segment of travellers, who are getting to experience a form of tourism that was initially unexplored due to both price and accessibility. Luxury heritage hotels are redefining themselves which will go a long way in nurturing tourism in a refined manner. Reema Lokesh Editor editorial.etw@expressindia.com
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June 2013
Choices of a smart business traveller
Travelling for work and working outside the physical office is part of the routine. From working in hotels to conference calls in transit, business travel isn’t cheap and it leads to down time. Here are six smart ways to make you an efficient business traveller. These tips have been validated with Microsoft’s Office 365 solution, the complete office in the cloud.
Office 365 is the smart choice for managing your business efficiently and professionally—without the need for technical expertise. ` 9,700 per year for 5 PCs and devices One-stop shop for best office tools, from HD video-conferencing to company feed Easy-to-use administration tools, in plain English For more information, visit Office365.in
Choose to video-conference first
Take photographs of your bills
Create a travel calendar
If there's a chance that you don't have to attend a meeting in person, jump at it and save on all travel costs. You can instead participate in the meeting via Skype, which lets you video-conference with the others at the meeting. Giving you the flexibility to literally be in two places at once.
Another tip is to photograph your bills as soon as you pay them, and back these images on Skydrive. When you're submitting your expense report, use outlook to add these photographs in your email to the accounts team. No more wasting time in finding receipts after your trip.
From airport arrivals to appointments, keeping a schedule is critical. One simple way to manage your schedule is to have your assistant create a travel calendar. This can be integrated to your business calendar and you can track this on the go. That's worth a lot of peace of mind.
Track expenses with spreadsheets in the cloud
Instant message on the move
Keep a checklist on OneNote
If you're trying to keep your travel costs low, then cost of calling on roaming can be really difficult to control. But a good alternative is to use instant messaging services on your phone. With Lync or Skype, you can chat with any colleague or partner in real-time and end up using just data services.
Frequent business travellers follow a routine. There’s a set bag for short and long travel; Personal devices and their chargers need to carried; The checklist can be long. It's advisable to create a master checklist on OneNote and pull this out every time you are about to travel. That way, you will have everything you need when you need it.
There’s a painless way to tracking expenses on your business travel. With a cloud-based spreadsheet program like Excel, you always have your expense tracker in your pocket. Now you won't forget to account for all the in-flight meals and cab rides.
Market
T H E B U S I N E S S O F T R AV E L & TO U R I S M
LEAD STORY
Tourism empowers women in remote Ladakhi villages Homestays operated by women, first travel agency engaging women guides and porters SUDIPTA DEV - Mumbai
ith the increasing popularity of Ladakh as a tourism destination, there is a segment of the local populace who have probably benefitted the most – the Ladakhi women. With homestay treks becoming an integral part of the international tourist itinerary, women in villages along the trekking routes of areas like the Hemis National Park, have opened their homes to travellers, and have started earning an income. Thinlas Chorol, a trained mountaineer and guide founded the Ladakhi Women's Travel Company in 2009. It is the first travel company in Ladakh that is owned and operated by women and provides tourists with women guides and porters for conducting treks and tours. While the Ladakhi Women's Travel Company offers trekking, cultural, sce-
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nic and monastery sightseeing, the most popular are the homestay treks. Homestays provide a real experience of the Ladakhi culture – travellers on multi-day treks and tours have the option of staying in a home, eat the traditional food and get to know the locals. An initiative of the NGO Snow Leopard Conservancy, these homestays are all run by women as the men are engaged in work outside. “We highly recommend these homestays as it gives visitors a better insight into Ladakhi life than camping,” stated Chorol. Homestays are considered the most eco-friendly system of exploring Ladakh, in comparison to camping as it has the least impact on the environment. Chorol acknowledged that there is great potential in the homestay system, “Generally, Ladakhis are very friendly and welcoming. And it also gives the villagers a better chance to get income from the tourism
Thinlas Chorol industry.” She feels that it is important for the government to support the women running the homestays and help them in getting trained to ensure that visitors have a good homestay experience at every village. “They should
also inform the people visiting Ladakh of the benefits of the system,” she added. Treks in most areas of Hemis National Park and the Sham region can be done using homestays. Winter treks allow tourists to see the elusive snow leopard. The target clientele being the international tourists, Chorol does not do much marketing, but people come to know about her agency through word of mouth. “Since we have only a limited number of guides, and without much marketing, we are still fully booked, we don't need to do much. What we do is mostly making small posters and flyers which we put up around Leh,” she mentioned. The initiative of women's groups to set up tea tents along the trekking routes has also enabled many local village women to earn a living by selling tea, snacks and handicrafts to visitors.
Food Hospitality World 2013 set to open in Bengaluru ETW STAFF - Mumbai
lobal Fairs & Media (GFML) brings to Bengaluru yet another enriching edition of Food Hospitality World. Food Hospitality Word 2013 Bengaluru will be held at KTPO, Whitefield from June 12-14, 2013. The trade show will be spread across 3600 sq metres with as many as 300 national and international exhibitors, all under one roof. The event will witness players from the international market especially Italy, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia. FHW will witness participation from importers, distributors, F&B managers, hotel and restaurant purchase managers, food service professionals, chefs and sommeliers, trade bodies, hoteliers, restaurateurs, caterers, food service professionals, hospitality interiors specifiers, importers, distributors, wholesalers, and more. Some of the key exhibitors at FHW 2013 Bengaluru include
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Celfrost Innovations, Ramsons Garment Finishing Equipment, Bharat Glass & Crockeries, Kiros Hospitality Solutions (DHS India), Nilkamal, Wang Hospitality (VINGCARD ELSAFE), Wang Professionals, Kaapi Machines, etc. FHW aims at being the right channel allowing both, vendors/suppliers and hospitality professionals to come together to tap mutually beneficial business opportunities. The three-day exhibition will host
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special events. Panel discussions under the banners Hospitality Think Tank (The Changing Dynamics of the Southern Market), Hospitality Knowledge Exchange (Intelligent Rooms: Plugging in), Power of Purchase will be key highlights of FHW 2013 Bengaluru. Prominent and respected chefs from the city have also been roped in to conduct Live Cooking Demonstrations for visitors. FHW merges two of Fiera Milano’s most successful exhibitions, Tuttofood (food and beverage) and Host (hospitality industry) with HospitalityWorld - India’s leading hospitality trade show and Taste Mumbai’s international food and beverage show; thus combining international and local expertise and creating the biggest professional B2B event for the Indian subcontinent’s food, drink and hospitality sectors. GFML is a company formed by Hannover Milan Fairs India and The Indian Express Group. June 2013
M|A|R|K|E|T NEWSTRACK
Associations join hands to build FAITH ABHISHEK CHAKRABORTY - New Delhi
ooking at the growing role Indian tourism and hospitality industry can play in the growth trajectory of India, a cross-section of representatives from the top 10 national tourism industry associations joined hands to form Federation of Association in Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH), at a ceremony held at the ITC Maurya, New Delhi. With the intention to have a 'common voice' for the industry, aimed at abetting tourism whilst evaluating opportunities and addressing challenges within the industry, this is the firstof-its-kind approach by the associations to come forward and increase the number of tourists visiting India. FAITH, a non-government, not-for-profit Indian tourism and hospitality-led and managed society, aims at being a catalyst for the growth and development of the travel, tourism, hospitali-
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June 2013
ty, aviation, transport, convention, adventure and other related industries. It comprises of 10 national industry associations including, Adventure Tour Operators Association of India, Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India, Hotel Association of India, India Convention Promotion Bureau, Indian Association of Tour Operators, Indian Heritage Hotels Association, Indian Tourist Transporters Association, Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India, Travel Agents Association of India and the Travel Agents Federation of India. Speaking on the occasion, Parvez Dewan, secretary tourism, Government of India, said while there is no decline in the number of tourists coming to India, the momentum has been lost. Though the Delhi gangrape has caused trouble for the tourism industry, there is a two-three per cent rise in the number of foreign tourist arrivals in the first quarter of
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This is the firstof-its-kind approach by the associations to increase tourist arrivals 2013,he said. Welcoming the initiative, Dewan lauded the efforts of the 10 associations in conceptualising FAITH and pledged the support of the tourism ministry to the federation. Though nothing is concrete yet, he said, the government is working on few more measures like no off season, promoting the Himalayas and organising long festivals to promote tourism in India. Nakul Anand, chairman, FAITH, and president, Hotel Association of India, highlighted the potential of the
tourism industry, its challenges and the way forward. FAITH is a consolidated effort of the industry aimed towards creating awareness, particularly at the state level, on the economic imperatives of tourism. We aim to address and collectively brainstorm on the macro dynamics of the industry to ensure tourism its rightful place in India? growth story,said Anand. Aashish Gupta, consultant CEO, FAITH, presented the FAITH mandate focusing on a pro-active approach with the central and state government that would entail strategic ideation, policy inputs, government plan discussions and global branding initiatives amongst others. He also highlighted FAITH will focus on issues service tax, visa-on-arrival and skill development. Sarabjit Singh, vice-chairman, FAITH, and chairman of the Indian Tourist Transporters Association, expressed his gratitude to all the founder members.
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M|A|R|K|E|T NEWSTRACK
Veena Patil to set up new venture in July 2013 REEMA LOKESH - Mumbai
esari Tours, which is one of India’s well established family owned tour company, recently witnessed a recent management change in its leadership. Veena Patil as the managing director quit the company and is replaced by her brother Shailesh Patil. Veena Patil, has disassociated her name from the company and is gearing up to set up a new venture along with husband Sudhir Patil
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in the month of July 2013. Sunila Himanshu Patil of Strawberi Holidays has also parted ways from Kesari to join the new company. Kesari Tours is now being headed by a new management team under Shailesh Patil with Kesari Patil who continues as the chairman of the company. Shailesh Patil, MD, Kesari Tours said, “To bring in a new management change in the company was purely based on the decision of the chairman Kesari Patil. The new man-
agement will work with a mission to only further improve the efficiency of Kesari. Further, I am also aware that Veena Patil is ready to set up a new company and I feel this move will be beneficial to tourists in Maharashtra as they will have the option of dealing with another quality tour company.” Speaking on the recent turn of events, Veena Patil, in an exclusive with Express TravelWorld, mentioned, “This split is rather unfortunate, but I
feel its time to move out when I have been accused of mismanagement by my family members. For me Kesari is now my past and I am working hard to set up a strong company along with my husband and team in the travel space. I am confident to set up a new company in three years which we did over 30 years. The target is challenging, but with our goodwill we are sure to achieve it. But as a well wisher, I would like to wish the new management all success.”
Seven Sister states attract repeat travellers SUDIPTA DEV - Mumbai
arivaar India Tours has been promoting the Seven Sister states (Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura) for the last five years among French, German and Spanish clients coming to India. The company ventured into the domestic market just last year and has been getting a good response. “Domestic travel agents have been coming to us with very specific queries for these sectors. We expect tourism to
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get a great boost in these areas,” said Abhijit Chalke, director, Parivaar India Tours. Chalke pointed out that the popular states are Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Arunachal. He remarked that there are many repeat travellers as it is not possible to cover most of the highlights in a single trip. “That is why they do Assam and Meghalaya or Assam and Arunachal. We have different circuits based on the nature of the clients' visit and accordingly we suggest the itinerary,” he stated.
Mumbai and Gujarat have been the key source markets for the company's domestic clients. “Clients find it monotonous to visit Rajathan and Kerala again and again. Most travel agents send clients at least three times to the North east - first to cover Assam and Meghalaya, second Arunachal and third time Nagaland and other places. There is a lot of scope for travel agents in these states,” he said. The company does 450500 pax a year in the North East for its international clients - both groups and
Promoting tourism between Ukraine and Gujarat ping options. We have the Black Sea, mountains, beaches and many Indian iev, the capital city of Ukraine, restaurants,” stated Lishchuk. The is one of the oldest cities of best time to visit Ukraine is May to Eastern Europe. Kiev4u.com, September. Kiev4u has also been promoting a travel agency headquartered in Kiev, with an office in Ahmedabad, Gujarat as a destination in Ukraine, has been focused on promoting particularly for the winter months. tourism between Ukraine and “We have created itineraries for places Gujarat. “We are a travel company like Sasangir and Somnath. People for promoting Gujarat in Ukraine usually travel during the months of winter when the temand visa versa. We perature is -10 degrees. celebrated the first So we offer them to official Gujarati Day visit some exotic destiin Ukraine on nations in India,” she October 26, 2012,” mentioned, remembersaid Katerina ing to point out that Lishchuk, general there are a lot of culmanager, Kiev4u. tural and geographical World Tourism similarities between Organisation had Ukraine and Gujarat placed Ukraine as the for instance Kiev, the eighth largest European capital of Ukraine is destination. The main divided into two parts destinations being pro(old and new), like moted for Gujarati travAhmedabad. ellers are Kiev, Odessa The agency is also (sea port) and Lviv. engaged in cultural “We have a green exchange programmes country and it is a great between Ukraine and destination for families. Katerina Lishchuk Gujarat. There are many shopSUDIPTA DEV - Mumbai
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Abhijit Chalke
FITs. Regarding the new locations that both international and Indian travellers would like to explore and expereince in these seven states, Chalke said that for this low profile circuits could be explored. Arunachal Pradesh is the only state that needs restricted area permit. The other six states do not. “The northen frontiers of Arunachal Pradesh are low profile areas but worth exploring. Presently apart from the capital, infrasructure has not yet been developed for tourism in Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura,” he added.
