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` 50/-A DDP PUBLICATION Pages: 40Vol. XXIII No. 12; June 2nd fortnight issue 2011

UNWTO believes andpropagates thattourism is a social cul-

tural and economic phenom-enon with far reaching impli-cations on a country’s econ-omy, its ecosystems, its com-munities (local population)and most importantly on thetravellers themselves. Theintrinsic nature of tourism ordestination development isfragile and UNWTO suggestsa holistic approach to tourismdevelopment, managementand monitoring.

Echoing similar senti-ments, RH Khwaja, Secretary,Ministry of Tourism said,“Tourism in today’s contexthas very high socio-econom-ic relevance. It goes muchbeyond highlighting thebrand in International mar-kets. Tourism is a vehicle tobridge the gap between ruraland urban India.” Elaboratingon his argument, Khwajaadded, “60 per cent of theIndian population resides out-side urban areas and it is our

endeavour to provide this sec-tor with a skill set that willnot only protect our crafts butalso upgrade the quality oflife.” In a bid to spread thesocio-economic benefits oftourism to rural regions thatwill ultimately stop the exo-dus from rural to urban areas,Ministry of Tourism intro-duced a Rural Tourism prod-uct under the Explore RuralIndia campaign.

The Ministry has put RuralTourism andHunar Se Rozgaron top of their agenda. Theemphasis isexplained by thefact that within10 months(August to April 2011),MOT cleared 32 projects whileonly 16 projectswere cleared in 8 years (2002-2010)

The same can be saidabout Hunar Se Rozgar

that was launched in 2009-10 to help the youth of economically weaker sections of the society. This programme has trainedin excess of 14,000 people in the last two years.Commenting on theMinistry’s performance,Khwaja said, “We are work-ing with a new emphasis on programmes that arealready in place.”

Talking elaborately on aprogramme that is very closeto his heart, the tourism sec-retary laid emphasis on safe,honourable and sustainabletourism. Very passionate aboutthe subject, Khwaja said, “Ifirmly believe that the age oldadage of jaan hai toh jahaanhain, should be jahaan hai tohjaan hai (which means that if there is a world for all to live happily in thenthere is room for life and goodhealth). A lot has been saidabout the subject and UNWTOhas laid down new codes ofconduct for SustainableTourism. Sustainable Tourismis responsible tourism

intending to gen-erate employ-ment andincome alongwith allevi-ating anydeeperimpact

on environment and local culture.

Safe and honourabletourism for me is to protect privacy, dignityand decency ofevery tourist thatcomes to our country.

Moreover, this is theresponsibility of all stake-

holders in the industry. TheState Governments havebeen told that no bad incidents should take place against any tourist inthe country.”

To help the tourismindustry achieve its objec-tives and enhance the expe-rience of a traveller, theMinistry is working veryclosely with state bodies and

Tourism is no longer subscribed to as an elitist industry whose economic benefits accrue to a very few. It is now recognised as a major economicengine and thrives on the involvement of a large part of the civil society. R H Khwaja, Secretary, MOT shared his views on the future of tourism ...

RUPALI NARASIMHAN

India zooms into UK with a five-city roadshow

See full story on page 3 u

Cox & Kingsleads on Google

See full story on page 5 u

incredibleindia.orggets a new look

See full story on page 10 u

Sibal calls for skill development in tourism

See full story on page 10 u

‘Jahaan hai to Jaan hai’Says RH Khwaja on Sustainable Tourism

R H Khwaja, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism

Contd. on page 26 u

BULLETIN

Sultan Ahmed, Minister ofState for Tourism, is

leading the PATA India delegation that comprisesover 20 key stakeholders inthe travel trade. Having cov-ered three ScandinavianCountries in 2009 roadshowsand five destinations in US and Canada in 2010, the PATA India Chapter, in its third edition of overseas roadshows, has chosen London, Manchester,Glasgow, Dublin andBirmingham.

“The United Kingdom isa key medium haul market,

which is also the secondlargest inbound source mar-

ket for India. Through thefive roadshows, the stake-holders, who will be part ofthe Indian delegation, willexhibit lot of new possibilitiesin line with growth of tourismand hospitality infrastructurein India,” said DeveshChaturvedi, AdditionalDirector General, Ministry of Tourism.

In the third edition ofthe PATA India roadshows, ithas engaged services of a pri-vate consultant, which willensure that only quality

The PATA India Chapter, in its third edition of overseas roadshows, hadchosen London, Manchester, Glasgow, Dublin and Birmingham. Earlier,in 2009, it had covered three Scandinavian countries and in 2010, it covered five destinations spread over USA and Canada…

VI V E K SE T H I

India zooms into UK with a five-city roadshow

Sultan AhmedMinister of State for Tourism

R H KhwajaChairmanPATA India Chapter

Contd. on page 28 u

STATISTICS

VIEWPOINT

TRAVTALK is a publication of Durga Das Publications Private Limited. All information in TRAVTALK is derived from sources, which we consider reliable and a sincere effort is made to report accurate information. It is passed on to our readers without any responsibility on our part. The publisher regret that he cannot accept liability for errors and omissions contained in this publi-cation, however caused. Similarly, opinions/views expressed bythird parties in abstract and/or in interviews are not necessarily shared by TRAVTALK. However, we wish to advice our readers that one or more recognised authorities may hold different views than those reported. Material used in this publication is intended for information purpose only. Readers are advised to seek specific

advice before acting on information contained in this publicationwhich is provided for general use, and may not be appropriate for the readers’ particular circumstances. Contents of this publication are copyright. No part of TRAVTALK or any part of the contents thereof may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system ortransmitted in any form without the permission of the publicationin writing. The same rule applies when there is a copyright or thearticle is taken from another publication. An exemption is herebygranted for the extracts used for the purpose of fair review, provided two copies of the same publication are sent to us for ourrecords. Publications reproducing material either in part or inwhole, without permission could face legal action.

The publisher assumes no responsibility for returning any material solicited or unsolicited nor is he responsible for material lost or damaged.

This publication is not meant to be an endorsement of any specific product or services offered. The publisher reserves the right to refuse, withdraw, amend or otherwise deal with all advertisements without explanation.

All advertisements must comply with the Indian and InternationalAdvertisements Code. The publisher will not be liable for any damage or loss caused by delayed publication, error or failure of an advertisement to appear.

VikramajitChairman

SanJeetPublisher

Rupali NarasimhanEditorial Director

Deepa SethiEditor

Editorial

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Advertising (Mumbai)Suchita Saran

Branch ManagerHarshal Ashar

Sr. Manager AdvertisingLalita

Marketing Co-ordinatorDesign

AdvertisementVikas Mandotia/Renuka Mahich

Design: Nityanand Misra / Sudhir Mudgal

Production: Anil KharbandaCirculation: Ashok Rana

AdvertisingGunjan Sabikhi

General Manager

N. Sanjiba SinghSr. Manager Marketing

Manish ManglaAsst. Manager-Marketing

Amit SarkarMarketing Co-ordinator

According to a newresearch from American

Express, fares will continueto shoot up as the business-es in India are expecting to spend more on corporate travel in nextfew months.

In 2010, thedemand for businesstravel reboundedstrongly and helpedbuild momentum in2011 while enablingairfares to rise accordingly.

The AmericanExpress Business TravelMonitor, which tracksand analyses publishedairfares on a quarterlybasis, found thatalthough fares moderat-ed in the fourth quarter,the influence of rising oilprices and economicgrowth in the regionwere too strong to keepprices steady. Airfaresacross India and Asia-Pacific region experienced strongyear-on-year growth inthe first quarter of 2011due to rising demandand capacity disciplineby the airlines and risingoil prices.

“Strong growth funda-mentals like fast labour forcegrowth and a rapidly expand-ing middle class will ensurea steady growth for demandof business and leisure airtravel in India. However, the

business travel market inIndia continues to cope upwith chaotic growth andorganisations are still large-ly unaware of strategic trav-el procurement/manage-ment,” said Sandeep Shastri,

Vice President andGeneral Manager,Global BusinessTravel in India.

A number offactors are con-tributing to theprice increase.Taxes on everyticket purchasedare a significantcomponent of thetotal cost playing adetermining factorin the Indian market. This trendis even more rele-vant on domestictrips. At times, thetax componentincluding the fuel surchargecould be as high as 60-70 per cent of the totalticket cost.

“Companies should allo-cate 30-35 per cent on top ofthe base fares for totalexpected airfare costs whenplanning budgets for 2011-2012 as the tax structure inIndia’s airline industry is

unlikely to change in the foreseeablefuture,” Shastri fur-ther added.

According toother recentlylaunched AmericanExpress/CFO ResearchGlobal Business andSpending Monitor,sixty-six per cent ofthe senior financeexecutives at some ofthe largest companiesin India expect tospend more on busi-ness travel this year.Further, travel is morelikely to increase inIndia and the AsiaPacific region com-pared to the moreestablished economiesof Europe and North America.

Businesses inthe emergingeconomies like Indiaare looking to expandand take advantage of new investmentopportunities. Almostsixty-two per cent ofthe regional business-es say they’ll spend

more on travel to meet newclients and 54 per cent reportthey’ll ramp up internationaltravel. These demand condi-tions point to furtherstrengthening of airfares.

On the back of strong fundaments and businesses in India expecting tospend more on corporate travel in the next twelve months, business travel and airfares are likely to increase.

TT BU R E AU

Air fares shoot up

PositivesCorporates in India expectto spend more onbusiness travel in next 12months

Fast labour growth and arapidly expanding middleclass contribute todemand of business andleisure air travel

Negatives

Airfares will continue tosoar upwards

The influence of rising oilprices and economicgrowth in the region is toostrong to keep pricessteady

India Specific AnalysisIndia - % Change - QoQ & YoY

By Fare Type

First-Full

First-Discount

Business-Full

Business-Discount

FARE TYPE

Economy-Full

Economy-Discount

Overall

15%

10%

5%

0%

-5%

-10%

-15%

6%

0%

-4% -4%

4%

-6%-2% -3%

2%

-1%

1%

6%

N/A

% Year-over-Year % Quarter-over-Quarter

Courtesy: American Express

India - % Change - QoQ & YoYBy Destination

Domestic IntraAsia Pacific

Europe, Middle East &

Africa

Americas Overall

DESTINATION

15%

10%

5%

0%

-5%

-10%

-15%

-2% -3%

10%

1%

7%

0%3%

1% 2%

-1%

% Year-over-Year % Quarter-over-Quarter

Asia-Pacific Regional

Overall - % Change - QoQ & YoYBy Fare Type

First-Full

First- Discount

Business- Full

Business -Discount

Economy- Full

Economy -Discount

Overall

FARE TYPE

15%

10%

5%

0%

-5%

-10%

-15%

5%1%

6%

1% 1% 1%4%

0%

3%

0% 1% 1% 3% 1%

% Year-over-Year % Quarter-over-Quarter

% Year-over-Year % Quarter-over-Quarter

Overall - % Change - QoQ & YoYBy Destination

Domestic IntraAsia Pacific

Europe, Middle East &

Africa

Americas Overall

DESTINATION

15%

10%

5%

0%

-5%

-10%

-15%

4%2% 1%

0%

4%1% 1%

0%

3% 1%

Courtesy: American Express

IATA has put India on the ‘Wall ofShame’ along with the governments

of the UK, Germany and Austria forimposing high service tax on air tickets. It has asked the government tostop compromising economic growthwith aviation taxes. The airline representative industry body went tothe extent of stating that governmentsneed a textbook on aviation’s role as aneconomic catalyst, as it warned the airlines that sustaining profitability willbe the biggest challenge for the globalairline industry.

Tax the bankers who created themess. Aviation facilitates global tradethat is stimulating economies andrestoring government budgets. Do notkill the goose that lays the golden egg.These were some of the sentimentsechoed by The International AirTransport Association (IATA) at its 67th

Annual General Meeting and World AirTransport Summit in Singapore towardgovernments who impose high servicetax structures that threaten the growthof the air transport industry.

IATA has asserted that the service tax in India is a complete contradictionto the rules laid down by ICAO (International Civil AviationOrganisation), the specialised UNagency created to promote safe andorderly development of internationalcivil aviation throughout the world.

The high service tax on air travel inIndia bore an extra brunt when the government in the recent budgetannounced additional service tax on airtravel on the domestic and internationalroutes. It is right for industry bodies inIndia like FICCI and WTTCII to deplorethis move and demand a rollback.Additional tax will adversely affect thetravel and tourism industry in India,which is already reeling under pressureof high taxation in the country.

‘Wall of Shame’

Cox & Kings leads withclicks on Google

NEWS J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 1 TRAVTALK 5

Top 5 Brands in Air Travel Holidays/Hotels/International AirportAir Travel Holidays Hotels International Air

YoY Growth 50% 70% 65% 50%

Top 5 Brands Cleartrip Cox and Kings Ginger Air Asia

Jet Airways Club Mahindra ITC Emirates

Kingfisher Raj Travels Oberoi Lufthansa

MakeMyTrip SOTC Taj Qatar Air

Indigo/Yatra Thomas Cook Singapore AirlinesIDEAL Hotels Worldwide(IHWW), a Hong Kong based

worldwide marketing compa-ny, has launched a HotelLow-Cost Marketing (LCM)programme in the Indianmarket.

“One cannot measureor quantify marketing pro-motions. lf hotels feel thatthere is a better way toenhance the huge invest-ment they have madetowards themselves, this isit! Ideal Hotels is their gate-way to the world for incre-mental business and globalvisibility,” said Alwin Zecha,Chairman, IHWW.

“Ours is a brand newunique concept not availableto anyone and not offered byanyone. Any hotel can alwaysenhance their marketingcampaign in today’s increas-ingly competitive environ-ment and the smaller theyare, the tougher it gets forthem to compete. Therefore,we are offering them achance to support their cur-rent marketing and promoactivities at an incredibly costeffective package to enhancetheir global reach towardsincremental business,” headded.

Asia is currently the tophot spot for tourism and hos-pitality industry. India cer-tainly features as a mostattractive destination and thehotel industry in India is onlysecond to China in the AsiaPacific.

