TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY - FEBRUARY 2014

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F A B r u A r y 2 0 1 4 | ` 5 0I n d I A ’ s l e A d I n g T r AV e l T r A d e m o n T h ly

India gives VoA facilityto 180 countries

08 Cover Story Location is the USP ofour hotel: Vineet MishraPage no.

34Page no.

64Page no.

I s s u e 0 5 | V o l u m e V | r n I n o . : d e l e n g / 2 0 1 0 / 3 3 7 2 3

TRAVEL ANDHOSPITALITY

Editor’s Note Quote of the Month

Chart of the Month

owner, Publisher, editor printed: srishti rai at somsons printing works, 1/7, doctor’s lane, gole market, new delhi - 110001,

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Landmark move, more needs to be doneGovernment of India’s recent decision to liberal-ize visa process for tourists intending to visit Indiaand to start electronic travel authorization (ETA)is very significant to facilitate arrivals of foreigntourists in the country. Not surprisingly, the In-dian tourism industry has unanimously ap-plauded the decision. Definitely the new visainitiatives have addressed some long standing de-mands of the Indian tourism industry. With its rich cultural diversity, natural resourcesand great heritages, India has potential to becomeone of the top ranking tourist destinations in theworld. But for different reasons, the country hasnot been able to tap its tourism potentials sub-stantially. There are many challenges the Indiantourism industry is facing today. Lack of ade-quate tourism infrastructure remains a perennialproblem for the tourism sector. Complicated andexorbitant tax structure is one of the other prob-lems for the Indian tourism industry. Such taxa-tion regime not only creates hurdles for theindustry and tourists, but also makes India an ex-pensive destination. Considering the contributionof the tourism industry to the whole economy interms of jobs-creation, income generation andforeign exchange earnings, governments, boththe Union as well as states should accord high pri-ority to the tourism sector to get maximum ben-efits from it. Going forward, governments shouldfocus on improving tourist infrastructure and sim-plifying the existing taxation regime for the in-dustry.

Distance has been no barrier tocommunication between the people ofIndia and Korea since ancient times,and we are determined to bring themever closer in the years that lie ahead.The Cultural Centres set up in Seouland New Delhi have energized peo-ple-to-people engagement. Korean

tourists are visiting India in increasing numbers. I have con-veyed to President Park the decision of the Government ofIndia to extend a ‘tourist visa on arrival facility’ to nationalsof the Republic of Korea. We are also exploring the possibilityof better civil aviation links.Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh

Speaking to the media during the recent State Visit of thePresident of Republic of Korea, in New Delhi

source: FhrAI’s Indian hotel Industry survey 2012-2013

“

“

inside the issueFeBruAry 2014 | Volume IV | Issue 11

India gives VoA facility to 180 countries

Indian OTAs focuses on non-air streams todrive revenues

Sirpur Dance and Music Festival 2013 con-cludes

Indian museums should be importanttourist destinations: PM

Romantic Adventures in New Zealand

Air passenger demand sees robust growthrates in 2013

Indian hotels maintains 60.4% occupancyin 2011-12: FHRAI

Khyber Himalayan Resort & Spa opensKhyber Spa By L'OCCITANE

4 Thai cities ranked in top 100 city destina-tions

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Cover Story

In Conversation

Promising new TAAI-NR team conducts itsfirst meet62

26 56 30

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205922

In Conversation: Location is the USP of ourhotel: Vineet Mishra64

Royal Caribbean International’s Navigatorof the Seas gets Texas-Sized Makeover22

FEBRUARY 2014| TNH (TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY)

Spotlight8

In a significant move for

liberalizing India’s visa

regime, the government

recently approved Visa- On-

Arrival facility, and Electronic

Travel Authorization (ETA)

for all countries barring eight

countries, which include Pak-

istan, Iran, Sri Lanka and

China.

Informing about the deci-

sion Rajiv Shukla, Minister

of Planning said that the gov-

ernment has decided to ex-

tend visa-on-arrival to

tourists from 180 nations. He

said that it would take 5-6

months to put the infrastruc-

ture in place. The new deci-

sion is expected to be

implemented by the govern-

ment from the next tourist

session beginning October.

The move is expected to boost

tourism sector in the country.

The home ministry would no-

tify the decision at an appro-

priate time. Shukla said the

decision will give a major

boost to the country's tourism

sector.

Union Tourism Minister

Dr. K.Chiranjeevi has wel-

comed the decision to relax

the visa regime of India to

promote tourism. Dr. Chiran-

jeevi has thanked the Prime

Minister Dr. Manmohan

Singh, Congress Vice Presi-

dent Rahul Gandhi, External

Affairs Minister Salman

Khurshid, Union Home Minis-

ter Sushil Kumar Shinde, Min-

ister of State in the Ministry

of Parliamentary Affairs Ra-

jeev Shukla and Deputy

Chairman of Planning Com-

mission Montek Singh

Ahluwalia.

The decision was taken in

a meeting recently convened

by the Planning Commission

that included representatives

from the PMO, ministries of

home affairs, external affairs

and tourism. In the meeting

held under the chairmanship

of Deputy Chairman, Planning

Commission, the following de-

cisions were taken to relax

the visa stipulations to pro-

mote tourism:

•The Tourist Visa on Ar-

rival (TVOA) and Electronic

Travel Authorisation(ETA) fa-

cilities shall be extended to all

the countries except 8 coun-

tries - Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan,

Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan, Sri

Lanka and Nigeria. Ministry

of Home Affairs will work out

manpower, infrastructure and

other requirements for ex-

panding the TVOA and initiat-

ing the ETA facility. The new

system of TVOA and ETA

could be put into place by Oc-

tober, 2014.

•All categories that can

be accommodated within the

category “short stay”, i.e.,

stays of 30 days or less should

be put under the category of

short term visas. Short term

visas will not be extended to

categories under a negative

list which could include pur-

poses such as those seeking

paid employment, education

etc. Short term visas would

not be extendable beyond 30

days.

The procedure for ETA

would be as follows: (a)

Prospective visitors will apply

online; (b) They will send

their two-page visa applica-

tion to the Bureau of Immigra-

tion (BOI) online. It will be

examined and within three

days the applicant will be in-

formed whether or not he/she

can travel to India. The gov-

ernment has agreed to extend

ETA to all countries except

the above 8 countries.

Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata,

Chennai, Cochin, Hyderabad,

Goa and Trivandrum are

among the nine airports

where visa-on-arrival and

electronic travel authoriza-

tion to citizens of 180 coun-

tries will be initially

implemented. Both facilities

will be implemented by the

end of this year.

At present, India provides

visa-on-arrival to tourists

from 11 countries, which in-

clude Finland, the Philip-

pines, Singapore and Japan.

The government will set up a

website for providing the fa-

cility to foreigners, who plan

to visit India as tourists. To

get a visa, foreign tourists will

have to apply on the desig-

nated website along with the

required fees. They would be

granted an electronic version

of the visa within three days.

The tourism industry had

consistently been asking for

extending visa on arrival to

many other countries. Com-

menting on the new initia-

tives, Subhash Goyal

President, Indian Association

of Tour Operators (IATO),

said, “Visa on Arrival from

180 countries will increase In-

ternational Tourist Arrival to

India by 25% to 50%.” Goyal

expressed happiness on be-

half of the entire tourism in-

dustry and thanked Dr. K.

Chiranjeevi, Union Minister

of Tourism in general and

Parvez Dewan, Secretary

(Tourism, Govt. of India in

particular as without their

help this historic achievement

of Visa of Arrival to 180 coun-

tries would not have been

possible for which we been re-

questing for last 15 years. He

also thanked everyone in the

Ministry of Home Affairs, Min-

India gives VoA facility to 180 countriesVisa-on-arrival facility will be extended to citizens of 180 countries at nineairports across the country by the end of the year.

Subhash Goyal, President, IATO

VoA for 180 countries will increaseInternational Tourist Arrival toIndia by 25% to 50%. The sooner

VoA along with E-Visas is implemented, bet-ter it will be for the country because oncethese are implemented, there will be in-crease in international tourist arrival.

“>>>

Dr. K.ChiranjeeviUnion Minister of State for Tourism

S.M. ShervAni, PreSident, FhRAi

“At a time when we are witnessing the adverse impactof a global and domestic economic slowdown, thesemeasures to simplify visa norms will give a muchneeded impetus towards leveraging tourism's intrin-sic potential to spur job creation and boost our coun-try's foreign exchange earnings.”

�Prem Kumar

FEBRUARY 2014|TNH (TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY)

9Spotlight

istry of External Affairs and

the Planning Commission. He

specially thanked Dr. Montek

Singh Ahluwalia, Vice Chair-

man of the Planning Commis-

sion and Pulok Chatterjee,

Principal Secretary to the

Prime Minister of India for ac-

cording priority to tourism on

its value in foreign exchange

earnings, job creation and

poverty alleviation.

Goyal further added,

“The sooner Visa on Arrival

along with E-Visas is imple-

mented, better it will be for

the country because once

these are implemented, there

will be increase in interna-

tional tourist arrival between

25 to 50%”. He further said,

“On one side, Government of

India was spending millions

of dollars for promotion of

tourism, on the other side

when the tourists wanted to

come, they were facing prob-

lems in getting Indian Visa.”

Goyal mentioned that the en-

tire Executive Committee and

members of IATO are grateful

to the Government of India for

this historic step and what-

ever cooperation Govt. of

India needs, thousands of our

members will cooperate with

the government to make this

landmark step a reality in

achieving the desired goals.

Welcoming the new visa-

on-arrival announcement by

the Government, Dr Jyotsna

Suri, Sr. Vice President -

FICCI and C&MD - The Lalit

Suri Hospitality Group said,"

The new liberalized visa

regime has the potential to

make India one of the most

favoured tourist destinations

of the world. This is a well

timed move just as the next

tourist season sets in. Instead

of 11 countries, travelers from

180 countries will get to avail

visa-on-arrival facility in

India." Dr. Suri further said,

"FICCI has been recommend-

ing steps to promote India as

a natural destination for in-

bound tourism. Our experi-

ence through global

interactions we have organ-

ised such as the Great India

Travel Bazaaar (GITB) in Ra-

jasthan from 2008 to 2013 and

the upcoming 7th landmark

global tourism event, the In-

credible India Travel Bazaar

(IITB), is that this facility is

much-needed and would go a

long way in promoting inflow

of foreign tour operators. The

visa on arrival facility will en-

thuse global participants to

attend over 9000 B2B meet-

ings at the forthcoming IITB,"

Post the announcement,

FICCI expects a surge in

global participation at the

IITB scheduled for April 8-9,

2014 at New Delhi and ex-

pects over 250 leading foreign

tour operators from over 55

countries to join. ”Available

data indicates that despite

'not-so-liberalized visa

regime' last year India re-

ceived 68.48 lakh foreign visi-

tors, registering a growth of

4.1% over 2012. Once the in-

frastructure for granting visa-

on-arrival is put in place India

will not only gain in terms of

more tourists but it will also

have positive spin-off on em-

ployments and earnings", Dr

Suri stated.

Welcoming new measures

to liberalize visa facilities for

tourists, S.M. Shervani,

President, FHRAI said, “On

behalf of FHRAI, I applaud

the historic steps announced

by the Central Government to

modernize India's tourist visa

regime. We are particularly

grateful that the Government

has accepted our proposal to

adopt a system of Electronic

Travel Authorization, which

will offer multiple advantages

of speed, efficiency, conven-

ience and flexibility, while

minimizing security related

risks.” He further said, “With

strong support from the Min-

istry of Tourism, FHRAI had

been assiduously pursuing

this issue with the Union Min-

istry of Home Affairs and we

had emphatically highlighted

that a bold and timely deci-

sion will be imperative to en-

able us to accomplish the

vision of doubling our Foreign

Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) to 12

million within the next five

years.”

According to Shervani, a

seamless and differentiated

visa mechanism to encourage

and facilitate foreign tourist

travel is imperative to posi-

tion India as an attractive and

welcoming destination and

enhance the global competi-

tiveness of our tourism sector.

“At a time when we are wit-

nessing the adverse impact of

a global and domestic eco-

nomic slowdown, these meas-

ures to simplify visa norms

will give a much needed impe-

tus towards leveraging

tourism's intrinsic potential to

spur job creation and boost

our country's foreign ex-

change earnings,” said Sher-

vani, adding, “We look

forward to extending our full

support to the Home Ministry

and other Government agen-

cies to ensure that the requi-

site infrastructure, in terms of

technology and personnel is

expeditiously put in place, so

that this initiative can be op-

erationalised well in time be-

fore the onset of peak tourist

season this year.”

Commenting on the Gov-

ernment’s latest initiatives to-

wards visa liberalization, S N

Srivastava, President & Co-

founder, Clarks Inn Group of

Hotels said that the Govern-

S N Srivastava, President & Co-founder, Clarks Inn Group of Hotels

The Government’s initiatives of ex-tending Visa on Arrival (VoA) tocitizens of 180 countries, and also

the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA)are till date the most serious efforts under-taken by the government to facilitate foreigntourist arrival in the country.