Viva Voyages to organise outbound travel leadership meet ETW STAFF - Mumbai
iva Voyages, travel representation and marketing company, is to organise 'Ayanaant', an outbound travel thought leadership meet on June 21, 2013 at Gulmohar Hall, India Habitat Centre, Lodi, New Delhi. This initiative is being organised by Vikas Khanduri, managing director, Viva Voyages along with Anuj Singhal, sales and marketing manager and R Kasturika, IT executive. Ayanaant will have panel discussions on specific trade verticals and trade experts will come together to share and exchange thoughts, ideas and experiences. “”The event will provide an opportunity for convergence of senior managers and leaders of the outbound travel business in India to discuss strengths, challenges, opportunities and threats to the business in general and to shed light on the way forward. The company is expecting participation from
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about 130 delegates from top management level from outbound travel companies, cruise companies, NTOs, media houses and travel universities. The company has received participation confirmation from four travel associations TAAI, OTOAI, IAAI and ETAA, as well as two delegates from universities-Prof Manjula Chaudhary, director, Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management (IITTM), Prof S C Bagri, vice chancellor of Himgiri Zee University, Dehradun. The event will have four panel discussions- brochure panel, MICE planning panel, online initiative panel, worldwide cruise panel.“Going by the favourable response received for our upcoming event, we hope to scale Ayanaant in December to a higher level. This event would be exclusively for the decision makers and leaders in the travel industry. We are planning to disclose more about Ayanaant 2 on June 21, 2013,” said Khanduri. June 2013
M|A|R|K|E|T AVIATION
‘There are many cities in India which can sustain international services’ GM Toh, general manager India, Singapore Airlines talks about how bringing in a mix of SIA and SilkAir flights have worked well in the Indian market and why he thinks there are many tier II and tier III cities in the country that can sustain internationl flights. By Sudipta Dev How would you describe the growth story of Singapore Airlines in India ? It has been 43 years of operations for Singapore Airlines in India. We started in 1970 in Chennai and 1971 in Mumbai, and it was quite some time before we went to Delhi and Kolkata. Mumbai was in fact at a time the regional headquarters for the airline - for west Asia and Africa. The second phase of growth came when SilkAir was introduced in India, in 1999, in Trivandrum, and subsequently we added Kochi and Hyderabad. The last phase of growth took place in 2003 and after, when liberlisation of air services happened in India. In the last 10 years the Indian market has changed very rapidly. What has been your strategy for operating a mix of Singapore Airlines and SilkAir flights ? Chennai and Bengaluru had one daily Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight, we found that it was too big for the market so we brought in SilkAir. So now you see a mix of SIA and SilkAir flights. In 2011 we
started to replicate the model in Kolkata as well. In India we started bringing a mix of SIA and SilkAir to provide daily services. SilkAir became successful immediately and loadfactor of SIA also went up. We started SilkAir in Vizag last year. The last few years have seen significant increase in terms of frequency, new flights. What were the driving factors? Last year we got some additional rights for Mumbai so now Mumbai is the first Indian city to have three services in a day. Which is very good for the market as this is a business city and business travellers need the convenience of frequencies. They can go to Singapore in the morning and return to Mumbai at night the same day. We have also increased frequency in some SilkAir destinations – Coimbatore, Trivandrum, Kochi, and Hyderabad. The combined SIA and SilkAir services have gone up from 78 when I first came to 95 weekly in the 29 months that I have been here. I think we will grow further. For
instance, Vizag has done well for us which has surprised some people. I am not surprised as the city has an industrial base and has no non-stop flights to an international hub. Even when we had started Coimbatore the city was not connected to any international services hub, which Singapore provided with major connectivity to the rest of the world. There are many cities like this in India which can sustain international services. Once you have that connectivity, you can change the traffic flow. Information about the new routes that you are introducing in India. Any new tier II Indian cities where you are looking at introducing SilkAir flights in the near future ? There are some additional rights in places like Chennai, Delhi and Hyderabad, that we are interested in but we have to make a pitch for it. If we get the rights we will look at expanding in some of the places. We are also looking at places like Lucknow, Jaipur, Trichy, Patna, Amritsar, Guwahati, Varanasi and
from all over the world. SIA group share of Changi airport traffic is below 40 per cent. This is good for the hub as the government has always said that the hub is more important than the airline. Of course a strong home airline is very important for the hub but the poilicy is to make Changi very attractive for all airlines. During the global crises they gave discount to all airlines on landing fees, at one time they gave 15 per cent discount on office space. Changi is forward thinking in that way and that strenghthens the hub.
GM Toh Bhubaneswar. We are certainly looking at growing in India, in the course of this financial year we want to go past a century, from 95 weekly flights. Your focus on Changi as a hub for Indian travellers. In which sector do you foresee growth? The growth of the sectors from India will primarily be for Asia. China, India, Indonesia have big population base. Vietnam, Thailand are all growing rapidly. Because of the liberal aviation policy that we have, Changi gets carriers
How important is the India market in your plans for the future? There is no question of the potential of Indian market. The rule of thumb is that air travel grows by double the rate of GDP, so if the Indian economy grows by six per cent, and air travel by 10, that is huge. Singapore benefits from the fact that the country has a significant Indian population, almost nine per cent. There is a large base of Indian professionals working in Singapore and strong historical links between the two countries.
Ethiopian Airlines to start services to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in July 2013 ETW STAFF - Mumbai
thiopian Airlines has announced that it has finalised all the ground work to add South America, the fifth continent in its route network, with the launching of new services to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as of July 1, 2013. Ethiopian Airlines flights to Brazil will be operated through its second hub in Lomé, Togo, three times a week. The addition of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro will bring the number of its international destinations across five continents to 74. The flights will be the only connection between West Africa and Brazil. Ethiopian Airlines and its partner airline in West Africa, ASKY, will be coordinating their schedules to give short, seamless and convenient connections to West Africa passengers travelling to and from Brazil. “We are pleased to announce to our
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Air India resumed Boeing 787 Dreamliner operations in May with the first flight from Delhi to Bengaluru (top); Dinesh Keskar, president, Boeing India (right)
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customers that Ethiopian Airlines will soon spread its wings to South America. The China-India-Africa-Brazil trade lane is the fastest growing in the world. Our new Brazil flights will provide efficient connections with 28 weekly flights to four destinations in China, 14 weekly flights to the two major cities in India, daily flights to Lebanon, five weekly flights to Tel Aviv and almost daily flights to 45 cities across Africa. Our customers on this new route will also enjoy the unique cabin products and features of the global technology leader aircraft, the 787 Dreamliner.” said Tewolde Gebremariam, CEO, Ethiopian Airlines. “The start of our operations will facilitate people-to-people interactions between Brazil and the rest of the world. The various communities throughout the world with strong ties to Brazil will be able to enjoy smooth and convenient connections,” added Gebremariam. June 2013
M|A|R|K|E|T TRADE BYTES
Adventure travel gets the needed boost ABHISHEK CHAKRABORTY- New Delhi
ith an aim to tap the adventure travel market, Taj Safaris along with Ibex Expeditions and The Outdoor Journal, hosted the 'outdoor speaker series' at the Taj Palace, New Delhi. The series brought together some of the world’s top international and Indian explorers sharing their experiences and adventure.
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The speaker conclave included sessions addressed by distinguished speakers like Apoorva Prasad, climber, snowboarder, and the founder of The Outdoor Journal; Susan Hunt, Mount Everest climber, and Mandip Singh Soin, explorer, mountaineer and founder of Ibex Expeditions. Embarking on a voyage from the wilderness of the Sahara desert to the desolate landscapes of the Antarctic, from the jungles of
Borneo to the giant waves of Hawaii, the series brought together tales of courage, exploration and adventure. Expressing his thoughts on the series, Soin said, “This speaker series aims to fill the gap in the Indian minds who are discerning explorers and adventure travellers. It gives me immense pleasure to be a part of such activities and we hope to continue with our endeavour pro-
moting adventure travel in the country.” Speaking at the event, Mridula Tangirala, director-operations, Taj Safaris said, “It has been an honour to be associated with The Outdoor Journal and Ibex Expeditions Speaker Series. Continuing to cater to wildlife enthusiasts and high-end travellers with a luxury bespoke stay, Taj Safaris offers guests an ultimate interpretive wildlife experience in India.”
J&K Tourism looking at investors to Dubai to launch set up hotels and resorts in the state three-month campaign ‘Summer is Dubai’ SUDIPTA DEV – Mumbai
ith peace returning to Jammu & Kashmir and increasing interest of tourists in visiting the state, the J&K government is actively looking at attracting investments from hotel companies and other interested stakeholders for setting up hotels and resorts in key tourism locations in the state. “For hotels we do not have an investment climate internally,” acknowledged Talat Parvez, director, Jammu & Kashmir Tourism. He mentioned that they are trying to develop hotels through franchise model. “We are going ahead with PPP model also,” stated Parvez, adding that, the ITC Hotel Group is interested in setting up properties in J&K. Once demand goes up for hotels due to increase in influx of tourists, he is positive that more properties will come up. Parvez asserted that there
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Talat Parvez is a great opportunity for investors to set up hotels in the state taking into consideration the growth in tourism. Of the 12 million tourists who visited the state last year 10 million went to Katra and Vaishno Devi. The Khyber Himalayan Resort & Spa in Gulmarg has brought in an investment of `150 crore.
According to Parvez, another company is interested in investing `500 crore for a resort. The Lalit Grand Palace and Vivanta by Taj Dal View are two of the leading hotels in Srinagar. According to Parvez, tourism had contributed in bringing in `1000 crore to the state directly, and `2000 crore indirectly (for example through horticulture, etc). Almost 16 to 20 per cent of tourists who visited the state are from Gujarat. The other important states for J&K in terms of tourists are Maharashtra and West Bengal. The state has also witnessed an increase in number of tourists from overseas. “A significant number of tourists come from European countries like Italy, France and Germany,” stated Parvez, adding that, of this almost 50,000 foreign visitors came to the Kashmir Valley and 65,000 visited Ladakh last year.
A P Anil Kumar, minister for tourism and welfare of scheduled castes and backward castes, Kerala with Capt Michael Fabry, K M Chandrasekhar, vice-chairman of the Kerala State Planning Board and Suman Billa, tourism secretary, Kerala welcome Kerala's first seaplane June 2013
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ETW STAFF - Mumbai
ubai is launching 'Summer is Dubai', a three month campaign from June 7 - September 7, 2013. The objective of the campaign is to demonstrate to residents and visitors from around the world, the extensive leisure and tourism offerings of Dubai. The campaign aims to attract visitors to the emirate during an eventful three month period featuring the festivals, special occasions and celebrations that are a feature of Dubai's annual summer season including Dubai Summer Surprises and Modhesh World, and a number of other events, before the season moves into Ramadan in Dubai and finally Eid in Dubai. His Excellency Helal Saeed Almarri, director-general, Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) said, ‘Summer is Dubai’ is in line with the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE vice president and prime minister and ruler of Dubai, to position the city as the region's ultimate family tourism destination throughout the year, and especially during the summer season. The unique attractions, rich diversity and range of events and entertainment, world-class infrastructure, facilities and services, and enticing shopping offers are complemented by the attractive value for money offered by hotels and restaurants, making Dubai the ideal summer destination for visitors from around the region and the world. The campaign has the support of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed and is part of the strategic measures that are being undertaken to double visitor numbers to Dubai to 20 million by 2020.” This summer a wide range of world-class events including Dubai Sports World and the Dubai Rock Festival will provide activity and event options. Visitors and residents will also be able to take advantage of many promotions and value for money offers, for example leading hotels in Dubai will reward families who check in for a minimum three-night stay offer that gives a maximum of two children under the take age 12 the opportunity to stay at the hotel for free, including complimentary breakfast, lunch and dinner. Her Excellency Laila Mohammed Suhail, CEO, Dubai Events and Promotions Establishment (DEPE), an agency of DTCM said, “We are committed to offering events that cater to the aspirations of residents and visitors during the summer and our range of offerings will reflect the campaign line ‘Summer is Dubai’.
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M|A|R|K|E|T NEWSTRACK
WB govt's new industrial policy to focus on tourism sector Film city and entertainment park on the list of projects JOY ROY CHOUDHURY - Kolkata
he West Bengal government has announced its industrial policy to attract investment and provide incentives to new entrepreneurs. Tourism has been mentioned as a focus sector in the policy which was unveiled recently by Partha Chatterjee, commerce & industries minister, West Bengal. The policy envisages to promote private sector investment in greenfield projects, brownfield projects and through Public-PrivatePartnership (PPP) projects. Under the new draft industrial policy, the government will provide exemption on stamp duty, employment generation subsidy, waiver of
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land conversion fee, tax holiday on VAT returns, etc, to new projects coming up in the state. The government will soon publish a document on the new industry policy. The government is also looking to develop five mega tourism projects and intends to attract investments worth `3,560 crore through the PPP route. “We have also incorporated in our draft policy the issues of land allocation and several incentive schemes which we will be offering to entrepreneurs who will invest in our state for the purpose of setting up their units. The state government was open to suggestions from various chambers and industries and we will incorporate those, if found practical, in
the final industry policy,” said Chatterjee. Mamata Banerjeee, chief minister, West Bengal also reiterated her government's commitment to develop infrastructure and promote tourism. “We will promote tourism in such a manner that Darjeeling, Terai and Dooars function as a tourism circuit. The new tourism spots will be developed at Rohini, Jorebunglow, Tukdah and Deolo in Darjeeling. A 'film city' at Siliguri in the Terai and an 'entertainment park' at Banarhat in Dooars is also on the list of upcoming projects.The chief minister also inaugurated the renovated Tashiding Tourist Lodge in Kalimpong owned by the West Bengal Tourism
D e v e l o p m e n t Corporation(WBTDC). Meanwhile, the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) recently formed a tourism co-ordination committee comprising government departments and representatives of private tourism stakeholders to run the sector in an organised manner in the hills. Bimal Gurung, chief executive, GTA, informed that the administration has members that include officials from the forest department, regional transport authority, chairpersons of Darjeeling, Kurseong, Kalimpong and Mirik municipalities, and representatives of hotel owners, transport and tour operators and tea industry from different parts of the hills.
Africa turns focus on India's travel market KAHINI CHAKRABORTY - Durban
ecognising India as an emerging and potential market, African countries namely Namibia, Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique have shown keen interest in attracting travellers from India. Apart from these, destinations like Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe have already established their presence in the market. Even though the major source markets for these Southern African Development Community
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(SADC) countries are Europe, US, Germany, these destinations are now looking at having India too on the top lists of their source markets. Speaking to Express TravelWorld, Victor Inambwae, general manager, Tourism Council of Zambia said, “Our culture is our unique selling point. We have almost 74 tribes and organise tribal festivals on a monthly basis. Zambia is the only country which has never had any political turmoil and it is this peace-
ful nature of the country which attracts many visitors. Indians are the second largest race in the country and we acknowledge that we have not been aggressively marketing the destination in the Indian market. Although our source markets have been the US, Canada, Europe markets, we are now looking at aggressively promoting ourselves in India. These promotions would be through joint collaborations with the tourism board. With our promotion-
al strategies we aim to attract 1.5 million tourists by 2015.” Nicolae Tambrescu, manager-regional, domestic operations and marketing, Namibia Tourism Board also boasted of the destination's cultural diversity- tribes, heritage, forts, castles, etc. He added, “Namibia is an adventure destination. We do have had a few Indians visiting the country, but our source markets comprise of Europe, Germany, Italy and Portugal. We see India as one of the major source
markets in the future and we are looking at reaching out to the market through organising trade programmes to promote Namibia. We aim to attract 1.5 million tourists in the coming years. We would continue positioning our destination as a boutique destination with virgin nature.” The other SADC countries include Swaziland, Lesotho, Angola, Malawi, Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar and Reunion.
MakeMyTrip touches one million app downloads, becomes first-of-its-kind in India ABHISHEK CHAKRABORTY - New Delhi
akeMyTrip has reached one million app downloads across mobile platforms — Android, iPhone and Blackberry. In May 2012, the company became the first Indian online travel agency to launch an iPhone app. It launched an app for Android platform in June 2012, while the Blackberry app was launched in 2011.