“One of our unique fea-tures is that our members paya tiny fee and remain in fullcontrol of their destinythroughout without any inter-mediary for their bookings.For $3,000 per year, hotelierswill be included in our e-directory, which is an oppor-tunity to be featured in ourmonthly newsletter and last

but not the least get theirhotels represented at all major5 travel events that includeFITUR: Madrid (January), ITB:

Berlin (March), ATM: Dubai(May), ITB: Singapore(October) and WTM: London(November),” said Zecha.

IHWW offers its hotel clients a host of amenities includingrepresentation at top five leading travel exhibitions.

TT BU R E AU

Alwin ZechaChairmanIDEAL Hotels Worldwide

A low-cost marketing programme for hotels

USP of IDEAL Hotels Worldwide

6 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 1 HOTELS

The Gateway Hotels &Resorts, part of Taj Hotels

Resorts & Palaces is mulling tobecome one of the leadingupscale full service hotel brandin India. With presence incities like Bengaluru, Agra,Varanasi, Ahmedabad, Surat,Jaipur, Jodhpur, Vijayawada,Visakhapatnam, Madurai,Coonoor, Chikmagalur, Calicut,Cochin, etc; it is keen toexpand in key business andleisure destination, acrossIndia. Accordingly, Mumbai,Kolkata, Chennai OMR,Chennai Sriperambadur, Pune,

Navi Mumbai, Bengaluru,Chandigarh, Mysore, Cochin,Bhandup, Raipur, Jalandhar,Ludhiana, Shimla, Kolhapur,Hubli, Gondia, Shirdi andFaridabad are all under vari-ous stages of development.

Divulging further detailson the future plans, P K Mohankumar, ChiefOperating Officer, TheGateway Hotels & Resortssaid, “We are keen on growingin every important businessdistrict of India. This wouldmean multiple hotels in tier I

cities and hotels in key loca-tions in tier II & III cities. We

are also looking at hotels inimportant leisure destinations.We are currently focussing onIndia because of the hugegrowth opportunity and withlarge proportion of our underconstruction properties gettingoperational by 2015; weintend to become one of theleading hospitality brands inIndia. Additionally, we are alsolooking at brown field projectsand adapting existing operat-ing hotels to Gateway brandstandards for tie-ups. With theimproving economic situation,we are also hoping to grow

more aggressively than we didin the last 33 months.”

Adding further on vari-ous sales distribution chan-nels, Mohankumar said,“Apart from being present onGDS, with corporate con-tracts, OTAs and strong salesteam, we also share a greatrelationships with travel tradefraternity. We have a range ofoffers across hotels and at dif-ferent times of the year.Currently we are running theMonsoon packages under theTaj Holidays banner.”

Currently operating 21 properties across India with 18 more under construction, The Gateway Hotels & Resortsis aiming high with huge plans for the Indian market.

AN I TA JA I N

P K MohankumarChief Operating OfficerThe Gateway Hotels & Resorts

Management contractdeveloped in associationwith MB Mall

New hotel and newconstruction to beoperational in next 36-48months

The new project takes theoverall por tfolio to 39hotels

Latest Faridabadproject

Sarovar Hotels & Resortshas recently launched

Majestic Court Sarovar Porticoin Mahape, Navi Mumbai. Withan investment of over ` 50

crore, the 3-star deluxe prop-erty is targetting the corporate

clientele. The property has fivesuites, four deluxe rooms and49 superior category rooms. Italso has one 24X7 multi-cui-sine restaurant-cum-bar with 80 covers.

The newly launchedproperty is positive to exceedthe sales target in the first

year. Talking to ,Arunabh Sinha, GeneralManager, Majestic CourtSarovar Portico said, “Thebiggest USP of our property isthe location with accessibilityfrom major MNCs and corporate houses.

Within a monthof operations, we have recorded over 50per cent occu-pancy levels. Our F&B seg-ment is exceed-ing far above our expectationswith 90 per centoccupancy.

We are aggressively promoting the propertythrough outdoor campaignsand print media while mark-ing our presence on majorOTAs and closely working withour travel trade partners.”

Majestic Court Sarovar Portico has special concessionalrates for groups and trade partners. It is also offering introductory tariff starting at ̀ 3500 per person.

AN I TA JA I N

Sarovar for 90% occupancy

Arunabh Sinha, General Manager,Majestic Court Sarovar Portico

Carlson group is expectedto lay thrust on its Country

Inns & Suites by Carlson brandin India, by opening five prop-erties this year and signing upfor more than 35 properties.This growth will be managedthrough Country Developmentand Management Services(CDMS), a joint venturebetween Carlson andChanakya Hotels that has suc-

cessfully run the brand in Indiaover the last 10 years.

“The mid-scalemarket in Indiarepresents a significant opportunity andCarlson ispleased to growits CIS brand in this marketthrough itsstrategic partner-ship in CDMS,”

said K B Kachru,Executive Vice President,Carlson Hotels, South Asia.This new generation of CIS hasbeen designed by a London-based design company -Virgile and Stone. The roll outof the brand will continue tofollow the Carlson strategy forIndia which includes focussingon primary and secondarycities, demographic changesand travel & tourism growth.

The first of the next generation of the brandis set to debut in 2012. “Iam confident that the new version of the brandwill be very attractive toboth Indian travellers and developers,” saidRanjan Bhattacharya,Managing Director, Country Development andManagement Services.

With five properties this year, total hotels under theCIS brand would reach 16 and Carlson plans to increasetheir number to more than 50 in the coming years.

TT BU R E AU

Carlson growing in numbers

K B Kachru, Executive Vice President,Carlson Hotels, South Asia

This is Sarovar Hotel’sfourth property in Mumbaiafter Hotel Marine Plaza(Marine Drive), GrandSarovar Premiere(Goregaon) and GrandHometel in Malad

Located in Mahape, thebusiest business district inMaharashtra

Offers 58 rooms andsuites

Offering tariff starting at `3,500 till September’ 2011

Introduces special rates towoo travel trade partners

USP

37-room property atSatbari

50-room Mussoorieproperty

190-key at Gurgaon, NH-8

71-room in Ajmer

130-room property todebut in Mysore by theyear-end

5 new hotels

Basking under ‘expansion’ gloryThe Gateway Hotels & Resorts

NEWS8 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 1

Believing that synergy liesin the mid market seg-

ment, Lords Hotel & Resortshave been catering to thatsegment for the past fewyears in Tier-II and III citiesof the country. “We havecarefully cultivated a culturewhere the customer needsare paramount and it’s notmeant to be a lip service. Ideais to cater to the substantialmid-market while retainingthe local flavour,” saysRomesh Koul, Director, LordsHotel & Resorts.

The group has 10 prop-erties in hand and is planningto add three more propertiesthis year. This will take theirtotal keys from 850 to 1050rooms. Currently, they areconcentrated in the state ofGujarat but are looking toexpand in states like Punjab,Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthanand NCR. Being a manage-ment company, their philos-ophy is not to jump on sign-

ings. “Our issue is to under-stand the promoter. Look atthe city, product, and loca-tion. We emphasise on thepromoter as the person has tounderstand what we want to

do. We don’t purely focus onthe commercial aspect of thebusiness,” says Koul.

Another prime focus isthe service provided and foodon offer. Recalling the recentvisit of British prime minister

to Infosys campus inBangalore, the software majorhad recommended theirBangalore property for meals to the prime minister. “A mid market hotel hosting a head of state is unheard of and it shows the confidencethe campus has in us,” points Koul.

As far as occupancy isconcerned on a year-end basis,all properties didn’t dip below65 percent as some propertiesdid more than 85 per centwhile some did 100 per cent.Average Room Rent liesbetween ̀ 1800 and ̀ 3,500.

“We have a healthy tie-up with travel agents.Though it is on commissionbasis, Koul reveals that theyare flexible enough withthose that offer more thanthe rest. Their business from rooms accounts for 60per cent while the rest comesup from food & beverages,”adds Koul.

The Lords Hotels & Resorts will expand in other parts of the country...

JU S T I N TH O M AS

Eyes expansion in Punjab,HP, Rajasthan & NCR

Nestled in the Kumaonregion, Te Aroha is a bou-

tique hotel in Dhanachuli andis close to signing up threeinternational operators to facil-itate their business. “The rep-resentatives of these compa-nies came over and ran a mag-nifying glass through the prop-erty. Once the contract issigned, I don’t have to worryabout the occupancy as a full

house will be assured,” saysSumant Batra, Owner, TeAroha. The property makes adebut this year and offers serv-ices at competitive prices.

Placed in the luxurysegment, the property wasconverted to a hospitalityaddress and has an invento-ry of 10 rooms. It is furtherdivided into deluxe and suiteswith a respective tariff of

around ̀ 9,950 and ̀ 12,990.The company under whichthe property operates isTreepie Hospitality.

80 per cent of the staff islocal and Batra informs thatthey have been trained for spe-cific work as against multi-tasking and the manageriallevel has worked at five-starproperties. One of the bestoffers of their services is food& beverage. “We feel pride inwhat we serve and though it’sa fixed menu, the offering issumptuous,” says Batra.

There are plans to add aspa to the property while otherthan catering to guest require-ments during their stay in theproperty, they also offer villageand scenic tours in order toprovide a complete package.Their tie-ups with travelagents are based on commis-sion basis which ranges from10 to 15 per cent.

With formal tie-ups expected soon, the property is hoping to create a niche in the Kumaon region whilealso offering spa + touring facilities.

JU S T I N TH O M AS

Promising more than just accomodation

Romesh KoulDirectorLords Hotel & Resorts

Sumant BatraOwnerTe Aroha

Lords Hotels & Resorts focus on North India

Te Aroha

Te Aroha is close to signingup three internationaloperators to facilitate theirbusiness

The property makes adebut this year and offersservices at competitiveprices

Respective tariff of around` 9,950 and ` 12,990

Te Aroha debuts

Most of the Indian resi-dents who go out as

travellers/tourists need to bewell aware of the baggagerules applicable at the Indian airports.

Speaking to , K Premchand, AdditionalCommissioner of Customssaid, “As far as IndianCustoms is concerned, wehave no discrimination.Baggage rules are almostsame for all the travellers.Even politicians have noimmunity. Baggage amend-ment rules 2006 apply to everyone.”

He said, "Indian trav-ellers should declare theirexpensive belongings includ-ing the old laptops while goingout of India. If the passengersare carrying expensive jew-ellery abroad, they should getcustoms certificate from thePrecious Cargo CustomsClearance Centre (PCCCC).The jewellery is sealed in a boxhere to ensure that it is not

tampered with. Our depart-ment has been following therule book despite being liber-al and cooperative with thepassengers. However, we getall the flak from people whenwe try to stop cases of grossviolation of law.”

Baggage rules havebeen categorised for Indianresident or a foreigner resid-ing in India returning from countries other than Nepal, Bhutan and China. "All

Travellers should know the baggage rules to avoid confrontation at the Indian airports. K Premchand,Additional Commissioner of Customs speaks...

SRIPRAKASH MENON

‘Know your baggage rules’

K PremchandAdditional Commissioner,Customs

Contd. on page 16 u

Indian professionalsabroad returning after 3months are allowed dutyfree used householdarticles of ` 12,000 andprofessional equipment upto value of ` 20,000

However returning after 6 months can getprofessional equipmentworth ` 40,000 whileused household ar ticlesup to ` 12,000.

Returning after minimum365 days can get duty freeused household ar ticlesup to an aggregate valueof ` 75,000

Import of jewellery forIndian passenger residingabroad for over one year is` 10,000 for men and is ̀20,000 for women

Travellers cannot carryIndian currency over ` 7,500 while travelling

Rules & regulations

MOT1 0 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 1

Stakeholders will be in for apleasant surprise, when

they log in to the upgradedportal of the Ministry ofTourism (MOT). Trade had ontheir wish-list a more aesthet-ically strong website of MOT.The new website is not onlyvisually appealing, but fasterand is also user friendly.

“Our endeavour was tocreate a world-class websitefor the Ministry of Tourism inco-ordination with the

National Informatics Centre(NIC) team. In this endeav-our, we kept in mind theglobal best practices and val-idation standards led by theWorld Wide Web Consortium(W3C), which is the maininternational standardsorganisation for the WorldWide Web,” said A K Gupta,Addl DG (Market Research),Ministry of Tourism.

“With the help of theseup gradations, the traveltrade and other users caneasily locate information onthe current events and vari-ous divisions, which earlierwas not the case,” he added.

The website developedand hosted by NIC is fullysecured and can also be han-dled by a non technical team, once they are givenadequate training.

“Our website is fullysecured against mal-waresand other cyber hazards, as we follow all the guidelineslaid by the Government ofIndia. Going forward, the web-site can also be manned by ateam of non-technical staff,once they had been given ade-quate training and exposure,”said an NIC official, who hadworked on the up gradation ofthe website.

The colour scheme, layout, fonts and other websitemodifications have been carried out keeping in mindthe standards led by the World Wide Web Consortium.

VI V E K SE T H I

incredibleindia.orggets a new look

Kapil Sibal, Union Ministerfor Human Resource

Development emphasised onthe role of State Governmentfor the growth of tourism,and highlighted the need topromote skill development inthe tourism sector at a con-ference organised in NewDelhi on May 31, 2011.

“The growing econom-ic power of the country hasenabled many people tospend their time and moneyin visiting tourist destina-tions, resorts and differentNational Heritage sites. For the growth and promo-tion of tourism sector, prop-er training needs to beimparted and the skills of thepeople associated in this field have to be upgraded tocommunicate effectively totravellers,” said Sibal.

Earlier, while present-ing the National Awards forExcellence in HospitalityEducation in New Delhi,Subodh Kant Sahai, UnionMinister for Tourismannounced that as part of itsinitiative to enhance the skillset of unskilled hospitalityprofessionals, the Ministry ofTourism thorough its HunarSe Rozgar programme will

train 10,000 such profes-sionals in 2011.

For the uninitiated, thehospitality industry needsabout 2 lakh trained personsevery year but the supply isjust about 27,000 persons,which gets further reduced byone-third due to attrition.