“>>>

Dr Jyotsna Suri, Sr. VP, FICCI & CMD, The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group

The new liberalized visa regimehas the potential to make Indiaone of the most favoured tourist

destinations of the world. This is a welltimed move just as the next tourist seasonsets in. Instead of 11 countries, travelersfrom 180 countries will get to avail visa-on-arrival facility in India.

“>>>

Trade News10


ment’s initiatives of extending

Visa on Arrival (VoA) to citi-

zens of 180 countries, and also

the Electronic Travel Authori-

sation (ETA)- are till date the

most serious efforts under-

taken by the government to fa-

cilitate foreign tourist arrival

in the country. Srivastava

commented that despite some

optimism it is no secret that

India tourism has been virtu-

ally stranded where it was

some six years ago. “There is

very little growth to boast of in

the last six years when India

tourism grew from just over 5

Million to 6.8 Million in 2013,”

Srivastava said. “Compare

this with Thailand when ar-

rival of international tourist

grew from 14.5 Million in 2008

has grown to 26.7 Million in

2013. The Indian arrival into

Thailand has grown from

around 500,000 in 2008 to

1,050,000 in 2013.” According

to Srivastava, this kind of Visa

liberalisation is path-breaking

and unheard of before. “We

certainly did not expect this to

happen this soon. My sincere

compliments to industry’s and

government’s effort to make

this a reality,” said Srivastava.

He further said, “If this initia-

tive is implemented within the

set timeframe and backed by

effective implementation than

what we could witness in

terms of foreign tourist arrival

may be historical, similar to

the growth that India wit-

nessed between 2003-2007 pe-

riod when arrival almost

doubled from 2,726,000 (2.7

Million) to 5,080,00 (5.08 Mil-

lion).”

Welcoming the move to lib-

eralize visa for tourists,

Pradeep Kalra, Sr. Vice Pres-

ident, Sales & Marketing,

Sarovar Hotels and Resorts

said, “This is a great develop-

ment that will benefit all

leisure destinations that rely

on Inbound/International traf-

fic. This initiative will propel

International Tourism as get-

ting an Indian Visa is a big

challenge according to Tour

Operators promoting India.”

He suggested that India

should open up the Visa on Ar-

rival for all nations including

UK which is the biggest driver

of tourists to India and the

procedure should be simplified

and easy as is the case of Thai

Visas for Indians. The only

countries which should be

kept out are those that pose a

threat to our security.

Talking about the impact

of the visa on arrival clear-

ance, Surinder Singh Sodhi,

Senior Vice President & Head,

Leisure Travel (Inbound),

Thomas Cook (India) Ltd “At

Thomas Cook India, we laud

the Government for this posi-

tive and progressive move. Ex-

tension of the visa on arrival

(VoA) facility to 180 countries,

together with the introduction

of electronic travel authoriza-

tion (ETA) is indeed wel-

comed, as vital towards

building critical mass-momen-

tum and infusing much-

needed demand into the under

leveraged inbound sector.” He

added, “Destination India has

tremendous latent potential

which these developments will

help tap, however, far more

needs to be done by the Gov-

ernment in terms of develop-

ing infrastructure and

improving safety measures for

our inbound guests. Basic and

practical measures to ensure

success of the VoA initiative

would be the presence of

skilled, multi-lingual man-

power at arrival airports to as-

sist incoming tourist.”

Federation of Associa-

tions in Indian Tourism and

Hospitality (FAITH) also wel-

comed new visa initiatives. A

press statement issued by

FAITH said with new revolu-

tionary steps on visa, India has

changed the rules of the game.

It set the ground for revolution-

izing the Indian tourism and

hospitality industry by approv-

ing the policy both for visa on

arrival and through electronic

travel confirmation for all of

180 countries except 8 coun-

tries. The statement further

said that the early initiative on

this was taken by the dynamic

and visionary minister of

tourism for India, Dr. Chiran-

jeevi. Under his suggestion,

the Tourism Secretary and his

team worked briskly along with

a high powered committee of

FAITH, the newly formed apex

body - The Federation of Asso-

ciations in Indian Tourism &

Hospitality to generate differ-

ent scenarios of the impact on

foreign exchange earnings and

employment accruing from a

visa on arrival regime.

They estimated that in the

short term scenario India can

get an additional 1.5 million

foreign tourists and USD 4 bil-

lion and in the longer term sce-

nario India can target up to 20

million tourists and earn

around USD 36 billion from this

move. This sector in 2012 got

6.5 m international tourists and

USD 17 billion plus in foreign

exchange.

India's smaller neighbours

to its east get between them

around USD 140 billion in for-

eign exchange from tourism

and more than 100 million in-

ternational tourist arrivals.

There is a huge market oppor-

tunity waiting to be tapped.

The tourism sector in India, im-

pacts around 40 million jobs

and 7 lakh crores of economic

output. With a visa friendly

regime, India's route to macro

- economic gains from tourism

would soon be 'just a ticket'

away.

Surinder Singh Sodhi, Sr. VP & Head, Leisure Travel (Inbound),Thomas Cook (India) Ltd

Extension of the VoA facility to180 countries, together with theintroduction of electronic travel

authorization (ETA) is indeed welcomed, asvital towards building critical mass-momen-tum and infusing much-needed demand intothe under leveraged inbound sector.

“>>>

Pradeep Kalra, Sr. Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Sarovar Hotelsand Resorts

This is a great development thatwill benefit all leisure destinationsthat rely on Inbound/International

traffic. This initiative will propel Interna-tional Tourism as getting an Indian Visa is abig challenge according to Tour Operatorspromoting India.

“>>>


11Trade News

Expressing his happi-

ness over Modi’s an-

nouncement at the

recent meeting of the National

Council, Goyal said that

tourism gets priority vision for

the country. He also appeals

to all Political Parties to in-

clude tourism in the Political

Agenda and Manifesto. “The

BJP’s Prime Ministerial candi-

date Narendra Modi focusing

on tourism in his 5-Ts is a big

reason for happiness for all

tourism practitioners, the

travel trade in particular,”

said Goyal, adding, “At least,

there is some positive thinking

about Tourism by the Policy

makers (at PM level) and that

is urgently needed to boost

our sagging tourism. This

inter-allia may give more tax

incentives to tourism sector”.

If all the Political Parties give

priority to tourism in their Po-

litical Agenda, tourism can re-

ally be the engine for

development of our country by

creating more employment

even in distant areas and gen-

erating foreign exchange earn-

ings. Goyal further said,

“Since the beginning of the

Five Year Plan in 1951,

Tourism never got recognition

in the Governments Plan

Process. All Successive gov-

ernments also did not show

any priority to tourism though

tourism’s contribution to GDP

is around 6% and contributes

nearly 9% of the total employ-

ment. It holds potential to rise

GDP to 10% if the investments

are made in tourism sector

and it can give the boost for

Foreign Exchange earnings.”

Goyal said that at the first op-

portunity, Tourism Sector is

taxed. “With the result, India is

termed as Tax Loaded Coun-

try for Tourism Sector and in

turn which has made India

Holiday Packages Cost Prohib-

itive. We lose business to our

neighboring countries like

Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia

and Hong Kong, as we cannot

match the price on holiday

packages which they offer due

to high taxation.”

Goyal said that tourism in-

dustry is quite optimistic that

our long pending appeal to de-

clare tourism as an “Export In-

dustry” based on its Foreign

Exchange Earnings will get

priority attention and all such

benefits as given to other ex-

port oriented industries will be

extended to tourism sector

also. This will also boost in-

vestments in tourism related

activities mainly Accommoda-

tion, Transport, Airport, Hos-

pital, Conference Centers on

which tourism growth depend

in a big way. by TNH DESK

IATO welcomes NarendraModi’s 5-Ts announcement Subhash Goyal, President, Indian Association ofTour Operators (IATO) has welcomed 5-Tsannouncement by BJP Prime MinisterialCandidate Narendra Modi.

The part equity, part

merger deal is struc-

tured as a multi

stage process: TCIL Group

will make a Preferential Al-

lotment Investment for ap-

proximately of `187 Cr. into

Sterling, TCIL Group will

purchase shares from Ster-

ling shareholders for `176

Cr., TCIL Group will make a

mandatory open offer for

`230 Cr. And there will be a

merger between the two

companies at a defined swap

ratio of 120:100

The merger brings signif-

icant synergies to both part-

ners - with Thomas Cook

India gaining access to Ster-

ling Resorts’ network of 19

resorts in 16 holiday destina-

tions across India.

The company also has 15

additional sites where it

plans to add new resorts in

the coming years.

Speaking post the an-

nouncement, Madhavan

Menon, Managing Director,

Thomas Cook (India) Ltd.,

said: “Ramesh Ramanathan

and his team at Sterling Re-

sorts are veterans who were

instrumental in developing

the Vacation Ownership cat-

egory in India and we are de-

lighted to partner them via

this merger! The synergistic

opportunities that this new

partnership between

Thomas Cook & Sterling Re-

sorts offers are enormous,

because they create multiple

avenues to grow our respec-

tive businesses and to create

valuable business opportuni-

ties together.” He added: “As

India’s leading integrated

travel and travel related fi-

nancial services Company,

TCIL’s merger with Sterling

Holiday Resorts reaffirms

our commitment to our

stated strategy of investing

in mutually beneficial part-

nerships that broaden our

business services platform to

increase shareholder value.”

Siddharth Mehta, Chair-

man, Sterling Holiday Re-

sorts (India) Limited said:

“The last few years have

seen the resurgence of the

Sterling brand in the Vaca-

tion Ownership and Leisure

Holidays space. Commenting

on the merger, Sidharth Sub-

ramanian, Vice Chairman,

Sterling Holiday Resorts

(India) Limited said, “Ster-

ling was founded by my fa-

ther in 1986 and I am proud

that Sterling is widely ac-

knowledged as the Company

that truly pioneered Vaca-

tion Ownership in India. The

success the Company en-

joyed in the first decade of

its operations led to the

opening up of the industry

with more players setting up

operations. At Sterling, we

have always been passion-

ately committed to our cus-

tomers. That commitment is

what kept us going during our

period of strife. I took over

the helm in late 2007 when

the company was going

through a difficult phase. I

would like to take this oppor-

tunity to publicly acknowl-

edge that we managed to

keep Sterling going because

of the commitment and sup-

port of the Board and a core

group of employees who

stayed the course with us. In

2009, I saw in Bay Capital a

partner who was committed

to turning the Company

around and I am pleased that

together we have brought

Sterling back into a position

of strength.”

Ramesh Ramanathan,

Managing Director, Sterling

Holiday Resorts (India) Lim-

ited stated, “The merger with

Thomas Cook will strengthen

Sterling’s market position as

there are multiple natural

synergies which both compa-

nies will mutually benefit

from. Thomas Cook cus-

tomers will have access to our

pan-India network of well lo-

cated, full-service, quality re-

sorts which offer great

holiday experiences. Sterling

stands to benefit from

Thomas Cook’s iconic brand

reputation and TCIL’s large

base of domestic and inbound

travel customers. There is

also scope to add value to

Sterling’s Vacation Owner-

ship members through the

synergies that exist between

the two companies.” Antique

Group acted as advisor and

ICICI Securities acted as mer-

chant banker to Thomas Cook

for this merger. by TNH DESK

Thomas Cook (India) & Sterling HolidayResorts (India) announce mergerThomas Cook (India) Ltd. (TCIL) - India’s leading integrated travel and travelrelated financial services company, and the 27 year old vacation ownershippioneer, Sterling Holiday Resorts India Limited announced a merger betweenthe companies today. The transaction is expected to close by the fourthquarter of 2014, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatoryapprovals as required.

“The merger with Thomas cook will strengthenSterling’s market position as there are multiple nat-ural synergies which both companies will mutuallybenefit from. Thomas cook customers will have ac-cess to our pan-india network of well located, full-service, quality resorts which offer great holidayexperiences.”

MAdhAvAn Menon, MAnAging director,thoMAS cook (indiA)

“The merger with Thomas cook will strengthenSterling’s market position as there are multiple nat-ural synergies which both companies will mutuallybenefit from. Thomas cook customers will have ac-cess to our pan-india network of well located, full-service, quality resorts which offer great holidayexperiences.”

RAMeSh RAMAnAthAn, MAnAging director,Sterling holidAy reSortS (indiA) liMited

Trade News12


Highlights of the mergerMerger focused on synergies and jointly

leveraging growing Domestic & Inbound

travel, Vacation Ownership & Hospitality

opportunities

Post merger, Sterling Holiday Resorts to

continue operations under the leadership

of Ramesh Ramanathan with an inde-

pendent Board

Based on equity investments and

merger ratios, the aggregate value of the

two companies is approximately ` 3000Cr.

ixigo.com, India’s leading

travel planning and search

engine, together with GSF, a

leading start-up Accelerator

program in India organized

a 10km marathon run on

February 1 in New Delhi.

More than 100 budding en-

trepreneurs along with lead-

ing Venture Capitalists and

Angels from across the

world came together to learn

from each other’s experi-

ences, discuss challenges

and find viable solutions to

their problems while engag-

ing in a fun, healthy activity.

“The start-up ecosystem

is huge and we at ixigo real-

ize the importance of bring-

ing people together on one

platform so they can mutu-

ally benefit from each other.