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Talking about this achievement and growing use of mobile internet, Amit Somani, chief products officer, MakeMyTrip said, “MakeMyTrip is committed towards making the travelbuying and post-purchase experience seamless and convenient for the customer. With greater smartphone uptake and more people accessing the internet on mobile, we identified an opportunity to fulfill traveller needs on the mobile platform.” www.expresstravelworld.com
The company also launched last-minute hotel deals where customers can access deep discounts (at least 30 per cent) on sameday hotel booking. The MakeMyTrip app downloads are showing robust growth on Android and iPhone, with the Android platform making up the majority (45 per cent) of the one million downloads to date. Android app users also lead on the daily search and booking trends (28 per cent
and 30 per cent respectively). Somani added, “We strongly believe that the future of e-commerce and travel buying experience is on the ‘mobile’ and we will continue to build products with a mobile-first approach to provide features that give ‘real’ value and benefit to the customer, uniquely on the mobile platform. We are delighted to have one million customers experience the convenience of MakeMyTrip on their mobile.” June 2013
M|A|R|K|E|T OUTBOUND
Singapore continues reinventing the destination To focus on sports events, Gardens by the Bay, River Safari SAYONI BHADURI - Mumbai
onstant reinvention has been core at Singapore's success as a destination. Continuing with this trend Singapore is now looking at luring Indian travellers to the city state through sports events. Chang Chee Pey, executive director, South Asia, Middle East and Africa, Singapore Tourism Board (STB) elaborated, “WTA Championships will be held in Singapore from 2014 to 2018 making it a potential to draw tourists. We also have races at the Turf Club and even the F1. We once had a cricket match in Singapore as well and would love to have one again; it will be a definite draw for Indians.” Singapore recently opened Gardens by the Bay which is part of Marina Bay. It has the best international standards and applies cutting-edge innovations in environmentally-friendly technology and sustainable natural resource management. Wildlife Reserves Singapore has also introduced River Safari, a riverthemed wildlife park. Chee Pey added, “Singapore understands the need to constantly evolve and develop the tourism landscape, offering an ever changing slew of experiences to Indian travellers. Visitor preferences and travel habits are changing. We believe that the experiences offered in Singapore will continue to resonate strongly with the Indian travellers
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and draw them for repeated trips to Singapore.” To cater to this clientele they have initiated a new campaign 'Singapore - The Holiday You Take Home With You' and have tied up with two new travel companies - Yatra.com and Travel Tours - in India for joint pro-
Chang Chee Pey
motions. They will continue with the previous joint promotions association with Thomas Cook, Kuoni, Mercury Travels and MakeMyTrip. Chee Pey informed that they have seen a renewed interest in Singapore post these promotional activities. “With the
increase in costs, travellers are back to opting for short haul destinations. Singapore sees 70-75 per cent repeat travellers and even though India is a mature market for Singapore we see 60-65 per cent first time leisure travellers,” he added. G B Srithar, area director,
South Asia, marketing, STB said that Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi and Bengaluru still remain to be the key source markets from India. There has been activity coming in from cities like Kolkata, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Coimbatore, Trivandrum and Chandigarh. Beyond the current summer season, Singapore Tourism Board is preparing to promote the destination as a winter destination as well as tapping the Diwali holidays. Chee Pey discussed that five years ago Singapore Tourism Board promoted the destination as a weekend destination with a focus on south India – Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kochi – with Unique Singapore Weekend. They are considering revisiting this programme again with better connectivity to from south India into Singapore.
Sri Lanka expects 4,00,000 Indians by 2016 To open India office in 2013; opens 2nd international airport SAYONI BHADURI - Mumbai
ri Lanka's faith in India as a source market for their tourism industry is strong. Bhashwara Senanka Gunarathna, chairman, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) and Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) informed that they are expecting 4,00,000 Indians travelling to Sri Lanka by 2016. “In 2012 we saw 1,76,340 Indians coming to Sri Lanka, in 2013 this figure rose to 2,00,000,” he added.
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This is part of the tourism strategy that Sri Lanka devised in 2011 informed Rumy Jauffer, MD, SLTPB. To achieve this number SLTDA and SLTPB conducted three-day promotional campaigns, 'Get Sri Lankaned', in Bengaluru and Mumbai. “We are looking to promote Sri Lanka in cities of Pune, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Kochi,” added Jauffer. Gunarathna also said, “We are looking at opening a tourism office in India in 2013.” The office
will be based either in Mumbai or Bengaluru. Sri Lanka has also opened doors to their second international airport – Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport at Hambantota. Jauffer informed that the aviation departments of the two nations are in talks to increase flights from and to India from Hambantota. Upekkha Samaratunga, consul general, Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Mumbai said, “The GDP of Sri Lanka in 2012 was seven www.expresstravelworld.com
Sanath Jaysuriya along with Ajantha Mendis and Angelo Mathews at Sri Lankan night organised by Sri Lanka Tourism in Mumbai
per cent and the per capita income US$ 280. We saw saw 8.9 per cent reduction in poverty. By 2016 we aim to bring down inflation by four per cent and grow travel
remittances to US$ seven billion.” She added that India is Sri Lanka's largest trade partner both as a source in investment and source for tourism. EXPRESS TRAVELWORLD
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CTC focuses on MICE with Business Events Canada STEENA JOY – Mumbai
anada is giving a new focus to the MICE segment especially in cities like Mumbai and Delhi. This is in line with the recent push that the segment received with the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) setting up a separate unit to take it forward called the Business Events Canada (BEC). The unit reflects the continuing importance of the meetings industry to Canada’s economy as well as the crucial role that meetings play in bolstering Canada’s international business. Foreign Affairs and
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International Trade Canada (DFAIT) has lined up seven priority sectors where the country holds a competitive advantage around which BEC will create a targeted sales focus: aerospace, agriculture and food, clean technology, infrastructure/engineering, information/communication technology, life sciences and natural resources. This year, CTC’s BEC unit will focus on the seven sectors to better understand the industries with the aim of creating new targeted partnerships in 2014. Tina Singh, assistant vice president, CTC, representative in India, said, “More and more
Tina Singh corporates are now looking out for new destinations as
incentives for their employees. Canada being on top of this list is attracting a number of incentive groups. The destination has a number of attractions and a lot to be experienced by the business traveller. A fast growing middle class with high disposable incomes and the propensity to spend, Indians are now looking for more striking, exotic and exciting destinations for incentive travel. In the recent past Canada has gained popularity for MICE, there is a demand and the number of queries are fast growing. This year we expect this to grow even further.”
Philippines aims to attract 66,000 Indian travellers this year KAHINI CHAKRABORTY - Mumbai
he department of tourism, Philippines is working towards positioning Philippines as the preferred travel destination in the Indian market. Recognising India as an important market, the department is extending its offerings for the leisure, MICE, families and honeymooners segments. After receiving 46,000 Indian travellers to the destination in 2012, the NTO is now targeting to attract 66,000 Indians this year,
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which is an approximately 40 per cent increase. Benito C Bengzon, JR, assistant secretary, international tourism promotions, department of tourism, Philippines informed Express TravelWorld, “With an aim to capture a larger market share, we have extended our presence in Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru. Following this, we believe that it is imperative to constantly keep upgrading the frontline staff through continuous training on various products that Philippines has to offer to the Indian
market. Apart from leisure, we have been getting increasing number of MICE groups and hence we on our part also have been increasing our MICE facilities to cater to this segment.” With Korea, UK, Japan, China and Australia being its major source markets, the department is confident of the India market to also take the top position. “As we are relatively new in the market, we will be looking at conducting roadshows in Hyderabad and Ahmedabad this year, as well as continue to par-
ticipate in major trade show events, conduct sales mission and organise FAM trips. We are also hoping to see an increase in incentive travel. We are targeting the Bollywood segment as we are aware of its importance in the Indian market,” he added.Currently the airline has three direct flights from New Delhi to Manila and other three flights via Bangkok. However, the airline is hoping that Indigo and Jet Airways would consider deploying direct flights to Manila from their sectors in India.
ENIT reopens its office in Mumbai ETW STAFF - Mumbai
he new office of ENIT was inaugurated by Daniele Mancini, the ambassador of Italy to India in Mumbai, India. Also present were Dr Giampaolo Cutillo, consul general of Italy in Mumbai; Dr Amedeo Scarpa, director of Italian Trade Commission, New Delhi; Dr Augusto di Giacinto, director Italian Trade Commission, Mumbai; Dr Giorgio Imparato, visa officer Mumbai and
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Simonetta Bartolomei, commercial attache from the Consulate General of Italy, Mumbai, and Murali Raghavan, COO, South Asia and CIS from VFS Global. Speaking on the occasion, the ambassador said: “Undoubtedly, India today is an emerging and high potential tourism market and numbers from India are only set to increase in the years to come. The growing middle class of the country certainly multiplies this potential. Since its first presence in
Mumbai, way back in 2001, ENIT has been instrumental in promoting Italy among the Indian tourists. In 2001, the number of Indian tourists visiting Italy stood at 69,000, which a decade later substantially increased to 2, 50,000. Therefore, tourism is a very important part of bilateral relations of Italy and India, and with the kind support of the Italian Ministry and VFS Global, ENIT once again looks forward to wooing Indian tourists and promoting Italy in the region.” www.expresstravelworld.com
Salvatore Ianniello, representative ENIT in India stated, “Looking back at all that has been achieved by ENIT, we are looking forward to restrengthening our past collaborations and looking for different ways in reaching out to people and adding value to our existing services and assistance. In this regard, you will soon find us on various social media domains such as Facebook, Twitter and shortly, a dedicated website for the Indian market will also be launched.”
Murali Raghavan, COO, South Asia and CIS, VFS Global said, “We feel proud to be associated with ENIT, and it is our privilege to assist them setup their India operations. In fact, in the spirit of our long standing partnership with the government of Italy, VFS Global has assisted ENIT with its office space and marketing and PR support. The opening of this new office is a promising beginning to attract more tourists and serve the potential Indian market.” June 2013
M|A|R|K|E|T HOTEL TALK
‘Continued business relations are about passing on values of sustainability’ In a tete-a-tete Shriji Arvind Singh Mewar of Udaipur, chairman and MD of HRH Group of Hotels speaks about long lasting business relationships and future for heritage hotels in India. By Sayoni Bhaduri How has business for HRH Group of Hotels shaped up in the last couple of years? Two things have affected business, the downturn and consolidation. Now we are looking at newer ways of attracting business. We are also looking at adding more rooms through our hotels in smaller destinations. How has the misinterpretation of heritage hotels negatively affected business? There is sanctity of a brand, a palace or a fort which people don't understand. It is important to know that every palace cannot become a hotel. The government should intervene and see that the customer is not misguided. They are the only ones with the ability to enforce rules.
Gujarat have great potential for heritage hotels. After all they do fall in the same belt with a similar essence.
Arvind Singh Mewar
What potential do you see in other states for heritage hotels? The states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and
Your association with the Taj is four decades long. What is the secret behind the success? We have been with the Taj group for 42 years since 1971. It has been a pioneering example which has run through three generations. One of the biggest things we have realised is that for such a relationship there has to be sustainability. Continued business relations are about passing on values of sustainability. Its very similar to a husband and wife; the relationship is all about give and take. How does a hotel and destination have a symbiotic relationship? We couldn't promote
Udaipur as a destination earlier. When Taj came in they promoted the Lake Palace bringing in the tourists. Unfortunately, people recognised Lake Palace much more than the city of Udaipur itself. Then we invited The Oberoi and The Leela group and in effect Udaipur took precedence as a destination. What has made Udaipur a successful destination? We are trying to promote Udaipur as a 'living heritage'. If you take away heritage from a place the destination dies with it. In Udaipur each and every resident is a stakeholder. My family may have been the pivot but as a leader we need to be able to be relate to that heritage and the stakeholders too need to do so.
Taj Group keen to expand in African market KAHINI CHAKRABORTY Durban
he Indian luxury brand Taj Group is keen on expanding its footprint in the African market. This decision has been taken as the Taj Cape Town has been well received in the market. Talking on the sidelines of the recently concluded
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Indaba 2013, Michael Pownall, general manager, Taj Cape Town informed that the group is considering expansion where the parent company Tata Group has business interests, which include Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique and many more. The company already has a property in Zambia. “The expansion will be
mainly through management contracts and the company is hoping to add more properties by yearend. The expansion decision has been taken after the Taj Cape Town brand has been well received in the market as the primary agenda was to first make the Cape Town property stable and successful and then look at expansion,” he
Michael Pownall said. Asked as to which brand would be suitable for the expansion, Pownall opined that the Vivanta by Taj would be appropriate for the market instead of the luxury Taj Hotels. Elaborating on the challenges that the property had to witness post its launch, Pownall said, “Taj Cape Town, which opened in March 2010 before the Soccer World Cup, initially witnessed a difficult period. June 2013
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Although the World Cup helped us, considering we were new and many hotels opened during the same period there was an oversupply of hotel rooms in the market. However, 2012 was a good year for the destination and the hotel industry as occupancies increased from 40 per cent to 61 per cent. Majority of the guests are South Africans followed by those from the US, India (18 per cent), UK and Germany.” Pownall is working towards creating awareness about the hotel and has witnessed an increase in arrivals as a result. “We believe that we have to constantly keep living up to the high benchmark standards set by the group. We would like to see the volumes of leisure travellers increasing to our hotel. And India will become the third or fourth biggest source market for Africa in the coming years. According to me, there are chances of more growth from regional leisure and business travellers,” he added. EXPRESS TRAVELWORLD
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M|A|R|K|E|T INTERVIEWS
‘We have invested in developing a platform that brings together mobile and social media’ Vishwanath Alluri, founder and executive chairman, IMImobile talks about the trends and increasing influence of mobile technology for travel planning. By Kahini Chakraborty What are some of the latest trends seen in the travel/ hotel search patterns in India? More than search, it is important to understand discovery in the travel space. Earlier, word-of-mouth and referrals by friends and family were the biggest sources of discovery. This has now naturally moved to social media and mobile. What are the types of mobile applications that are used for travel planning? Mostly search and discovery based mobile applications are used for travel planning mainly for exploring points of interest, planning, getting rates, etc. Except for air tickets, bookings for most of the part still happens offline.
What technology is the company investing in to provide travel and restaurant information? We have invested in developing a platform that brings together mobile and social media capabilities. The platform itself is hosted in the cloud. It allows mobile and social solutions to be setup and delivered as a service. There is no upfront CAPEX thus bringing down the barriers to adoption. Even small companies and sole proprietorship have the same level of access to technologies, with simplified ease of use and access, as the large enterprises. Consolidation of services has been the trend in the travel
industry. Comments? Mobile and social media allows direct customer relationships to be cultivated for both initial acquisition and ongoing engagement. Transactions may still happen through intermediaries, but mobile and social media make it possible to foster direct customer relationships. What are the company's future business expansion plans? Are there new products in the pipeline? We will continue to invest in our platform IMImobile OPENHOUSE. We plan to bring highly targeted vertical applications for multiple industry verticals including travel, powered by OPENHOUSE. We use GPS,
Cell ID based location identification technologies. We also use publicly available open databases of points of interest. How do you differentiate the company's offering with other players in the market? We have a unified platform approach to customer acquisition and engagement. We have a multichannel and cross-channel strategy blending mobile and social capabilities. Furthermore, we have a cloud-based delivery model with OPEX pricing. This is in contrast to the 'point product' fragmented approach currently prevalent in the industry.