The Ministry of Tourism is all set to increase the intakeof its capacity building scheme and take this initiativeto remote and economically backward regions…

VI V E K SE T H I

Sibal calls for skill development in tourism

Subodh Kant SahaiUnion Minster of Tourism

Kapil SibalUnion Minister for Human ResourceDevelopment

The new website is notonly visually appealing, butfaster and is also userfriendlyIt is fully secured and canalso be handled by a nontechnical team

USP

Travel and tourism isexpected to generate24.93 million jobsdirectly in 2011 (5 percent of total employ-ment). This includesemployment by hotels,travel agents, airlines and other passenger transportation services.

quick read

1 2 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 1 ASSOCIATIONS

Enterprising Travel Agents Association (ETAA) was formed 12 years ago with around 150members. It is the only representative organisation for Non-IATA Travel Agents and TourOperators in India. Karl Dantas, President, ETTA shares his views…

SR I P RA KAS H ME N O N

Associations have double standards: Dantas

Travel tradeassociations arein a turmoil withpoliticking andgroupism. Theyshould shunsectarianinterests andhonestly workfor the traveltrade members

Karl DantasPresident ETTA

“The travel trade associations including TAAI are doingnothing to solve the issues concerning the majority of themedium and small travel agents. Instead, many of them, whoare left out of the respective management committees areencouraging and forming new associations.”

"My critics in thetravel trade may ask -what am I doing for thetravel industry withETAA? We are at leastworking with a majority ofthe travel agents who areat the grassroots withoutplaying in the hands ofairlines or consolidators."

"Our member agentsmay not be selling highprofile destinations but all of us are promotinglocal destinations withinthe country.”

“Somehow the local tourist bodies like MTDC andGovernment of India Tourist Office overlook the contribu-tion made by our agents in promoting Indian destinations.All major travel trade issues are highlighted without takingagents at the root levels in confidence. Will big travel man-agement companies bother to sell tourist spots in the inte-riors of India?"

• In Travel business since1974

• Continues to guide theteam as CEO for the NewOwners

• Founder President of ETAA

About Karl Dantas

“Travel trade bodies are losing its relevance as they don't speak in one voice to the government. Issues concerning over 30,000 non IATA agents are different and wider. In fact, we will be having other travel trade associates as our members besides travel agents to broaden our activities."

Though ETAA haswithdrawn support toboth TAAI & TAFI, "Westill feel all the travel bod-ies should come on oneplatform to resolve thevarious issues concerningthe travel trade.

There are many dou-ble standards now in thefunctioning of traveltrade associations. Theyfight a certain airlines forcommission and ask others to boycott andtheir members fly thesame airlines."

ETAA members workfor the budget-orientedcustomers. "Not that ourclients don't evolve. Theyalso travel to Far East andEurope but on an econo-my package.

Our agents providegreat experiences to trav-ellers even without anyfive-star accommodationin several foreign destinations. We haverealised that even ordi-nary travellers aspire togo abroad.”

"Travel trade bodyelections have become afarce. I was told that ̀ 20to ` 30 lakh are spent onelections to fly downmembers of a particulargroup to another city forelections of some of theassociations. Our mem-bers are the real hardcoreagents and our annualmembership is only ̀ 700.By this July, we will haveabout 300 members andwe are planning to haveour first international con-vention in Dubai duringNovember this year.”

In a bid to promote the ruraland agri-tourism concept

among domestic and interna-tional visitors, MaharashtraTourist Organisers Association(MTOA) has started promotingan agri-tourism concept. Inassociation with Agri-TourismDevelopment Co-operation(ATDC), the association willpromote around 100 agri-tourism sites located in vari-ous regions of Maharashtra.MTOA is also in process of conducting an educationaltrip for over 50 members from

various parts of Maharashtrato Baramati to provide first-hand experience of agri-tourism concept.

Talking to , Atul Mohile, President, MTOAsaid, “Agri-tourism is one ofthe budding concepts in India.However, there is a hugepotential as travellers fromurban areas and inboundtourists are keen to know andexperience the rural lifestyle.Through agri-tourism, travelagents can sell packages suchas educational for students,

experiential for young trav-ellers, rural for inboundtourists, etc. ATDC has recent-ly been recognised by WTTCas it was one of the finalists forTourism for Tomorrow Awards2011. So, when internationalbodies like WTTC are recog-nising the importance of agri-tourism, it’s high time that wethe travel agents start pro-moting the concept for rural,eco and agri-tourism.” MTOAwill organise similar educa-tional fams for over 100 mem-bers this year.

By organising fams for its members to agri-tourism sites, Maharashtra Tourist OrganisersAssociation (MTOA) will promote the concept among domestic and inbound travellers…

MTOA cashing in on agri-tourism

MTOA to promote over100 agri-tourism sites inMaharashtra

To promote amongdomestic and inboundtravellers

To organise an educationalfam for over 50 membersin August 2011

To work closely with Agri-Tourism DevelopmentCorporation

Going rural

Atul MohilePresidentMTOA

AN I TA JA I N

Department of Tourism,Government of NationalCapital of Delhi hasannounced August 31, 2011,as the last date to acceptapplication from tour opera-tors, travel agencies, excur-sion agent and tourist trans-port operators, for themandatory license that willauthorise them to operate inthe National Capital Territoryof Delhi. The fee for the issueof license and renewal there-after shall be ` 5,000 for 5 years. The Governmenthas made it mandatory for all the existing compa-nies/firms of such nature toapply on or before August31, 2011 to avoid any action.

Travel agencyregistrationmandatory

ASSOCIATIONS1 4 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 1

“My new tenure wouldstart with reinstating

our members’ faith in theassociation. In NorthernRegion, we have alwaysbelieved in presenting ouragenda in front of membersand maintaining transparen-cy. And we would continue todo so. Being a large family, wewould work towards our goalscollectively with each others’support,” said Mayal after herre-election to office.

The chapter will alsolook at increasing members’

participation in the associa-tion’s activity. Sharing heragenda with us, Mayalinformed, “We are certainly

going to pass a 50 per centattendance resolution. This is for the better functioningof the region.”

Mayal insists that theNorthern Region being thelargest TAAI chapter should

have a strong voice atNational level and should alsosee to it that any decisiontaken is for the well being ofthe association at large.

“We have to continueto fight our battles with allour suppliers so that each and every agent, spe-cially the smaller ones areable to sustain and work ina profitable manner. We willcontinue to open newavenues of earnings and also educate all, from thecounter staffs to the management. Working pro-fessionally makes you savemoney and earn more,” she said.

In her previous tenureMayal as chairperson ledmany result oriented delib-erations with Embassies andVFS, Punjab National Bankand Passport Office. Therewere several workshops onnew products and revenue

streams, a seminar on Dos& Don’ts of ticketing andreservation to avoid ADMs,an interactive session withall heads of star alliancemembers. The chapter was also instrumental ingetting the Air India ADM policy made along witha redress cell.

In her second consecutive tenure as Chairperson TAAI NI Region, Jyoti Mayalhints at a more dynamic and strengthened Northern India chapter.

SH AYA N MA L L I C K

TAAI NI to pass a 50%attendance resolution

Jyoti Mayal Chairperson TAAI NI Region

Jyoti MayalChairperson

George KuttySecretary

Neeraj MalhotraTreasurer

TAAI NI Team

Increasing members’par ticipation in theassociation’s activities

Give the chapter and itsmembers a strong voice atthe national level

Continue to explore newavenues of earnings formembers

Continue to deal withsuppliers so that memberagencies are able tosustain

Next on Agenda

TAFI Northern India (TAFI NI) recently organised its bimonthly meet-ing at hotel Le Meridien New Delhi. The meeting briefed the memberson the chapter’s activity and follow ups as well the outcome of thelast meeting held in Katra. The meeting was also attended by TurkishTourism Counsellor in India Ozgur Ayturk, who used the opportunityto highlight Tukey’s diverse tourism offerings and invited the trade tovisit Turkey to gather first hand information about the destination. Themeeting was followed by Lunch.

TAFI NI meet reviews its work

Bengaluru-based PilaniSoft Labs; the parent

company of the bus travelconsolidator redbus.in is infinal stages of introducingIndia’s first bus bookingGlobal Distribution System(GDS) – ‘SeatSeller’.

Scheduled to go live onJune 27, 2011, the new GDSis aimed at bringing trans-parency in the bus travelindustry for both bus opera-tors and bus ticketing agents.It is also looking at expand-ing its offline presence incities like Mumbai, Pune,Ahmedabad, New Delhi,Hyderabad, Chennai and

Bengaluru through the fran-chise route by this year end.The company recentlyreceived a Series-C fundingof US$ 6.5 million (close to ` 29 crore), of which the company is going toinvest close to US$ 2 millionin both SeatSeller and offline expansion.

Providing the details ofSeatSeller, Phanindra Sama,CEO & Co-Founder, redBus.insaid, “We recorded a growth ofclose to 100 per cent in 2010-11 financial year as comparedto 2009-2010 which showsthe potential of bus travelindustry of our country. We arecurrently working with morethan 5,000 travel agents and

over 850 bus operators acrossIndia. It’s through us that thebus operator gets to knowabout their potential markets,agents with highest sales fig-ures, etc. With Seatseller, bus

operators will be able to direct-ly view and contact the travelagents with high sales rates.Bus operators can also set upsales-based incentive pro-gramme and extra commission

rates for agents to furtherboost their sales. Thus,redBus.in will now provide aseamless system for the bustravel industry. With the esti-mated growth figures, we are

targetting ` 250 croreturnover for the current finan-cial year ending March 2012.”

Currently, the companyoperates an outlet in Mumbai

(Borivali) named ‘redBuslounge’ and is aiming to oper-ate in at least 10 outlets in 10major cities of India.

redBus.in will launch the 1st Global Distribution System (GDS) ‘SeatSeller’. The first of itskind system will go live on June 27 for travel agents and bus operators.

AN I TA JA I N

A seamless business model for thebus travel industry…

TRANSPORT J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 1 TRAVTALK 1 5

We recorded agrowth of closeto 100 per centin 2010-11financial year ascompared to2009-10 whichshows thepotential of thebus travelindustry in India

Phanindra Sama, CEO & Co-Founder, redBus.in

• redBus.in received itsSeries-A funding in 2008

• Recorded a turnover of ` 55 crore

• Next year in 2009, itreceived ` 8 crore forSeries-B round of funding

• Witnessed a turnover of ` 120 crore

• Targetting ` 250 croreturnover for 2011-12

Growth chart

STATES1 6 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 1

With over 200 hotel bedsand more in planning;

Lavasa hill city (200 kmsfrom Mumbai) is aiming toset new standards in hospi-tality, tourism, education,healthcare and retail indus-try. Developed by LavasaCorporation Limited, the cityhas recently launched ‘LavasaHolidays’ – concept devisedto promote Lavasa as a holi-day destination. To start with,it has launched ‘Summer

Special’ package to targetfamilies, youth and FIT

traffic for May and June.

Talking to , NathanAndrews, Executive VicePresident – BusinessDevelopment, LavasaCorporation said, “Most of thevisitors are short holidayseekers and come from nearby cities like Mumbai andPune. Our endeavor is todrive up the numbers and wewill definitely leverage the‘Lavasa Holidays’ platform to

create special packagesloaded with exciting offers forboth the seasons. Apart frompromoting Lavasa as a holi-day destination through var-ious media campaign, we areworking closely with somesections of the travel tradeand certainly look forward toexplore more opportunitieswith tour operators fromdomestic and internationalmarkets. ”

Providing details aboutthe accommodation facility,Andrews said, “Apart frommulti-cuisine dining options,hotel brands like ‘FortuneSelect Dasve’ with 60 rooms,‘Ekaant – The Retreat’ with 20rooms, ‘Mercure’ with 130rooms and ‘Waterfront Shaw’with three high-end serviceapartments are optional inLavasa. By next year, ‘PullmanNovotel’ and ‘Novotel’ with258 rooms and 200 roomswill start operations respec-tively. ‘Doubletree’ by HiltonGroup with 150 keys isexpected to be operational byJune 2013.

Tagged as India’s first hill-city, Lavasa is gearing up tobecome one of the leading attractions for domestic andinbound travellers in Maharashtra.

AN I TA JA I N

‘Lavasa Holidays’ luresagents with special packages

Nathan AndrewsExecutive Vice President – BusinessDevelopment, Lavasa Corporation

Package One (Saturdayand Sunday) –` 5,000 perperson

Package Two (Sunday orMonday) - ` 4,400 perperson

Package Three (Tuesday -Friday) – ` 4,800 perperson

Day Package - ` 1999 foran Adult and ` 1499 for kids

Summer Special

“Andhra Pradesh hasdeveloped high quality

infrastructure to meet theneeds of domestic and inter-

national tourists. It has 4000seating capacity conventioncentre at Hyderabad to meetthe demand for MICE.APTDC has 42 hotels withcapacity of 1220 rooms to

meet needs of budget andhigh-end tourists. Most of thehotels have swimming pool,restaurant and bar, banquetsand health clubs etc. Besides,there are eight wayside facil-ities located on the highwaysto meet the needs of the trav-eling tourists,” said SandeepKumar Sultania, IAS, ViceChairman & ManagingDirector, APTDC.

Thanks to its diversetourism offering, the statehas now emerged as a lead-ing tourist destination in thecountry. Andhra attractedmore than 155 milliondomestic tourists last yearplacing the state right at thetop in the ranking of stateswith maximum number ofdomestic tourists. The stateattracted 3.23 lakh interna-tional tourists in 2010.

As part of its destinationpromotion initiative, APTDCrecently conducted familiari-

sation tour for travel agentsfrom Malaysia. APTDC hasplans to organise more suchfam tours for travel agentsfrom Dubai, Singapore,Thailand, Indonesia and SriLanka, informed Sultania.

Sultania also informedthat Medical Tourism has

been promoted in a big wayas there are plenty ofInternational standard hospi-tals available in AndhraPradesh. He identifies MICETourism,Temple Tourism,Beach Tourism, and EcoTourism as high potentialtourism products.

According to MOT, Andhra Pradesh has been ranked as India’s number onetourist destination. The South Indian state boasts of some great tourismproducts that are attracting both domestic and international tourists alike.

