Voyager's World August 2016

Vol XIII

Issue X

Pages 48

August 2016

Rs 60

CHENNAI BANGALORE

29,30, 31 JULY 2016 5, 6, 7 AUGUST 2016

MUMBAI GURGAON

23, 24, 25 SEPTEMBER 2016 30 SEP 1, 2 OCTOBER 2016

PUNE HYDERABAD

25, 26, 27 NOVEMBER 2016 2, 3, 4 DECEMBER 2016

KOCHI KOLKATA

12, 13, 14 JANUARY 2017 24, 25, 26 FEBRUARY 2017

INDIAN WEDDING EVENTS JOIN THE STARTUP BANDWAGON!!!

Also featuring...

‘On the way to the airport’!

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he 2015 Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) of the World Economic Forum placed our country at the 35th position in terms of Air Transport Infrastructure and 50th in Ground & Port Infrastructure from 141 countries of the world. India ranks 136th in terms of airport density and 76th in terms of quality of roads according to the findings of the report. On a comparative note, Changi Airport in Singapore had been voted the World’s Best Airport by air travellers for the fourth year in a row at the recent World Airport Awards held in Cologne. This goes on to testify that the airport was able to retain its position thus due to its extraordinary commitment to deliver the best services. Being a really tiny nation when compared to ours, with a land area of about 710 square kilometres, the airport was picked for its constant innovation in its products and services. It was a disappointment to note that none of our Indian airports figured in the top 10 airports in the awards. With spr=awling land area and a population boasting of a robust youth demographic, India can fare much better in terms of developing its existing international airports to the maximum so as to transform them into major hubs. This would only be possible when the government embraces a community-oriented approach in its policy from both micro and macro perspectives of all the key airports in the country.

In this issue, we have featured stories on apps that try to make the airport experience better, hotel reservations more flexible and how the startup trend is getting into the Indian wedding market segment.

Warm Regards

PRIYAMVADHA BALARAM

priyamvadha@voyagersworld.in

Managing Editor

Associate Editor

Rohit Hangal rohit@voyagersworld.in

Priyamvadha Balaram priyamvadha@voyagersworld.in

Chief Designer EDIT

Web Developer

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ORIA

L

Advertising & Marketing

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06 10

Industry Buzz

12

Hospitality Hotel reservation startups and trends

Incredible India

36 45

Cover Story

Glimpses of Chhattisgarh, West Bengal tourism

18

Travel Events

Indian Wedding Market joins the startup race

Top Appointments

India International Travel Mart, GPS, IT&CMA 2016

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Industry Buzz

6>>

YES BANK wins National Tourism Award

IndiGo launches '6E Explorer Programme' as part of 10th year celebrations

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M

arking 10 years in the Indian aviation industry, IndiGo launched the ‘6E Explorer Programme’ calling entries from travellers across India to get on board as “6E Explorer”.

Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed by the IndiGo leadership and external jury based on their passion for travel. The shortlisted Explorers will need to travel to a specific IndiGo destination and create fresh content in the form of blogs, images, videos with their perspective of the city. This primary curated content will comprise not so popular, seen or heard of places to eat, see, party, things to do; advice for family traveller, backpackers and more. IndiGo will appoint one Explorer per state for an initial period of 1 year and each Explorer will be required to travel to at least 4-6 destinations within or outside his state.

ES BANK won the ‘Most Responsible Tourism Project/Initiative’ at the Na-

tional Tourism Awards 2014-15’ instituted by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India for its ‘Edge of India’ initiative, which focuses on developing cooperative tourism models to ensure livelihood security of local communities. The award was bestowed

by Sumitra Mahajan, Speaker, Loksabha and Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State (IC) for Tourism and Culture. Under this

MakeMyTrip opens Technology Centre in Bengaluru

initiative, the co-operative Destination Management Organisations (cDMOs) offer access to lesser-known parts of rural India through home-stays and itineraries offered

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visitors, travellers and tourists an authentic community experience.

Bird Travel to represent RwandAir in India

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wandAir appointed Bird Travels Pvt Ltd. as its new General Sales Agent (GSA) for India. It plans to

commence operations to Mumbai in the last quarter of this year. Bird Travel will be the immediate liaison for the airline’s sales development in India including ticketing and

9th Conventions India Conclave to be held in October

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he India Convention Promotion Bureau (ICPB) will organise the 9th Conventions India Con-

clave from 13 - 15 October, 2016 in New Delhi.

This year’s theme is ‘Harnessing the Potential’. It

direct support services to the travel trade. RwandAir will

will also focus on more B2B meetings. Alongside

operate four weekly flights to Mumbai with a new A330-

the Convention, Indian exhibitors will have an op-

300, a 274 wide-body seater with inflight entertainment,

portunity to showcase their products to around 300

Wi-Fi and GSM connectivity across all three classes.

international and Indian buyers.

akeMyTrip inaugurated its technology center in Bengaluru recently. The company plans to recruit 300 people over a period of next 12 months. The new facility is spread across 40,000 sq. ft. and is located at state-of art Divyasree Technopolis on Yemlur Road at Kodbisanhalli, Bengaluru. Rajesh Magow, Co-Founder and CEO-India, MakeMyTrip said, “Bringing together e-commerce, data and analytics under one roof at the new center will help us in using technology as an enabler to serve the customer better. The rapid smartphone adoption and the app eco-system has necessitated us to offer personalized solutions.

Entries open for Andhra's Annual Tourism Excellence Awards

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ndhra Pradesh Tourism announced the State Annual Tourism Excellence Awards for 2015-16. The entries are now open and 18 August is the last date for receiving entries. Commemorating the World Tourism Day on 27 September, 2016, the winners will be honoured by the Department of Tourism on the same day. The awards will be given to all the segments of travel industry recognized either by the Central Government or State Government, travel agents, tour operators, classified hotels including heritage hotels, restaurant and independent hotels. Contestants can log into http://www.aptourism.gov.in/images/notifications/AP_Tourism_Awards_Guide.

Banyan Tree Group launches luxury vertical

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anyan Tree Hotels & Resorts launched the Banyan Tree Lifestyle Services (BTLS) to cater to the growing demand of luxury products and services in India. BTLS encompasses the entire portfolio of hotels, resorts, residences and related services under the Banyan Tree Group. The key offerings are bespoke concierge service providing Banyan tree Hotels’ packaged tours; Banyan Tree Private Collection, an exclusive lifestyle & asset-backed destination club membership; Banyan Tree Group Residences sales and owners club offering lifestyle investments for various budgets and purposes ranging from luxury branded residences to affordably priced holiday homes.

Voyager’s World > August 2016

2 Nights Hong Kong & 2 Nights Macau Kung Fu Panda Summer Package Stay period from July 1- September 4, 2016

Sheraton Grand Macao Hotel From USD 368 per person twin sharing

Kung Fu Panda Summer Package Add On SHERATON GRAND MACAO HOTEL • • • • •

TWO nights accommodation at DELUXE KING OR TWIN Daily Breakfast OR lunch for TWO at FEAST# Afternoon Tea Set for TWO at Palms One way Ferry Ticket to HKG/HKIA KIDS EAT, PLAY, STAY FOR FREE (KIDS MUST BE 12 YEARS OR BELOW, MAX 2 CHILDREN PER PACKAGE)

THE ST. REGIS MACAO • • • • • • • • • •

The St. Regis Macao From USD 495 per person twin sharing

TWO nights accommodation at KING DELUXE Daily Breakfast for TWO guests at THE MANOR Afternoon Tea Set for TWO at St. Regis Bar One way COTAI Jet First Class Ferry Ticket to HKG/HKIA One Kung Ku Panda Academy entry Ticket (1 child & 1 accompany adult) One Dream Works cupcake and two cookies as part of Family Amenities Standard St. Regis Family Traditions Amenities One Dream Works Plush Toy Unlimited in- room movies during stay KIDS EAT, PLAY, STAY FOR FREE (KIDS MUST BE 12 YEARS OR BELOW, MAX 2 CHILDREN PER PACKAGE)

Package Includes : • • • •

2 Nights Room Accommodation in Regal Oriental daily breakfast SIC-Airport Transfer to Hotel Pick up transfer from Hotel to Macau Ferry pier Free shuttle transfer from Macau pier to Hotel

• • • •

2 Nights Room Accommodation in Macau (KUNG KU PANDA SUMMER PACKAGE) SIC Hong Kong City Tour w/ Peak Tram ride One-way Economy Ferry ticket HKG to Macau Macau 5hours SIC TOUR with INDIAN LUNCH (10:00-15:00)

Condition: Rate are subject to change without prior notice. Package is subject to availability. Supplement will apply for weekend arrival. Room or Package upgrade is subject to additional charges. Minimum of 2N in HKG and 2N in Macau.

AKQUASUN HOLIDAYS INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED

AKQUASUN HONG KONG HOLIDAYS

CORPORATE OFFICE : Antriksh, Unit No. 504, 5th Floor, Makwana Road, Andheri (East), Mumbai-400059 INDIA. TEL : +91-22-4208 1515 FAX : +91-22-42081516 CONTACT: contact@akquasungroup.com WEBSITE : www.akquasun.com

CONTACT: it@akquasun.com

Industry Buzz

8>> Govt to ink 'Open Sky' agreement with SAARC countries

Chennai to host 32nd IATO Annual Convention

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he 32nd Annual Convention of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) will be held in Chennai from 18 -21 September 2016 at the ITC Grand Chola Chennai. Announcing the decision, Pronab Sarkar President, IATO, said, “We were planning to have our convention in Chennai for the last couple of years as IATO never had its annual convention in Tamil Nadu earlier. However, this year, it is going to become a dream come true. From the very beginning, we focused to have our convention in Chennai only.” More than 1200 delegates are expected for threeday event and the IATO convention is eagerly awaited by all.

A Kerala Tourism Hitches Ride on Dubai Cabs

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erala Tourism rolled out a promotional campaign in Dubai targeting Arab travellers,

showcasing the state’s features through colourful visuals draped on as many as 200 Kerala-branded taxis that will ferry the message of ‘A Faraway Land Four Hours Away’ with eye-catching visuals featuring hill stations, backwaters, waterfalls and Ayurvedic therapies through the streets of Dubai.

Art lovers can now discover works on Google's culture app

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oogle launched its new Google Cultural Institute App and Website recently. The new tools will help art lovers in India and across the globe discover works and artifacts from thousands of museums present in over 70 countries. They help users in searching for anything from Nalanda University, India’s newest World Heritage Site, to panoramic imagery of its excavation. One can scroll through art by time, discover artworks, browse by colour and learn about them.

Ginger Hotels opens second property in Noida

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inger Hotels launched its second hotel in Noida; Ginger Hotel Noida, East. Located in the heart of the city, Ginger Hotel Noida, East has 96 smartly designed rooms. It offers free high-speed wireless Internet, multi cuisine restaurant with 24/7 coffee shop, fitness centre, reliable security features and state-of-the-art meeting facilities. “Ginger is the largest chain of branded budget hotels in India with a resilient promise of safety, cleanliness, wonderful sleep experience, refreshing shower experience, a sumptuous breakfast and seamless internet connectivity. We assure travelers of a delightful experience with us,” said Rahul Pandit, MD & CEO, Ginger Hotels.

Voyager’s World > August 2016

Maharashtra appoints Jaykumar Rawal as Tourism Minister

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he Government of Maharashtra appointed Jaykumar Rawal as the Tourism Minister in July. He holds a degree in Commerce from Symbiosis University Pune and a degree in Business Management from Cardiff University. He said, “It gives me immense pleasure to accept my new role in the Ministry. Tourism is one of the key industries which contribute significantly to the economic growth of a nation. Therefore, my key focus would be to advance the current tourism scenario in Maharashtra through implementation of new policies aimed towards tourism growth and skill development.”

s per National Civil Aviation Policy 2016, Government plans to enter into an ‘Open Sky’ Air Service Agreement on a reciprocal basis with SAARC countries and countries with territory located entirely beyond a 5000 km radius from New Delhi. Unlimited flights above the existing bilateral rights will be allowed directly to and from major airports within the country as notified by the Government time to time.

Yet, the points of call at other airports under the existing ASA will continue to be honoured till the same are renegotiated. This was given by Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Jayant Sinha in written reply in Lok Sabha recently.

MoT approves projects for Krishna and Gandhi theme circuits

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he Ministry of Tourism approved project worth Rs. 275 crore for development of Krishna and Heritage circuit in Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat under the Swadesh Darshan Scheme.

Under Krishna Circuit in Rajasthan, the sites of Shrinath Ji (Nathdwara), Govind Devji (Jaipur), Kanak Vrindavan (Jaipur), Charan Mandir (Jaipur), Galtaji Temple Complex (Jaipur) and Khatu Shyam (Sikar) are covered. Sites located in and around Kurukshetra have been included in Krishna Circuit for Haryana. The Heritage circuit of Gujarat focuses on Gandhi theme, covering sites of Ahmedabad (Kochrab Ashram,Sabarmati Ashram,Dandi bridge, ) Rajkot (Alfred High School, Kaba Gandhi no Delo, Rashtriya Shala), Porbandar (Kirti Mandir), Bardoli (Sardar Patel Museum) and Dandi (Gandhi Smriti railway station,Karadi village,Dandi Memorial).

Zambia Tourism conducts FAM trip for Indian agents

Z

ambia Tourism Board, along with Ethiopian Airlines, recently hosted tour operators

from India on a familiarization trip. The 11-day tour showcased wildlife, culture and lodges of Zambia. They also attended Zambia Travel Expo (ZATEX) at Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Lusaka. Partners who supported the Fam were Taj Pamodzi, Sanctuary Retreats, Sausage Tree Camp, Avani Victoria Falls Resort, Protea Hotel and Proflight Zambia, etc.

Hospitality

10>>

mistay offers flexible hotel reservation based on real time need IRENE SUSAN EAPEN

Sandeep Jaiswal, Co-Founder, MiStay, says the startup aims to change the rules of hotel bookings by introducing flexibility and fairness.

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iStay was started with the aim to break the age-old traditions and change the rules of hotel industry to travel flexible and fair to travellers. Stating that they could relate the hotel industry with that of the cab industry, Sandeep Jaiswal, the Co-Founder of MiStay, said, “There was a time when one had to

hire a cab for the entire day if they needed to use it even for a few hours.

After the dent made by services like Ola and Uber in the cab industry, it is hard to imagine booking a cab for an entire day when need it only to go to work. Unfortunately, this has not changed when it comes to hotel booking. We are used to booking a room for an entire day even when we need it for just a few hours.”

Travellers, who have a long layover can use this concept to relax for few hours before a connecting flight and Business Travellers often require rooms to freshen up for few hours before a meeting, health tourists who are visiting a hospital in a different city and students who are

travelling to write an exam for an interview and religious travellers as they all require room for only few hours and can benefit from this concept. Backpackers want to use the hotel room only to sleep and can book just the night slot. Majority of our customers that we have been receiving so far are people in transit who are using the hotels near airports/ railway station to take a short break before their connecting flight.

In the short span of time, 36% of MiStay’s customers have already become a repeat custome. We have already started seeing sudden growth in the last few weeks. We have seen over 200% month-on-

month growth and this is likely to increase multi-folds as we start tapping various growth channels.

MiStay is currently operational in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune and Gurgaon.

With a focus on content marketing, social media will be an important channel for MiStay. “We are starting #MiStayMyHours campaign with engaging content and contests.

Recently, we had a group of bikers from Hyderabad who promoted MiStay in their trip to Leh Ladakh.

We are looking to position it as a movement and build a strong community of travellers who will be the ambassadors of this movement.”

construkt hostel aims to create community conducive stay IRENE SUSAN EAPEN

Construkt Hostel was started as a convenient, community curated hostel accommodation for the travelling startup & creative community, says its Co-Founder & Head of Operations, Karan Bahadur.

C

onstrukt as a concept was launched as a startup festival titled Construkt Festival in 2013 and had organized three festivals for entrepreneurs encouraging different verticals to be part of the event.