A healthy mind starts with a

healthy body and that was

the clear message we

wanted to convey,” said

Aloke Bajpai, CEO and Co-

founder, ixigo.com. “It is by

partnering with GSF that we

got the opportunity to en-

courage young entrepre-

neurs, and support them in

their journey. Who knows a

start-up idea that may have

been nurtured via this plat-

form today goes on to be-

come a big success story

tomorrow.”

“We at GSF are dedicated

to encouraging, supporting

and funding young entrepre-

neurs from across the world.

The marathon run organized

together with ixigo provided

us with an opportunity to

meet young and bright minds

who have the zest to make it

big in their respective ven-

tures. Since ixigo is a suc-

cessful start-up company

itself, partnering with them

for this event was a natural

choice for us,” said Rajesh

Sawhney, Founder GSF.

The marathon run was

flagged off at 7am from San-

jay Van, Qutub Institutional

Area. To ease the networking

activity that was to follow,

special colored bands were

presented to all participants,

clearly differentiating them

into three categories; start-

ups, people who have ideas

and the drive to work to-

wards a start-up and venture

capitalists. TiE came on

board as a knowledge part-

ner to promote the event.

The run culminated with

a healthy breakfast meeting,

where participants got the

chance to effectively network

with each other, share valu-

able experiences and ex-

change useful tips. The

breakfast was sponsored by

Times City.

ixigo.com is India’s lead-

ing travel planning and

search website, voted as the

Product of the Year 2013, in

the Travel category.

Launched in 2007 by IIT, IN-

SEAD and Amadeus alumni,

ixigo.com’s vision is to sim-

plify the life of travelers

through innovative travel

products for Internet & mo-

bile. The website searches,

aggregates and curates

travel information across

hundreds of travel sites and

allow travelers to access rel-

evant information on tourist

destinations, places to visit,

things to do, modes of trans-

port, driving directions, ho-

tels, restaurants, weather

and more. by TNH DESK

ixigo & GSF celebrate thespirit of entrepreneurship!Over 100 budding entrepreneurs, Angels andleading investors join the GSF-ixigo marathon.

“The start-up ecosystem is huge and we at ixigo re-alize the importance of bringing people together onone platform so they can mutually benefit from eachother. A healthy mind starts with a healthy body andthat was the clear message we wanted to convey.”

Aloke BAjPAi, ceo And co-Founder, ixigo.coM

“we at gSF are dedicated to encouraging, support-ing and funding young entrepreneurs from acrossthe world. The marathon run organized togetherwith ixigo provided us with an opportunity to meetyoung and bright minds who have the zest to makeit big in their respective ventures. Since ixigo is a suc-cessful start-up company itself, partnering withthem for this event was a natural choice for us.”

RAjeSh SAwhney, Founder gSF


13Tech News

Trade News14


The first-ever 'Incredible

India Golf Tourism Sum-

mit 2014' will be organized by

the Ministry of Tourism , Gov-

ernment of India in associa-

tion with FICCI and with the

support of India Golf Tourism

Association (IGTA). The Sum-

mit will be held in New Delhi

on October 8-10, 2014, which

would culminate with an In-

credible India Golf Tourism

Award, Incredible India Golf

Tournament and FAM trips to

Golf Courses for the hosted

Tour Operators from across

the world specializing in pro-

moting Golf Tourism.

Ministry of Tourism in as-

sociation with FICCI and with

the support of India Golf

Tourism Association here

today organized a conference

on 'Incredible India Golf

Tourism Summit 2014' to pro-

mote this niche area of

tourism in a substantial way.

The chief guest of the con-

ference, Parwez Dewan, Sec-

retary Tourism, Government

of India, said that the ministry

promotes the 15 signature golf

courses of India at every road

show and opportunity that

arises to attract foreign golf

tourists to India and make the

country a preferred golfing

destination.

Countries like Japan and

Hong Kong have shortage of

golf courses and golfers of

these nations can come to

India and play golf at a com-

paratively low cost, said

Dewan. India has 220 golf

courses, of which 30 are of

professional level and 15 sig-

nature golf courses. Golf

tourism is growing at a rate of

9.3% per year and there are

about 1.6 million golfers who

travel every year to golfing

destinations. Hence, there is a

huge opportunity and scope to

promote golf tourism in India.

On the occasion, Dewan

also announced that the Mal-

divians coming to India for

medical tourism can now

travel visa free for up to 90

days. This comes as a major

breakthrough for the medical

tourism industry.

Anand Kumar, Joint Sec-

retary Tourism, Government

of India, said that India is lo-

cated strategically and can

cater to the European,

ASEAN, Japanese and Chi-

nese golf tourism markets

with ease. Also, India offers

competitive pricing and the

connectivity within and to

India has improved consider-

ably, which can help in pro-

moting golf tourism. But we

have not been able to promote

India as a golf destination ef-

fectively in the past and other

markets like Thailand and

Malaysia have an edge over

India as they started out ear-

lier than us.

However, he said, India of-

fers vast experiences in terms

of setting of the golf courses.

The country has golf courses

near sea, in high altitudes and

has some of the oldest and fa-

mous golf courses. Also, the

country is a preferred desti-

nation for cultural tourism

and wellness tourism and

these can be tied up with golf

tourism to give both golfing

and tourism a boost, Mr.

Kumar added.

Dr. Jyotsna Suri, Senior

Vice President, FICCI, said

that the highlight of the sum-

mit would be the 12 hours of

structured, pre-scheduled

B2B meetings in the two days

between hosted industry

handpicked leading foreign

tour operators from across 30

countries who specialize in

golf tourism with the stake-

holders of this niche area

from India, besides the inter-

active conclave pondering

over critical issues on day

one.

Dr. Suri added that Incred-

ible India Golf Awardees

would be picked from the

promising golf courses, golf

tour operators, golf media,

golf hotels, the most facilitat-

ing airlines and a state gov-

ernment promoting golf in a

substantial way.

Post the tournament, IGTA

would organize FAM trips to

golf courses for the hosted

leading foreign tour operators

from across the world that

would come for the summit.

This will offer a great oppor-

tunity to the willing golf

courses in the country for on-

site marketing of their facili-

ties to their target market.

Dr. A Didar Singh, Secre-

tary General, FICCI, said that

for the first time the Ministry

of Tourism would be leading

the Tourism Summit in Golf

and has offered to promote

and facilitate this important

tourism platform. Further the

support of the industry, India

Golf Tourism Association

lends credence to the summit.

Rajan Sehgal, President,

IGTA, who moderated the ses-

sion, said, Incredible India

Golf Tourism Summit will

highlight the Golf Tourism po-

tential of India, and go a long

way in promoting the golf

tourism in the country.

by TNH DESK

Incredible India GolfTourism Summit 2014 tobe held in Delhi In order to promote golf tourism in India, theMinistry of Tourism (MoT), Government of Indiarecently announced the launch of first-ever'Incredible India Golf Tourism Summit 2014’,which will be held on October 8-10 this year.


15Tech News

These are dream pack-

ages for not just trav-

ellers, but for travel agents as

well, who can earn commis-

sion up to `3,000 on each

package. As part of these spe-

cial packages, families get the

chance to avail up to 50% off

on their child or free upgrades

to deluxe category.

The family packages are

bundled with exciting inclu-

sions such as excursions at

Indus and Zanskar Rivers,

Indus Valley Monastery tour,

Sindhu Ghat and the Sand

Dunes in Ladakh packages.

These also include overnight

camping at Nubra Valley and

Pangong Lake. There is a

cricket bat factory tour of-

fered in the Kashmir package,

for cricket lovers.

Summer packages of-

fered for Kashmir and

Ladakh:

•Fascinating Kashmir - 6

Nights / 7 Days - Prices start-

ing at `30,999

•Fascinating Ladakh - 7

Nights / 8 Days - Prices start-

ing at `34,999

Speaking on the offer,

Neelu Singh, COO,

Ezeego1.com said, “The com-

munity of travel agents forms

an integral part of what we do,

and how we do it. It is our con-

stant endeavour to delight our

customers with unique pack-

ages and special discounts. In

the same way, we also strive

to make work worthwhile for

every agent associated with

us and believe in aptly re-

warding the deserving ones.”

Tour costs are per person

on twin sharing basis and are

inclusive of return airfare,

hotel accommodation, meals

as per the itinerary, sightsee-

ing, taxes and travel insur-

ance. Ezeego1.com is one of

its kinds online travel com-

pany (Meta search) founded

in 2006 which offers all travel

related services. by TNH DESK

Ezeego1.com introduces specialoffer for Travel AgentsEzeego1.com, a leading online travel search site, has introduced specialsummer holiday packages for India’s most exotic locations such as Ladakh,Kashmir, Sikkim and Darjeeling.

Neelu Singh, COO, Ezeego1.com

It is our constant endeavour to de-light our customers with uniquepackages and special discounts. In

the same way, we also strive to make workworthwhile for every agent associated withus and believe in aptly rewarding the deserv-ing ones.

“>>>

Trade News16


In this era of digital changes,

safe global travel is the

buzzword for global travellers.

Here’s one-of-a-kind travel an-

cillary service player in India-

Trawell Tag Cover More of

Sydney that is quite deter-

mined to take up the safety

issue of Indian global trav-

ellers since around 80 per cent

Indian travellers embarking

on global travel do not go for

travel insurance. With an ef-

fort to raise the awareness

among the travel agents about

the need for travel insurance,

Trawell Tag hosted Travel

Agents’ Engagement Pro-

gramme for as many as 350

travel agents in Kolkata some-

time on January 10.

The travel assistance

player took off in 2005 and has

its India operation in Mumbai.

With around 50 offices across

the breadth of the country,

Trawell Tag is looking ahead

to organize similar training

workshops across 20 cities of

India including Mumbai and

New Delhi in this fiscal. Dev

Karvat, Managing Director,

Trawell Tag Cover More ex-

plained, “We have held train-

ing workshops in Ahmedabad

and Chennai. The Indian

travel industry is growing at a

rate of single digit. In Aus-

tralia, the level of penetration

of travel service industry is

quite high at around 65 per

cent. The growth rate of travel

assistance service in India

stands at 50 per cent but the

penetration level is quite low

at around 20 per cent. We

hope the penetration level will

increase to 50 per cent in the

next three to four years’ time.”

Trawell Tag has on offer

one integrated solution under

on roof with five distinct

travel-related services. Karvat

said, “We provide medical in-

surance and tourists taking up

global travel can get in touch

with us in times of emergency

for quick medical help or get

admitted in hospitals with

cashless facility. Besides, we

also have concierge services,

family protection service for

travellers’ household staying

back in India, travel insurance

and online luggage tracking

facilities. It has been found

that nearly 2 lakh baggages

are lost every month at the

time of global travel. We pro-

vide travel tag to outbound In-

dian tourists and we have a

tie-up with global airline

players and ground handlers

in order to recover the lost

baggage.” The travel service

company prides in having

around 7,000 travel agents

across India promoting their

travel insurance products.

“For those interested to ven-

ture on adventure tours and

self-drive, we offer travel in-

surance in association with

National Insurance Company.

Very soon, we are planning to

launch Global SIM Card for

Indian travellers taking up

global travel. It would be con-

venient for them to use in

multiple countries,” added

Karvat.

Turning over a new leafin travel insuranceAimed to provide complete insurance cover foroutbound Indian travelers, Trawell Tag CoverMore has a niche market in the country.

Dev KarvatMD, Trawell Tag Cover More

Services offeredby Trawell Tag:•Medical insurance•Travel insurance•Concierge services•Family protection totravellers’ household•Online luggagetracking

Snapshot

�Swaati Chaudhury

Cox & Kings has an-

nounced that it has been

awarded the official rights to

promote hospitality packages

for FIFA World Cup 2014,

which will take place in Brazil

from 12th June to 13th July,

2014.The match hospitality

packages are available in a

variety of customized options

and include match tickets and

food & beverage during the

match. With prices starting

from USD 1150 per person,

match hospitality tickets can

be purchased in quantities of

4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 and so

on till upper limit of 40.

There are exciting pack-

ages for the Aquarela Series,

which has the best-located

private suites between goal

lines. The packages offer top-

class suites for Rio de

Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Belo

Horizonte. Fans can also

enjoy the Aquarela Business

Series at match Private Suites

in Belo Horizonte and private

area in best match Business

Seat Lounge in Rio de Janeiro

and Sao Paulo. Both packages

include OM, 2x SF and F.

Cox and Kings also offers

packages for the venue series

for those who wish to experi-

ence FIFA World Cup in a par-

ticular host city. Venue series

packages are available for

Belo Horizonte, Brasilia,

Cuiaba, Curitiba, Fortaleza,

Manaus, Natal, Porto Alegre,

Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Sal-

vador and Sao Paulo. The

Match Hospitality Programme

offers Category 1 hospitality

tickets for Match Pavilion,

Match Club and Match Pre-

mier.

MATCH Pavilion offers

fans a dedicated, but less for-

mal, hospitality option in the

Business Category. This is the

perfect opportunity to enter-

tain your clients and friends

in a shared hospitality area

outside the stadium and

watch the match in a real

spectator environment.