SH AYA N MA L L I C K

Andhra ranks first as touristdestination

Sandeep Kumar Sultania, IAS Vice Chairman & Managing Director,APTDC

APTDC launches Balaji darshan packageAPTDC has recently

started package tours withJet Airways which is meet-ing the needs of tourists tohave Darshan of Lord Balajiat Tirumala. The packagetour includes Air Transport,Tea & Snacks at WaysideAmenity Srikalahasti, Darshan at Kalahasti Temple, Dinner,Night Halt & Breakfast at Haritha Hotel, Srinivasam, Darshanof Padmavathi Ammavari Temple & Srinivasam MangapuramTemple Darshan. New Air package tours with Jet Airways& Spice Jet to Vizag, Vijayawada & Rajahmundry are beingintroduced shortly.

Hotels 42

Wayside Amenities 08

Restaurants 02

Snack Bars 02

Food Court 01

Celebrated with great fer-vour and intensity, Puri

Rath Yatra marks presence ofcountless stout devotees ofLord Jagannath who throngthe place from all parts of theworld to escort the pious idolsof Lord Jagannath. Threerichly decorated chariots arepulled through the streets ofPuri. This commemorates theannual journey of Lord

Jagannath, LordBalarama, and

their sis-

ter Subhadra to their aunt's temple, the Gundichatemple which is situated at a distance of two km from their temple.

New chariots are builtevery year and a bare threekm walk witnesses a sea ofpeople jostling among them-selves to grab hold of therope that pulls the chariot.The three chariots for each ofthe deities, resemble a tem-ple structure reaching almost45 feet, and are pulled by arope which is consideredlucky among pilgrims. The

‘darshan’ of Lord Jagannathaon the chariot is consideredto be very auspicious andworshippers believe thattouching the Lord's vehiclebrings prosperity.

Rath Yatra is the grand-est festival of Orissa.Everything is on grand scalefull of spectacle, drama andcolour. The festival is a typi-cal Indian festival of huge proportions. For thedevoted and believers, it isconsidered the most auspi-cious occasion.

Next month will experience a sea of humanity on thestreets of Puri to celebrate this rich cultural festival.

TT BU R E AU

Orissa set for Rath Yatra

passengers of and above 10years returning to Indiaafter a stay of more thanthree days can get luggageup to value of ` 25,000while those returning afterstay abroad of three days or less can only bring lug-gage valued up to ` 12,000. Similarly for pas-sengers up to 10 years (aftera stay abroad of more than3 days) can bring baggageworth ` 6,000 and passen-gers up to 10 years (with astay abroad of three days orless) can only get baggagevalued at ` 3,000,” heexplained.

The used personaleffects excluding jewelleryare normally allowed dutyfree. Firearms, cartridges,cigarettes exceeding 200 ormore than 50 cigars, alco-holic drinks or wines inexcess of two litres, gold orsilver in any form other thanornaments are not allowed,”he stated.

“Passengers arrivingfrom Nepal, Bhutan andChina (returning after stayabroad of more than threedays) can get articles valuedup to ` 6,000 and passen-gers up to 10 years of age(for the same period) of stay-

ing abroad gets a duty freebaggage of the value up to ` 1,500,” he said.

“Indian passenger (pro-fessionals) engaged in pro-fession abroad returning after3 months are allowed dutyfree used household articlesof the value of ` 12,000 andprofessional equipment up tovalue of ` 20,000,” he said."Indian professionals return-ing after 6 months can getprofessional equipmentworth ` 40,000 while usedhousehold articles up to ` 12,000,” Premchanddescribed.

"Import of jewelleryfor Indian passenger resid-ing abroad for over oneyear is ` 10,000 for menand for women, it is `

20,000. For those Indianpassengers who come toIndia after a period of notless than six months of stayabroad and have notbrought gold or ornamentsduring his short visits canbring gold (including orna-ments) not exceeding 10 kgper passenger by payingthe prescribed duty only inconvertible foreign curren-cy. Ornaments studdedwith stones and pearls are not allowed to beimported,” he noted.

Custom’s rules...Contd. from page 8 u

NTO

The 8th edition of Destination Britain & Ireland (DEBI),held in Bengaluru, witnessed success as both buyersand suppliers found the event highly rewarding fortheir businesses. More than 200 companies attendedthe three-day B2B event. The event was organised byVisitBritain, in association with Tourism Ireland.

SH AYA N MA L L I C K F R O M BE N GA LU R U

DEBI boosts British &Irish tourism profile

Jaspreet Chopra, Director, DejavuHolidays

I am reallyimpressed with themix of suppliers pres-ent here. The high-end segments whomwe work with ask forour suggestions onwhat all to do andwhere to go. And I have been able tomeet all kind of suppliers from serviceprovider and tourism boards to attrac-tion, shopping and entertainment. Iwould look forward to attend DEBI thenext year.

Jatinder S Taneja, ManagingDirector, Travel SpiritInternational

I found the sup-pliers selection real-ly impressive. Icould meet almostall kind of sellersfrom about everyregion. The eventwill definitely helpus design better products. We will alsoincrease our product range. Also, I foundthe seminars and presentation from theregional tourism boards very useful.

Shravan Bhalla, Chief Executive,High Flyer

I am a honey-moon specialist.And the types ofproducts that I waslooking for like cas-tles or a wine touretc, I have been ableto meet those sup-pliers here. We were not doing much ofIreland but DEBI this year will certainlychange that. The specially allocated timeto network with the UK suppliers was agood idea.

Vineet Gopal, Director, EngeeHolidays

We will certainlybe able to improveand increase ourproduct range. Theevent has broughtme in direct contactwill all kinds of sup-pliers. Ripley’s will bea definite addition to my London itinerary.I have even met DMCs with whom we canpromote ‘Whisky Tours,’ a new product forthe Indian market! Golfing in Ireland andScotland is also a great product to promote.

Parikshit Sawhney, ManagingDirector, Fore Representation andTravel

This is my firsttime to the eventand I have found itvery productive.With the new prod-ucts and places thatwe have beenexposed to, this event will definitely helpus improve visitors’ experience. We did-n’t know that the castles in Ireland andScotland are available on rent or thatB&B in London comes for as low as £30and is commissionable!

P Vijay Anand, Director of Sales & Marketing, SeyonHolidays

The event has been very useful as it was very specific and markettargetted. I have been able to meet all kind of suppliers which at timesis even difficult at events like ITB or WTM.

M K Ajit Kumar, President, AsiaPacific Tours

DEBI has pro-vided me opportuni-ty to meet and net-work with the rightkind of vendors wewould like to workwith. Travellersnowadays are moreopen to exploring new destinations. Thisevent has given me an opportunity topromote and sell new destinations likeScotland and Ireland.

NTO1 8 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 1

Australia HighCommission in New

Delhi has recently reached amilestone by issuing 1,00,00th visa to Australia in2010-11. The figureincludes 19 different typesof visa including tourist andbusiness visa. As per theinformation provided byAustralian High CommissionNew Delhi, the visitor visaapplication rate hasincreased by 17 per cent thisyear and over 50 per cent ofvisitor visa applicants were

family members of Indianpermanent residents orAustralian citizens of Indianorigin. This shows that the

VFR traffic from India toAustralia is on all time highgrowth. The business shortstays visa application rate

has increased by 15 per centthis year and will continueto grow as India-Australiaeconomic and trade rela-tions also grow.

Talking exclusively to , Peter Varghese,Australia’s HighCommissioner to India said,“The rise in visa only showsthe broader picture ofenhanced trade relationsbetween India and Australia.Earlier, we have witnessedrise in visa for trade andinvestment sectors butrecently we have recorded

growth in tourist visas aswell. Every year, we contem-plate an average growth of 10per cent in tourist visaswhich is at the moment overthe average rate. We expectgood number of Indians to visit Australia this year andwill try our best to make visaissuance more convenientand hassle free for the travellers.”

Two-way tradebetween India and Australiahas been growing at about20 per cent year-on-year forthe past five years. In 2010,

two-way trade was approximately AustralianUS$ 22 billion, driven by thestrong complementaritiesbetween the two economies.Reflecting this dynamism on May 12, Australia and India agreed to launchnegotiations towards aComprehensive EconomicCooperation Agreement (or FTA).

With enhanced trade ties between India and Australia, the number of visitors to Australiahas increased in 2010-11.

AN I TA JA I N

1,00,000 visas and still counting...

In response to the rapidlygrowing demand in travel

to Turkey in the Indian mar-ket, Turkey is planning towiden the scope of Visa-on-Arrival scheme that is cur-rently being offered to theIndian travellers. The NTO ismoving quickly to capitaliseon the robust growth that ithas witnessed from India in the recent months andlooks well set to close theyear on a high.

“We are planning toexpand the range of VoAfacilitation for the Indian vis-itors. Under the currentscheme, Turkey is offeringVoA to the Indian citizenswith valid US, UK orSchengen Visa. Now effortsare being made to grant VoA

to Indian citizens with valid Canadian and AustraliaVisa,” informed OzgurAyturk, Culture & TourismCounsellor – India, Turkey

speaking at the TAFI NorthIndia bimonthly meeting inDelhi recently.

The new scheme,approved by the TurkishGovernment, is expected tobe in place after the generalelection in Turkey in June.Ayturk informed thatthis suggestion came fromthe Turkish tourism compa-nies who have seen greatresult from India in therecent months. “We are will-ing. And, we are working onit. We have reasons to bemore optimistic about thismarket,” he said.

Turkey has recordedclose to 40 per cent growth intourist arrivals from India inthe first four months, thisyear, compared to the sameperiod last year. It received63,000 visitors in 2010, reg-istering a growth of 15 percent in arrivals from Indiaover the previous year.

Visa-on-Arrival, currently available for Indian tourists with valid US, UK or Schengen Visa will soonbe available for travellers with valid Canadian and Australia Visa also.

SH AYA N MA L L I C K

Turkey to simplify Visas for Indian tourists

Tourism Authority ofThailand is keen on see-

ing the MICE business fromIndia growing.

“India is a very impor-tant market for us. With surgein MICE business from India,we are now keen to persuadethe stakeholders in MICE busi-ness to move a level higher,”said Chattan Kunjara NaAyudhya, Director, TAT New Delhi office.

“By taking this step, thestakeholders will derivegreater return on their incre-mental investment and couldalso avail greater value formoney,” he said. Lately, TCEBhad also announced a new ini-tiative to build on this successto further boost Thailand’s

image and presence in thehigh-end ‘Luxury MICE’ mar-ket, post the ‘Believe inThailand’ campaign.

“Our new initiative isdesigned both to extend mar-ket penetration in the existingluxury MICE market and toincrease the size of this nichemarket. In terms of numbers,

the luxury MICE market hasshown steady growth over thepast few years. These visitors,especially from long-haul markets, tend to travel in asmall, more exclusive and sen-ior-level groups and theirexpectations and standards are correspondingly higher,”said Akapol Sorasuchart,President, TCEB.

The luxury MICE segment is projected to contributearound US$ 130 million this year, as TAT and TCEB initiatives take MICE events in the country to a higher level…

VI V E K SE T H I

Thailand beckons Indian MICE segment

Peter VargheseAustralia’s High Commissioner to India

We expect good number of Indians to visit Australia this year and will try our best to make visa issuance moreconvenient and hassle free for the travellers

Ozgur AyturkCulture & Tourism Counsellor – IndiaTurkey

Chattan Kunjara Na AyudhyaDirector, TAT New Delhi Office

Akapol SorasuchartTCEB

AGENTS2 2 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 1

Independent travel is grow-ing remarkably well, even to

Europe, yet Coach Toursremain the most popular andbest way to sample what thecharming ‘Old World’ ofEurope has to offer. It is notjust the all–inclusive one pricethat Indians like; it is also thediversity of Europe that can beexperienced in a short dura-tion of time. Above all, Indiansare inclined to travelling with their families and areoften accompanied by youngchildren, making CoachTouring the most hassle freestyle of travelling.

“Most of all, CoachTouring makes it moreaffordable to exploreEurope,” says GauriJayaram, Regional DirectorSouth Asia and Middle Eastfor the Globus family ofbrands. “This is also whyEurope is no longer the pre-serve of the wealthy andaffluent Indians. Withincreasing awareness and

accessibility, we are seeingan increased demand fromacross India.” Western Indiaremains the leader, gener-ating maximum travellers,followed by North/Central,South and East, respective-ly. Moreover, business is nolonger restricted to the met-ros. Tier II cities are alsoimportant targets for all tour operators.

In the past few years,several companies havelaunched their own brandedtours at the national level.

On a regional level, manymore are operating andmanaging their own toursfor their clients.Interestingly, while themulti-country PanoramicEurope tours remain hotfavourites, many of theseoperators are also addingdepartures to regions suchas Eastern Europe,Scandinavia, Italy, etc. Insome cases, even companiesthat started as OTAs whosecore business was to sell air-line tickets, have nowentered this segment.

“Our vacations areremarkably different fromwhat anyone else offers in India. Specifically, we donot include any Indianmeals, travel companionsare from different countriesand our Tour Directorsbelong to the region that we tour in.

Despite these featuresthat make our tours verycosmopolitan, we havefound a clientèle in India.

Moreover, the fact that all our partners selling Coach Tours are also suc-cessfully selling our toursgoes to show how the mar-ket is evolving and there is room for everyone,”added Jayaram.

For decades, experts have been predicting the death of planned coachtouring. Yet, coach touring is growing, says Gauri Jayaram...

TT BU R E AU

Explore Europe with Coach Tours

Gauri Jayaram, Regional Director South Asia and Middle EastGlobus family of brands

After scaling over ` 100crore in revenues and

50,000 pax in the sixth yearof existence in 2010-11, GoIndia Journeys intends toconsolidate its position beforetaking another major leap. Ithad registered over 37 percent growth in its top linealong with doubling the baseof guests being serviced.

“We have registered aremarkable growth of over 37per cent in 2010-11, whichhelped us to cross the crucial` 100 crore revenue mark inour sixth year of existence.Another astonishing fact is that in the said period, our base of guests hascrossed 50,000 pax,” said Amit Prasad, Chief OperatingOfficer, Go India Journeys.

“To sustain the growthmomentum, we intend toconsolidate our position byundertaking extensive prod-uct development exercises,

training staff members and improving our margincalls. This will give a newthrust to scale newerheights,” said Prasad.

“On the product devel-opment front, we have suc-cessfully launched luxury self

drive holiday packages. Postour ICC world cup experi-ence, we hope that the F-1 inIndia will add up to 8-10 percent incremental revenuesthrough our niche sport

tourism packages. We havestrong plans on the weddingsegments and are dedicatedto offer an engaging rich cultural experience to ourguests,” he added.