Karan Bahadur, Co-Founder and Head of Operations of the startup, says, “Construkt Crawl is a part of the festival which is similar to a pub crawl where you get to identify one startup to another and listen to their stories

during the festival.”

“As we noticed the trend of listening to podcast we decided to launch Go Construkt Radio last year an online radio station that shares stories of entrepreneurs on their growth and challenges. We have completed one season of 33 episodes; some of our prominent speakers are Santosh Panda- Founder of Explara, HarsghaFounder of Swiggy, Ajith KarimpanaFounder Furlenco, Sharad SharmaHead of Ispirt.”

People are looking for networking with like-minded people with the right kind of ambience as the mindset of people has changed over the years so people can come and mingle to create vibrant community in Construkt Hostel. We decided to launch a startup hostel for entrepreneurs titled Construkt

Hostel in May 2016 in Indiranagar in Bangalore with four bedrooms, living room, dining area, balconies, library laundry area and a fully equipped self-catering kitchen. “We have had mostly startup entrepreneurs staying with us from the tech space, culinary space and fitness space.

The common area space in the hostel is used for offsite meetings by startups.”

Marketing It has recently used social media for the launch campaign for a month.

Since the launch, Construkt has partnered with Innofest, Swissnex, Power of Youth and with various other organisations in hosting events to benefit the entrepreneurial community.In 2015 Construkt tied up with NUMA, a French accelerator that set up in Bangalore to help them

in their acceleration process. In a 2015 survey of 2,000 tech startups, Construkt found that there were close to 18,000 room requirements per year. We have noticed that with 18,000 room nights per year in the startup eco system.

In-house events “Some of our in-house events are Open Hack, a pitching session with two activities in a month which is a platform for resident entrepreneurs to talk about the startup on various topics. The latest event was on Gaming by Mohsin, CEO of Memcorp Learnings followed by a gaming session. We are planning to invite mentors to come over and discuss on various topics. We have been partnering with startups in India.”

Hospitality

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Undercutting is not for the long term.. The demise of Low Cost Travel VW BUREAU

Prakash Bang, Managing Director of roomsXML Solutions Ltd., shares his views on the recent trends in the travel industry that did not augur well for stakeholders. €500 million OTA / retail arm. As some holidaymakers are finding out, hotels are calling customers inhouse for payment.

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s keen observers from the travel world have found out, the €700 million company (approximately Rs 5,000 crore) travel company “Low Cost Holidays” went into bankruptcy in London on 15 July. At the time of insolvency, there were about 27,000 people on a holiday who had booked through the company comprised a €200 million wholesale arm and

It’s not the first time in our history that a seemingly invincible travel company has gone broke. Just a few months ago Getway, Belgium went down under. Unfortunately, this will affect travelers and yes, the wholesale arm is one of our suppliers. However, travel agents working with roomsXML need not worry.

Says Prakash Bang, Managing Director, “We have a couple of hundred forward reservations and unfortunately, a few live ones in progress. We have 24 hour rotating shifts continuously working to secure

all bookings by paying hotels directly and switching to other suppliers. In most cases our customers won’t even know.”

“We had some hint for last few months that the company was struggling, so we limited the transactions with them by shifting and placed them on a watch list. I spoke with a confidential insider later on who told me that they owe about EUR 7 to 8 million each to some of their vendors.”

The larger wholesale companies are going to be reviewing all of their contracts with all of their supply chain starting immediately. Hotels have already started hassling customers for payment. For aggregators like us, the financial hit is mostly in the several hundred

hours of wages reallocating business and communicating with customers that confirmation numbers (but not bookings) have changed.

It will now be difficult for the next 12 months for new players to enter the market as everyone gets a little more cautious. As if recent political, terrorism and financial events have not been enough of a challenge to the industry. It’s now for the travel agents to let their customers know.

Concludes Prakash, “Undercutting, discounting, price gimmicks, cashbacks and the likes are not going to work. Travel agents should realise that there’s no free lunch. It’s in their interest to opt to work with companies that are profitable… these companies are likely to be around when times become tough!”

update revenue management practices to avoid ineffectiveness VW BUREAU

Jean Francois Mourier, CEO of REVPAR GURU talks about most destructive practices in revenue management.

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he hotel industry is very competitive and it’s crucial that hoteliers stand out and attract the attention of consumers online. Because it’s easy for revenue managers to get caught up in outdated, ineffective methods, here are the final six most destructive practices in revenue management: Misleading Star Ratings In an attempt to garner attention on OTAs, many hoteliers will mislead potential guests on their actual star rating. While it is true that consumers may be willing to pay a higher room rate for a property with a higher star rating, this practice can actually have hugely damaging effects on your overall profitability. Not only is inflating your star rating a bad practice, deflating it is just as destructive as

it will only hurt your revenues in the long run. If you’re offering services that will impress guests, chances are they will be willing to pay more for your rooms. Being honest is the best approach to setting your star rating on the OTAs. You will earn the most revenue possible for each booking if your customers are satisfied and if you’re compensated for your services.

Lowering rates as arrival date approaches As last-minute bookings apps and websites are becoming more popular, this strategy can lead to millions of dollars in lost revenue. The best strategy is fluctuating your price according to the market, demand, competition, etc.

Inflating rates as occupancy rises You may assume that if you already have a high occupancy, the demand is particularly high; however, unless the market data confirms inflated demand, your occupancy will suffer by increasing rates.

Overwhelming with Options Room types and upgrades should be offered to guests as they are booking their stay, but it is important not to offer too many options. If guests feel confused and overwhelmed, they will are more likely to abandon the booking.

Using Outdated Pricing Strategies It is a common practice in revenue management to offer discounted rates in $10 increments; however, this

practice is not effective as it means that you may be giving away too much revenue unnecessarily.

Setting Higher Rates on Your Website than on the OTAs Many hoteliers will offer lower rates on the OTAs (compared to their direct rates) assuming that this will earn them more bookings, and therefore, more revenue overall. Though OTAs draw more traffic, they do charge properties commission on every booking so it will be more beneficial (from a financial standpoint) to push traffic to your website instead. Due to rate parity, you can’t offer a lower rate through the direct channel, so offers the same rate through the OTAs and on your direct channel.

www.voyagersworld.in

Incredible India

12>>

chHattisgarh beckons one to its sprawling wilderness VW BUREAU

The state is home to a number of wildlife sanctuaries that house a variety of species of flora and fauna

Sitanadi Wildlife Sanctuary

Badalkhol Wildlife Sanctuary

and makes for a delightful and adventurous getaway for wildlife enthusiasts.

Badalkhol Sanctuary Badalkhol sanctuary is located in Jashpur district of Chhattisgarh.

Badalkhol Sanctuary is about 160 km north of Raigarh. It lies on the banks of Eib River and Dorki River and spreads over an area of 105 sq km. The sanctuary’s vegetation is dominated by Sal forests. It is home to panther, chital, wild bear, jungle cat, monkey, jackals, hyena, bear, wolf, fox, cobra, kraits, python, red spur fall, bhura teetar, kala teetar, tree pie, green pigeon and rollers.

January to June is the best time to visit.

Sitanadi Wildlife Sanctuary Sitanadi Wildlife Sanctuary is a famous tourist attraction which is frequented by wildlife enthusiasts throughout the year. The wildlife sanctuary was established in 1974 under Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. This sanctuary sprawls over an area of 556 sq km and has an altitude ranging between 327 and 736 m above the sea level. It is named after Sitanadi River which originates from this sanctuary and joins Mahanadi River.

Barnawapara Sanctuary Barnawapara Wildlife sanctuary, is named after Bar and nawapara forest villages, which are in the heart of the sanctuary. It is a land mass of undulating terrain dotted with numerous low and high hillocks

Voyager’s World > August 2016

well forested area of North-eastern corner of Raipur district. The Tributaries of Mahanadi are the source of water. River Balamdehi forms the western boundary and Jonk River forms the north-eastern boundary of the Sanctuary. The well stocked forests of the Sanctuary Classified as Teas sal and mixed forests. This sanctuary is famous for the frequent sighting of the Indian bison (Gaur) Cheetal, Sambhar, Neelgai, Wild boar are commonly seen.Bar-Nawapara boosts of over 150 species Birds.

Semarsot Wildlife Sanctuary The Semarsot Wildlife Sanctuary is near Semarsot on the AmbikapurDaltongunj Road. Tourists will find quality accommodation in the town of Ambikapur. The best time to visit the Semarsot Wildlife Sanctuary is from January to May, when you can spot herds of deer, like Nilgai, Chital, Sambar, Chinkara.

Tamor Pingla Sanctuary Main wildlife attraction is Nilgai, Chital, Sambar, Chinkara, deerwild boars, foxes. The Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary which is located in the Surjuga District is so called because of the 2 prominent features of this piece of land the Tamor Hill and the Pingla Nalla (stream).

Bishrampur is the nearest railhead to the sanctuary. Ambikapur makes a good halt for tourists who come to

have a glimpse of the mixed wildlife.

Bhairamgarh Wildlife Sanctuary Bijapur is southern most district of Chhattisgarh, is extracted from Large Bastar Division. This is rich with dense forest and Indravati River. It is situated 48 km from Bijapur. One of the prime attractions at Bhairamgarh Wildlife Sanctuary is the wild buffalo. Hill Hynas can also be seen. The tigers and leopards are also available in this santuary; however, they are less in number.

Chinkaras can be easily sighted so are the Indian Gazelle and Chital.

They can be sighted from different parts of the sanctuary and for those who love adventure it is the place to be in. Some of the other species that are to be found at Bhairamgarh Wildlife Sanctuary are Nilgai, Sambar, Gaur, Barking Deer, Sloth Bear, Wild Boar, Jackel and striped hyna.

Bhoramdeo Sanctuary Bhoramdeo Wildlife Sanctuary also known as Bhoramdeo is located in Kabirdham district at a distance of 140 km from Raipur and is named after the famous Bhoramdeo temples. The best time to visit the Bhoramdeo Wildlife Sanctuary is between November and March and the town nearest to the sanctuary is that of Kawardha. The Sanctuary is 140 km from Raipur. You can travel to the Bhoramdeo Wildlife Sanctuary

by roads from Kawardha which is again well connected to Raipur. The nearest airport is at Raipur.

Gomarda Sanctuary Gomarda Wildlife Sanctuary (GWS) is one of the Wildlife Sanctuaries in Chhattisgarh and it is located near Sarangarh town in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh. It is approximately 10 km away from Sarangarh town in Raigarh district and is a perfect tourist locale for nature lovers and wildlife enthusiasts. A variety of exotic wildlife can be witnessed if one arrives at the Gomarda Wildlife Sanctuary. The months of winter are said to be the most ideal time of paying visit to the sanctuary, particularly from November till June.

Wild animals found in the sanctuary include leopard, wild dog, jackal, fox, bedi or predators such as wild cat, gaur, nilgai, Sambar, chital, kotri.

Pamed Sanctuary The Pamed Wildlife Sanctuary is an important wildlife reserve in Chhattisgarh. It is placed in the Dantewada district and is close to the Sate border with Andhra Pradesh. Pamed Wildlife Sanctuary has some precious trees like Sal and teak. There are mixed forests creating a different aura about the place. The travellers who visit the place are fortunate to get a feel to the dense forests which create an enchanting atmosphere.

Incredible India

13>>

glimpses of the manmade wonders of west bengal VW BUREAU

‘Seven Wonders of West Bengal’ were shortlisted as part of a campaign by the Union Ministry of Tourism

Howrah Bridge

Acharya JC Bose Indian Botanic Garden

and NDTV in 2008-’09, four of which have been detailed below.

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he Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, along with NDTV conducted a campaign for searching the ‘Seven Wonders of India’ in 2008-’09. In West Bengal, 13 were selected of which the ‘Seven Wonders of West Bengal’ were shortlisted. Four of them have been detailed below.

Darjeeling Himalayan Railway The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, also known as the “Toy Train”, is a 2 ft narrow gauge railway that runs between New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling. Built between 1879 and 1881, the railway is about 78 km long. Its elevation level varies from about 100 m at New Jalpaiguri to about 2,200 m at Darjeeling. Four modern diesel locomotives handle most of the scheduled services; however the daily KurseongDarjeeling return service and the daily tourist trains from Darjeeling to Ghum are handled by the vintage British-built B Class steam locomotives. The railway, along with the Nilgiri Mountain Railway and the Kalka-Shimla Railway, is listed as the Mountain Railways of India World Heritage Site. The headquarters of the railway is in the town of Kurseong.

Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden The Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden is situated in Shibpur, Howrah near Kolkata. The gardens exhibit a wide variety of rare plants and a total collection of over 12,000 specimens spread over 109 hectares. They were originally founded in 1786 by Colonel Kyd, with about 12,000 living plants and over 2.5 million dried plant specimens in the herbarium collected from all over the world. This is the oldest of all the Botanical Gardens in India. It was from here that the tea now grown in Assam and Darjeeling was first developed. Trees of the rarest kinds, from Nepal, Brazil, Penang, Java and Sumatra can be found here.

There are towering Mahogany trees, an avenue of Cuban Palms and an Orchid House.

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Darjeeling Himalayan Railway

Howrah Bridge Howrah Bridge is a cantilever bridge with a suspended span over the Hooghly River in West Bengal, India.

Commissioned in 1943, the bridge was originally named the New Howrah Bridge, because it replaced a pontoon bridge at the same location linking the two cities of Howrah and Kolkata.

On 14 June 1965 it was renamed Rabindra Setu after the great Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, who was the first Indian and Asian Nobel laureate. It is still popularly known as the Howrah Bridge.

Victoria Memorial The Victoria Memorial is a large marble building in Kolkata built between 1906 and 1921. It is dedicated to the memory of Queen Victoria (1819–1901) and is now a museum and tourist destination.

The Memorial lies on the Maidan (grounds) by the bank of the Hooghly River near Jawaharlal Nehru road.

It was built to commemorate the peak of the British Empire in India.

Conceived by Lord Curzon, the then Viceroy who specified its classical style, the actual plan was laid down by well-known architect, Sir William Emerson. It blends British and Mughal architecture using white Makrana marbles and houses a collection of weapons, sculptors, paintings, maps, coins, stamps, artifacts, textiles etc. The Royal gallery has portraits of the Queen and Prince Albert.

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maharashtra tourism enthralls chennai and bangalore travel trade VW BUREAU

The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) organised colourful roadshows in Chennai and Bangalore to promote the state in view of the ‘Visit Maharashtra Year 2017’. he Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) organised a roadshow in Chennai on 29 July, 2016 at the Radisson Blu Egmore and on 5 August, 2016 at the Leela Palace Bangalore respectively, as part of its efforts to boost tourism in the state.

The Chief Minister of Maharashtra Shri. Devendra Fadnavis had declared the year 2017 as the ‘Visit Maharashtra Year’ as part of its tourism development strategy.

Hence, the roadshow was launched in Chennai to showcase the state’s culture, heritage and other aspects of tourism.

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Chennai, Swati Kale, General Manager, MTDC, said that the Department of Tourism, Government of Maharashtra, planned to organize a series of roadshows, events, festivals and cultural programmes throughout India to promote the state’s tourism attractions in view of the ‘Visit Maharashtra Year 2017’.

There were vibrant performances by dancers and artists who showcased the state’s vivid dance and other art forms with special highlights on the state’s popular ‘Ganpati Chaturthi’ and a performance on Shirdi Sai Baba among other dances. The event was well-attended by the travel trade fraternity in both the cities - Chennai and Bangalore.

Swati Kale, General Manager, MTDC

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Ministry of tourism presents national tourism awards 2014-15 PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU

Invitees at the function included tTourism Ministers of States, Central and State Government Officials, members from travel and hospitality, travel agents and tour operators, mainstream and travel media.

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he National Tourism Awards for the year 2014-15 to various segments of the travel, tourism and hospitality industry were presented by the Speaker, Lok Sabha Smt. Sumitra Mahajan at a function organized by the Ministry of Tourism in Delhi on 30 July. Shri Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Tourism & Culture presided over the function.

