OTM, India’s leading B2B focused travel trade show, announced value-packed Hosted Buyer Programme, for enrolling 2,500 selected international and Indian travel trade buyers (including 500 Par-tially-Hosted buyers) to visit the OTM Mumbai, and to add further muscle to OTM’s assured audience of over 9,000 committed travel trade attendees. The Hosted Buyer packages included a host of facilities including accommodation in 5/4/3 star hotels, assured appointments, entry to socials and destination briefings, access to Buyers Lounge, etc. OTM also announced Partial Hosted Buyer Programme, with a very special offer only for Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) active members - free return air-tickets for bookings received by November 30.

“As organisers of OTM, India’s pioneer-ing outbound-focussed trade show, we are natural partners for OTOAI, and have been extending to them the OTM as well as the Travel News Digest (TND) platforms, to

help create wide awareness of the activ-ities of OTOAI, to enlarge its footprint across major tourist markets in India, and to add value to its members. As part of our Hosted Buyer Programme for OTM 2014, we have worked out a very special offer for OTOAI members. Taking this cooperation forward, we are happy to extend the sup-port of OTM and TND as partners for the 1st OTOAI Convention, and work together towards making it a successful and useful event for the outbound travel sector,” said Sanjiv Agarwal, Chairman & CEO, Fairfest Media, the organiser of OTM and Editor & Publisher of Travel News Digest.

` 50 / us $5 01-15 decemBeR 2013Volume III l Issue 2 Pages 32 www.travelnewsdigest.in

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GCC to introduce its own Schengen visa

Castles Exhibition in India to promote Czech destinations

New Zealand’s campaign focuses on cycling

‘Live It To Believe It’: Mexico unveils new campaign

2014

Bangalore: January 3, 4, 5Chennai: January 10, 11, 12Guwahati: June 27, 28, 29

Kolkata: July 4, 5, 6Hyderabad: July 11, 12, 13

Ahmedabad: August 22, 23, 24Surat: August 29, 30, 31

Mumbai: September 5, 6, 7Pune: September 12, 13, 14

Mumbai: February 7, 8, 9New Delhi: February 13, 14, 15

Mumbai: February 7, 8, 9

Page 28

UNWTO launches Vanilla Islands Tourism Organisation

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Jamaica Tourist Board launches ‘Meet The People’

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Outbound Tour Operators Associa-tion of India (OTOAI) is a national, not-for-profit organisation with India’s out-bound tour operators, travel agents, and other tourism and hospitality indus-try stakeholders as its members. Soon after concluding its first AGM, OTOAI announced its first annual convention in Philippines, at the Solaire Resort & Casino in Manila, with the support of Philippines Department of Tourism, from December 1 – 4, 2013. Keeping in mind the evolving profile of the travel agents in India and the rapidly changing tourism scenario in the light of the pres-ent challenges, the theme for the con-vention has been aptly selected as – The Changing Face of Indian Outbound.

Providing agents with the opportu-nity of exploring a fresh and new destina-tion, the convention will be showcasing some wondrous tourism attractions of Manila and Philippines to the delegates attending the event. Riaz Munshi, Vice President, OTOAI has been appointed as the Convention Chairman while Vineet

Gopal, Joint Secretary, OTOAI, will be the Co-chairman. Under the guidance of Guldeep Singh Sahni, President, the team OTOAI hopes the convention will be a huge success.

With an overwhelming response from the outbound travel agents and tour operators, registrations for the con-vention closed successfully. Its inaugu-ral early bird package for delegates was priced at ₨35,000 which included airfare, accommodation, transfer charges, sight-seeing, all meals, and participation in all business sessions, delegate kits and indi-vidual badges.

Apart from discussing various issues relating to the outbound travel indus-try, the association also hopes to intro-duce Philippines to its members and give Indian travellers another new destina-tion to explore. The decision for choosing Philippines for their maiden convention was also driven by the objective of open-ing a new level of partnership between Philippines and India. Through this con-vention OTOAI also aims at increasing

the inflow of Indian tourists to Philip-pines through the platform of OTOAI which is also the core message for the convention. The convention is going to be more interactive and will focus on how to take the Indian outbound tourism for-ward. This convention will help to edu-cate the members on how to do business, it will motivate them and will open more opportunities to them.

OTOAI to focus on the changing face of Indian outbound in its maiden convention

OTM Hosted Buyer Programme: Special offer for OTOAI Active Members

OTM Hosted Buyer ProgrammeThe USPs

Flexibility and affordability:

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and terms for refund

Email: buyers@otm.co.in

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | DECEMBEr 2013 • 2SpecialFeature SPECIAL REPORT

Travel News Digest (TND) is printed and published by Sanjiv Kumar Agarwal on behalf of Fairfest Media Ltd.

Printed at International Print -o-pac Ltd, C-4 to C-11, Hosiery complex, Phase-II, Extension, Noida - 201 301, Distt.G.B.Nagar, UP.

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The Publishers and the Editors do not necessarily individually or collectively identify themselves with the views expressed by respective writers and contributors in this journal. The views expressed are those of the authors only. The magazine assumes no liability or responsibility of any kind in connection with the information thereof.

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Tourism Authority of Thailand New Delhi Office:

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World Travel Market 2013 opened on November 4 with a greater focus on business than ever. The first three days of World Travel Market 2013 experi-enced an impressive overall delegate increase of 5%, covering increases in all major delegate categories. Reed Travel Exhibitions, Senior Director, World Travel Market, Simon Press said, “I am absolutely delighted with the delegate attendance of WTM 2013 across the first three days. These figures demonstrate the power and importance of WTM to the industry and the role it plays in facil-itating business for sector. World Travel

Market 2013 will facilitate more than £2 billion in industry deals and is poised to the best-ever attended.”

WTM 2013 proved its new appeal as 225 new exhibitors joined the event. They included international airlines, emerging destinations and niche tech-nology providers.

The inaugural ‘The Travel Technol-ogy Show’ at WTM on November 5 put the spotlight on social media and mobile trends as well as how online penetration continues apace for some destinations. Mobile was also a theme on Day two at The Travel Tech Show at WTM with

Gary Morrison, Expedia’s retail boss, leading a session on the opportunities it creates that have never before been pos-sible. A further highlight was news that Germany is set to become Europe’s big-gest online travel market within the next five years according to a new report.

London Deputy Mayor for Business and Enterprise Kit Malthouse said a more cohesive strategy would ensure visitors are encouraged not just to visit London, which currently attracts 80% of all overseas tourists, but to extend their trips and visit other destinations such as Wales and Scotland.

A session on video and mobile also drew a large crowd with panel-ists addressing how travel compa-nies can stop consumers, constantly bombarded with information, from skipping through marketing mes-sages. Cost was also a big part of the discussion during a Travel Blog-gers Unite seminar on whether the return-on-investment from bloggers can be effectively mea-sured. Bringing the bloggers’ ses-sions to a close was a panel dis-cussing sales and marketing tips for the community.

WTM 2013 concludes with record business deals

H.E. Alain St. Ange, Minister for Tourism & Culture, Seychelles (Left) and Sanjiv Agarwal, Editor & Publisher of Travel News

Digest and Chairman & CEO, Fairfest Media, the organiser of OTM (Right)

H.E. Shka. Mai Bint Mohammed Al Khalifa, Minister of Culture, Kingdom of Bahrain (Second from left), Shk. Khalid Bin Humood Al

Khalifa, Acting Assistant Under Secretary for Tourism & Director for Archaeology & National Heritage, Bahrain ( Third from left),

Dr Heba Aziz, Advisor to Minister of Culture, Bahrain ( Extreme left) and Sanjiv Agarwal, Editor & Publisher of Travel News Digest

and Chairman & CEO, Fairfest Media, the organiser of OTM (Extreme right)

Travel News Digest @ WTM London

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Facebook.com/Tourismauthorityofthailandindia Twitter.com/ThaiAmazesYou

Amazing Thailand, Amazing Romance

The Peninsula Bangkok

The theme of 1st OTOAI Convention is ‘The Changing Face of Indian Out-bound’. Will you please elaborate on the changing pattern?

Over the past two decades, dra-matic improvement has happened in the number of Indian arrivals to foreign destinations. The num-ber of Indian outbound tourists has risen so sharply that UNWTO has rightly termed India ‘a shining star’ in tourism. With this travel boom,

more countries are coming to India - new NTOs are opening their offices not only in Mumbai and New Delhi but in Tier II cities as well. With the smart-phone revolution, Indian travellers are now tech-savvy at the same time. But they still need hand-holding as trust on known agents score over convenience. OTOAI wants to analyse the changing travel pattern of Indian tourists, business and leisure, and discuss further marketing strategies to help boost India outbound.

What are the main objectives of the con-vention, and what takeaways can dele-gates expect to benefit from?

There will be six power-packed business sessions where we expect Indian as well as international travel experts to deliberate on various cur-rent issues that are now key factors in the outbound tourism industry. The tabletop B2B sessions will facil-itate the direct interactions between Indian travel agents and tour oper-ators with the local suppliers and operators. Brain-storming sessions on new ideas will stimulate the par-ticipants to think out-of-the box and look for newer options. Philip-pines, the Host Country, will be dis-played to the Indian stakeholders on a wider canvas as a new destination from where Indian delegates will be able to carve out attractive tour packages. We expect Indian arrivals in the Philippines to increase after this convention as the country will be better known to the people who promote foreign destinations.

How will the convention be different from the scores of conventions being organised by the other travel and hos-pitality associations?

OTOAI has always given value and ethics-based education a very high priority and with this kind of convention-cum-business net-working event, we only strive to achieve our mission and objectives. OTOAI aspires to be the leading voice on national and global issues of travel, tourism and hospitality industry while propagating fair-ness, market efficiency, and cus-tomer protection.

Why Philippines as the Host Country?We had a lot of choices. Our

intentions were to increase the destination options as well as to find a host which is now giving an all-out effort to enter the Indian

market. The Philippines is totally geared up to penetrate into the Indian travel market. The Philip-pines is also relatively a new desti-nation to the Indian audience and it indeed is a beautiful country. We have been looking at a destination which will benefit from the con-vention by receiving a noticeable and sizeable number of tourists after the convention. The destina-tion should hold value for the par-ticipants. And we figured out that Philippines is one of the best places for all kinds of travellers - honey-moon travellers, families, indi-vidual travellers, youth, women travellers or MICE. The product offering caters to every taste as well – from water sports to adventures, from shopping to exotic cuisine, from highlands to innumerable islands – it has everything, justi-fying our choice for the convention venue. The decision to choose Phil-ippines for our maiden convention was also driven by the objective of opening a new level of partnership between the Philippines and India. Currently there are 50,000 Indian arrivals to Philippines and through this convention we expect the foot-fall to increase.

OTOAI was supposed to bring out a White Paper on how the outbound travel sector contributes to the coun-try’s economy. Any update on that?

The contributions of the out-bound tour operators have not been recognised by the agencies of the government. This White Paper will throw proper light on the work being done by the Indian agents and will help the government to have a clear perspective of the out-bound segment. Issues like frater-nity guidelines, service tax, train-ing of agency staff members and overseas suppliers are being ana-lysed, and surprisingly new rev-elations, new points of views are emerging from the research. We are inviting industry experts to revisit the draft for further fine-tuning and hope to be able to pre-pare the final draft by March 2014. We are sure that lot of new take-aways will evolve after this conven-tion also. We are happy that many industry stalwarts are contribut-ing their opinions and their valu-able advice is strengthening the document.

What prospects do you see for out-bound travel from the country in the year ahead, and how do you think that the convention will help grow outbound traffic from India?

The tourism business has changed rapidly. The requirements of the Indian tourists have also changed drastically. This conven-tion will give a platform to the local sellers to display their products to a large group of Indian bulk buyers effectively creating good number of job opportunities and value-for-money business. Indian outbound tourist numbers are projected to reach 50 million by 2020. To profes-sionally handle this growth and to utilise its benefits, our association will continue to conduct trainings on product updates and try to resolve challenges through a dialogue with Indian authorities.

What are the most important drivers for growth of outbound travel from India, and what are the biggest challenges?

With lot of investments coming into the tourism sector opening up the oppor-tunity to earn high forex money, India has huge scope from far-East, the U.S., the U.K., Canada and many other coun-tries of Europe. NTOs and even private DMCs are creating special rates, custom-izing their campaigns for Indian tourists to lure them to their respective countries. Travelling abroad is no more a rich class’s forte only, as travellers are now more inter-ested in value-for-money. Middle class Indians who are in the income bracket of travelling for leisure, are choosing destina-tions home or abroad based on the lucra-tive offers they are getting. They want to educate their next generation, they want to take the opportunities to see the cul-tures of different countries and enrich themselves.

As the outbound traffic from India is constantly on the rise, we need to address the issues and challenges we are facing. Every country has a different visa proce-dures, even one particular country has dif-ferent visa requirements from cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, etc. We plan to meet with the consulates to establish a uniform process on this. It is not prac-tical for repeat and frequent travellers to go through stringent formalities and pro-curement of documents every single time they want to travel. If the countries want to be promoted, then they need to have friendly documentation process. Because of some fraudulent travellers, everyone should not suffer as travel agents and tour operators spend a lot of time and energy to convince their clients to finalise packages. They need the required support. We had written to the Indian High Commissioner in the U.K. regarding the recent controver-sial U.K. bond scheme for Indian travel-lers which was later withdrawn. Coun-tries like Singapore have started issuing e-visas. The U.K. government has started a pilot project in Chennai to scan and return the passport and not hold it back during the visa processing period.

