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` 50/-A DDP PUBLICATIONVol. XXV No. 3; February 1st fortnight issue 2013 Pages: 56 (Excluding cover)

NEW FILE OF TT February_1st_2013:TT Layout 1/30/2013 2:56 PM

NEW FILE OF TT February_1st_2013:TT Layout 1/30/2013 2:56 PM

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FEBRUARY 1ST FORTNIGHT ISSUE 2013 TRAVTALK 1

David Scowsill,President and CEO,WTTC has urged the

Government of India toaddress two major concerns– high taxes on aviation andVisa-on-Arrival (VoA) issues

– that are hampering thegrowth of tourism in thecountry. Speaking at theHotel Investment ForumIndia (HIFI) in Gurgaon,Scowsill says, “India is the12th largest travel andtourism economy in theworld, and has the potential

to become one of the biggestin our industry. Yet it riskssquandering this opportunitythrough excessive taxationand restrictive visa policies.”

It is vital, he says, forthe government to reduce the tax burden on the industry. According to

Scowsill, India is becomingincreasingly expensive.

“Taxes are rampant inIndia’s aviation sector. Thisindicates the governmentviews the sector as a revenuesource rather than a revenuegenerator,” he laments.

The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) behemoth warns taxation andrestrictive visa policies can prove disastrous for the Indian tourism industry.

Lower taxes, improve visa policiesME G H A PAU L

Dancing to tourism’s tune

K. Chiranjeevi, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Tourism and Parvez Dewan, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism,in a cultural programme at International Tourism Mart held at Guwahati.

To highlight the tourismpotential of the NorthEast region in the

domestic and internationalmarkets, the Ministry ofTourism, Government of Indiaorganised an InternationalTourism Mart in Guwahati fromJanuary 18- 20, 2013. Theoverseas delegates includedDeputy Tourism Minister fromLao PDR, executive heads ofNational Tourism Organisations from Cambodia, Singapore,Bangladesh and Bhutan, 55tour operators, 9 hoteliers and14 media representatives.Besides foreign delegates,there were approximately 70 domestic buyers from other parts of the country and 108 sellers from the nine participating states.

KChiranjeevi, Ministerof State (IndependentCharge) for Tourism,

will lead the Indian delega-tion at FITUR 2013 to beorganised in Madrid fromJanuary 30 to February 3. “I,

along with the PS to the min-ister, will also be accompany-ing him. People from the stateministries are also participat-ing along with tour operators.We are going to FITUR withour campaign ‘Find What YouSeek’,” says Girish Shankar,Additional Secretary,Tourism, Govt of India.

“In this campaign, we are emphasising on the fact that India has a lot to offer to the tourists from diverse segments, be it golf,medical, wellness,leisure etc.” he added.

Chiranjeevi to lead Indiandelegation at FITUR

Girish ShankarAdditional Secretary, TourismGovt of India

David ScowsillPresident and CEO, WTTC Contd. on page 30

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BULLETIN

KChiranjeevi, UnionMinister for Tourism,

focusses on promoting FilmTourism through movies beingshot in India. In this regard,the minister has launched a

new campaign ‘Land of Pi’ to promote Puducherry and Munnar as tourist destinations.

The campaign will have‘Land of Pi’ posters producedby Tourism Ministry dis-played worldwide throughthe India tourism officesoverseas. These would alsobe put on the ‘IncredibleIndia’ website and those of the Puducherry and KeralaTourism Departments.Luxury buses plying betweenChennai and Puducherry and Kochi and Munnar will be branded with ‘Land ofPi’ creatives. Special ‘Land ofPi’ tours and walking trails will be organised fortourists visiting Puducherryand Munnar.

Short films on the touristattractions in Puducherry andMunnar, which have beendepicted in the film, havebeen created and are beingshared on social media net-works. A boat that hints at Life of Pi with a stuffed tigerwill be permanently placed at two prominent locations in Puducherry to provide a photo opportunity forvisiting tourists.

The campaign will beundertaken in English as

well as in French, German,Chinese, Spanish andJapanese. Roadshows for promoting tourism of thecountry will be organised inChina and Taiwan, where thefilm Life of Pi has been verywell received.

The minister has alsodecided that a specialNational Tourism Award willbe awarded to Ang Lee,Director and Yann Martel, for promoting India throughthe film.

Recognising the importance of cinema as a powerful tool for developing andpromoting various tourist destinations, MOT has launched a new campaignto promote Puducherry and Munnar based on the movie Life of Pi.

‘Land of Pi’ calling more tourists

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K ChiranjeeviMinister for State for Tourism

The campaign will have ‘Landof Pi’ posters produced byTourism Ministry displayedworldwide through the Indiatourism offices overseas

Cinema & Tourism


The present scenarioFirst, the range of hotel

products has widened acrossthe spectrum of internation-al positionings; in severalcases, the brand standardshave been ‘upped’ comparedto the product in the brand’shome market. Second, thereis a greater play from theinternational hotel compa-nies leading to a plethora ofbrands seeking and gainingpresence in the country.

International hotelcompanies nowhave about 46 percent share of thetotal chain- associ-ated supply, com-pared to about 37.5per cent in 2006.Third, the asset-light approach isgaining muchgreater footing withthe notable differ-ence that there isincreasing invest-ment commitmentby hotel chains inthe select servicesector. Fourth,chain-associatedhotels are deepen-ing their presencewith increased playoutside the maincities and markets;within cities, several micro-markets have arisen for busi-

ness in general and forthe hotel sector. Fifth,restaurants and moreimportantly, meetingand function facilitiesare playing an impor-tant role in generatingrooms’ demand,improving cash flows,thereby creating/aid-ing viability. Lastly,ownership patternsare quite scatteredwith few major playersoutside the hotelchains, but with

greater diversification thanwas seen 10 years ago. FDIis increasing, but slowly.

Trends witnessedQ4 2008 was the

tipping point for theindustry. Till then, 2008had been a very goodyear with strong Q1 anda very healthy summer.Demand declined in theaftermath of the globalfinancial crisis, followedby continuing rate lossesand the trend has beenpretty much downwardssince then. The Mumbaiterror attacks of 26/11added to the hurt,impacting the winter of2008 and Q1 2009 inparticular. 2010 showedrecovery in occupancylevels and nominally inRevPAR, possibly only incomparison to theextraordinary slump in

2009. The sharp occupancydecline is undoubtedly a mat-ter of concern; nevertheless it

needs to be viewed inthe context of signif-icant supply growththat has occurredsince 2006. WhileADR has alsodeclined by 12.66 percent between 2006and 2012, part of thisdecline is a down-ward rate correctionfrom supply shortageled high rates in2006; a significantelement of thisdecline is also onaccount of increasedsupply share from the

Upscale-UpMid and M-E seg-ments. Of course, the fact ofdecline in an inflationaryeconomy means a loss of ‘real’value of ADR earned.

‘Occupancy’ driftThe occupancy trend

clearly challenges the percep-tion of India being 'severelyunder-supplied' - that posi-tion is, in some ways, shownup as a myth; if the under-supply were truly severe thenthe significant occupancy andrate decline should not haveoccurred. At the same time,we cannot lose sight of thebusiness reality of the lastfive years, during which thebulk of capacity addition hastaken place - global invest-ment, economic outlook andglobal travel were severelyimpacted in the 2008-2010period due to the globalfinancial crises. The last twoyears have seen weak invest-ment and economic scenarioin India which have impactedbusiness travel and hotelstays in general.

Average Daily Rate The Lux-UpperUp seg-

ment enjoyed peak ADR of Rs10,888 in 2008 following onan ADR of `10,113 in 2007.In all other years, ADR hasranged between ` 8,100 and` 8,600 with limited declineover the years. On the otherhand, this segment hasdrawn increasing premiumover the national averageADR 18.8 per cent premiumin 2006, gradually increasingto 31.5 per cent premium by2012. Upscale and Up-Midhotels achieved ADR belowthe national average.

STATISTICS

VIEWPOINT

The total contribution of travel &tourism to India’s GDP in 2011 was

INR 5.6 billion or 6% of GDP. This is due torise by 7% in 2012 and over the next tenyears, it’s contribution to India’s GDP willgrow by 8% per annum, which is slightlyhigher than the rate of growth expected forthe Indian economy as a whole.

Our industry has been trying toconvince the Government that as acountry, India needs to remain competitivein the global tourism market. We cannothave such steep taxes clamped down, making India IncrediblyUnaffordable - and that withoutinternational standards of services offeredby other tourism rich countries.

Even the WTTC Global President &CEO, David Scowsill, who was recentlyvisiting India for a convention, called onthe Indian Government and advised themnot to view the aviation and hospitalitysectors as a revenue source but as revenuegenerators. Rampant taxes and thisattitude are the two biggest issues that willhold back the growth of the country’seconomy through travel & tourism. It isvital for the government to reduce the taxburden on the industry.

As a whole, there is an increasingcuriosity in the world to see today’s India;Be it for the vibrant festivals, our wildlife,yoga and meditation, or the diversity of ourland and our people, also buoyed byHollywood last year with SlumdogMillionaire and this year with Life of Pi. Thegovernment is working towards improvingvisa facilities by increasing the number ofcountries eligible for visa-on-arrival. Theynow need to understand the importance oftourism as a money churner and anemployment generator.

In 2011, travel & tourism supported 39million direct, indirect and induced jobs,which is 5% of the total employment inIndia. This is set to rise by 3% in 2012 toreach 40.5 million jobs. Over the next tenyears, travel & tourism jobs in India willincrease by 2% per annum to total 48million jobs in 2022, in other words, 8% oftotal employment in the country.

India IncrediblyUnaffordable

TRAVTALK is a publication of DDP Publications Private Limited. Allinformation in TRAVTALK is derived from sources, which we consider reliable and a sincere effort is made to report accurate information. It is passed on to our readers without any responsibility on our part. The publisher regret that he cannot accept liability for errors and omissions contained in this pub-lication, however caused. Similarly, opinions/views expressedby third parties in abstract and/or in interviews are not neces-sarily shared by TRAVTALK. However, we wish to advice our readersthat one or more recognised authorities may hold different viewsthan those reported. Material used in this publication is intendedfor information purpose only. Readers are advised to seek specific

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Overview of Performance-IndiaKey performance parameters for Indian hotel industry are:

Year Occ% ADR RevPAR2006 68.3 7,070 4,8292007 68.4 8,293 5,6692008 63.1 8,952 5,6492009 56.9 6,802 3,8682010 60.8 6,567 3,9922011 59.3 6,467 3,8332012 58.1 6,175 3,567

The All India segmental performance

Year Occ% ADR RevPARLux-UpperUp2010 61.8 8,543 5,2762011 61.3 8,488 5,2022012 59.5 8,120 4,830Upscale-UpMid2010 61.0 4,924 3,0042011 58.2 4,901 2,8502012 56.9 4,655 2,649M-E2010 57.5 2,834 1,6302011 55.6 3,031 1,6852012 56.0 3,020 1,693

India’s hospitality industry has seen a variety of opportunities and successes, challenges and losses in the last seven to eight years. Horwath HTL and STR Globalpresent a detailed overview of the Indian hotel market. The analysis is based onOccupancy, ADR and RevPAR data, reported by hotels to STR Global. Excerpts:

The hotel trail up to 2012

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Source: STR Global


EXHIBITIONS F E B R U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 3 TRAVTALK 5

During its thirty-thirdstaging, FITUR, the

International Tourism TradeFair, which is due to takeplace from January 30-February 3, 2013 at Feria deMadrid, will bring togethermore than 9,500 companiesrepresenting 167 countriesand regions, as well as all ofthe Spanish regions.

This event, which isorganised by IFEMA, kicksoff the international fair cal-endar for the year. Thisenables tourism profession-als from all over the worldto establish the foundationsof their business strategiesfor the year, whilst alsogauging the current situa-tion within an industry thatis constantly evolving. Ineffect, according to figuresfurnished by the WorldTourism Organisation(UNWTO), there were 1,000million travellers through-out the world in 2012 (4% more than in 2011),who generated more than 3,000 million dollars in exports.

The participation fig-ures at FITUR 2013, whichwill incorporate 100 newcompanies on this occasion,provide the best proof of thefavourable climate withinthe worldwide tourist indus-try at present, an industrythat continues to serve asone of the main sources ofdevelopment in manynations. In this sense, as faras foreign participation atFITUR 2013 is concerned,the organisers might high-light the growth of Africa,based on the incorporationof the Democratic Republicof the Congo, representedthrough the Chamber ofCommerce in the country'scapital city. They might alsohighlight the return of

Libya, as well as the stablepresence of companies andinstitutions from LatinAmerica, for whom FITUR

constitutes the leading trade showcase. These areprecisely two of the conti-nents on which tourismrecorded its highest growthfigures during 2012 (upuntil August) according tothe UNWTO World TourismBarometer. Specifically,

Africa enjoyed growth of 6%and the American continentenjoyed growth of 4%. Asfar as the realm of businessis concerned, the organisersmight mention the re-incor-poration of companies suchas Hespedia and Fiesta &Resorts Hotels.

In FITUR 2013, two new forums devoted to Tourism Know-How and Wine-Based Tourism Accommodation will constitute the main new features.

FITUR to bring together 9,500+ companies TT BU R E AU

According to figures furnishedby the World TourismOrganisation (UNWTO), therewere 1,000 million travellersthroughout the world in 2012(4% more than in 2011), whogenerated more than 3,000million dollars in exports

Number Cruncher


STATES

Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of IndiaParvez Dewan, SecretaryI have never felt an iota of fear while travelling in the North East. The lit-eracy level in the region is high, and hence there is a great demand forNorth East people in various sectors, including hospitality. The Ministryof Tourism, Government of India, planned an International Tourism Martfrom January 18-20 at Guwahati, the first major international tourismevent in the North East. It will bring together business fraternity andentrepreneurs behind tourism products and services of the eight NorthEastern states of India and West Bengal (Darjeeling).

S Hiato, Tourism MinisterTo capture the essence of Mizoram as a tourist destination, I would first like to talk to you about the potential that flourishin the state. Today, Mizoram is the most peaceful state in India, it is easilyaccessible by road and air, the travel formality has been eased. Mizoramis never very cold or very hot. The state’s tourism wealth can be exploitedand packaged into a flourishing industry. The potential that exist canbroadly be stated as trekking, rural tourism, adventure sports, leisureholidaying and well-being holiday. Mizoram is an unexplored destination.A wide range of lucrative opportunity is open for those willing to investand face the challenge of transforming Mizoram into a tourist haven.