‘Reconstitute APJC-India with nine member from airlines and nine from agents with equitable representation’ With commissions and transaction fees becoming a long standing bane for the Indian travel industry. Biji Eapen, president, IATA Agents Association of India (IAAI) talks about issues which need to be resolved on fast track mode. By Kahini Chakraborty Supreme Court verdict on transaction fees and commissions is not being implemented. What is IAAI's approach to sort this issue? IAAI is trying to enforce implementation of agency commission as a statutory right under the Indian Aircraft Act of 1934 and Rules 1937 with the uppermost Indian Regulatory Authority and Court of Law. We are focusing on the DGCA order dated March 5, 2010 and December 17, 2012, Supreme Court order dated January 23, 2013, Writ Petition WP(C)No 275/2013 pending at Kerala High Court and the Appeal Petition with Secretary, ministry of civil aviation (MoCA) under Rule 3B of Aircraft Act of India filed by Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA). As the situation with the secretary of MoCA is unpredictable, IAAI had filed an appeal in February and FIA had filed their rejoinder on April 17, 2012. Meanwhile, MoCA has
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unbundled the airline services by airlines to charge on baggage, preferred seat reservation, food, etc. It may be a silent move to counter our commission issue but it is interesting to note that transportation of passenger baggage, like the agents commission is a statutory right for a travelling passenger and its transportation charges are already included in the fare as defined in the Aircraft Rules 1937. Hence, we don’t find any hurdles for implementing commission. IAAI directly and through our legal counsel, had approached secretary of MoCA for an earliest hearing. What are the measures needed to educate agents on APJC? What are the issues and way forward? Majority of agents still believe that Agency Promotion Joint Council (APJC) is only a dummy body whereas, it is responsible for the formulation of Agency Sales Programmes
Biji Eapen in each country. The need of the hour is to educate the agents and leaders on APJC, its scope, authority, functioning and terms on anti-trust law. Agents must be familiarised with IATA Res 810i, 818g, 800f, 800x, 820e, 824,832,850m and 878 enable them to conduct self-assessment and evaluation on the accountability and legality on the implementation of zero commiswww.expresstravelworld.com
sion and transaction fee, procedural failures in application on financial guarantee systems, ADMs, TAP including the impending weekly payments. It should be an eye opener for agents to review their miseries, realise the realities. Accordingly let them suggest remedial requirements and allow the APJC-India to be responsible to reverse the 'weekly payment' back to fortnightly or even monthly, since the authority of altering or reversal on frequency of remittance period is wholly vested within APJC under the ambit of IATA Res 818g limited to 800x. Apart from the commission issue, what are the other critical issues affecting the industry? Agents community is controlled by certain vested interests. Many agents are still ignorant on travel agents handbook. Hence, many a times, IATA rules and regulations are misin-
terpreted to suit the situation. Ordinary agents are getting carried away with foreign conventions, FAM trips and five-star parties. Please highlight some of the important IATA resolutions which travel agents need to be apprised of before they approach the government on issues affecting the industry? Since all these issues – transaction fee, TAP (airlines authority to appoint their agents) ADMs, stringent financial guarantee including weekly payment are not the concern of one airline alone but the concern the whole industry, it will be easier to achieve these objectives only through a strong, selfwilled APJC-India Group, which has to be expanded to 18 as warranted in 818g. Hence, reconstitute APJCIndia with nine members from airlines and nine from agents with equitable representation of TAAI, TAFI and IAAI so that we can all speak in one voice. June 2013
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INSIGHT INTO THE TRAVEL MARKET
COVER STORY
Heritage hotels: Repositioning luxury Among India's biggest tourism draws are the many heritage properties that have been painstakingly restored to former glory. While international hospitality majors are introducing their luxury brands in the country, these heritage hotels continue to redefine the concept of luxury, making it exclusive yet affordable for the new age traveller. By Sudipta Dev
Woodville Palace, Shimla
rich architectural legacy is India's greatest tourism asset and the many heritage hotels across the country are destinations in themselves. From a 14th century fort in Rajasthan to manor house near the Himalayas to a plantation villa in Kerala – these properties are as varied as the men who have had the vision and passion to convert each into hospitality ventures. At a time when international brands are introducing flagship luxury brands in the country, these centuries old properties continue to redefine the concept of luxury for the new age traveller. "There is absolutely no doubt that old is gold and keeps getting dearer! India’s heritage hotels are unique, and they don’t have all too be
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extravagant and expressive," says Aman Nath, co-founder and co-chairman, Neemrana Hotels. He points out that the Neemrana experience is very rooted and real, “We have no pretensions to being what we are not, we call them Neemrana 'nonhotel' Hotels, as none of the buildings you wake up in with us were built to be hotels. We have remodeled them to this purpose, keeping all the oddities and idiosyncrasies which make each heritage property unique." The group properties include grander palaces like Morvi in Gujarat, Baradari in Patiala and the garden palaces of Tijara and The Pataudi Palace. Common hospitality practices like room service or television in individual rooms are usually avoided except in city hotels where business travellers
Aman Nath
Francis Wacziarg
Joerg Drechsel
come. Similarly, stereotypical receptions of guests (with tilak and a garland) are shunned. The 12-tiered Neemrana Fort-Palace in Alwar is built over six acres.
Guests can discover the environs on foot or by camel cart, riding to the nearby villages. Neemrana's hill-fort and 18th century step-well both lie at 500 metres. They can trek up
or walk the sand dunes to descend nine storeys below the ground. This famine-relief project was once used as a caravanserai by tired travellers. “Such authenticity and
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Umed Bhawan Palace, Kota
involvement of local heritage and warmth of hospitality is missing in newly created star rated hotels which offer different advantages. Heritage hotels will always be more charismatic against them,” asserts Aman Nath. Heritage hotels is part of the responsible tourism movement, which is based on sustainability, ecology and social responsibility. As the joint secretary of the Indian Heritage Hotels Association, Joerg Drechsel, creative director, Malabar Escapes is actively involved in the heritage hotels movement. He believes that sustainability comes naturally with heritage hotels as an existing building is given a new lease of life. Further, social responsibility means training and employing local people, which most of the heritage hoteliers do. “Ecology is difficult at times in an old building but with some sensible compromises you can achieve a lot. Malabar House has been the first hotel in India to be certified by Green Globe in 2003,” states Drechsel, adding that, while the overheads of running a heritage property are higher than running a hotel, which has been build for the purpose, however, what a heritage hotel offers its guest is a unique experience, a value that should compensate for the cost. A frontrunner in India's heritage hotel business is WelcomHeritage with 40 hotels across 37 locations in 13 states. Based on the history, size and age of the building these hotels have been categorised into three sub –brands namely, Legends Hotels, Heritage Hotels and Nature Resorts. “Our hotels reflect an elegance of style and artistry which takes our
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guest for a visit to the bygone era of the Indian history. Most often our heritage hotels are sited conveniently in stunningly scenic locations which make it a unique experience to remember. Hence, these are class apart from the modern hotels,” states Sunil Sikka, head - marketing and business development, WelcomHeritage. HRH Group offers regal experiences in island-palaces, museums, galleries, car collections and luxury heritage hotels across Rajasthan. While Shiv Niwas Palace and FatehPrakash Palace in Udaipur and Gajner Palace, Gajner are classified Grand Heritage Palaces, the group also offers its guests Royal Retreats – properties that provide the heritage experience at lower rates. e.g Shikarbadi Hotel and Garden Hotel in Udaipur, The Aodhi in Kumbhalgarh, Gorbandh Palace in Jaisalmer and others. "Tourists these days, be they foreign or domestic, want to experience something special, to witness local distinctiveness, and connect with a historical past that standardised five-star hotels cannot offer. All hotels and resorts under the HRH Group have this. These were all at some point palaces and private residences of a royal family. No established luxury brand can ever create this from a new build, where every wall, every door, every stone has a story. Heritage hotels allow guests a chance to relive history and understand our evolution, be it cultural, socio-economic or political,” mentions Kunal Singh Chawra, general manager – sales, HRH Group of Hotels. The Taj Group has four Grand Palaces under its luxu-
ry brand, namely Taj Lake Palace – Udaipur, Rambagh Palace – Jaipur, Taj Falaknuma Palace – Hyderabad and Umaid Bhavan Palace, Jodhpur. “These heritage properties provide world class facilities, a sense of the rich history of India and a true taste of culture. Luxury when it comes to heritage hotels is in the painstaking details which completely reconstruct the experience,” states Deepa Harris, senior VP-Sales and Marketing, Taj Group of Hotels.
Unique experiences The range of heritage hotels in India is uniquely diversified. The properties offer experiences that reflect the distinctive cultural milieu of the region. It is the quintessential experiences that each heritage property offers that is the greatest draw for the guest. "The joy of old walls,
of history’s story told from so close – compensate for some of the inconveniences of multi levels, stairways, distances," states Francis Wacziarg, co-founder and cochairman, Neemrana Hotels. He points out that Neemrana tries, with whatever minimal intervention possible, to make the 14th,15th,16th – or later centuries inhabitable. Older buildings were lived-in more spaciously, but with much lesser amenities. WelcomHeritage focuses on the concept of ensuring a great holiday for its guests. According to Sikka guest will find an atmospheric, boutique experience, far removed from standardised resemblances - accommodation that combines a slice of heritage with modern amenities, an amalgamation of the local flavour in cuisine, the craft and the cultural vignettes. With hotels that range from a lodge in a wildlife forest reserve to a palace or haveli – each property has a secret to share, a story to tell. Malabar Escapes offers a circuit of travel experiences that allow travellers to discover the variety of Kerala with the least possible road travel. “In fact most of our guests stay in more than one of our properties. We are therefore always looking at new experience to add to the portfolio. We believe that the essence lies in the multi-layer of experiences that we offer to our guests. Culture, heritage, design, people, culinary, spa, yoga,” states Drechsel. The target clientele is both domestic and international traveller – mostly from Europe with growing market from USA, Australia, Africa and Asia. Malabar Escapes is
popular with FIT as well as small selected groups for culinary, yoga or cultural travel. There has been a growing request for family travel experiences as well. One of the unique services of The Taj Grand Palaces is the ‘Historical Walk’. Harris explains that these have been designed to recreate palace life as it had been in the yesteryears and to give a sneak peak into the bygone eras of princes and Maharajas; the walk leads guests through the whims of princes, the romance of princesses and the impeccable pride and craft of royal artisans. “Palace butlers keep listeners enthralled with insights into the history of the palace and anecdotes of yesteryear’s maharajas,” she adds. The ‘Champagne Palace Walk’ at The Taj Falaknuma Palace starts at the hour of sunset but ends in an altogether different time in history. “The palace historian recounts astonishing legends and myths about a dynasty mired in romance and mystery, set in the fitting milieu of palaces, wealth and women,” reveals Harris. At Taj Lake Palace – Udaipur, the highlights include cultural show at Jhankar courtyard and the divine culinary offerings ‘Shahi Dastarkhan’ with Sufi instrumental music, traditional dance performances and extravagant fireworks in the background. HRH Group believes in continuing with the traditions of the royal past yet making them contemporary and relevant for a global audience. An example of this can be seen in the transformation of Fateh Prakash Palace into the Fateh Prakash Palace Convention
Fateh Bagh Palace, Ranakpur
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Neemrana Fort Palace, Rajasthan
Centre in 2011. “During this transformation, we were very conscious of seamlessly blending the old with the new - whether it was the soft furnishings or the modern conference facilities, it had to retain the character of the past, while offering worldclass amenities that conference delegates are comfortable with,” states Chawra.
Redefining luxury Luxury, in its true sense, connotes different things to different people, but for every new age traveller a heritage property relives the grandoise of the past combined with modern essence of refined luxury. It is this charisma of the ambience, the local connectedness, the distinctive sensibilities that makes each heritage property iconic in its experiences. “The Grand Palaces of The Taj Group of hotels have welcomed dignitaries, iconic celebrities and illustrious guests from all over the world. In these extraordinary palaces, Taj has reinvented bespoke hospitality and redefined the luxury travel experience,” states Harris, pointing out that these palaces are now considered the most coveted and glamorous addresses for celebrity events and weddings. Heritage hotels offer the perfect blend of the old and the new, the past and the present, the ancient and the modern. Luxury at these hotels comes from the fusion of traditional and contemporary. “At HRH properties you will find maintained gardens, beautiful Indian architecture, and marbled swimming pools, along with full spa services. Huge air-conditioned suites are embellished with rich designs, stylish carpets and hand-painted wall elements. Allowing guests the luxury of living like royals is key to combining this experience with all the modern June 2013
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Deepa Misra Harris
Kunal Singh Chawra
facilities that travellers today expect," says Chawra. Interestingly, the Neemrana 'non-hotel' Hotel brand of hospitality hinges on providing real experiences. "With 700 million poor in India, luxury does not need to go on evolving and outdoing itself to more socially obnoxious standards. A discreet style is understood by the discerning - and that is what we try for. Not opulence, glitter, bling and crystal," states Aman Nath. The company has worked concertedly towards creating another niche whereby the experiencing of history and its architectural treasures has now become a part of the Indian tourism repertoire. “Others ‘not of the manor born’ can join the process. That too from ruins – turning India's waste into its assets. It is for this ‘experiential authenticity' that the Neemrana ‘non-hotel' Hotels have now come to be known,” adds Wacziarg. Sikka acknowledges that heritage hotels provide experiences which are exclusive while being affordable thus provide extra value to its guests. “Needless to say, we try to focus on local cuisines of each area, apart from that each hotel room is well
equipped with modern amenities including bathrooms and air conditioning,” he adds. The staff members are also continuously trained so as to enhance the service level and hence effective service is delivered to the guest. The effort is to make the stay a memorable experience for guests.
The marketing strategy of Welcomheritage is to focus on 'unique experience' holiday packages with attractive inclusions and highlights of the destination. The travellers are aware that that while planning their vacation they are upgrading their travel for a richer experience in a cultural and heritage environment. “Each WelcomHeritage Hotel has the blueprint of a great holiday all laid out for the travellers,” states Sikka. Word-of-mouth publicity has worked well for the 29 properties of Neemrana. The internet and social media platform have also been leveraged well to create a forum for existing and potential guests. With benchmarks for heritage hotels constantly changing and being raised higher, the contribution of heritage tourism is expected to increase in the not so distant future. It is also important for the government to understand the huge assets these properties have come to represent. Besides tourism, the greatest contribution of the heritage hoteliers is their focused efforts of having salvaged from virtual ruins a segment of India's architectural legacy and restoring these to former glory.
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Marketing with a difference Marketing a heritage property is not the same as any other hotel, but many steps beyond. It is important for the target audience to feel a strong sense of curiosity and connection with the property. “At one level, marketing strategies are fairly generic, but the key to promoting and marketing heritage hotels is to highlight the 'sense of belonging' that we can offer to a traveller. When we are marketing HRH palace-hotels for conferences or regal weddings, we are marketing this equation of 'connecting' with our heritage. The experience that they will take away will remain in them for longer. We want our heritage to become a part of your life; as a guest when you walk into our properties,” asserts Chawra.
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An African arena INDABA 2013 presented the travel fraternity more reasons to visit not just South Africa but the African continent. On offer were new niche products as well as the traditional favourites. By Kahini Chakraborty
ith a clear agenda to enter new markets and foster new business relationships, South Africa has successfully emerged as one of the most sought-after destinations offering a wide array of unique experiences to travellers. Recording a growth of 9.2 million last year which was a 10.2 per cent increase in overall international tourist arrivals, South African Tourism (SAT) is all set to roll out a global hub strategy to further promote the destination's offerings in the coming year. This year's INDABA, held from May 11-14 at Durban International Convention Centre, was organised with the theme 'Shaping our future together' underpinned by the message of 'heritage and culture'. The official opening witnessed the presence of leaders from the provincial governments. The trade fair was spread across approximately 26,000 square metres space which witnessed successful business meetings with over 1,386 exhibitors and 1,464 international buyers. Around 3,000 formal meetings were scheduled between buyers and suppliers and a total of over 10,000 delegates attended the four-day event. This year, SAT hosted 15 established travel agents from India who have been aggressively selling the destination. Marthinus van Schalkwyk, tourism minister, South Africa dwelt on new tourism ventures of the nation. He said, “We have indeed worked very hard to sustain this growth and encourage potential travellers to visit the country through our various branding and marketing initiatives. The launch of South African National Convention Bureau has
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given a boost to our global competitiveness in pursuing our target of R 6.2 billion in direct spend via business events in the next five years. With an aim to further boost the country's growth, we have identified core potential investment markets across regional Africa, Americas, Asia and Australasia and Europe.” The 13 Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries that participated at INDABA this year included: Zambia, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Lesotho, Angola, Botswana, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar, Reunion, as well as Kenya, contributing a total of 426 exhibitors. Countries like Zambia, Namibia and Botswana have also shown interest in India as a source market.