Tourism Ministers of many States, Central and State Government Officials, Members from the Travel and Hospitality Industries, including leading Hoteliers, Travel Agents and Tour Operators and Travel Media attended the function.

Sumitra Mahajan opined that the Tourists are the Brand Ambassadors of their respective countries and Tourism is a mode of improving the

Voyager’s World > August 2016

image of their countries abroad.

She quoted the Prime Minster Shri Narendra Modi describing the African nationals, who studied in India, as the ‘Alumini of India’. It is a unique gesture. She also said that Tourist Guides play a pivotal role in Tourism industry as they play an important role in promoting tourism. She called for positive news reporting about our country so that good image of our country can be portrayed abroad.

Dr. Mahesh Sharma in his address, lauded the roles played by various segments of the travel, tourism and hospitality industry in our country and said that our focus is to encourage the tourism industry to deliver positive and unforgettable travel experience to all visitors and countrymen by embracing

the highest standards of service excellence. The National Tourism Awards ceremony recognises the best service providers in each of their service domains. The objective of recognising and rewarding the tourism sector Stakeholders, State Govts & UTS is intended to set and consistently raise the standards of what is attainable and desirable in the competitive global tourism market, thereby helping to raise overall standards in the industry over time. The categories of these Awards are being updated from time to time.

He informed that Ministry of Tourism is in consultation with Ministry of Railways for exclusive Tourist coaches for Tourists on select routes as well as for the development of 50 Railway stations as “Adarsh Railway

Stations”. Simultaneously, talks are going on with Ministry of Civil Aviation to develop 65 airports as ‘Adarsh Airports’ and a low air fare scheme of Rs. 2500/- for passengers will boost Tourism industry.

Dr. Mahesh Sharma said that a slew of measures taken by Government of India in last two years viz. Swadesh Darshan; PRASAD; Toll Free Helpline Number in 12 foreign languages; Medical Tourism Promotion Board; Ramayan Circuit; Krishna Circuit; Buddha Circuit; and Swachchh App. etc have helped the tourism industry move on the path of growth. He urged all stake holders in Tourism sector to promote these new tourist friendly initiatives. He also said that without involving private sectors, our goal of Tourism development cannot be achieved.

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The different categories under which awards were presented this year (2016), for excellence in performance during the financial year 2014-15 are States and Union Territories; Travel Agents/ Tour Operators/Tourist Transport Operators; Classified Hotels / Incredible India Bed & Breakfast Establishments; Tourism Promotion and Publicity; Overseas Awards, etc.

The Department of Tourism, Government of Karnataka was conferred with the ‘3rd place for the Best State/UT in Comprehensive Development of Tourism’.

Priyank Kharge, Minister for IT & BT and Tourism, along with Dr. N Manjula, IAS, Director, Department of Tourism, received the award from Sumitra Mahajan, Speaker of Lok Sabha.

Kerala Tourism walked away with three out of the six National Tourism awards for 2014-15 in the marketing category for states, while it received two more awards, including the one for its Responsible Tourism (RT) initiative in the hilly district of Wayanad that has transformed its economy through intensive participation of the local people.

Hoteliers, tour operators and an Ayurveda Centre swelled the kitty of awards for God’s Own Country to 12 by winning seven more, including the Best Hotel in Five Star category and the Best Heritage hotel.

Particularly impressive was Kerala Tourism’s marketing feat in winning three out of the six awards for the states in the Tourism Promotion and Publishing category, including the one for ‘Most Innovative use of Information Technology’ — Social Media/ Mobile App.

at Iringal, a small but thriving village in Kozhikode, fetched the award for Kerala Tourism in the Rural Tourism project category. Kerala and the Spice Routes, a coffeetable book, designed by Stark was a proud winner in the category of Excellence in Publishing in English language. The glossy book provides a sneak-peek to the readers on the rich multiculturalism of the state more than two millennia ago and takes them through the Malabar Coast that was the starting point for Kerala’s spice trade with the rest of the world. ‘The Great Backwaters’, a brochure in German language, was

THE YOUR GATEWAY TO THE OUTBOUND TRAVEL MARKET

He emphasized that while the tourism sector in India continues to grow and develop, it is essential to remain true to the core values of ‘Athithi Devo Bhav’ of providing consistent, exceptional service to our valued travellers, both local and international. The National Tourism Awards will prove to be an invaluable tool in ensuring that the tourism sector in India is not only encouraged, but recognised to deliver on-the-ground, as we work collectively towards mutual objectives.

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adjudged for the award in foreign language segment. The brochure details out the unique, standalone and once-in-a-lifetime experience of the Kerala backwaters to the international travellers. It targets the growing set of evolved travellers from Germany and other German speaking countries by showcasing the backwaters.

The third award for Kerala Tourism in ‘Tourism Promotion and Publishing’ category came for its most innovative use of Information technology for the website designed by Invis Multimedia and social media managed by

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Stark Communications. Kerala Tourism has 12.8 lakh Facebook followers, the largest figure for any Tourism Board in India. An American journalist, Stephanie Pearson, won a National Tourism Award for “Best Foreign Journalist for India’ for feature write up on Kerala, “The Green Heaven”, which appeared in January 2015 issue of Outside magazine. The piece, which was based on her experiences during her three-week Onam sojourn in God’s Own Country, will be anthologized in “The Best American Travel Writing”, published by Random House.

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Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Delhi

GLOBAL EDITION 5 - 11 February 2017 Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai

MIDDLE EAST EDITION

19 - 22 March 2017 Dubai, Kuwait, Doha

The Wayanad initiative was selected for the award in the Responsible Tourism category.

Sargaalaya Arts and Crafts Village

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india’s tourism infrastructure status..as the world sees it..

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India’s major airports, hotel inventory, infrastructure and facilities are constant parameters for the world to assess and ascertain its travel competitiveness.

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everal new developments, technological revolution, innovations, startup trends, increasing influence of social media and much more have continued to shape and define the expectations of the present day traveller. With the Union Ministry of Tourism unleashing several new projects and circuits to boost domestic and international tourism, here is a look at how the world looks at India’s tourism.

The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) 2015, of the World Economic Forum ranked India at the 35th spot in Air Transport Infrastructure and 50th in Ground & Port Infrastructure from 141 countries of the world. India ranks 136th in terms of airport density and 76th in terms of quality of roads according to TTCI Report 2015, while according to the 2013 Report, India ranked 136th in terms of airport density and 85th in terms of quality of roads.

The overall TTCI ranking of India has improved to 52nd in 2015 as compared to 65th in 2013.

The Ministry of Road Transport

Voyager’s World > August 2016

& Highways has formulated “Bharatmala” Pariyojana with a view to improve the road connectivity to coastal/border areas, backward areas, religious places, tourist places, construction/ rehabilitation/widening of about 1,500 major bridges and 208 Railway Over Bridges (ROBs)/ Railway Under Bridges (RUBs) on National Highways (NHs) and improvement of newly declared NHs providing connectivity to District Head Quarters. Development of road infrastructure enhances the overall development of the area besides giving boost to tourism in the country.

Domestic air transport services have been decontrolled & deregulated.

Government has laid down route dispersal guidelines with a view to achieve better connectivity to remote areas and different regions of the country. It is, however, up to the airlines to provide air services to specific places depending upon the traffic demand and commercial viability. As such the airlines are free to operate anywhere in the country subject to compliance of route dispersal guidelines issued by the Government.

For improvement of connectivity, CFA is provided by Ministry of Tourism under the Schemes Swadesh Darshan and PRASAD for the components like last mile connectivity, heliports, helipads, airstrips, ropeways, procurement of equipment for eco-friendly modes of tourist transport, etc.

Product/Infrastructure Development for Destinations and Circuits (PIDDC) Scheme for States was delinked from Union Support -2015-16, pursuant to acceptance of the 14th Finance Commission’s recommendation for higher devolution of 42% to States from Union taxes and duties.

Consequently, MoT has launched two Schemes namely- Swadesh Darshan Scheme for Integrated Development of Tourist Circuits around Specific Themes and National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD) to beautify and improve amenities and infrastructure at major pilgrimage sites in the country.

Created by the Global Business Travel Association and Carlson Wagonlit Travel, the 2017 Global Travel Price Outlook highlights six

key risks heading into 2017 that could impact both travel industry prices and the global economy as a whole. They are emerging market performance, financial market turbulence, geopolitical risks, uncertainty surrounding Brexit, potentially fluctuating U.S. interest rates and oil prices. This report showed that in Asia Pacific: Air travel prices are projected to experience a 1.1 percent decrease, but remain mostly stable throughout 2017, helped by lower fuel prices.

This goes against the expected 2.5 percent increase in prices at the global level.

Prices in India, with governmentcontrolled inflation, are expected to remain flat for airfares heading into 2017.

With Australia, China and India considered regional leading markets for air travel, all markets—big and small—are fiercely competitive ensuring no major price increases.

Japan and Singapore however, are expected to see a significant fall in airfare pricing given currency exchange rate projections.

Low-cost carriers may be gaining ground in many markets around the world; however, they will struggle for the foreseeable future in

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penetrating the corporate market in Asia Pacific, where buyers and travelers put a premium on highend service.

Hotel prices are projected to fall slightly by 0.6 percent.

Mega hotel mergers are grabbing headlines, but their impact on prices likely won’t be felt until 2018.

Rather, the sharing economy is a key option in hotel pricing for markets including Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Drivers include a lack of supply overall, and prices up to 50 percent cheaper than a comparable hotel option.

In India, hotels are considered a key investment option for businesses, resulting in an over-build situation in key markets with related high supply/low occupancy rates leading to a 2017 slight rate decrease.

As per the UNWTO Barometer (Volume 14, May 2016), during 2015, India ranks 40th in terms of International Tourists Arrivals.

Account of India - 2009-10 and subsequent estimation for the next three years namely 2010-11, 201112 and 2012-13, the contribution of tourism to total Employment in the Country during 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 were 10.17%, 10.78%, 11.49% and 12.36%, respectively.

The number of Foreign Tourist Visits (FTVs) to different States/ UTs during 2013, 2014 and 2015 is given below. This information is not available for the year 2016.

Construction of hotels is primarily a private sector activity. The Ministry of Tourism, however, has advised the State Governments/ UT Administrations to follow tourism friendly policies for augmenting hotel room supply like allotting land

As per the 2nd Tourism Satellite

The FTVs during 2015 was highest in West (30.6%) followed by South (29.1%), North (28.4%), East (11.4%) and North East (0.5%). The region-wise number of FTVs during 2013, 2014 and 2015 is also given below.

The Report of the ‘Working Group on Tourism’ for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-2017) set up by the then Planning Commission says the requirement of additional hotel rooms under classified category in 2016 over 2010 is estimated to be 1,90,108.

sites for hotels on revenue sharing basis, granting extra Floor Space Index (FSI)/ Floor Area Ratio (FAR) for hotels, adopt Single Window approach for clearing hotel projects, rationalization of taxes, etc.

To encourage the growth of budget hotels, the following incentives were announced by the Government: - Extension of Investment Linked tax incentives under Section 35AD of the Income Tax Act to new hotels of 2-Star category and above anywhere in India, which will facilitate growth of Accommodation in the country.

- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has de-linked credit for hotel projects from Commercial Real Estate (CRE), thereby enabling hotel projects to avail credit at relaxed norms and reduced interest rates.

- Hotel and Tourism related industry has been declared a high priority industry and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is allowed upto 100% under the automatic route.

The Ministry of Finance, Government of India has also included the following in the “Harmonised list of Infrastructure Sub Sector” to boost supply of hotel rooms in the country:

- Three Star or higher category classified hotels located outside cities with population of more than 1 million.

- Hotels with a project cost of more than Rs.200 crore each in any place in India and of any star rating.

Thomas Cook India Ltd. released its 2016 Indian Summer Travel Report Card (ISTRC’16). This in-depth study provides interesting insights into how Indians travelled this summer – the new trends observed, new destinations which came up on the travellers’ radar, which destinations trended the most!According to ISTRC’16: 1. Seasonality trends-Extended Summer:A unique trend specific to Summer 2016 was that of an extended summer season across source markets. Typically, India’s peak summer travel season for West and South India covers April and May. However, this season, saw demand extending into the months of June and July courtesy varying vacation periods across school boards- starting as early as midMarch. This has seen cascading demand into of the months of June,

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India Travel

July & August. Key markets such as Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad & Kolkata contributed significantly to this trend along with mini metros – Pune, Indore & Ahmedabad 2. Early Bookers: More than 39% Indian travellers were early planners this year, planning almost 120 -180 days prior to departure and opting for long haul destinations such as Australia, South Africa, USA& New Zealand. Considering a number of long weekends in 2016, more than 66% of Indian travellers preferred clubbing public holidays with personal leave. While 65% of our customers opted for International tours, 35% preferred domestic holidays.

3. Slow Travel: Another interesting observation this season was the emergence of Slow Travel with options like ‘walking tours’ seeing uptake. Slow Travel is intended for travellers who appreciate the journey (as against merely the destination), are curious to learn via travel and absorb myriad experiences enroute. Village/farm stays in Switzerland and leisurely hiking, cycling tours in Europe also saw growth, Slow Travel seemed to offer work weary Corporate India a neat outlet for rest and rejuvenation, to bond with loved ones and reconnect with their inner self for a spiritual refresh. India’s GenY see in Slow Travel, an opportunity to undertake courses while holidaying;

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for instance a one-month course in trekking in the Himalayas, scuba diving in Seychelles, or kick-boxing in Thailand!

4. Destination Favourites: This summer witnessed high demand for Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, UK, Switzerland, France, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Czech Republic, Croatia. Short hauls were a clear flavour of the season with Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong-Macau and Bali trending; with newer entrants like Korea, Japan, China emerging. USA saw strong interest with marked uptake for New York, San Francisco and LA (extension of VFR travel); also Philadelphia, Las Vegas and Florida.

5. Visa on Arrival/ No Visa destinations saw uptake Over 31% Indians were last minute travelers this season and in an attempt to expedite the planningbooking process, opted for no-visa destinations or those that offered visa-on-arrival (VoA) like Maldives, Hong Kong, Bali, Mauritius, Cambodia, Jordan, Kenya, Thailand.

Also interesting is that increasing long weekends coupled with simple visa regimes of destinations like Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka gave domestic tourism strong competition. Travellers displayed a strong interest in short haul e-visa favourites like Singapore, Malaysia & UAE (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah)

as per trend analysis this summer.

6. Growing Demand for Soft Adventure/ Experiential Travel Original and immersive experiences were high on the travel agenda; Indians seemed curious and raring to go on an adventure whether it was experiencing soft adventure such as snorkeling, hiking/mountain biking, going volcano climbing, sampling new cuisines or cooking with local chefs and shopping for fresh produce and wines in destinations as varied Italy, France, Malaysia or Spain. Unconventional locales and unique stay accommodation ranging from chateaus, tree house, castles, home stays, light houses, luxury tents clearly saw new interest; with Airbnb trending strongly 7. New Travel Segments – Ad-hoc groups ruling the roost, emergence of Common Interest Groups; opting for Van Tours Significant and growing demand (35%) was evident for ad hoc groups of friends/colleagues - especially in the young professional segment (25-35 years). These extended groups/like-minded people/ alumni groups connected via social media, travelled for common interest tours such as cycling in Scandinavia & Amsterdam, marathons in Boston, Berlin etc, and wildlife expeditions to South Africa, women-only tours to Thailand, Malaysia for culinary experiences.

What also featured strongly was preference for Van Tours especially in Europe, covering popular options of Switzerland, Germany & Austria, (18%) especially from family/ extended family also ad-hoc groups of friends.

Self- Drives emerged as a favourite option, especially for honeymooners and DINKS, with destinations such as New Zealand USA, UK, Scotland & New Zealand topping the list. o Average holiday stay for Summer 2016: 6-10 days for short hauls &14-20+ days for long hauls.