MATCH Club is a shared

hospitality experience where

a casual pub-style setting is

complemented by up-market

snacks and a premium selec-

tion of beverages. Positioned

in the Leisure Category, this

product is available as a Sin-

gle Match Package, in Venue

Series and Team Specific Se-

ries.

MATCH Premier offers

fans the opportunity to secure

their seat at the 2014 FIFA

World Cup Brazil™ with

MATCH Hospitality. This

ticket offers informal hospital-

ity with snacks and bar serv-

ice and is ideal for big groups,

families and those who want

to relish the excitement of the

biggest sporting event in the

world. by TNH DESK

Cox & Kings to promote FIFA’s2014 World Cup in IndiaTicket-inclusive hospitality packages price startingfrom USD 1150 per person


17Trade News

The 2014 Summer Holiday

Bazaar will cover 30

cities across India. Travellers

can shop for the best holiday

deals from a choice of destina-

tions (both International &

Domestic) that offer spectac-

ular discounts. The key high-

lights at the road show

include special offers; chance

to win free holidays, cash dis-

counts and free upgrades

amongst others.

Speaking on the launch

Vishal Suri, CEO-Tour Oper-

ating, Kuoni India said, “With

the overwhelming response

and success attained from our

previous road shows, we are

encouraged to repeat success

this current year too. The Hol-

iday Bazaar Road show is a

great opportunity to engage

and strengthen our relation-

ship with our past and

prospective customers while

showcasing our best proposi-

tions with support from

tourism boards and other as-

sociates”.

Deals at the 2014 Summer

Holiday Bazaar include:

15-Day All of Europe:

Visit United Kingdom, France,

Belgium, Netherlands, Ger-

many, Switzerland, Liechten-

stein, Austria, Italy & Vatican.

Your Wife pays only 50% or

your child goes absolutely

FREE

16-Day All of USA: Visit

New York, Washington DC,

Harrisburg, Niagara, Orlando,

Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San

Luis Obispo & San Francisco

and get 3-Nights Bahamas

Cruise FREE and also get

FREE Upgrade to Walt Disney

World Swan & Dolphin Resort

inside Disney Theme Parks OR

FREE Upgrade to a Balcony

Cabin on the Bahamas Cruise

10-Day Oriental Voyage:

Visit Singapore, Kuala

Lumpur, Superstar Libra

Cruise, Penang & Genting

Highlands. Free Upgrade to

Ocean View cabin on Cruise.

Stay 2 nights inside Sentosa

Island, Singapore.

8-Day South African

Splendor: Visit Cape Town,

Hermanus, Knysna, Sun City,

Johannesburg. 3 days Kruger

or 4 days Kenya Free.

10 Days Wonders of Aus-

tralia: Visit Gold Coast, Mel-

bourne, Cairns, Sydney.

Special All Inclusive Price is

Rs 1,99, 900.

Above Packages include:

Airfare, Accommodation,

taxes, visa, travel insurance,

meals, sightseeing, transfers

as per itinerary & services of

our tour manager.

by TNH DESK

Kuoni-SOTC announces ‘SummerHoliday Bazaar’ in DelhiKuoni-SOTC has launched the 2014 “Summer Holiday Bazaar” showcasingits summer holiday propositions in Delhi.

An organization of 80 airlines and

ground handlers at Amsterdam’s

Schiphol Airport has chosen IT provider,

SITA, for another five years in a •26.6

million deal. The Schiphol CUTE Local

User Board (CLUB), which represents

the airport’s common-use technology

users, has signed a new contract for

SITA’s AirportConnect Openpassenger

processing platform. Deployed in a vir-

tual environment, AirportConnect Open

helps provide an efficient journey for the

airport’s 52 million annual passengers.

With SITA’s expertise in near field

communications (NFC), Schiphol has

also become the first airport in Europe

to “future-proof” its passenger process-

ing platform by connecting it with NFC

technology. Using NFC-enabled smart-

phones, passengers will be able to

quickly and easily pass through a spe-

cial boarding gate at the airport with the

simple tap of their phone. The gate will

automatically read their boarding

passes, even if their phones are turned

off or out of battery. This same NFC

equipment will also read the traditional

two-dimensional boarding passes in use

today.

Jan Bruns, Chair of the Schiphol

CUTE Local User Board, said: “We’re

currently celebrating more than 25 years

of collaboration with SITA. During this

time, we’ve worked together on many in-

novations to improve the passenger ex-

perience including common-use

technology, self-service solutions and

now NFC.

“As more smart phones incorporate

NFC, more airlines will start asking for

this technology. That’s why we have al-

ready equipped a gate with NFC and

connected it to our common-use passen-

ger processing system—and we’re invit-

ing airlines to try it.”

Dave Bakker, SITA President, Eu-

rope, said: “The Schiphol CLUB is al-

ways interested in collaborating on new

innovations that improve airport opera-

tions and provide better service. Airport-

Connect Open helps improve operational

efficiency and flexibility, while maximiz-

ing airport real estate. Combined with

NFC, it will help the airport future proof

its passenger processing technology and

enable passengers to board more

quickly.”

SITA’s AirportConnect Open enables

airports, airlines and their handling

agents to access their respective IT ap-

plications in real time on shared equip-

ment. It also allows any airline to use

any agent desk, gate position or self-ser-

vice kiosk for passenger check-in, bag

drop and boarding.

The Schiphol CLUB’s AirportConnect

Open renewal with SITA covers some

700 positions at check-in desks, transfer

and reclaim. It also includes 90 common-

use, self-service kiosks, which passen-

gers can use for check in.

With virtualization, the airport can

run the latest technologies and incorpo-

rate upgrades to its system efficiently

and cost-effectively. It also allows air-

lines to seamlessly operate at any desk,

gate or work station throughout the air-

port, which improves the operational en-

vironment and enhances service. More

than 300 airlines use SITA's AirportCon-

nect Open to process millions of passen-

gers every day in more than 400 airports

around the world.

SITA is also the industry leader in

NFC, which allows passengers with

smartphones to move through airport

checkpoints with a simple tap of their

phone. In 2012, the company’s technol-

ogy research team, SITA Lab, ran the

world's first live SIM-based NFC trial at

Toulouse-Blagnac Airport in France.

Schiphol’s NFC gate marks the first

deployment of SITA’s proposed industry

standard for NFC. In 2013, SITA intro-

duced the “Tap n' Fly”TM industry stan-

dard for NFC, which builds on the

GSMA’s vision of seamless, secure and

reliable SIM-based NFC worldwide.

Tap n’ Fly combines a common-use

applet to store passenger information

and a standard boarding pass format to

ensure interoperability, while also allow-

ing airlines and airports some cus-

tomization. It is also backward

compatible with existing bar-coded

boarded passes.

SITA worked with Access IS, specialists

capturing and transferring information into

electronic systems, to certify its NFC read-

ers with the SITA Tap n’ Fly standard and

AirportConnect Open. by TNH DESK

Airlines, Handlers atSchiphol Airport selectSITA for 5 more years SITA technology makes Schiphol first airport in Europe to futureproof passenger processing with NFC.

Tech News18

“The Schiphol CLUB is always inter-ested in collaborating on new in-novations that improve airportoperations and provide betterservice. AirportConnect Openhelps improve operational effi-ciency and flexibility, while maxi-mizing airport real estate.Combined with NFC, it will helpthe airport future proof its passen-ger processing technology andenable passengers to board morequickly.”

DAVE BAKKER, SITA PRESIDENT, EUROPE


19Trade News

Thomas Cook (India) Ltd.

India’s leading inte-

grated travel and travel re-

lated financial services

company, in a pioneering ini-

tiative, introduces ‘Univer-

sity Tours’ to help Indian

students better understand

and shortlist suitable col-

leges for their studies in the

US. This innovative product

is the latest addition to

Thomas Cook India’s ‘Travel

& Learn’ portfolio and is in

association with The Red Pen

College Tours, USA. Study-

ing in the US is indeed com-

plex; the traditional route of

online research or word-of-

mouth falling short of provid-

ing Indian students and their

parents with either a realis-

tic or hands-on perspective.

To bridge this gap, Thomas

Cook India’s ‘Travel & Learn’

product team had hence cre-

ated specialized University

Tours- aimed at providing a

glimpse into university life

experiences with visits to US

colleges, insightful interac-

tions with both counselors

and students and in-depth

meetings with university ad-

mission advisors. Person-

alised care and attention is

ensured via the expertise of

an experienced Thomas

Cook Tour Manager who ac-

companies the University

Tour group of students and

parents/ family members.

The specially designed

itineraries of Thomas Cook

India’s University Tours cover

a diversity of premium educa-

tional institutions including,

Stanford University, Univer-

sity of California – Los Ange-

les (UCLA), Harvard Univer-

sity, New York University

(NYU) and Princeton Univer-

sity.

Shibani Phadkar, Senior

Vice President & Head -

Leisure Travel (Outbound)

Products, Thomas Cook

(India) Ltd. said: “Education

has always been a strong and

strategic focus area at

Thomas Cook India and I am

delighted to launch our unique

“University Tours” as part of

the “Travel & Learn” product

portfolio. This pioneering ini-

tiative in association with The

Red Pen is aimed at giving stu-

dents a vibrant firsthand per-

spective of what to expect

when pursuing their under-

graduate studies in America.

On-ground counseling and in-

teractions with local students

and counselors make for en-

gaging sessions while ensur-

ing selection of an apt

university.” by TNH DESK

Thomas Cook India targets StudentMarket – launches University ToursThomas Cook India has launched University Tours in association with TheRed Pen.

Educational:

Experienced advisors from The Red Pen, India’s pre-

mier university admissions advising firm accompanies

the group on all admissions-related tours/ information

sessions to ensure appropriate contextualization for In-

dian applicants

Customized sessions and workshops at select univer-

sities

Pre-departure workshop with parents and students

Educational Workshops Conducted On Tour

Post-return individualized Counseling

Travel related:

Visa, flight (international and internal U.S.A) and hotel

accommodation (3-4 star properties)

Round-trip coach and daily local transportation

Entrance to attractions and activities

Daily breakfast and dinner (vegetarian & non-vegetar-

ian options)

Optional add-ons: full time tour from TCIL, supplemen-

tal travel insurance, lunch accommodation (veg/non-

vegetarian), customized tour extensions

Highlights

Balmer Lawrie Tours &

Travels, one of the

largest travel and tour agents

and the oldest IATA accred-

ited agency in India, will

strengthen its foothold by tak-

ing over Mumbai-based Vaca-

tions Exotica, one of the top

five players in the outbound

package tours sector.

This takeover will help

Kolkota-based Balmer Lawrie

to expand its value proposi-

tion and offer end-to-end serv-

ices in the Tours and MICE

segment as Vacations Exotica

brings with it a multi-talented

work force and a wide range of

holiday packages.

“Travel business is going

through a phase of consolida-

tion as service providers are

looking keenly to add value

added services which can en-

hance margin in their busi-

ness,” commented Ajoy

Lodha, partner at Singhi Ad-

visors which facilitated the

deal.

“The reduction of credit

periods in ticketing business

and price wars has pushed

margins down in air ticketing

business significantly. The

packaged tours business espe-

cially outbound has reason-

able entry barriers and also

far better margins and there

for attractive to players strong

in ticketing space,” he said.

Mumbai-based Singhi Advi-

sors has done a couple of deals

in the travel space earlier also.

These include sale of control-

ling stake in “Route Travels’’, a

subsidiary of Great Eastern

Shipping Company to “Air

Travels Bureau Ltd” and acqui-

sition of majority stake and

management control in Rs 430

cr billing company M/S Travel

Services International (TSI) by

India’s second largest online

travel company-Yatra.com in

the year 2011-12.

Vacations Exotica is billed

as one of the leading companies

in the organised outbound

tours space having grown to a

size in excess of Rs. 100 crores

in less than 6 years with offices

in more than 12 cities and fast

growing franchises in several

domestic and overseas mar-

kets. On the back of Balmer

Lawrie, the company has po-

tential to triple its business in 3

years.

Founded by two Scotsmen,

George Stephen Balmer and

Alexander Lawrie, in Kolkata,

Balmer Lawrie & Co. Ltd.

started its corporate journey as

a Partnership Firm on 1st Feb-

ruary 1867. Traversing the 147

years gone by, today Balmer

Lawrie is a Miniratna I Public

Sector Enterprise under the

Ministry of Petroleum & Natu-

ral Gas with a turnover of Rs

2762 crores and a profit of Rs

223 crores (FY 2012-13).

Balmer Lawrie is a much-re-

spected transnational diversi-

fied conglomerate with

presence in both manufactur-

ing and service sectors. Balmer

Lawrie is a market leader in

Logistics Services, Steel Bar-

rels, Industrial Greases & Spe-

cialty Lubricants and

Corporate Travel. by TNH DESK

Balmer Lawrie takes over Vacations ExoticaBalmer Lawrie & Co., a mini-ratna public sector undertaking with diversifiedbusiness portfolios, recently announced the take-over of holidays brand‘Vacations Exotica’ along with its people and business.

Tech News20


Rajesh Magow, Co-

founder & CEO-

India, MakeMyTrip

said, “Over the years we

have witnessed a consolida-

tion

and emergence of global

players in the India market,

which has further fuelled

the growth of Indian OTA

segment. Further, the

growth of the Indian travel

market has led Indian OTAs

to differentiate and focus on

non-air business streams to

drive revenue and prof-

itability.”