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Thulani Nzima, chief executive officer, SAT commented, “INDABA has grown by leaps and bounds. We have to continue improving our product offerings in this competitive market. This year exhibitors have invested considerably in setting up their stalls. We have seen a good increase in the number of international buyers as well. We are working closely with Durban Tourism and Tourism Kwazulu-Natal and are confident that there have been successful meetings between buyers and exhibitors which would lead to revenue generation through tourism for the country aiding in its long term growth strategy.” Both the South African government and SAT are looking at making INDABA the platform for exhibitors and buyers, June 2013
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not only in and from South Africa, but also for the whole of the African continent. “To achieve this we are willing to invest even more to transform the event into a pan-African trade platform. Hence we will be increasing the African participation at INDABA next year. This will ensure more number of exhibitors and buyers. SAT will do more work to generate firm proposals,” explained van Schalkwyk
Heritage and culture take centrestage The highlight of INDABA 2013 was the 'Heritage and Culture Pavilion' set up at the adjoining venue, Durban Exhibition Centre, to edu-
Buyers speak Subhash Motwani, Compact Travels INDABA has always served as a good opportunity to increase our knowledge about more niche products which the country has to offer. The trend among Indian travellers is that they are now more interested in hard adventure activities. What is great about South Africa is that it is a year-round destination with many tourism products to offer to all segments of travellers. Hardik Mehta, Comfort Holidays We have had fruitful meetings at INDABA and the event has served as a good platform to promote new niche tourism offerings to travel agents. This helps us increase our offerings in the packages that we sell as well.
Since we get a lot of Indians who want to travel to South Africa, INDABA has helped us a lot. John Paulose, Kuoni Travel India INDABA has been a great platform for us wherein all the African continent delegates were present to promote and educate the travel fraternity on the various tourism products that they have to offer. There is a great potential for India to start looking at South Africa as a travel destination as the country has a lot to offer to each segment of travellers. Indians are now looking at longer duration of stay as well as are opting for more adventure activities in South Africa.
cate delegates and visitors about the country's diverse heritage and cultural offerings. The pavilion was organised by SAT in collaboration with the National Department of Tourism and in partnership with the Moja Heritage Collection. It was revealed that some of the country's major attractions like the Kruger National Park, Apartheid Museum, Table Mountains, Robben Island were on the travel agenda of many tourists who visited the country last year. Observing the growing popularity amidst tour operators for geotour packages, Wesgro (The Western Cape Destination Marketing Investment and Trade Promotion Agency, South Africa) has decided to tap the geocaching tourism marJune 2013
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ket. The company will promote 16 caches of Western Cape, the Winelands, The Karoo, West Coast, Cape Overberg, Garden Route and Klein Karoo. Cape Town will also use its status as World Design Capital 2014 to highlight the creativity of the city, country and continent through a year-long programme of design focussed events, exhibitions, projects and initiatives. The national carrier of the country, South African Airways, sees itself as a catalyst for South Africa's growth. Manoj Papa, acting general manager-commercial, South African Airways said, “Even in the current situation where the aviation industry is going through a slump, the airline is expecting to overcome the EXPRESS TRAVELWORLD
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M|A|N|A|G|E|M|E|N|T challenges like increasing cost of operations and decreasing profit margins.” It is a mandate for the airline company to continue to be an enabler for economic growth. “From a destination point of view we are finding new opportunities and the market segment also seems to be improving. The leisure and business traveller numbers have been growing,” he added.
Indian bonds The popularity for South Africa's national parks, wildlife, game reserves, and adventure continues amongst Indians. A case in point is Sabi Sabi, the fivestar private game reserve near Kruger National Park, has India as its fourth biggest market in terms of travellers. Rodney Wyndham, managing director, Sabi Sabi said, “India is an emerging market and a major focus market for us; about four-six per cent of our annual business market is from India. We have seen a lot of Indian families opting for accommodation at our Bush Lodge. The chef there also understands the Indian food requirements. We have been around for 30 years and have always been in the top ten slot of excellence in game reserve accommodation.” A similar thought was expressed by Cindy Sheedy Walker of extraordinary, “The month of May brings in a lot of Indian guests to our properties. The Mabula Game Lodge has been popular
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among Indian families and groups. This is apart from Imbali Safari Lodge and The Cape Miller.” extraordinary represents about 15 diverse collection of luxury lodges and hotels and is a subsidiary of Kingfisher Resorts in South Africa. Indians still travel in family groups or for honeymoons to South Africa. Shamwari Group, who has been actively taking part in SAT's roadshows in India, and sees India as a potential market for its business. The group consists of Shamwari Game Reserve, Jock Safari Lodge Kruger National Park, Sanbona Wildlife Reserve, Nkomazi Game Reserve, Nyungwe Forest Lodge and Gorillas Nest. Joe Cloete, group general manager, Shamwari Group said that the group has been seeing a lot of Indian family groups. “Although our biggest source markets are Great Britain, Germany, India is also gaining prominence. Last year Shamwari saw 369 room nights from the Indian market which is a healthy 20 per cent growth since 2011. We will be again participating in the South African Tourism roadshow which is scheduled to be held in September 2013. We specialise in luxury FIT, small groups and family segment and October to March have been our peak seasons. We have activities for all segments- we have a kids safari programme and rhino awareness centre,” he added. For Singita, Jaco Ehlers, the sales manager informed that since North America is their biggest source market, their business from the India market is only one-two per cent. “We have a good relationship with our key trade partners in India. Our target segment include families, honeymooners. Through our partners we intend to now aggressively promote our offerings in the India market more,” he asserted. The Morukuru Family in Madikwe Reserve also has 40 per cent of its clients from the India market. Manon Van Der Veen, public relations and marketing, Morukuru Family informed, “We opened about nine years ago and have seen that the average length of stay among Indians have been four nights. We have three chefs as we know the importance of vegetarian food among Indian travellers. We are open all year-round.” www.expresstravelworld.com
Elaborating on the India market, Hanneli Slabber, country manager - India, South African Tourism said, “We were successful in achieving the one lakh mark of travellers last year which we had earlier predicted that we would reach by 2015. This year, the projections for growth in traveller numbers depends on various factors, as one of the concerns is the increasing air fuel cost and its impact on airfares. Although we would like to have more number of flights from India, a study on the market viability is also necessary. We do have a good average number of flights coming into South Africa and our visa procedures are also simple. It takes five working days for a visa to be processed.” The biggest challenge, according to her, has been the distribution of simplified product knowledge at the right time. India in the last five years has seen travel patterns change dramatically. “Today there are travellers who are willing to opt for niche experiences during their visit to the country. Although Cape Town and Garden Route have been the most preferred destinations among leisure travellers from India, we are now offering them more products to cover other destinations that South Africa has to offer. Last year, our repeat traveller clientele increased to upto 55 per cent from the leisure segment from India,” she said. June 2013
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Synergy in Sydney For the first time since 2000, the Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE) 2013 became one global event with the East and West components merging together to offer the best of Australia’s tourism products on one seamless platform. And as India and China entered the top ten list of inbound markets by visitor arrivals, the focus at ATE 2013 was Asia as a key growth market. By Steena Joy
TE 2013 was memorable in so many different aspects. Firstly, it was the last ATE to be held at the Sydney Exhibition and Convention Centre (SECC) in Darling Harbour because Sydney is getting itself a brand new state-of-the-art exhibition and convention centre. The Sydney International Convention, Exhibition and Entertainment Precinct (SICCEP) which spans a 20 hectare precinct at Darling Harbour and includes a 900room hotel is due to open in late 2016. This is also the first time that the event was held as a single global event with both Eastern and Western buyers and sellers attending at the same time across four days of appointments. This year will also be remembered as the year ATE became a paperless event with e-connect Australia, a new online serv-
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ice for sellers to share brochures, marketing collateral and news with buyers, and ATE Daily, the daily news incorporated into the e-connect daily summary.
A business symphony Nearly 725 buyer delegates representing 39 countries (including India with 17 delegates) attended Tourism Australia’s premier tourism trade event held in a different host city every year. This year’s host state was Destination New South Wales (NSW). Against the backdrop of the iconic Sydney Opera House and The Harbour Bridge, 1,500 Australian sellers from 470 companies (including 49 new ones) showcased their products and became partners in growing the value of the country’s tourism industry. Around 50,000 scheduled business appointments were held between buyers and sellers
with an equal number of informal meetings taking place across 25,000 sq metres of exhibition space. Speaking at the launch, Andrew McEvoy, managing director, Tourism Australia, stated, “According to the Tourism Australia 2020 Vision Plan drawn up three years ago, the aim was to double visitor expenditure to $97 billion by 2020. We are on track
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for this. In fact we are now looking to reach $115 - 120 billion by 2020. As a destination Australia ranks first in spend per visitor. It is not a high volume but a high value destination. China went past UK and it is now our biggest market and a high value market worth $4.2 billion to Australia. India too went past Germany to get into the top 10. We work with 20 airline
partners in 17 key markets. Our biggest strengths are world class nature, safe environment and food and wine, only behind France and Italy.” He added that the country would need more beds mostly in the capital cities for which Tourism Australia was working with Austrade. “Word of mouth is all powerful. The world travels to experience differences. The two campaigns 'There's Nothing like Australia ' and The Best Jobs in the World' helped not just in creating awareness about the destination but also enabled us to commercialise it,” he said. He also observed that there was a general shift from west to east in terms of arrivals but he again stressed that traditional markets remained critical, particularly for regional Australia. McEvoy played down concerns that the high Australian dollar was impacting visitor arrivals. “The dollar is the dollar, there is nothing we can do about it EXPRESS TRAVELWORLD
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M|A|N|A|G|E|M|E|N|T but we are seeing a rebound from the UK and Europe,” he said. “We have to demonstrate value. We need to represent a more sophisticated Australia, an Australia that represents that higher value, because we are higher cost.” He said Tourism Australia will invest $150 million this year to directly market Australia to an international audience. At ATE 2013, Stephen Thomson, executive manager, Qantas announced that the airline would be starting Jetstar's Hong Kong services this year. “We have had to make some tough decisions, make new partnerships and devise new strategies. Whether it is international or domestic, we cannot look at these businesses in isolation, they are all integrated. In 2011 we had formulated a five-year plan to turnaround the business and we are on track on this.” He added, “We are strongly looking at Dubai as the gateway to Europe and the Middle Eastern markets and Singapore and Hong Kong for Asian markets. Moving our European hub from Singapore to Dubai is a strategic move. Our partnership with Emirates is a very strong vehicle to drive growth of tourism into Australia. It will also help open up regional tourism in Cairns, Hobart, etc. We expect
a five point increase in traffic to regional tourism destinations.” Qantas will soon be introducing the A380 into Asia. “We understand Asia and have a long term approach to the continent as it is emerging as an important region – economically, politically and culturally,” he added. The airline has just launched its Qantas Singapore Lounge with a contemporary look. “We will also be tripling the size of the Los Angeles Lounge which was long overdue. We are redesigning our onboard experiences – the menus, the new comforters in Business Class which have got good feedback. We are also investing in our staff – 11,000 frontline staff – and their training,” informed Thomson.
Beyond the bridge Qantas and the NSW Government have announced a new $30 million three-year partnership to promote NSW to the world, marking the largest tourism and major
events marketing partnership in the state’s history. Sandra Chipchase, CEO, Destination NSW informed, “In November last year we launched the NSW 2021, a 10 year plan to make NSW the number one destination. Our visitor target is to push from 18.3 billion to 36.6 billion. We want to show that NSW is more than just Sydney so our focus will be on regional NSW destinations. We have launched a new South Coast campaign, a domestic campaign for Shoalhaven which we will take international, the Barangaroo project which includes the new SICCEP, the brand newWhite Bay Cruise Terminal (making Sydney the ONLY city in Australia to have
two bay terminals) – all this is part of the renewal of Sydney.” Commenting on NSW’s digital strategy, she added, “We also want to be the latest in the digital space. Content is the key. We recently launched Sydney 3600 - a digital innovation which showcases Sydney and the Hunter Valley wine region through unique aerial tours which users can control and navigate their way around with a 360 degree view.” As well as the high definition interactive aerial tours, first person experiences have also been created, enabling people to put ‘their face in the picture’ and get a first-hand feel for what it’s like to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge, interact with animals at Taronga Zoo, surf at Bondi Beach, cycle at Manly and kayak on Sydney Harbour. These videos can then be shared through Facebook. Destination NSW has also secured a new partnership with global youth brand leader MTV and travel industry partners STA Travel with the aim to increase
India Down Under Rajkumar Sarrof, director, Pristine Travels, Kolkata I have attended several other ATEs, including one in 2011, in Sydney at the same venue. I had good business meetings and the overall experience was super. Attending such international trade events is great in terms of sourcing and appraising suppliers of our needs. Kanwaljit Singh Cheema, director, Grand Travel Planners, Chandigarh I am attending ATE for the first time. I had good business meetings and I may be looking forward to participate again. These type of international trade events are a must as we come across many people, and organisations whom we have never met but are important for our business. Umesh Kapur, director, Grand Travel Planners, Chandigarh This was my second ATE. The event was well planned and managed professionally. I had very productive business meetings. Such events are very important for the growth of our business. Roopa Srikanth, Chrysalis Holidays, Bengaluru This was my first ATE. The layout, planning, venue everything was perfect. Since it was based on pre scheduled appointments, meetings were successful. My overall experience was very good. Attending such international events is very essential as you get to meet and interact personally with almost all of the suppliers (hotels, tour operators, attractions etc) of the entire country under one roof and gain in depth knowledge on the destination. This will educate us more on the destination and help us to promote and sell better.
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Kalpana Kulkarni, Millennium Travels, Pune I am an ATE delegate for the first time. I had excellent business meetings and my overall experience was excellent. It was nice to meet and interact with the suppliers and know the products in detail. This will help us sell the products confidently. Himansu Das, CEO, HD Travels, Bhubaneswar This is my eighth time at ATE. It was excellent as usual though a bit long (the five-day format). The good thing is we got to see a lot more products. As I had gone with a specific purpose in mind, I think i was able to achieve the same but need to work out the nitty gritties. The overall experience was excellent. These events are essential to catch up on competition as well as increase the option inventory for our clients. Prashant Gupta, manager - India, Wel-Travel Australia, Mumbai I have attended ATE previously in Sydney in 2000 and 2001. Sydney as a destination is always fascinating and iconic with TA & DNSW as one of the best hosts. This was an excellent opportunity to meet many suppliers and grow our relationships further and at the same time learn about many new products It was a very good experience to meet and interact with suppliers and some buyers from other regions – writing new businesses and products and to experience pre tour of Cairns and post touring in Hamilton and Hayman Islands to understand the product details and to ensure that our product promotions in the B2B Indian market is in the right direction. As an Australia DMC it is a necessity for our organisation to attend ATE and interact both with buyers and sellers, to showcase our activities and demonstrate our local expertise.