BM Gupta, Chief General ManagerThe addressing theme – ‘Horizons of Heaven - Opportunities in theTourism and Hospitality Sector’ - has been very aptly chosen by the organ-isers. We should be able to blend products and knowledge with local des-tination development, which is very important for local upliftment.Protecting the cultural identity of the area and its people is also veryimportant. We need the North-Eastern states to come up with an overallmarketing plan for the region. We assure you that none of the commer-cially viable projects will face financial problems.

PE D E N DO M A BH U T I A

Branding India’sNortheastern jewelsAt the 8th North East Business Summit (NEBS), organised bythe DoNER ministry and the Indian Chamber of Commerce,industry experts came together to discuss tourism challenges.

Jyoti Mayal, ChairpersonThe perception is that the North East is not a safe place to travel. Whatneeds to be done is the development of infrastructure and connectivity.The latter plays a major role and we need to push it to the extent somuch so that positive development takes place. However, there is notmuch awareness about the North East, so it makes it very difficult tosell the place. The North-East needs to be marketed very aggressively.It is a very beautiful region and there is a lot that needs to be done.

Mizoram

IITTM, New DelhiManjula Chaudhary, DirectorFollowing an evaluation of the campaign for the promotion of tourism inNorth East region, we found out that only 28% of the people could recollectseeing the commercial. For obvious reasons, the proportion of those whosaw the commercial was higher in the North East (73.4%). We need tomake more people aware of these states and in turn form a consortiumfor marketing them. However, we have noticed that most of the youngstersare not willing to go back to their parent state after undertaking skill devel-opment workshops, etc.

IATOSubhash Goyal, PresidentWe have been talking about the North East for a very long time. However,it is now time for action. The North-East is the best kept tourism secret inthe world, yet we are still just paying lip service to the region. We need tofigure out that ‘In spite of being so beautiful, why aren’t the tourists goingthere?’ Whatever action is being taken is either too little or too slow.Connectivity is an issue here, and it is very difficult to go from one state tothe other. The first thing to focus on is connecting the states with one anoth-er. We need to start a public-private partnership revolution in the region.

TAAI, Northern Region

TFCI


THEN & NOW

While we must waitfor the original ‘Visit IndiaYear’ to close before weknow the actual foreigntourist arrivals and thepercentage fall in traffic ascompared to 1990, it ispossible to arrive at someprojections based onavailable data.

A rather pessimisticestimate is that the 17.1per cent fall in arrivals forthe first six months of1991 will continuethroughout the year.Arrivals by this count willtotal a meager 1.102million. This is marginallylower than the 1988figures. In other words, thefall in arrivals in 1991 willbe to the tune of 17.02 percent compared to theactual foreign arrivals in1990. The shortfall fromthe IIPO projections for

1991 will be a staggering35 per cent.

But cassandrascould also be falsified on

more than one accountand actual arrival figuresfor 1991 may be higherthan the projections. Thisis especially so becausethe domestic politicalsituation is likely to be animprovement over whatprevailed in 1990.Another helpful factor isthat global tension haveeased and there is littleprospect of anothercatastrophe like the Gulfwar. The only factors that

may continue to affect the foreign arrivalsnegatively are worldwiderecession and the fear of

terrorism. The optimisticview however discountsthe effects of recessionand terrorism becausethere are no clear indicesto adjust their effects.Infact, optimists feel thatthe worst is over. FromJuly 1990 to June 1991was the worst period and now we shouldexpect trends similar to 1989 before the Gulf warand the political strife inthis country.

Not all is despair

Estimated %Change %Changearrivals 1991 over 1990 over IIPO

Numbers projection 1991

Optimistic 12,59,721 -5.4 -26.4

Pessimistic 11,02,262 -17.02 -35

The remarkable improve-ment in India’s perform-

ance is followed by its sharein international touristarrivals that has increased to0.64 per cent in 2011.

UNWTO instilled opti-mism in the hearts of stake-holders of the travel and

tourism by launching uniquecampaign celebrating the bil-lionth global tourist. Theprogress had been remarkablein the last ten years, whereinthe number of internationaltourists doubled. India, asmost experts believe, is in atransitional phase and couldpossibly be one of the mostbankable growth stories in the next 10 years.

The Ministry of Tourism(MOT) statistics also revealsimilar trends, as India’s rankhas gradually improved to38th in 2011 in the worldfrom 54th in 2002. Its sharein international touristarrivals has increased to 0.64per cent in 2011 with 6.31million arrivals from 2.37million or 0.40 per cent in

Statistics released by MOT reveal the reasons behindimprovement in India’s foreign tourists arrivals. We nowrank 38th in the world, a jump from 54th in 2002.

Winning slow and steady

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2001 683.4 0.2 2.54 -4.2 0.37 51th

2002 703.2 2.9 2.38 -6.0 0.34 54th

2003 691.0 -1.7 2.73 14.3 0.39 51th

2004 762.0 10.3 3.46 26.8 0.45 44th

2005 798.0 5.4 3.92 13.3 0.49 43th

2006 846.0 5.3 4.45 13.5 0.53 44th

2007 894.0 5.7 5.08 14.3 0.57 41th

2008 917.0 2.6 5.28 4.0 0.58 42th

2009 885.0 -3.8 5.17 -2.2 0.58 42th

2010 943.0 6.6 5.78 11.8 0.61 42th

2011 990.0 5.0 6.31 9.2 0.64 38th

World IndiaYear Number % Number % % Share Rank of

(in million) Change (in million) Change of India India

Source: World Tourism Organization and Bureau of Immigration, India

NOW Arrivals in 2011

reported arrivals in1991

September 1991 Vol 1 Issue 1 Page 9

Contd. on page 30


STATES F E B R U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 3 TRAVTALK 9

To boost the tourism andhospitality development in

Punjab, the state is now invit-ing investments from privateplayers in the hotel sector.According to Sukhbir SinghBadal, Deputy Chief Ministerof Punjab, the state will be thenext big destination for invest-ment and tourism will be amajor focus area. Badal, whowas speaking at the Hotel

Investment Forum India (HIFI)2013 in Delhi, also revealedthat the state is coming upwith an attractive policy thismonth for the hotel industry.Assuring easy clearances forupcoming hotel projects in the north Indian state, Badalrevealed, “We will offer singlewindow clearance for newhotel projects. Punjab is alsospeaking with some hoteliersand investors to transformsome of the forts in the stateinto hotels. We have somewonderful forts in Punjab and transforming them intohotels would be a good idea to promote tourism and preserve heritage.”

Aiming to boost connec-tivity, the state will unveil theMohali airport. “We are alsodeveloping an internationalairport in Machhiwara. Wehave domestic airports inPathankot and Ludhiana apartfrom the international airportin Amritsar. The domestic air-port in Bathinda is also almostready,” he pointed out. A network of four-or six-laneexpressways across the state,funded by an investment of`76 billion (US$1.39 billion),

is due to be ready in the nextthree years while the ` 75 billion Ludhiana metro projectis expected to be completed in five years.

As a part of ramping upinfrastructure, the state isalso looking at integrated

tourism circuits. The state isin advanced stages of devel-oping a 4,400 acres enter-tainment circuit in Ludhianathat would include hotels,restaurants, shopping malls, sports arenas, adven-ture sports areas for horseracing, safaris, etc. The proj-

ect will start by the end of2013 and is likely to be com-pleted by 2018. Punjab isalso going to encourageinvestments in theme parksand is looking for privateplayers to take over theentire project or in parts,Badal added.

Eyeing big conferencesin the years to come, the state is in the process of setting up two conventioncentres, 100 acres each with the capacity ranging between 4,000-5,000 pax each at Mohali and Amritsar.

Ranjit Sagar Dam willbe developed as a new high-end tourism destina-tion with watersports facilities and a 32 sq km lakeas attraction while the island sites would be madeavailable for hotel and resort development.

Sukhbir Singh Badal, the Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab speaks about the recent strategies to boost thestate’s connectivity and tourism development in what lies ahead.

Punjab: More investment in hospitalityME G H A PAU L

The state is inadvancedstages ofdeveloping a4,400 acreentertainmentcircuit inLudhiana

Sukhbir Singh BadalDeputy Chief Minister Punjab


STATES

After improving the infra-structure and facilities in

the state, Chhattisgarh is look-ing at ramping up the servicesector. The state is thus eyeingprivate investments to get intothe PPP model. This wasrevealed by BrijmohanAgrawal, Tourism Minister,Chhattisgarh during his recentvisit to Delhi. “The state gov-ernment has concentrated onimproving facilities at touristspots during the past decadeafter the state formation.There is immense potential for tourism in the state, which has 44 per cent forest cover and various attractive tourist destinations.

With 125 tourismdestinations,Chhattisgarhboasts of country’sbiggest waterfall,Chitrakoot. Wehave built a resortfor tourists in thevicinity as well,” he said.

Chhattisgarh has anabundance of natural beautyand is rich in minerals. “Tokeep it intact, we don’t want to attract huge crowds, butinstead target the HNI seg-ment. Our infrastructure is inplace. Now we want tostrengthen our service sector,for which we are looking atprivate investment or on PPPmodel basis,” he added.

Boosting the state as asafe destination, the ministerfeels tourism also provideshuge employment opportuni-ties in the rural areas.“Currently, more than 30,000people are working in this

sector in Chhattisgarh andthe employment opportuni-ties will only grow,” he point-ed out. To boost the sectorfurther, the state governmentis working on a holistic mas-ter plan, which will be readyby this year.”

The state aims to doublethe visitor inflow in next twoyears. Currently, it receivesover 33 lakh tourists, includ-ing domestic and inbound.“At present, a large numberof tourists visit the state forits religious destinations.However, the government islooking at rechristeningChhattisgarh as an environ-ment and ecology retreat,” he articulated.

The Chhattisgarh government has concentrated onimproving facilities at tourist spots during the past decadeand now aims at promoting tourism in a big way.

125 things to explore

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Brijmohan AgrawalTourism MinisterChhattisgarh

The state aims to double thevisitor inflow in next two years.Currently, it receives over 33lakh tourists, includingdomestic and inbound

The government is looking atrechristening Chhattisgarh asan environment and ecologyretreat

What’s ahead

Air India has groundedDreamliners after receivinga directive by DGCA follow-ing a move by US’ FederalAviation Administration ask-ing airlines to temporarilysuspend all flights on US reg-istered Dreamliners…

Air India was contem-plating to start services tonew destinations, expandroute network, save on fueland intended to increasemarket share in the Indianaviation sector after receiv-

ing six Boeing 787Dreamliner aircraft startingSeptember 2012. However,following an urgent order byDGCA after the US aviationregulatory authority – the Federal Aviation

Administration asking air-lines to provisionally curtailall flights operated by the

Dreamliner aircrafts as thecompany (Boeing) has notcompleted a safety reviewrelated to battery malfunc-tions on the twin engine jet.With this, all the dreams andplans of the national carrier

are ‘grounded’ along withother carriers internationallywith grounding of 50Dreamliner aircraft world-wide.

Ajit Singh, AviationMinister, Civil AviationMinistry of India said, “It istoo early to even speculatehow long this issue will take.So at the right time, if need-ed, AI will seek compensa-tion from Boeing. For an air-line, safety is top priority.”

Due to constant snags inthe B787 aircraft, theairline kept one of the sixplanes as standby andflew five others(deployed two on NewDelhi – Frankfurt, Dubai,Paris route and otherthree on domestic routesi.e. New Delhi – Chennaiand New Delhi –Bengaluru). While theDreamliner aircraftaccounted for mere fourper cent of the carrier’s

total capacity, the problem isstill massive. However, theairline said that the routesoperated by the Dreamlinerare not affected and are nowoperated by B777, B747,A320 and A321.

Ajit SinghUnion Minister, Civil Aviation

AI’s ‘dream’ grounded withstranded Dreamliners

Union Minister of Civil Aviation Ajit Singh has constituted afive-member committee, headed by Prof. Ravindra Dholakia,Professor of Economics and Public Systems, IIM-Ahmedabad tosuggest various measures for cost cutting and optimal utilisationof resources in Air India. Other members of the committee areDr. Prabhat Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation,Rajesh Agrawal, Director Finance, ICRISAT, Hyderabad, S. Mukherjee, Ex-Director Commercial and Inflight Services,Air India, Nasir Ali, Joint Managing Director, Air India.

Cutting costs in Air India


HOTELS

Taj Hotels Resorts andPalaces, owned by Indian

Hotels Company (IHCL),launched a new brand ‘TheGateway Hotel’ in the secondhalf of 2008. With a pan-Indianetwork of upscale hotels andresorts that offer travellers acontemporary experience,The Gateway Hotel is part ofthe Taj Groups’ strategy tohave a larger footprint acrossIndia. The brand has becomean important growth vehiclefor the group and it is lookingat quickly scaling up thebrand to a large number ofhotels across India. This was revealed by P KMohankumar, COO, GatewayHotels and Resorts.

The target is to have amulti-location presence ineach metro city. In line withthis, the brand will targetmetro cities and also themicro markets within the

Tier-II and Tier-III cities.“Five Gateway city hotels arein the final stages of con-struction at Chennai, Kolkata,Bengaluru and Faridabad,besides Hubli and will beready in the next two years,”he revealed. The hotel inChennai would be the first toopen and will commenceoperations by March thisyear, he added. Also in thepipeline are more Gatewaycity business hotels in Tier-Iand Tier-II cities.

“Management contracts have been signed foranother 10 hotels in various locations,including Mumbai,Kolhapur, Pune and Chandigarh,”he said.

Taj Hotels Resorts andPalaces currently has 22

Gateway hotels across India.Talking about the businessmodel of the brand, he point-ed out, “We are investing inassets and are providing onlytechnical expertise. We givethe hotel owners technicalexpertise in architecture,design, etc. After completion,a management contract issigned. We bring in the brandto manage assets and this ishow the future hotel businessis going to be.”

The brand has become an important growth vehiclefor the group and it is looking at scaling up the brandto a large number of hotels across India...