Indian OTAs’ feats in 2013

Speaking about the achieve-

ments of Indian OTAs in

2013, Magow said, “2013 has

seen some landmark mo-

ments for the Indian Travel

industry. The take-off of mo-

bile internet and applica-

tions has revolutionized the

OTA segment. Access chan-

nels have evolved with the

growing dependency on

smartphones, and today

more and more

p e o p l e

a r e

b o o k -

ing via

mobile, and

this trend is here

to stay for the coming

years.” Giving an example,

Magow said that Make-

MyTrip (MMT) received 20%

of our hotel bookings from

mobile. MMT has also seen

significant growth in online

travel purchase with the

availability of robust online

payment options. “At MMT,

we have options like Pay-at-

Hotel, which lets you book a

hotel for just Re.1 while rest

of the payment can be made

at the time of arrival,”

Magow said. “Also, Big Data

has emerged as an impor-

tant enabler for travel com-

panies to

e n -

gage better with customers

and deliver service effi-

ciently and intelligently. It

provides us a great opportu-

nity to positively impact

both the business-end and

the experience at the cus-

tomer-end through better

decision-making, greater

product and service innova-

tion and stronger customer

relationships that will be de-

livered by new approaches

to customer management,

revenue management and

internal operations.”

Tech trends in 2013

As regards important devel-

opments in terms of technol-

ogy in 2013 in online travel

space, Magow said, “We be-

lieve that the future of

eCommerce is on ‘mobile’.

Mobile applications are

changing the way in which

customers interact with

brands. Therefore, over the

last couple of years, we

strengthened focus on the

mobile channel as a growth

driver. We have launched

free apps for iPhone, Black-

berry, Windows and An-

droid phone users.”

He further said,

“With smart-

phone adop-

tion growing

at a phenom-

enal rate,

the number

of travel-re-

l a t e d

searches and

bookings via

mobiles has sky-

rocketed in the

past year. We feel mo-

bile apps will become an

important point of sale for

us in the near future. Mobile

Technologies will surely

propel eCommerce and

travel buying experience in

the coming years.”

According to Magow,

some of the top emerging

technology trends in 2013

were:

• Personalization - Con-

sumer-focused innovation

• The next level of Search

- Location-based/geospatial

search capabilities and Nat-

ural Language Processing

• Mobile Technologies –

serving and powering the in-

crease in Mobile Bookings

and Research

• Consolidation of indus-

try

• Experiential Travel

What holds 2014 for OTAs

Talking about his expecta-

tion from the New Year 2014

for OTAs, Magow said that

2014 looks bright as the

long-term growth perspec-

tive for India’s travel mar-

ket remains robust.

According to Magow, in this

year, the Indian aviation

market will see new airlines

such as Tata-SIA and AirA-

sia India launching their op-

erations. “These new

investments will definitely

have a positive impact on

the landscape of Indian

travel & tourism industry.

Mobile will continue to be an

important point of sale for

the industry in the near fu-

ture. Mobile Technologies

will surely propel e-com-

merce and travel buying ex-

perience in the coming

years,” said Magow, who be-

lieves that personalization

will be a big part of e-com-

merce moving forward as

guest expectations for more

personal experiences are on

the rise. “Personalization

will play in key role in all

forms of travel whether

business, leisure or activity

oriented. The goal will be to

provide travel experiences

and services that have a

lifestyle appeal, not just

Indian OTAs focuses onnon-air streams to driverevenuesOver the years the Indian OTAs havewitnessed a consolidation and emergence ofglobal players in the India market, fuellingfurther growth of Indian OTA segment.

“2013has seen some

landmark momentsfor the Indian Travel in-dustry. The take-off ofmobile internet and ap-plications has revolu-

tionized the OTAsegment.”

“Per-sonalization will

play in key role in allforms of travel whether busi-

ness, leisure or activity oriented.The goal will be to provide travel

experiences and services that have alifestyle appeal, not just specificfunctional benefits. At Make-MyTrip our focus for the nextfew years is the solid founda-

tion for personaliza-tion.”

Rajesh MagowCo-founder & CEO-India, MakeMyTrip

�Prem Kumar

specific functional benefits,”

said Magow. “At MakeMyTrip

our focus for the next few

years is the solid foundation

for personalization. For ex-

ample: from a CRM stand-

point, we send targeted mail-

ers and offers basis customer

purchase patterns and be-

havior to drive better conver-

sions and personalize our

interactions with customers,”

he added. According to

Magow, a key challenge for

2014 will be to understand as

to how best the Indian OTAs

can leverage the rapidly ex-

panding mobile space for cus-

tomer engagement as well as

brand building. Also, there is

an increased need to encour-

age Public-Private partner-

ships in the travel space to

ensure better services and

products for the traveller.

MMT’s performance in ‘13

“For us, 2013 has been a year

of continued growth and in-

vestment in the Hotels &

Packages category. The year

began on a good note and we

made some major announce-

ments early this year,”

Magow said. “We sponsored

Sunrisers Hyderabad IPL

team and launched a series of

TVC with the players to build

on our Hotels Lob. Another

strategic partnership came in

the form of in-film placement

in the movie Yeh Jawaani Hai

Deewani where we came on

board as the official travel

partner.”

MMT also continued to

make huge strides on the

Technology front in the last

year. Its focus on the Mobile

platform has paid off well.

“We have the highest number

of travel app download in the

country at 2 million down-

loads till date. We are the

only player to offer apps

across all popular platforms

– iOS, Android, Windows and

Blackberry. Our apps are also

the most functional – allow-

ing customers to do more

than just search, book and

pay, by also offering them lo-

cation-based dining options,

hotel reviews and more,” said

Magow. MMT launched an in-

novative application -

Routeplanner - that makes

travel planning faster and

easier. Developed exclusively

for the Indian traveller,

RoutePlanner integrates

availability of services like

flights, buses, trains and cabs

to display the various connec-

tivity options between any

two places in India.Today,

over 20% of our traffic comes

from mobile apps.

Speaking about plan of ac-

tion of MMT for the New Year,

Magow said, “As the coming

years shape up, one of the

key priorities for us will be to

build products that simplify

travel for customers across

various touch-points and

screens – web and mobile.”

He added, “With a share of

the travel market extending

to more than 50 per cent of all

online sales, we will continue

to roll out new services built

with a ‘mobile-first’ ap-

proach.”

Key points •Key challenge for Indian OTAs is to under-

stand as to how best they can leverage the rap-

idly expanding mobile space for customer

engagement as well as brand building.

•There is an increased need to encourage Pub-

lic-Private partnerships in the travel space to

ensure better services and products for the

traveller.

•Big Data has emerged as an important en-

abler for travel companies to engage better

with customers and deliver service efficiently

and intelligently.

•Big Data provides a great opportunity to pos-

itively impact both the business-end and the

experience at the customer-end.

•Personalization and consumer-focused inno-

vation was a key technology trend in 2013 in

online travel market space.


21Tech/Trade News

Ideal for holidays and

weekend travel, this ex-

clusive offer will be avail-

able till March 2014 for all the

customers of Avis India who

have a SBI Card, across all

Avis locations in the country.

This unique association with

Avis India will enable SBI

Card customers to plan their

next adventure with comfort

and luxury. Customers will

have the opportunity to

choose their vehicles from a

wide choice of cars including

Audi, Mercedes Benz and

BMW. SBI Card will be extend-

ing this exclusive discount

offer to its retail card and cor-

porate card customers.

Sunil Gupta, CEO, Avis

India, said, “The first three

months this year bring in

many long weekends, which

would mean people wanting to

travel to nearby destinations

with their families. Our tie up

with SBI Card thus, specially

targets the corporate, leisure

& individual travelers. It en-

ables them to hire a premium

car at a more affordable rate,

thereby assuring a comfort-

able journey.”

Speaking about this initia-

tive, Pallav Mohapatra, CEO,

SBI Cards and Payment Serv-

ices Private Limited, said, “At

SBI Card, it is our endeavor to

add value and make every ex-

perience a rewarding one.

This collaboration with Avis

India is one such step towards

adding style and luxury to

every getaway our customer

plans.” He further added, “We

have come up with some great

initiatives in 2013 and cus-

tomers can look forward to

more such attractive proposi-

tions in the New Year.”

With Avis India’s national

footprint and SBI Card’s value

added services, customers can

avail a 20% discount on car

bookings across 20 cities in

India. To avail this discount,

customers can simply log on to

http://www.avis.co.in/sbi.html.

Combining the experience of

premium cars and superior

services from Avis India, cus-

tomers can make every journey

a memorable one.

This offer has been struc-

tured such that, both individu-

als as well as corporate

customers of SBI Card can

avail the discount on booking

cars within India. For an indi-

vidual customer, this offer will

give their families a chance to

experience luxury travel at an

affordable price for that

much-needed weekend get-

away. by TNH DESK

Avis India, SBI Card usher the New Year withan exciting 20% discount on car bookingsBeginning the New Year on a festive note for all its customers, Avis Indiahas tied up with SBI Card to give a flat 20% discount to customers using aSBI Card for bookings with Avis India.

Sunil GuptaCEO, Avis India

Cruise News22


As she completes the final

stages of month-long dry-

dock revitalization, Royal

Caribbean International’s Nav-

igator of the Seas is primed to

resume year-round service

from Galveston, Texas, and

WOW the Lone Star State with

the area’ss most innovative and

contemporary Caribbean

cruise vacation. Part of an ex-

tensive fleetwide program to

enhance every Royal

Caribbean’ ship, Navigator of

the Seas will introduce new and

significantly enhanced dining

options; debut a new FlowRider

surf simulator; and offer a

glimpse ahead toward the

cruise line’s highly anticipated

Quantum of the Seas, with new

first-at-sea amenities.

Most anticipated of all the

ship’s revitalizations is the new

FlowRider surf simulator, the

center of the action atop the

deck 13 Sports Deck, as well as

the debut of Royal Caribbean’s

first Virtual Balconies in 81 in-

terior staterooms displaying

expansive, real-time views of

the ocean and destinations. Vir-

tual Balconies were first an-

nounced for Quantum of the

Seas, which debuts October

2014, and vacationers can be

among the first to experience

the innovation on Navigator of

the Seas – even before the

Quantum class is launched. Va-

cationers also can choose new

Panoramic Ocean View state-

rooms, featuring floor-to-ceiling

glass walls facing outward to

provide guests breathtaking,

unobstructed views all the time.

Navigator of the Seas’ guests

also can look forward to an ex-

panded lineup of eight dining

options, led by the debut of an

all-new modern Mexican spe-

cialty restaurant Sabor, featur-

ing a mouthwatering menu of

authentic, modern and unex-

pected Mexican dishes, such as

Oaxacan Ceviche of Red Snap-

per, Spicy Chicken Flautas, or

Chicken and Roasted Corn Em-

panada, topped with Green

mole and spicy peanut sauce –

to name a few. Sabor diners

also can delight in customized

guacamole and salsas, made

tableside right in front of their

eyes, as well as an assortment

of tacos, quesadillas and burri-

tos, all made with the freshest

ingredients. Sabor has a serv-

ice charge of $25 per guest.

Guests can complement their

experience with a curated

menu of tequilas, mezcal, and

Mexican beers, as well as deli-

cious sangrias and tableside-

mixed margaritas, for an

additional charge. Sabor’s

tequila flights also offer guests

a chance to sample a trio of

Plata, Reposado and Anejo

tequila, or savor the nuances

among three Reposado tequi-

las.

Furthermore, Navigator of

the Seas’ guests will be the first

to enjoy the fully revamped and

elevated Chops Grille: The New

American Steakhouse, which

marries contemporary flair to

traditional steakhouse offer-

ings. The first among Royal

Caribbean’s fleet to offer the

new menu, Chops Grille on

Navigator of the Seas will fea-

ture brand new selections, such

as the Veal Chop Parmesan,

slow broiled with caramelized

shallots and topped with

parmesan herb butter, a Slow-

braised Short Rib of Beef with

Bordelaise sauce, and a Dry-

aged Steak Burger served on a

brioche bun and topped with

melted gruyere and pancetta.

Guests also can still enjoy

Chops Grille classic cuts, such

as the 8 Oz. Filet Mignon,

served with Béarnaise butter,

and a 10 Oz. Grilled Sirloin

Steak, as well as a range of

new and delicious signature

appetizers, soups, salads, and

sides – such as new, decadent

Truffled French Fries and

Gruyere Cheese Tater Tots –

that will complete the experi-

ence in the cruise line’s hall-

mark specialty restaurant.

Chops Grille steakhouse has a

service charge of $35 per

guest.

Chops Grille also features

two new premium selections of

the finest quality cuts of beef in

the world, a 16 Oz. dry-aged

NY Strip Steak and a 20 Oz.

dry-aged Porterhouse Steak

(an additional $18 and $19 re-

spectively), each USDA prime

beef, dry-aged for four weeks

to achieve the pinnacle of fla-

vor, tenderness and aroma.

This dry-aged process can only

be found at select steakhouses

around the world, and now, in

a cruise industry first, is of-

fered aboard Royal Caribbean

International’s Chops Grille.