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NSW’s share of working holiday and young professional visitors to Australia. Sydney will be the hotspot for some exciting events – Corroboree, the largest and first indigenous art festival will be held here; Opera House will turn 40 in October this year and big celebrations have been planned. The fourth edition of Vivid Sydney, a cultural fiesta of music, light and ideas just concluded in this vibrant city. As a market India is big on NSW’s radar. There are talks of a unique marketing campaign being made especially for the India market. Declining to reveal more, Chipchase said instead, “Indians are confident because English is their second language. It is a big market with 90 per cent of youngsters working for BPOs – they have good disposable incomes and are willing to spend on travelling, eating and visiting places. They are also keen on adventure activities. NSW is very good for youngsters. It is also popular among Indian honeymooners. We offer beach activities like surfing lessons, adventure activities in the Blue Mountains and Hunter Valley, Harley Davidson rides and of course the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), a very popular attraction for Indians given our shared interest in the game.” Paramjit Bawa, country manager – India, Destination NSW, pointed out, “Self drives are getting popular among Indians. There is a lot of interest for upmarket products like Jaguars, Rolls Royces and Ferraris.” There is optimism that Air India, India’s national carrier will work out direct flights with Qantas. “ If this happens, it will be the game changer for us. We have to work with the airlines because we cannot push the numbers up unless we have the seats,” opined Chipchase. McEvoy agrees, “There are good capacities with Qantas and Jet Airways. But the prospects of direct connectivity are exciting.” He added, “Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata – these cities have an audience that fits our visitor profile. The average age of the population is between 35 -54, who are tech savvy and have a passport. We have carefully identified some media and distribution channels as well. Today there are nearly 800 Aussie Specialists in India, a 32 per cent increase over last year.” June 2013
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Rediscovering a Great destination The 10th edition of Destination Britain APMEA, VisitBritain's largest travel trade event outside the UK, saw participation from more than 200 companies. Organised in Bangkok recently, there were 35 per cent new suppliers this year, showcasing new destinations and products for this high growth market. By Sudipta Dev
estination Britain APMEA is VisitBritain's flagship travel trade event for this market which accounts for 28 per cent of UK's tourism revenue. The last decade has seen the number of visitors growing from APMEA by almost 30 per cent. The year 2012 saw 4.2 million visitors from the region who spent GBP 5.3 billion. The 2020 growth strategy for VisitBritain envisages arrival of 40 million visitors and GBP 31.5 billion spend. Of the total nine million extra visitors from across the world, two million are expected to be from APMEA. This would also create 200,000 extra jobs in the UK. Tourism is among the top five industries in the UK. The Great campaign launched worldwide targets 4.6 million additional visitors. While the campaign is for the whole world, the budgets are only for select countries
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(five) involving PR, B2B, social media and consumer marketing. “Consumer campaign is not done in every market. Mumbai and New Delhi are two of the main cities in the world where this has been done. The industry is partnering with us in this campaign, in India and other countries. We have to work with our travel partners in India and create products which will motivate the travellers,” said Keith Beecham, director, overseas network, VisitBritain. He added that there are 500 BritAgents in India out of 5,000 worldwide. The programme is online and Indian travel professionals can study at their own pace. India is one of VisitBritain's fastest growing markets and has the highest number of visitors compared to the
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rest of the BRIC economies. Sumathi Ramanathan, regional manager, APAC & Middle East, VisitBritain pointed out that there is a lot of investment going into the BRIC markets, and India is the top performing BRIC market. “The British government is investing a lot of time and money in India, not only in terms of tourism but bilateral relationship, trade and investments. We are averaging about 350,000 visits at the moment but we have the potential to grow the market better. The airline links are very good,” she said. Visit Britain's campaign with British Airways has worked very well in the Indian market. Ramanathan informed that VisitBritain has signed a new GBP two million partnership with Emirates, a significant portion of which will go June 2013
M|A|N|A|G|E|M|E|N|T into India. Besides London, Emirates provides direct route (via Dubai) into regional gateways of Britain - Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle and Glasgow. “We have got a fantastic opportunity to focus on the regional routes of UK. Eg Using Glasgow as a base we can promote the Scottish Highlands. The Whiskey Trails are extremely popular with the Indian market,” she added.
Beyond London With good flight connectivity to many places in England there is increasing interest for areas like the Lake Districts, Yorkshire, Cotswolds, Oxfordshire. Reem Khokhar, regional manager – APAC, Visit England mentioned that most people want to stay in the city and then experience the quintessential British countryside. Day breaks are popular. For repeat travellers many literary icons that people associate with are interesting - for example this year is the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen, so there are many events being organised at places associated with her. “There is a niche audience for this but a lot of us have grown up with British authors so such places have interest for Indians. Agatha Christie for instance is from the Devon and Cornwall region so Torquay where she is from has an annual Agatha Christie Festival. Many Indians are not aware of the timings of these festivals or the fact that these famous authors were associated with these places, and that is something we are trying to create awareness for FIT leisure, and repeat travellers,” said Khokhar. There is a lot of scope for literary tours - DH Lawrence, Enid Blyton, CS Lewis, Beatrix Potter. Sporting events is also another area of interest particularly among corporate groups, which can take visitors to destinations outside London. For Indian visitors, London though will always remain popular. In 2012 India was on the 16th place in number of visitors to London. In spend they were placed at the 19th position. Jo Geneen, PR manager, London & Partners remarked that while the visitor numbers were down by two per cent, the spend was up by six per cent. “London has a great proposition for repeat visitors. It is important for June 2013
us to show the new products in London so that people keep coming back,” she stated. The Shard opened this year and visitors can see the view from the 72nd floor. The newly opened ME London Hotel has become very popular. The Olympic Park will be open to visitors from July and host many rock concerts, pop concerts, sporting events, community activities, etc. Scotland is another destination of high interest among Indian visitors. Many travel agents in India have already enrolled for the Scot Agent programme and that shows the interest of the Indian travel trade. “It is important for us to educate the travel trade and travellers. There are many high end accommodations in Edinburgh, which is just an hour's flight from London. Self drive is also becoming popular with Indian consumers,” stated Andrew Moffat, international PR – emerging markets & Australasia. Glasgow and Aberdeen are important business tourism hubs. Edinburgh and Glasgow are second only to London in the UK in terms of the number of international conferences hosted. Scotland has been celebrating focus years - Year of Food & Drink (2010), Year of Active Scotland (2011) and Year of Creative Scotland (2012). 2013 is the Year of Natural Scotland. “In terms of new interests for the Indian market there are some high end resorts that have opened up, besides there is golf tourism, and events,” he informed. Visit Wales has been working closely with VisitBritain to raise awareness of the destination in the Indian market. “We are working very much focused on the travel trade because we understand the importance of the travel trade in the market. We are looking in particular at tour operators we are already working with to promote Wales and include the destination in their itinerary. We hosted a FAM trip in 2012 for some main tour operators from India,” said Clare Dwight, product marketing manager, Visit Wales. A Wales module of the BritAgent programme is also being developed, which will be launched later in the year in the Indian market. Operators and agents can have very particular information about Wales, itinerary ideas and how to put the
product together. The travel trade website of Wales has a lot of resources available for travel agents worldwide, including India. Among the new highlights, the Wales Coast Path is becoming popular. New tours and trails have also been launched. “Next year is the anniversary of Dylan Thomas and there will be many related events, which would be of interest to Indian travellers,” stated Dwight.
Buyers speak Most Indian travel agents attending Destination Britain APMEA averred that they are more interested in selling tours outside London, which is already a highly sold destination. Talking about the new ways to sell UK, not specifically London, Kapil Berera, managing director, Astral Travels said, “We are looking at the Lake Districts or the north part of England and Scotland. We are very keen to have multiple options for exploring different parts of UK. What comes to my mind is how to reinvent in selling Britain differently.” According to him the seminars on Scotland and Birmingham were very educative. Kolkata based Prashant Das Binnany, director, Discovery Holidays is also looking to promote other destinations in the UK, apart from London, which he thinks his clients will enjoy - for instance the Lake District and Scotland. "There are a lot of high-end clients who visit London, they would love to take a weekend off to go to Scotland for golf," he said. Jyoti Mayal, director, New Airways Travel in Delhi has been selling the destination for a long time now, was keen to get information regarding conferencing in the UK. “The good companies from India are now looking at Europe for conferences. The UK is an area to explore,” said Mayal pointing out that the above average class and elite clients want to visit places where they can experience luxury in a big way and do something different. Attending Destination Britain for the first time, Saravanan P, proprietor, Viking Tours & Travels from Chennai is looking at taking smaller groups travelling in small bus for experiencing UK and he felt that the buyer-seller meet has been an eye opener for him. www.expresstravelworld.com
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Action packed ATM 2013 The Arabian Travel Market 2013 witnessed some interesting action, networking and business talks over its three days. From DTCM announcing its new Tourism Vision 2020, to Dubai being positioned as candidate city for World Expo 2020, Express TravelWorld encapsulates the event
he year 2013 witnessed an action oriented Arabian Travel Market (ATM), which was held from May 69 at the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Centre (DICEC). The event had approximately 87 countries on an exhibition floor space covering more than 22,000 square metres. HRH Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, deputy ruler of Dubai, officially inaugurated ATM 2013. Addressing the inaugural session of the seminar programme at ATM 2013, HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman, Emirates and president of Dubai Civil Aviation, emphasised how travel and tourism had become the bedrock of Dubai's economy over the past years since the event was inaugurated in May 1994. Industry thought leaders also discussed the future of the region and reflected on the growth that the region witnessed over the last two decades. Mark Walsh, portfolio director, ATM said that the growth of the event had mirrored that of the emirate, jumping from just 300 exhibitors in 1994 to more than 3,000 this year – during a period when Emirates’ passenger traffic rose from 1.9 million to 40 million last year. With a new tourism vision, the visitor target for 2020 has been set at 20 million and HE Helal Saeed Almarri, director-gen-
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eral, Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) said this total would be significantly enhanced should Dubai win its bid to host the World Expo 2020 – a decision which is due to be announced in November. “In the past eight years, we have doubled the number of tourists and become the seventh most visited city globally. Growth rates ahead are expected to be the same as those achieved in the past years and these may rise,” he said.
Dubai’s Tourism Vision 2020 His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice-president and prime minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, officially approved Dubai’s Vision for Tourism: By 2020, Dubai will welcome 20 million visitors per year, and the annual contribution made by tourism to the city’s economy will triple. The ruler of Dubai also noted that building a robust infrastructure with high capacity and providing quality highend services to all the visitors of the UAE is an ongoing process that also necessitates keeping up the pace of development to meet the requirements of the global markets, bearing in mind changes that may occur in such requirements so as to preserve the country’s gains and earn more achievements in the tourism sector that is full of opportunities. He also high-
lighted the economic importance of the tourism sector. Dubai was able to double the number of tourists from only five million yearly to ten million tourists a year during the past eight years. Developed by the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) under guidance from Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the vision sets out how the city will both double its annual visitor numbers from 10 million in 2012 to 20 million in 2020, and increase the economic contribution of the tourism sector. Early estimates from a study currently being conducted indicate that the current economic contribution is in the range of AED100 billion. Saeed Almarri, said, “The strategy behind the Dubai Tourism Vision for 2020 will further leverage a sector which has been a central pillar in the city’s economic growth, success and diversification. It is based upon two central tenets: the first being to widen our range of tourism offerings across events, attractions, infrastructure, services and packages and to enhance the overall visitor experience from arrival to departure. The second tenet is to adapt our marketing approach in order to showcase Dubai to a wider audience and grow the conversion rate of awareness to bookings. There are a range of initiatives we will put in place in both of these June 2013
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areas which will work together to attract more visitors to the city and encourage them to stay longer and spend more money during their time with us. Our role at DTCM is to act as a facilitator of growth, harnessing the collective power of stakeholders in the city and deepening engagement with parties outside of Dubai, so that we deliver the vision.” The target of 20 million visitors will be achieved through meeting a number of objectives. First, maintaining existing market share of the outbound tourism of all source markets: economic and demographic factors will increase the amount of outbound tourists in each market, therefore maintaining Dubai’s existing percentage market share will deliver an up-lift in visitor numbers. Secondly, increasing awareness and consideration to visit in a number of source markets which DTCM has identified as having significant potential for growth, such as Latin America, China
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and the emerging economies of Africa. Thirdly, increasing the number of repeat visits, already a significant driver for tourism in the city. Meeting these objectives in addition to driving up the average length of stay (currently at 3.76 days) and increasing the amount of money spent by tourists during their visits will lead to the tripling of the economic contribution that tourism makes to the emirate’s GDP.
India at ATM 2013 The Indian contingent and participation at ATM 2013 which includes the government and the private players was encouraging. From hoteliers to tour operators from DMCs, Tea Board of India, Air India to spa and wellness companies, there were more that 50 participants from India. India projected itself as a multifaceted tourism destination, under the ‘Incredible India’ banner. The Indian delegation was lead by Girish Shankar, additional secretary, ministry of
tourism (MoT), Government of India. State tourism boards of Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Kerala were also part of the delegation. The J&K delegation was lead by the tourism minister. The Gulf and Middle East are considered to be important markets for India. There has been a consistent increase in foreign tourist arrivals from the region into India over the past three years with the year 2011 having registered an overall growth of around 18.5 per cent over the previous year. Some countries like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, Turkey have registered a significant growth and are emerging as major tourism generating markets for India from this region. Pramod Sarkar of Swagatam tours, mentioned that the India pavilion and participation has grown significantly over the years. From being the first company to participate at the ATM till today, the company has never missed out any ATMs till date.
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A season for Ayurveda Even while Kerala Tourism is gearing to push the monsoon season as the season for Ayurveda, thousands of wellness seeking tourists continue to make the journey to God's Own Country for the healing touch of a 5,000 year old tradition. By Steena Joy ith an unbroken 5,000-year old tradition of Ayurveda, Kerala is home to one of the sciences of healing. Regional folk medical practices utilising Kerala's rich medicinal flora and Ashtavaidyas, traditional physicians who are experts in the eight branches of Ayurveda, as laid out in Ashtangahridayam, have contributed much to Kerala's rise as the centre of Ayurveda. Of the original 18 Ashtavaidya families, a few still practice in the state. Kerala's tropical forests are home to over 900 different Ayurvedic herbs and medicinal plants and Agasthyakoodam, a peak in the southern part, nurtures some of the rarest varieties most of them endemic to the region. And as most of these potent herbs are available throughout the year, continuity in treatments is ensured to make them effective.