Having touched 50,000 pax, Go India Journeys now intends to consolidate through extensive product development exercises, training staff members and improving margin calls to keep the growth momentum going…

TT BU R E AU

Go India Journeys takesanother leap

Amit PrasadChief Operating OfficerGo India Journeys

all private hotelswithin 5km of nationalparks and sanctuariesin india will have topay a cess which wouldbe used for the upkeepof these wildlifehotspots, the unionenvironment ministryhas decided. it has asked stategovernments to notify the cess by theend of this year.

quick read

Bali may not be a familiardestination for Indian

tourists but two young trav-el entrepreneurs AshishIndulkar and GhanshyamUpadhyay of U & I Holidaysare determined to make thisexotic beach destinationwidely known in the Indianmarket.

"We are a one-and-a-half-year old destinationmanagement companybased in Andheri Mumbaiwith Bali as our prized desti-nation for Indian travel asso-ciates. We are also promot-ing Maldives and Mauritiusin India," explained Indulkar.U & I Holidays directly han-dles their travel businessthrough leading travel agen-cies. "Ninety per cent of thetourists going to Bali from India avail our servic-es. We have our own officein Bali,” he said.

"U&I Holidays is thefirst ever Indian companyto start its own local officein Bali. This office prima-rily aims to attract out-bound business from Indiainto Indonesia. We pro-mote & market ourselvesonly in the B2B sector ofthe Indian travel tradewith over 1000 travelagents across the countrydealing with us on a regu-lar basis including some ofthe best known brands,”Indulkar said.

Among our clientsare leading travel agen-cies. "A lot of new travelagencies from small townshave also approached us. We will be shortlyopening offices all overIndia.” The only dilemmawhich we see in promotingBali in India is the absenceof air connectivity betweenIndia and Indonesia, he cited.

A new destination managementcompany is set to stir the outboundtourism with Bali as its new destina-tion through various travel agencies.

TT BUREAU

U&I promotes Bali

Coach Tours remain themost popular and bestway to sample what thecharming ‘Old World’ ofEurope has to offer

Indians are inclined totravelling with theirfamilies and are oftenaccompanied by youngchildren, making CoachTouring the most hasslefree style of travelling

With increasingawareness andaccessibility, Global Familyof Brands is seeing anincreased demand fromacross India

Indians on CoachTours

HOTELS2 4 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 1

After reporting consoli-dated revenues of `127

crore, Kamat Hotels isexpecting a raise of at least15-20 per cent for the finan-cial year 2011-12. This willbe further boosted by theconsolidation of LotusResorts and Vithal KamatRestaurant chain into theparent company. For the year ended March 2010, thecompany had achieved asales turnover of ̀ 114 croreand earned a net profit of ` 1.40 crore.

The company’s busi-ness module envisages bothmanagement contractedproperties and owned prop-erties. Company’s brandsinclude The Orchid – AnEcotel Hotel in the 5-starsegment, VITS BusinessHotel in the 4-star segment,Gadh Hotels and Lotus

Resorts. The focus of thecompany is in positioning itshotels to the business seg-ment in the mid to up-mar-ket category. In addition, the company consciously follows the policy of environment conservation inthe operation of its hotels inall aspects.

“We are going to look atconsolidating our position

through occupancy at leastfor the next six months,” saysVikram Kamat, ExecutiveDirector, Kamat Hotels. As faras the grouping of its variouscompanies under one banneris concerned, the process ofvaluation is still going on.Revenue generation is main-ly through owned hotelswhile managed propertiesaccount for only five per centof the revenue.

After witnessing an incredible performance in the previous financial year, the hotel group is expecting morein the current financial year…

TT BU R E AU

Kamat Hotels building onthe gains of the past

Accor has announced a tie-up with Connet-

Worldwide, a US based travelRepresentation Company withoffice in India to strengthen itssales distribution channel. Withthe agreement, Connect-Worldwide will be responsiblefor increasing sales amongretail travel agents and smalland medium sized travel com-panies. Through its offices inNew Delhi, Mumbai andBengaluru (soon to be launchedin Chennai); Connect-Worldwide will be training,educating and assisting thetravel trade with various book-ing options, products and pack-ages available with Accor.

The hotel company hasalso launched a toll free call

centre for travel agents (1860500 1010) and has optimizedits trade website – www.trav-elagencies. accorhotels.comand www. businesstravel.accorhotels.com to furtherhelp the travel trade toenhance sales for the brand.

Talking exclusively to, Eric Otto, President

and CEO, Connect-Worldwidesaid, “We currently representover 40 brands in variouscountries and 25 in India.

Currently we represent a totalof 12 hotel brands in Indiaand each one has recorded agrowth in their sales. We arecapable of offering ‘dual mar-keting’ options to our hotelpartners by educating thetrade about various products,tools, packages, location andalso brand building amongend consumers. Accor is awell known brand in Indiaand we are going to help thebrand by significantly increas-ing the market share.”

The agreement aims at penetrating the Indian marketand increasing sales from smaller cities. The new toll-free call centre for travel is the cherry on the cake.

AN I TA JA I N

Strengthening distribution channels

Accor and Connect Worldwide tie-up

Vikram KamatExecutive DirectorKamat Hotels

india is currentlyranked 12th in the asiaPacific region and 68thoverall in the list of theworld's attractivedestinations.

– World economic Forum (WeF)

quick read

L-R: Jean-Michel Casse, Eric Otto, Jean Luc Chretien, Vasudha Sondhi andPatrick Mendes

AGENTS J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 1 TRAVTALK 2 5

After recording an increaseof 149 per cent in Net

profit in Q1 this year, ThomasCook (India) is looking aheadfor attaining further growth in 2011. The company has recently launchedMoneyGram International(global money transfer serv-ice) in association with BhartiWalmart and Bharti Retail. It has also formed a new‘Trade Relations andCommunications’ team for

developing and enhancingtrade relationships in theindustry. The company is nowworking on its next step –

strengthening its presenceacross India. Currently, thecompany has 84 Gold CirclePartners (franchisees), 180Preferred Sales Agents andover 600 Associate Agents

along with 201 Thomas Cooklocations in 71 cities (inclusiveof 26 airport counters in fivecities). It is now looking atadditional 36 GCP outlets andtaking the network to 110 byOctober 2011.

According to MadhavPai, Chief Operating Officer,Leisure Travel (Outbound),Thomas Cook (India); theIndian traveller is evolving ata speedy pace and travel com-panies need to have theexpertise to meet traveller’srequirements. He said, “ AtThomas Cook India, we haverecorded 60-70 per centgrowth compared to 2010 foroutbound holidays. Thisproves at what pace the Indiantravel market is growing andwe are preparing ourselves tomeet the future demand byexpanding our presence andbecoming more accessible forour customers.”

After forming a new ‘Trade Relations and Communications’team, Thomas Cook is expanding its operations across India through Gold Circle Partners (GCPs)…

AN I TA JA I N

Thomas Cook Indiaexpanding operations

Madhav PaiChief Operating Officer, Leisure Travel(Outbound), Thomas Cook (India)

Net profit increased to48.3 million from 19.4million, an increase of 149per cent

Income from Operationsgrew to 652 million from502 million, an increase of30 per cent

Q1 result highlights

LPTI & Coral Travels welcome charter season

Team Le Passage to India in Goa - (L-R): Arjun Sharma, Domnic Kostka, Tarannum Banerjee, Reshma Alves, WarrenPinto, Shubert Colaco, Egbert Dias and Deepak Bhatnagar

Arjun Sharma with Guests - (L-R): Arjun Sharma, Managing Director- Le Passage to India, Sushant Nadkarni - Leadinglegal Honcho, Sundar Advani ,Chairman & MD- Advani Hotels, John Fernandes - Owner Royal Holidays, Reshma Alves,Asst. Vice President – Le Passage to India , Aleona Odud - Coral Travel Head Representative, Ekaterina Ivanona, LePassage to India Head Representative & Anil Patil- Royal Holidays

Deepak with Guests - (L-R): Deepak Bhatnagar,Executive Director – Le Passage to India, Edwin Dias,General Manager Resort Marinha Dourada & CarolynNaronha -Admin Manager, TUI UK

To celebrate a successful charter season in Goa, Le Passage to India andCoral Travels hosted a gala evening to thank its partners. Both LPTI andCoral Travels expect the present charter season to be even better.

Year 2010 was exception-al for South African

Tourism when Indian touristarrivals surged by 17.3 percent compared to 2009. Thenumber of travellers

increased to 71,587 in 2010 from 61,007 in 2009. India ranked third inAsia in terms of inboundtravellers to South Africa forthe period of January toDecember 2010. Year 2011looks promising too.

Sharing the figures with, Hanneli Slabber,

Country Head India, SouthAfrican Tourism said, “We areglad that South Africa findsan important place in an

Indian’s vacation or businessitinerary. The upward move-ment in figures restored ourbelief of further intensifyingour outreach programme totap into this growing market.Accelerating Indian arrivals

in South Africa this year isour priority.”

This positive trend wasalso witnessed at INDABA2011, a travel trade fair host-ed by South African Tourismannually. It was held at Inkosi

Albert Luthuli InternationalConvention Centre (ICC) in KwaZulu-Natal province,Durban. With a slogan ‘LeaveOrdinary Behind’, it attract-ed 1,610 exhibitors showcas-ing their products. Ndabo Khoza, CEO, Kwa-ZuluNatal Tourism estimated thatINDABA injected between200 - 250 million SouthAfrican Rand into Durban’seconomy this year. A total of 3,000 international buyers and visitors from 98different countries partici-pated, accounting for 11 percent increase in the numberof delegates compared toINDABA 2010. Theexhibitors included tour operators, hotels, airlines,national tourism authorities,car rental companies, game lodges and naturereserves, transport business-es, online travel representa-tives and conferencing facilitators.

Addressing delegatesduring the INDABA openingceremony, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, TourismMinister, South Africa intro-duced ‘Strategy 2020’. Hementioned that the objectiveis to increase the number of

foreign tourist arrivals to 15million by the year 2020. Heemphasised on plans toincrease total contribution oftourism towards the econo-my to R499 billion and creat-ing 2,25,000 new jobs by2020. The focus of SAT isnow to strengthen its coretourism market, i.e. Europeand aggressively pursueemerging ones in theAmericas, Asia and Africa.

A group of hosted buy-ers from India participated inthe exhibition that includedPearl Travel, LotusDestinations, Travel ToursGroup, Varun WorldwideHolidays, Kuoni Travel India, Bespoke Tours andJagsons Travel.

SAT understands theadvantage of working close-ly with the travel trade toachieve their goal. Apart fromregularly organising exhibi-tions, roadshows and famil-

iarisation trips for the trade,they also enhance theirknowledge on South Africathrough learning pro-grammes. Slabber informed,

“We will engageIndian operatorsthrough ‘Learn South Africa’modules in 14cities with a goodmix of tier I andtier II cities. In2010, we initiat-ed the entrylevel. This yearin July, around1,000 graduateswill attend mod-ule 2.”

When asked about theshift witnessed in the inflowof tourists from India, shesaid that apart from tradi-tional source destinations(Mumbai and Delhi), SAT haslately received tourists from

other tier I cities. Thisincludes Bengaluru, Chennaiand Hyderabad. “Over thelast couple of years, tier IIcities such as Pune,Chandigarh, Jalandhar,Ludhiana, Baroda, Surat,Rajkot, Bhopal, Ahmedabadand Indore have grown to beour potential markets too,”she added. While Cape Townand Sun City needs no intro-

duction to an Indian tourist,SAT plans to popularise theGarden Route and KwaZulu-Natal province among others.

The profile of Indiantravellers is a combinationof luxury travellers, adven-ture seekers, wildlife enthu-siasts and wine connois-seurs. Lately, cricket andfootball fans (for IPL2 2009and FIFA World Cup 2010),Bollywood actors, models,film directors are throngingthe shores. “The Indianwanderlust is now lookingfor a mixture of luxury andadventure. The entiredynamics of India's out-bound travel sector ischanging. We have seenmany Indian tourists choos-

ing South Africa for luxury,adventure, honeymoon, golf,wellness and even culinarytourism,” Slabber informed.

SAT has also discoveredthe huge potential of theIndian MICE sector lately.After receiving large numberof inquiries, they are aggres-sively promoting their annu-al MICE trade show titled‘Meeting Africa’. Slabberadded, “As major travelagents in India have corpo-rate accounts with them, wehave been building on thissegment to get Indian com-panies to visit the country.We select agents from Indiato experience this event andalso have first-hand experi-ence of the destination froma MICE perspective.”

EXHIBITIONS2 6 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 1

South African Tourism (SAT) is enthusiastic about the steady growth in tourist arrivals fromIndia. Confident of exceeding its arrival target this year, SAT plans to begin ‘Learn SouthAfrica’ modules in the first week of July 2011. The module will be organised in 14 Indiancities that will include both tier I and tier II cities.

NI D H I RA J S I N G H I N DU R B A N

‘Learn South Africa’ training modules in 14 Indian cities

Hanneli SlabberCountry Head IndiaSouth African Tourism

Response from Buyers and Exhibitorsspoke to buyers and exhibitors about their expectations and

experiences at INDABA 2011. Following are the excerpts:

We feel extremely opti-mistic about the future of Indianmarket. We have only beenmarketing ourselves in India fora year now and we’re seeingsome incredible business beinggenerated in this short time. Inthese tough times we areaggressively seeking out busi-ness and this business lies with-in the emerging markets.Mantis was busier than everand we felt positive. We can alsoleverage by hosting pre/postfam trips to properties for keyplayers of travel.

Paul GardinerSales & Marketing Director,

The Mantis Collection

From our perspective,India is the single most impor-tant growth market globally. Wefocus on and invest in India. Itis developing quickly, maturingsomehow with new segmentssuch as youth travel. Havingbeen our 25th Indaba, weexpected to have meaningfulbusiness meetings with exist-ing and potential customers. Itallowed us to solidify our newbranding and positioning of the company. The golden rule is to ensure pre-arrangedappointments.