Basic infrastructure like air capacity has to be revamped – we need bigger air-ports, bigger aircrafts, new flight routes, developed road connectivity with the air-ports. The infrastructure should expand with more private airports via public-pri-vate partnerships.

OTOAI is the platform where all the countries who want high numbers of tour-ists from India can do their promotions. India’s outbound tourism can impact the GDPs of countries who attract visitors from India. Hence the future of India’s outbound tourism is significantly bright.

India outbound and destination Philippines to complement each other: OTOAIAs Philippine capital Manila gears up to welcome the delegates of 1st OTOAI Convention, comprising top-level decision makers of the India outbound sector, Guldeep Singh Sahni, President of OTOAI, Riaz Munshi, Convention Chairman and Vineet Gopal, Convention Co-chairman discuss with Travel News Digest how the landmark event will reconnect the Indian outbound industry and promote Philippines as a new destination to the Indian tourists

Riaz munshi

Guldeep singh sahni

Vineet Gopal

solaire, Resort & casino, manila 1st OTOAI convention Venue

4 • COVER STORY TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | DECEMBEr 2013

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | december 2013 6 • COVER STORY

In a bid to attract more visitors from India, Philippines has relaxed its visa rules for Indian nationals. Indians pos-sessing a valid and stamped AJACSS UK visa are allowed to enter Philip-pines for a period of 14 days without securing a Philippine visa.

Also, to encourage group travel from India, the Philippine government is considering introducing a policy granting group visas to segments such as MICE and family travellers. “We are working closely with the office of Con-sular Affairs of the Department of For-eign Affairs to encourage them to come out with a policy on group visas, which includes incentive groups, conference groups and family groups. They are considering this and will come up with a new policy soon,” said Chief Tour-ism Operations Officer and Head of Team India at Philippine Department of Tourism R Glen Agustin.

Indians can also spend a beauti-ful Christmas in Philippines. Cubao’s Giant Christmas tree, 100 feet tall and decorated with more than ten thou-sand lights and ribbons, is located near the Araneta Center and since 1981 has been a favourite spot for visi-tors. Another attraction is the theme-based Christmas show featuring auto-mated figures which moves along with colourful lights and beautiful music, COD Department Store in Cubao and in Greenhills Shopping Center, San Juan.

Decorating the Policarpio Street in Mandaluyong with wonderful lights, wrapped around every building, tree, gate, wall and windows, these shim-mering and shiny lights along with all the Santa Clause decorations and Christmas toys, can mesmerise any-one. Apart from these, Giant Lantern Festival and 9-day long traditional mass Simbang Gabi, are other speci-alities of Philippine Christmas.

Millions of tourists flock to the Phil-ippines each year to enjoy its sunshine

and white-sand beaches. The govern-ment also increasingly depends on tourism to support economic growth – 5.9% of the Philippines gross domestic product in 2011 came from the sector.

Major tourist hotspots in the Phil-ippines have largely escaped the brunt of devastation wrought by recent Typhoon Haiyan. DOT said in a state-ment, “The Philippines remains a safe and fun destination for all tourists. The DOT assures the travelling public that tourism establishments and tour-ism activities continue and remain in operation in the other parts of the Philippines, which have some of the country’s key tourist destinations.”

“Tourists can help our econ-omy and still enjoy their holidays. None of the major tourist destina-tions were affected by the typhoon. It only crossed the northern part of Cebu. All flights have been restored throughout the country, except to Leyte,’’ added Consuelo Jones from the Philippine Department of Tour-ism (DOT).

A number of airlines and tourism organisations have rallied to provide aid for victims of Typhoon Haiyan. Meanwhile, the PATA Foundation, which contributes to the sustain-able and responsible development of travel and tourism in Asia-Pacific, is urging the travel and tourism indus-try to donate to the foundation. The PATA Foundation has made an initial U.S. $10,000 donation to the Mariq-uita Salimbangon Yeung Charitable Foundation (MSY), a local NGO.

To help in areas that have been affected by Typhoon Haiyan, Projects Abroad is directing resources and efforts in the Philippines toward pro-viding volunteers to help in typhoon relief work in the Philippines through a special Disaster Relief project. Indi-ans who are interested in volunteer-ing can join the Disaster Relief proj-ect in the Philippines any time and stay as long as they can, for a mini-mum of at least two weeks. All vol-unteers will be accommodated with secure and undamaged host families and be supported by full-time local Projects Abroad staff.

Destination Philippines for India outbound

The Philippines is hosting OTOAI’s maiden Convention in Manila from December 1-4, 2013. The convention will primarily focus on highlighting and taking forward the interest of all the stakeholders involved in the outbound travel industry. The event will feature a series of panel discussions and sessions covering topics like new product opportunities; the ongoing ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ campaign; how and why make DMCs your partner

and also on the difficulty in dealing with international hotels. The DOT will organise planned tours and gala-dinners and visits to the Green Hill Market. We are anticipating 300 participating agents. The convention will focus on promoting specific regions in the Philippines like Boracay, Palawan, Cebu and Manila. The OTOAI is a good single point of contact for engaging the Indian outbound travel market. We are proud of OTOAI’s contributions and recognise its presence as a great advantage for Tourism Philippines in increasing the outbound tourist flow from India to the Philippines. The first OTOAI Convention in Manila will mark the opening of a new chapter in our partnership with our travel trade friends in India. We will take this opportunity to look at newer perspectives on how we can forge best business ties and help boost tourism to the Philippines.

SanJeetIndia Representative

Philippine Department of Tourism

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | DECEMBEr 2013 • 8INDIA

On the heels of Minis-try of Tourism’s (MoT) lat-est introduction of ‘Walk-ing Tours’ with Google, the tourism authority is working on improving visitor experi-ence by getting smartphone enabled audio guides in major cities like Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and

Goa. The mobile phones of travellers will act as audio guides with this new system.

The Incredible India web-site is also aiming for a new look and feel with more fea-tures to help visitors plan their trips right down from visa, air, and rail, to various packages.

MoT gets smartphone audio guides for major tourist cities

Adria Airways, Air India make code-share pactAdria Airways, a Slovenia based airline, made a code-share pact with Air India, before the big launch of a jointly operated New Delhi-Ljubljana service. Rohit Nan-dan, Chairman and Manag-ing Director, Air India, and Mark Anzur, CEO, Adria Air-ways, signed the agreement in New Delhi on November 12.

“We will have daily flights from New Delhi to Ljubljana with a stopover in Frank-furt. Air India is the operat-ing carrier for New Delhi to Frankfurt, and Adria from

Frankfurt to Ljubljana. We are hopeful that air traffic between both countries will witness an increase with the code-share agreement, thus strengthening our tourism ties,” Anzur explained.

The services will start from second week of December.

Jonty Rhodes wants to promote Andhra TourismFormer South African crick-eter Jonty Rhodes was so impressed after visiting Andhra Pradesh Tourism stall in WTM, London that now he wants to promote this state on his personal blog. State tourism department officials stated that Rhodes appreciated

all the efforts and works done in the tourism sector, such as

promoting the state’s cultural and heritage sites and mon-uments, by Andhra Pradesh government.

V. Madhusudhan, executive director of APTDC (Andhra Pradesh Tourism Develop-ment Corporation) welcomed this news wholeheartedly.

MTDC launches 7-day ‘Konkan Unlimited’ tour packageThe Maharashtra State Tour-ism Development Corporation (MTDC), along with private bus operator launched a seven-day tour package, ‘Konkan unlimited’, which started from November 4 and gave the tour-ists an opportunity to explore and enjoy the scenic beauty of Konkan region and its various tourist spots.

“Tourists may board the special bus every Monday

from Aurangabad,” said Chan-drashekhar Jaiswal, Senior Regional manager, MTDC. “The buses are equipped with all the modern facilities to make the tour a memorable and relaxing experience for the tourists. Besides, private bus operators will also provide their buses as per requirement. The tourists could choose from various options and visit places of their choice. The

standard tour of seven days, which will include important destinations in Konkan, would cost about ₨21,000 per head,” he further added.

Musafir.com ropes in Sachin Tendulkar as brand ambassadorMusafir.com, the UAE’s first premium-experience travel website, is all set to enter the fast-growing Indian OTA (Online Travel Agent) market backed by the parent com-pany, Universal Travels and Tourism LLC.

Musafir.com will offer complete travel solutions to Indian travellers with sev-eral product innovations lined up during the year. The brand aims to enhance the way people plan their holidays. The travel website offers flights to over 3,000 destinations around the world on over 270 airlines, domestic and international hotel deals at over 75,000 properties, and lots more. Shortly, the brand plans to launch unique tailored

holiday packages for con-sumers while the main focus in the initial quarters will be flight bookings.

To reiterate its commit-ment to the India market, the company has brought on board Indian cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar as its brand ambassador. Com-menting on the announce-ment, Managing Direc-tor, Sachin Gadoya said, “India’s online travel market is expected to cross 55,000 crore by 2015 and OTAs are expected to account for a 40% share of that market. Our aim is to leverage our expertise and experience to maximise opportunities in this burgeoning market by focusing on the B2C leisure travel segment and offering

Indian travellers a suite of exciting products, no-non-sense convenience and a premium experience.”

The partnership with Ten-dulkar covers a major global marketing campaign that includes radio, television, and outdoor media, in which Tendulkar is seen showing the travellers ‘a new way to go ghoomne’ wherein Musafir.com is a new enabler encour-aging ‘people to stop dream-ing and start travelling’.

Travel Designer Group’s global reservation system Rezlive.com was honoured with ‘Outstand-ing Portal B2B-2013’′ award. This award was given by Web Marketing Association’s Web Award 2013 at a ceremony in U.S. , which is a premier recog-nition programme for leaders worldwide.

Rezlive.com has won seven awards in the past three years, which include the Enterprising

Travel Agent Award in 2013; Award for Excellence in 2013; Best Online Travel Product in

2012; Buyers Choice Award for B2B interactions in 2012; Online Travel Product of the year in 2012; and Most Outstanding Online Travel Por-tal B2B in 2011.

With offices in India, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Bangla-desh, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Mauritius, Rezlive.com has more than 4,500 satisfied travel partners in over 19 countries on four continents.

Rezlive.com receives ‘Outstanding Portal B2B-2013’ award

The Lalit Great Eastern opens in KolkataAsia’s first luxury hotel, The Great Eastern had the dis-tinction of being the longest continuously operating hotel (165 years) till 2005, when The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group bought it from West Bengal government.

In 2006 it was closed for renovation and after seven years of laborious and pains-taking restoration, this iconic hotel was re-presented to Kolkata on November 19, as The Lalit Great Eastern.

Heritage Block II, reflect-ing the Edwardian era is five

storied with an atrium lobby and 95 rooms & suites of var-ied sizes. Heritage Block I is still under restoration will have 49 rooms and suites. The famous Maxim’s bar & restau-rant, located in this block will soon reopen after restoration,

followed by Baluchi - the sig-nature Indian restaurant and 24/7, the All Day Dining.

“The restoration of this iconic hotel has been a labour of love, painful, and time con-suming, but extremely reward-ing,” said Jyotsana Suri, CMD, Lalit Suri Hospitality Group.

Goa Tourism to train ‘ambassadors’ to attract high-end touristsGoa is set to provide training to one lakh ‘ambassadors’ from its tourism stakehold-ers to improve the hospital-ity experience for its visitors and attract high-end tourists.

Representatives from hotels, tour operators, taxi unions, tour guides,

transport department, and students of hospitality would be undergoing the training for a nominal cost of ₨1250 per person for a six-month programme. This initia-tive is taken to improve the quality of Goa tourism in the long run.

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | december 2013 INDIA • 9

Uttarakhand’s Jim Corbett National Park is witnessing the arrival of a large number of tourists, bringing much relief to the state’s tourism industry. The national park’s Bijrani zone was open for visitors and a high flow of tourists was recorded recently. The other zones of the park will officially open their doors from November 15 for the public, but for now it’s the tigers and elephants of the Bijrani zone which are getting all the attention.

It is expected that this response will continue to increase and Uttarakhand tourism will see stronger and better

days ahead. The 521 sq km Jim Corbett National Park provides shelters to 110 tree species, 50 species of mammals, 580 bird species, and 25 reptile species.

Jim Corbett National Park sees a surge in wildlife tourists

Department of Lighthouse and Light-ship under the Ministry of Shipping has decided to convert 15 out of 182 lighthouses in India into tourism spots as the first phase of ‘development of lighthouses for tourism’ project. Light-houses in Odisha which are under this project are Gopalpur-on-Sea, Chan-drabhaga and False Point in Jagats-inghpur district near Paradip port.

Further, Union Tourism Ministry also wants to make the lighthouses

more appealing by renovating the sur-roundings with landscape, conserva-tion work, developing comforts for vis-itors, solar power electrification, and other fun activities for the tourists.

Development on the project has already started in Kanhoji Angre Lighthouse near Mumbai, Dolphin Nose Point Lighthouse in Visakhapat-nam and another near Mamalla-puram, Chennai but Odisha light-houses are yet to be handled.

STIC promotes India in South East AsiaSTIC Travel Group announced to pro-mote India as a major tourist desti-nation in South East Asia. Subhash Goyal, Chairman, STIC Travel Group, has already launched the first interna-tional office in Singapore and now eye-ing other Asian cities to open marketing offices, which will promote custom-ised tour itineraries for India and other

destinations like Sri Lanka.STIC recently participated in the

ITB Asia 2013 held in Singapore where it focussed on informing others about the diverse range of experience and variety of tourist destinations one can enjoy upon visiting India, such as from Golden triangle to Yoga and well-ness tours.