Five new Gateway Hotels

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P K MohankumarCOOGateway Hotels and Resorts

Golfer’s delight at The Suryaa, New Delhi

Greesh Bindra, Vice President General Manager of The Suryaa, New Delhi hosted the Pro Am Award ceremony of theShubhkamna Champions Golf Tournament recently at hotel. It was a grand golf evening where guests were spottedhaving a good time. Seen at the duo – Milkha Singh, Jeev Milkha Singh, Jyoti Randhawa, Luv Malhotra (Executive Director,The Suryaa, New Delhi, Arjun Atwal, Rishi Narayan, Daniel Chopra and many more.


The post-show research,following last year’s

GIBTM, confirmed that 46%of the hosted buyers whoattended the exhibition in

2012, indicated that theywere interested in placingbusiness in Asia. GIBTM2013 will also launch theMarket Focus on Asia

Networking event. Theevening will allow exhibitorswho are showcasing destina-tions in Asia to network withhosted buyers from theMiddle East and globally whohave expressed an interest inplacing business in Asia.

According to Lois Hall,Exhibition Manager for the2013 GIBTM,

“The incorporation ofthe Asia Pavilion andnetworking eventinto GIBTM is a logi-cal extension to thecurrent show profile

and as the outbound businessto the region continues to

grow – Qatar and EtihadAirlines now also offer airlineroutes in and out of Asia,delivering a direct linkbetween the MENA (MiddleEast and Northern Africa)region and China, Malaysiaand Thailand. Things are alsolooking positive for the nextyear with 65% of MENA buy-ers from our survey reportingan increase in events placedover the next 12 months.Thailand, Malaysia, Turkey,Sri Lanka, Maldives andJapan have been specified asthe top destinations to placefuture business.”

The new Asia pavilionwill provide a meeting area forexhibitors to showcase theirproducts to regional and inter-national visitors as well ashosted buyers. Martin Kim,Seoul Convention Bureau,exhibiting at GIBTM com-mented, “We first exhibited in2009 to learn about the mar-ket and the response wasincredible – we had more than60 meetings! We have a lot ofbusiness with UAE, SaudiArabia and see great potentialin the Middle East. Therefore,we decided to become a partof GIBTM this year.”

The Gulf Incentive, Business Travel and Meetings Exhibition (GIBTM) for2013 has a plan to create a specialist exhibitor pavilion on the show-floor,providing a dedicated area for exhibitors from the Asia Pacific region.

Asia Special pavilion at GIBTM

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Lois HallExhibition Manager GIBTM 2013

We have a lot of business with UAE, Saudi Arabia and see great potential in the Middle East

Martin Kim, Seoul Convention Bureau, exhibiting at GIBTM

ATM-2013

The Arabian Travel Market2012 will be held at

the Dubai InternationalConvention and ExhibitionCentre from May 6-9, 2013.

A shift in the attitude ofthe region’s travellers to newbooking channels has seenonline bookings grow byalmost a third in 2012 toreach just under US$10.4 bil-lion, up 31% on 2011 figures.

According to an October2012 study from Travelportentitled ‘Assessing the OnlineTravel Opportunity: TheMiddle East’, this upwardtrend is predicted to continuewith online bookings expect-ed to account for 22% of alltravel bookings made in theregion within the next twoyears, with a total value ofUS$15.8 billion.

“In 2011 alone, therewas a 39% rise in online book-ings in the region. The Middle

East traveller becomes morecomfortable with using theInternet as a convenient andcredible resource,” said Mark Walsh, Portfolio Director,Reed Travel Exhibitions.

“Now that the websitewww.wego.ae is live in Arabic,we have noticed a surge inlocal hotel searches and inter-est in a much wider mix ofinternational flights andaccommodation to over 600destinations,” said RossVeitch, Wego CEO and Co-

Founder. According to Veitch,searches by local users forflights from Abu Dhabi haveincreased by 120% year-on-year, and by 106% for Dubaidepartures. Flight searches toneighbouring Qatar have dou-bled; with Saudi Arabia regis-tering a 76% increase. Local aswell as international hotelsearches by UAE residents arealso up 121% against 2011figures, with Wego reportingthat Dubai leads the top 20most searched destinations (as

at April 2012), with 20.2% oftotal share, followed by AbuDhabi in third place at 7.7%and Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimahand Sharjah also making the top ten.

“We have seen a steadyincrease in online hotel reser-vations since we opened twoyears ago, with 2012 year-to-date figures showing a 35%revenue increase on 2011,”said Purnima KP, Director of Sales & Marketing,Mövenpick Hotel Deira.

The topic of online versus traditional booking channels will once again be the key focus at the 2013 Arabian TravelMarket (ATM) technology seminar sessions as organiser Reed Travel Exhibitions highlights the dramatic shift .

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Mark WalshPortfolio DirectorReed Travel Exhibitions

Indana Palace raises thebar for hospitality as it opensits first hotel in Jodhpur, mix-ing modernity and old worldcharm in a perfect blend

The Blue City has abrand new hospitality expe-rience in the just-openedIndana Palace, Jodhpur. Itserves the needs of contem-porary business and leisuretravellers with a perfectblend of modern luxury andold palatial charm.

Staying at Indana isstaying in a fusion of worldscreated across 80 elegantly-appointed rooms and eightsuites, including a GrandPresidential Suite.Traditional Rajasthanitouches in the décor meetmodern conveniences and comforts.

The wide and variedcuisine and dining experi-ences at Indana take you onmagic carpet rides via yourtaste buds. Angithi, themulti-cuisine restaurant,serves up delicacies fromacross the desert, andaccompanied by gourmetfare from The Continent

and the Orient, amidst anambience created by royalRajasthani motifs, carvingsand furnishings. Lotus Café,the coffee shop, invites youto drop by any time of theday or evening for a quicksnack or light in-betweenmeal and invigourating cupsof your favourite beverage.IBar pours out fine wines,whiskeys, vodkas, gins andmore, alongside an exten-sive menu of cocktails andfinger foods. Indana’s pala-tial courtyard – which canbe viewed from most rooms– transforms into a colourfuldining experience with alavish buffet, a festiveatmosphere and vibrant folkentertainment.

At Indana, leisure trav-ellers will find an escape toa land of adventure, peace,history and untamed natu-ral beauty. Besides theofferings within, the palacehotel is perfectly locatednear Jodhpur’s primaryattraction.

Doing business atIndana is a stimulating andinvigorating experience.

A new jewel inJodhpur’s hospitality

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ASSOCIATIONS1 6 TRAVTALK F E B R U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 3

The Indian Association ofTour Operators (IATO), at

its first members meetingheld in New Delhi, demandedthat the government shouldintroduce e-visa facility tocountries, where the visa-on-arrival facility has not beenintroduced. Subhash Goyal,President, IATO addressingthe concerns of lacklustergrowth in December 2012,assured MOT officials that e-visa facility, along with sametreatment for tour operatorslike exporters, will stimulateinbound growth.

“There had been decel-eration in rate of growth dueto several reasons includingthe strict two-month re-entryrestriction and global slow-down to name a few. TheForeign Tourist Arrivals(FTAs) in India during 2012were 66.48 lakh with agrowth of 5.4 per cent ascompared to the FTAs of63.09 lakh during the year

2011. There was a growth ofmere 1.7 per cent inDecember 2012 over

December 2011, as FTAs dur-ing the month of December2012 were 7.50 lakh as com-

pared to FTAs of 7.37 lakhduring the month ofDecember 2011 and 6.80lakh in December 2010,”Goyal informed.

“However, the scenariolooks much better with theremoval of restriction on re-entry into India on a touristvisa by the government, aswas the case earlier.Moreover, if the governmentcreates provision to offer e-visa facility to strategic des-tinations, where there is nofacility for Visa-on-Arrival,the growth momentum willaccelerate twice as muchthat is prevalent now. It will also help treat inboundtour at par with exporters,”he added.

On its own, IATO ismaking sure that it deliversmore value to the industry byensuring that the initiativespromised by the various stategovernments at their annualconvention held in Mumbaiin 2012, are implemented.

“We are sincerely fol-lowing up with the relevantgovernment agencies, postthe several initiatives theyhad announced at ourAnnual Convention held inSeptember last year. We had been successful in get-ting most of our issuesaddressed by the govern-ment of Maharashtra, who,in principle, had agreed tostreamline luxury taxaspects along with variousothers announced duringthe said convention,” said Sarab Jit Singh, Sr VicePresident, IATO.

“We are also followingup with other state tourismboards, who madeannouncements to stimulateforeign tourists in theirstates. It is one-of-its-kindinitiative, unlike any othertravel trade body, whereinwe want to ensure that wecould leverage as much fromour annual conventions aspossible,” he added.

IATO says facilities at par with exporters, in addition to e-visa facility to strategic sourcemarkets, will ensure double digit growth in the inbound tourism sector.

e-visa to stimulate inbound growth

VI V E K SE T H I

We are followingup with other state tourismboards, that had done the same earlier

The e-visa facility,with equal treatmentfor tour operatorslike exporters,will help inboundgrowth

Subhash GoyalPresident IATO

Sarab Jit SinghSr. Vice PresidentIATO

In a bid to tap the out-bound travel businessand increase the Indianfootfalls in Hungary,Prime Travel Agency hasrecently appointedMumbai-based GlobalDestinations as their rep-resentative and salespartner in India.Headquartered inBudapest, Prime TravelAgency offers packagesand tours for Hungary,Czech Republic, Austria,Slovenia, Slovakia andGermany catering toevery segment of trav-eller – FIT, groups and MICE.

Global Destinationsplans to start promotingand marketing Hungaryamong Indian partnersby organising sales meetand product training pro-grammes in primarymarkets like Mumbai and Delhi along with potential secondary mar-kets like Ahmedabad,Bengaluru, Hyderabadand Kolkata.

Prime TravelAgency opens repoffice in India


ASSOCIATIONS

There has been a strongdrive against vehicles

with tinted glasses, or cur-tains after the heinous crimethat was reported in Delhi,which got global attentiondue to the mass protests.Here, Indian TouristsTransporters Association(ITTA), as a national body ofTourist Transport Operatorsrecognised by the Ministry ofTourism are concerned thatlaw of land be respected bothin letter and spirit, as law ofland provides provisions to put tinted glasses and curtains.

“During the last coupleof weeks, the police andother enforcement agencieshave come out with certainpress statements and adver-tisements against the use oftinted glasses and curtainsin buses, without under-standing that there are clear specifications for tinted glasses in the MotorVehicles Act and Central

Motor Vehicles Rules,” said Sarab Jit Singh,President, ITTA.

“There are provisionsto put curtains in the busesunder the All India TouristPermit conditions. Surely, ifneed of the hour is to havethem removed then kindlybring the necessary amend-ments in the governing lawsso that while accepting theorders from authorities, weare not going against thelaid out provisions of thelaw,” he added.

In fact, in its recent let-ter to Lieutenant Governor ofDelhi, ITTA has also high-lighted a strong case to actagainst erring drivers.

“We are concernedwith the act andbehaviour of thedrivers who areemployed with our members anddriving varioustypes of touristvehicles that areextensively used by domestic and foreign tourists.

A knee-jerk reaction atthis juncture by the adminis-tration may not give thedesired result in the long run.We would like to request fora proper mechanism to be putin place, so that drivers orother employees who haveaccess to the tourist vehiclescannot use them unauthoris-edly,” said Singh.

There are clear specifications for tinted glasses in theMotor Vehicles Act and Central Motor Vehicles Rulesto put curtains in the buses.

Curtains in tourist buses...

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Sarab Jit SinghPresidentITTA

Nepal boosts PilgrimageTourism through roadshows Nepal Tourism Board

recently conducted NepalSales Mission 2013 in twoSouth Indian cities. The salesmissions were held inMadurai on January 8, and inTrichy on January 9, 2013.The Nepalese delegation wasled by Rohini Prasad Khanal,Senior Officer – Marketingand Promotion, NepalTourism Board.

The Nepalese delegationwas led by Rohini PrasadKhanal, Senior Officer –Marketing and Promotion,Nepal Tourism Board.Meanwhile, in an effort toattract pilgrimage touristsfrom South India, the NepalTourism Board (NTB) recent-ly organised road shows in

Madurai and Trichy. Khanal said that the

objective of the roadshowswas to facilitate mutualgrowth in the tourism sector.He pointed out that SouthIndians, especially those fromTamil Nadu, preferred to visitreligious places and NTB iskeen to promote MountKailash-Mansarovar.

He added that Nepalhad a variety of touristspots to attract touristsacross age groups and hasestablished itself as thegateway to Mount Kailash-Manasarovar. In 2012,Nepal received 164,680tourists from India by airwhich is 13.3% incrementcompared to last year.

Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEEs)from tourism during the year 2012showed an increase of 21.8 per cent ascompared to FEEs of 2011. FEEs fromtourism in rupee terms during 2012 were

`94,487 crore and in dollar terms it wasUS$ 17.74 billion. Foreign TouristArrivals ( FTAs) in the country also reg-istered an increase of 5.4 per cent duringthe year 2012 as compared to FTAs of2011. FTAs in India during 2012 were66.48 lakh.

FEEs up by 21.8%Sarovar Hotels signed a manage-

ment contract for managing 55 roomSarovar Portico in Srinagar. This will beGroup’s first hotel in Jammu & Kashmir,which is owned by Royal Khazir Hotels & Resorts and will be ready by May 2013.

Sarovar Portico brand was concep-tualised with a view to provide today’swell-informed traveler with all modernfacilities and comforts at value-for-money pricing.

Sarovar in Srinagar


ASSOCIATIONS1 8 TRAVTALK F E B R U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 3

The convention theme for2013 is, ‘Emerging

Challenges and Opportunitiesin Aviation Industry’, and themain business session is,‘ASHA – Agents Seminar onHandling Adversities’. IAAIhopes to analyse the currentchallenges being faced bytravel agents and shall suggest new methods andsteps to be taken to overcomethese issues.

“From the theme as wellas the main business session,one can draw conclusion thatour convention is going to bevery serious, informatory andeducative, which has morevital and relevant subjectsfrom the Indian aviation sce-nario where the airlines, GDSand travel agents are strug-gling for their existence. Wealso believe that the opportu-nities will not wait for anybody,

and we may have to translatethese challenges into opportu-nities,” says Biji Eapen,National President, IAAI.