Martin WiestCEO,

Tourvest

The Indian market hasgreat interest in South Africabut Europe airfares and multi-destination options are greatcompetition. The Euro has fall-en and NTO is also pushing eachone’s destination very aggres-sively. South Africa should keepup the hype they had createdwith Indian Premier League, notallowing it to die down. Wewere at INDABA 2011 to lookfor extensive and exclusiveAfrican products. We securedgreat deals too. We establishednew relationships and strength-ened existing ones.

Himanshi Munshaw-LuharDirector, Beacon Holidays

Our expectation fromINDABA 2011 was to finaliseprocurement with suppliers,maintain relationships withexisting customers and meetnew customers. We have beenable to sign special deals withsuppliers, helping us to increaseaffordability of the destination.We met a couple of potentialcustomers, particularly fromIndia and South America. Oneshould prepare for the show,scan the list of buyers and try toget prior appointments.

Frank GlettenbergMD, Southern Africa,

Private Safaris DestinationManagement

Attracted 1,610 exhibitors

Total of 3,000 internationalbuyers and visitors from98 different countries

12 buyers from India with7 hosted buyers

11% increase in thenumber of delegatescompared to 2010

Injected between 200 -250 million South AfricanRand into Durban’seconomy

INDABA 2011

assisting them to upgradetheir infrastructure. This isdone at three levels:

a) At the Central Levelwhere various min-istries synergise to pro-vide maximum impetusto states.

b) At the State Level wherevarious nodal bodies ofthe state governmentsare encouraged to worktogether to improve the

overall infrastructure of the state.

c) At the Local Level,where grass root bodies,like a panchayat, areinvolved in basic devel-opment of the region.

“All these efforts areaimed at improving the entireinfrastructure of a state andnot just a monument or a city.The development should beholistic and involve the local community as well,”said Khwaja.

A call for sustainabilityContd. from page 1 u

Hosted buyers from India at Indaba 2011

quick readThe comScore studyfound that the numberof visitors to Travel sites increased 32 percent in the past year to18.5 million visitors asmore indians turned tothe web for their travel needs.

EXHIBITIONS2 8 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 1

This time, a 30-member Indian travel trade delegation travelled to Germany. spoke to agents at GTM 2011 to find out how Germany could be promoted in India with a different perspective…

Germany going from business to leisure

SRIPRAKASH MENON

Shravan Bhalla, Highflyer, New Delhi

"Germany is not restrict-ed to Frankfurt, Berlin andMunich. It is a beautiful country with each city havingits own charm, style and cul-ture which makes each city

different from the other. We being a honeymoonerspecialist, we can see a lot of new products inBavaria and Black Forest to offer to our high end clients."

Surabhi Shrivastava, The Backpacker Co, Mumbai

“People have now started to discoversome new aspects of Germany. A lot of freeminded travellers/backpackers have startedto explore the treasures of this land not for-getting the free flowing beer and amazinglocal food found in the country. The youth of today has discovered the non-traditional

way of travelling. The famous Oktoberfest, the biggest rock con-certs or the Mardi Gras are catching attention. It is not far leftbehind in terms of luxury and bliss, the beautiful castles, hotels,spas and richness in their cuisines.”

Gayathri Murthy of Travel Air, Bengaluru

"Germany has always been seen as a business destination by Indians. But now, they were pro-moting it as a tourist destination. It was surprise to know that Indians were not considered very poten-tial or lucrative customers by the tour operators or the hotels in Germany. This is despite the increasein Indians visiting to Germany as tourists and our economic growth. I only hope the Germans changetheir perception about Indian market.

Meenakshi Chauhan of OrbitzCorporate & Leisure Travel (I),Mumbai

"Germany has a lot to offer from UNESCO World heritage sights, museums, great cities, mountainpeaks, captivating landscapes, spa &wellness, wineries, sports destination,amazing festivals, unexplored

destinations & lots more. It has excellent infrastructure, stay options & transportation network. By offering stay back options for business travellers, the leisure market canbe tapped.”

Vineet Gopal, director EngeeHolidays LLP, New Delhi

He remarked "GTM cologne 2011’was a fantastic show. Sentiment on theexhibition floor was more positive, withgreater opportunities for finalising busi-ness deals. The quantity and profile ofsuppliers was one of GTM's strengths".

"The choice of exhibitors was very good and offeredexcellent opportunity for networking and to do serious busi-ness. I enjoyed the 2-in-1 experience of GTM the programmesbalanced objectives of education as well as procurement at the exhibition," he noted.

and serious buyers wouldattend the shows at respec-tive venues.

“On behest of the PATAUK Chapter, who had extend-ed support and co-operationfor our roadshows, we hadappointed a private consult-ant in this edition of road-shows. The consultant willensure among other thingsthat only quality and seriousplayers keen on the Indiamarket attend the roadshowsat respective centres,” saidKabir Vasudeva, ExecutiveDirector, PATA India Chapter.

“We are confident thaton an average, there will be80-100 quality buyers at allthe roadshows, which we willtry to ensure meet all themembers of the Indian dele-gation,” he added.

The format of the road-shows will stay power packedand will include serious B2Bsessions, destination Indiapresentations, India evening,free flow of workshops and other events.

“There will be power-ful B2B sessions followed

by a reception in theevening at all the road-shows. At the Indianevening, there will be a briefpresentation on destinationIndia followed by engagingcultural events, Indian dinner and a raffle draw,”said Vasudeva.

India shines via 5-cityroadshows in UK

Arjun SharmaVice ChairmanPATA India Chapter

Devesh ChaturvediAdditional Director GeneralMinistry of Tourism

Contd. from page 3 u

The Indian MICE industry isfast coming out of its

formative years to capture alion’s share in the global MICEindustry. The strong econom-ic fundamentals coupled withcreation of state-of-the-artMICE infrastructure and otherinitiatives speak volumesabout the maturing of theMICE industry in the country.

“India is one of thestrongest economic growthstories among the emergingeconomies. On back of suchstrong economic fundamentalsand creation of the world-classMICE infrastructure in most parts of the country,

India is a formidable player inthe global MICE business,”said Devesh Chaturvedi,

Additional Director General,Ministry of Tourism and the Chairperson of IndiaConvention Promotion Bureau.“The establishment of the des-tination specific conventionpromotion bureaus, startingfrom Hyderabad to other lead-ing states in MICE segment isanother mature leap thatreflects the maturing of theMICE industry’s ambitions inIndia,” he added.

It’s fortunate that theIndian MICE industry hasmade its intentions to makegreater inroads into theglobal MICE business at a time when the business sentiment has strong upside bias.

The institution of destination specific convention promotionbureau is a very healthy sign of India’s mature intentions tocapture a lion’s share in the global MICE market…

VI V E K SE T H I

Indian MICE catching upwith global trends

n Taj Hotels Resorts& Palaces has launchedits new Corporate andLuxury website,www.tajhotels.com .The website houses asophisticated designthat befits the luxuriousbrand and offers a high-ly experiential approach

to its customers. Thewebsite positions the 25Taj properties into 5 dis-tinct clusters, namely,Grand Palaces & IconicHotels, City Hotels, TajSafaris, LuxuryResidences and TajExotica Resort & Spa.

Ajoy Misra, Senior

Vice President, Sales andMarketing says, “Thedesign is a result ofextensive consumerresearch, is deeply root-ed in digital technologyto create customer experiences that aredynamic, elegant andinteresting.”

Prakash Shukla,Senior Vice PresidentTechnology & ChiefInformation Officersays, ”In our constantendeavor to providealternate channels andincreased access to ourcustomers, we havedesigned a website

which is easy to navi-gate, visually stimulat-ing and has an efficientmechanism to facilitatebookings. The effort tobring more innovationin the mobile and webspace will continue.”

The user journey is both simple and

informative and intendsto arouse trust in firsttime visitors throughexposure to the roots andheritage of the Taj.

The revamped e-commerce segment of the website facilitatesease of navigation andbookings.

Taj becomes ‘luxurious’ online as well!

With world-classMICEinfrastructure,India is aformidableplayer in theglobal MICEbusiness

Devesh Chaturvedi,ADG, MOT

Ajoy MisraSenior Vice PresidentSales and Marketing

In a bid to cater to theincreasing air and passen-

ger traffic, BengaluruInternational Airport Ltd

(BIAL) has commenced theexpansion of the passengerterminal building at an esti-mated cost of ` 1,400 crore.The work will be completedin 18 months doubling theexisting terminal of 70,000sq metres and taking termi-nal capacity to over 17 mil-lion passengers per annum.

Simultaneously, a com-prehensive review of the master plan is underway. The construction partners for the chosen project areLarsen & Toubro which havebeen selected through aninternational competitive bidding process.

The airport recentlycompleted three years of suc-cessful operations.

Talking about the futureplans of the airport, G V Sanjay Reddy, ManagingDirector, BIAL said, “In thepast three years, the airporthas witnessed the introduc-tion of 10 new internationalairlines. This spurt is mainlydue to the increase in capac-

ity at the new airport as wellas the efficient operatingenvironment that it offers toits customer airlines. Workingtowards our vision of becom-ing the gateway to the Southof India, we aim to make theenvironment here friendly forairlines – both domestic andinternational. Simultaneously,we are in talks with manymore international airlines toadd Bengaluru to their list ofdestinations.” BIAL is alsoplanning to start work onnon-aeronautical projects likeMRO, Cargo & logistics centre, hotel and conferencecentre to increase revenuemargins. However, plan forthese facilities will befinalised after review of theairport’s master plan.

To double the terminal capacity due to growing demand, the airport of ITcapital of India is set for further progress. With terminal expansion, it aims to cater to 350 aircraft movements each day and handle over 13.5 passengers this year…

Bengaluru International Airportcommences terminal expansionBIAL to have the terminal capacity of 17 million passengers

AN I TA JA I N

G V Sanjay ReddyManaging Director, BIAL

In first year of operations(2008-09), BIAL handled7.9 million passengersand 10 million in 2009-2010

In 2010-11, a total of 11.7million passengerstravelled through BIAL

The new terminal willincrease the passengercapacity to 17 million perannum

Fast Facts

AVIATION3 0 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 1

Leading domestic carri-ers, Air India, Jet

Airways and Kingfisher havestarted offering city check-in service on the DelhiAirport Metro Express Lineeffective June 10, 2011.

According to the state-ment received from JetAirways the city check-inservice is available forguests travelling on the air-line's domestic services, atthree Delhi Airport MetroExpress Line city terminals-namely the New Delhi,Shivaji Stadium stationswith check-in baggage andDhaula Kuan station withoutcheck-in baggage.

Jet has said it willaccept passengers and bag-gage not earlier than 6hours and not later than 2hours and 30 minutesbefore the scheduled depar-ture of its flights. Jet, how-ever, also informed that the

guests using this facilitymust report at the JetAirways Terminal 3Domestic departure Gates30 minutes before depar-ture.

Jet Airways will alsointroduce Metro express linecity check-ins for its inter-national services from Delhion the receipt of the requi-site clearances from regula-tory authorities.

According to aKingfisher official, the air-line has also started the citycheck-in facility at leastfrom New Delhi station ofthe Delhi Airport MetroExpress Line.3

National carrier AirIndia has also started offer-ing city check-in on theDelhi Airport MetroExpress Line. Air India will offer this facility at allthe three stations on theDelhi Airport MetroExpress corridor.

‘DAME’ starts check-infor domestic fliersAI, Jet, and Kingfisher startcheck-in facility on the DelhiAirport Metro Express (DAME).

The new air traffic control(ATC) tower at

Chhatrapati ShivajiInternational Airport (CSIA)Mumbai is likely to be com-missioned by 2013. The newATC will not only make theoperations smoother for theairlines but with its hi-technavigational equipment, itwill also help the ATC personnel in the air trafficmanagement.

The old ATC at Mumbaiairport was near the crossrunway and this impacted theairlines operations. The pro-posed ATC tower is beingbuilt in an area of 1,200 sqm.The height of this tower willbe 83 metre from the groundlevel and will be a landmarkin the city, Manish Kalghatgi,General Manager, CorporateCommunication & PR (MIAL)said. It will be located in theforecourt of the domestic terminals in Santacruz. Whilethe tower cab will be special-ly designed to have a clearline of sight for Air TrafficController, the G+3

floors below will house infrastructure facilities supporting the tower.

Recently, the designer ofthe ATC tower, HOKInternational Limited was con-ferred the prestigious‘Autodesk Hong Kong Building

Information Modeling (BIM)Award 2009’. Selected as oneof the five award winners thisyear, the award recognisesMIAL’s modernisation effortsto upgrade aeronautical-relat-ed facilities at CSIA, he said.

Additionally, at theMumbai airport, the landing

aids have also received a majorfacelift with the introductionof touchdown Zone lights, taxi-way centre line lights and retidentification lights, all con-trolled through a new control& monitoring system fromeither the ATC Tower or fromthe CCR hall. Safety enhance-

ments with the straighteningof the centre line and the addition of stop bar and guard lights are also of signif-icance. The primary runway(09/27) was also reconstruct-ed as part of the integral overall master plan for modernisation of CSIA in aperiod of seven months.

As infrastructure is being developed around Santa Cruzand Sahar to facilitate smoother air traffic operations atboth domestic and international terminals, the Mumbaiairport is going in for an all-round upgradation.

SRIPRAKASH MENON

Mumbai Airport ATC to go hi-tech

AN I TA JA I N

Lufthansa brand on DelhiAirport Metro Express

Lufthansa adds anoth-er first in its long line ofinnovative marketing strate-

gies in India with uniquebranding of the airline onthe Delhi Airport MetroExpress (DAME). The move

ensures sharp targeting of the brand to traffic of nearly 10000 to 12000 air passengers, which the DAME caters to everyday. Of the 3 trainsconnecting New Delhi toTerminal 3, Lufthansa'sbrand is clearly visible in 2 trains and one coach of the third train. With this Lufthansa alone has 80per cent share of visibility.

"At Lufthansa, we believe in promotingmarketing strategies that are always localised as per individual markets," says Sangeeta Sharma,Manager - MarketingCommunications, LufthansaIndia.

Oman Airconnnects Delhito Munich n Star ting this month,Oman Air has announced theoperations of direct non stopflights between Muscat andMilan connecting from Delhion days 1,2,5,6 reducing thetotal flight time betweenDelhi to Milan via Muscat byabout an hour. Earlier therewas a technical halt atMunich before reaching toMilan. The inaugural oneway fare from Delhi to Milanis INR 13,300 excludingsurcharge and taxes andReturn is INR 20700 plussurcharge and taxes.