“Asia Pacific is the world’s largest travel market and it is slated to grow at an exponential rate. We feel that to have a more long term and stable growth strategy, we need to look eastwards towards cultures we have a greater affin-ity within Asia and South East Asia,” said Goyal.

Kerala Backwaters campaign as self-contained experienceThe backwaters of Kerala, voted ahead of the Taj Mahal in a National Geo-graphic Traveller survey of top Indian destinations, are to be unveiled as a self-contained experience in the new campaign by Kerala Tourism. The global ‘Great Backwaters’ campaign will be inaugurated this month and will be featured in the national and international media along with social media. The project is the first of its kind with high quality aerial photo-graphs of the backwaters and is also among the largest aerial still photog-raphy projects ever undertaken in the state.

“The backwaters of Kerala are not about houseboats alone. It is about discovering a fascinating water world unlike any other on our planet,” said Kerala Tourism Minister A P Anilkumar.

“Many countries are bestowed with great reserves of water, but there is

none as gifted as Kerala where nature’s most amazing resource creates a magi-cal world for the visitor,” he added.

The ‘Great Backwaters’ campaign is expected to significantly increase the number of both foreign and domestic visitors to Kerala, boosting the state’s development while bring-ing in valuable foreign exchange to the country.

“Kerala is blessed with 44 rivers and a network of canals and lakes stretching from one end of the state to the other,” said Kerala Tourism Secre-tary Suman Billa.

“Here in our backwaters, the pri-mordial relationship between man-kind and water comes alive like nowhere else. Whether it is the canal networks, floating markets, house-boats, snake boat races or a whole way of life that thrives around water, this is a miracle of nature that will capti-vate the world,” he added.

Odisha follows Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh for lighthouse tourism

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During a World Tourism Con-ference in Malaysia, Zoltan Somogyi, Executive Director, UNWTO cited India as one of the most important partners of UNWTO. “India is one of the shining stars of the Asian conti-nent. I totally agree with India’s grand promotion ‘Incredi-ble India’ because it’s really so rich and diverse that it has immense opportunity for tour-ism. Also, with a lot of efforts in the recent years by tourism authorities, both from public and private sector, has made it one of the most effective coun-tries for tourism in the future,” he added. He suggested that India’s participation in tourism fairs such as WTM, ITB , etc. is

a vital step to make a clearer promotion, and find the poten-tial buyers.

Somogyi said that India’s domestic tourism is very strong

and important for the economy and tourism industry, which further creates a healthy mar-ket and services for interna-tional tourist arrival.

UNWTO: India is one of the shining stars in Asia West Bengal Tourism showcases B2B and FIT offerings at WTM

Ghulam Ahmad Mir promotes Jammu & Kashmir at WTM 2013The West Bengal Tourism participated in World Tour-ism Mart (WTM) 2013 in Lon-don to showcase the diverse cultures, traditions , and rich history of West Bengal. The state offered specially designed products and pack-ages at the fair in an attempt to attract travellers and help them experience the state.

Bhishamdeb Dasgupta, Managing Director, West Bengal Tourism Develop-ment Corporation said, “Hol-iday experiences in West Bengal are least explored. From Sunderbans to tea gar-dens in the hills of Darjeel-ing, West Bengal is an ideal tourism destination. The

state tourism department is offering a bouquet of spe-cially designed packages for B2B opportunities and also to attract foreign individual travellers from across the world in large numbers.”

Further, the state govern-ment is arranging special tour packages to some of the major tourist destinations of West Bengal. These include, Sunderbans – the home of the Bengal Tiger, Darjeeling, Dooars and the East Himala-yas, heritage trails, Viswab-harati and Shantiniketan; the home of the poet philos-opher Rabindranath Tagore, river cruise, beach holidays, and visits to ancient Bengal.

In the concluding ceremony of the four-day World Travel Mar-ket (WTM) in London, Jammu & Kashmir Tourism Minister, Ghulam Ahmad Mir appealed to foreign tour and travel bod-ies to encourage their people to visit Jammu & Kashmir.

He assured that the state is safe and peaceful and all for-eign and domestic tour and travel operators will be get-ting full cooperation from the state government and locals. He further showcased Jammu & Kashmir as a multipurpose destination, with shrines in Kashmir, temples in Jammu,

and monasteries in Ladakh for pilgrimage tourism, while beautiful Kashmir Valley with dozens of side valleys as per-fect destination for leisure tour-ism. New destinations, such as Yousmarg, Doodpatheri, Lolab-Bangus Valley, Mughal Road, etc are also emerging as tourist spots.

Mir was also honoured and awarded for his exceptional work for promoting peace through tourism on Novem-ber 6 at WTM. The award was given by World Travel Market Association (WTMA) to Mir after he was appointed as peace

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Delhi has recently emerged as a hotspot for movie shootings due to its perfect mix of rich cultural heritage and mod-ern infrastructure with an added bonus of ‘perfect win-ter weather’. Kabir Sadan-and, director of the upcoming film ‘Fugly’ said, “Delhi plays a character in the film. There is so much more to Delhi than the touristy places. My film explores the fact that people

from various backgrounds, ideologies and parts of Delhi get treated very differently here.” Even actress Mughdha Godse stated, “The weather in

Delhi is fantastic.”Delhi tourism officials are

also elated at such positive response. Sudhir Sobti, Chief Manager (PR & Publicity), Delhi Tourism said, “Delhi is a fresh location for filmmak-ers. Movies are the best way to showcase the beauty and heri-tage of any place. As Delhi gets featured as a safe hub for tour-ists, this will benefit various stakeholders.”

Delhi becomes a preferred location for filmmakers

Puducherry on its way to become an international tourist hub

Uttarakhand to have ‘all-weather roads’ Puducherry government has recently revealed that it is keen on upgrading the state as a preferred destination in the international market. To take this initiative further, Welfare and Tourism Min-ister P Rajavelu, along with a delegation from Puducherry, inaugurated the Puduch-erry centre under the Indian pavilion in the World Tour-ism Market (WTM) which was recently held in Lon-don. They distributed ‘trav-ellers brochure’ consisting of details of tourist spots in Puducherry, CDs, power point presentations as well as a short film presenta-tion to the organisers and

stakeholders of the WTM.Rajavelu also visited

France earlier this month to present a road show at Paris highlighting the potential of Puducherry as almost 17% of annual tourists come from that country.

Puducherry govern-ment has also asked Parvez Dewan, Secretary, Tour-ism, Government of India to help the state in its plan for setting up an oceanarium, expansion of Puducherry beach and conversion of the Puducherry airport into one with international standards in order to make Puducherry a complete tourism destina-tion for a week-long stay.

After the debacle of Uttara-khand due to flood and rain which destroyed most of the roads, especially in the Garhwal region , top experts in the state planning commission have pro-posed all-weather roads of 99.6 kms in length and 14 tunnels that would reduce the distance and save time of travellers.

These roads would also establish new connectivity to some of tourist destinations like Dodi Taal and Madhya Maheshwar where tourism is yet to pick up.

The total cost of the tunnel project will be ₨18,791.5 crore,

said Harshpati Unniyal, adviser to the state planning commis-sion. He said, “The road net-work of the Garhwal region is almost fully dependent on tourism with more than 10 lakh devotees visiting annually. The current road in the Chardham

circuit of Uttarakhand has been built along the river valley and close to huge rivers like Bhagi-rathi, Alaknanda and Manda-kini which is almost defense-less to natural disaster like landslides, floods, and other subsidence.”

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | DECEMBEr 2013 • 12ASIA

India emerges as a high-potential tourism market for IndonesiaIndia is emerging as a high- potential market for Indone-sian tourism, especially for Bali. Around 37,253 Indians visited Indonesia this year, which is 37.12% more than 2012. “Airlines have direct flights to and from countries further away, such as China. The same should be done with India, to boost the people’s interest to visit Indonesia,” Bali’s senior tourism observer Bagus Sudibya said.

Bagus joined the India Travel Mart event and stated that with growing per capita income, sustainable economy

growth, and at least 20% Indi-ans travelling abroad every year, India can be targeted as a potential market. Further-more, Bali is comparatively closer to India and shares similar cultural background, thus India could be an exam-ple for developing special interest tourism.

Singapore Tourism Board (STB), Wildlife Reserves Singa-pore and Actress Mandira Bedi launched the third phase of its campaign, ‘Singapore-The Hol-iday You Take Home with You’ in Mumbai. This phase will be focussed on the country’s col-lection of unique wildlife and marine-themed attractions, with the tagline ‘Leave curious,

return inspired’. Major attrac-tion of this phase is River Safari, the first and only river-themed park in Asia which comprises of Marine Life Park, S.E.A. Aquarium, Adventure Cove Waterpark, and Dolphin Island. Jurong Bird Park, Night Safari, and Singapore Zoo are the other popular tourist destinations.

Apart from casual tourists,

Singapore is also focussing on the business travellers as Sin-gapore MICE Advantage Pro-gramme (SMAP) seeks to improve the overall event and destination experience of busi-ness event organisers and del-egates by providing them VIP treatment. A joint effort by Changi Airport Group, Sin-gapore Airlines (SIA), and

Singapore Exhibition & Con-vention Bureau offers benefits that include preferential airfares with SIA, additional baggage

of 10kg for each delegate, and complimentary Changi Air-port shopping vouchers of S$20 (U.S. $16) each.

Singapore woos leisure and business tourists

The World Travel Market (WTM), London 2013 proved to be beneficial for Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) as they built some major connections, struck new business deals, and strength-ened their network.

Nepal had a uniquely designed 131 sqm stand in WTM. The stall was designed in a wood carved pagoda style temple with Buddhist prayer flags, and caught many eyes and attracted global tourism professionals.

NTB showcased Nepal as a tourist destination rich in cul-ture, adventure and many more. Nepali Ambassador to U.K. Suresh Chalise thanked British

summiteers for promoting Nepal through mountaineering.

“CEO of NTB Subhash Nir-oula stressed on the need of close coordination between

Nepal Embassy, Nepal Tourism Board, and travel trade frater-nity both from U.K. and Nepal for tourism promotion in U.K.,” NTB said.

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India, Japan seek strong connection through Indo-Japan Tourism ExpoTourism is an important sector through which the relation between India and Japan is deepening and mov-ing towards a bright future. This year, India’s Minister of State for Tourism (Inde-pendent Charge), Dr K Chi-ranjeevi declared that the next two phases of ‘Incredi-ble India’ will be ‘Find What You Seek’ and ‘Go Beyond’ for the international tour-ists visiting India. Thus, the Indo-Japan Tourism Expo, scheduled to be held from January 21- 22, 2014 in New Delhi is keeping in line with these initiatives.

This Expo is a golden opportunity for Japanese and Indian senior govern-ment officials, travel & tourism companies, stake-holders , such as airlines, hotels, associations, cham-bers of commerce, etc. to boost business. It will include various recommen-dations, ideas and strategies being discussed through panel discussions between top ranking officials, pri-vate companies and major stakeholders from the tour-ism sector on various issues. This will result in a better tourism connection between India and Japan, along with constructing more user-friendly rules and regula-tions for the tourists and companies. Also, this Expo will lead to promotion of new destinations, improved and customised pack-ages, synergy in market-ing, enhanced tourist traf-fic and mutually rewarding business growth.

Other marvellous oppor-tunities include promo-tion of a brand or organisa-tion’s services and packages, brand recognition and visi-bility through acknowledge-ment of major sponsors, advertisements & adverto-rials in the exclusive Expo Book, display on the podium backdrop, banners, sou-venirs, posters, promo-tional videos, and the offi-cial Expo CD. Further, there will be extensive coverage by the regional, national, international electronic, and print media for get-ting views across through interviews, stories, articles, and opinions.

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | december 2013 ASIA • 15

The Thailand government is planning to charge foreign tour-ists a 500-baht (about $16) entry fee from January if staying for more than three days. However, foreigners who stay in Thailand for three or less than three days will have to pay 30 baht a day. Authorities are expecting that this extra charge will increase in the quality of foreign tourists

and would also prevent foreign-ers from staying in the country after their visas have expired.

“Now is the time for us to have quality tourists. It’s not as if inbound tour operators won’t organise tours for foreign tourists to come to the country because of the entry fees,” Pub-lic Health Minister Pradit Sinta-vanarong said.

Thailand to charge entry fee to trigger ‘quality tourists’

TAT, Google+ create world’s largest online photo albumThe Tourism Authority of Thai-land (TAT) has started a new social-networking publicity cam-paign from November 11 to 10 December, 2013 by collaborating with Google+ to launch world’s largest online photo album known as “ThailandOnly (share to the world)” to highlight Thai tour-ism attractions and cultural tra-ditions. Visitors can share pho-tos through Google+ of various

Thai destinations or photos which show Thai history, culture, and tradition by using the Hashtag #ThailandOnly.

“We are expecting this cam-paign to be a huge success. If the numbers are large enough, we hope to set a Guinness World Record for the largest online photo album.” Apichart Inpongpan, TAT Deputy Governor for Policy and Planning, said.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has collabo-rated with MasterCard and 10 shopping malls in Bang-kok along with 50 goods and service providers in the country to launch the “Thai-land Shopping Celebra-tion” campaign for the third

consecutive year.The campaign, scheduled

from November 1 to 31 Decem-ber 2013, offers discounts of up to 40% to both local and foreign MasterCard hold-ers on goods and services from all the participating merchants including hotels,

restaurants, and spas.Along with this, Master-

Card holders can collect the charge slips during the cam-paign period and redeem over 3,000 reward items such as shopping and dining vouch-ers, hotel accommodation, and branded gadgets.