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Quality benchmarks The popularity of Ayurveda has today led Kerala Tourism to take stringent measures in sustaining the quality of the products and services offered. A certification system has been introduced by the state to classify centres into Green Leaf and Olive Leaf categories based on the quality and standard of services and products. The Ayurveda centres in Kerala are graded based on the quality of technical personnel, medicine, health programmes and equipment. Only those centres which are clas-
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Rani George sified/approved are promoted by Kerala Tourism. Suman Billa, secretary, Kerala Tourism affirms, “You cannot undermine the importance of classification especially when it involves something like Ayurveda. When a tourist travels here, he needs to be assured that what he pays for is what he gets. Ayurveda is unfortunately not like a hotel room which can be viewed online. It involves medication so we have to ensure not only the infrastructure but also that the manpower is well trained, that the medicines used in the treatment are of appropriate quality so that the health of the patient is not compro-
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mised. So the two tier classification was introduced – Green Leaf pertains to fivestar standard while Olive Leaf is three-star. So whichever standard a tourist chooses, he is assured that he is in safe hands. Ayurveda is a traditional science so people can be easily fooled. When we go for the inspection, we check not only the premises, but also the staff working there and how trained they are and their educational qualifications.” Commenting on the manpower requirements of the sector, he says, “There are two types of manpower needed in the Ayurveda sector: one is the doctors who are critical to the treatment. Thankfully we have good medical colleges and medical institutions in Kerala so the doctor pool is sufficient. Then we also have the reputed institutions of excellence like Kottakal Arya Vaidyashala, Vaidyaratan and Nagarjuna who have been practicing unbroken Ayurveda for many centuries. The second level are the masseurs and the therapists for whom there are courses conducted by the Kerala Institute of Travel and Tourism Studies (KITTS). There are also courses done by Ayurveda practitioners like Pankaja Kasturi College of Ayurveda in the private sector. So all this ensures a steady stream of well trained EXPRESS TRAVELWORLD
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manpower for the sector. The responsibility to ensure that the therapists work well lies with the doctor.” Rani George director, Kerala Tourism says, “The classification system is a good thing as it helps maintain standards of Ayurveda. Many Ayurveda centres are applying for the classification because it is an acceptance of their standards of quality.” She adds, “We have being selling Kerala as God's Own Country owing to its natural beauty. But we also realised that Ayurveda is another niche product and that we need to brand Kerala as the home of Ayurveda. So we rolled out a campaign for this in 2011. We launched the campaign in Germany because a lot of tourists come from there for Ayurveda treatments. We followed this with roadshows and workshops in Germany, released ads in their print media and also participated in international wellness fairs. Then we found that other countries were also showing interest in our Ayurveda like Austria, Sweden, Switzerland. So we used the print media in these countries to create awareness about this niche product. We also released a domestic campaign in India at airports, roadshows, etc.”
Monsoon is dream season George points out that lots of visitors come from these countries to Kerala for Ayurveda. “And this is despite the recession. There are inflows even from the Middle East and Russia. Keeping this in mind, we created a cam-
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paign for the Middle East last year for the monsoon season as tourists from there come during this season to escape the heat in their countries. This year too we will be creating a campaign for the Middle East for the monsoon season. We plan to sell the off season as the dream season for Ayurveda. Earlier we were focusing on the price factor but now we plan to focus on the experience factor; that is making it more experiential. We will focus on June and July as the season for Ayurveda. Especially as the monsoon season is most suitable for Ayurveda.” Ancient texts prescribe the monsoon season (JuneAugust) as the ideal time for Ayurveda. It is during this season that the atmosphere remains cool and dust-free letting the pores of the body open to a maximum, making the skin most receptive to therapy. Somatheeram Ayurveda Resort is a Green Leaf certified centre that recently won the state tourism award for Best Ayurveda Centre. Located at Chowara Beach on a hillock nine km south of the famous Kovalam Beach, in Kerala, the resort is spread over 15 acres of lush greenery. The resort accommodation is built in the traditional style of southern India, and most of the bungalows called Kerala Houses and Cottages have a lovely view of the sea. According to a Somatheeram official, “We do get domestic guests but majority of our guests are Europeans who come for the Ayurveda treatments that we specialise in.” She adds, “South India and especially www.expresstravelworld.com
Kerala offers the ideal climatic conditions required for the efficacy of Ayurveda. A moderate temperature, ample rainfall ensured by two monsoons, humid air and abundant natural wealth. All this makes Kerala the perfect natural setting for Ayurveda's healing touch for the rejuvenation of body, mind and soul.” Commenting on whether the resort sees a rise in numbers during the monsoon season, she says, “We get guests round the year but yes, in the last two years we have seen an increase in guests during the monsoons as there is increasing awareness about the monsoon season being the ideal climate for Ayurveda.” Somatheeram has a diet plan that is integral to each course of Ayurvedic treatment. During the initial examination, the Somatheeram doctors compile a personal Ayurvedic diet plan for each guest – in accordance with his/her personal Dosha or constitution. Roughly 200 different Ayurvedic dishes are available and are served in the resort's restaurant in traditional mud pots that retain the flavours. The Ayurveda resort also has its own facility to manufacture the medications required for treatment. The manufacturing plant at Somatheeram has been awarded the Good Manufacturing Product Certificate (GMP) by the Indian Government in appreciation of its high quality products.
Kalaripayattu's link with Ayurveda Many seasonal rituals and
religious ceremonies in Kerala also echo the tenets of Ayurveda. Ayurvedic massages have long been customary for Kalaripayattu (the traditional martial training and physical culture unique to Kerala) artistes to increase flexibility of the body. There are around 65 active Kalaris under the aegis of the Kerala Kalaripayattu Association affiliated to the Kerala Sports Council. In fact the healing aspect of Kalaripayattu was the first known sports medical system in the days when there were no hospitals. Foot massages and ortho treatments were used to heal sports injuries. According to CVN Kalari Sangham set up in 1956 in Thiruvanathapuram, the training to become a master or Gurukkal involves many years of teaching of young and senior students in the Kalari and the learning of various advanced Kalarippayat techniques and the whole body massage system known as Uzhichil. The specialised branch of treatments done by the Kalari Gurukkals is known as Kalarichikilsa or Marmachikilsa having its foundation in Ayurveda, with special emphasis on treatment of orthopedic injuries and ailments. CVN Kalari also runs a traditional ‘Kalarichikitsa’ clinic specialising in Ayurvedic orthopedic treatments. The Sangham runs a traditional Kalari training centre and also organises perfomances and workshops in many countries and has represented India in many prestigious international festivals. It also receives many students from overseas for training every year. June 2013
Event Tracker Travel Trade Shows in 2013-14 June 03 - 06, 2013
International Luxury Travel Market Asia
Shanghai
June 08 - 12, 2013
International Pow Wow
Las Vegas
June 12 – 14, 2013
Food Hospitality World 2013
Bengaluru
June 13 - 16, 2013
ITE MICE
Hong Kong
June 13 - 16, 2013
ITE HK
Hong Kong
June 20 -23, 2013
Travel and Tourism Research Association international conference
Kansas City
June 08 - 12, 2013
International Pow Wow
Las Vegas
August 01 - 03, 2013
6th UNWTO International Meeting on Silk Road Tourism
Dunhuang, China
September 15 - 17, 2013
PATA Travel Mart 2013
Chengdu, China
September 20 -23, 2013
JATA World Tourism Congress and Travel Fair
Tokyo
September 24 - 26, 2013
Seatrade Europe
Hamburg
October 01 – 03, 2013
IT&CMA
Bangkok
October 01 – 03, 2013
Corporate Travel World
Bangkok
October 2013
World Heritage Travel Expo
Macau
October 08 – 10, 2013
Cruise Shipping Asia-Pacific
Singapore
October 14 - 18, 2013
Showcase Canada-Asia
Hangzhou, China
October 21 – 23, 2013
World Tourism Conference
Melaka, Malaysia
October 23 - 25, 2013
ITB Asia
Singapore
November 04 – 07, 2013
World Travel Market
London
November 07 – 10, 2013
The Luxury Travel Fair
London
November 11 – 14, 2013
International Golf Travel Market
Costa Daurada, Spain
December 02 – 05, 2013
International Luxury Travel Market
Cannes
January 16 - 23, 2014
ASEAN Tourism Forum
Sarawak
January 22 – 26, 2014
FITUR
Madrid
January 29 – 31, 2014
SATTE
New Delhi
Jan 31 - Feb 01, 2014
Low Cost Airline World Asia Pacific
Singapore
February 04 – 05, 2014
Travel Technology Show
London
February 11 – 12, 2014
International Mediterranean Tourism Market
Tel Aviv
March 05 - 09, 2014
ITB Berlin
Berlin
March 24 - 26, 2014
GIBTM
Abu Dhabi
April 01 - 02, 2014
Rendez vous en France
Clermont-Ferrand
May 2014
Australian Tourism Exchange
Cairns
May 05 - 08, 2014
Arabian Travel Market
Dubai
May 11 – 13, 2014
Germany Travel Mart
Bremen
May 27 – 30, 2014
Rendez-vous Canada
Vancouver
June 2013
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EVENT ROUNDUP
Holistic approach to sustainable tourism The Bhopal International Conference on Sustainable Tourism 2013 organised by Ecotourism Society of India along with Madhya Pradesh Tourism was an effort to bring on one platform conservation experts, NGOs and hotel operators to focus on wide ranging issues related to sustainable tourism and community engagement. By Sudipta Dev
he Bhopal International Conference on Sustainable Tourism (BICST), 2013 organised by Ecotourism Society of India (ESOI) in association with Madhya Pradesh Tourism saw 150 delegates from India and overseas carry out two days of focused discussions on creating a balance between tourism, conservation and local livelihoods. The subject of the conference was 'Tourism: Enabler for Conservation, Livelihood and Sustainable Growth', and brought together experts from diverse fields who shared a common interest. The conference was represented by NGOs, conservationists, forest department officials, tourism authorities, the travel trade and hoteliers. BICST 2013 was inaugurated by R Parasuram, chief secretary, Government of Madhya Pradesh. The speakers included many notable names like Mandeep Singh Soin, president and founding member, ESOI; Sujit Banerjee, secretary general, WTTC India; Raghwendra Kumar Singh, managing director, Madhya Pradesh Tourism; Enrico Ducrot, CEO, Viaggi dell’Elefante and ECO Luxury, Italy; Les Carlisle, group conservation manager, &Beyond, South Africa; Guy Chester, founder & MD, EcoSustainAbility, Australia; Lynn Woodworth, wildlife researcher from Australia; Heidi Bernsdorff, travel journalist; Richard Vigne, CEO, Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya; Manori Gunawadena, director, Environment Foundation, Sri Lanka; Krishna Kumar Singh, founder and governing body
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member, ESOI; Hashim Tyabji, director, Wild India Camps; Rohini Chaturvedi, research associate, University of Cambridge, UK; Ravi Singh, secretary general and CEO, WWF-India, and others. R Parasuram stated that ecotourism bridged the gap between those who live in hotels/resorts and the village / local populace of the area, “It enhances participation, livelihood and promotes partnerships. Ecotourism has brought back people to the centre stage. Sustainability should be the outcome of any effort and not an objective. That's what will promote the future of these people through ecotourism intervention.” Pointing out that eco tourism as a concept is not often understood by the operators and hotels, Mandeep Singh Soin, founder president, ESOI said that the government on its part has made efforts like printing and distributing free of cost 10,000 copies of Ecotourism and Environment Handbook. He also spoke about how tourism can create alternate livelihood in areas like Chambal, which has a great potential to be a World Heritage Site. Krishna Kumar Singh acknowledged that the conference has emerged out of need/a particular problem being faced at that point of time. Following the Supreme Court ruling on core areas for tigers, BICST 2013 is an effort to bring the conservationists, NGOs and hotel operators on one platform. “We are looking at the big picture and hope it will turn out to be a policy document for central or state governments,” said Krishna Kumar Singh. June 2013
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Global learnings For the development of sustainable tourism in India, it is necessary to take best examples from around the world and take it forward. This also involves bringing about change in the way things function in the country. Carlisle stated, “For tourism, it is essential to have well managed parks. Our guests are key, unless we make money we cannot make a difference.” For this the support of local communities is important. He spoke about how &Beyond's model in Phinda Private Game Reserve, South Africa has benefited conservation and local communities. Carlisle had been involved in the successful Gaur Translocation project in India that saw the reversal of extinction. He believes that if wildlife is translocated from agricultural areas to wildlife parks then it can make a big difference. Initiatives like mechanical tiger dispersal can make sure that the animals reach their destination. Vigne gave a very interesting presentation on the use of livestock to provide conservation space in support of eco tourism. Ol Pejeta Conservancy is a notfor-profit wildlife conservancy in the Laikipia district of central Kenya. Covering an area of 360 sq km, it is the largest black rhino sanctuary in East Africa. Vigne has pioneered the creation of wildlife / livestock integrated system of land management that resulted in increase of profitability. The conservancy hosts 80,000 tourists per annum and provides employment to 700 people. Ecologically sensitive ecosystems worldwide have witnessed conflict between interested parties – from the government to local communities to conservation experts and tourism people. Woodworth, who has led many Antarctic expeditions pointed out how the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO) that promotes and practices safe and environmentally responsible travel to the Antarctic has strict guidelines for all ships and visitors. Everybody has to operate through IAATO which has the overriding authority. In Arctic region, it is the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO) that has guidelines for tourism in the region with the Norweigian government as the driving force. AECO's structure is similar to IAATO. Regenerative tourism is an important aspect – there should be restoration of eco system without human management. June 2013
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Bernsdorff asserted that the community should not bear the brunt of tourism what tourists impact they must pay for. A wildlife scientist from Sri Lanka, Gunawadena gave an interesting insight into conservation, integration and tourism beyond protected area boundaries. “Landscape based conservation approach entails understanding the character of the landscape, how it functions to support internal and external communities. Though there are few protected areas, there are many areas where elephants and human coexist and share the same resources,” stated Gunawadena. Interestingly, Sri Lanka is looking at integrating wildlife tourism within mainstream tourism. Ducrot spoke about his Eco Luxury global endorsement and classification brand that has 100 members worldwide. It involves global promotion of its members and enables them to provide long term support to the community.
Sustainable tourism management Sustainable tourism management includes several factors – ranging from the fact that the carrying capacity will not adversely affect wildlife behaviour to ensuring that the impact will not damage wildlife habitat and eco development of protected areas and surroundings. “In terms of education and interpretation for tourists, there should be connectedness with nature. The interpretation centres should be developed better,” said Dr Erach Bharucha from Bharatiya Vidyapeeth Institute of Environment Education and Research. He added that there is a need to reorient nature education – there is a newly defined syndrome of ‘nature deficit disorder’ – children in urban areas can have psychological and physical changes if they are not exposed to nature. Carrying capacity has become one of the critical factors, there are many pertinent points related to it. For instance – are the PAs overburdened with tourists? Can tourism be managed within the carrying capacity? There are different categories of PAs – national parks, sanctuaries, conservation reserve, community reserve. The impediments to conserving wildlife, specially long ranging animals are caused by factors like the small size of PAs in India (average 262.04 sq km), depletion of potential habitats due to population growth and increasing dependence on PA resources and of course, shortage of funds for protection EXPRESS TRAVELWORLD
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and conservation of PAs. “Conservation in PAs cannot be isolated from whatever is happening in the country – the political and economic dynamics,” remarked Chaturvedi. There is also another important question that needs be evaluated – has eco tourism in the country become increasingly 'tiger centric'? The fact however remains that it is not possible to protect tigers only in small areas. There has been a large spurt in growth of tourists in Bandhavgarh and Pench. Hotels are on migration route of tigers.