RJ offers Berlinas new sector n Royal Jordanian, flyingfrom Delhi and Mumbai inIndia, has added Berlin as anew sector in Europe.Effective June 2nd, thecarrier will operate on theAirbus A320 family ofaircraft with 3 weekly flights, providing onwardconnection to its passengersfrom its network in India. Thetotal fare inclusive of taxesand fuel surcharge ex-Delhiis INR 33,001.

IN BRIEF

Sangeeta SharmaManager Marketing CommunicationsLufthansa India

AVIATION3 2 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 1

Turkish Airlines’ target ofestablishing itself as a

leading carrier betweenEurope and India remains on track.

The airline is now eye-ing stronger presence andbrand visibility in the Indianmarket. Come July, and theairline will not only have itsdirect presence in the Indianmarket but also, plans to topit up with the new productsthat is planned for its Indiannetwork from next month.This was informed by AdnanAYKAC, General Manager,Northern & Eastern India,

Turkish Airlines to in anexclusive chat.

“India is a very impor-tant market for us. We areinvesting in this countrybecause we see lot of poten-tial in this market. We wantto increase our efficiency andbrand image. We will servicethe Indian market with superior products, competi-tive and applicable fare and be more accountable to the Indian travellers,” said AYKAC.

The airline was operat-ing in India throughInterGlobe as its GeneralSales Agent. However, the

airline has now decided toestablish its direct presencein India once the contractwith InterGlobe is over inJune this year. It will alsohave its office in Mumbai and Delhi.

Also starting nextmonth, the airline willreplace the A330-200 withthe more advance wide-bod-ied A330-300, a two-classconfiguration aircraft with 22seats in business class and279 seats in the economyclass. “The new product willboast of a very high qualitybusiness class with full flatseat, 19” flat screen TV, newcatering service, among a

host of other new features. Itwill also have new design ele-ments in the economy class.Past June, we will have ourbest product in India,”informed AYKAC.

Oman Air organised ‘Oman Air Cricket League 2011’ at Kochi, Kerala last month. Eight team including 7 IATA travel agents and one led by Oman Air participatedin the day-long tournament. Airtravel Enterprise was crowned champion, whereas the runner up cup went to Oman Air. Participant included Airtravel Enterprise,Akbar travel, Creative Tours & Travels, Lawson Travel & Tours, Muthoot Travelsmart – GMG Associates, Riya Travel and UAE Exchange Travel Services.

Battle for ‘Oman Air Cricket League 2011 Cup’

Etihad Airways has alsointroduced a new A 330

painted in a striking ‘Visit

Abu Dhabi in 2011’ to furtherboost the campaign. India isthe largest market served byEtihad (serving eight citieswith 52 connections a week)and is also one of the mostpotential countries for leisureand corporate traffic to AbuDhabi. The carrier is workingclosely with trade associa-tions like TAAI and TAFI,

exploring joint marketingefforts with tour operatorsand further enhancing airconnections to India to meetthe increasing demand.

Talking exclusively to, Neerja Bhatia, General

Manager – India, EtihadAirways said, “This is a spe-cial initiative supported bytravel suppliers from AbuDhabi to make Abu Dhabi atop tourist and MICE desti-nation. We will work closelywith the Indian travel trade,media and key travel partnersto further enhance the image of Abu Dhabi amongIndian travellers.”

Adding further, Bhatiasaid, “Currently, we are reg-istering over 90 per cent loadfactor on all flights fromIndia. We have recentlyacquired traffic rights toAhmedabad which will soonbe added on our network. Wehave also requested toremove the frequency cap onMumbai and New Delhiroutes to meet the risingdemand from India.”

Marked as ‘Visit Abu Dhabi Year’,Etihad is keen to promote the country among both Indian leisureand business travellers.

TT BU R E AU

‘Essential Abu Dhabi’kicks off in India

Neerja BhatiaGeneral Manager – IndiaEtihad Airways

In India for 8 years, the airline is also launching new product, replacingA330-200 with the more modern A330-300.

SH AYA N MA L L I C K

Turkish Airlines to have directpresence in India from July

Capitalising on theimprovement in Global

Business environment andthe Holiday Season, JetAirways Group created his-tory in the Indian aviationindustry by flying a record 2million guests in May 2011.This, according to the airline,marks the highest number of passengers carried by any airline of Indian origin on its domestic and interna-tional network.

Jet Airways flew arecord 1.55 million guests onits domestic and internation-al network; while JetLite flewan equally impressive 0.47

million guests to assist theJet Airways Group log thismilestone in the IndianAviation sector.

In the domestic market,the annual holiday seasonlifted domestic passengertraffic for Jet Airways by17%, as compared to thesame period last year.

The growth inInternational passenger traf-fic saw a similar 17%increase, reflecting a grow-ing passenger demand for theairline’s award-winningInternational product, not tomention the increasingimpact of Jet Airways’International codeshares andintroduction of new routes as

well as strategic marketingand network initiatives.

Nikos Kardassis, ChiefExecutive Officer, Jet Airwayssaid, “Besides helping further consolidate our lead-

ership position in Indianskies, this new milestone offlying 2 million guests furtherreiterates the fact that JetAirways, Jet AirwaysKonnect and JetLite have allcatered to distinct passengersegments. Thus, it has been the Group’s ability tofully anticipate customer andmarket requirements andconsequently customise itsproduct to cater to theserequirements that has helped Jet Airways stayahead. I am certain that ourfocus to deliver customer delight will further help Jet Airways build on itsindustry benchmarks of convenience and comfort for its guests.”

The airline claims creating aviation history in India as it crosses 2 millionpassengers mark and posts 17% growth in May alone.

TT BU R E AU

Jet flies 2 million pax in May 2011

Adnan AYKACGeneral ManagerNorthern & Eastern India, Turkish Airlines

Nikos KardassisChief Executive OfficerJet Airways

n GoAir has been rankedby Airbus as the ‘BestPerforming Airline’ in theAirbus A320 category oper-ator in Asia Pacific / MiddleEast/ Africa. The award ispresented in every twoyears by Airbus based onboth fleet utilisation andperformance achievementsin each region and world-

wide and for two categoriesof fleet size. Their metricstake into account on-timeperformance as well asseverity of the operationalinterruptions (based on theAirbus Severity Index cal-culation). GoAir has alsobeen registered with IATAOperational Safety Audit(IOSA) programme.

GoAir declared the Best Performing Airline

RAILWAYS J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 1 TRAVTALK 3 5

Paris-based Rail Europe hasrecently been appointed by

the UK-based Association ofTrain Operating Companies(ATOC) to undertake the inter-national distribution and salesof Great Britain train servicesunder the new licensearrangement. With this, theRail Europe agents and web-sites will offer same fares (asoffered to the UK travellers) fortravel within Great Britain.Kunal Kothari, ExecutiveDirector, Rail Europe Indiainformed that Rail Europe,with BritRail products, nowoffers a complete range of

passes and tickets covering theUK. With the addition of newproducts such as the ‘anytime’,‘off-peak’ and ‘advance’ fares,travellers will be able tochoose the right product at the best price suiting to their needs.

It has also signed a directdistribution agreement withthe National Railways of Spain– Renfe Operadora. In thatframework, a direct connec-tion between Renfe's and RailEurope's distribution systemsis also being implemented.

Kothari adds, “Thebenefits of the new agreement are immediate

for both travel agents andtravellers. Not only they canenjoy the convenience of e-tickets, but they also havean access to all trains andfares offered by Renfe,including the low cost ‘Web’& ‘Estrella’ fares (offeringup to 60 per cent discount) and promotions.”

These new featurescome in addition to the cur-rent ones offered by Euronet,Rail Europe's online distribu-tion system, such as real timeavailability and extendedsearch functions. ThroughEuronet, Rail Europe accred-ited agents can easily andseamlessly sell all types of

trains from regional trains tothe famous ‘AVE’ high speedtrains (running at up to 350km/h) and the internationalovernight train betweenSpain and France, Italy andSwitzerland, ‘Elipsos’.

With a turnover inexcess of 137 million eurosin 2010, Rail Europeachieved growth of 34 per cent over 2009.Furthermore, the companyhas recorded the highest Q1 revenues and profits inRail Europe’s history thisyear with sales going 30 per cent higher as comparedto Q1 2010.

With an impressive growth for Q1 2011, Rail Europe has signed agreements for non-Europeanmarkets with ‘Renfe’ for Spain and ‘ATOC’ for UK.

AN I TA JA I N

New-kids-on-the-block for Rail Europe

Kunal KothariExecutive DirectorRail Europe India

- Brazil displaced India fromthe fourth place for the firsttime by registering over 54per cent growth to India’s23 per cent. Despite that,sales from India topped € 11 million whereas Brazilmanaged just under €12 million.

For the first quar ter of2011, India registerednearly € 1.3 million worthof sales with the sales forpeak travel months yet tobe generated.

During the holiday season,sales from India doubledto stand at € 3.3 million atthe end of April 2011finishing 27.5 per cent upover sales for 2010 for thesame period

India growth story

• Signed direct distribution agreement with Renfe (SpanishRailways) allowing access to the lowest fares and e-ticketsthrough a direct connection to the Spanish inventory

• Launch of ‘Print at home’ (e-tickets) for best selling productssuch as French TGV, Eurostar and Thalys services

• Strengthening its support and fulfilment centres all over theworld to back the prompt increase of web sales and enhanceservice level of its partners

Major initiatives in coming month

TECHNOLOGY3 6 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 1

The UK-based ChapmanFreeborn Airchartering

recently announced the launchof a unique iPhone app.

Speaking on the Indianmarket and the new product,

Shailendra Seth, Director,Chapman FreebornAirchartering said, “India isan important market wherewe are keen on replicating oursuccess on the passengercharter like we have had inthe cargo charter business.Our iPhone app will set thestandard for quick, accurateand executive-friendly ‘on-the-go’ charter inquiries.”

“As a natural progres-sion, after monitoring theresults of the iPhone app,we may extend similarapplications on other platforms like BlackBerry,Andriod and others. Thesaid application is likely to have a three fold impactas it will result in anenhanced brand building,

incremental business andalso serve as an education-al tool,” he added.

The company believesthe personal touch is centralin chartering and so hasworked hard to combine

the latest technology with the finest broker expertise to offer the best service to customers.

“Our clients expect us tobe at the forefront of thecharter market and ouriphone app shows exactlywhy we are there - our focuson innovation and exception-al service. In almost every customer-focussedindustry, we are seeing amove away from impersonalautomation and back towardspersonal service with the aid of the latest technol-ogy. Private Jet offers thevery best of both worlds,”said Alex Berry, GroupExecutive Sales andMarketing Director, ChapmanFreeborn.

Chapman Freeborn’s iPhone app ( private jet) offers the travel trade an immediate access to thousands of aircraft worldwide, along with instant indicative quotes, high-resolution photographs and valuable information…

Charter enquiries on iPhone

Shailendra SethDirectorChapman Freeborn Airchartering

Amadeus has entered intoa strategic partnership

with Travel Boutique Online(TBO), a leading online B2Btravel platform that aggre-gates travel content andmakes it available for sellingto over 14,000 travel agentsacross India and the MiddleEast. As part of this partner-ship, the ‘Amadeus ContentStore Middle East Solution’powered by TBO, will providetravel agencies an access toover 1,00,000 world-widehotel properties in the MiddleEast using the Amadeus glob-al distribution system. Thesolution provides a singlescreen access to search, com-pare and book hotel contentfrom the most popular wholesalers and aggregatorsin the region.

Travel agents will alsohave an access to a widerrange of hotel content whichwill include an extensivevariety of India’s small andmedium properties, furtherincreasing the traveller’schoice. The ‘AmadeusContent Store Middle East’ is

currently being piloted atselect travel agencies and aregional roll out is plannedfrom June 2011’ onwards.

Fully integrated withthe Amadeus SellingPlatform, the new solutionoffers seamless informationflow to mid-back office andaccounting systems meaningfewer overheads on the trav-el agency. With content frommultiple aggregators avail-able for the first time, the

agents have access to thewidest variety of inventoryand pricing options in a mat-ter of seconds, leading to theincreased hotel bookings forthe agency. The content iscompletely flexible and can

be customised with brandedvouchers, itineraries and pay-ment methods that suit the requirements of an indi-vidual business.

Gaurav Bhatnagar, Co-founder and Chief TechnologyOfficer, TBO said, “We arepleased to expand our pres-ence in the Middle East, avery important growth areafor us, with a market leadingpartner, Amadeus. We aresure that travel agents will

welcome a solution as pow-erful as ‘Amadeus ContentStore Middle East,’ based oninnovative and advancedtechnology that saves lots oftime for the travel agentwhich would otherwise

be spent on opening, searching and comparing thedifferent offers.”

Antoine Medawar, VicePresident, Middle East & NorthAfrica, Amadeus, said, “TheAmadeus Content StoreMiddle East solution is furtherproof of our commitment tothe region. We aim at contin-uing to introduce new tech-nology developments toincrease efficiency for the trav-el agency community.”

“We view the tie-up with Amadeus as avery strategic step for-ward for TBO in theMENA region. It is aunique and innovativesolution which has notbeen offered in theregion before and bringsaccess to very large hotelinventory to theAmadeus travel agent

base. For TBO, working withAmadeus gives visibility to anunprecedented customer baseacross all countries in theMiddle East and North Africa,”says Ankush Nijhawan,Managing Director, NijhawanGroup of Companies

Under the strategic partnership, Travel Boutique Online (TBO) will provide global hotel content through the Amadeus system.

TT BU R E AU

TBO-Amadeus ME join hands

iPhone app will set thestandard for quick,accurate and executive-friendly ‘on-the-go’ charterinquiries

iPhone app may extendsimilar applications onother platforms likeBlackBerry, Andriod andothers

Tech-savvy

TECHTALK

The Internet and thegrowth of Social Media

have forced each hotel, smallor big, across the world to adopt the medium.Facebook being the mostimportant forum is also themost measurable and theeasiest to adopt.