Navigator of the Seas’ guests

also can choose exciting sushi

and Asian fusion dishes in the

ship’s new Izumi Japanese

Cuisine (a la carte menu), and

delicious classic Italian fa-

vorites in Giovanni’s Table Ital-

ian trattoria ($15 for lunch and

$20 for dinner per guest).

Rounding out Navigator of the

Seas’ culinary experiences is

the grand, three-story main

dining room, newly renamed

Sapphire, the casual-dining

Windjammer Café, and compli-

mentary room service from 5 –

12 a.m. Navigator of the Seas’

specialty restaurants are

available for advance online

reservations for booked guests

at RoyalCaribbean.com.

Guests also will enjoy some

of the more popular concepts

that were introduced aboard

Royal Caribbean’s ground-

breaking Oasis-class ships,

such as new digital signage,

bow-to-stern Wi-Fi service,

new flat-panel televisions in

every stateroom, an oversized

LCD movie screen overlooking

the main pool, a new Diamond

Lounge for Crown & Anchor

Society loyalty member guests,

and the Royal Babies and Tots

Nursery for the youngest

guests ages six to 36 months.

Additionally, the ship’s Cham-

pagne Bar has been re-con-

ceptualized into Royal

Caribbean’s signature, retro-

chic R Bar. by TNH DESK

Royal Caribbean International’s Navigatorof the Seas gets Texas-Sized MakeoverShip features all-new wows, including Royal Caribbean’s first-ever virtualbalconies, Flow-Rider surf simulator and new dining program.

Trade News24


Being the pioneer of film-in-

duced tourism in India,

Ramoji Film City (RFC) is best

known as a world of thematic

destination where every mo-

ment spells magic for tourists

and is sure to take their breath

away. Recognized as the world’s

largest film studio complex by

Guinness World Records, RFC

offers a truly fascinating ambi-

ence and services perfect for a

wide range of itineraries like

leisure, MICE, conventions,

family holidays, weddings and

other events.

RFC in recent times has lined

up a slew of prestigious projects

that would enhance its image as

a prospective global destina-

tion. Ch Vijayeswari, Manag-

ing Director, RFC explained,

“We are emphasizing in areas of

leisure, hospitality and event

management and we have been

successful in enticing the corpo-

rate sector and leisure tourists.

We are targeting to create a

complete spectrum of film

tourism, religious, MICE and

eco-tourism. We have set up

eco-friendly projects including

Butterfly Park and Bonsai Gar-

den that offer up close experi-

ence with nature. Our

prominent new attractions that

would be opened for tourists

are Bird Park and Adventure

Land –Sahas. Being developed

with global experts as Asia’s

finest adventure land, Sahas is

spread into multiple zones and

would offer high-octane adven-

tures like harness course, net

course, paintball, zorbing, bike

rides, archery and rifle shooting,

ATV rides, inflatable zones and

pool area with highest stan-

dards of safety.” Sahas Ramoji

Adventure Land and Bird Park

are in tune with the aspirations

of the Indian youth.

RFC has been targeting to at-

tract a robust flow of leisure

tourists from across India. Vi-

jayeswari added, “The tourist

arrival stands at 1.5 million per

annum and on festive occasions,

the footfall increases manifold

since there is an exciting blend

of entertainment. In the pipeline

are projects like OM that would

comprise centuries-old shrines

of India to be recreated in one

huge complex, Ramoji Interna-

tional Convention Centre, a hos-

pitality district with hotel clus-

ters and Incredible India that

would house traditional homes

of divergent India.”

The most-sought-after hotspots

are Ramoji Movie Magic com-

prising the world of actions,

filmy duniya and Ramoji Tower,

Fundustan- children’s play area,

Eureka or fun zone and Bora-

sura. RFC has a comprehensive

marketing strategy. “We have

been launching novel experi-

ences and our innovative, pro-

motional marketing strategy

involves a mix of direct market-

ing, relationship marketing and

strategic partnerships with

travel groups. It is the domestic

sector that forms our potential

tourist market. We hope to ex-

pand by broad basing our ap-

peal across various spectrums.

The annual flow of tourists to

RFC has been 14 lakhs last year

and we are eyeing to draw 18

lakhs in the current year,” fur-

ther added Vijayeswari.

Magical wonders of RFCIt is the launch of new experiences and a host ofchallenging marketing strategies that contributeto the immense popularity of RFC, the largestglobal film studio.

Attractive proj-ects of RFC in thepipeline:•Sahas Ramoji Ad-venture Land•Bird Park and OM•Ramoji Interna-tional ConventionCentre•Hospitality district•Incredible India

Snapshot

�Swaati Chaudhury

Ch VijayeswariManaging Director, RFC

Emirates, a global connec-

tor of people and places,

operating flights to 141 desti-

nations in 80 countries has

launched a new customer ini-

tiative in India in partnership

with Visas of the World

(VOTW). With VOTW, Emi-

rates’ customers can now di-

rectly arrange their visas

online at www.emirates.com/in

for 10 international destina-

tions at the click of a button.

This service is a first of its kind

for any airline. As an introduc-

tory offer, Emirates will also be

waiving the visa service fee for

the first 100 visa applicants.

Emirates’ customers can

now log on to

www.emirates.com/in to apply

for visas to 10 destinations:

UK, USA, Canada, Switzer-

land, France, Germany, Italy,

Netherlands, Nigeria and

South Africa. With VOTW, Emi-

rates passengers will not need

to physically visit a visa office

to collect their application

forms or check their documen-

tation.

"Emirates has always

been committed to improving

the convenience of its pas-

sengers by providing best-in-

class services both on ground

and on board. VOTW is an-

other initiative to make it

even easier for Indian pass-

port holders to connect with

friends, family and business

contacts in 10 key global

travel destinations,” said

Essa Sulaiman Ahmad, Vice

President India and Nepal.

“We are therefore very happy

to partner with VOTW to

offer yet another unique serv-

ice that I am optimistic will

assist our many Indian cus-

tomers to travel abroad with

increased ease.”

“We believe that Visas of

the World is going to make it

even more convenient for

Emirates passengers to

arrange their visas to the 10

initial destinations”, said Mr.

Vishal Suri, Chief Executive

Officer, Visas of the World.

“Through our dedicated

teams, VOTW will provide

trained personnel to ensure

the service offered to Emi-

rates’ customers is of the

high standard that Emirates’

passengers are used to.”

The VOTW service will

initially be offered from all 10

of Emirates Indian gateways

namely, Mumbai, New Delhi,

Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmed-

abad, Bengaluru, Cochin,

Kozhikode, Hyderabad, and

Thiruvananthapuram. In ad-

dition, the VOTW service will

be available in six cities

where Emirates does not op-

erate direct flights; Baroda,

Pune, Goa, Jaipur, Lucknow

and Mangalore. by TNH DESK

Emirates and Visas of the World launchnew visa processing service for Indianpassport holdersFirst 100 Emirates customers to get visa service charge waiver.

Owing to the enthusiasm

Delhiites have for Kites

the three day festival which

started from 24 Jan, 2014 wit-

nessed huge crowds from all

parts of Delhi.

The three day extrava-

ganza remained a hit among

visitors as they witnessed

some of the most unique kites

ever. There were Hexagon

shaped kites, kathakali kites

from Kerala, dragon kites,

guitar shaped kites, eagle

shaped kite, box kites, penta-

gon kites, Bhagat Singh kite

etc.

Delhi International Kite

Festival provided visitors a

perfect opportunity to unwind

and witness kites of all shapes

and sizes which adorned the

skyline of Delhi. There were

kites which were 33 meter

long. Visitors were delighted

to see India’s smallest Kite

whose size was only one inch.

An Exhibition hall on the His-

tory of Kites enlightened visi-

tors about this age old art.

This stall had Kites of differ-

ent sizes from one square inch

to 70 square inch, Kites made

of Tissue Paper, Elastic Paper,

Bamboo, Cloth, etc on display.

The highlights of this year’s

festival were night kite flying

with LED Kites and Kite

Trails which had more than

150 Kites.

The three day festival had

magic shows every day, cul-

tural programs by Sahitya

Kala Parishad & Punjabi

Academy every evening and

there was a special painting

competition for children on

the second day of the event.

Delhi International Kite

Festival had foreign partici-

pants from UK, US, France,

Lebanon, Indonesia and South

Korea. There were 30 Indian

kite flyers who came from Ra-

jkot, Mangalore, Trivandrum,

Chandigarh, Hyderabad,

Ahmedabad, Chennai and

Kerala.

S.K Srivastava, Chief Sec-

retary, Government of Delhi

visited Delhi International

Kite Festival in the concluding

day and applauded Delhi

Tourism for organizing this

annual Kite Festival.

The festival was inaugu-

rated by Somnath Bharti, Min-

ister of Tourism, Law, Art &

Culture and Administrative

Reforms, Govt. of Delhi on 24

Jan, 2014.

Spirit of Delhi soared high

in this one of a kind annual

festival organized by Delhi

Tourism whose sole purpose

is to revive the age old fading

tradition and provide Delhi-

ites an opportunity to wit-

ness patabgbazi out in the

open. by TNH DESK

Delhi International KiteFestival 2014 concludesDelhi Tourism recently organized DelhiInternational Kite Festival 2014 in the nationalcapital wherein International kite flyers dotted thecity's skyline with colourful Kites.


25Government News

Government News26


Chhattisgarh Tourism

Board recently organ-

ized Sirpur National Dance

and Music Festival 2014,

which was held on January

4-6, 2014 at Sirpur (Ma-

hasamund District) in

Chhattisgarh. Situated 84

km away from Raipur, the

capital of the state, on the

bank of Mahanadi, Sirpur is

a small town well-known for

its rich cultural heritages

and archaeological monu-

ments. The objective behind

organizing this annual festi-

val is to promote art and

culture of the state, and cre-

ate universal brotherhood

through promotion of art,

culture and music. Well-

known singer of Hindustani

classical music Shubha

Mudgal, Sufi singers Wadali

brothers and many other

noted artists graced the oc-

casion with their perform-

ance.

The Sirpur national

dance and music festival

has been started to create

awareness about the an-

cient Buddha and other her-

itages of Sirpur across the

world and promote Bud-

dhist and other historical

sites of the town, and estab-

lish Sirpur firmly in the

tourism map of the world.

The Chief Minister of the

state Dr. Raman Singh in-

augurated the three-day fes-

tival at the 1,500-year-old

famous Laxman temple of

Sirpur in the presence of

many dignitaries including

the Tourism and Culture

minister of the State Ajay

Chandrakar, Member of Par-

liament from Mahasamund

Chandulal Sahu and local

MLA Vimal Chopra. Repub-

lic of Korea’s Ambassador

to India, Lee Jungu was

chief guest at the inaugural

function.

Explaining the objective

of the Sirpur festival, San-

tosh Mishra, Managing Di-

Sirpur Dance and Music Festival2013 concludesSirpur National Dance and Music Festival 2014 saw the presence ofartists of national and international reputes from across the countryshowcasing rich cultural diversity of India and enchanting audiencewith their outstanding performance.

�Prem Kumar


27Government News

rector, CTB said that the Sir-

pur National Dance and

Music Festival is to create

awareness about local tradi-

tional arts and culture and

ancient monuments of the

town. According to Mishra,

this will also help in promot-

ing Sirpur as tourist destina-

tion.

This was the second time

Sirpur National Dance and

Music Festival was organ-

ised. The grand festival

brings together all kinds of

dance and music forms of

the country on one platform,

and showcases the diverse

art forms of the country. This

festival has established its

own unique identity in the

sense that eminent artistes

of national and international

repute participate and per-

form Indian classical, folk

and tribal dances and music

of India as well as Chhattis-

garh on the enchanting

stage of Sirpur in the monu-

mental and archeological

place.

Sirpur has rich heritage

of Buddhism. The town is

home to many remains of

Boudh Vihars. The main at-

tractions for tourist at Sir-

pur are The Laxman temple

Anand Prabhu, Kuti Vhar,

Swastik, Vihar and other

historic monuments.

erala wit-

nessed 7.94 lakh foreign

tourists arrival in 2012 as

compared to 7.33 lakh in 2011.

Compared to 93.88 lakh do-

mestic tourists in 2011, 1.01 cr

domestic tourists visited Ker-

ala in 2012. The Foreign ex-

change earnings had also

gone up from `4221.99 cr in

2011 to `4548 cr in 2012. The

total revenue, both direct and

indirect from tourism touched

`21,125 cr in 2012 compared

to `19,037 cr in 2011.

New Initiatives in God’s

Own Country

Government of Kerala has

rolled out two new initiatives

‘Seaplane Project’ and ‘Pro-

ject Muziris’ in order to en-

hance the travel experience

and add to its array of tourist

sites. Where the former proj-

ect is aimed towards improv-

ing last mile connectivity by

air to its destinations across

state, the latter is directed to

reinstate the historical and

cultural significance of the

legendary port of Muziris.

For the Seaplane Project

the plan is to provide service

initially in the priority circuit,

consisting of the three air-

ports of Trivandrum, Cochin

& Calicut and the prime desti-

nations viz. Astamudi, Punna-

mada, Kumarakom, Bolgatty

and Bekal in the state.