Average travel budget allocated

by Indians this year for domestic travel was INR 35000 per person; INR 60,000 upwards per person for short haul international getaways and INR 1.5-3 lac per person for international long haul vacations.

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Indians are increasingly preferring the use of technology/ smartphones for research and booking of holidays.

The Thomas Cook Holiday mobile app saw a growth of over 50% month-on-month. Leads for Foreign exchange App saw a 100% uptake.

A significant highlight was the consumer behaviour to opt for visas online – with a growth of over 300% Rajeev D. Kale, President & Country Head - Leisure Travel, MICE, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd, said, “Spurred by

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a burgeoning economy that has vastly improved their spending power, coupled with declining airfares, Indians have emerged as the world’s newest globetrotters.

Despite a depreciating Rupee, the Indian travel sentiment remained highly upbeat with focus on early planning and maximising savings.

“Our Thomas Cook India 2016 Indian Summer Travel Report Card saw exciting new trends including, an Extended Summer and Slow Travel – with increasing uptake from discerning travellers and young professionals who believe inbeing a true traveller and not merely a tourist.”

According to TripAdvisor, Mumbai has been ranked the most expensive city in India but second least expensive in the world to visit after Hanoi.

The findings by TripAdvisor in its annual TripIndex Cities, which compares the cost of a three night break from June to September, Pune stands as the most budget friendly city in India for a three day break, followed by Jaipur and Chennai.

The study found that among the Indian cities - the average price for a short break is INR 30,415 (excluding flights) with prices varying significantly from the least to the most expensive. Pune is

the lowest cost destination at INR 26,595, while Mumbai costs the most at INR 38,444.

“TripIndex Cities is a great guide for travellers to help them plan and book a holiday within their budget, irrespective of whether they intend to travel internationally or within India. Our research of booking rates on TripAdvisor shows that it is possible to budget for a full trip to Pune for little more than the average cost of accommodation in Mumbai over the same dates.

Such information helps travellers assess the various aspects of their trip before going ahead and making the final booking” said Nikhil Ganju, Country Manager, TripAdvisor India.

For eating out, travellers can get the best value for lunch and dinner in Chennai and Pune at INR 9,414 and INR 9,840 respectively. Hyderabad is the costliest for lunch and dinner at INR 13,668.

- Three taxi journeys of six kilometers each in New Delhi can set you back by INR 1,224 while the same distance in Mumbai is almost half at INR 628 - Prices to visitor attractions vary significantly, with some destinations predominantly offering free/ low entrance fee attractions such as Pune, New Delhi and Hyderabad compared with other destinations where attractions are a larger part of the overall cost like Jaipur and Bangalore.

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india international travel mart achieves India International Travel Mart (IITM) completes 17 years with its recently concluded Chennai and Bangalore VW BUREAU

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phere Travelmedia & Exhibitions recently concluded its 89th edition of India International Travel Mart (IITM) in Chennai from 29- 31 July 2016 at the Chennai Trade Centre.

The 90th edition of IITM was held in Bangalore from 5 - 7 August, 2016 at KTPO Whitefield. The successful event attracted nearly 6700 general visitors and 860 trade visitors. The total number of exhibitors were 346.

Sphere TravelMedia Director Sanjay Hakhu said, “In spite of the present business environment, India is fast emerging as one of the most interesting and productive countries for the travel industry both for leisure and business travel.

A combination of factors is responsible for the growth and demand of travel from India. The visitor profile is on a B2B & B2C format and will have over 15,000 visitors over three days”.

Voyager’s World > August 2016

Sphere TravelMedia Director Rohit Hangal added, “With the present ongoing recession, International Arrivals in India on a slower growth, ‘India International Travel Mart’ is the right event to provide an impetus to the Indian domestic tourism industry. The tourism stakeholders from Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and many more destinations will be seen aggressively marketing their products.”

Some of the International participants who participated this year included Thailand and delegation, Sri Lanka Tourism, Tourism Malaysia, New Zealand, representation from Maldives, Dubai, Nepal and many more. Some of the states represented included Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Daman & Diu, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir, Delhi, Odisha, West Bengal, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Lakshadweep Islands, etc.

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new milestone with 2016 editions edition at Chennai Trade Centre and the KTPO Whitefield in Bangalore respectively.

enthusiastic crowds throng chennai iitm 2016

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his year, the event in Chennai drew 11800 general visitors and 854 trade visitors. The total number of exhibitors were 175. Having had several noteworthy participants as part of its credentials over the years, IITM Chennai 2016 got more than 20 Indian states and 10 countries to exhibit their tourism products. The exhibitors consisted of state tourism boards, national tourism organizations, hotels and resorts, DMCs, suppliers, travel agents, tour operators, etc. who came face-to-face with buyers from the travel industry for shared networking and business opportunities.

Some of the International participants who participated this year included participants from Dubai, Nepal, Indonesia and others. There was a big representa-

tion from different travel and tourism products of Tamil Nadu. Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka were the ‘Partner States’ while Kerala, Rajasthan and West Bengal were the ‘Feature Destinations’ at the event.

Tamil Nadu was the Host State for the event. Other states being represented included Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jammu & Kashmir, Lakshadweep and many more. More than 100 hotels and resorts participated from all over India, making it one of the most diverse range of hospitality products in the country on display. Diverse Tourism segments were on display such as pilgrimage travel, adventure, cultural pursuits, island hopping, shopping tours, etc.

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Monaco Debuts at IT&CMA 2016 as Destination Exhibitor VW BUREAU

Monaco, known for luxury travel offerings and previously a visitor to IT&CMA, confirmed its presence as an exhibitor this year as part of a campaign to promote MICE and Incentive Travel to the country.

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onaco, well known for its luxury travel offerings, and previously a visitor to IT&CMA, has confirmed their presence as a destination exhibitor this year as part of a campaign to promote MICE and Incentive Travel to the country.

Benoit Badufle, Managing Director of the Monaco Government Tourist & Convention Bureau Asia c/o Horus Development & Consulting, on their decision to exhibit, “We liked the atmosphere and the quality of the interactions and variety of hosted buyers. The ability to schedule targeted appointments was also an important criterion as we believe in their contribution to a more satisfactory return on investment.”

Since promoting Monaco in the entire Asia region, the country has seen an increase in companies and corporate travel organisers looking at Monaco as an incentive destination. Improved airline route options with direct flights from Asia and Europe, the emergence of Middle East carriers, easing of Visa regulations and a plethora of curated events are just some of the many factors contributing to the gaining popularity amongst buyers as a safe and approachable destination.

Voyager’s World > August 2016

“In the last 5 years, countries like China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and South Korea have emerged as new sources of revenue.

Today, we welcome at least one incentive group from any of these countries each year. More and more companies and incentive travel organisers in Asia trust Monaco for their prestigious projects; that is what we wish to convey to those attending IT&CMA 2016 in Bangkok” Functional meeting venues, world class sports and social events, exclusive luxury experiences, and a vast array of cuisines and street food make Monaco a global and cultural MICE destination offering some of the most concentrated luxury shopping selections in the World.

Apart from these events, Monaco’s strategic location at the centre of the French and Italian Riviera will allow guests to experience 3 different countries during their sojourn – a trademark of the uniqueness of such a small country with over 120 nationalities. Visitors to Monaco can explore the Mediterranean Sea and its exciting activities, the scenic medieval villages of Provence and Liguria as a backdrop plus the Alps, with alpine skiing available 5 months a year, taking home an

unforgettable experience.

Buyers and hosted delegates of IT&CMA 2016 can look forward to being welcomed by experts on Monaco, and the Riviera’s, holding key contacts with suppliers, Destination Management Companies (DMCs), including cultural and F&B offerings in the country. Attendees can expect fun and engaging ideas and suggestions for their incentive projects, including a daily lucky draw to win an amazing familiarisation trip to Monaco with helicopter transfer up for grabs.

IT&CMA 2016 will be held from 27 – 29 September 2016 at the Bangkok Convention Centre at CentralWorld.

It is co-located with the CTW AsiaPacific – The Leading Corporate Travel Management Conference for the Asia-Pacific.

There will also be multiple education and networking opportunities to enhance your knowledge and network with professionals in a single platform. The networking activities are plentiful for buyers and range from hosted luncheons and dinners by sponsors to late night functions and even preshow and post show tours.

IT&CMA will have a dedicated MICE

platform to source. It will be an unbeatable showcase featuring a diverse international selection, and the largest representation of Asia Pacific MICE suppliers with up to 100% pre-scheduled appointments.

The ASEAN MICE Forum @ IT&CMA this year will be held on 27 September. With the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) initiative underway, there is no better time than now for the region’s 10 member nations - Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore,Thailand and Vietnam - to catapult its reach as THE MICE region in Asia.

This brand new forum is the only one of its kind in the world that advances ASEAN’s latest MICE development and insights on an international scale through promotion, awareness and conversation between the region’s key players and the global community.

The emerging ASEAN session brings you up to speed on the latest MICE developments in emerging ASEAN destinations. Hear directly from the authorities on what you can expect from these new entrants to the regional MICE scene.

Travel Events

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Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) Ahmedabad registers success VW BUREAU

Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) commenced its first event outside of Nagpur in Ahmedabad on the 14 and 15 July.

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concept to unleash the Tourism Potential that lies in the Tier 2 and Tier 3 Markets, that took root in Nagpur in 2013, has found wings.

Encouraged by the response from the Exhibitors & Travel Trade, GPS starts its onward journey and has commenced its first event outside of Nagpur in Ahmedabad on 14 July.

The 3 day event started on 14 July at the Courtyard Marriott, with Presentation by various Products such as Starwood Group of Hotels, Trawelltag Covermore, Starcruises and Soft skill development by ITQ, Industry Expert CA Manish Gadia, who touched upon service tax issue that is of prime concern to the industry, and how to Boost your Business in this competitive scenario by Nitin Sachdeva The sessions were attended by over 150 delegates on Day 1. All major Associations such at Travel Agents Association of Gujarat, TAAI, TAFI, ETAA, OTOAI supported the event and were present with its members from areas such as Rajkot, Surat, Baroda, Navsari and far flung small cities of Gujarat. The Gujarat Travel Industry lauded the efforts of GPS and handed over a Trophy of Appreciation to the Founder Harmandeep Singh Anand.

GPS being a pioneer in the B2B business for secondary cities and is the first to launch its event App (GPS), that is powerful and easy to use. This was visible in the registration process, which took care of visitor registration with such ease, and which did not allow crowding and rush at the registration counter. Each visitor, be it a buyer or an exhibitor was encouraged to download the app, which gives them access to a host of benefits. A handbook on Service Tax was launched during the event that is available to all Buyers/ Visitors & Exhibitors on the GPS App as well as the website. GPS Ahmedabad opened its door for Business on Day 2. Mr. Shreeram Patel, ChairmanCRS & Technology Council & Airline

Council for TAAI, Mr. Parak Lakhia – Chairman of Gujarat Chapter, TAAI, Mr. Mukesh Patel – Chairman, South Gujarat Chapter, TAAI, Mr. Hitank Shah – Chairman Gujarat Chapter, TAFI, Mr. Manoj Shah – President Tour Operators & Travel Agents Association of Gujarat, Mr. Rajeev Duggal – Chief Executive Officer - Lavasa Smart City, Mr. Dhananjay Saliankar – Regional Director – South Asia, Starwood Hotels inaugurated the event with the lighting of the lamp and ribbon cutting.

The Business Day of the event started on a promising note and saw agents register and attend the Business day, A total of 520 Trade Visitors & Buyers were seen through out the day. Agents from Rajkot, Surat, Baroda, Bhuj, Jamnagar and other cities of Gujarat attended the show. Agents from the neighboring states such as Rajasthan (Udaipur, Jaipur), Madhya Pradesh (Indore) and Maharashtra were also present at the show.

The Prominent exhibitors at the show were, Star Cruises, Starwood Hotels, Leela Palaces & Hotels, Tathastu Jungle Resort, Tour Oman, Yorker Holidays Services Pvt Ltd, Universal Reosrt, Green Holidays, Glorious DMC, Lavasa Tourism, Themed Attractions & Resorts, Trawelltag Cover More, Royal Arabian Tours LLC, Ottila International, ICS Travel Group, Citymax UAE, The Tripworks, Intergloble, Indigo, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Sheraton Full Moon Resort & Spa - Maldives, Influence Technolabs, Aqua Sun Group, Outbound Konnections Reps Pvt Ltd, Venture Marketing, TBO group, Beachcomber Hotels, Global Destinations, Travcare, South African Tourism, Heavens Portfolio, Atmantan Wellness Centre, etc.

The Business day was well appreciated by all the Exhibitors as well as the Trade Visitors as they felt they had enough time to interact with the suppliers. The B2B session was followed by a Gala networking

Dinner hosted by Genting, Star Cruises and Dream Cruises. The evening dinner saw an attendance over 200 Buyers, exhibitors and Exhibitors Perspective of GPS Ahmedabad It has been a good platform to get opportunity to network and showcase our hotels to Travel agents based from tier 2 and 3 cities. We met agents from cities of Rajkot, Baroda, Surat, Indore and from neighboring states from Rajasthan and Maharashtra – Saugat Nandy, Director – Starwood sales Organisation I frankly feel that stepping out of GPS’s comfort zone(Nagpur) has been a very fruitful initiative. This will assist in establishing GPS as a pan India player. The first initiative of Ahmedabad has been superlative for Lavasa as a domestic Destination and we are confident that this shall get replicated in the other 3 cities – Rajeev Duggal – CEO - Lavasa One of the best shows in many years that has taken place in Ahmedabad . The response has been amazing, and according to us, the best platform for B2B interaction. Seeing agents from neighbouring states such as MP , Rajasthan and smalls cities of Gujarat has proved that this platform is ideal for B2B networking and Education – Manvendra Singh Vaghela – Asst Vice President – Sales, Star Cruises.

A excellent platform to meet with agents from the region. Many of them are already using our property without the knowledge of the product, so for us it was a platform to educate them directly.

This has been an excellent show, with its marketing and PR done to reach out to the trade and to see them attending the event. -Lakshmi Punchihewa – Senior Sales Manager – Citymax Hotels , UAE The response in Ahmedabad has been overwhelming, and the quality of Buyers have been good.

People from Gujarat are looking

for new holiday destinations and products and so the response we have received for Tathastu is very encouraging, We have already generated and enquires for approx.

125 room nights – Kinshuk Agrawal – CEO Tathastu Resorts For Visit Britain is has been an extremely useful platform to reach out to new agents from the smaller cities and educate them on our destination as a well the trade resources that we have. The response from the agents has been encouraging in terms of wider British Products – Vishal Bhatia – B2B Manager, India Always identified GPS as a central India event and this being the first time that they have moved out and come to Ahmedabad, and the response generated from the trade was phenomenal, we have been coming to Ahmedabad very often, however we have been able to meet new agents from Ahmedabad as well as other cities of Gujarat who we were not aware of and with good potential who were not on our database. It would have been a big regret had I missed participating.

– Anjum Lokhandwala – Director – Outbound Konnections Reps Pvt Ltd. This is Atmantan’s first step into gaining visibility in the secondary markets. GPS is an instrumental forum to promote international luxury and integrated wellness in the Gujarat market which has become aware and conscious of making healthier and better lifestyle choices. Athena Salim – General Manager, Atmantan Heavens Portfolio has been associated with GPS for over 3 years and we have always been a part of GPS Nagpur, having experienced the kind of participation in Nagpur we were optimistic about GPS Ahmedabad. We were glad to meet so many trade buyers from all over Gujarat. – Hita Baikampady – Heavens Portfolio.

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India Outbound

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tourism malaysia bets big on e-visa to woo back indian travellers PRIYAMVADHA BALARAM

Noor Azman Samsudin, Director, Tourism Malaysia - Chennai, spoke at length at the IITM Bangalore, about new promotional efforts to bring back Indian tourists after witnessing a dip in the recent past.