The Tourism Authority of Thai-land (TAT) is updating its mobile app “Lifestyle Thailand” which was released in July 2012 with a new look, latest updates from more than 300 tourism businesses, and more unique travel ideas. TAT has given a refreshing design to ‘Life-style Thailand’ 2.0 and updated important information regarding hotels, resorts, restaurants, tourist attractions, and activities in detail.

Further, the app features 10 travel experiences categorised in different tourist preferences which include Chic, Romantic, Thainess, Adventure, Wellness, Easy n’ Slow, and Family. The spe-cial functions entail a 360° Visual Tour of tourist attractions, cre-ation of trips and search routes via Google Maps, and use of inter-active maps to share through social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

TAT updates ‘Lifestyle Thailand’ app 2.0

Thailand Tourism joins hands with MasterCardMaldives launches five-year tourism action planMaldives fourth five-year tourism master plan for 2013-2017 was launched with a spe-cial focus on roadshows and spending an average of U.S.$5-$6 per arrival for promotions and marketing. Further, it will join a five-year strategic agenda and action plan agreed on by both public and private industry players.

Taj Group rolls out expansion plans in Sri LankaTaj Hotels and Resorts is further expanding its three hotels and also eyeing investment projects in Sri Lanka’s emerging north-east region.

Rohit Khosla, Area Director for Sri Lanka, Taj Hotels and Resorts stated that the group’s focus is on management of the existing hotels rather than adding to the portfo-lio by owning more properties. The aim is to establish three properties in the north-east region with a total of 300 rooms in the first phase of expansion.

“While traditional markets have suffered due to the eurozone crisis, emerging markets such as China, India and the Middle East have been the mainstay of the current growth. We are also seeing a slow but defi-nite recovery from Europe,” he said.

Currently the group has three hotels in Sri Lanka – Taj Samu-dra in Colombo, Vivanta by Taj at southern Bentota, and the Gate-way Hotel, Airport Garden on the west coast.

Tourism Malaysia promotes ‘Visit Malaysia-2014’ widely

Tourism Malaysia launched a cal-endar November4 at WTM 2013 which displays Malaysia’s exciting events for ‘Visit Malaysia Year 2014’ (VMY 2014).

Along with this, two more

initiatives were taken. First of all, Tourism Malaysia plans to create a unique Student Ambassadors Pro-gramme for 15,000 Malaysian stu-dents residing in U.K. The second initiative is an attempt to break the world record for the ‘Most Passen-gers crammed into an unmodified London Double Decker Bus’.

With all these preparations, ‘Visit Malaysia’ is expecting to attract a large number of tourists and have a great impact on both tourism department and economy of the country.

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | DECEMBEr 2013 • 16SPECIAL FEATURESpecialFeature

Business Travel in India on a roll : A report on trends and technologies

India’s corporate sector is emerging as one of the global leaders in business travel, being the fastest

growing business travel market in the world, fore-cast to double in business tourist arrivals by 2015. The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) expects the current spends of $22.1 billion in 2012 to grow at a compounded rate of 13.5% in the next five years and go on to be a $50 billion industry by 2017. In addition to the inbound market, India’s outbound business tour-ism is thriving with Indian travellers set to become the second largest group after the Chinese within the next few years. This strong growth, as reported by the Amadeus-Frost & Sullivan tourism industry report, has been the result of a near five-fold increase in travel expenditure on matters of business-related travel over the past five years.

India’s outbound market for both corporate and lei-sure travel has witnessed spectacular growth. Accord-ing to a joint study – ‘Future of Travel’ - by Expedia and Egencia regarding employee behaviour and pref-erences while travelling, about 44% Indians undertake five business trips in a year, followed by 39% Thai peo-ple. For leisure purposes 34% Indians travel more than five times a year, the second highest globally after 39% Thai nationals. The study went on to find that about 34% Indians took two-day business trips, the highest in the segment, leaving behind The Netherlands and Spain at 28% and Canada at 27%. The survey was taken in 24 countries with 8,500 respondents.

The study continues to highlight the effects of busi-ness travel on other travel plans. Considering travel-ling to different destinations on company expense a perk it was revealed that around 44% Indians turned their business trip into a vacation but travelled alone for the business part and 42% responded that they had a family member or friend join them for the trip. The most important criteria for Indians on business trips was found to be travel time consisting of direct flights and stopovers with 54% participants mentioning this as important, location of hotel at 51% came second, and the third was found to be flight time for 38% of the respondents. The criteria were in contrast to the aver-age of most important global factors like hotel location at 53%, hotel room tariff at 44%, travel time at 42%, and airfare at 36%.

As per statistics by the Ministry of Tourism, for-eign tourist arrivals (FTA) in the business and profes-sional category were about 22.5%, only slightly behind leisure and visiting friends and relatives with 26% and 24.9%, respectively. Visitors from China and Japan for corporate travel were the highest in proportion with 66.5% and 63.4%, respectively. The statistics reveal that 60% of the hotel guests were business travellers as opposed to 40% of leisure travellers. Additionally, business guests highly preferred 5-star deluxe hotels and stayed on an average of 3 days.

The city of Bangalore emerged as the most vis-ited Indian destination for business travel ranking number 12 from the 25 most visited cities, followed

by Mumbai at number 20. However, travel spend for Bangalore dropped from approximately $258 in 2011 to $227 in 2012 for categories of accommodation, ground transport, and entertainment, as per a report on cor-porate travel and entertainment spend by Concur an integrated travel and expense management company. Moreover, the average percentage spend on accommo-dation at 31% was the highest in India as compared to other APAC countries like Japan at 23%, Hong Kong at 25%, and Australia at 14%.

Due to the country’s currently volatile air industry, India is projected to see the greatest fare increment of up to 8%. Experts opine that although select markets in Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe will have increased business travel pricing, road warriors are likely to continue travelling in these regions to pursue business opportunities in 2013. Further, current global economic uncertainty in Europe and China will cur-tail demand in these regions resulting in flat pricing in mature markets.

Corporate travel policy for business travel spend

Corporate organisations have begun to imple-ment travel policies to get employees to book their trips through preferred suppliers and booking tools to save on travel and entertainment expenses in the first year of a managed travel programme. The advantage of adopting corporate travel policies is that employees automatically adhere to the sophis-ticated reporting system which in turn enables com-panies to capture comprehensive spending data by working within set guidelines, booking trips via cus-tomised booking tool or a corporate travel agency. According to a report by Egencia, corporate travel programmes maximise savings in the form of com-plimentary upgrades and perks by driving revenue to preferred suppliers.

However, like leisure travellers, many employ-ees are simply relying on Internet websites to book each trip independently, losing valuable negotiat-ing power. Simultaneously, corporate travellers and mobile workforce have heightened expectations of being able to use travel tools similar to those they use to manage their personal travel making suppliers to lose out on higher revenues.

Apart from booking business travel indepen-dently, tech-savvy employees are another setback for travel suppliers. Video-conferences, webi-nars, Skype sessions, and many more technological options are easily available to the employees reduc-ing the reasons for travel. According to a survey con-ducted by TripAdvisor, “employees increasingly across organisations seem to be looking at technol-ogy as a viable alternative to reduce business-related travel, with government officials more inclined to seek recourse to technology to communicate than travel physically”.

Role of technology in booking business travel

Evolution of technological tools in travel is enhancing traveller experience globally with new forms of media and technology making travelling or booking the same a simple task. The influence of social media and user generated content like online travel reviews and travel communities have risen to higher levels making travel decisions just a click away. Apart for internet, the mobile market is guid-ing decision-making with the smartphone and tab-let trend. India’s current mobile subscriber base stands at 700 million subscribers and has been on a rapid growth curve. The ‘Future of Travel’ also revealed that 92% of Indians use a smart phone or a tablet for personal or business reasons, higher than the global average of 75%.

As corporate travellers today need to do more with less time, having the ability to manage and process expenses outside of the office is becoming increas-ingly important. Itinerary management solutions like TripCase and Trip Navigator not only manage the itin-erary but also issues real-time transaction alerts for management of expenses on the go, reducing the effort required when back in the office.

In another survey conducted by Business Travel News on the level of support for mobile technology in corporate travel by meeting managers and buy-ers within corporate travel programs, only one in five respondents indicated that their company had a mobile communications plan for travel, while 46% said their companies do not. The remainder indicated their strategies still were in development. For travel-related uses around 25% respondents indicated that their com-panies recommend procedures or have devised poli-cies around travellers’ use of mobile devices.

“Mobile is core to our strategy. We think we are very well positioned in mobile with a comprehen-sive suite of products. We are now seeing 20-25% of our search traffic coming to us from smart-phones. Currently, almost 12% of our bookings are being made on a mobile device,” said Samyukth Srid-haran, President & COO, Cleartrip.com.

India’s business travel, both inbound and outbound, is growing at a fast clip, ready to outrun the country’s leisure tourism market. From corporations introducing travel policies to manage their business spend, to employees using independent technology tools and sources to book business trips, the country’s corporate travel is witnessing a revolutionary change. With technology also playing a role in reducing the need to travel, the outbound industry does not show any signs of being impacted significantly. On the contrary, mobile technology has helped provide momentum to corporate travel programmes, with companies giving a positive nod to the highly convenient travel apps for expense and travel management

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | DECEMBEr 2013 • 18OCEANIA

The 1888 Hotel in Sydney, Australia is going to be the world’s first self-acclaimed Instagram hotel which is designed around the photo-sharing app. It is beautifully designed with free Wi-Fi and an iPad in every room that prompts the guests to take “selfies” before checking in.

It is also giving a free stay to the travellers with more than 10,000 followers, and allows customers to display a stream of their own Insta-gram posts in their room.

Tourism New Zealand will have its first exhibition at the Cycling Australia and SBS Bike and Lifestyle Show to promote New Zealand as a complete cycling destination with 2,500kms of pristine cycle ways with 23 Great Rides throughout the country for visitors of all ages and cycling tastes. It has also released a cycling video on YouTube showcasing the Hauraki Rail Trail in the North Island.

Tourism New Zealand Gen-eral Manager Australia Tim Burgess said, “Cycling is the fastest-growing participation

sport in Australia. It’s a chance to bring the New Zealand cycleway offering to life and

inspire people to put New Zea-land at the top of their cycling holiday list.”

New Zealand’s tourism campaign focuses on cycling

Australia’s tourism industry will be worth $115 bn by 2020According to a new research that has been presented at a major tourism conference in Canberra, Australia’s tourism industry is right on track to cast at least $115 billion by 2020, as it is already worth $80 billion driven by resurgence in domes-tic travel and growth in the Asian market. Tourism Aus-tralia has also invested almost $200 million for marketing Aus-tralian tourism products to the world, and it is estimated that by 2020 it would boost Australian economy by $20 billion.

Qantas Group recently announced their partnership with Tropfest Australia, the world’s largest short film festi-val. The idea behind this asso-ciation is that Qantas would help filmmakers reach larger audiences and also support talented filmmakers by pro-viding new opportunities for their work to be recognised.

Olivia Wirth, Executive head of Marketing and Cor-porate Affairs of the Qantas Group said, “We are extremely proud to partner with Trop-fest Australia and carry vis-itors from across Australia and overseas to the outdoor celebration of short films in

Sydney. Our sponsorship of this event will include the Qantas Film Cadetship, a rare six-month paid internship for the winner to work in-house at Qantas as part of our Digi-tal and Inflight Entertainment division.”

To further celebrate this partnership Qantas is going to launch an exclusive Tropfest channel on its Inflight enter-tainment. The on-demand channel would be featuring a selection of the best final-ists from the past 20 years and would also be giving Qantas event packs via social media channels to the visitors of the event.

Tourism Victoria launches remote Control Tourist for MelbourneTourism Victoria launched an AU$3.6 million digital cam-paign in October that let poten-tial visitors to Melbourne

explore the city virtually via social media. The campaign ‘Melbourne Remote Control Tourist’ includes two men

and two women wearing hel-mets fitted with video cam-eras, microphones, GPS track-ing devices, and live-streaming technology.

These four participants walk and bike through the city’s trendy areas, such as Carl-ton, Collingwood, Fitzroy, and others, at the behest of online, social, and mobile users. And as they explore various parts of the city they live stream it online at Remotecontroltour-ist.com. Viewers can also sug-gest movements by visiting the website and logging in via their Facebook or Twitter accounts.

World’s first Instagram hotel in Sydney

Qantas signs major partnership with Tropfest Australia

The new advertising campaign positions Fiji as the ‘Happiest Place in the World’ projected by the WinGallup Global Barometer of Happiness 2011.

“When you think about it, the whole world is con-tinually looking for happi-ness. But actually, it’s Fijians, the people who are trying the least, who have it the most. We wanted to demonstrate why Fiji is the happiest place in the world and how this hap-piness can be transferred to our visitors,” said Rick Ham-ilton, CEO of Tourism Fiji. The campaign was shot over two weeks on locations in Fiji in the Mamanuca and Yasawa island groups, Denarau, Nadi, the highlands and the Coral Coast on Viti Levu, and Tave-nui in the north.

Tourism Fiji has also appointed the highly respected conference and events organ-iser, Sally Cooper as Events and MICE Director for Tour-ism Fiji. One of her primary

responsibilities will be to orga-nise and run the Fijian Tour-ism Expo (FTE), which is designed to promote and sup-port Fiji’s continuously grow-ing tourism industry. The first FTE will take place at the new Sheraton Conference Centre in Denarau from May 5 to 8 , 2014 with a focus to support and showcase the local tourism operators, Fijian-made prod-ucts and the unique Fijian cul-ture to the world. “It is the role of Tourism Fiji to provide a platform for our local industry to market itself to the world,” explained Hamilton.