Along with addressingthe current problems, theassociation will also highlightsome challenges they can seein the future which a majorityof agents are still unawareabout. HS Chawla, Director,IAAI, further examines thechallenges being addressed,“We are going to take up fordiscussions the plenitude ofchallenges faced by theindustry today such as thezero commission, weeklypayments, parity in fares,service tax and ADMs toname a few. In addition tothese, we will discuss upcom-ing challenges, which are stillunknown to the agents. TheNew Distribution Capability(NDC), being one such chal-lenge, is proposed by IATA.Through this NDC system,

the airlines and IATA want tochange the present GDSmodel, as they believe it isnot efficient enough to reachto their customers. The pro-posed model under NDCwould result in severe cuts inthe incentives of the travelagents from GDS. A majorfallout of such a model isinvariably going to be theoverruling of the travel agentas the airlines now seek toreach the customers directly.Hence, it is going to be a veryserious concern for the travelagents, especially the smalland medium ones in the nextsix months.”

The key issues to beaddressed during the conven-tion are pertaining to thechallenges the Indian travelagent is facing today and howan agent can create moreopportunities to sustain and

IAAI (IATA Agents Association of India) has postponed its biennial convention ICON 2013 to March 1- 3, 2013instead January 24-26. With this, they hope to make the convention more educative and effective, addressingthe challenges faced by travel agents. has details.

Seeing challenges as opportunities: IAAI

DE V I KA JE E T

The biggestthreat orchallenge is theadverse attitudeof airlinestowards smalleragents in India

Through this NDCsystem, theairlines and IATAwant to changethe present GlobalDistributionSystem models

We also believe thatopportunities willnot wait foranybody, and wehave to translatethese challengesinto opportunities

Biji EapenNational PresidentIAAI

HS ChawlaDirectorIAAI

Jagdeep BhagatPresident – Delhi State CommitteeIAAI

Contd. on page 21


NTO2 0 TRAVTALK F E B R U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 3

Over the last 2-3 years,there has been a general

shift in focus. We are lookingbeyond visitor arrival numbersand going towards qualitytourism. So, as much as welike to cater to mass tourism,there is an acknowledgementthat there’s a certain limit tothe number of people who canpass through Singapore. It islike we should not go afternumbers, but should try andattract the right segment of

travellers who are able toappreciate the products thatwe have and are willing to pay

for the experience. We try andlook into more targeted seg-ments. In India, we are target-ing Indians with an annualhousehold income of morethan ̀ 1 million a year. That’sthe benchmark we are lookingat. Our messaging and mar-keting are directed to thesepeople, but we do recognizethat there will be a lot ofspillover, so even as we targetthis group, some of our mes-saging will filter down to thepeople in the second-tierincome group.

With the Singapore Tourism Board announcing the second phase of ‘Singapore - The Holiday You Take Home With You’,the customised and differentiated marketing campaign for Indian leisure travellers, Chee Pey Chang, Executive Director- South Asia, Middle East & Africa (SAMEA), Planning Projects talks about moving beyond numbers to quality tourism.

Indians want more from their holidays

PE D E N DO M A BH U T I A

With the newSingapore campaign, theidea is to tell people that hol-idays can also be aboutenrichment. It is for peoplewho want to take somethingmore from their holiday. Foreg, if you have always want-ed to sky dive, but never hadthe courage or place to do it,

you can take the first steptowards sky diving inSingapore, by trying out theI–Fly which is a sky-divingstimulator. It creates a verysafe environment for you totry and practice your sky-diving skills before you go forthe actual jump. For some-one interested in food, we

don’t just have a great vari-ety of food in Singapore, wealso have some very goodculinary schools, where onecan learn cooking, one of ourtaglines is “Leave as a foodie,return as a chef”. We wantto sell the idea that you canbe transformed by your trav-el to Singapore.

Singapore - The Holiday You Take Home With You

I was here before from1999-2002. In 2002,Singapore received around370,000 visitors, in 2011 wedid about 870,000, thenumber in nine years grewalmost by 2.5 times and thatdespite the depreciatingvalue of the Indian rupee.When I left India, oneSingapore dollar was equalto ` 24-25, now it’s almostequal to ` 45. Despite that,many Indians are still excit-ed about going to Singaporeand that shows in the num-bers. We have not just beendoing good marketing inIndia, but we are also spend-ing a lot of time thinkingabout what are the new

products that we can bringin. Over the last 5 years wehave seen more than 10 bil-lion dollars worth of newattractions opening – wehave had two integratedresorts - the Marina BaySands and Resorts World.There has also been a lot ofconscious effort by the gov-ernment in encouraging theprivate sector to invest innew tourism products.

People come to a desti-nation not just because ofgood marketing, but alsobecause you are able to offerthem something new andexciting. This constantlyevolving investment into thetourism landscape is very

important to keep Singaporefresh and exciting for theIndian audience. As Indiamatures as an outboundcountry, people are movingbeyond just having a check-list of things to see or do.

Currently the fiveIndian metros that we havebeen active in are Delhi,Chennai, Bengaluru,Mumbai and Kolkata. Theother cities we are lookingat are Chandigarh, Kochi,Coimbatore and Hyderabad.For us the very first assess-ment point is air connectiv-ity, all the cities that we mentioned, expectChandigarh, have directflights to Singapore.

Providing ‘quality tourism’ to the Indian traveller

Intra-region marketing The competition is not so much between South

East Asian countries, going forward the competition isamong regions, how does South East Asia competeagainst North Asia, Japan and Korea, Hong Kong andMacau or Middle East and Europe. I think there aremany places in South East Asia that many Indians arenot aware of; like Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, and if theychoose to go to these destinations Singapore might ben-efit as they might choose to club this destination withSingapore - a temple experience in Myanmar with a cityexperience in Singapore. So, competition is not intra-region, it is inter-region, because if people go to Europeor the Middle East, they won’t come to Singapore at all.At the ASEAN level, we have been very open to workingwith each other, and we have started doing so for cruisetourism. If South East Asia is more appealing to visitors,then Singapore will benefit from it.

Via Bollywood To facilitate Bollywood

tourism in Singapore it’s very dif-ficult to come up with a cookie-cutter incentive scheme. We willcustomise and support dependingon what the production companyrequires. We are keen on gettingmore Bollywood films to be shot.We have had good success in thepast, and one of the films shot inSingapore that people remembervery well is Krissh. We are excitedby such stories where Singaporeis weaved into the storyline andwhen such opportunities comeby, we’ll be happy to help.

Chee Pey ChangExecutive Director - South AsiaMiddle East & Africa (SAMEA)

The thought of eating dinner in the bathroom would make most people lose theirappetite, but this could be the most hygienic area of a hotel room, says a newresearch. A survey found that the majority of people instead opt to eat their food inbed but this is often the dirtiest part of the hotel room where bacteria is left to thrive.The research done by Check Safety First, a company that offers health and safetyrisk management systems to hotels, focussed on female business travellers andfound that 80 per cent of them chose to eat while sitting on the bed.

Hotel bathrooms ‘most hygienic place to eat’


ASSOCIATIONS

The Conclave onInvestments in Tourism

Infrastructure 2013 (CITI) isanother pathbreaking initiativestarted by the Federation of Indian Chambers ofCommerce and Industry(FICCI), which already havetwo established platforms topromote tourism in India,namely Great India TravelBazaar (GITB) and GreatDomestic Tourism Bazaar

(GDTB). However, the objec-tive of this initiative is to bringtogether states armed withvarious projects face-to-facewith interested investors.

As per preliminary esti-mates, the first edition ofFICCI's Conclave onInvestments in TourismInfrastructure 2013 broughttogether over 50 investorsand a high profile delegationcomprising 15 members ofAAHOA along with five par-ticipating states, which hadcome together for brain-storming and B2B interac-tions between interested par-ties to explore potentialinvestment possibilities.

Amitabh Kant, CEO andMD, Delhi Mumbai IndustrialCorridor DevelopmentCorporation sets the stage atthe inauguration of the eventby highlighting that there are1 billion internationaltourists. “The multipliereffect of travel and tourismfar surpasses any other sec-tor. Worldwide, tourism cre-ates 450 million jobs annuallyas against about 50 million bythe software sector. Indianeeds to focus on six-Cs,

namely civil aviation devel-opment, civic governance,capacity building, constantcommunication strategy, con-vergence with other sectorsand community participation,other than creating a beliefthat if India gets moretourists, it would generatemore jobs,” said Kant.

Giving government’sperspective on tourism, UshaSharma, Additional DirectorGeneral, Ministry of Tourism,Government of India, in heraddress, pointed out that theGovernment’s target ofattracting 1 per cent of theworld tourist arrivals by theend of the 12th Five-Year-Plan

Period from the 2011 level of0.6 per cent would requireabout 2 lakh additional roomsin the 3-star or higher catego-ry classified hotels located out-side cities with a population ofover 1 million.

“Our ministry has iden-tified 54 mega destinationsand circuits of national impor-tance and is in the process ofidentifying more such projectsat culturally and historicallyimportant sites. The ministry

also provides central financialassistance for the developmentof mega projects and ensuresconvergence of resources andprogrammes of the ministriesto ensure that tourism-relatedand urban civic infrastructurecomplement each other.

The inaugural panel alsoincluded Amit Mitra, FinanceMinister of West Bengal,Alkesh Patel, Chairman, AsianAmerican Hotel OwnersAssociation (AAHOA), ArbindPrasad, Director General,FICCI, released FICCI’sKnowledge Paper entitled,‘Investment in TourismInfrastructure: Opportunities& Challenges’.

The first edition of CITI-2013 brought together over 50investors and a high-profile delegation comprising 15 members of the Asian American Hotel OwnersAssociation (AAHOA) along with five participating states…

CITI to spur investments

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(L-R): Rahul Chakravarty, Prasad, Mitra, Sharma and Patel at CITI

at the same time be profitableto acquire growth. “Thebiggest threat or challenge isthe adverse attitude of air-lines towards smaller agentsin India. These policy makers,keeping their members in thedark, sacrifice the interests ofsmall agents in a veryplanned manner. The othermajor issue is conventionaltravel agencies and onlinetravel agencies,” addsJagdeep Bhagat, President –Delhi State Committee, IAAI.

Along with the conven-tion, the association is alsoworking on a white paper tocirculate during the conven-tion. “The proposed white

paper shall cover all the rel-evant issues being facedtoday, including the anxietyof the industry leaders inthwarting the entry of IAAIinto APJC-India. It is pro-posed to throw light as towhy these industry leadersare afraid of IAAI’s presencein the APJC and shall behighlighted with the factsand figures too so that theindustry should know whatis happening in India andwho controls the industry,”adds Eapen.

Discussing possiblesolutions to some of the problems highlightedabove, Chawla says,

“Clearly, given the complexnature of challenges beingfaced by the industry today,there is no panacea to theseproblems. However, wefirmly believe in the age oldadage, ‘United we stand,divided we fall,’ and hence,the foremost solution to allchallenges calls for entiretravel agent community tobe united and demand inunison a Productive,Promotive and Profitable(PPP) environment as per the Indian market conditions. Every so often,IAAI has appealed TAAI and TAFI to join forces, but so far, we are all working in isolation.”

Airlines’ attitude poses threatContd. from page 18


FAMILY ALBUM2 2 TRAVTALK F E B R U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 3

FICCI beckons investors in tourism projectsFICCI, in partnership with the state governments and the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, organised the first ever two day Conclave on 'Investmentin Tourism. Investors in Tourism Infrastructure from across India and a strong Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) delegation from USAled by their Chairman along with other policy makers attended the conclave.


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

Making most of thestrengthening relation-

ship between India and theother ASEAN membernations, STIC has marked its

entry in the global market byopening its first internationaloffice in Singapore.

“We are looking forwardto exploring opportunities inthe travel and tourism indus-

try of Singapore especiallygiven the recent closer eco-nomic cooperation. We firmlybelieve that our new office inSingapore will allow us to fur-ther accelerate and promote

travel trade ties between the two countries,” saysSubhash Goyal, Chairman,STIC Travel Group.

The company is enter-ing its 40th year reaffirmingits commitment towards pro-viding quality services to its

travel industry partners,domestic and international.STIC will also contribute to various causes throughoutthe year through its charitable trust.

Commenting on theirinternational expansion,

Richa Goyal Sikri, DirectorGroup Business Development,STIC Travel Group, says, “Withexpansion of our business inIndia over these past fourdecades, this is the perfecttime to take a step forward andestablish our first international

office. Singapore has alwaysbeen an important market forSTIC as it holds great poten-tial, given the growth wit-nessed among all categories oftravellers between the twocountries.” STIC envisagesinternational expansion in

the coming years by openingoffices in markets like SriLanka, Africa and China. Atpresent, in India, they repre-sent around twenty interna-tional travel, aviation,tourism, cruise and hotelbrands in India.

Celebrating their 40th anniversary, STIC Travel Group (STIC) has decided to open a new office in Singapore.gets details on this first venture abroad.

STIC Travel opens first international officeTT BU R E AU

We firmly believethat our new officein Singapore willallow us to furtheraccelerate andpromote traveltrade ties betweenthe two countries

Subhash GoyalChairmanSTIC Travel Group

Singapore hasalways been animportant marketfor STIC as it holdsgreat potential,given the growthwitnessed

Richa Goyal SikriDirector Group Business DevelopmentSTIC Travel Group


HOTELS

Celebrating its 85th

anniversary, The LeadingHotels of the World (LHW)has introduced a theme forthis year – ‘Lights, Camera,Leading!’ to showcase theglobal iconic properties to thetravel trade. Under this, it hasalso launched a micro site(www.lhw.com/inthemovies.)to put forward the selected85 iconic properties availableon just one click for trade andguests and also highlight theunique activities for guests to

indulge in at those properties.Moreover, it is also redesign-ing its India website by mak-ing it more informative,interactive and loaded withcontent and pictures alongwith getting active on socialmedia channel.