Legal tangles Supreme Court advocate Sanjay Upadhyay who is also the founder and managing partner of the India's first environmental law firm, Enviro Legal Defence Firm, mentioned that India is the only country where every policy was written after the Act, which is an anomaly. “The CRZ notification has been amended 29 times. You can actually do a trend analysis of which lobby was working,” he said. According to Upadhyay it is important to look at tourists in different legal categories. Geographical context in ecotourism is important. “Concepts such as core areas, critical tiger habitat, PAs, etc, should not be depended on courts,” he asserted. “Ecotourism is not about wildlife tourism, we are still grappling with basic issues like regulatory law. We have
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conducted about 12 workshops in various states, however we have to see how much of that training gets translated into better environmental practices,” said Rakesh Mathur, VP, ESOI. It was the ban in early 1970s that some state governments started investing in these areas. The main thrust came from the private sector. “All the early pioneers had strong conservation ethics. They were former shikaris or wildlife enthusiasts who wanted to share their lifestyle. They never saw that this will lead to 'mass tourism'. The government was unprepared for the new lodge owners who did not necessarily share the same mindset. Many rules and regulations were based on personal bias of individual officers and changed with them,” remarked Tyabji. It is necessary for regulations to follow firm policy and must be based on evidence and common sense.
Relationship with community Community based ecotourism is the future, however the standards, rules and regulations must be in place. For example, the homestays in Ladakh follow the Global Sustainable Tourism Counci (GSTC) guidelines. The relationship between the tourism industry and the local community varies according to the level of engagement. From tokenism which involves employing members of the community to collaborative like Himalayan homestays.
Communities are also informed and involved through employment like what is done by Jungle Lodges & Resorts. “The informal sector consists of 70 per cent of the industry in India. There is unequal power equation, there is no representative of the informal sector in tourism industry associations,” said Swati Seshadri of Equations. Giving an operator's perspective, Mridula Tangirala, director operations, Taj Safaris stated that they have a small footprint (four lodges) inspired by local traditions that lets people experience nature in very different ways. “A big challenge was to create a cadre of naturalists. Our staff are from the rural areas and were trained for English speaking guests.” The company also has many focused CSR initiatives for the local communities. Involving the local community is an important part of Madhya Pradesh Tourism's strategy, pointed out R Parasuram. “In MP, ecotourism is at a very nascent stage and we would like to take this forward,” he said. Ecotourism has a lot of significance for a state like Madhya Pradesh that has onethird of its total area covered by forests. There are nine national parks and 25 wildlife sanctuaries in the state. Raghwendra Kumar Singh mentioned that they are looking to organise ecotourism conferences in the future in different places in the state. There are also plans to hold an ecotourism mart.
June 2013
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A change is coming Your Way Travelport has developed a new merchandising platform that looks poised to change the distribution landscape for both airlines and travel agents. By Steena Joy
ravelport is all set to revolutionse the way airlines deliver their products and the way those products are displayed to travel agents. As a result travel agents can now sell fares and ancillaries that were previously only available on an airline's website. This makes Travelport the only GDS that allows its subscribers to shop, price and book fares from all carriers whether FSCs or LCCs in a common workflow, regardless of the technology used to aggregate that content. Agents normally have to abandon their usual workflow to access content hosted outside the GDS while airlines miss out on bookings because of the disruption to the workflow. The new Travelport Merchandising Platform (TMP) enables airlines to differentiate and distribute their full suite of products and services including fares and ancillaries across all channels using whichever technology best suits their business model. This will help carriers maximise RoI by demonstrating differentiation from competition and increased ancillary sales. As for travel agents, TMP enables access to the full range of airline products including ancillaries doing it 'their way' in their familiar consolidated and integrated workflow and thus will help them to
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increase productivity and reduce training times. This will also enable them to offer better and efficient customer service. Derek Sharp, managing director, global distribution sales, Travelport says, “TMP paves the way for significant change in the distribution landscape by enabling airlines to go to the market with all of their products in the right place, at the right time, in every channel. In other words, leveraging technology to drive value throughout the travel supply chain.” Ian Heywood, head of global supplier strategy, Travelport says, “The vast majority of GDSs are doing what we want them to do, that is, distribute fares. But now airline models are constantly changing, and dramatically. Today, nearly 52 per cent of carriers in south east Asia are LCCs. By 2015 half of the sector servicing Japan will also be low cost. TMP has been developed to cater their needs giving them flexibility, choice and enhanced retailing capabilities combined with seamless connection into all distribution channels.” CAPA has identified nine LCCs which took to the skies in the first nine months of 2012 with a further 16 going live by the end of 2013. By 2015 LCCs will account for around one in three seats on a global basis. In TMP even ancillaries are dis-
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played in the same work flow. This is crucial because it is estimated that by 2015, the ancillaries market will be worth US$ 45 billion. Heywood says, “Even FSCs are starting to charge for ancillaries. The world is changing. Traditional carriers have got LCC competition. That is why you see a British Airways competing with easyJet in short haul markets.” Steven Ratcliffe, senior product manager says, “This is not a pipe dream. It is not a vision or a marketing plan. We have launched an actual product that is the same but in a different pipeline. Asia Pacific has a lot of LCC content. LCCs do not want to incur costs or publish fares. TMP offers them the flexibility. We are soon starting a dialogue with them. We are saying to them, do not change your ways, we will change ours. We are reinventing the business.” By incorporating airline Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and standards into a single display, LCCs can access the global reach of the agency community without sacrificing their airline.com model. LCCs can also sell their fare families and ancillary products, on their own terms, in a flexible and straightforward way. Ratcliffe adds, “As for travel agents, as their business grows, they will be encouraged to come to us, to enable us to give them better products.” Some airlines are now putting up content only on the GDS, content which is not available on their websites as they are targeting business travellers. Heywood comments, “Lot of corporate customers fly LCCs these days. We hope to include Asian carriers on this platform soon. This technology enables flexibility to work in emerging markets like China and India as both are regulated markets. With the thin margins airlines work on these days, they cannot afford to ignore the travel agent community. You cannot have fully access to a market if you don't use all distribution channels and use only your website.” EXPRESS TRAVELWORLD
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Travel
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RESPONSIBLE TOURISM
A role model for RT Kerala has initiated several steps to promote Responsible Tourism (RT) for the last three years and it is in this context that an international conference is being held at Kumarakom this June
epartment of Tourism, Government of Kerala, India in association with RT School @ Kerala Institute of Tourism and Travel Studies (KITTS), Thiruvananathapuram, Kerala is organising an international conference on Responsible Tourism on June 27 – 29, 2013 at Kumarakom, Kerala. The theme for the conference is 'Responsible Tourism: Looking Back, Moving Ahead'. The conference will look into the progress Kerala has made after the second edition of International Conference on Responsible Tourism in Destinations (ICRTD) held at Kochi in March 2008 and will also discuss the latest advances in the field of RT across the world. The conference starts with a plenary session on June 27, 2013 and there will be parallel sessions on Economic Responsibility, Socio-cultural Responsibility and Environmental Responsibility on June 28, 2013. As part of the event, on June 29, 2013, Kumarakom will be declared as a global RT destination and a field trip is also being arranged on the day to visit the Responsible Tourism (RT) initiatives at Kumarakom. Some of the dignitaries who have agreed to grace the event with their presence includes Dr Harold Goodwin (professor in Responsible Tourism Management and director at Leeds Metropolitan University and director ICRT), Mason Florence (executive director, Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office), Srilal
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Miththapala (project director, SWITCH Asia Greening Sri Lanka Hotels Project, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce), Dr Karma Tshering (chief, Nature, Recreation & Ecotourism Division NRED), ministry of agriculture and forests, Bhutan), Christian Rogerson (professor, School of Tourism and Hospitality, University of Johannesburg, South Africa), Adama Bah (Travel Foundation Programme Manager, Gambia) and Suman Billa IAS, secretary tourism, Government of Kerala and Dr V Venu IAS joint secre-
tary, ministry of culture, Government of India. Kerala has emerged as one of the prime tourism destinations on the national and international map and is considered as the tourism trendsetter in the country. The availability of plenty of natural resources, skilled manpower, supportive entrepreneurial community, strong local-self-governments, civil society organisations, multitude of micro enterprises, streams of professionals and academicians, responsible media and respon-
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sive tourism industry, provide the state an ideal setting to implement and practice RT. RT, an innovative and far-reaching concept of Kerala Tourism completed its phase one programme with noticeable milestones. As a pilot phase, this initiative was implemented at four destinations viz Kovalam, Kumarakom, Thekkady and Wayanad. Among these destinations Kumarakom evolved as the success model for responsible tourism and was honoured by ministry of tourism, Government of India for the best RT initiative in Kerala. Kerala has initiated several steps to promote RT for the last three years and it is in this context that the international conference is planned to deliberate on the perceptions and practices on RT looking closely at the various aspects of triple bottom line. The plenary session would be able to take stock on the academic premises of RT in the international scenario while the corresponding sessions deliberate on specific aspects of RT practices. June 2013
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Tourism Malaysia
Amran ABD Rahman has been appointed as director for Tourism Malaysia. He started his stint with Tourism Malaysia in 1991. He was responsible for penetrating the Middle Eastern and Western European market for Malaysia Tourism in its early stages. He started out as the deputy director of Tourism Malaysia in London, then as a unit head for market intelligence at Tourism Malaysia headquarters, moving on to become the first director for Tourism Malaysia in Beijing.
Melbourne Convention Bureau The Melbourne Convention Bureau (MCB) has appointed Jaclyn Weinstein to the new position of director of business development, North America. Weinstein’s appointment follows the engagement of Myriad Marketing as the organisation’s new representation agency for North America, announced in December last year as part of MCB’s new Strategic Business Plan. Weinstein will report to Julia Swanson, general manager, MCB Business Development and Bids at Myriad Marketing in New York.
June 2013
Ministry of culture, government of India
The ministry of culture, government of India has nominated Sandeep Dayal as member of the council of the National Culture Fund (NCF) for a period from January 2013 to August 2015. Dayal has been in the travel, tourism and hospitality industry for around 30 years and worked in various capacities. He is presently an executive director with Le Passage to India Travel & Tours.
Visit Indonesia Tourism Office India
Shelly Chandhok has been appointed as the new country manager for Visit Indonesia Tourism Office (VITO) India. She is based in Mumbai and has been associated with OM Tourism for the past four years. Prior to this, she was handling sales for western India for Indo-China Services. In her current profile she will head the VITO- India sales team and will be assisted by Mohammad Kaleem - trade sales executive (VITO) and Priyanka Kumar.
Temple Weiss has been appointed as chief financial officer. Most recently, Weiss served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of ACE Cash Express, in Irving, Tex. Prior to that, he was with LQ Management and La Quinta Corporation for more than 10 years. At La Quinta Corporation, he held various finance positions, ultimately serving as vice president, development.
AHS India
AirAsia India’s board of directors has appointed Mittu Chandilya as chief executive officer. In his last role as principal and head of services Asia Pacific at Egon Zehnder, he took leadership in the travel and hospitality segment where his primary focus was airlines and aviation. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business and Economics (Dean’s List) with a triple major from Lehigh University, Pennsylvania, USA. He also has MBA degrees from INSEAD, France/Singapore and from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
Rakhi Purohit has been appointed as regional director of revenue and distribution for Absolute Hotel Services India. She holds a Hotel Management Diploma degree from Mumbai and a post-graduate diploma in Management studies from London. She went on to complete her MBA from the University of Wales (London Campus). She joins Absolute with over 16 years industry experience, including more than five years in the United Kingdom. Her last assignment was at Lords Group of Hotels in the UK as cluster revenue manager.
Air Pacific / Fiji Airways
Pegasus Solutions Pegasus Solutions has appointed John Kiszla as vice president, demand account management. Kiszla brings nearly two decades of hotel leadership to the role in which he will help drive room sales for Pegasus hotel clients by working directly with the demand community. He will also be managing a global team of account managers.
AirAsia India
Mark Swetman has been appointed as vice president, global sales, Americas, where he will assume leadership of the sales team serving North and South America. Swetman, who has more than two decades of experience in hotel sales, previously served as global director of sales for Open Hospitality, a division of Pegasus Solutions. Before joining Open Hospitality, the 20-year veteran was the complex director of sales and marketing for Hilton Hotels of Parsippany in New Jersey. He has also served as the regional director of sales and marketing for Dolce International Hotels & Resorts.
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Air Pacific, soon to be flying as Fiji Airways, has appointed Aubrey Swift, who currently serves as the airline’s chief commercial officer, as Acting CEO, while the search for a permanent chief executive officer to replace departing managing director & CEO Dave Pflieger is taken. Before joining Air Pacific, Swift served in senior commercial roles at British Airways, Virgin Blue and most recently at V Australia, where he helped design, launch and grow, that start-up carrier from Brisbane.
The Sanchaya on Bintan Island Veteran hotelier Murlidhar Rao has been appointed as estate manager for The Sanchaya, a new hideaway property on Bintan island, slated to open in the second half of this year. As the estate manager, he will oversee The Sanchaya’s 19 individually designed villas and nine suites. Bintan island is located in Indonesia’s Riau Archipelago, just 40 kms south of Singapore.
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WEEKEND E
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Parisian experience
Russian rendezvous
Accor India along with Air France organised a FAM trip to Paris for ten of the top travel agents from India
Air Arabia in association with Marriott Hotels and Aqua Sun organised an experiential visit to Russia for 10 leisure and MICE operators from India
Good deed
Queen’s Day celebrations
KLM gives its passengers flying ex Delhi by KL872 a taste of The Netherlands’ Koninginnedag or 'Queen’s Day' at Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi
Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) in association with IndiaTourism, Government of India sponsored a three-day bus tour and a river cruise in Goa at a concessional rate for around 100 school children in the age group of 9 to 12 years from Anand Niketan school in Sevagram, Wardha
Sales blitz
Nurturing talent
Cathay Pacific Airways conducted a series of sales blitz and workshops in Ahmedabad, Pune and Mumbai to mark the launch of its Premium Economy Class and the increase of direct flights to Hong Kong from Mumbai June 2013
Brendan Dominic Crasto, head, Kuoni Academy receiving the Best Travel & Tourism Academy for the year 2013 award by India Education Awards at Hotel Claridges in Delhi
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Quality holiday experience
WEEKEND E
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Diverse array
Emirates Holidays and TUI India signed a Memorandum of Understanding under which TUI India will be the preferred agent for Emirates Holidays in India
Tourism side effects Nepal Tourism Board in association with Blue Square Consultants completed a three- city roadshow with the aim of increasing awareness and educating the Indian travellers about Nepal as a tourist destination
New value adds Actors Farhan Akhtar and Vidya Balan promoting Queensland, Australia as part of their film ‘Shaadi Ke Side Effects’ promotional activities
Celebrate flying
Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation collaborated with Centre of Excellence- Kuoni Academy Mumbai to introduce a training programme
Last minute deals Neil Mills, CEO, SpiceJet with its 55th million passenger at Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi
Innovative thoughts Geeta Jain, CEO, Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) addressing the 'New Heights - Innovation, Technology & Trends in Corporate Travel' organised by CWT in Gurgaon MakeMyTrip announced its role as official travel partner of the upcoming Bollywood film ‘Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani’
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June 2013
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