“Our focus will be to more effectively engage the Austra-lian and New Zealand mar-kets and to attract quality long-haul buyers from Asia, U.K., Europe, and the U.S. Sally enjoys an excellent reputation in the industry and has enor-mous contacts from the small operators to the big resorts. She is also highly regarded by the international tourism industry and will bring all her expertise to the FTE to ensure its success,” he added.

Sally Cooper said she is pleased to work with Tourism Fiji which will deliver a more cost-effective and dynamic alternative for the local tour-ism sellers to successfully communicate with interna-tional tourism wholesalers and operators.

Tourism Fiji’s new campaign: ‘Where Happiness Finds You’

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | DECEMBEr 2013 • 19middle east

Turkey has unveiled a new chapter in the world’s tour-ism and transportation with a long outstanding project involving the establishment of a 13.6km long tunnel under Istanbul’s Bosporus River joining Europe and Asia. The tunnel, with the inaugural money of €3 bil-lion, is 60 metres below the seabed, the world’s deepest.

The Japan Bank for International Cooperation contributed a major mon-etary share of €35 million ($1 billion) to the project “Marmaray” which focuses on extending the subur-ban train lines that connect Europe and Asia.

“Turkey celebrated two feasts together,” Trans-port Minister Binali Yildirim said. “We marked the 90th anniversary of the republic on Octo-ber 29 and also realised a one-and-a-half century dream of a major rail tun-nel project in Istanbul,” he said.

World’s deepest under-water tunnel to join Europe & Asia

GCC to introduce own Schengen-type visa to ease travelAs per recent reports, the Secretary-General of the Fed-eration of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FGCC Chambers) has sub-mitted a study to the alliance interior ministers supporting the introduction of a common GCC tourism visa. With this visa, Arab and foreign tour-ists would be able to visit all the GCC member countries including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.

Abdul Rahim Hassan Naqi, the Secretary-General

of the FGCC Chambers, said, “The aim of the Schengen-like visa is mainly to attract tourists from either the GCC countries or other nations and allow them to move among the member states. The introduction of the visa will yield impressive bene-fits for the Gulf economy and will boost the income of their citizens, while preserving the sovereignty of each state.”

The visa will also boost tourism for destinations that do not receive a high percent-age of tourists compared to other GCC countries.

Iran is now planning to improve international rela-tions via its tourism industry, by easing some visa rules for foreign tourists. The plan is to divide countries into three groups: those which do not require a visa, do not require a visa when visiting as a tour group, and countries that can avail visa on arrival. The second category is likely to include Western countries.

However, ten countries which include Afghanistan, the U.K., Pakistan, and the United States are not a part of any of this visa-relaxation plan.

According to a recent report by TRI Consulting Middle East, Kuwait’s tourism sec-tor has put up a good per-formance with more busi-ness than its neighbouring states. It was benefited from the Eid al Fitr holidays, which pushed up demand, particularly from domestic and Saudi Arabian visitors boosting up the hotel reve-nues than previous year.

Steps are also going to be taken in coming months with the help of the five-year tourism development plan undertaken by the govern-ment to enhance Kuwait’s

tourist destinations. In this plan, more entertainment options and attractions will be introduced, and luxury hotels would also be built that would ensure more number of foreign tourists in coming years.

This year, Turkish Statistics Agency revealed a surge in the country’s tourist arrival income with $ 11.5 billion or 4.7% in the third quarter, out of which 79.6% was acquired from foreigners and the rest

20.4% from Turkish citi-zens staying abroad. Tour-ism expenditure has also increased by 15.4% in the third quarter with the average expenditure of foreigners was $667 per capita, and Turkish citizen staying abroad was $10,001 per capita.On the other hand, Turk-ish people travelling abroad increased by 49.9% and almost hit the mark of 2 million.

New tourism law in Saudi ArabiaA new tourism law has been approved for the Saudi Com-mission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) by the council of ministers to man-age the tourist’s spots and to provide best service to the cus-tomers at affordable rates.

According to the law, SCTA will be proposing which tour-ist spots are to be identified as the public tourist places.

It will also work out the exec-utive regulations of the law

so as to govern tourist activi-ties. Public tourist places will not be allowed for any private party. SCTA will also moni-tor the list of prices for tourist residential units as well as for their activities and services. It would assign SCTA staffs with the right to control and inspect tourist accommodation facili-ties and receive complaints from consumers.

Iran to ease visa rules, looks at international relations

Kuwait’s hotel revenues up from last year

Oman hotel industry prepares for government’s planMany people are still unaware of the rich history, culture and tourist destinations Oman has to offer. Thus Omani government officials are taking initiatives to bring Oman under the spotlight of various hotel investors and international operators eager for new global hot spots.

The Omani government’s ‘Vision 2020’ plan, created in 1995 to uplift Oman is ambitious and it includes increasing its room count to 20,000 rooms by 2015 and seeks to welcome 12 million visitors annually by 2020, an increase well above its 1.5 million visitors recorded during 2012.

Turkey sees $11.5 billion increase in tourist arrival income

Jordan Tourism to cash in on ‘Krrish 3’The Jordan Tourism Board plans to encash the Bolly-wood buzz to reach out to the people of India and encour-age them to visit its exotic locations. The release of the long-awaited sequel, ‘Krrish 3′, which has a song ‘Dil Tu Hi Bata’, has Hrithik Roshan romancing Kangana Ranaut in the stunning locations of Petra, Dead Sea, and Wadi Rum.

Ashit Taneja, Country Manager-India, Jordan Tour-ism Board said, “We plan to conduct a television promo-tion and outdoor advertising campaign, mainly hoardings in Delhi and Mumbai, before and during the release of the movie, to stay on top of the mind of the Indian audience.”

“Bollywood is a tried and

tested tool to market and showcase the USP’s of any destination. The power of a Bollywood film and its actors

is unquestionable as their fan following is legendary among Indians – both in India and abroad,” he added.

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | december 2013 mIDDlE EAST • 21

According to the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), Saudi Arabia, airlines will have to pay a fine for every delayed hajj flight. GACA has warned the airlines at Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport (KAIA) and Madi-nah’s Prince Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz International Air-port that this delay should not exceed more than three hours and in the case of bad weather or natural disasters, the airline should notify and coordinate

with the concerned bodies at the airport. Any failure in fine submission by the airline will result in cancellation of its Hajj flight.

Apart from these hajj flights are given a special licence and a fixed schedule by GACA to ensure a smooth flow and safety of flights.

Hajj flights to pay fine in case of delays Iran to introduce instant visa at airportsMohammad-Ali Najafi, Head of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organisation (CHTHO), said that Iran will issue instant visa for the tourists at the coun-try’s airports. “Visa require-ment will be lifted for some countries and will be eased for some other countries,” he added.

He further said that this move is done with the aim of attracting more international tourists and especially from

neighbouring countries and the Southeast Asian states like China. However, the rule does not apply to the citizens of ten countries, including Great Britain, the United States, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

The Directorate General of Residency and Foreigners Affairs recently announced that Dubai airports would be progressing from merely hav-ing smart gates to a ‘smart pas-senger’ system with an aim to save time, effort, and money. The system is expected to come into effect in another 18 months.

Khalid Nasser Al Razouqi, Assistant Director General for e-Services Sector said, “The system shall be under study and development for one year and six months in trial, and then starts the exact imple-mentation. We simply want the inbound and outbound passenger never stops at any counter; just pass through a gate without presenting any passport or document, yet on

condition that he or she has already been registered in the system.”

He also added that the new system would be avail-able for all passengers from all nationalities and will be installed at the airports of the emirate. “Should a pas-senger have a problem with his entry or exit, there will be an immigration officer to check and solve his or her problem as quickly as possi-ble,” he added.

Dubai’s Al Maktoum International Airport receives first commercial flightDubai’s new Al Maktoum International Airport, which is assumed to become the world’s largest airport by 2023, welcomed its first set of passengers — a flight which recently carried a little more than 100 passengers from Budapest.

Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths stated that the air-port’s construction and development is estimated to cost more than $32 billion. When completed, it would have five runways capable

of handling 160 million pas-sengers a year. Dubai Inter-national Airport, which is currently the fourth bus-iest airport in the world

serving around 57 million passengers last year, is expected to reach its full capacity of 90 million pas-sengers by 2020.

Dubai airports to have ‘smart passengers’

Turkish Airlines boosts the growth of Arab tourism

Turkish Airlines is playing a major role in flocking the country’s diversified tour-ist attractions, from histori-cal landmarks to the enrich-ing cultural landscape, and nature tourism, with tour-ists from around the world. Due to tourist arrivals, mostly from Saudi Arabia, the coun-try has witnessed 37% rise in inbound passengers com-pared to 2012.

After being titled ‘Europe’s Best Airline’ for the third con-secutive year, Murat Bas, Vice

President Marketing & Sales, Turkish Airlines (Middle East & Cyprus), said, “This year we have launched a number of travel campaigns to cele-brate our new destinations in Europe that provide our pas-sengers with the award-win-ning on-board service from Saudi Arabia. In addition to enjoying the 239 destinations we connect to across 104 coun-tries, travellers can book pro-motional fares to cities includ-ing London, Geneva and Paris over the winter season.”

Etihad, Singapore Airlines to share cargo capacityEtihad Cargo and Singapore Airlines Cargo have come into a mutual agreement regarding sharing their cargo capacity on services operated by both air-lines from Abu Dhabi to Lon-don Heathrow and Frankfurt.

The agreement enables Etihad Cargo to offer capac-ity to Singapore Airlines Cargo on one of its weekly freighter services from Abu

Dhabi to Frankfurt, in addi-tion to access its cargo net-work to the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia. Sin-gapore Airlines Cargo will in turn offer cargo capacity on its freighter services to London Heathrow that is operated via Abu Dhabi.

Singapore Airlines launched a weekly Boeing 747-400 freighter services to London

Heathrow via Abu Dhabi in June this year and plans to commence a second one later this year.

The hotel investment indus-try has been given a financial incentive to develop more three and four star hotels in Dubai. It is the result of collaboration between government partners Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) and Dubai Municipality and is part of the DTCM’s strategy to achieve Dubai’s Tourism Vision for 2020, which aims to attract 20 million annual visi-tors to Dubai by 2020.

As per a release, the move is aimed at increasing Dubai’s supply of three and four-star properties. Eligible hotels will be granted a concession on the standard 10% munici-pality fee, which is levied on the room rate for each night of occupancy.

Helal Saeed Almarri, Direc-tor-General of DTCM, stated

their objectives as maintaining the market share in the exist-ing source markets, increas-ing market share in markets where there is high growth potential, and increasing the

number of repeat visits.He further said that this

incentive is just one exam-ple of the initiatives they will be taking to help foster this collaboration.

Dubai offers incentive for hotel industry to develop three and four star hotels

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | DECEMBEr 2013 • 22europe

During the first eight months of this year international tour-ist arrival grew by 5% or 38 mil-lion to reach the total of 747 mil-lion worldwide, in comparison to 2012. This growth is driven by strong results in Europe, Asia and the Pacific and the Middle East. However, Europe (+5%) benefited the most from the growth of tourism in the first eight months of 2013, with an estimated 20 million more arriv-als in the region.

“International tourism con-tinues to produce above aver-age results in most world regions, offering vital oppor-tunities for employment and

local economies,” said UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism

Organisation) Secretary- General Taleb Rifai.

UNWTO: Europe leads in international tourist arrivals

Europe eyes tier II cities of India as potential tourist sourcesEurope continues to eye India as one of the major source market of tourism. Thus, Europe is not leaving any stone unturned in wooing the India market. Europe has decided to approach a wider audience by moving beyond the metro cities of India and now focusing in the tier II cit-ies of India.

European countries, such as Turkey, Bulgaria, Spain and Austria welcomed 91,000, 5,000, 60,000 and 89,277 Indi-ans respectively last year. “We have been witnessing increas-ing number of inquiries from Hyderabad, Ahmedabad,

Lucknow, Chandigarh and Amritsar,” said Arturo Ortiz Arduán, Tourism Counsel-lor, Tourism Office of Spain in Mumbai.

Christine Mukharji, Mar-keting Manager ,India, Aus-trian National Tourist Office (ANTO) announced that visi-tors from Pune, Ahmedabad, and Bangalore are visiting Austria in large numbers. Further ANTO plans to focus on Kolkata, Goa, Hyderabad, and Rajkot, among others to showcase Austria. Aus-tria has planned a series of events in Mumbai and Delhi for travel trade in December.

Vienna Tourist Board organ-ised Vienna Games in Delhi on October 29, in which 60 agents participated. There were six stations which the participants had to com-plete to win a certificate and an amount of money which included tickets and hotel stays in Vienna. The six sta-tions were- Sightseeing in

Vienna, Creative Vienna, Museum in Vienna, Sweet Vienna, Green Vienna, and Sounds of Vienna.

Each station/game was designed to represent the cul-ture, history, tourist destina-tions, cuisines, and tradition of Vienna, and the partici-pants learned many things about the city.

U.K. launches its first business centre in IndiaThe U.K.-India Business Council, with support from U.K. Trade and Investment

(UKTI) and the British Busi-ness Groups (BBGs) recently launched U.K.’s first business

centre in India in Gurgaon, Delhi. This initiative was taken to transform the coun-try’s businesses operations in several countries and help boost jobs and growth in Britain.

The U.K. Minister for Trade Lord Green said, “The cen-ter will help U.K.’s small and medium sized businesses to work closer with more estab-lished British businesses in India and provide them with the support needed to capital-ize on the huge potential of the Indian market.” Bengaluru is going to have the next U.K. India Business Centre in 2014.