Sowmyaragavan TE,Director – India, The LeadingHotels of the World Indiasaid, “Hotels are no more aplace to just stay during hol-

idaying as more and moreproperties are coming upwith activities to engagetheir guests for better stayand relaxation. And, increas-ing number of Indians areopting for iconic propertiesdue to their passion forBollywood and internationalfilm industry. With our set oficonic properties and ourtheme for this year, weintend to target the audiencewho are looking at ‘experien-tial’ stay instead of just a stayat our property.”

When asked about theperformance of Indian mar-ket, he said, “Despite theslowdown in global tourismindustry last year, we grew ateight per cent over 2011.This year, we intend to regis-ter a minimum 12 per centgrowth by expanding ourreach to travel trade in met-ros and Tier II cities.”

Recently, LHW conduct-ed the India Showcase 2013

in Mumbai, New Delhi andBengaluru with over 13 mem-ber property’s representa-tives. It also launched theLeading Hotels of the Worldbrochure 2013 along withLeading Spa brochure listingthe properties with best spafacilities and treatments.

The group is highlighting iconic properties this yearwhich were a part of international movie sets and backdrops since its inception…

Light, Camera, Action for LHW

AN I TA JA I N

This year, weintend toregister aminimum 12per cent growthby expandingour reach totravel trade inmetros and tier II cities

Sowmyaragavan TEDirector – India The Leading Hotels of the World, India

Participating properties in the India Showcase 2013 were:Grand Hotel Et De (Milan), Brenners Park Hotel & Spa(Germany), Grand Resort Bad Ragaz (Switzerland), Grand HotelPark (Switzerland), Gstaad Palace (Switzerland), Badrutt’s PalaceHotel (Switzerland), La Mamounia (Morocco), Imperial Hotel(Tokyo), The Datai (Langkawi), KanuHura (Maldives), Capella(Singapore), Sukhothai Bangkok (Thailand) and Orient Express(37 properties worldwide).

Filmy Hotels

InterContinental HotelsGroup (IHG) has

announced the opening of the

Crowne Plaza Kochi.Inaugurated by the Ministersof the State and other digni-taries, the Kochi hotel is the

sixth Crowne Plaza to open inthe South West Asia region.

Speaking about the newproperty, Douglas Martell,Vice President -- Operations,South West Asia, IHG said,

“Kochi exemplifiesthe strong domesticmarket that weincreasingly seemore demand from,so we’re excited towelcome CrownePlaza Kochi to ourfast-growing portfo-lio of hotels in India.

Business and leisuretravellers in India are seekinga hotel with a brand namethey can trust, that caters totheir specific needs and willdeliver a great stay every

time. That’s what CrownePlaza Kochi promises.”

Crowne Plaza’s signa-ture ‘meetings programme’also offers guests with aseamless planning processand an exceptional meetingsexperience comprising threecomponents: a Two-HourResponse Guarantee, aCrowne Meetings Directorand a Daily Meetings Debrief.

The 269-room hoteloffers guests 14 suites with aspectacular view of the back-waters and the city, a healthcentre, outdoor swimmingpool and spa. Located on thebanks of the river atKundannoor and along theNational Highway bypass, thehotel boasts the largest meet-ings and conference space inthe city, covering 24,000 sqft with 14 meeting rooms.

The hotel boasts the largest meetings and conference spacein the city, covering 24,000 sq ft with 14 meeting rooms..

Crowne Plaza in Kochi

TT BU R E AU

Douglas Martell Vice President – OperationsSouth West Asia, IHG



After hosting the India Sales Mission 2013, Tourism Malaysia decided to party harder. It hosted a dinner for all its travel partners.The event saw the who's who of the industry, who added glamour to the event.

Malaysia hosts the travel trade


AVIATION F E B R U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 3 TRAVTALK 2 7

The state-of-the-art facil-ity has been built by ITD

Cementation India Limited ina joint venture with its parentItalian-Thai DevelopmentPublic Co Ltd, Thailand. With128 check-in counters, plush VIP lounge and in-line baggage handling facilities, Terminal 2 can accommodate more than 7,000 passengersper hour.

While underlining theeconomic importance of theterminal, Mukherjee praisedthe public sector units,including the AirportAuthority of India, for doingan ‘exceedingly well-done’

job. “I congratulate the CivilAviation Ministry andAirport Authority of Indiafor constructing this beauti-ful and state of the art air-port terminal,” he said. Hesaid that when the centralgovernment decided toundertake the responsibilityof modernising the airport,there was a view that thesubstantial investmentwhich had to be madeshould come from the pri-vate sector, so that therewas no pressure on theexchequer. Kolkata is notonly the Gateway to theEast, but it also plays the most important role inthe Look-East policy of the Government of India,Mukherjee added.

Touted as a green build-ing with five tiers, Terminal2 is also a monument toBengal's leading iconsRabindranath Tagore andSubhash Chandra Bose.Letters from Gitanjali dot theceiling while an 18 ft highsculpture of Netaji adorns the exterior.

Four years and ` 2800crore on, Terminal 2 willfinally take off with the firstflight on January 23, coincid-ing with Netaji's birthday.

The terminal will be fullyoperational by March. As this new integrated terminalbecomes operational , Kolkatacan now truly become

the Gateway to the Eastattracting not just touristsbut also connecting its business potential with therest of the world.

TT BU R E AU

Revamped airport in KolkataPresident Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the brand new integratedterminal in the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airportin Kolkata. It has a capacity to handle 20 million passengers annuallyas compared to the present 7.46 million.

Pranab Mukherjee President, India


STATISTICS

USA 1 931292 16.12UK 2 759494 13.15Bangladesh 3 431962 7.48Sri Lanka 4 266515 4.61Canada 5 242372 4.20Germany 6 227720 3.94France 7 225232 3.90Malaysia 8 179077 3.10Australia 9 169647 2.94Japan 10 168019 2.91Russian Fed. 11 122048 2.11China (Main) 12 119530 2.07Singapore 13 107487 1.86Nepal 14 104374 1.81Rep. of Korea 15 95587 1.65Total of Top15 Countries 4150356 71.86Others 1625336 28.14Grand Total 5775692 100.0

2010Country Rank FTAs %Share

2011Rank Country FTAs %Share

Top 15 Source Countries for FTAs in India during 2010 & 2011

1 USA 980688 15.542 UK 798249 12.653 Bangladesh 463543 7.354 Sri Lanka 305853 4.855 Canada 259017 4.116 Germany 240235 3.817 France 231423 3.678 Malaysia 208196 3.309 Japan 193525 3.0710 Australia 192592 3.0511 Russian Fed. 144312 2.2912 China (Main) 142218 2.2513 Nepal 119131 1.8914 Singapore 119022 1.8915 Rep. of Korea 108680 1.72Total of Top15 Countries 4506684 71.43Others 1802538 28.57Grand Total 6309222 100.00

1997. In terms of top sourcemarkets for India, its top 15countries during the yearcontributed almost 71.86 percent of arrivals in 2011. Itstop 15 markets haveremained the same, whileJapan and Nepal haveimproved their rankings,

whereas decline had beenobserved for Australia andSingapore. FTAs in India fromUSA (15.54%) were the high-est, followed by the UK (12.65%), Bangladesh(7.35%), Sri Lanka (4.85%)and Canada (4.11%) occupy-ing the top five slots. It is

also encouraging to note that over 26 per cent of FTAsin India during 2011 werehere for ‘leisure, holidays andrecreation’, followed by the purpose of ‘visiting friends& relatives’ ( 24.9%) and ‘business and professional reasons’ (22.5%).

Contd. from page 8

USA retains its first rank

While IATA says thecountry’s aviation industry willbe the fourth largest market fordomestic passengers globallyby 2016, driving profitableoperations is still a challenge.“There is oversupply in thehotel sector in key cities inIndia, which is reflected withdecrease in the three perform-ance metrics (occupancy, aver-age daily rate and revenue peravailable room) during the firstnine months of 2012,” he adds.

Regarding the recentinitiatives taken by India, he

points out, “The expansion ofVisa on Arrivals to includeMalay and Thai visitors andthe ending of restrictionsrequiring a two-month gapbetween re-entry for mostvisa-holders are definitelyencouraging developments inIndia. This reflects the posi-tive government support forthe country’s tourism indus-try. However”, he cautions,“This is not enough.”

There is much more todo between India and partic-ularly the other G20 coun-

tries to remove these visarestrictions. “Measures tomake it easier for travellersto enter the country is a keypriority. Continuing theprocess of providing VoA tomore nationalities is anothercomponent in this progress.Along with easing visarestrictions, it is also impor-tant to make the visa processfaster and ultimately electronic, so that travellerswho want to come to the country do not faceunnecessary obstacles.”

‘Make visa process faster’Contd. from page 1

Vesna Tours – aDestination ManagementCompany that specialises ineducational and conferencetravel recently announced thelaunch of their LeisureCompany – The Red Dot.

Focussed on the FIT,group and incentive market,The Red Dot will be a perfectfoil to the already successfulVesna Tours. “This is a naturalgrowth for us. Our interna-tional offices as well as ourclients from across the worldhave been in constant conver-sation with us for this expan-

sion and welcome this move.Our on ground partners toIndia, Nepal, Sri Lanka andUAE too extended immediatesupport,” say MishkatAhmad, Director, Vesna Tours.

“We will concentrate onBespoke and Experientialtravel across our destinations.We have spent the last quarterstudying and preparing ourproduct accordingly. India is agreat place to be right now;it’s a place where everydaysomething new is being addedto our bouquet of offerings.We ourselves are part of the

change, and are excited aboutthis new adventure,” addsMishkat.

The Red Dot will have the advantages of existingVesna offices in the UK and USA and is also planningto expand its presence inother countries.

The Red Dot opens up

Mishkat AhmadDirector, Vesna Tours


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

As the number of Indianstravelling to Israel is ris-

ing, the country is now plan-ning to open a tourism officein Mumbai to augur its plan toattract more Indian visitors. Ina recent interaction withTravTalk, Alon Ushpiz,Ambassador of Israel to Indiasaid, “We are planning to openour tourism office in Mumbai,which is our short-term goaland therefore expect it to func-tion within this year. OurTourism Ministry acknowl-edges India as an importantmarket and this is a steptowards stepping it further.”

Also for the fact thatIndia has such a strong Jewishcommunity for over 2500 yearsmakes it an important nationfor Israel. “This is an interest-ing cocktail of Israeli mix inIndia and other way round thatI have not seen with any othercountry in my over twodecades of service,” Ushpiz

remarked. He emphasised thatIsrael’s relation with India hasbeen that of an existential one.“We cooperate in many areasof economic concerns fromagriculture to Defense to ener-gy. Tourism is yet anotherdimension that is coming ofage and due to the strong foun-dation of shared history, sharedvalues, interests and chal-lenges,” he added.

Growing NumbersIn the last 3-4 years,

there has been a rise in num-ber of Indian coming toIsrael. “We received an annu-al inbound traffic from Indiato a count of 40000 in 2011and are now expecting it toreach 50000 by end of 2013.Our approach is to activelylook at promoting the leisure,pilgrimage and MICE capabil-ities of our country to attractthe attention of travelagents,” Ushpiz said.

The country is alsogoing to market itself in Indiabased on intellectual and

spiritual belief for this year.He added, “We are in factinvesting huge amount ofenergy to create bettertourism infrastructure, eas-ing Visa procedure forIndians, taking initiatives toimprove flight connectivityand even adapting ourselvesto Indian taste be it food,comfort that they look for-ward to in Israel.”

Connectivity The fact that the

Tourism Ministry of Israel

acknowledges India as animportant market for inboundtourist traffic it is taking keeninterest to increase the con-nectivity between the twoland mass. Israel Ambassadorto India had a recent meetingwith the Ministry of CivilAviation, Government ofIndia to discuss increase infrequency of its national car-rier between Tel Aviv andMumbai. “We wish toincrease the frequency offlights and are working onthe possibility to have chartered flights as well for which we are quiteupbeat,” he summed.

With each passing year, Israel is attracting more Indians. To cash in onthe huge Indian market, Israel’s immediate short-term goal is to set upits Tourism Office in Mumbai to market the nation further.

Israel to open rep office in India

SA N J E E V BH A R

Alon UshpizAmbassador of Israel to India

'Gujarat Tourism' recentlyannounced the third edition of'Gujarat Travel Mart', India'sbiggest B2B travel event, inAhmedabad from March 27 –29, 2013.Gujarat over the years has con-tributed towards being a largepart of the India’s ever growing

tourism arrival figures, both towithin India destinations andoverseas. The inaugural editionof ‘Gujarat Travel Mart’ is seton a B2B platform with over200 registered buyers fromover 30 countries exploringbusiness opportunities for dis-cerning travel and tourismproducts. Over 800 travelagents are expected to visit the

‘Gujarat Travel Mart’ andaround 200 exhibitors fromIndia from over 20 diversetourism segments will marktheir presence.The hosted buyers will be invit-ed from the following coun-tries: Netherlands, Kingdom ofBahrain, Australia, Canada,

France, Greece, Israel, Japan,Lithuania, etc. The event issupported by major travel –trade and hospitality associa-tion in India such as‘Association of Domestic TourOperators Association of India(ADTOI), Adventure TourOperators Association of India(ATOAI) and Indian Associationof Tour Operators.

'Gujarat Travel Mart'from March 27-29

India has a strong Jewishcommunity for over 2500years which makes it animportant nation for Israel

Israel received an annualinbound traffic from India to acount of 40000 in 2011

Points to Ponder


ANALYSIS3 2 TRAVTALK F E B R U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 3

After recording an averageof 30-40 per cent growth

annually in travel insurancesegment, insurance compa-

nies and sellers are focussingon customer-centric productswith unique product-lines,attractive premiums, strategicalliances and technologyenhancement. Today, GDS

companies are selling insur-ance; travel agents and oper-ators are clubbing it with trav-el packages; and even airlinesare offering this product totheir passengers.

The travel insurance segment in India is growing at snail’s pace, but with increasing popularity and affordablepremium rates, this budding product is becoming a crucial part of outbound travel packages.

‘Insure your travel experience’

As far as travel insur-ance is concerned, Indiantravel trade expects this seg-ment to grow at a faster pacein near future. Without dis-closing any sales figures ontravel insurance product,Madhavan Menon, MD,Thomas Cook (India)informed that there is verylow awareness about travelinsurance products in India.“In most countries, travellersdon’t travel without buying atravel insurance but in Indiait is still the last product tobook, if needed. It is animportant cover when travel-ling international and we arepositive that slowly travellersare opting for it. We are also

bundling travel insurancewith packages to make travelexperience more convenientand safe for our customers.”