The Muziris Heritage Site

(MHS) stretches across from

the municipality of North Par-

avur in Ernakulam district to

that of Kodungalloor in Thris-

sur district. Project’s objective

is to promote awareness and

understanding of the cultural

distinctiveness and diversity

of Muziris. More than 25 mu-

seums will be there to show-

case the Muziris Heritage.

On the trail of the Spice

Route

Another amazing initiative in

the offing is the Spice Route

Revival Project. Kerala's ini-

tiative to revive and promote

the two millennia-old spice

route, that links the south

western coast of India up to

Europe, through tourism has

received a boost, with the

United Nations World

Tourism Organisation

(UNWTO) pledging support to

the venture. Delegates at a

three-day international meet

in August on Silk Road

tourism organized by the

UNWTO in the northwestern

Chinese city of Dunhuang ap-

preciated a presentation on

Spice Route.

Other Noteworthy Projects

Kerala Tourism has come out

with a unique nature based

soft adventure holidays pro-

gram NATVENTURE. The

idea behind this is to use the

key tourism products - -

Wildlife, Hill Stations,

Beaches, Backwaters etc and

engage the possibilities of ad-

venture activities they pres-

ent. Kerala Natventure

activities include Trekking,

camping, Rock Climbing, Jun-

gle, Wildlife safaris, Bird

watching, Cycling, Kayaking,

Canoeing and paragliding.

Another forward initiative

is the virtual world launch of

the new 'Great Backwaters'

campaign. Ahead of the tradi-

tional media, the campaign is

to unveil the state's majestic

backwaters as a single desti-

nation.

A new campaign, Home of

Ayurveda was also launched

to promote Ayurveda through

all medium. Introduced Bake-

lasa new destination in north

Kerala.

From a seasonal tourist

place, Kerala was elevated to

an all season destination

through a successful Dream

Season campaign launched

during the off-season.

To identify and promote

40 new destinations in five

years, over 40 new tourist

centres have been spotted,

project reports prepared and

sanctioned for development.

Real progress in the virtual

world

In a short span of time, Kerala

Tourism has made a mark in

the Digital world. Kerala

Tourism has 852238 Fans on

Facebook, 20818 followers on

Twitter and the Kerala

Tourism YouTube channelhas

5,199subscribers, 7,110,913

views.

New website has been

launched recently with a

fresh look and increased ac-

cessibility with more infor-

mation, 1500 pictures and

3000 videos.

We have tapped into the

vast potential of information

technology for promoting

Kerala Tourism in the global

market. Kerala Tourism’s

website, which attracts the

maximum number of visitors,

has been translated into var-

ious Indian languages like

Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati,

Tamil, Kannada and Telugu,

as well as foreign languages

including Dutch, Italian, Por-

tuguese and Swedish.

Kerala has emerged as

the No. 1 travel destination in

Google search trends, edging

out TajMahal. This is a testi-

mony to the international

recognition of brand Kerala.

Cultural Events showcas-

ing Kerala

Utsavam 29th December to

19th January

Kerala has switched on to

a festive mode to give a feel of

its traditional and folk arts to

domestic and foreign tourists

as the high tourist season got

under way. Branded as 'Ut-

savam', the cultural extrava-

ganza will be staged in 60

venues across all the 14 dis-

tricts of Kerala for three

weeks. 'Utsavam' (festival)

has been an annual event

since 2007.

Nishagandhi Festival

To be held between January

20th - 26th, 2014 this year.

Renowned dancers perform

Bharat Natyam, Mohiniyat-

tam, Kathak, Odissi, modern

ballet and other folk forms.

Artist and connoisseurs of

dance from all over India

come to enjoy this cultural

treat. The festival is organ-

ised by KTDC. by TNH DESK

Kerala Tourismattracts more touristswith New InitiativesRegisters consistent rise in both international anddomestic tourist arrivals

K

Government News28


Oscar Fernandes, the

Union Minister for

Road Transport and High-

ways has called upon all

stake holders to rededicate

their Road Safety efforts to

reduce road fatalities by 50

per cent in next five years.

Oscar Fernandes, said this

while addressing a confer-

ence of stakeholders in Road

Safety, here today. He said

the Ministry of Road Trans-

port and Highways, being the

nodal Ministry for Road

Safety is working closely

with all other stakeholders

to make a difference in the

near future. Expressing con-

cern over 1.38 lakh lives lost

in around 4.9 lakh road acci-

dents reported during previ-

ous year, Oscar Fernandes

said all out efforts are being

made to strengthen safety on

Indian roads. However, Road

Safety responsibility also

lies with private agencies,

different associations, non-

governmental organizations

and individual road users, he

added. The Minister said It is

necessary for all stakehold-

ers viz. the Government, the

corporate houses, Automo-

biles and Transport Associa-

tions, teachers and parents,

the Electronic and Print

Media, the NGO’s and the Ac-

ademia, to join hands to col-

lectively address the issues

and concerns of road safety

so that precious lives can be

saved.

Earlier speaking on the

occasion, Vijay Chibber, the

Secretary, Road Transport &

Highways informed that bi-

cycle users happen to be one

of the most vulnerable road

users, susceptible to the high

rate of road accidents. Dur-

ing the year 2012, 6600 cy-

clists were killed in road

accidents. Non-visibility of

bicycle rider due to lack of

proper reflective devices in-

stalled on each and every bi-

cycle is the most critical

reasons for the high rate of

accidents with motorized ve-

hicles. Cycle by its definition

is not a motorized vehicle

and the Ministry is not in a

position to do much. How-

ever, the Ministry of Con-

sumer Affairs has been

approached in this respect.

Road Safety is a continuous

engagement and can be en-

sured by making it a mass

movement programme he

added.

Children and youth are

among the most vulnerable.

The age group (15-24 years)

accounted for 32.3 per cent of

total road accident casualties

during the year 2012. It is the

Ministry’s Endeavour to

make road safety a social

movement in partnership

with schools and Universi-

ties. Educational institutions

can play a very important

role in promoting road safety.

They can organize road

safety activities at school and

colleges and create opportu-

nities for students to engage

in road safety programmes.

In order to give a boost to

emergency care of the acci-

dent victims, the Ministry has

launched a pilot project for

cashless treatment up to

`30,000 for first 48 hours for

road accident victims on Gur-

gaon-Jaipur section of NH 8.

Ambulances connected with

the control room through

GPS having toll-free number

1033 for assistance are sta-

tioned to provide treatment

while taking the injured to

the hospitals.

In order to spread road

safety awareness “Road

Safety Week” is observed all

over the country in the month

of January every year. The

25th road safety week was

celebrated from 11st January

to 17th January 2014. The

theme for Road Safety Week

this year is “When on the

road, always say “Pahle

Aap”. The function of the 25th

road safety week was held at

India International Centre on

16th January 2014. The rep-

resentatives from various

Ministries / Departments,

Transport & Police Depart-

ments/ Transport Associa-

tions/ Vehicle Manufacturers

/ School & colleges/Media

Houses etc. attended the

function. by TNH DESK

Resolve to reduce road fatalities by50% in next 5 years: Oscar Fernandes Fernandes recently presented road safety awards to state transportorganisations. On the occasion, new logo was also launched marking 25Years of the Road Safety Week.

All road users must in-

culcate the spirit of “Pehle

Aap” to avoid accidents and

make roads safer. This was

stated by Vijay Chibber, the

Secretary Road Transport

and Highways here this

morning at the beginning of

Road Safety Walk organized

by the Ministry of Road

Transport and Highways

(RTH) at India Gate.The Sec-

retary said that “Pehle Aap”

attitude in “Lukhnavi

Tehzib” has the potential of

creating goodwill among

road users, influencing their

behavior on roads and as a

result reducing number of

road accidents/mishaps. He

said the Ministry will con-

tinue with it’s efforts to re-

duce road accident fatalities

through engaging larger

communities and stakehold-

ers in various awareness ac-

tivities on road safety.

Vijay Chibber, the Sec-

retary, RTH, Taj Hassan,

Special CP Traffic, represen-

tatives of various stakehold-

ing organizations, children

from various schools and

senior officers of the Min-

istry also participated in the

2km walk. As an endeavor to

make road safety a social

movement, the walk aimed

at involving youth, school

and college students and all

stakeholders including Po-

lice, Transport Departments

and others to work together

to raise awareness about

road safety issues, promot-

ing responsible road use,

need to help road accident

victims in time and to miti-

gate sufferings to victims

and their families that result

from crashes and casualties.

All States and Union Territo-

ries (UT’s) are also organiz-

ing Walks today.

The Ministry of Road

Transport and Highways ob-

served 25th National Road

Safety Week from 11th-17th

January this year. The “Na-

tional Road Safety Week” is

observed throughout the

country, in the month of Jan-

uary every year, to highlight

the need to make roads safe

and to give all stakeholders

an opportunity to take part

in concerted efforts for the

cause. by TNH DESK

Inculcate the Spirit of‘Pehle Aap’ to Make RoadsSafer: Vijay ChibberCountrywide Road Safety Walks were organisedrecently to make road safety a social movement

The “National Road Safety Week” is observed throughout thecountry in January every year to highlight the need to makeroads safe and to give all stakeholders an opportunity to takepart in concerted efforts for the cause. The theme of this year’sRoad Safety awareness was ‘When on road, always say‘Pehle Aap’ to educate all drivers in this etiquette of ‘LukhnaviTehzib’ requiring them to be more generous and consideratetowards fellow road users. This attitude of ‘Pehle Aap’ will helpcheck rash driving and make road journeys less stressful.


29Government News

Government News30


Inaugurating the bi-cente-

nary celebrations of In-

dian Museum in Kolkata

recently, Dr. Singh said that

on the whole, while our mu-

seums have been successful

in disseminating the rich

past of our country, it is also

necessary to ask whether

they should not attune their

approaches and strategies

so that they are more in

keeping with the enhanced

connotation of the term mu-

seum. He called upon the

management of the Indian

Museum to see itself as an

agent of change and develop-

ment. “As it renews its jour-

ney, it should seriously think

about its role as a purveyor

of knowledge. It is not

enough in today’s world to

house a collection. A mu-

seum needs to document,

study and analyse its own

collections, make compar-

isons with similar collections

held elsewhere and build up

collaborations with other

great museums whose col-

lections reflect and shed

light on what it holds,” said

Singh, adding, “The first re-

quirement for this purpose is

the development of trained

personnel. Unfortunately,

museology is a woefully neg-

lected field in our country.

The Indian Museum can and

must take a leadership role

in making good this defi-

ciency. By doing so, it will

not only enrich its own col-

lection, but will also help

other museums across the

country.”

Dr. Singh further said,

“Museums across the world

are now important tourist

destinations. Many great

cities of our time are defined

by the presence of some

truly outstanding museums

in them. People travel thou-

sands of miles to visit muse-

ums. To be truly enriching,

the visit must be a complete

experience. This means ex-

tensive support in terms of

signage, documentation and

cataloguing. Museums must

become attractive places

where visitors can observe

and learn in a relaxing at-

mosphere.”

The Indian Museum needs

to build up this kind of infra-

structure and take its right-

ful place as one of the great

museums of the world. The

restoration that has been

completed is a very good

start. I would strongly urge

the introduction of multi-lin-

gual audio guides that will

give the visitor a detailed

and authentic account of the

major items and displays.

It should be the objective

of the Museum to become an

essential port of call for any

visitor to Kolkata, especially

those from abroad. It should

offer the visitor an exciting

and educative prospect of

spending a few hours sam-

pling the best of Indian art,

sculpture, and other histori-

cal artefacts, giving a

glimpse of our extraordinary

and rich traditions. The Mu-

seum’s collection is fully up

to providing such an experi-

ence.

Congratulating the staff of

the Indian Museum for the

work they have done in pre-

serving our precious her-

itage and in restoring the

Museum, Dr. Singh urged

them to enhance the magic

of the Indian Museum by

making it a more living and

interactive space that en-

thrals all those who visit here

to experience the wonder that

is, and always will be, India.

On this occasion, Dr. Singh

unveiled the modernised In-

dian Museum and released a

commemorative postage

stamp and a monograph on

the History of 200 years of In-

dian Museum. Dr. Singh said

that it was a pleasure for him

to see the exhibits in their

new restored setting and he

commended the Director and

his staff for the hard work

that they have put in.

This Museum, founded in

1814, has survived two hun-

dred years in the midst of his-

toric upheavals. It was the

first to be established in India

and is perhaps the largest in

the Asia-Pacific Region and

older than the Smithsonian

Institution, which is the

largest museum in the world.

Its establishment served as a

model, not only for other mu-

seums, but also a number of

institutions of national impor-

tance.

Dr. Singh said that it is

ironic that the Indian Mu-

seum was founded by west-

ern academics and

intellectuals and that too at a

time when parts of our coun-

try had already begun to fall

under the colonial yoke. Nev-

ertheless, these enlightened

individuals were products of

the Age of Enlightenment,”

said Dr. Singh, adding that

eighteenth century India was

in any case an interesting

subject for contemporary

western scholars who wanted

to study India’s historical

past and cultural and scien-

tific achievements.

by TNH DESK

Indian museums shouldbe important touristdestinations: PM

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has saidthat the Indian museums should play the role ofinstitutions of learning and important touristdestinations.