Basically, there is a fanpage and a community onFacebook and hoteliers invitetheir guests’ database on tothe Facebook page to engagewith them as well asprospective guests.

Today, Facebookenables booking engines tobe connected with these fan pages which allows yourguests to book your roomsthrough the Facebook page,thus allowing sharing and booking info among other users and guests of the fan page.

It is also a medi-um to interactwith gueststhroughout theyear by keepingthem engagedon yourFacebook pagewith regular andrelevant updateson current hap-penings,humour, polls,contests, andvarious otherinterestingevents.

For example, a popularDelhi 5-star Business hotelhas more than 2,000 fanswho have stayed with themand experienced their hos-pitality .The hotel has iden-tified that 80 percent of theirguests are business guestsand accordingly update theirfacebook pages thrice a daywith relevant/targeted infor-mation relevant to their fans.

These guests or fans goback to their Facebook fanpages to access latest infor-mation on weather, stocks,current business news etcand thus are in touch withtheir hotel brand which also from time to time slips in offers and deals for these guests.

Many times I seeFacebook pages being toodormant. Hotel social mediaand online reputation man-agement teams should beproactively uploading pho-tos, videos, creating eventsand making sure that theirFB page gives your gueststhe opportunity to leave areview, offer feedback orbook a room.

This is also a greatopportunity for guests to feelempowered by enablingthem to be directly in touchwith the hotel managementbefore, during and after their stay. Guests can postspecial messages to reservespecial privileges or make asuggestion regarding whatthey would want duringtheir stay.

Facebook is anabsolutely empowering toolif used well, and like every-thing else on the Internet,this too target relevant infor-mation to a particular demo-graphic, in this case, type ofguest both regular updatesfor engaging with guests.

Facebook traffic is nottargeted traffic, but you doget to use it to get peopleexposed to, and even talk-

ing about your brand. If youhave a great offer, peoplecan even spread the word about you on their own resulting in an influxof traffic.

Finally, there are 3 keyelements required for a suc-cessful social marketing/net-working campaign.

1. Continuously grow yournetwork.

2. Keep adding great con-tent that people willlike, appreciate and finduseful.

3. Interact.

Instead of postinginformation about your serv-ices, your hotel, your promosand rates, you can talk aboutthe popular destinations.What tourists can do at thesights near the hotel, whatare the city sights to be seen,food to be tried, activities toparticipate in, spots to visitand take photos, sell the des-tination, then tie-in yourcurrent offer / promo at yourhotel to get people to availthe services.

Avijit AryaChief Mogul, Internet Moguls

VI V E K SE T H I

Hotels on Facebook profile

BY AV I J I T ARYA

nThe Leela Palaces, Hotels andResorts has joined hands withMeta Wellness, a New Yorkbased healthcare company tolaunch India’s first clinicallyproven, intensive lifestyle-

change program. “People often don’t know

how to engage in meaningfullifestyle change. It is very muchthe need of the hour in India.”said Dr. Aashish Contractor,

chief medical advisor to MetaWellness and head of PreventiveCardiology and CardiacRehabilitation at Mumbai’sAsian Heart Institute. MetaWellness is launching in India

two physician-led programs forheart disease – re:verseTM (forthose who already have heartdisease), and re:tuneTM, (forthose who may be at risk ofheart disease).

The ‘Leela Palaces’ making the world healthier!

Bhatnagar (R) with Amadeus officials announcing the tie-up

OPPORTUNITY / CLIPBOARD J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 1 TRAVTALK 3 7

MOVEMENTS3 8 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 1

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

Art, culture, theatre and movies are what Laurent Alquier,General Manager, Club Med Cherating Beach, likes and they play animportant role in his life and daily work routine. Alquier feels life hasto be viewed as a changing spectrum, and the trick is to adapt accord-ing to contemporary needs. This principle can be applied at work too.For example, its important to understand that leisure guests have aniche of their own and their needs are changing and evolving. Theystay at resorts because they want to reconnect with their families andspend quality time together. They want the very best of services – food,atmosphere, activities, and courteous staff.

The leisure hotel business is very competitive, and providing valuefor money is the main criteria for success.

Laurent AlquierGeneral ManagerClub Med Cherating Beach

Abdul Kadir bin Haji Sheikh Fadzir, former MalaysianTourism Minister and currently Executive Chairman, Sazean Group,likes nature and taking long walks in the jungle. He also likes tocommunicate with different segments of people. Fadzir feels thatwith today’s global environment having evolved, one has to be astep ahead in whatever he does. “Tourism is an industry that needsthe least amount of investment, yet brings the highest returns inthe shortest time. To succeed, the industry requires political will atthe highest level. But one has to go beyond this and attain overallquality. With several attractions developed over centuries, India’stourist product is world-class. Tourism can be India’s number oneindustry. Why waste this huge business opportunity?” he asks.

Dhruv Shringi, Co-Founder, Yatra.com wishes to buy a superbike and a micro brewery if he becomes a millionnaire. The dark choco-late lover is a qualified Chartered Accountant. Since childhood, hedreamt of becoming an army officer and landed up in the travel indus-try due to his passion for travel. He had an idea of online being thebusiness of the future. The favourite past time activity of this Cancerianis playing with his kids or playing golf. With kids, he likes to get involvedby playing football, solving puzzles and reading books.

Abdul Kadir bin HajiSheikh Fadzir ex- MalaysianTourism Minister and ExecutiveChairman, Sazean Group

Dhruv ShringiCo-FounderYatra.com

FCm Travel Solutions IndiaNew DelhiManpreet Singh Bindra has been appointed as the Director- Tours & MICE of FCm Travel Solutions India. He will beresponsible for all FCm Tours and MICEbusinesses in Delhi, Chennai,Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chandigarh,Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. Inhis new role, Bindra will notonly look after the twodivisions on a Pan India basisbut will also be working closelywith and reporting directly to FCmIndia’s CEO Naren Nautiyal.

(By Inder Raj Ahluwalia)(By Anita Jain)

AccorNew DelhiLokesh Sabharwal has been appointed as Vice President(development) Accor, for India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.Sabharwal is a professional hotelier withover 13 years of experience in hotel development, consulting andoperations. Before assumingresponsibilities with Accor, he wasDirector Development, South WestAsia for IHG (InterContinental HotelsGroup). He has also worked with HVS International, where he was responsible fordirecting valuations andfeasibility studies.

SwissôtelKolkataFerry Warnke has been appointed as the new General Managerof Swissôtel, Kolkata, India. He has moved to Kolkata from SwissôtelMerchant Court, Singapore. Warnke first joined the Company inDecember 2002 as Food & BeverageManager of Swissôtel, The Howard,London, a position he kept untilAugust 2005. He brings with himover 14 years of experience inhospitality. He then progressed tothe Conference and Banquet sectionat The Lygon Arms, The Broadway, UKand then Beverage Director at ThePlaza, Fairmont Hotels &Resorts, New York.

Radisson Resort and Spa, AlibaugMumbaiMrinal Sarkar has been appointed as the new GeneralManager of Radisson Resort and Spa, Alibaug, near Mumbai.Sarkar joins the team with over 20 years of rich experience in

the F&B and hotel operations. His coreresponsibility would be to spearheadthe Resor t’s overall growth byenhancing its services and productquality, revenue generation & guestsatisfaction. Prior to this assignment,he was heading Le Meridien,Ahmedabad, and has held many key

positions in the Indian andInternational HotelGroups.

Radisson Blu Hotel New DelhiPaschim ViharNew DelhiNeeraj Balani has been appointed as Director Food & Beverage,

Radisson Blu Hotel, New Delhi, PaschimVihar. Prior to this, he has worked with‘The Oberoi Group’, ‘The Park NewDelhi’ & ‘Crowne Plaza NFC’ in variouspositions. Balani comes with anexperience of over 15 years in theindustry. In his new role, Neeraj Balani

will be responsible to monitor allservice standards of F&Bdepartment to ensureexceptional guestsatisfaction.

The Westin, Sohna & GurgaonGurgaonVineet Mahajan has been appointed as the new ComplexDirector of Sales and Marketing of The Westin Sohna andGurgaon. Prior to joining this place, Mahajan was holding thepor tfolio of Director of Sales &Marketing with Hotel Leela Venture forabout four years and has launchedtheir properties at Gurgaon and NewDelhi. He is a qualified MBA and aHotel Management Graduate. Hecomes with a rich experience of overfour teen years. He has also worked with Oberoi Hotels, IntercontinentalNew Delhi & Strategic CapitalCorporation in variouspositions.

The ClaridgesNew DelhiLin Lin Yang has joined The Claridges, New Delhi as MasterChinese Chef. He comes with over 13 years of experience inpreparing authentic Chinese cuisine. In his new capacity, ChefYang will be responsible for the menuplanning & operations of Jade, AuthenticChinese Restaurant at The Claridges, New Delhi. His culinary repertoire includesthe famous Guangdong, Sichuan andauthentic Beijing food. Chef Yang has won several accolades for his culinaryskills. His last assignment was with TheOberoi, Bangalore.

Holiday InnCochinSandit Shah has been appointed as Director of Sales andMarketing of Holiday Inn, Cochin. Shah joins Holiday Inn Cochinafter 15 ½ years of experience in the Hospitality Industry. Someof his past endeavours include workwith prominent hospitality chainssuch as Starwood Hotels &Resor ts and Taj Group of Hotelswhere he has proven trackrecords of accelerating businessgrowth and creating animproved brandperception.

Kuoni IndiaMumbaiAlpana Banerjee has been appointed as the Global HR BusinessPartner- Market Region South Asia, Kuoni India. She joined Kuoni

India as Head - Training & Development in 2005and by 2007, she was the Global Head -Training & Development at Kuoni India. InAugust 2010, Banerjee moved to HCC asVice President –HR. Her association withKuoni India resumed in April 2011 whenshe joined as Global HR BusinessPartner – Market Region South Asia. Shealso serves as the member of the

Executive Board, India andsupervises the KuoniAcademy.

QKindly tell us about theLPTI Foundation?

A: As a leading destinationmanagement company, LePassage to India recognisesits mandate and responsibil-ity of positively impacting liv-ing standards and alleviatingpoverty in the environment itoperates in. LPTI took a leapahead in the Corporate SocialResponsibility initiatives, asthe company created an inde-pendent department in June2010 headed by a GeneralManager to collate, coordi-nate and expand its role in this sphere.

By contributing to thecontext, which is vital to itslong-term viability, LPTI isdetermined to shape a betterfuture for some of the lessprivileged by acting as a bridgebetween travel partners inIndia and abroad. This strongdetermination had led to thebirth of Le Passage TravelFoundation in December 2010.It is committed to engender-ing an environment that pro-motes sustainable develop-ment, helps create positiveimpact and directly benefitslocal communities.

QWhat are the variousinitiatives you have

undertaken so far?

A: Our initiatives at ShapingLives are pursued with thehelp of 14 non governmentalorganisations (NGOs) thatinclude Chintan (ProjectArman), Deepalaya, JaipurArtificial Limb Centre, DishaFoundation, NGO Umang,NGO Ladli, Akshar Society,Surman Sansthan, SisterValentina’s Little Heaven,Holy Family Convent Girl

Shelter, Margaret Bosco BalSadan, Missionaries ofCharity, Indian Bear Rescueand HIS- Animal Welfareamong others.

In January 2011, wehad a group of guests fromHong Kong, who visited andspent time with the children

of NGO Deepalaya andenjoyed a rural India experi-ence in the nearby village.Another exciting event of themonth was an elephant polowith our American friendswhich was enjoyed by children from NGOs, Umang & Disha.

In February 2011, ourfoundation converted dreamsof a few of many of our NGOchildren into reality. Thefoundation had arrangedthree flights of fantasy-anopportunity to fly betweenJaipur and Delhi and arrang-ing sightseeing tours of Delhiand Jaipur for our children.

In March 2011, ourfoundation had organised aprayer service dedicated to

our beloved guru and traveldoyen (Late) GhulamNaqshband, which was fol-lowed by a special lunch inhis memory for less privi-leged children. Another ini-tiative of the month was thecelebration of festival ofcolours- Holi, with the spe-cial children of Deepalayaalong with distribution ofsweets and food.

QWhat are the future ini-tiatives that are beingplanned to take the founda-tion from regional to nation-al level?

A: Every initiative undertak-en by the foundation originates from the company’s belief in empow-ering individuals and commu-nities and creating skill sets that enhance quality oflife of the less privileged and ensures that LPTI getscloser to its ultimate goal of itsCSR initiative christened asShaping Lives for the better.

Initially, we had limitedthe scope of the operations ofour foundation to Delhi, Agraand Jaipur ensure greatercontrol. Now, in next 12-18

months, we would like therealm of our foundations’operation to embrace thesouthern and western partsof the country.

Once, the momentumgets going, we will also like tocreate opportunities in andaround our travel domain forskill development and employ-ment creations; especially in

the rural areas.

QShould a lawbe made to

make 2% contribu-tions to CSR manda-tory for corporates?

A: In my opinion,responsible corpo-rates earmark over 2 per cent for CSRinitiatives. Even, if alaw has to be madeto this effect, I’ll sup-port such a mandate.

At our end, theknow-how we have gatheredthrough the several initiativesof our foundation. We are morethan willing to share thesewith our industry. In fact, wewill like members of the trav-el trade to come forward andjoin hands to further the ends of making lives of less privileged people more meaningful.

Arjun Sharma, Managing Director, Le Passage to India Tours & Travels andAnil Alagh shares details of the initiatives undertaken by their TravelFoundation- Shaping Lives.

HIGHLIGHT

Postal Reg. No.: DL(ND)-11/6044/2009-10-11

Licence to Post without Pre-payment No.: U(C)-178/2009-11

for posting on 1-2 and 15-16 of the same month at

New Delhi P.S.O., RNI No.: 53492/91

DE E PA SE T H I & VI V E K SE T H I

Responsible corporates commit toCorporate Social Responsibility

Arjun Sharma, Managing Director, (3rd from left) and Anil Alagh, General Manager, CSR,(extreme left) Le Passage to India Tours & Travels with ‘Shaping Lives’ volunteers & children

LPTI is determined toshape a better future forsome of the less privilegedby acting as a bridgebetween travel partners inIndia and abroad

It will also createopportunities for skilldevelopment

Looking ahead