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Indian travellers traffic to Malaysia declined by -6.2% as compared to 2014-’15,” says Noor Azman Samsudin, Director - Tourism Malaysia Chennai, while adding that surprisingly the revenue had increased though. “The receipts from India increased by 13.4% due to increase in the high quality travellers coming to our country. They have

more spending power and opt for higher category of accommodation, F&B options and spend more on shopping. From South India, there are more flights operating to Malaysia, hence, the region accounts for 70% of the total Indian tourists coming to our country.”

Noor attributes the decline in the number of Indian tourists to lack of accommodation and partly due to competition from neighbouring countries. Malaysia has a shortage of four and five star category rooms; Genting, in particular, is partially closed as they are developing a huge accommodation facility. “We need more five star hotels and few of the brands are in the pipeline.

Vision for MICE We have a vision to develop a

few places for boosting the MICE movements. Currently, the Putra Jaya Convention Centre has a capacity of 10,000. Yet, we need a lot of inventory for hosting mega events.

As far as incentives are concerned, in 2015, India stood at No. 5 in the Incentive category in Malaysia in terms of tourist expenditure.

will find the E-visa scheme useful.”

Noor added that Tourism Malaysia is aiming to develop East Malaysia - Sabah and Sarawak. The places are popular for ecological and underwater activities. It also bets big on the annual shopping festivals like the 1Malaysia Year End Sale and the 1Malaysia Mega Sales programmes.

Promotional plans “The movie industry in India is definitely one of the pulling factors for us in terms of leisure travellers.

But, we cannot stop there; so, we are introducing packages to see shooting spots of Indian movies.

Also, the E-visa (within 48 hours) introduced recently has lent a big impetus to tourist traffic in the recent past. Those who make sudden and last minute travel plans

Noor observes that presently, the industry has become very competitive as everyone is offering new products. He also notes that pricing is a big challenge, so also the price of oil/fuel. As for security concerns, he asserts that the country places high emphasis on tourist protection. With all these plans in place, Noor expects one million tourist arrivals by the end of this year from India to Malaysia.

get your guide to ease a travel research process IRENE SUSAN EAPEN

GetYour Guide streamlines all the things to do when one travels, thus leaving lesser research to do on part of the traveller, says its Regional Manager SEA Abhinav Kumar. fragmented, mostly taking place in the offline world. We bring world class suppliers offering a wide range of products and high intent customers to our platform allowing us to help travellers turn trips into amazing experiences,” says Abhinav Kumar, the portal’s Regional Manager SEA.

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etYourGuide is an online platform that collects and categorizes everything about travel so that one gets to do more with lesser research. It seeks to help customers discover, explore and book tours, activities and attractions all over the world. “The tour and activity space is extremely

Voyager’s World > August 2016

“We see travellers who are interested in exploring the destinations that they are in as our customers. Currently we have a large customer base originating from Europe and USA; however, as we expand further east, we expect to see more Asian travellers using our platform more frequently as well. The most prominent trend we have seen in the last two years is the

explosion of mobile. We see a large number of travellers booking on the mobile phones, either through our mobile website or app.!”

Promotional plans The portal is investing heavily in having local teams and trying to be as close to the supplier and customer as possible. Some of its services to its suppliers include translating their tour page in over 14 languages, marketing their tours through various channels and optimising their page by providing photography and video services.

“On the customer side, we offer exclusive fenced deal prices, as well as member only discounts that can only be enjoyed if you are a GetYourGuide member,” he adds.

The company is extremely bullish on Asia and sees huge potential in the market. It has introduced customer friendly features and products like skip-the-line tickets and mobile vouchers so they do not need to print tickets before arriving. “We have also setup in-ground teams in Italy, for example, that assists travellers to find their tour operator and helps them with any communication issues if needed. We will be looking at replicating this in other markets as well.” It is in the process of setting up its Asia headquarters in Bangkok from which it will operate its Asian markets. Abhinav concluded that though there is no immediate need to setup an office in India, they would revisit the idea in the future if necessary.

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Incredible India

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Incredible India

destinations strive to innovate in technology to boost mice business VW BUREAU

Destinations, convention bureaus and convention centres are leaving no stone unturned to enhance their MICE venues, products, technology and other services.

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he global MICE industry is witnessing dynamic leaps on the technology front as well as on venue creation front.

The Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (the Centre), continues to invest in information technology (IT) upgrades in order to maintain a competitive advantage and increase its capabilities to meet the rapidly changing needs of business events clients. The upgrades, designed to enhance the delegates and visitors experience, included the installation of LAN (Local Area Network) ports with a bandwidth of 1Gbps and a 20Gbps distribution backbone utilising single mode fibre optic cables. In addition, the Centre recently became the first venue in Malaysia to install a Cisco HDX Wi-Fi system to help manage Wi-Fi throughout the facility and improve its performance.

Richard Soo, the Centre’s IT Manager, shared, “We understand the importance of reliable and fast

Voyager’s World > August 2016

internet connection for the success of our clients’ events. Being a technologically-advanced centre, we need to be able to cater for multiple live 4K video and audio streams, live interactive systems, huge file transfers and muchmore. These upgrades ensure that we can meet this demand now and into the future.

They also provide us with the ability to offer a customised bandwidth allocation should additional support be required by our clients.”

He continued, “Wi-Fi traffic and congestion is a growing concern with the proliferation of devices and parallel multiple connectivity on more than one device such as smartphones and tablets, especially in large public spaces, like the Centre, where multiple users and devices connect to a network.

With the installation of the Cisco HDX system, our Wi-Fi network is able to cope with a higher user density and provide more bandwidth, thus

improving the experience for users.

The new system will also allow us to allocate extra resources to clients should the standard connection not be sufficient for their needs.”

Richard concluded, “A fast, reliable internet connection is critical for business events and is the new norm that will soon become a standard necessity. We also use multiple ISPs to provide link redundancy and ensure a near fail proof internet service for our clients’ critical events. IT infrastructure is becoming an increasingly important deal clincher for business events in today’s technology-driven world. We therefore continuously invest in our IT facilities and services to deliver customised solutions that provide peace of mind to our clients and good connectivity to our delegates and visitors.”

When it comes to onsite innovations and developments at the ground level, corporate chains and

businesses are forever on the look out for new ways to utilize their spending on events to the maximum. Carlson Wagonlit Travel’s Solutions Group recently introduced four new proprietary products to help corporate travel managers both cut costs and engage their travelers in new ways. The new products help reduce non-compliant spending, reclaim surcharges on corporate car rentals, analyze traveler data to reduce cost from traveler behavior and provide comprehensive ground transportation options.

Christophe Renard, Vice President of CWT Solutions Group Worldwide, said, “We are at the forefront of the travel management industry and to stay there, we need to constantly innovate. We are always looking for new ways to capitalize on data insights, and to find more efficiencies by being smart about relationships with both travelers and suppliers.”

According to CWT research, travel

27>> managers don’t have visibility over nearly a third of a company’s Travel and Expense (T&E) spend because it isn’t consolidated in a single data set. The resulting unmanaged spend takes control away from corporate travel managers, potentially increasing costs and reducing corporate buying power.

CWT is helping travel managers take that control back.

ft. of exhibit space and is home to three of the country’s 10 largest convention venues: the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, a 2.0 million-square-foot center on the south Strip; 1.7 million-square-foot Sands Expo and Convention Center (includes 500,000 sq. ft. of The Venetian/Palazzo meeting space); and the 2.2 million-square-foot Las Vegas Convention Center.

Christophe explained, “Our T&E platform automatically consolidates all data sources, including from the travel management company, from credit card spend, and third party suppliers. We use that information to provide an immediate view of all non-compliant spending. We can also reconstruct the total cost of each trip. Travel managers can then have an accurate view of all spending, compliant and noncompliant, enabling them to adjust their policy as necessary, or simply make sure it is better communicated internally.”

In Vegas, with numerous hotels and resorts, meetings can be held on a large scale or intimate setting to suit one’s requirement. Meeting space

As well as understanding T&E spend, it is also important travel managers have a deep understanding of their travellers. Studies show that managing their behaviour properly can bring savings of up to 15 percent. It also helps provide more personalized communication options, which is exactly what travellers are increasingly demanding.

varies widely from a comfortable 200-square foot conference room to a supersized 1 million-square-foot exhibition hall. The facilities offered

by Hotels & Resorts of Las Vegas facilities are modern, high-tech and up-to-date; and with configurable walls, custom convention space is easy to produce.

The myriad entertainment options in Las Vegas like award winning shows in custom designed theaters Offer Avenue for unique meetings and presentations. From the highly artistic Cirque du Soleil showrooms, to vintage Vegas theaters including

the Jubilee, theater at Bally’s and the main showroom at the LVH - Las Vegas Hotel club your business with live entertainment, exciting tours, side trips and everything in between.

The Las Vegas Convention Center Centrally located in the Las Vegas Valley, with convenient access to more than 150,000 hotel rooms and in close proximity to McCarran International Airport, the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) is one of the largest convention centers in America. The Las Vegas Convention Center can accommodate millions of square feet of floor space,

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Suppliers are also very important when it comes to reducing cost.

Car rental companies are including surcharges to corporate travellers when they should not; insurance and refueling fees are the key areas.

CWT’s new audit solution examines all your car rental spending and identifies the savings you can claim back.

Travellers typically are given little or no guidance about local ground transportation - public transportation, taxis, rental cars and so on. The disconnect is that this makes up a significant part of unmanaged spend, as well as potentially adding to traveller confusion. CWT’s new solution gives travel managers the means to guide their travellers to the most appropriate form of transport. It is particularly important with the options changing fast, for example with Uber and Lyft disrupting the traditional market. This both reduces costs and can improve the traveller experience.

More than 100 happy customers from India and abroad

Get in touch now

DESIGNS SPHERE

Email: vinay@designssphere.com info@designssphere.com Mobile: +91 99993 93061

C-57, U/G/Floor, Back Side, Chatter Pur Enclave New Delhi - 110 074, Tel.: 011 6466 4100 www.designssphere.com

Las Vegas has nearly 11 million sq.

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Incredible India

outdoor exhibit space, meeting rooms, training rooms and plenty of parking.

The Las Vegas Convention Center is host to some of the largest conventions and trade shows each year, including the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA), the NAB Show and International CES. The LVCC features the services of Cox Business Advanced Convention Services, which provides all electronic and data services as well as the maintenance of a fully functional business center for clients, vendors and attendees. LVCC has the capability to accommodate cuttingedge and high-tech shows with intelligent technology. A robust fiber backbone links attendees, exhibitors and organizers.

In Vegas, golf, tennis, hiking, biking, extreme sports, boating, water skiing, snowboarding, sightseeing, the list is as long as you want to make it. Vegas and the surrounding area are right in the middle of the beautiful, surprisingly colourful Mojave Desert. There are a lot of surprises waiting just off Las Vegas Boulevard. Travel into the desert and discover some of the best adventures in the west. And while you’re out there, hit up the zip line through the desert canyons in Boulder City.

Voyager’s World > August 2016

All of this innocent, outdoor activity is sure to impress your friends, but a stop by the Hoover Dam will impress you even more. Pictures don’t do this man-made wonder justice. And you’re so close to getting to see it with your own eyes. Stand in two time zones at once on the middle of the dramatic Mike O’CallaghanPat Tillman Memorial Bridge, travel down inside the turbine room or marvel at the art deco architecture.

Similarly, Singapore is making strides towards its ambition to become a technology thought leader through a slew of business events secured in various sectors like information and medical technologies.

Scheduled for 2016 and beyond, the technology-centric MICE (Meetings, Incentive Travel, Conventions & Exhibitions) events range from globally renowned meetings to regional conventions making their debuts in Singapore.

They are expected to attract the brightest minds and will provide delegates with compelling content and opportunities to exchange knowledge with local and regional leaders.

Singapore is set to play a key role in the future of the Internet and cyber security with two pinnacle events in the field of Information Technology

(IT) – the ISACA Cybersecurity Nexus (CSX) Asia Pacific in November 2016, and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) 100 meeting in November 2017.

Both events are expected to bring in approximately 2,500 IT engineers and developers from all over the world to Singapore to explore initiatives on new Internet framework development and cyber security structure enhancements for Internet users worldwide.

Said Tim Mason, ISACA Chief Marketing Officer: “Singapore’s strategic location as the centre of Southeast Asia makes the Lion City an ideal place to demonstrate our cyber security capabilities, and allows us to reach out to regional visitors who will bring further diversity and sophistication as they interact with our attendees. That, along with Singapore’s big push to become a smart, connected city, made it a relatively easy decision for ISACA.” Singapore’s strong destination attributes have also won over event organizers entering Southeast Asia for the first time – like the Asia Pacific MedTech Forum (November 2016) and the 14th International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications and Services (Mobisys)

(June 2016) – and those who have made the city state their long-term home like Echelon Asia Summit (June 2016), InnovFest unBound (May 2016) and the Tech in Asia conferences (April 2016). Into its second edition, the Asia Pacific MedTech Forum is a trailblazer in the medical technology community.

The Forum was created following the formation of the Asia Pacific Medical Technology Association (APACMed), who identified the unmet need to advance the standards of patient care in the region and sought to address it.

The upcoming technology business events further attest to Singapore’s stature as a leading MICE destination in Asia. The city state welcomed about 3 million BTMICE (Business Travel and Meetings, Incentive Travel, Conventions and Exhibitions) travellers in 2015, and pulled in over $4.5 billion in BTMICE tourism receipts.

With destinations rapidly competing with one another to organise the maximum events, quantum leaps in technology and innovation in solutions and event venues will prompt destinations and convention bureaus to drive more investments and manpower to sustain and stay ahead in the MICE race!

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India Poised to Be Top Six Business Travel Market by 2019: gbta VW BUREAU

India is today the fastest growing business travel market worldwide as also the 10th largest market in the world, says a finding by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) report.

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he Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) Foundation, the voice of the global business travel industry, today announced the results of its latest GBTA BTI™ Outlook – India report, a semi-annual analysis that relates unfolding economic events at home and abroad to their resulting impacts on India’s business travel market. The report, sponsored by Visa Inc., reveals continued double digit business travel spending growth for India, making it one of today’s fastest growing business travel markets in the world.

“If it continues on its current path, India is poised to be a world leader in business travel for decades to come,” said Gaurav Sundaram,

GBTA India regional director. “The growth rate of business travel in India is on par with other leading industries in the country showing once again business travel playing an important role as a driver of economic growth and jobs.”

The report forecasts 10.7% growth in business travel spending in 2016, followed by another 10.2 percent in 2017 reaching $36.1 billion USD. India remains the 10th largest business travel market in the world, moving up five spots since 2000.

GBTA expects India will continue to ascend the market rankings and is likely to jump four spots over the next five years, becoming the 6th largest business travel market in the world by the end of 2019. India

is expected to leapfrog Brazil this year and could surpass both South Korea and Italy in 2017. It also shows business travel as one of the top growth sectors in India, growing at the same rate as high technology services and slightly behind land and pipeline transport and real estate and business activities.

Additional highlights of the report India’s economic growth accelerated in 2015 reaching an average of 7.3 percent for the fiscal year, meaning the 7th largest economy registered the fastest GDP growth rate in the world. Private consumption and public infrastructure spending were the principal drivers of growth over 2015, and to continue the same pace of economic growth over the

M.I.C.E SCAN

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The Ashok wins 'Best Hotel Based Meeting Venue' award

September 18, 19, 20, 21 IATO Convention 2016, Chennai

27, 28, 29 IT&CM Asia, Bangkok, Thailand

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he Ashok, New Delhi was awarded with National Tourism Award 2016 held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi under the category of Best Hotel Based Meeting Venue. All the meetings, events and exhibition venues at the property provide high flexibility and cater to a diverse range of convention and banquet requirements thus making it one of the most popular MICE hotels in the city.