With travel insurancepremium accounting for lessthan two per cent of the total

travel cost, it becomes a handyand ‘value for money’ productwhich is a must-buy for trav-ellers visiting Europe and theUS. To increase sale, more andmore travel insurance compa-nies are tying up with travelcompanies, corporate houses,MICE operators and even air-lines offering them attractivepremium rates and commis-sions. Travel operators are sell-ing policies for corporate,group and individual travellerswith attractive premium rates,convenient covers and offers.For example, together withSabre, Abacus launched indus-try’s first travel managementservice – VirtuallyThere, which

Insurance sellers say:

AmarnathAnanthanarayanan, CEO,Bharti AXA General Insurancesaid, “At the moment, travelinsurance is not a popularproduct in India as most trav-ellers don’t buy it. While thereis no domestic market for trav-el insurance, outbound trav-ellers are least interested tobuy it. However, we are sure to witness a change in this perception.”

He blamed prevalence ofconventional products coupledwith low awareness amongtravellers as the reasons forlow popularity. Karan Chopra,Business Head – RetailBusiness Group, HDFC ERGO

General Insurance Companysaid, “The primary causewould be lack of awareness.Also a lot of travel may behappening to countries whichare not considered to be as‘high cost’ in terms of medicalexpense levels. The core pointto be communicated to trav-

ellers is that the travel insur-ance premium is a minusculeproportion of the overall travelexpense that would beincurred. The policy providessupport in case an adverse sit-uation presents itself whenone is in a foreign land.”

As per industry estimates, travel insurance constitutes only 2-3 per centof the total premium collection of general insurers but is likely to growfaster in the coming years.

Amarnath AnanthanarayananCEOBharti AXA General Insurance

Karan Chopra, Business Head – Retail Business GroupHDFC ERGO General Insurance

Madhavan Menon Managing DirectorThomas Cook (India)

Insurance companies say:

Contd. on page 45

AN I TA JA I N


GUEST COLUMN

Five ways to make technology work for youDozens of new high-tech

advancements promiseto impact travel and tourismin 2013, both from the per-spective of industry insidersand everyday travellers.Looking to give your busi-ness or promotional cam-paign an upgrade? Here arefive ways to better connectwith audiences and tap into these solutions (some-times quite literally) in the coming months.

Design for mobiledevices

The future belongs tomobile devices with Gartnerpredicting over 1.2 billionsales of smartphones and

tablets in 2013. Business,venue and destination web-sites should be optimised forthese platforms – nowamong users’ primaryresearch tools. Mobiledesigns need to fit smallerscreen sizes, present keyinformation or callouts withfewer clicks, and featuremore media designed forrapid search and sharing.

Leverage cloud com-puting solutions

Online (a.k.a. ‘cloud’)computing apps now letyour business travel wher-ever you do. Solutions likeSlideShare,MightyMeetingand Prezi allow you toscreen presentations forclients on portable screens,while tools includingGoogle Docs, Dropbox andZoho allow for remote

group sharing, storageand/or collaboration. Thegood news: All increasingly

liberate road warriors fromtheir desktop.

Capture and sharecontent

Not routinely recordingtour highlights or promo-tional spots on video? Stopselling your events and

destinations short.Smartphones and tabletswith HD camcorders nowmake it possible to quicklyshare broadcast-quality clipsonline at little cost. You caneven live-stream the sightsand sounds of dream vaca-tions using apps like Qik orLivestream free for cus-tomers to enjoy.

Capitalise oninbound marketing

Search engines repre-sent a cost-effective way toreach shoppers and competefor visibility with largerrivals. To boost ranking andawareness, routinely publishphotos, videos, podcasts andmore – every organisationcan share attention-gettinghints, tips and advice, orinformation on tours anddestinations, including ever-green pieces (“Five Ways toChoose an Adventure TravelProvider”) reusable forfuture customer reference.Feeling sneaky? Consideralso buying Google AdWords(online classified ads) based on rivals’ names orassociated keywords (popu-lar search engine terms) thatshoppers will see whileresearch competitors.

Invite more audi-ence participation

Boost audienceengagement and awarenessby using creative social out-reach campaigns that inviteaudience participation.Example: Next time you’rerunning a contest, try askingcustomers to submit photos,videos or stories of favoritevacation experiences, ordesigns for your next adcampaign, in order to win.All contributions can beshared or featured in ongo-ing promotional efforts, andprovide added incentive forpass-along.

(Bestselling leadership and innovation speaker Scott Steinberg is a regular on the internationallecture circuit, and heads management consulting and corporate training firm TechSavvy Global. A top-rated provider of keynote speeches, workshops and seminars, he’s been seen in 600+ outlets fromCNN to NPR. For more, visit his website at www.AKeynoteSpeaker.com).

Scott SteinbergProfessional Speaker & Consultant



Very positive about thepotential of the Indian

market, Runjuan Tongrut,Director North & East India,Tourism Authority ofThailand (TAT), stated thattheir main focus here is coop-eration with the travel trade,media, and alliances. While

they want visitors across theboard, their main target seg-ments in India are leisure;weddings and receptions;golf; luxury; women trav-ellers; health and wellness;and special interest groups.

Tongrut feels Thailandhas plenty that is new whichIndian visitors can experienceand enjoy. TAT is introducingand promoting several newdestinations that include KohChang and Rayong in theEast Coast; Ayuttaya,UNESCO World Heritage Site;Khao Yai National Park, WorldNatural Heritage Site; andChiang Mai and Chiangrai.

Several new activitiesare also on offer. The Thailandexperience goes beyond shop-ping and theme parks. Thereare big bike journeys, cyclingtours, yachting, wine-tastingtours, golf, and ‘Thainess’experiences such as Thai cui-sine cooking classes; Thaiboxing lessons, painting etc.

Thailand’s second cityafter Bangkok, Chiang Maihas emerged as a particularlypopular destination forIndians. Wisoot Buachoom,Director Tourism Authorityof Thailand, Chiang Mai,feels the Indian market,

which has registered a phe-nomenal 50 per cent annualgrowth, is in the top bracketfor them, and on their part,they extend a warm welcometo the Indian visitors. Besidesgeneral tourism, a major

development is Chiang Maibecoming a popular venuefor Indian marriages. WithChiang Mai possessing itsown unique culture and her-itage, and being cost-effec-tive, Buachoom feels the city

holds special attraction forIndians, and its infrastruc-ture and vast range of facili-ties ensures convenience andcomfort. Half the total of40,000 rooms in the city arein some fifty 3, 4, and 5-star

hotels. While the mainattraction is the holy shrineof Doi Suthep, the other tem-

ples, old historic homes, andnatural attractions also drawvisitors.

Enjoying the privilege of welcoming almost a million annual Indianvisitors, Thailand is according top priority to the Indian market andoffering more to the Indian travel agents and their clients.

INDER RAJ AHLUWALIA

Thailand hasplenty that isnew whichIndian visitors canexperienceand enjoy

Runjuan Tongrut Director North & East IndiaTourism Authority of Thailand (TAT)

The most important local infrastructure addition is the sprawling, landscaped, Chiang Mai Convention Centre which isdue to open in 2013. With a capacity of 10,000 delegates, the centre is the second largest in Thailand, and is expected to becomea big name in the international convention business. Chiang Mai can be conveniently combined with Chiang Rai for Indian visitors. The Golden Triangle is also a high-potential region.

Thailand: Still fresh & undiscoveredUp and coming


Wishing that manyIndians visit and enjoy

Takasaki, Kenji Tomioka,Mayor, has promised a warmwelcome to his city. YoshiakiSembo, Chief TourismDivision, Takasaki CityMunicipal Office, feels thecity holds special value forIndians because of its strongIndian connection.

Their local symbol,Daruma traces itsorigins from India,and the KannonYama, the mostprominent structurethat dominates theskyline is a giantBuddha statue.

That apart, the city andGunma Province offers myr-iad attractions such as hotsprings, a peaceful atmos-phere, and superb accommo-

dation, dining and transportinfrastructure. A great pluspoint is their proximity toTokyo, a mere one-hour jour-ney by the super-fastShinkansen train.

With Takasaki as thebase, Indian visitors can

explore the riches of GunmaProvince, which has every-thing from culture and her-itage to adventure pursuits;shrines; fine dining; andromantic spots like MountHaruna with its placid lake.Be it groups, incentivegroups, or individual trav-

ellers, there’s something foreveryone. And it’s the per-fect place for honeymoonersto escape to.

The message is clear.The city wants to welcomeIndians and if they have spe-cial requirements and

requests, the TourismDivision is totally willing to cater to them to the best

of their ability, and offer what it takes to make themfeel at home.

Aware of India’s growing potential, the Japan tourism industry wants to seean increase in the Indian visitor percentage, and Takasaki is taking the lead.

‘Welcome to Takasaki’INDER RAJ AHLUWALIA


Kenji TomiokaMayor Takasaki

Yoshiaki SemboChief Tourism DivisionTakasaki

Dalai Lamagraces JaipurLitFest

This year, the Nobel PeacePrize laureate, His Holiness the14th Dalai Lama, will honourthe DSC Jaipur LiteratureFestival 2013 with his pres-ence. “Literature has played amajor role in my life,” the spir-itual leader said. “Since child-

hood, reading has been ofgreat importance to me and Iam often reminded of theimmense kindness of thescholars of the past who trans-lated a vast array of Buddhistliterature into Tibetan. I lookforward to attending theJaipur Literature Festival andmeeting people writing andreading today.” The Festivalis scheduled to take placefrom January 24-28, 2013 atDiggi Palace, Jaipur. TheDalai Lama’s visit would bea prelude to discussions andreadings on the theme ‘TheBuddha in Literature’.


TECHNOLOGY

Upbeat on prospects of thetravel industry in the

BRIC countries - Brazil,Russia, India, China and inother developing countries,Vipul Doshi‚ Chief ExecutiveOfficer‚ InterGlobeTechnologies insists that thesmall and medium travelagencies should focus ontech-enabled multi-distribu-tion channels, cloud comput-ing and data analytic solutions.

“To tap new opportuni-ties, small and mediumenterprises should focus onkey technologies. Theyshould start with multi-chan-nel distribution platform incontext of internet andmobile platform. The internetprovides an unparalleled plat-form to reach out to almostall corners of the world at anominal cost. Over the lastdecade, the internet hasbecome a robust platform forproviding connectivity acrossthe globe especially in highgrowth markets includingBRIC economies. The modernbusiness traveller is mobilein more than one sense. Wesee mobile technology gain-

ing great importance in thetravel business. The bookingof holidays on mobile phonesand other new technologieswill be the biggest consumertrend to impact the travel andtourism industry,” said Doshi.

“Further, on-demand-travel-service is becomingthe benchmark and a hugeopportunity in the market.Here, cloud computing helpstravel companies move awayfrom a CAPEX model, reducetheir costs and create an on-demand-service model. Wehave increasingly developedand deployed travel solutionson cloud and have partneredwith service providers.Cloud-based solutions (‘travel

cloud’) will increasinglybecome important in the daysto come. Moreover, big datasolutions have just arrived inthe travel industry. As organ-isations move towards the continuously connectedfuture where analyzing cus-tomers’ data is a huge prob-lem compared to gathering it,an on-time analysis of thisdata can provide key insightsneeded to provide cus-

tomised offerings to cus-tomers. Moreover, big analyt-ics enabled companies shouldtake better decisions withbetter information in areassuch as eliminating the travelsupply chain waste andenabling ancillary and cross-partner selling,” he added.

On the business front,Doshi is confident that IGTwill close the present fiscalwith a growth of 10-15 per

cent. Moving forward, raisinghopes, Doshi adds thatdespite the recessionaryeffects of an uncertain globaleconomy, the travel andtourism industry continues toremain upbeat. Most marketwatchers and travel organi-sations are bullish on the growth of the industry inthe long term despite a temporary slow growth in the near term.

Small and medium enterprises should focus on tech solutions to enable a multi-channel distribution platform in context to internet and mobile platforms.

‘Travel Cloud’ is the next step

TT BU R E AU

Holiday bookingon mobile phoneswill be the biggestconsumer trendto impact thetravel and tourismindustry

Vipul DoshiChief Executive Officer InterGlobe Technologies

Three tech trends for 2013Small and medium enterprises should focus on key technologies.

They should start with a multi-channel distribution platform incontext of internet and mobile platform

Further, on-demand-travel-service is becoming the benchmarkand a huge opportunity in the market

Expanding its brand pres-ence in India, the inter-

national online travel agencyExpedia has decided to con-solidate its offline presencehere. Realising the impor-tance of the offline businessin the country, Expedia Indiahas joined hands with TrackIndia to take the TravelAgents Affiliate Programme(TAPP) to Tier-II and Tier-IIIcities in the country. TrackIndia is the GSA for leadinginternational low-cost carri-ers (LCCs) such as Air Arabia,Air Asia and Drukair.Boosting the utility value ofthe travel agents in the TrackIndia network, they can nowbook hotel rooms, flight tick-ets, car rentals and tailor-made packages fromExpedia’s extensive globalinventory on behalf of theirclients. As part of this tie-up,Track India will issue creditcards to the network of travelagents, specifically for book-ing through Expedia.co.in.

Talking about the new tieup, Vikram Malhi, Country

Head, Expedia India elabo-rates, “Travel agents in theTier-II and Tier-III marketsgenerally transact businessover cash, therefore, we werenot able to leverage that mar-ket so far. With this tie-up, we

will be able to penetrate thismarket. We also anticipate anincrease in air ticket sales andhotel room bookings. ExpediaIndia expects Track India to contribute 20 per cent of the overall TAAP bookingsin India.”

According to RamBhupal, CEO, Track India,most of the agents in Tier-IIand Tier-III cities are owner-driven and are not financialexperts. They are not comfort-able doing business throughcredit cards. With this associ-ation, they can conduct trans-actions freely using creditcards on Expedia, he adds.