Vienna Games to attract Indian tourists

Britain wants to attract 425,000 Indian tourists by 2016Shivali Suri, Country Man-ager, Visit Britain India, announced that after receiv-ing 339,000 Indian visitors in 2013, Britain has now set the target to attract 425,000 visits from India by 2016, which will translate into GBP380 million

in annual visitors spend. To achieve this target, VisitBri-tain India office has outlined a roadmap which will high-light every aspect of tourism promotion.

“Our aim is to identify the high-yield travel segments and tap their potential through B2B engagement and tactical partnerships, reaching out to tier II cities and creating aspi-ration through Bollywood connections,” she added.

Suri explains that board has divided Indian tourists among the segments of fam-ily, groups, youth and HNIs (High-net-worth individ-uals). The main focus is to

drive tourists from Indian working age group, which is quickly growing, young and rich, hails from big cities and seeks adventure, which has been further divided into SINKs (Single Income No Kids), DINKS (Double Income No Kids), honeymoon-ers, single women and youth sub-segments.

Apart from these, VisitBri-tain is also looking forward to business and MICE travel from India because average busi-ness visitor from India spends GBP 1,419 in Britain, while the average holiday visitor spends GBP 504.

Also, Indian travel trade is very important for the tourism body. “We are plan-ning to introduce co-op cam-paigns and tie-ins with part-ners like the national tourist boards and the Indian travel trade to incentivise sales of Britain packages. We are also encouraging the trade to intro-duce new itineraries that pro-mote not only London but a “newer”, broader range of regions to consumers,” said Suri.

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | december 2013 EUROPE • 23

An Exhibition, “Czech Cas-tles”, was organised in India at the Red Fort’s “Quarter Guard” Gallery in Delhi on November 7, 2013 at 3 pm, by the National Museum of the Czech Republic and the Embassy of the Czech Republic, New Delhi, in a joint collaboration with the Archae-ological Survey of India and the Ministry of Culture, Gov-ernment of India.

The exhibition, which is the largest presentation of the Czech Republic in India, pri-marily highlights the Czech Castle architecture, which is an important part of the cul-tural heritage of the Czech Republic. The Exhibition presents a selection of 37 most interesting castles and cha-teaux of Bohemia and Mora-via. These castles are specially

selected on the basis of loca-tion, history significance, architectural, artistic, and his-torical value.

Accompanied with rich cul-tural programs, music presen-tations and other events, this exhibition will stay at the Red

Fort gallery till January 2014 and then tour through New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Goa, and Leh. This tour will pro-mote Czech Republic as a his-torically rich and culturally interesting tourist destination.

Czech Castles Exhibition to promote Czech republic in India

Monaco promotes MICE and weddings for Indian touristsMonaco is one of the most desir-able destinations in the world for business and leisure tour-ists with more than seven mil-lion visitors every year. Since the past few years India is also emerging as an important mar-ket for Monaco and currently ranks fourth in total Asian arrivals.

“India is an important mar-ket for us with a prominent

increase in the tourist arrivals in day-visitors, room-nights and MICE movements. Our objec-tive is to showcase Monaco as one of Europe’s finest destina-tions for the people who settle for nothing but the best and are looking for unmatched quality. We want to promote Monaco as a MICE and luxury destination in the country as well as a wed-ding destination in the metro

cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chen-nai, Kolkata and Bengaluru. Our efforts are directed towards tapping the high-end Indian travellers not for short-term gains, but for the long-term,” Guillaume Rose, President, Monaco Government Tour-ist and Convention Authority (MGTCA) explained.

In India, the Monaco Con-vention Authority, with their recently launched MICE cam-paign that states, “Your event needs Monaco”, is offering a wide variety of free and innova-tion services such as organising conventions, seminars, exhi-bitions, and festivals or trade fairs that fulfil every demand and every budget.

To promote Monaco as a lux-ury holiday MGTCA recently concluded its Travel Trade road-shows in Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi.

Scotland will be top tourist destination in 2014

Lonely Planet, world’s largest travel guide book publisher, rated Scotland as one of the top three countries for travellers in 2014, beating Seychelles, Mex-ico, and Malaysia. Scotland will be having a busy schedule in 2014 with a series of events taking place such as Common-wealth Games 2014 in Glasgow, the Year of Homecoming, the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles, 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, and the annual

Edinburgh Festivals.Apart from these, tourists

are being encouraged to visit not only the cities but some of Scotland’s scenic beauties as well, such as Loch Lomond, Loch Ness, and the Cairngorms National Park.

“It’s clear 2014 is Scotland’s chance to shine on the world stage, and to have this com-mendation is a fantastic seal of approval,” said Mike Cantlay, Chairman, VisitScotland.

France aims at a new identity away from ‘romance’World’s renowned tourist destination, France is fight-ing to brush off its predict-able tag of ‘romance, great food, and world-renowned art’ for the tourists. The country now wants to show the world that its tourism goes much beyond Paris. Thus, promotion of events, exhibits, and culinary expe-riences are being held outside Paris, such as Lyon and Aix-en-Provence. Further, the tourism groups are aiming at adding reasons like sporting event, voluntourism oppor-tunity, or restoration projects

to visit France.The director of Atout

France believes that the web is one of the best advertise-ment portals to target the

niche groups as it produce maximum impact. Thus, this organisation spends around 65% of its promotional bud-gets on digital marketing.

Deputy Minister of Economy in charge of Tourism, Brainier

Botev announced at WTM 2013 that Bulgaria ranked fourth in Europe by the rate of development of winter tour-ism. Previous winter saw an arrival of over one million tourists, raising the arrival rate by 8.2%. Botev expects simi-lar success for 2013-2014 win-ter tourism. Further, he also added that Bulgaria’s sum-mer season was also success-ful with 3.5 million visitors, an increase of 5.4%. Russia, Germany, Romania, Greece, Ukraine, and the United King-dom send the largest number of tourists to Bulgaria during summer season.

Bulgaria is fourth in winter tourism development

Italy Destination enters the Indian market for Expo 2015Italy Destination, a DMC based in Milan and a part of Input Group, has recently opened its services to the Indian mar-ket. For further development, Italy Destination has collab-orated with Deepika Chow-dhry of Candid India. Also, Maria Luisa Ciccone, CEO, Italy Destination visited India to understand the Indian tour-ism market and to meet indus-try members in Mumbai and New Delhi to collaborate with Italy Destination.

Ciccone said, “The forecasts show that the number of Indian

people travelling abroad by 2020 will rise from the actual 15 to 50 million, making India one of the fastest growing tourism markets. Although the most popular destinations continue to be Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, Italy is definitely recognised as one of the most important tourist destinations in Europe and worldwide.”

“That is why, for Expo 2015 in Milan, we would like to build partnerships with the best Indian players to accommodate an exigent tourist as the Indian one,” she added.

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | december 2013 24 • EUROPE

Britain’s decision to scrap the con-troversial GBP 3,000 visa bond scheme came as a relief too all those Indians who wanted to visit the country. This decision was to be implemented from November onwards as an experiment.

The project focuses on addressing the misuse of visas, such as checking tourists who overstay. However, U.K.

government has tagged India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Paki-stan, Nigeria, and Ghana as coun-tries that are under high risk of violating visa norms. Anand Sharma, Minister for Com-merce & Industry, Government of India strongly opposed this allegation and Indian businesses termed it as “discriminatory and unfortunate”.

India looks forward to U.K.’s decision to scrap visa bond scheme

British Airways begins operations of sixth London-Chennai flightBritish Airways started its sixth London-Chennai direct flight on October 27, 2013. This flight operates on all the other days in a week, except

for Thursday. This addition definitely offers customers more travel options, taking the total number of 48 flights weekly, from five cities of India.

British Airways is flying a B777-200 aircraft on this route that offers the passen-gers three-class configura-tion and flat beds in Club World, World Traveller Plus, and World Traveller seats.

“Chennai forms a very

critical part of our India strat-egy and through this initia-tive we would like to reiterate our commitment to the mar-ket. Being a commercial and

cultural hub of South India, we have witnessed tremen-dous growth in Chennai from both business and leisure travel categories in the past and expect these segments to grow exponentially in future. British Airways is pleased to be a part of this fantastic journey and growth story,” said Christopher Fordyce, Regional Commer-cial Manager, British Air-ways, South Asia.

With the emerging winter upon northern Europe, peo-ple are planning holidays to the south. Frankfurt Airport is proving to be extremely efficient amidst the hustle bustle of all the tourists with its wide choice of destina-tions and its special winter-coat storage service. Passen-gers can now easily come to the airport, store their jack-ets and winter coats and then fly to the warm and sunny

southern parts.This facility is a part of the

“Great to Have You Here!” quality service program launched by Fraport AG for the convenience of passen-gers and is back till April 27, 2014 with a small token of just 50 cents per day.

Under the same program, the airport also provides free of charge stroller service to ease travelling for passen-gers with kids.

Cruisers can now enjoy “slow cruising” with Costa’s longer itinerariesCosta Cruises is launching something new in the cruise line in February on Costa neoRiviera (624 cabins) and

Costa neoRomantica (789 cab-ins). Called the “slow cruising”, it will be comprised of longer itineraries, longer/overnight

port stays, cultural shore tours consisting of 25 or less guests, and local foods and wines in the dining rooms. Both the ships can visit smaller ports that the megaships cannot.

“Slow cruising and the neo-Collection is a premium grade product aimed at a sophisti-cated, slightly older clientele,” said a Costa spokesperson.

The Costa neoRiviera’s Med-iterranean Spirit slow voyage takes 12 days whereas the Costa neoRomantica sails Northern Europe on 13- to 15-day voyages. Costa’s official voyage will start its slow cruising on February 9, 2014 with its 62-day Grand Africa Tour.

russia’s Aeroflot launches new group member ‘Aurora Airlines’

Russia allows visa-free stay for 72 hours

Russia has allowed transit passengers from 20 coun-tries to stay in Russia for 72 hours without any visa. Visa-free staying comes with special reference to pas-sengers from Siberia’s Novo-sibirsk and Russia’s two Far

East hubs Vladivostok and Khabarovsk, other major countries are U.S, Germany, France, Italy, U.K., Spain, etc. However, visitors must have further bookings with major Russian airlines like Aeroflot and Transaero or

Siberian carriers such as S7 and UTair.

The major goal of this deci-sion is to increase tourism of Russia by 60% and bring rev-enues to major hotels. It is expected that Aeroflot reve-nue can boost by $932.

Under the order of Prime Min-ister of the Russian Federation, Russia’s Aeroflot launched a new Aeroflot Group member ‘Aurora Airlines’, which is a far eastern airline. “Aurora airline will help to enhance the economic potential of the Far East, increase the mobility of its population and contribute

to the growth and reinforce-ment of local aviation per-sonnel,” said Vitaly Save-liev, Director General of JSC Aeroflot.

From 2013 to 2018, Auro-ra’s business plan include, an increase in number of flights from 172 to 534, increase in number of the number of

destinations from 30 to 128, and the annual traffic to reach 2.4 million passengers.

Addition to this Auro-ra’s fleet will be comprised of currently used medium-haul Boeing B737s and three Air-bus A319 airliners, which by the end of 2013 will increase to seven by the end of 2014.

Frankfurt Airport comes up with free strollers and coat storage service

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | DECEMBEr 2013 • 25americas

U.S. to collaborate with European companies for high-speed rail projectsAccording to reports, the U.S. is going to invest approximately $150,000 million to develop high-speed rail networks for which they would be consult-ing leading European high-speed rail companies. The rail network will be developed in California that would connect San Francisco with Los Ange-les, and with Sacramento and San Diego. This project is led by the California High Speed Rail Authority which is working with Caltrain to make adjust-ments in the current network.

Another plane, the North-East Corridor (NEC) plan, aims to upgrade the current NEC by linking cities like Bos-ton, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington. The agency

responsible for the coordina-tion of this project is Amtrak, the National Railroad Passen-ger Corporation.

The two upcoming projects will be a lucrative chance for

large and medium European companies to participate in the major U.S. projects involving infrastructure, energy, indus-try, and technology in the com-ing years.

Canada’s largest indoor aquarium and Toronto’s newest attraction, ‘Rip-ley’s Aquarium of Canada’, opened its doors for visi-tors on October 16. With its dynamic size of 12,500 square meters, it contains over 5.7 million litres of water, more than 16,000 marine animals and over 450 species. It is expected to draw around 2 million visitors per year.

Marine animals in the aquarium include 60 dif-ferent species from the

Caribbean and Indo-Pacific region ranging from jelly fish, more than 100 years old giant lobsters, sting ray and bam-boo shark, giant Pacific octo-puses, surgeonfish, butterfly fish, chromis and clownfish, delicate sea horses, and leafy sea dragons to many others.

Also, magnificent exhib-its such as Fun-for-all-ages Discovery Centre with tsunami simulator, Great Lakes locks exhibit, horse-shoe crab touch pools, yel-low ‘research’ submarine, and Shark Reef crawl tun-nel, bubble peek-a-boo pop-ups among adorable puffer fish, daily live dive shows, and a 180-degree Pacific Kelp panel exhibit with wave-making actions that simulate the British Columbia shore-line and many more provide the visitors a jaw-dropping experience.

TripAdvisor recently announced that it is going to launch a new facility of direct hotel book-ings through its mobile apps in 2014. Though it does not wish to become an online travel agency (OTA) they are still taking this initiative to help the users com-plete their hotel search and its booking in the same page with-out much shuffling.

The company CEO Stephen

Kaufer stressed on not becom-ing an OTA and only a facilita-tor of bookings, meaning they will not take direct bookings from any user and if in any event that happens they will partner with an established OTA.