LICC launches enriched offerings for customers

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angkawi International Convention Centre (LICC) launched enhanced half-day and fullday meeting and dinner packages and additional value-adds as free return transfer pickup and other discounts. They can have a meeting with lunch and tea break at RM160 nett and RM180 nett per person for half and full day meeting packages respectively, with complimentary use of LCD projector, screen, flipchart, whiteboard and two microphones.

CWT innovates to reduce costs and increase personalization

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arlson Wagonlit Travel’s Solutions Group introduced four new proprietary products to help corporate travel managers both cut costs and engage their travelers in new ways.

The new products help reduce non-compliant spending, reclaim surcharges on corporate car rentals, analyze traveler data to reduce cost from traveler behavior and provide comprehensive ground transportation options.

Currently the WEC’s Global Competitiveness Report ranks India 74 out of 140 countries, but as India continues to invest in public infrastructure projects, we expect these rankings will improve.

Domestic spending will be the key driver of overall business travel performance in India over the forecast horizon as GBTA expects domestic business travel growth in 2016 and 2017 to reach 11.5% and 10.3% respectively.

CALENDAR 2016

Ras Al Khaimah promotes MICE products at MILT Congress he Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (TDA) highlighted itself as a perfect MICE & Luxury destination at MICE India and Luxury Travel Congress (MILT) 2016 held in Mumbai on 28 & 29 July 2016. Ras Al Khaimah TDA’s Shaji Thomas, Director, Destination Tourism Development and Mohamed Khater, Senior Tourism Development Manager were present at the event. The emirate also sponsored prizes for the winners of lucky draw then.

next two years, rural consumption and private investment must join in. India’s insufficient infrastructure continues to present a significant impediment to sustainable growth, but vast improvements are in the pipeline.

October 13, 14, 15 MICE Industry, St. Petersburg, Russia

24, 25, 26, 27 Sports & Events Tourism Exchange, Pretoria, South Africa

November 13, 14, 15, 16 ICCA Congress 2016, Kuching, Malaysia 16, 17 Hotel Investment Forum India (HIFI) 2016, Mumbai

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Online Travel

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stir a trip experience with tips from friends and followers IRENE SUSAN EAPEN

Mazen Jundi, Founder & CEO, Tripstir, highlights how through the app, one can search for recommendations using combinations by checking with others who would visit a place at the same time. date combination to see where others are planning to go. One can take tips from friends and see other users who live in a given city and the ones who are going to be visiting at the same time.

“You can also see people who have been to that city in the past,” begins Mazen Jundi, Founder & CEO of Tripstir, while talking about the importance of the Indian market for the app.

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ripstir is the new social travel platform that helps people share and discover travel plans, recommendations and experiences with friends and followers.

One can search a user or city and

“Tripstir is a global app so the Indian market is important. In today’s globalized world everyone is interconnected so it doesn’t quite matter where they are based.

We have noticed several hundred downloads come from the Indian

market on the appstore and the app is already available in India.”

“Many times we would travel and not know if we were going to overlap with people we know in another city during a given time frame. So I wanted to create a platform that would centralize all that information so that people can know in advance of their travel that they will overlap with and maybe even get some inspiration on where to go based on other people’s travel plans.”

The app allows you to plug in your future travel plans and then shows you all the overlaps. It will keep checking if other friends will have similar travel plans to you and notify you accordingly.

It can track all the destinations that a user has visited on an interactive map of the world. It focuses on helping people discover any and all overlapping travel plans among friends, family, workmates and social media followers.

With over 35 countries using the app, all of Tripstir’s promotions are word-of-mouth and earned media through the likes of TechCrunch.

The travel industry could benefit from this data and offer users special promotions, discounts, packages for their specific trips since they know where they are planning to go or what their specific interests are.

now a safety verified users app to empower women travellers IRENE SUSAN EAPEN

Women can find other women by travel date, country and travel preferences, through Tourlina, says Sandra Preuss, the Co-founder of the app.

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ourlina, the new player on the app front, is for women only and for those women who prefer a female travel companion. It verifies every new user and enables them to connect before or while they travel.

As soon as a person enters a destination, they can discover matching travel companions with mutual interests, destination and

Voyager’s World > August 2016

travel time. Sandra Preuss, the app’s Co-Founder, says that it empowers women to travel more safely. “Only verified users will show-up for others and only verified users can chat with others. We are not aware of any other women related app, with such a safety feature. Women can find other women by travel date, country and travel preferences, e.g. like to stay in hotel or a hostel, like to have night life, and several more.”

Tourlina connects women based on their future travel plans. Of course, they can connect as well with other female travelers while they travel, e.g. for one evening in Bangkok or for a part of their trip.

Women find more meaningful and long lasting connections with other

women and make lifelong friendships as Tourlina connections are based on shared interest in travel and socialising.

The services of this app include the safety check of every new user. The matching algorithm to find travel companions which fit the same travel preferences.

Countries using this app Presently, Tourlina has users from more than 100 countries and its strong user base are in USA, UK, Dubai, Singapore and Germany.

Expansion plans to other countries “We will soon launch a Spanish version of Tourlina followed by the launch in other languages. We already registered the domain Tourlina.in and

do have a fast growing number of users from India.”

Solo travellers Female travel and solo female travel is a very fast growing travel market.

According to several market studies, new technologies like apps and social media make it easier for women to travel alone.

Promotional activities Tourlina is engaging in a lot of partnerships with leading female travel bloggers. “We will soon work together with leading travel booking brands and airlines. The Android version of Tourlina is under development and will be available by end of 2016,” Sandra stated. She is expecting a strong growth rate and a lot of word-of-mouth marketing from its enthusiastic users.

Online Travel

travel planning now enhanced with sharing ideas on app IRENE SUSAN EAPEN

Joshua Rau, Co-founder & CEO, Excursion-Social Travel Planning, explains how the new app can help one plan a trip through tips and ideas from friends. founder & CEO of the app.

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ith a proliferation of apps to enhance travel planning experience, the Excursion App helps plan trips based on recommendations from friends and share trip ideas with others. “The app has become a vibrant community of thousands of travellers sharing tens of thousands of plans and already has many users in India,” said Joshua Rau, Co-

“One of the benefits in using Excursion is that plans can be made for almost anywhere in the world.

We are seeing that plans are being developed for places all throughout India for domestic travel. Travel planning is something that needs to stay flexible and we have noticed that many of the plans people make in Excursion are not focused around specific days. We have embraced this by not forcing users to make plans the way they want them to - but to allow for the most flexibility in making open format plans.”

Features Excursion is on iOS and plans can be shared via mobile web. An Android

version is under development and the scheduled date is yet to be announced. “Some of the main features are to help travellers plan a trip are the ability to add points of interest, custom locations and multiple days to their plan. Users can search for recommended places in the app (we use Foursquare database) or search directly for something they read about in a guidebook or a blog. Notes can be added to each item in the plan to remember what to do there, why the place is special or to give advice to people who use the plan later. All of this can be taken offline and used with GPS to follow the recommended route.”

Excursion targets the tech savvy

users aged between 25 and 34 years. “Our biggest audience is in the United States but other countries where English is widely spoken are markets that we are seeing increased adaption in.”

Benefits to the travel industry “Excursion is good for the travel industry because it is a new way to get distribution of content to an engaged and social tech savvy audience. We are in discussions with hotel and tour distribution companies about using our app as a platform for reaching this new audience. We are also developing a “pro” version for travel agents that will help agents communicate travel plans directly with their clients in a more direct way,” he concluded.

airport lounge access is no longer an expensive luxury IRENE SUSAN EAPEN

Tyler Dikman, CEO, LoungeBuddy, talks about the offerings of the app that aim to make an airport experience more productive and pleasant for the traveller. can enjoy a more seamless airport experience.”

“

LoungeBuddy is much more than an app as its main focus is to help travellers to have a more productive and pleasant airport experience,” says its CEO Tyler Dikman. “We have carefully built the company into a global platform that helps travel agents, concierges and other travel managers book VIP airport lounge access for their clients so that they

managers and concierges provide personalized recommendations to their clients.”

The app has two free-to-download Apps for iPhone and Android.

LoungeBuddy provides two main services like Booking Access for travellers without access, travel managers can use brand new Agent Booking Tool or website to purchase a lounge day pass for their client in advance of their trip or instantly when the client is at the airport.

Tyler says that airport lounge access is no longer an expensive luxury, rather a necessity for today’s productivity on-the-go travellers. “At a median price of $35 USD per entry with no contracts or commitments, it is an effortless and affordable alternative to the crowded and noisy departure terminal.”

“Currently, we offer bookings at 130+ partner locations throughout India, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Southeast Asia, and more. The Lounge Data is for travellers who already have airport lounge access; we can help travel

Lounge tour Tyler assures that one can get a lounge tour in seconds through the app by viewing operating hours, walking directions, amenities, and over a 100,000 photos, ratings and reviews from its members.

Usage of the app “We cover more than 2,500 lounges in more than 800 airports worldwide and hundreds of additional lounge partner locations are planned for the next few quarters. Our booking service is already available in a number of airports through India, like Kempegowda International Airport (BLR), Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL), and Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (HYD).”

“LoungeBuddy benefits the aviation industry in many ways through its services and on the booking side, we help travel managers provide an extra special experience to their most valued customers through easy-to-use and innovative booking tools,” he ended.

www.voyagersworld.in

Flight Talk

32>>

airline technology aims to redefine air product sales & distribution IRENE SUSAN EAPEN

Varun Bansal, Director, Airlines Technology, cautions agents against resisting change to avoid becoming obsolete when it comes to sales of air products. their income will fall down. But they are wrong here. Resisting change will only make them obsolete. It will be huge volume game. Anybody who will not adopt will lose its customers to one’s who adopt early,” he says.

A

irlines Technology is an IT solution provider that works closely on International Air Transport Association (IATA)’s affiliated New Distribution Capability (NDC) initiative. Varun Bansal, Director of Airlines Technology, observes that airlines are more than happy to adopt NDC as they would be able to sell more services, have higher retention ration and more, at a much lower cost. “Travel agents are still resisting this idea as they will

NDC aims at allowing the travel industry to transform the way air products are sold to corporations, leisure and business travellers by addressing current distribution limitations like product differentiation and time-to-market, access to full and rich air content and transparent shopping experience.

Services offered Aiming to become the preferred choice of airlines and OTAs, Airlines Technology is following NDC standards and is certified by IATA as highest level 3 NDC Capable. “As an aggregator , we will be middle

layer between airlines and travel agents and help them to show all the rich content available on airlines websites directly on travel agents portals.”

Travel agents can see a flight’s price and departure time on their website. But this would change once the company has implemented its solution which would enable travellers to see other on board services like how one’s meal will look like, seat selection, flight map directly on agents portal. One can book other facilities like lounge, wheelchair, porter or any additional facility available. “In IT solutions, we are enabling airlines and OTAs to be ready for by implementing NDC enabled solutions. We have unique adapters which will help them to adopt the new system without dealing much with existing

VADODARA NAGPUR VIZAG AMRITSAR COIMBATORE

Voyager’s World > August 2016

: : : : :

reservation systems.” Being a B2B platform, the company does not promote itself to everybody. It attends a lot of airlines distribution conferences to network and meet potential new clients and partners.

Varun adds that they take help from mentors and investors for industry contacts.

Technology and innovation “Our plan is to execute and start delivering what we had tested and created till now. We are ready and going fast now. Technology and Innovation was missing in aviation from past 30-40 years. We had been using same legacy systems and nothing new or path breaking had happened. With our solutions and NDC standards, the world is going to see something extremely fresh, innovative, transparent and time efficient reservations,” he signs off.

19, 20, 21 August 2016 14, 15, 16 October 2016 4, 5, 6 November 2016 16, 17, 18 December 2016 20, 21, 22 January 2017

Flight Talk

33>>

enhancement in traffic rights will benefit india further David Lim, General Manager India, Singapore Airlines, talks about how the new Civil Aviation could work to mutually benefit India and Singapore Airlines.

PRIYAMVADHA BALARAM

David Lim, General Manager - India, Singapore Airlines

Bilaterals is a government-to- government discussion, where SIA has no direct involvement. However, we believe that the enhancement in traffic rights will benefit India further, by increasing the inbound travel potential for business and leisure purposes.

T

he recently announced Civil Aviation Policy by the Government of India intends to make flying available to the masses by making it affordable and convenient, establish an integrated eco-system which will lead to significant growth of the civil aviation sector to promote tourism, employment and balanced regional growth, enhance regional connectivity through fiscal support and infrastructure development and enhance ease of doing business through deregulation, simplified procedures and e-governance.

The policy is very comprehensive, covering 22 areas of the Civil Aviation sector. Its salient features are as follows: Regional Connectivity Scheme • This scheme will come into effect in the second quarter of 2016-17 • Airfare of about Rs2500 per passenger for a one-hour flight This will be implemented by way of: • Revival of airstrips/airports as No-Frills Airports at an indicative cost of Rs.50 crore to Rs100 crore •Demand driven selection of Airports/airstrips for revival in consultation with State Govts and airlines • Viability Gap Funding (VGF)to airline operators • RCS only in those states which reduce VAT on ATF to 1% or less, provide other support services and 20% of VGF • Concessions by Stakeholders • There will be no airport charges • Reduced Service tax on tickets (on 10% of the taxable value) for 1 year initially • Reduced Excise duty at 2% on ATF picked at RCS airports • State government will provide

police and fire services free of cost.

Power, water and other utilities at concessional rates • Creation of Regional Connectivity fund for VGF through a small levy per departure on all domestic flights other than Cat II/ Cat IIA routes, RCS routes and small aircraft below 80 seats at a rate as decided bythe Ministry from time to time Route Dispersal Guidelines (RDG) • Category I to be rationalized based on a transparent criteria, i.e., flying distance of more than 700km, average seat factor of 70% and above and annual traffic of 5 lakh passengers • The percentage of Cat.I traffic to be deployed on Cat.II, and IIA will remain the same while for CATIII it will be 35%. Routes to Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh included in Category II • Revised categorization to apply from winter schedule of 2017 • There view of routes will be done

by MoCA once every5 years • Withdrawal or revision of domestic operations to and within North East Region etc, subject to full compliance of RDG, can be done under prior intimation to MoCA at least three months before withdrawal or revision of the service Bilateral Traffic Rights • GoI will enter into ‘Open Sky’ ASA on a reciprocal basis with SAARC countries and countries located beyond 5000 km from Delhi • For countries within 5000 km radius, where the Indian carriers have not utilised 80% of their capacity entitlements but foreign carriers /countries have utilised their bilateral rights, a method will be recommended by a Committee headed by Cabinet Secretary for

the allotment of additional capacity entitlements • Whenever designated carriers of India have utilised 80% their capacity entitlements, the same will be renegotiated in the usual manner.

Ground Handling Policy • The Ground Handling Policy/ Instructions/Regulations will be replaced by a new framework.

• The airport operator will ensure that there will be three Ground Handling Agencies (GHA) including Air India’s subsidiary/JV at all major airports as defined in AERA Act • At non-major airports, the airport operator to decide on the number of ground handling agencies, based on the traffic output, airside and terminal building capacity • All domestic scheduled airline operators including helicopter operators will be free to carry out self-handling at all airports through their regular employees • Hiring of employees through manpower supplier or contract workers will not be permitted for security reasons .

The policy is, therefore, expected to ensure as well as enable greater regional connectivity as well as encourage more domestic travel.

Besides, the amendment to the 5/20 rule is sure to have a positive effect on operating capabilities for international travel, giving customers a wider array of airlines to choose from.

David Lim, General Manager of India, Singapore Airlines, talks about how the policy can help lend a boost to the carrier. He says that there are

a lot of new opportunities that the new Civil Aviation Policy can open up for Singapore Airlines. “We applaud the Indian Government’s efforts to introduce a comprehensive Civil Aviation Policy, taking into account the best interests of all stakeholders in the industry. The proposed aviation policy empowers the domestic carriers to fly international as well as widens the Indian skies with regional connectivity.”