Talking about onlinetravel agencies (OTAs) work-ing towards positioning them-selves as one-stop-serviceproviders for all the travelneeds, Malhi points out, “Inthe last few years, OTAs havecome out of their reliance onflight bookings by restructur-ing business and movingtowards becoming a one-stopservice provider. OTAs arenow covering the overall hos-pitality and travel space by

offering international flights,hotels, international anddomestic holidays, car rentalsand so on thereby addressingthe consumer’s entire travelneeds. That’s going to be theway the OTA industry willprogress and transpose in thenext five years.”

As part of its enhancedinvestment in India, the groupis setting up a global technol-ogy centre in India and willhire 300 people locally by endof 2013. The new facility inGurgaon will primarily houseemployees working on salesand marketing, research anddevelopment, and travel sup-ply support services forExpedia Group’s Expedia-brand, Expedia.co.in,Hotels.com-brand and Egencia(corporate travel) businesses.According to Malhi, the newoffice is the largest facility forthe group in Asia Pacific andthe fifth largest globally. As theResearch and Development(R&D) hub for the region, thenew development centre inIndia will create travel appli-cations for local as well as theglobal markets.

The group has joined hands with Track India to take the Travel AgentsAffliate Programme (TAAP) to Tier-II and Tier-III cities in the country.

Expedia eyeing offline business

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OTAs have comeout of their relianceon flight bookingsby becoming a one-stop service provider

Vikram MalhiCountry HeadExpedia India


NEWS4 2 TRAVTALK F E B R U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 3

Innovation is the word in2013 and this is show-

cased by a group of industrystakeholders through ‘KaapiTrail’ packages introducedin South India.

Following the success ofKaapi Trail Festival in 2012,Bangalore InternationalAirport Limited (BIAL), in col-laboration with the Ministryof Tourism, Karnataka andThomas Cook (India), hasrecently launched a series of

packages and trails (adven-ture, leisure and heritage)covering the top coffee-grow-ing regions in South India.The trails will not onlyengage the tourist with thehistory of coffee, processingof the beans and the experi-ence of staying in the middleof coffee plantation, but alsoconnect them with the localculture, cuisine and indulgethem in mountain treks,cycling tours and heritagewalks to ancient temples andpalaces, jeep safari in wild lifesanctuaries and much more.

To promote ecotourismin the region, homestays arealso included in the coffeeplantation areas. Sanjay

Reddy, Managing Director,BIAL, says, “Our main inten-tion is to make coffee trailsjust a single-click option for

global coffee lovers. ThroughKaapi Trail, we intend to notonly increase our passengerand air traffic at the airport,but also showcase the statein a new light and focus fordomestic and internationaltourists (both leisure andMICE). With India consumingover 100,000 tons of coffee a year and it being thesixth largest coffee producerin the world, the Kaapi Trail is a must-do for coffeeenthusiasts.”

Talking about theunique customer-centrictravel experiences,Madhavan Menon, ManagingDirector, Thomas Cook(India) said, “Through this

unique travel initiative, weintend to offer a flavour ofrich and vibrant coffee cul-ture of South India to ourdomestic and inbound trav-ellers. Our technology plat-form provides effective show-casing of the diversity ofthese travel packages withsimple booking process.”Travellers can book thesetrails with any of its 253offices (including 27 airportcounters) in 102 cities acrossIndia, Mauritius and SriLanka or with any of its 124Gold Circle Partners and 169Preferred Sales Agents inover 100 Indian cities. Thetrail packages cost between ` 28,000-` 32,000 per person for a six-day trip.

Unique coffee-growing regions are highlighted in this new initiative by Karnataka, BIAL, Thomas Cook andMOT wherein heritage, leisure and adventure trails are designed to attract a variety of travellers.

On the ‘Kaapi Trail’ in KarnatakaTT BU R E AU

A tourism concept has been built around coffee, connect-ing all four states of South India with Bengaluru and coveringplaces like Coorg, Chickmagalur, BR Hills, Baba Budangiri,Travancore, Nilgiri Hills, Palani Hills, Shevroy Hills and ArakuValley are part of this new trail package.

Coffee with ‘Kaapi Trail’

Through thisinitiative, weoffer a flavour of vibrant coffeeculture of South India

Through KaapiTrail, we intendto increase airtraffic andshowcase the state

Sanjay ReddyManaging DirectorBIAL

Madhavan MenonManaging DirectorThomas Cook (India)


Travel Passion Inc.. for thethird time successfully

teamed up with Dr. Arun M.Gandhi to offer The GandhianLegacy Tour to India. Leadingthis unique Gandhian legacytour to India are Dr. Arun M.Gandhi, grandson of MahatmaGandhi and his son Tushar A.Gandhi. In a quest to bringGandhi’s philosophy of non-violence to westerners, Dr.Gandhi says, “The focus is onstudying institutions thatapply the philosophy of non-violence in their attempt totransform a community – inurban areas and in rural areas.This tour shows you howGandhian principles areapplied today in conflict withthe resolution situations andsustainable development proj-ects, despite persistent pover-ty and inequality in India.”

The programme is aonce-in-a-life-time opportu-nity to hear Dr. Gandhi’s first-hand personal stories abouthis grandfather and to retracethe footsteps of the greatteacher of Satyagraha non-violent direct action. The tourbegins in Mumbai and ends inNew Delhi. The sojourn takesyou to Ahmedabad in Gujaratto visit the SabarmatiAshram, Gandhi’s headquar-ters, during his most activeyears of resistance to colonialrule. The tour also visitsGandhi’s house, his head-quarters and the ashramwhere Mahatma Gandhi

lived; Kolhapur, where thegroup has a rare in-depth lookat important challenges fac-ing India today; SunandaGandhi Memorial School ded-icated to Dr.Gandhi’s latewife, etc. Talking about the association with the

Gandhian Legacy tours,Sayyed Sarfaraz-ud-din,Founder and President, TravelPassion Inc opines, “We havebeen doing educational andSpecial Interest tours in thecountry. We are also planningto launch a few more

Inspirational tours to India.”Travel Passion Inc has beenassociated with Dr. Gandhiand Tushar A. Gandhi since its inception in 2009and is the official travel partner in India for theGandhian Legacy Tours.

This tour shows you how Gandhian principles are applied today in conflict with the resolution situations and sustainable developmentprojects, despite persistent poverty and inequality in India.

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AGENTS F E B R U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 3 TRAVTALK 4 5

has the ability to support morethan 600 mobile devices glob-ally, helping travellers stay con-nected by delivering informa-tion on travel insurance book-ings. Jet Airways’ JetProtect isa travel insurance supported byICICI Lombard while IndiGoworks closely with TATA AIG for the same.

The travel insuranceindustry in India, which ispegged at ` 400 crore isexpected to be a ̀ 1,200 croremarket in the next five years.In the post-9/11 age of failingtravel operators, airport security checks and swine ‘flu,travel insurance has becomea serious business. So, nexttime do try to bundle a travel insurance policy foryour customer for his conven-ience and safety.

Contd. from page 32

TravelInsurance

A Gandhian sojourn

Sayyed Sarfaraz-ud-din (left-standing), Arun Gandhi and Tushar Gandhi (sit-ting in the centre) with the Travel Passion Inc team



An evening to thank a millionTo thank the travel trade in India for their support to Amazing Thailand, Tourism Authority of Thailand organised a ‘A Million of Thanks Evening’ in NewDelhi after having welcomed over 1 million Indian arrivals.



TSI celebrates 25 years of successTravel Spirit International completed 25 years in the travel industry and celebrated its Silver Anniversary in New Delhi in Jan 2013. TSI, which startedwith one employee in 1987, has now over hundred staff, multiple branch offices in India & abroad and involved in promotion of Inbound Tours, OutboundTours, Ticketing, Tourist Transport and other allied services of travel.


FAMILY ALBUM

Travel industry tees off The China National Tourist Office, New Delhi successfully held a golf tourna-ment in the city. Nearly 100 golfers from the travel & tourism industry enjoyedthe China Tourism New Year Cup at Golden Greens Golf course. The host, LiuShijun, Director, CNTO, New Delhi, gave away the prizes to the participants.

Karnataka’s flavour atSurajkund Crafts MelaA high-level delegation of officials from Karnataka and Haryana gathered in NewDelhi to announce Karnataka as the theme state at the Surajkund InternationalCrafts Mela 2013, which is estimated to be visited by over one million people.


NEWS

APRIL4-6 Baku, Azerbaijan Azerbaijan International Tourism

Fair (AITF)5 Lucknow Macau Govt Tourist Office’s B2B

Workshop8-9 Cape Town International Luxury Travel Market

Africa (ILTM Africa)9-11 Beijing China Outbound Travel Tourism

Mart (COTTM)11-13 Russia SITT (TOURSIB)14-16 Jaipur Great India Travel Bazaar21-24 Auckland Tourism New Zealand

TRENZ 201323-25 Brazil World Travel Market

Latin America23-26 Riyadh Riyadh Travel Fair24-26 Kazakhstan Kazakhstan International Tourism

Fair (KITF)

2-3 Austria Travel Trend2-4 Chandigarh India Travel Mart (ITM)5 Mumbai Austrian National Tourist

Office’s B2B Event5-6 London The Travel Technology Show5-6 London Business Travel & Meetings Show5-6 Israel International Mediterranean

Tourism Market6 Chennai Austrian National Tourist

Office’s B2B Event7 Delhi Austrian National Tourist

Office’s B2B Event7-10 Prague Holiday World8-10 Mumbai OTM12 Kolkata Tourism Philippines’ Roadshow14-16 Delhi OTM19 Mumbai Disney Parks - Disney Days

Trade Event21 Delhi Disney Parks - Disney Days Trade

Event22 Ahmedabad Macau Govt Tourist Office’s Trade

Workshop22 Mumbai Canadian Tourism Commission

Agents Training Programme23-25 Ahmedabad India Travel Mart (ITM)24-27 Durban TAFI Convention25 Delhi Canadian Tourism Commission

Agents Training Programme25-26 Delhi ATOUT France’s Paris

Promotion27-1 Mumbai ATOUT France’s Paris

Promotion27- 2 Jaipur Canadian Tourism Commission’s

Focus Canada India28-2 Kolkata IITM Kolkata

FEBRUARY

For more information, contact us at: [email protected]

MARCH 1 Delhi Starwood Hotels Worldwide’s

Sales Expo for B2B / MICE & Corporate Agents

1-3 Mumbai IAAI’s Biennial Convention ICON 2013

1-3 Vijayawada India International Travel Exhibition (IITE)

2 Kolkata Starwood Hotels Worldwide’sSales Expo for B2B / MICE & Corporate Agents

4-6 Thailand Kiwi Link South & SouthEast Asia

6-10 Berlin ITB8 Chandigarh Macau Govt Tourist Office’s B2B

Workshop22 Kolkata Macau Govt Tourist Office’s B2B

Workshop25-27 Abu Dhabi GIBTM27-29 Ukraine Ukraine International Travel &

Tourism Exhibition (UITT)

Like every year, RailEurope India has

announced its year-roundpromotions for 2013 withoffers for every segment oftraveller – family, senior cit-izens, youth, businessmen,

etc. Last year, with the pro-motions on, the companyrecorded a growth of 35 percent in the first quarter.

“However, this year, themarket looks too slow. Thebookings may increase afterthe announcement of UnionBudget 2013-14.

If only India was anearly booking market, passengerscould save as muchas 75 per cent bybooking 90 daysprior to their traveldates on the Railpasses,” informsKunal Kothari,Executive Director,Rail Europe India.

When asked about thetop-performing markets interms of sales figures inIndia, Western India tops thelist, followed by North andSouthern India for RailEurope India. On the otherhand, Switzerland is still thenumber one selling destina-tion for the company fromIndia followed by France, UK,Italy, Spain, Austria,Germany and East Europe.The company has recentlyadded NTV Italo (a privateoperator of high-speed railnetwork in Italy) in the Indianproduct-lines and will soonadd it on its online distribu-tion channel. “Since the prod-uct is still offline, we make70-80 bookings per day forNTV Italo. By March 2013,we will successfully integratetheir system with our distri-bution channel and expect to

increase the sales by 200 bookings a day. With thesimilar price point and better services, NTV Italo iscompeting with the localoperator Trenitalia.”

Moving further, the com-pany is also introducing webfares for German Rail andTrenitalia before sum Thecompany recorded sales of16.35 million Euros from Indiain 2011, 19.63 million Euros(from January – November2012) in 2012 and is expectingto perform and witness salesof 22 million Euros in 2013.India contributes close to 10per cent of the total globalsales for Rail Europe. To reachthe target, it is going to enterTier-II cities like Pune, Kochi,Ahmedabad, Coimbatore and others to educate travel professionals.

Exciting rail promotions are on for this year, but being a late-booking market, India is still not reacting to these offers.

Special fares to get India going

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Rail Europe

Kunal KothariExecutive DirectorRail Europe India

In a bid to encourage afford-able travel, South West

Germany has recently intro-duced attractive travel cardscovering six cities of the region– Stuttgart, Mannheim,Freiburg, Karlsruhe, Constanceand Heidelberg for families,groups, FITs, VFR and corpo-

rate travellers. It has alsointroduced ‘Add-on packages’for corporate travellers whowant to extend their businesstrip to explore the city for one,three, four, five and six nights.

According to the tourismboard, Indian travellers spendthe highest number of nights(6.8 nights per visit) in SouthWest Germany as compared toother nationalities. Over22,000 Indians visited theregion between January –November 2012 accountingfor 150,000 overnights andspending 108 Euros on anaverage per day per person.With 350 destination special-ists in India through CuckooSpecialist Training Program fortour operators, South WestGermany intends to furtherreach out to agents in metrosand Tier II cities to increasethe Indian overnight figures.

According to Hans-JorgHadbawnik, Regional Director– Russia and India, StuttgartMarketing and Tourism; Indiais one of the most potentialtourism markets for the regionand it’s important to make thedestination more affordable tofurther boost the market. Hesaid, “With slowdown inEuropean economy, it isimportant for us to maketourism more affordable.Since our region is well-con-nected with top cities inEurope, Indians (both leisure

and business) can visit SouthWest Germany and combine itwith other countries. The per-ception of Germany as a business destination is chang-ing among Indian travellersand we are capitalising on further establishing our regionas leisure destination for families, FITs, honeymoonersand corporate travellers. With these attractive promo-tions, we are contemplating agrowth of minimum 10 percent in overnights from India in 2013.”