Kaufer also stated that the app would be available on smart phones and Blackberry for the time being.

Mexico unveils new campaign: ‘Live It To Believe It’The Mexico Tourism Board has recently come up with its new North American cam-paign “Live It to Believe It” with which its breathtak-ing imagery is going to take

destination advertising to another level.

Destinations showcased in the first phase of the six million dollars campaign are: Vallarta-Nayarit, shown

together as a single destina-tion for the first time; Mex-ico City, depicting the excit-ing cosmopolitan, vibrant and modern city, with its strong sense of history; amongst other destinations like Yucatan, Los Cabos and Cancun-Riviera Maya.

Mexico’s new promotional programme incorporates a robust media plan geared, for the first time, towards the con-sumer. It includes all media communication platforms and was officially presented to more than 300 representatives of the national and interna-tional tourism industry, travel agents, associations, hotel chains, tour operators, and special guests at the Tower of London.

Brazil’s booming tourism cuts out small hotels

Expedia, HomeAway team up on online vacation rentals

Brazil’s new policy of merg-ing local and foreign hotel and resort chains can be viewed as a means to cut costs and improve processes across the sector, as well as garner part-ners with know-how. But on the other hand, it means room for small hotel operators are decreasing.

According to Fórum de Operadores Hoteleiros do

Brasil (FOHB), local private hotel operators plan to spend 7 billion reais ($3 billion) on expansion in 2015. Brazil

Hospitality Group (BHG) SA raised about 355 million reais ($160 million) of which 80% will be used to buy rivals. “Our investment case is that consol-idation and professionalisa-tion will drive the sector going forward,” BHG Chief Execu-tive Eduardo Bartolomeu said in an interview. “Clients will want good service and a brand in which they can trust.”

Expedia Inc. has recently col-laborated with the world’s largest vacation rental pro-vider, HomeAway, to offer its vacation rentals on Expedia.com in the U.S. and Mexico. The association is to go live in early 2014.

HomeAway CEO Brian Sharples said, “This is a sig-nificant milestone for the

vacation rental industry and for realising HomeAway’s mis-sion to make every vacation

rental in the world available to every traveller in the world. As one of the most visited online travel agencies, each month Expedia.com will give mil-lions of travellers the opportu-nity to discover the benefits of booking a vacation rental, and we look forward to also help-ing our customers increase the visibility of their properties.”

Canada’s largest indoor aquarium opens for visitors

TripAdvisor to start direct hotel bookings on mobile apps in 2014

As part of a three-phase Dis-cover America campaign, the public-private travel mar-keting arm of U.S. tourism has recently announced its plans of a promotional road trip campaign with Google. Google is going to work with Brand USA on an interac-tive Discover America map to show accessible activities for international visitors and help them to plan a trip in an interactive way. Jiri Marousek, Director of digital for Brand USA said that mapping would provide context and won’t be a mere listing like Google Places.

After teaming up with Google, Enterprise Rent a Car, and Spotify, Brand USA is also inviting destinations and private organisations to

contribute itineraries, photos, videos for the Discover Amer-ica map. The one with the highest traveller ratings will be featured with special sto-ries and content and will be displayed over the map.

The Road Trips part of the campaign is slated to run November to March. It will be followed by a Great Outdoors campaign from March to June, and then a Travel Like A Local Blitz from June to September.

Brand USA partners Google for Road Trips campaign

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | december 2013 26 • americas

Following its participation in the annual Brand USA India Mission for the fifth consec-utive year, Visit California conducted a series of edu-cational seminars in Octo-ber for Travel Trade in Ban-galore & Chennai which was attended by more than 250 travel agents. The pur-pose of this initiative was to learn more about luxury, culinary, adventure, family, and culture of the state and to build the Indian market’s

understanding of California as a travel destination.

According to reports since 2002, the numbers of Indian

visitors to California have risen by 139% and they are also expecting an additional growth of 38% by 2016.

Visit California conducts educational seminars for travel trade in Bangalore & Chennai

White House to resume its public toursWhite House has report-edly resumed its public tours recently which were previ-ously cancelled due to budget cuts. Secret Service, which is responsible for White House security said that the self-guided tours of the ground floor, first floor and East Wing of the White House resumed from November 5 and would continue till January 15. Along with it, the gardens and grounds opened to the pub-lic on the weekends of Octo-ber 26-27.

George Ogilvie, the spokes-man of Secret Service quoted “Last year’s sequestration came midway through the fis-cal year, and we were unable to adjust or reallocate remain-ing funding to continue tours while still ensuring enough funding remained to meet all operational needs and avoid furloughing our employees.”

He further commented that the agency was confi-dent about tours operating at reduced levels while still meet-ing operational requirements.

With an endless supply of events, concerts, and restau-rants to offer, hotels in Las Vegas are getting their due share of promotion by being active on social media. Some of the properties like Cosmopoli-tan, MGM Grand, and Aria Las

Vegas are even out performing global hotel brands like Hilton, Hyatt, and Starwood online. However, each hotel group and property has strengths on cer-tain channels and no single brand dominates the others on every platform.

Twitter has been found to be the most active medium for global hotel groups where specific problems are sorted out and company news and updates are shared. Facebook is considered to be the best medium for sharing news about the company or just any topic of interest related to the hotel and its destination. They especially excel at newer plat-forms like Instagram where they post pictures of events, the latest happenings, and the guests, which inspires future visits.

Speaking about using mul-tiple channels for establishing online presence, Dan Harbison, Head of New Media, Caesars Entertainment, said, “You can do your best to keep your mes-sage consistent across multi-ple platforms, but to really acti-vate your various communities you need to have some tailoring done around the nuances of its channel.”

New York launches winter ad campaignThe state tourism orga-nization of New York has recently launched a fall and winter ad campaign to attract the people towards the natural beauties just out-side the city.

Nearly 6,400 ad posters would be placed on subway platforms, buses, Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road trains and videos will also be played in passenger areas of Grand Central and Penn Station in order to pro-mote their campaign.

Hotels in Las Vegas emerge on social media to attract guests

Bill Bohde, Senior Vice Pres-ident for sales and market-ing at the Detroit Metro Con-vention & Visitors Bureau, is planning a $1.6 million mar-keting campaign to portray Detroit as a city where inter-national company meet-ings and conventions can be held. Along with this,

the downtown Marriott hotel and Cobo convention

center are spending $30 mil-lion and $300 million, respec-tively on renovations. Also, a $600,000 campaign funded by businesses, and claiming a brighter future for Detroit has appeared in full-page ads in The New York Times, The Washington Post and other publications.

All-terrain ‘Flying Car’ debuts at Florida Yacht Show

Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau plans $1.6 million campaign

Fort Lauderdale Interna-tional Boat Show which was recently held in Florida dis-played SkyRunner®, a new, innovative recreational sports vehicle which is part all-terrain vehicle and part light-sport aircraft, an elite segment of light sport avi-ation. The best part is that it can be afforded not only by the adventurist or recre-ational enthusiast but also by the common people.

Stewart Hamel, Sky-Runner Founder and Chief Executive Officer said, “Air-ports are not required with SkyRunner. This vehicle will change the way people experience their world and

provide pure enjoyment of flight. Imagine driving an all-terrain vehicle that can convert from road to air mode in three minutes — with SkyRunner, that dream has become a real-ity.” As this new toy uses the latest reflex paraglide wing technology, which is renowned for its extreme pitch and roll stability, it can use open fields, grass strips and secluded beaches as it runways.

The craft is priced at $119,000 and over the next few months it will be fulfill-ing ASTM Design & Manu-facturing Standards for its S-LSA certification.

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | december 2013 americas • 27

Qatar Airways has announced an alliance with Brand USA to promote the U.S. as a pre-ferred travel destination offer-ing enormous choices for travel-lers through its wide expanding global network. As part of this alliance, the passengers will be offered special fares to various U.S. destinations. And the book-ings will be available till Decem-ber, 2013 with travel validity until March 31, 2014.

There has always been a rise of Indian travellers to the United States. Through this partner-ship, Qatar Airways and Brand USA have launched multiple co-funded advertising, marketing and promotional campaigns to promote travel to the USA from India across all the distribu-tion channels targeting varied

traveller segments. The activi-ties scheduled under this part-nership will also include travel trade familiarisation trips to

Chicago and Washington for the top 16 CEOs of the most renowned travel and trade com-panies in India.

Qatar Airways offers exciting destinations in U.S.

United Airlines launches cargo carbon emissions calculatorUnited Airlines has recently come up with enhanced cargo emissions and offset calcu-lator that quickly computes and presents per capita car-bon emissions for customers shipping via United Cargo. It is the only company to do so and they have partnered with Sus-tainable Travel International for this venture. By using this tool Cargo customers can eas-ily input place of origin and destination for each flight leg, along with the weight of their shipment, in order to quickly determine the total carbon footprint for their shipment

using United’s operational data to provide an accurate result. It will also be useful in various business-to-business transactions.

Robbie Anderson, Pres-ident of United Cargo said, “United Cargo is committed to an aggressive programme to promote environmental sus-tainability, and we are focused on contributing to our indus-try’s progress in this area.”

The calculator would be providing the customers the opportunity to sponsor high-quality emission reduction projects around the globe.

Oneworld, an alliance of the world's leading airlines with committed alliance has recently come up with attrac-tive flexible fares on flights to visit Middle East. Oneworld’s Visit Middle East passes would include flights within

the Gulf, Levant and Egypt. Other than that, it would be offering flights to 30 desti-nations in 12 countries with tickets to enjoy the wonders of Petra, the riches of Luxor, cosmopolitan Doha or the sandy beaches of Muscat.

Flavio Dino, the President of Embratur, recently expressed his concern that Brazil’s domestic carriers do not have the capacity to meet the demand during the month long competition and stated that companies that currently oper-ate international flights to and from Brazil would be invited to take up some of the work.

“We have the view that it is important to ensure more flights. We are replanning our air network. We may open the market to companies that just deal internationally,” he said. Brazil is likely to take its final call on this matter in December.

With only eight months in hand before the tournament, the government is trying their best by opening several major airports to private investments in an attempt to relieve bot-tlenecks. It is estimated that 600,000 foreigners and three million Brazilians are going to travel around the country dur-ing the World Cup in June and July of 2014.

GTAA and Air Canada to build Toronto Pearson as a global hubThe Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) and Air Can-ada announced an enhanced commercial relationship to further develop Toronto Pear-son as a global hub, which will take effect on January 1, 2014. In

addition, the new commercial agreement is designed to deliver continued improvements to customer service, includ-ing baggage delivery and air-craft de-icing wait times, offer-ing Canadians greater flight

frequencies to existing markets and opening up access to more global destinations.

“This agreement with Air Canada will allow us to con-tinue to support our local and national economy, improve ser-vice levels for all of our passen-gers, and help Canada to com-pete globally,” said Howard Eng, President and CEO, GTAA.

“This agreement provides momentum to our strategy to develop Toronto Pearson into an even stronger North Amer-ican gateway and a truly global airline hub,” said Ben Smith, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, Air Canada.

Emirates and Virgin America launch frequent flyer partnership

Emirates and Virgin America have announced a ‘frequent flyer partnership’ that allows members of both airlines’ fre-quent flyer programs to earn and redeem points or miles for travel across the networks of the two airlines respectively.

“Through our partnership

with Emirates we are able to offer enhanced international travel options. Emirates’ net-work can take Elevate mem-bers to the Middle East and beyond,” said Phil Seward, Virgin America’s Director of Guest Loyalty.

“We also look forward to

welcoming Virgin America’s Elevate programme mem-bers on board our flights, and providing them with more rewarding access to our exten-sive route network.” said Jim Baxter, Vice President for North America, Emirates Airline.

Brazil to invite foreign airlines during the World Cup 2014

Oneworld’s latest fares make travel to Middle East easier

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | DECEMBEr 2013 • 28AfricA

The Uinted Nations World Tour-ism Organisation (UNWTO) addressed a press confer-ence on the sidelines of World Travel Market (WTM) held in London to launch the Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands Tour-ism Organisation. The Vanilla Islands, which included islands of Comoros, Mauritius, Mada-gascar, La Reunion, Seychelles, the Maldives, and Mayotte, is set to increase their connectiv-ity and create new multi-desti-nation products to attract more visitors to the Indian Ocean with a stronger and enhanced brand.

Addressing the world media, UNWTO Secretary General Taleb Rifai said, “I was in the island of La Reunion recently

and followed the commitment of seven islands to unite together to form an organisation, and the new tourism destination is known as the Vanilla Islands.” Secretary General Rifai con-gratulated the leaders for work-ing together to take the region’s tourism to its next level.

Alain St.Ange, the Presi-dent of the Vanilla Islands and also the Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture of Sey-chelles said, “We are united for a purpose. We have diversity that takes in Africa, India, Asia, and the mid-ocean island block. We are today offering to the world a new tourism destination, a destination with real diversity for the decreeing travellers and

one where culture and natural beauty would be displayed side by side as key USPs. We have so many unseen before natural assets such as the Whale Route, the Aldabra Atoll, the Robinson Crusoe Island of African Banks where Man Friday would today be but a dedicated butler, etc.”

UNWTO launches Vanilla Islands Tourism Organisation

South Africa tourism targets Indian market

South African Tourism is focus-sing on drawing Indian tourists to the country. To strengthen their initiative they recently collaborated with Kingfisher Resorts and Royal African Dis-coveries and conducted a FAM trip for selected travel agents from India.