The policy states that for countries within 5000 km radius, where the Indian carriers have not utilized 80% of their capacity entitlements but foreign carriers/countries have utilized their bilateral rights, a method will be recommended by a Committee headed by Cabinet Secretary for the allotment of additional capacity entitlements.

“Today, combined with SilkAir, our regional wing, we operate 97 weekly flights from 11 cities (Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Visakhapatnam, and Thiruvananthapuram) in India.

While the political capital - Delhi and economic capital - Mumbai continue to be our most productive markets, we have witnessed significant uptake from all other markets including the likes of Ahmedabad, Kochi, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram, to name a few.”

“Bilaterals is a government-togovernment discussion, where SIA has no direct involvement. However, we believe that the enhancement in traffic rights will benefit India further, by increasing the inbound travel potential for business and leisure purposes,” he concluded.

www.voyagersworld.in

34>>

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Voyager’s World > August 2016

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Adventure

35>>

niche adventure activities gain momentum among indians IRENE SUSAN EAPEN

Greeshmanth Koganti, Co-Founder, Mojhi.com, observes the shift of preferences by Indian travellers when it comes to adventure itineraries.

4000 adventures and 350 operators across three countries listed on the platform.

I

ndian travellers are looking for something more to do on their vacations which is reflecting in their preference in buying as well as in opting more activities during their vacation or planning their vacations around adventure activities.

Mojhi.com is a marketplace for adventure activities. It has over

“Adventure tourism is growing at more than 100% year on year as per our estimates. Adventure tour operators have also responded to this increased demand. We are seeing a huge influx of adventure tour companies who are offering world-class services across a range of budgets; for 2016 this trend will continue to grow,” says Greeshmanth Koganti, the Cofounder of Mojhi.com.

Marketing Plans “The growth in 2015 has been a fantastic for both Indian travellers and inbound travellers from abroad. We are planning to have

marketing campaigns for 2016.

We are looking for strategic tie-ups for some cross promotions. We are also planning various social media contests including one exclusively for bloggers.”

Trends “We are seeing a distinct shift from single-day activities to multi-day activities. Trekking has picked up with more and more treks and routes being explored and discovered daily.

Rafting has always been the favorite for a quick adventure activity that can be enjoyed over a period of a few hours. But niche activities such as whitewater kayaking have also started to build momentum.”

adventure tour operators as most of them are professionals who have decided to go away from the beaten path this will create maturity to the industry as the awareness for safety increases and the quality of service is also going up.”

“Some of the people I know have started their own tour companies in Bangalore are mostly techies who have quit their jobs. We need to have an industry body that can regulate this industry and is important that all the stakeholders get together and build this association and bring self-regulation. This will not only help bring the awareness in the level of safety up and will also boost growth in the sector.”

“One of the major trends that we have noticed is the influx of new

India is preferred adventure destination for Chinese travellers VW BUREAU

India is one of the top destinations for the Chinese millennials personas - Experience Seekers, Indulgers and Basic Pleasure Seekers, says a report by Hotels.com.

I

ndia is one of the top destinations for the Chinese millennials personas - Experience Seekers, Indulgers and Basic Pleasure Seekers. India was ranked 3rd as a popular destination for Local Culture Exploration, and 4th as a popular destination for Adventure by Chinese travellers.

Abhiram Chowdhry, Vice President and Managing Director Asia Pacific for the Hotels.com brand said: “The personas should encourage the market to think about Chinese travellers in a new light: “Perceptions of Chinese travellers as group bus tour groups wanting only Chinese breakfasts and Mandarin translations are out dated. Our research shows that

Chinese travellers are more diverse and sophisticated than ever before.”

Hotels.com predicts Chinese millennials spend 27% of their income on travel. As Chinese international travellers grow in affluence and sophistication, Hotels. com™ has diverged them into five unique travel personas in their fifth annual Chinese International Travel Monitor. The survey used Ipsos, a world leader in market research, which in May 2016 surveyed 3,000 Chinese travelers. To complement this data with opinions of hoteliers, Hotels.com carried out a global survey of 5,800 accommodation partners.

The travel personas highlight the

varying travel styles and behaviours whilst identifying the rise of young, independent and ambitious millennial travellers.

Hotels.com predicts millennials as the fastest growing segment with the group spending over a quarter (27 percent) of their income on international travel, based on survey data. From the above identified travel personas by Hotels.com, India is one of the top destinations for Chinese millennials that fall in the classification of Experience Seekers, Indulgers and Basic Pleasure Seekers.

Likely due to the slowing economy, Chinese travellers surveyed tightened their belts in 2015 by

spending 17 percent less per day on average from 2014. Despite this, one-third plan to spend more on travel in the coming year and they are still amongst the biggest spenders on tourism (average spend of US$3,455 per year among those surveyed) when compared to travelers from around the world.

Excluding accommodation, Chinese travellers mostly spent their money on shopping, dining and sightseeing.

When it comes to looking at how countries are ranked in terms of attractions, Australia came top of the list as a sightseeing destination, ahead of Japan and Hong Kong. But Hong Kong was the number one choice for shopping, followed by Japan and South Korea.

www.voyagersworld.in

Cover Story

36>>

indian wedding events join the startup bandwagon!!!

IRENE SUSAN EAPEN

The Indian wedding industry’s potential is being utilized to the maximum by startups with the segment expected to only grow every year with novelty in its trends.

Priyal Sheth, Founder & CEO, Marriager.com

The market is growing in terms of wedding start-ups as the Indian wedding industry is a huge market with a lot of potential, with the constant innovation, the growth in the next 10 to 15 years will ricochet to new heights.

W

edding startups are booming in India with a number of unique locations being promoted, as people are looking forward to going to new places and experiencing different cultures This segment is also promoting the tourism industry in a big way as destination weddings are getting more popular, You can get multiple vendors in destination wedding cities. Wedding startups are targeting honeymoons, destination

bachelor and bachelorette parties.

Wedding tourism is slowly growing right from e-commerce wedding startups to vendor discovery startups, end to end portals and apps. The industry is expected to grow rapidly in the coming few years. Technology has also changed the outlook on the industry as you get to access multiple vendors and can always look for different budgets and styles.

According to an estimate, INR 100,000 crore is spent only on weddings in India, Now that there is a lot of money to tap and a few players in market, the growth is expected at an exponential level in the coming year.

Startups promoting weddings Mehak Sagar, Co-Founder, WedMeGood, says, “Weddings and tourism have always been complementary industries, however while earlier this was limited to the honeymoon, a whole slew of cultural changes are ensuring that wedding startups are promoting the tourism industry.”

Kanishk Pandey, Co-Founder, Planningwale, states, “Destination weddings are a major contributor in wedding industry in tourism.

Weddings now are not a day affair.

The big budget weddings last for at least three days while small and medium budget weddings last up to 5 days in some cases.”

Mehak explains, “Destination weddings are becoming more popular as there are so much easier to plan with wedding start-ups where you can find multiple vendors in destination wedding cities at a click of a button which of course, has impacted the tourism industry positively.”

“By tying up with other portals such as Airbnb and generating unique content, wedding startups are also promoting honeymoons, destination bachelor and bachelorette parties.

By sharing details about trending destinations, hidden gems, great deals etc. encouraging people to travel to new places and experience

Voyager’s World > August 2016

different cultures,” she added.

Kanishk says, “A five-day wedding means a lot of time for sightseeing and the guests pour in from all parts of the country and abroad. In peak wedding seasons Hotels report 100 percent occupancy for most days.

At heritage locations it is a 4 month long festival from local vendors to artists everyone is at the prime of their business.”

Manas Wadhwa, Co-Founder & CEO,Weddingplz.com says, “We have a lot of international clients coming over for a destination wedding in India from countries like China and Germany. As a wedding startup we have tried to explore unique venues and destinations like farm houses and destinations.”

“Most of the destination weddings are done with pre shoots in places like Agra, Udaipur, Jaipur, and Delhi.

Our real wedding section with real photographs and stories on weddings and honeymoons is creating more and more viral impact on people for more options. Real weddings and Photo gallery is a visual inspiration board which showcases thousands of photographs of the latest wedding trending ideas, themes and styles that are currently in vogue,” he added.

Growth in Wedding startups In the opinion of Mehak, “The market is growing slowly. There are various kinds of startups at either end of the spectrum right from e commerce wedding startups to vendor discovery startups, to online wedding magazine and end to end portals and apps.”

Cover Story

Weddingplz.com

37>>

Mehak Sagar, Co-Founder, WedMeGood

A slew of cultural changes are ensuring that wedding startups are promoting the tourism industry. Destination weddings are becoming more popular with multiple vendors across cities. Startups are also encouraging people to travel to new places and experience different cultures.

“We expect this industry to grow rapidly in the coming few years. With more and more couples choosing to pay for elements of their own wedding, you can expect more online avenues to come together.” she added.

Kanishk says,“ Since the startup boom wedding startups have also kicked in specially last year when the growth was phenomenal.

We saw several new players with their unique ways to organize the industry.”

Priyal Sheth, Founder & CEO, Marriager.com explains, The market has been improving and growing in terms of wedding start-ups, be it marketplaces or individuals catering to the wedding industry. The Indian wedding industry definitely has a lot of potential, and has always been a huge industry. With constant innovation, the growth in the next 10 to 15 years will ricochet to new heights.”

Manas explains, “The wedding industry is huge market in India and there should be 4 to 5 players to handle the industry. We have noticed 800% quarter to quarter growth and are expecting the same for this year. We are operational in 5 cities Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Ludhiana and Chandigarh. We are planning to present in 25 cities by the end of 2017.”

Wedding startups to be big players in the industry Mehak says, “Using technology and being an aggregator means having access to thousands of vendors across India which means you can serve different types of budgets and styles in terms of consumers. You can personalise a user’s experience using technology by ensuring he doesn’t waste time in finding the right vendor or the right inspiration for his style. Being a ‘big player’ means being able to serve every customers need and technology helps you do that.”

Kanishk said “Technology attracts everything when it is mixed with glamor and bling it is a whole new recipe. Wedding startups are using the same idea. Earlier wedding planning was considered to be a huge task not now though as startups have made it so easy to organize any event with push of a few buttons. They have reduced travelling and inadequate payment structures and also brought a little competition among the vendors hence ensuring better services.”

In the opinion of Priyal, “The Indian wedding industry is a different entity as compared to the global wedding industry. Understanding that pulse, the beating heart at the crux of the industry and using it to innovate and move the product forward is one of the ways where wedding start-ups can succeed. While we are moving forward, we need to bear in mind the traditions and cultures that are imperative to the industry as a whole and use it to our advantage. “ Manas explains, “As an industry it is

growing by 25%, the growth will be 10 times in 5years. In 5 years India will be an organized industry where in the vendor can be booked in 5 minutes.”

Challenges Mehak explains, “The industry is still an old school industry and takes the longest time to adapt to technology. You are typically dealing with freelancer vendors or old school vendors who are very new to the online space. It is also an industry with so many different sub industries that you cannot have a one size fits all approach and every category needs a unique approach to solve it.”

“The industry is very old and has been following the conventional rule of planning for years. The most difficult task for wedding startups is to make the industry unlearn the outdated methods and make them understand how technology can benefit them.” Kanishk added.

www.voyagersworld.in

Cover Story

Weddingplz.com

Himadri Mukherjee

38>>

Kanishk pandey, Co-Founder, PlanningWale

The startup boom experienced a phenomenal growth in weddings.

Wedding startups reduced travelling, inadequate payment structures and competition among vendors ensures better services.

Manas Wadhwa,Co-Founder & CEO, Weddingplz.com

The wedding industry is a huge market in India and there should be 4 to 5 players to handle the industry. We noticed 800% quarter to quarter growth and are expecting the same for this year. The industry is growing by 25%, the growth will be 10 times in five years.

Marketing Plans Mehak says, “One of the biggest events that we will be a part of in 2016 is Bridal Asia in Mumbai and New Delhi. The event sees a huge footfall of potential brides to be and is a great place for us to connect with our target audience.

We will have a stall at the event with engaging activities as well be deeply embedded in their promotions.

Apart from that all our marketing plans are usually online.”

Kanishk said “Currently we are preparing for the wedding season 2016-17. We are planning 5 destination wedding from scratch in the month of December and January. We also have a few local weddings as well.”

Priyal explains, “Our marketing plans are focusing on 20 - 30% getting quality users and 60-70 % to strengthen our database of vendors so as to maintain a stronghold in the industry and to cater better to our consumers.”

Manas says, “We will participate in a lot of wedding events like bridal Asia, vogue wedding show, Indian

Voyager’s World > August 2016

wedding fair, Photo Orange, Runway Rising,Great Wedding Carnival, Great Winter Carnival, Grand Affair , Fairytale’s Event, International Convention of Wedding Fraternity, Bridal Runway.

New initiatives planned up like campaigns and promotions for 2016 Manas said, “ A lot of our promotions are done on Social media promotion and Instagram, campaigns depending on the content like T & J Jewellery, The Man Company, Parul Tyagi “69 things i wish i knew before getting married”, Exotic Wedding Planning conference - campaign.

Priyal states, “We are looking at introducing campaigns catering to the various aspects of wedding planning. Our launch campaign summarized our take on the modern Indian bride. We called it “The Monroesque Bride” that highlighted about the contemporary, confident and sassy Indian bride and her bridesmaids. We focused the campaign around the camaraderie of a wedding right from the fashion trends to beauty to hair trends in tandem with the top wedding

vendors in the market, including Manish Malhotra, JW Marriott Mumbai Juhu, Maybelline and many more. Apart from that we also incorporated various decor aspects into the mix. We feel like such campaigns garner more audience engagement and spread awareness about the brand as a whole.”

Trends The concept of pre-wedding shoots and different agendas for each of the ritual before the marriage have changed dramatically. People want a 360 degree lift to the entire wedding planning for all the rituals.

Manas says, “The trends we have noticed so far are that weddings are becoming more expensive and more lavish. Earlier there was no pre wedding shot before 4 to 5 years back now it is a strong trend as a lot of couple requires pre wedding shot.”

“Earlier parents or family elders were the decision makers with time the age has reduced but the trend is the same. Everybody wants an economical and hassle free wedding. The smart generation

knows the importance of time so they are all in for whatever services wedding startups have to order.”

Kanishk added.

In the opinion of Priyal, “People willing to experiment and are looking at innovation for the different functions of their wedding. e.g. Couples today are looking at different themes for their events; the younger couples are also looking at more intimate dos as well. Decor and fashion is continuously evolving and you see brides and grooms actively participating in the evolution.”

“The reception concept has gotten a thorough facelift where now couples are doing away with the mundane task of standing up on a stage and smiling; they now prefer to mingle with their guests and close ones and rid them of the formality.

“Another concept is rising where the contemporary couples are having the traditional ceremonies in a close knit function with their families and relatives and then flying off to another location or locally even to celebrate with their intimate group of friends.” she concluded.

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40>>

FESTIVALS OF 12-15 August, 2016

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his Tokushima festival takes place from 12-15 August in Tokushima City with folkdances performed to welcome the souls of ancestors in the Bon season. The Awa-Odori is characterized by irregular steps and by the jovial and energetic up-tempo rhythm into groups of men and women, the dancer’s parade through the city while dancing to music played on drums and gongs .The excitement reaches fever in various parts of the city, Odori Hiroba where spectators can also join in the dancing.

Awa Odori Dance Festival, Tokushima City, Japan

25-28 August, 2016

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at Drink SF is an annual food, wine, and spirits festival that celebrates the Bay Area’s world-class chefs and restaurants.The four days of the event will include a signature grand tasting experience. This Grand Tasting will feature bars and restaurants.The guests will enjoy tastes from more than 35 restaurants over 160 chefs and restaurants are featured throughout Eat Drink SF events. One can enjoy unlimited pours of wine, beer, cocktails and tastes from the Bay Area’s top restaurants.

Eat Drink, San Francisco

5-14 August, 2016

12-15 August, 2016

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he Flower Carpet Festival will celebrate its 20th Flower Carpet this year from 12-15 Aug in Brussels. The Grand Place is carpeted with flowers covering hundreds of m², each time with brand new motifs and more original themes from year to year.