The tourism board has introduced an array of promotions, packages and deals toattract families and FITs. gives details on how the tourism board plans tofocus on more sectors to push numbers from the India market…

SW Germany for affordable tours

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Hans-Jorg Hadbawnik Regional Director – Russia and India

South West Germany has introduced its online Sales Guide2013 with a unique identification code provided to all serviceproviders – tourism agencies, hotels, sightseeing, attractions,transporters, incentive companies, etc. Through this identi-fication code, agents can update their information on rates,services, availability and can also ask for group rates andother queries directly to the service provider.

Innovative Sales Guide 2013

Mumbai InternationalAirport Pvt Ltd (MIAL) inMumbai organised and host-ed a 2-day EnvironmentalManagement Workshop forAviation between January10-11, 2013. Held under theauspices of the Directorate

General of Civil Aviation(DGCA) and as part of theEuropean Union (EU)-IndiaCivil Aviation CooperationProject, 20 representativesof airlines and staff from MIAL participated inthe workshop.

This workshop was con-ducted & delivered byexperts from the EU-IndiaCivil Aviation CooperationProject. The purpose of thisworkshop was to build bothbasic and advanced environ-mental management capac-

ity in aviation through theo-retical and practical sessionson the complete range ofenvironmental issues.Special attention was givento the current scenario inIndia (e.g., carbon footprintof Indian aviation), etc.

Environmental Management Workshop


OPPORTUNITY / CLIPBOARD


CLIPBOARD F E B R U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 3 TRAVTALK 5 5


MOVEMENTS5 6 TRAVTALK F E B R U A R Y 1 S T F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 3

The Oberoi GroupNew DelhiKapil Chopra has been appointed as President, The Oberoi Group.He will be responsible for all The Oberoi and Trident Hotels in India.An alumnus of The Oberoi Centre forLearning and Development (OCLD),Chopra’s experience as an hotelier spansover 19 years. Most recently, Chopra wasthe Executive Vice President of the Groupand was instrumental in opening the twoflagship properties -The Oberoi and Tridentin Gurgaon. Under Chopra’s leadership,The Oberoi, Gurgaon was voted‘World’s Leading LuxuryHotel’ by the WorldTravel Awards again.

Courtyard by MarriottGurgaonKanika Hasrat is the new General Manager of the Courtyard byMarriott, Gurgaon. Hasrat has worked in diverseareas of operation within the industryincluding housekeeping, rooms, andfront office. Her association withMarriott is an old one and she has helddifferent positions with Marriott Hotelslike JW Marriott Mumbai, MarriottAmsterdam. Most recently served asGeneral Manager, Trident Jaipur, she hasa deep understanding and vast knowl-edge of the hospitality industry havingbeen in this industry for more than one andhalf decades.

Macau Government Tourist OfficeMaria Helena de Senna Fernandes has been appointed as thenew Director of Macau Government Tourist Office. Fernandes joinedthe public service in 1988 and served as the promotion departmenthead of the former MGTO from 1994 to 1998 andDeputy Director of MGTO from 1998 till today.Currently, Fernandes acts as a member ofCommittee of Nomination of Medals andHonorary Titles, Macau Grand PrixCommittee, Tourism DevelopmentCommittee, Tourism Crisis ManagementOffice and Committee for the Developmentof Conventions and Exhibitions. She was alsoa member of the Strategic IntelligenceAdvisory Committee of the PacificAsia Travel Association (PATA)from 2007 to 2009.

DoubleTree by HiltonGurgaonMonisha Dewan has been appointed General Manager ofDoubleTree by Hilton Gurgaon-New Delhi NCR, a full-service hotel

conveniently located on the Golf Course Roadin Sector 56, Gurgaon. Dewan brings with

her over 20 years’ experience in the hospitality industry. She joined HiltonWorldwide in January 2008 and she wasresponsible for the successful launch ofAsia Pacific’s first Hilton Garden Inn brand

hotel in Saket, New Delhi. For her efforts,she was recognised as the Regional GeneralManager – Asia Pacific, Middle East,

Europe & Africa in the 2011 HiltonGarden Inn Brand Awards.

Sterling Holiday Resorts (India)ChennaiMiguel Munoz has been taken on as the Head of ResortOperations by Sterling Holiday Resorts (India). Munoz is a veteran

in the Vacation Ownership industry and hasbeen actively involved in Resort Operationsin Europe for the last 22 years. During hiscareer, he has worked across segments ofthe Leisure Hospitality industry with stintsin internationally recognised hospitalitychains such as Meliá Hotels International,

Steigenberger Hotel Group and large VacationOwnership players such as Vacation Care

International, Club La Costa Resort &Hotels, Interval International, andPetchey Leisure.

JW Marriott Hotel New Delhi AerocityNew DelhiBalan Paravantavida is the General Manager the first JWMarriott Hotel in New Delhi which will open in the first quarter of2013. Before assuming responsibility of theJW Marriott in New Delhi, Paravantavidahad an impactful two-year term as theGeneral Manager of the Pune MarriottHotel and Convention Centre, the 500thMarriott hotel in the world. With over 28years of experience in handling pre-openings, conversions and takeovers ofMarriott hotels in six countries acrossthree continents, Paravantavida offers astrong operational background.

InterContinental Hotels GroupBangkok, ThailandPhil Broad joins IHG as the new Vice President, Food & Beveragefor IHG Asia, Middle East and Africa. He will be responsible for lead-ing the region’s Food & Beverage (F&B) strategy.Broad was most recently the Managing Directorof Jumeirah Restaurants LLC, where he wastasked to set up and license innovative andsuccessful casual dining restaurant conceptsfor the Jumeirah Group globally. Prior to join-ing the Jumeirah Group, his professionalportfolio covered internationallyrenowned brands - StarbucksCoffee Company, T.G.I.Fridays,Teco’s, and Pizza Hut.

Hyderabad Marriott Hotel and ConventionCenter and Courtyard by MarriottHyderabadVivek Bhatt, Executive Chef, brings over 15years of rich culinary experience toMarriott’s table. Prior to his role with theHyderabad Marriott, Bhatt was associatedwith Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts. Hisjourney with the Shangri-La's group beganin 2007, as Executive Sous Chef with theShangri-La Hotel, New Delhi. Fromthe New Delhi assignment hemoved on to China and thento Shangri-La's premiumresort in Muscat, Oman.

Hilton Garden InnSaket, New Delhi Satya Prakash has been appointed as the General Manager of

Hilton Garden Inn New Delhi/Saket. With over25 years of experience in the hospitality

industry, Prakash joined Hilton Garden InnNew Delhi/Saket in 2010 as OperationsManager after having worked with CountryInn & Suites, New Delhi, in a managementposition. Prior to that, Prakash heldvarious positions in Food and Beveragewith Fortune Select Global, Hyatt Regency

and Maurya Sheraton in India, as wellas Radisson Hotel in

Nepal and Le MeridienHotel in Bahrain.

Simon C Barlow, President-Asia Pacific, Carlson RezidorHotel Group loves to play golf. “Ispent this Christmas in Australiawith my family and played golf.”Collecting wines is Barlow's pas-sion. Talking about his impres-sive wine collection, Barlowboasts, “I have 2000 bottles ofwine in my cellar in Australia.”Spending time with his kids isanother rejuvenating experience,he feels. “I spent this Christmas with my two kids – 22-year-old son and 19-year-old daughter. They will also cometo Singapore soon. I hope to have some fun in Singaporewhen they are around,” he adds.

Simon C BarlowPresident-Asia Pacific,Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group

PK Mohankumar Chief Operating Officer-Gateway Brand, Taj HotelsResorts & Palaces

Aman Aditya Sachdev, SeniorVice President- India Rotana is a fitness enthusiast. “In my freetime, I like to workout a lot.”Biking is passion and he loves togo for a ride whenever possible.Kerala and Goa are his favouriteholiday destinations in the country.“I love Goa for the complete chilledout and carefree experience itoffers. Kerala with its pristineundulated backwaters also fea-tures in my top list,” he chuckles.

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

Contributed by: Megha Paul

Jean-Michel Casse, Senior Vice PresidentOperations, India, Accor says that being in thehospitality profession, one needs to be alert andfit. Thus, he likes to hit the gym often. “Beingin India, I have also been heavily influenced byYoga, which I regularly practise,” he says. Cassewas overwhelmed when he visited Varanasirecently. “I had to take my friend to Varanasi.The city is very fascinating. The beautiful amal-gamation of the holy and traditional with young,energetic dynamics makes the city reverberatewith positive energy. This surely is the best desti-nation for me in India,” he adds.

Aman Aditya SachdevSenior Vice President- IndiaRotana

PK Mohankumar, Chief Operating Officer-Gateway Brand, Taj Hotels Resorts &Palacestakes the saying ‘Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise’very seriously. He wakes up daily at 6 in the morning. “I am a health freak and I love activ-ities such as swimming, jogging and yoga,” he says. Interestingly, he is also a Kalaripayattu(an Indian martial art from Kerala) expert and enjoys outdoor sports such as cricket, footballand hockey. “Staying fit is the ethos of my life. For the last ten years I have been practicingveganism and have given up rice completely,” he adds. According to Mohankumar, readingis an important part of life and never goes out of fashion.

Jean-Michel Casse Senior Vice PresidentOperations, India, Accor


HIGHLIGHT

Postal Reg. No.: DL(ND)-11/6044/2012-13-14; WPP No.: U(C)-178/2012-14 for posting on 1st-2nd and 15th-16th

of the same month at New Delhi P.S.O., RNI No.: 53492/91Date of Publication:30-01-2013

The newly elected ViceChairman of WTTC-India

Initiative, Dipak Devashares his opinion on makingtourism a national priority inIndia, while fixing variousweak points to leverage the true potential of tourismin India. Here are the selected excerpts:-

Tourism as Pro-Poor Tourism sector is pro-

poor with rich employmentcreation potential. Today, theentire world including theleading economies of theworld looks at the potentialof tourism to propel economicengines of growth. It’s like looking at the glass half empty, if tourism is still looked at as a mere elitist activity.

The multiplier effect oftourism is way higher thanany other industry. There areseveral success stories likethe Shahpur Bagh inRajasthan, wherein entireeco-system in the surround-ing area had benefited due totourism through the variousforward and backward socio-economic linkages. It’s ourresponsibility to highlightsuch success stories at inter-national and national plat-forms to highlight the truepotential of tourism. Suchsuccess stories will also beable to recognise the roletourism can play to conservenatural resources and also promote ones own cultural heritage.

Tourism as nationalpriority

India never had tourismas its priority. Fortunately,things are changing, whereinMinistry of Tourism plays apro-active role. In fact, even

the Planning Commission hadrecognised the importance oftourism in its 12th Five-Year-Plan Period. But, we need tomove fast. In fact, studyshould be commissioned tostudy the emerging scenarioin various strategic emergingmarkets, and other conven-tional markets.

Today, changes arehappening really fast. Theconsumer today is decidingvery late on vacation plans.Social media has become aforce to reckon with and digital platforms need to beredeemed. Moving forward,through scientific evidence,we should plan for at leastten years ahead in terms ofidentifying and completingvarious tourism develop-ment projects. There should be adequate thruston taking the public-privatepartnership route as our strategy.

We should take overseasmarketing very seriously.There is exigent need todeploy professional PR man-agers in strategic source mar-kets that India wishes to tap.Further, our embassies in for-eign countries should bemade adept to extend most

hospitable treatment to allvisa applicants backed bystate-of-the-art technology.

Lately, our Embassy inKyiv wrote to the tour opera-tors, “Due to technical rea-sons, there will be somedelay in issuing tourist visafor India. Tour operators areadvised to postpone accept-ing applications from visaseekers for some time. Thesituation is likely to improvein two-week time. This advi-sory may be followed till fur-ther notice from the Embassyof India.”

Its sends a very badmessage to foreign tour operators, if merely, due tooperational issues, visascouldn’t be processed. Oncethe confidence of foreign tour operator is lost, the destination suffers.

India should also opennew offices in strategic mar-kets, where we have no pres-ence. There should also bestandardised promotional col-laterals made available withall our overseas tourismoffices and embassies.

Growing the pieAll of us have the

responsibility to give back tothe industry at some pointin time by sharing

wealth of knowledge andexperience gathered over along period. One shouldstrive forward in a non-polit-ical and proactive manner tomake a difference so that thetourism pie increases. InFICCI, we have done a verydecent job. GITB is an inter-national event and GDTB apremium event for thedomestic industry, which allnational and internationalstakeholders find beneficial.Further, we have lined up alot of action that includes the recently concluded conclave on investments inTourism Infrastructurenamed Conclave onInvestment in TourismInfrastructure CITI, whichwill be followed by an eventnamed ‘shoot at site’ to facil-itate tourism through films.

On the WTTC IndiaInitiative front, I believe it’san excellent group of people,who are keen to make a dif-ference and take tourism tonew heights, where we con-tinuously strive to bring achange in the right direction.We had organised SouthernRetreat, which was well-attended by policymakers,hoteliers, tour operators andother stakeholders in the

tourism sector. In fact, KChiranjeevi, Minister ofTourism with inde-pendent charge hadalready announced the

setting up of theSouthern Zonal TourismCouncil (SZTC) compris-

ing the states of AndhraPradesh, Kerala, Karnataka,Tamil Nadu and the UnionTerritory of Puducherry. Itwill help facilitate develop-ment of tourism and tourismproducts of Southern Indiain a holistic and comprehen-sive manner.

Dipak Deva, CEO, Destination Management India & South Asia, KuoniDestination Management; Vice Chairman, WTTCII; and Co-Chair FICCI TourismCommittee shares his opinion on measures to ensure futuristic growth strategieswhile highlighting certain grim situations that marred Incredible India’s image.

Showcase tourism success stories

VI V E K SE T H I

Dipak DevaCEO, Destination Management India & SouthAsia, Kuoni Destination Management

Lately, our Embassyin Kyiv wrote to thetour operators, “Dueto technical reasons,there will be some delayin issuing tourist visa for India. Touroperators are advised to postponeaccepting applications from visa seekers for some time. Thesituation is likely to improve in two-week time. This advisory may befollowed till further notice from theEmbassy of India

Thoughtfor theDay


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