Hanneli Slabber, Country Manager, South African Tour-ism said, “Travel agents influ-ence tourism planning deci-sions and outcomes by being trusted advisors and guides for travel enthusiasts who want to explore the world. Therefore, continued engagement with the Indian travel trade for training, educating and showcasing the destination is high on our pri-ority. Through this partnership with Kingfisher Resorts we got an opportunity to showcase their extravagant properties and lux-ury safaris experiences. Royal African Discoveries put together a fantastic itinerary for the group

which got the travel agents to experience the innumerable activities on offer for Indian trav-ellers in the Rainbow Nation.”

A kids fashion show, which was a part of recently held Kids Central exhibition in Mumbai at World Trade Centre, allowed the winner to avail a 3 nights/4 days package to the Palace of the Lost City in Sun City. Apart from Sun International Hotels and resorts, another important attraction was Sun International set up of 3 dimensional vision of the hotel with a hot air balloon image. Rajan Kalra, Associate Director of Sales, Sun International was a special guest at the event.

South African tourism have also collaborated with Thomas Cook (India) and Kuoni India to offer unique travel packages to Indians which would comprise of exciting journey at afford-able prices that cover the best of what South Africa as a destina-tion has to offer.

Mauritius Tourism Promo-tion Authority (MTPA) for the first time has launched a six-month-long online training programme ‘Mauritius Grand Master’ for Indian travel trade to develop product offerings and boost destination under-standing. MTPA is expecting to reach out to front line, sales, and travel trade across India in the first phase of the pro-gramme by engaging the travel trade through seven online learning modules.

Dr. Karl Mootoosamy, Direc-tor, MTPA expanded, “The pro-gramme will help build, grow, and maintain a strong and

comprehensive network of Mauritius ‘Travel Specialists’ who can promote Mauritius to attract more visitors. The objec-tive is to make the course fun, informative, and easy to under-stand. The online training pro-gramme will enable trade with increased knowledge about the destination and introduce inno-vative itinerary for Mauritius.”

South African Tourism and Emirates collaborate to boost tourismSouth African Tourism has recently collaborated with Emirates airline with an aim to increase the number of vis-itors to South Africa. Hubert Frach, Divisional Senior Vice President of Emirates said, “South Africa is a very impor-tant market for Emirates. It is a diverse country with a rich heritage, world-renowned cuisine, and friendly people

and this agreement reinforces our commitment to pro-mote inbound tourism to the country.”

According to South Afri-can Tourism Chief Execu-tive Thulani Nzima, the Mid-dle East region is a potential market for their local tourism.

Emirates currently flies to Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg.

‘Mauritius Grand Master’: First online training programme for Indian travel trade

Kenya displays its magic in tourism

Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda introduce common tourist visa at WTM

The third edition of the Magical Kenya Travel Expo at Kenyatta International Convention Cen-tre was a huge success, even better than the last year. Tour-ism boards, such as Seychelles, India, Zimbabwe, Burundi, and South Africa were representing with stands along with Uganda Association of Tour Operators, which was there to forge closer cooperation with their Kenyan counterparts. Foreign airlines, such as Qatar Airways and Ethi-opian Airlines, along with the two leading safari airlines Safa-rilink and Air Kenya were also present at the travel expo. Even the Kenya Wildlife Service was

represented with an own stand.KTB staff wants to analyse

the feedbacks from this event

thoroughly so to stage an even bigger and better Magical Kenya Travel Expo in 2014.

Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda have announced the introduction of the East African single joint visa which will take effect on 1st Jan-uary 2014. The Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda Ministers and High Commissioner officially made the announcement of the new cross-border visa today at this year’s World Travel Market. Masai dancers from Kenya and Rwanda cultural troupes were among the entertainment during this launch event.

This partnership is expected to simplify travel arrangements for holidaymakers, as well as cre-ating a new brand for the whole region to open up opportunities for joint marketing campaigns.

Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda are three countries famed for their wildlife, which will, through the introduction of a joint visa, boost regional travel, adding value to the tourism product offerings of these countries, and highlighting the diversity of East Africa.

Phyllis Kandie, Cabinet Sec-retary for East African Affairs, Commerce & Tourism Kenya stated “Kenya is delighted to be joining hands with its neigh-bouring nations in a move that will benefit tourists visiting the diverse region and boost our respective tourism sectors. The cross-border visa will support intra-regional travel between the participating countries through new joint marketing and trade opportunities.”

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | DECEMBEr 2013 • 29CAribbeAn

Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) has come up with a unique programme of ‘Meet the Peo-ple’ for individuals and fam-ilies at no charge to ensure that the tourists can experi-ence the Jamaican way of life.

The tourists can learn how to dance to the sounds of reggae, pre-pare an authentic Jamaican dish, meet with a famous Jamaican artist to learn the styles of the local art scene, or visit a community of Rastafarians to discover what led to the rise of this religious form.

John Lynch, Director of Tourism, Jamaica Tour-ist Board said, “Through authentic ‘Meet the People’ experiences travellers will bond with Jamaicans of sim-ilar interests, who will pro-vide hands on exposure to the Jamaican culture. The value added experience is very accessible, as travellers can seamlessly incorporate it into their vacation. It’s easy and best of all, free for visitors.”

The programme has already seen around 500 vol-unteers ready to extend their hospitality to the visitors.

Jamaica Tourist Board launches ‘Meet The People’ experience

Jamaica to promote agro-tourism with Farmers’ Market InitiativeThe Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) has recently funded $10 million to expand the Agro-Tourism Farmers’ Market Initiative in order to promote agro tourism in Jamaica. The project would be having 35 farmers and farmer groups from the par-ishes of Westmoreland and Hanover participating. This initiative would promote the bond between tourism and agriculture and pro-mote local produce. It would display not only fresh food, fruits, vegetables, and herbs and spices but also craft items, jewellery, clothes from local designers, and music.

Minister of Tourism and Entertainment, Dr.

Wykeham McNeill stated that the project would “ensure responsible tourism that brings benefits to wide segments of the society.”

“It would not only pro-vide a great prospect to increase tourism’s contri-bution to the country’s eco-nomic development, but also support the Ministry’s term of office of tourism for all,” he added.

As per recent reports, Haiti has recently undertaken a new venture of ‘POLITOUR’ (tourism police) to ensure security at all the tourist sites and safe tourist activ-ities. This venture will first enter the North and then trickle down to the rest of the country.

Dieudonne Luma Eti-enne, Regional Director – North, Ministry of Tourism, met with Commissioner Carl Henry Boucher, Director

of the POLITOUR in Haiti, the Municipal Cartel of Cap-Haitien, the Vice-Delegate of the North, the Director of the Ministry of Planning and External Cooperation, and a representative of the National Police North (PNH North) to coordinate this venture.

Etienne commented that

“POLITOUR will be there to facilitate development in the north destination,” to ensure that the tourists “live the experience!”

St. Kitts and Nevis becomes top cruise destination in OECS

St. Kitts and Nevis surpassed Antigua and Barbuda to become the leading cruise des-tination in the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). St. Kitts’ cruise tour-ism industry which started long after Antigua and Bar-buda, predicted 700,000 pas-sengers by the end of the year.

According to reports, St. Kitts is projecting some 650,000 cruise passengers during the 2013-2014 season and more than 700,000 for 2014-2015. Fif-teen new cruise ships will visit St. Kitts during the 2013/2014 cruise ship season.

“In other words, in a cal-endar year for the first time

in our history we have passed about 130 in terms of ship days. We have gone up significantly by the number of ship days and that means that over the course of 365 days on average, every other day there will be a ship,” Minister of Tourism, St. Kitts and Nevis, Richard Skerritt stated.

Trinidad and Tobago for MICE in the middle of the Caribbean beautyAt the IMEX Meeting and Incentive Trade Show and International MICE event in Las Vegas, the Trinidad and

Tobago Convention Bureau promoted small-sized conven-tions in their island state, along with small to medium-sized

meetings and incentive tours in their country.

From the Trinidad and Tobago Energy Conference to Trinidad’s Carnival, the island is well known for its festi-vals, expos, celebrations, and cultural heritage. The lead-ing property with spacious lodging and meeting facil-ities is the Hyatt Regency, since the country does not have a convention center at this time. The hotel is conve-niently located in the heart of downtown Port of Spain and about 40 minutes from Piarco International Airport.

Haiti introduces ‘POLITOUR’ for safe tourism

Aiming to increase leisure as well as MICE travel arrivals from India, Taiwan Tourism organised its first ever road show in Kolkata on October 24 at Taj Bengal Hotel with over 75 select travel agents and tour operators attending the B2B session. This road show is the first in the three-city series covering Mumbai and Delhi other than Kolkata.

Taiwan Tourism is strongly focusing on Indian MICE segment, promot-ing Taipei, Kaohsiung, and Taichung as MICE destina-tions. “We have recorded a steady growth in MICE traf-fic from India to Taiwan. In 2013, we are expecting at least 10% increase in MICE arriv-als. We want to inform MICE organisers about our various

incentive plans. We will orga-nise FAM trips for MICE organisers and media in the near future,” said Arthur Hseih, Director, Singapore Office, Taiwan Tourism.

"Taipei 101, Sun Moon Lake, Formosa Aboriginal Village, The Night Markets, and The National Palace Museum are the main tourist attractions of Taiwan that continue to draw

crowd," he added.Noel Saxena, Country

Manager (India), Taiwan Tourism said, “Through the series of road shows we aim to educate travel consultants

about our various offerings. India sent 15.7% more leisure travellers to Taiwan in 2012 compared to 2011. Around 29,000 Indians visited Tai-wan in 2012. This year, other than such B2B activities, we will also engage in a lot of B2C activities like outdoor adver-tising and aggressive promo-tion in mainstream media to educate the potential Indian traveller.”

Cathay Pacific with its short haul sister airline Dragon Air was present to display the best options con-nection India and Taiwan. It was announced later in the programme that Star Cruises will be coming on board very soon with specialised pack-ages for tourists willing to explore Taiwan.

Taiwan Tourism targets GITs & MICE at first ever Kolkata road show

Cyprus Tourism enters the Indian tourism market, focuses on leisure and businessThe Cyprus Tourism Organ-isation (CTO) has forayed into the Indian tourism mar-ket starting with the Delhi and Mumbai leg of India roadshow. The roadshow fea-tured interactions between the delegates from Cyprus and their Indian counter-parts from the Indian travel industry. Deputy High Com-missioner Rona–Marie Pan-teli, Visa Consul, The Repub-lic of Cyprus in India; and, Hussain Abdul Rahman, Country Manager India, Gulf Air joined the delegation which was lead by Vassilis

Theocharides, Director, CTO.Commenting on the occa-

sion, Theocharides said, “We have been monitoring the Indian travel industry for quite some time and in recog-nition of the country’s poten-tial as a big outbound tourist market we intend to initiate activities that help us reach out to a majority of the travel trade community in India. We are targeting Delhi and Mumbai during the first phase of our promotional campaign as these cities generate max-imum number of outbound business travels from India.”

The Indian Travel Congress - 2013, 61st Convention & Exhi-bition of Travel Agents Asso-ciation of India (TAAI) will be held from December 13-16 at Vivanta by Taj - Yeshwant-pur, Bengaluru. The event will be held in conjunction with India Travel Trade Expo (ITTE) and TAAI Travel Awards. The theme of this convention is ‘Connect, Co-operate, Collaborate’.The chief guests of the con-vention will be K Siddara-maiah, Chief Minister of Kar-nataka, and R V Deshpande,

Minister for Tourism, Gov-ernment of Karnataka.

Iqbal Mulla, President, TAAI, said, “Keeping in

mind the present scenario and challenges faced by the travel and tourism industry, we have designed our theme, which we believe is appro-priate for the current sce-nario. The need of the hour is to ‘Connect – Co-operate – Collaborate’ for the benefit of our businesses. The Con-vention will give an opportu-nity to interact and develop relationships with industry stakeholders. We are work-ing on pre- and post-Conven-tion tours and finalising busi-ness sessions.”

The India Convention Pro-motion Bureau (ICPB) elec-tions held at Vivanta by Taj – Ambassador in New Delhi on October 28 is now looking at new office bearers and Governing Board mem-bers for the two year term of 2013-2015. For this term, Anand Kumar, Joint Secre-tary of Tourism, Government of India, has been elected as the Chairman of the bureau with Capt. Swadesh Kumar of Shikhar Travel as the Vice Chairman. The Secretary and Treasurer are Sudeep Sarcar

of India Exposition Mart Ltd and Sanjay Soni of Incredible Design, respectively.

‘Connect, Co-operate, Collaborate’ at TAAI conventionICPB gets new office bearers

Gujarat Tourism promotes Rann Utsav in Kolkata press meetTourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited (TCGL) held a press meet at ITC Sonar Bangla on October 25 to announce the relocation of its Kolkata office and also to pro-mote upcoming events such as Rann Utsav and Kite Festival.

The new office which is in the middle of a vibrant, and prime area located at 230, AJC

Bose Road Chitrakoot Building, Room No 71, 7th Floor, Kolkata; was inaugurated by Kamleshb-hai Patel, Chairman, TCGL.

Expanding into a newer and larger office space could not have come at a better time for TCGL. “Due to considerable recent tour-ist growth, we had no choice but to look into expanding into a

larger space and better serve our growing tourist base,” said Patel.

At the meet, Kingshuk Biswas, Marketing Manager, TCGl gave a presentation on the

Rann Utsav which will be held from December 15, 2013 to Feb-ruary 15, 2014. A Tent City will be built in the Rann of Kutch which will be spread over 1.5 million sq

m, and will have some 500 tents. Tourists can enjoy kite flying, hot-air ballooning, embroidery and handicrafts making workshops during their stay.

TRAVEL NEWS DIGEST | DECEMBEr 2013 • 30EVENTS

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