The Flower Carpet offers a chance to stroll across the Grand-Place and inhale the fragrant scent of the begonias. This view is complete with a visit to the balcony of the Town Hall.

Flower Carpet Brussels, Belgium Voyager’s World > August 2016

T

he Kilkenny Arts Festival will celebrate their 43rd event this year a 10 days of artistic adventures from 5–14 August it is one of Europe’s finest artistic celebrations. The festival will feature Ireland’s largest-ever celebration of Mozart, an epic musical journey featuring some of the world’s most renowned musicians and explore including a world-famous travelling theatre ensemble, an acclaimed poet in residence, dazzling bands and singer-songwriters, leading international thinkers, eerie night time aerial dance theatre and family adventures.

Kilkenny, Ireland

THE WORLD 31st August 2016

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he La Tomatina Festival celebrates the mass tomato battle every year on 31st August in the town of BuĂąol,Valencia. This is one of the most popular festivals in Spain receiving a number of people from across the world to have fun hurling tomatoes at each other. The festival is celebrated with young people witnessing the parade of giants and other acts of the event, you can also view one of the lorries from which people throw tomatoes.

Valencia, Spain

18-21 August, 2016

T

he Philadelphia Folk Festival will be celebrating its 55th Anniversary on August 18-21 at the Old Pool Farm. This event is the longest outdoor musical festival in North America that transforms a farm into a musical park. The event is unique as it is presented by a nonprofit arts education organization, the Philadelphia Folksong Society.

The Folk Fest is a perfect family event, with puppeteers, jugglers, aerialists, storytellers, hands-on crafts and kid-oriented musicians gathering in Dulcimer Grove.

Philadelphia Folk Festival, USA

12-28 August, 2016 11 August -17 September

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he Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) is happening from 11 August to 17 September celebrating the field of arts with a variety of theatre, dance and music performances in Singapore. The theme for Singapore Festival of Arts this year is â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;POTENTIALITIESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; dabbling on the potentialities of individuals who are living in the system, and who can change the world for betterment. This festival brings together the best of local and international artists and inspires diverse audiences through great artistic experiences.

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he Visa Wellington on a Plate festival the eighth edition takes place from 12-28 August that features a 17-day burger trail with 116 burgers to trial in New Zealand. More than 70,000 burgers are consumed over the duration of the festival, and diners rate each burger they devour out of 10 to determine the festival favourites. A lucky burger tasting panel then decides the supreme winners for best burger, and best burger and beer match.

New Zealand Singapore

Happenings

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ACTE hosts cocktail event in Bangalore, Delhi

Keys Hotel opens in Vishakhapatnam

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SriLankan Airlines hosts TAAI's North India Chapter

Melia Hotels International organizes roadshows in India

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he Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) organized a cocktail event in Bangalore and Delhi in July 2016. The objective was to organize a corporate conference in India in the future. The event highlighted on the corporate travel trends and the ACTE Global Corporate Travel Conference in Beijing. Jyothi Varma – Regional Manager, South East Asia, ACTE, who has recently joined ACTE, was part of the interactive event which witnessed the presence of several leading corporate experts from different verticals. Amarnath Lal Das – General Manager, India Travel, Accenture and Asia Regional Council Chair, Association of Corporate Travel Executives was also present.

riLankan Airlines recently hosted the visiting delegates of the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) in Colombo when the latter attended the annual conference of its North India chapter. The evening, which witnessed dances and unique cultural activities, was graced by guests including H. E. Y. K. Sinha – High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka, Arindam Bagchi – Deputy High Commissioner, Esha Srivastava – First Secretary (Press, Information & Culture), Siva Ramachandran, Chief Commercial Officer - SriLankan Airlines, Saminda Perera, General Manager Marketing of SriLankan Airlines, Dimuthu Tennakoon, General Manager Commercial Operations of SriLankan Airlines, Lalith De Silva, Regional Manager Indian Sub-Continent of SriLankan Airlines, Rajan Sehgal, Chairman TAAI and members of TAAI North chapter. Sri Lanka’s potential as a leisure and MICE destination among Indians was discussed among the dignitaries.

eys Hotels launched its hotel in Vishakhapatnam recently , inaugurated by guest of honour, Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Union Minister for Civil Aviation with Anshu Sarin, CEO, Berggruen Hotels Pvt. Ltd. Strategically located in the heart of the city, Keys Hotel, Vishakhapatnam is an ideal choice for both business and leisure travelers. The hotel is located close to the famous tourist attractions of the city such as Visakha Museum, Submarine Museum, R K Beach and the Kailasa Giri. Keys Hotel, Vishakhapatnam offers breakfast, lunch and dinner at Keys Café. The hotel will also provide its signature brand promise of Keys Hotels, ‘Ghar Ka Swaad’ which will entice long-staying guests of the hotel feel completely at home and “Breakfast on the Go” for busy corporates.

eliá Hotels International, Spain, organized roadshow in Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi from 11 - 15 July showcasing the brand to the travel trade. The event was attended by 150 business partners from the travel trade and media along with Ruben Casas, Senior Director Sales and Marketing, Asia Pacific and hotel representatives from different Melia properties, Patricia Andrino, Account Manager Meetings & Events Central Spain, Daniella Baldelli, Director Commercial Italia Melia Hotels International, Eduardo Perera, General Manager at Melia Bali and Tonia Sehan, Director of Sales, India, Meliá Hotels International hosted the Roadshows in India. Vasudha Sondhi, Managing Director, Outbound Marketing, opined, “We are glad to be a part of Melia Hotels International family. We also have exciting offerings for the travel agencies, especially the ones who register for MeliaPro,- Travel Agent Portal.”

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Bengaluru Tourism Advisory Committee (BTAC) formed to brand Bengaluru

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he Department of Tourism, Government of Karnataka, recently unveiled the newly formed Bengaluru Tourism Advisory Committee (BTAC) under the chairmanship of Priyank Kharge, Minister for Tourism and IT & BT. The committee will consist of the top officials in the Tourism Department and also experts from verticals such as heritage, urban, landscape, hospitality, architecture and conservationists who can contribute towards branding Bengaluru and making it a global city in the true sense.

BTAC was formed after a month of brainstorming sessions and deliberations. The scope of the committee is to provide quick action plans for developing Bengaluru region as a tourist destination by creating brand Bengaluru, identifying different circuits and trails, offering tourism technologies, drawing a calendar of events, promoting art and culture, attracting PPP projects and engaging in inter-city- cooperation concepts. Further the committee will help in positioning the state capital as a well connected holiday destination by involving local talent pool and the effective development of local employment and subsequent revenue generation. The committee will also be responsible in enhancing positive perceptions about the city through engagements with travellers across the world which, in turn, will help drive tourism, thus making Bengaluru a SMART global city.

GNTO conducts sales workshops in Bengaluru, Kochi

Massive Indian delegation visits DRUPA 2016

Maiden Travel Wedding Show 2016 held in Gurgaon

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he German National Tourist Office, India and Accorhotels recently conducted sales workshops in Kochi and Bengaluru. The educational workshops, which saw enthusiastic participation from the operators in both cities, aimed at promoting Destination Germany and creating awareness about the diverse portfolio of Accorhotels across the country.

With a presence of over 340 hotels across Germany ranging from the budget to the premium category, Accorhotels is one of the leading accommodation choices for travelers from India.

ver 300 experts and professionals representing the printing, packaging and printing ink industry marked their presence at DRUPA 2016 group, organised by Om Prakash, Director InORBIT Tours Pvt. Ltd. More than 1,850 exhibitors and over 314,500 visitors from 130 countries attended the show. Drupaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s range was impressive, featuring both traditional and pioneering technologies for pre-press and pre-media, printing (machinery, appliances and accessories), book binding and print finishing as well as paper converting services including packaging production, materials and consumables.

he first edition of Travel Wedding Show 2016 was held recently in Gurgaon. It saw a participation of 28 suppliers and an equal number of buyers, comprising wedding planners, travel agents who specialize in weddings, corporates and tour operators. Punam Singh, Associate, Travel Wedding Show, said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;We left no stone unturned to make the show a return-on-investment event, promoting knowledge-sharing, networking opportunities and ensuring visibility to participants. It was a conscious decision to keep it open exclusively for the renowned wedding planner buyers on the first day. The tour operators met on the second day.â&#x20AC;?

www.voyagersworld.in

Trends

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Travel advisory ON latest fraudS Courtesy: Tnooz.com

Don Bush, vice president of marketing at Kount, talks about how fraudsters are evolving with different techniques and suggests steps to safeguard against them.

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o much of the season’s activities are based around travel – from college students returning to school for the new semester to lavish wedding ceremonies, even sports fans following their favorite college and professional teams as football season kicks off and baseball season comes to a close.

But as the busy fall months lead up to an even busier holiday season, travel sites and bookers must take the necessary steps to safeguard against the fraudsters.

Opportunistic attackers often capitalize on these busy periods of increased activity, hoping overloaded businesses and preoccupied consumers will let their guard down. And fraudsters are getting savvier, preying on travel sites with new threats while businesses are still trying to catch up on what they failed to pick up last year.

Here are some new types of fraud we have seen over the past year or so and some advice on how to mitigate the dangers:

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Synthetic IDs: Synthetic IDs are fraudulent identities developed by criminals who take legitimate pieces of personal information from various individuals and combine them into a new, hybrid identity that only exists in the virtual world.

Fraudsters then use this info to open new, fraudulent bank or credit card accounts, which they then use for booking travel.

In order to combat this, businesses need to make sure their fraud prevention system is monitoring all aspects of an order – names, addresses, email addresses, and credit card information should all match up across the board.

If the same address or credit card numbers are being used across multiple accounts or names, that’s a huge red flag.

Loyalty fraud Criminals aren’t just after credit card numbers and personal information – anything of monetary value is fair game, including your customers’ loyalty accounts.

Loyalty fraud tends to work along the same lines as card-notpresent (CNP) fraud, with account information accessed through a mixture of phishing scams, identity theft and hacking weak and vulnerable passwords. Once control of an account is taken, fraudsters can hijack your loyal customers’ points, emptying their accounts through any of company’s options for redemption.

Remind your customers that their loyalty accounts should be treated like cash or credit card information and monitored often.

Travel companies must also keep as close an eye on loyalty point transactions as they do traditional transactions, because both have the same signs of fraud including: different addresses, different internet service provider (ISP) addresses, different spending patterns and testing on small items before going for the ‘big ticket’ items.

Social media banking Social media banking is a trend where consumers fall victim to brand hijacking, or instances where hackers can blatantly copy and misuse company logos and website content.

Fraudsters impersonate a business’ online presence and deceive unsuspecting visitors into believing they are visiting the real organization’s website, then getting them to divulge personal information, typically through a guise of confirming their account information.

Especially as they’re searching for the best bargains, travelers can also inadvertently find themselves clicking on and sharing personal information with fraudulent sites disguised as an agent.

Make sure to inform your customers that your organization will never send requests for their login or personal information via email or social media, and that they should flag any

instances of this immediately.

Make sure to inform your customers that your organization will never send requests for their login or personal information via email or social media, and that they should flag any instances of this Friendly fraud • Friendly fraud occurs when legitimate customers take advantage of your business. This can take many guises: the claim that they didn’t authorize a charge to your site when they actually did, or account or credential sharing, where they let their friends or family access your services without paying for an account of their own.

In addition to keeping a close eye on repeat offenses and customers’ transactional histories, it’s important to clearly outline your business’ terms and conditions when it comes to dealing with this type of fraud.

• To do list The most essential step you can take to protect your business is to acknowledge any vulnerabilities you have (whether that be chargebacks, friendly fraud, or a blanketed approach to declining transactions) and work with experts to make sure you have a comprehensive system in place that monitors and prevents fraud, without reducing legitimate transactions.

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Voyager’s World > August 2016

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Top Appointments

45>> Manali Jain

Vaijayanthi Kari

Deputy Manager - Marketing Communications, Lalit Chandigarh

India Representative Global Destinations - Tourism Fiji

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anali Jain is the new Deputy Manager for Marketing Communications of the Lalit Chandigarh. She will be responsible for managing the marketing and PR for the property. She had earlier worked with Sarovar Hotels & Resorts, Dainik Bhaskar Group and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

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lobal Destinations appointed Vaijayanthi Kari as the India Representative of Tourism Fiji and she will be based in Mumbai. She will be responsible for all trade, marketing communication and PR related activities for the tourism board in India. Prior to this, she has worked in PR for three years.

Sonia Singh

Amar Francisco

Associate Director of Sales, Novotel Goa Resorts & Spa

Room Division Manager Novotel Goa Shrem Hotel

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onia Singh is appointed as the Associate Director of Sales of Novotel Goa Resorts & Spa.She will be spearheading the sales activities for both Novotel properties in North Goa. Prior to this, she has worked with some of the leading chains like the Marriott Hotels and Jumeirah Group in Dubai.

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he Novotel Goa Shrem Hotel appoints Amar Francisco Albuquerque as the Rooms Division Manager. He has over seven years of experience in the hospitality and has worked with Goa Marriott Resort & Spa and Taj Fort Aguada. Prior to this, he worked as the Front office Manager for this property.

Vaishakh Surendran

Ravi Khubchandani

General Manager Poetree Sarovar Portico, Thekkady

General Manager Novotel Hyderabad Airport

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ovotel Hyderabad Airport appoints Ravi Khubchandani as the General Manager.

He started his career with Accor Hotels in Wellington, New Zealand and his tenure with Accor Hotels in India started as the Hotel Manager for ibis Pune, after that he was appointed as the General Manager of ibis Gurgaon.

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aishakh Surendran is appointed as the General Manager of Poetree Sarovar Portico, Thekkady. He has worked with various hotels like Keys Hotel, Aquatic Floating Resort, Alila Diwa, Aditya Sarovar Premiere, Alila Villas Hadahaa, Maldives and Radisson Blu, Kuwait.

He has an experience of over a decade in the hospitality industry.

Caroline Alexander

Neeraj Mishra

Director of Sales & Marketing, The Westin Pune Koregaon Park

General Manager RS Sarovar Portico Palampur

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arovar Hotels appoints Neeraj Mishra as the General Manager of RS Sarovar Portico, Palampur. Prior to this, she had worked as the General Manager of The Fern Residency Rajkot and The Hype Saiva Continental Dehradun. She has also worked with Royal Caribbean Cruises, Miami, USA and Crowne Plaza, Dubai, UAE.

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he Westin Pune Koregaon Park appoints Caroline Alexander as the Director of Sales & Marketing. She has worked with various hotels like ITC Hotels, IHHR Hospitality and Courtyard Marriott Pune City Centre, Kochi Marriott Hotels. Prior to this, she had worked at Atmantan Wellness Resort.

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NETWORKING ISTHE THE NETWORkING IS kE KEY y August 2016

September 2016

October 2016

November 2016

December 2016

August2016 19, 20, 21 Holiday Expo Vadodara

26, 27 India Association Congress New Delhi

September 2016

October 2016

27, 28, 29, 30

13, 14, 15

Kerala Travel Mart Kochi

TTG Incontri Italy

21, 22

14, 15, 16

MICE Asia Pacific Exhibition Singapore

Holiday Expo Nagpur

23, 24, 25

19, 20, 21

India International Travel Mart Mumbai

ITB Asia Singapore

30 September, 1, 2 October

28, 29, 30, 31

India International Travel Mart Gurgaon

Reisen & Caravan Germany

December 2016

November 2016 4, 5, 6 Holiday Expo Visakhapatnam

Nov 29, December 1 ibtm Spain

7, 8, 9

2, 3, 4

World Travel Market London

IITM Hyderabad

13, 14, 15, 16

2, 3, 4

ICCA Congress 2016 Malaysia

Chengdu International Tourism Expo Chengdu, China

25, 26, 27

16, 17, 18

IITM Pune

Holiday Expo Amritsar