“Museums across the world are now importanttourist destinations. People travel thousands ofmiles to visit museums. To be truly enriching, thevisit must be a complete experience. This means ex-tensive support in terms of signage, documentationand cataloguing. Museums must become attractiveplaces where visitors can observe and learn in a re-laxing atmosphere.”


31Government News

The Calendar was

launched by Parvez

Dewan, Tourism

Secretary in a function in

the Capital. Launching the

calendar, Dewan said that

every State has been cov-

ered and suitable regions

and regional balance has

been maintained. All the

north-eastern States have

also been represented in

the calendar. Parvez Dewan

said that the calendar cap-

tures the rich variety and

wide spectrum of destina-

tions offered by India.

The calendar has also

been launched digitally

wherein it can be seen at

the website of the Ministry

www.incredibleindia.org.

All the pages of the calen-

dar have been made avail-

able through high

resolution photographs on

the website.

The January month

shows the Kalpeni Island,

Lakshadweep and Spiti Val-

ley, Himachal Pradesh. The

February month takes the

travellers to the Siang

River, Arunachal Pradesh

and Aizawl, Mizoram.

The month of March cap-

tures the Junagarh Fort,

Gujarat and the Royal Ben-

gal Tiger and Sunderbans,

West Bengal. Keeping in

view the festival of

Baisakhi, the month of April

has the picture of Golden

Temple and Sri Meenakshi

Temple, Madurai, Tamil-

nadu.

The month of May de-

picts the scene of the Betla

National Park, Jharkhand

and the Great Buddha,

Bodh Gaya, Bihar whereas

the month of June shows

the pictures of Manda Peak,

Uttarakhand and Hu-

mayun’s Tomb, Delhi.

July month is depicted

with the photos of Cave

Temples & Monastries of El-

lora, Maharashtra and Chi-

trakoot Falls, Chattisgarh.

The pictures of the Jagan-

nath Temple, Tripura and

the Classical Dance Raas

Leela, Manipur adorn the

calender month August.

Aayi Mandapam,

Puducherry and the Tiru-

mala Venkateswara Temple

of Andhra Pradesh are

shown with the month of

September. October shows

the Diu Fort, Daman & Diu

and Dzukou Valley, Naga-

land. The calendar ends

with the pictures of One-

horned Rihonceros, Kazi-

ranga, Assam, Basilica of

Bom Jesus, Goa and Ling-

dum Monastery, Sikkim &

Signature Golf Course, Gur-

gaon, Haryana for the

months of November and

December respectively.

The Tourism Secretary

also highlighted the efforts

of the Ministry on revamp-

ing the website of Incredible

India. He said that the print

ready material would be

made available on the web-

site which would facilitate

the professionals in the

tourism industry to bring

out brochures and other

publicity material. This in-

formation would be pro-

vided in 10 languages –

English, Arabic, Chinese,

Russian, Spanish, French,

Korean Japanese, Por-

tuguese, Italian, and German

in addition to Hindi. Dewan

also highlighted the fact that

information about 15 Sound

and Light Shows have been

provided through YouTube in

Dolby sound which is the

first of its kind in the entire

world. by TNH DESK

MoT launches ‘Incredible India PromotionalCalendar 2014’The Ministry of Tourism ((MoT), Government of India recently launchedthe ‘Incredible India Promotional Calendar 2014,’ which contains 24photographs on double sided paper.

The Delhi-Jaipur Ex-

pressway is one of the

announcements of the

Prime Minister in Novem-

ber 2013 which has been

taken up as a priority proj-

ect of the government. As

on date, there is no ex-

pressway built by the Cen-

tral Government and the

Delhi-Jaipur Expressway

would be the first.

Ministry of Road Trans-

port & Highways has esti-

mated that the total

project cost for the Delhi-

Jaipur Expressway will be

approximately Rs.9,460

crore and with land acqui-

sition and pre-construction

activities, the cost is esti-

mated at Rs.11,750 crore.

The total road length will

be 272 km. The Ministry

plans to sign the State

Support Agreement by

28.2.2014 and the Project

would be awarded by Sept

2014 after completing all

the intermediate steps.


port & Highways has exam-

ined multiple financing

options for the expressway

and will proceed with the

most viable one. If success-

ful, the Delhi-Jaipur Ex-

pressway model can be

replicated for all other ex-

pressways in the country,

which are by and large

parallel to existing Na-

tional Highways.


port & Highways has been

asked to bring a Note to

Cabinet seeking in-princi-

ple approval by February

28, 2014.

by TNH DESK

PM speeds up Delhi-Jaipur Expressway

“Every State has been covered and suit-able regions and regional balance has been

maintained. All the north-eastern Stateshave also been represented in the calen-

dar. The calendar captures the rich variety

and wide spectrum of destinations offeredby India.”

Government News32


Tourism has bounced

back to normalcy in

Odisha and the

Phailin tragedy is all set to be-

come a thing of the past. In a

major drive to entice global

tourists into the state, Odisha

Tourism is taking the first

step by hosting second Inter-

national Buddhist Conference

at Udayagiri that forms an in-

tegral part of diamond trian-

gle along with Lalitagiri and

Ratnagiri in the state.

The conclave is an at-

tempt to offer a big boost to

the state as a potential Bud-

dhist destination and is held

from February 1 to 3.

Manoranjan Patnaik, Direc-

tor, Odisha Tourism said,

“There are 324 Buddhist sites

identified till today of which

108 sites are equipped with

stupas and monasteries.

Around 300 domestic and

global delegates made to the

conference last year. We are

looking ahead to bring a lot of

global tour operators on des-

tination familiarization trip to

the state in a bid to explore

the tourism potential of the

land. The upcoming Buddhist

destinations are Langudi,

Jaugada, Kuruma, Radha

Nagar and Kayama.”

The department of

tourism is putting a plethora

of emphasis on development

of beach tourism. Patnaik fur-

ther said, “There are a num-

ber of prominent beaches

along the 480 km coastline in

the state and the popular ones

are Puri, Chandrabhaga, Tal-

sari, Gopalpur and Chandipur.

For the first time, we have

come up with mechanized

beach cleaning at Puri beach

and this will be introduced in

other beach destinations. We

are laying stress on rural and

experiential tourism to in-

crease the global tourist foot-

fall. We have launched our

new Tourism Policy in 2013

that provides a lot of incen-

tives to private sector for de-

velopment of tourism. We

have also leased out our prop-

erties to private groups on

long-term basis in an attempt

to create quality infrastruc-

ture and accommodation op-

tions.” The department has

made a premier attempt to

hold tourism road shows

across Indian cities.

The tourism department is

making plans to welcome a

large chunk of tourists at the

Car Festival or Nabakalebara

to be held in Puri in 2015. The

grand event is held once in 12

years. Patnaik added, “The

enchanting tourist places are

Puri, Chilika, Chandipur,

Gopalpur, Talsari and other

eco-tourist spots and we are

hopeful that the flow of do-

mestic and global tourists

would be satisfactory in the

current year. We are focusing

on few potential global

tourism markets like Ger-

many, France, Italy, Sweden,

the United Kingdom and the

South-East Asian countries

like Bhutan, Malaysia, Korea,

Thailand and Japan.”

Odisha Tourism is making

a strong presence in global

tourism marts and is into ag-

gressive promotion in print

and electronic media. “Nearly

1 crore domestic tourists and

71,000 foreign tourists visited

the land last year. We are hop-

ing for 15 per cent growth in

tourist arrival in the ensuing

year,” further added Patnaik.

Odisha Tourism takes significant leapPost-Phailin tragedy, Odisha Tourism is setting a big boost to draw bothglobal and domestic travelers into the state.

Manoranjan PatnaikDirector, Odisha Tourism

•Second Interna-tional Buddhist Con-ference at Udayagiri.•New Buddhist desti-nations opened.•Introduced mecha-nized beach cleaningat Puri beach.•Grand Car Festivalin Puri, 2015.

Snapshot

�Swaati Chaudhury

FTAs: Despite negative

signals from the global econ-

omy, the number of foreign

tourist arrivals in the country

in 2013 showed an increase of

about 4.1 % over 2012. During

the period January- Decem-

ber 2013, 68.48 lakh (Provi-

sional) tourists visited India

against 65.78 lakh in 2012.

FEEs from Tourism: For-

eign exchange earnings from

tourism in rupee terms dur-

ing 2013 were Rs.1,05,836

crore (Provisional) with a

growth of 12.0% over the

same period in 2012.The for-

eign exchange earnings dur-

ing 2012 was to the tune of

Rs.94,487 crore. FEE from

tourism in terms of US$ dur-

ing January to December

2013 were US$ 18.133 billion

with a growth of 2.2%, as

compared to US$ 17.737 bil-

lion with a growth of 7.1%

during January-December

2012 over the corresponding

period of 2011.

Domestic Tourism: Do-

mestic tourism continues to

be the main contributor to the

sector providing much needed

resilience. The domestic

tourist visits during the year

2012 are estimated to be 1036

million (Provisional), showing

a growth of 19.9% over 2011

Infrastructure Develop-

ment: Infrastructure develop-

ment holds the key to India’s

sustained growth in the

tourism sector. Therefore, the

Ministry of Tourism has been

making efforts to develop

quality tourism infrastructure

at tourist destinations and

circuits. Ministry has sanc-

tioned `4090.31 crore for a

total number of 1226 tourism

projects, which includes proj-

ects relating to Product/ In-

frastructure Development for

Destination and Circuits

(PIDDC), Human Resource

Development (HRD), Fairs

and Festivals and Adventure

& Rural Tourism for infra-

structure augmentation.

Broad Basing of Hospi-

tality Education: In order to

meet the huge skill gap in the

hospitality industry, the Min-

istry has adopted a multi-

pronged strategy which

includes strengthening and

expanding the institutional

infrastructure for training

and education. For this pur-

pose, Ministry of Tourism

supports creation of new In-

stitutes of Hotel Management

(IHM) and Food Craft Insti-

tutes (FCI) in States besides

providing financial assistance

for modernization and capac-

ity enhancement of existing

IHMs and FCIs.

The National Council for

Hotel Management and

Catering Technology

(NCHMCT), the administra-

tive body for the Institutes of

Hotel Management (IHMs) is

poised to tie up with Ecole

Hoteliere de Lausanne,

Switzerland for the upgrada-

tion of curriculum and teach-

ing methods at all IHMs in the

country. by TNH DESK

2013 was a successful year for MoTMinistry of Tourism (MoT), Government of India achieved many feats inthe last year.


33Government News

Government of Chhattis-

garh will consider the pos-

sibility of connecting far-off and

inaccessible tourist spots of the

state by helicopter services for

tourists so that tourists have

easy access to these destina-

tions. This was informed by the

State Tourism Minister Ajay

Chandrakarduring his interac-

tion with the representatives of

the Chhattisgarh Hotels Associ-

ations and Travel Associations.

The interaction took place re-

cently in Raipur, the capital of

the state. Helicopter services to

the faraway destinations may

be launched with cooperation of

travel agents, said the minister.

He also discussed with the in-

dustry representatives possibil-

ity of the industry and the state

government working together to

develop tourist amenities. The

tourism minister said that the

state government is taking all

possible steps to develop tourist

facilities at historical sites and

key locations of natural beau-

ties in the state. The meeting

was organized by Chhattisgarh

Tourism Board (CTB). The min-

ister said that 121 important lo-

cations from tourism point of

view have been identified by

CTB to develop there basic

amenities so that maximum

number of tourists can visit the

locations. The minister said

that these are the destinations

which can easily be put on the

tourism maps of the world and

the country.

Chandrakar said that for bet-

ter accommodation and travel

facilities for tourist coming to

the state, the state government

would work with hotel associa-

tions and travel associations.

On the occasion hotel own-

ers and travel agents offered

many advices to agents. The

tourism minister assured them

to consider their suggestions

seriously. The minister said

that the state government and

the tourism industry would

work together to develop basic

facilities for tourist at tourists

destination at the state, and

solve other problems of the in-

dustry.

Chandrakar informed that list

of registered travel agencies

and information of the process

of registration will be uploaded

on the website of the CTB.

Chhattisgarh to consider linking farawaytourist spots with helicopter servicesThe state has indentified 121 important locations from tourism point ofview to develop there basic amenities in order to attract a large numberof tourists to these locations.

Well-known as the desti-

nation of surprise, the

land of Chhattisgarh with 44

per cent forest area offers a

plethora of options for eco-

tourism. Encouraged by the

tremendous success of Sirpur

National Dance and Music Fes-

tival, the state tourism depart-

ment has set the ball rolling by

taking a series of initiatives to

develop tourism infrastruc-

ture, investment on hospitality

industry, wayside amenities

and has taken up aggressive

promotion and marketing to

bring about comprehensive de-

velopment in tourism.

P Sen Bhowmick, General

Manager, Chhattisgarh

Tourism Board informed, “We

are concentrating on niche

segments of religious tourism

to woo domestic tourists. Our

key focus areas include rural

tourism, photography tourism,

camping and caravan tourism,

cave tourism, wellness and ad-

venture tourism. The state is

also emerging in the market of

MICE tourism. We are concen-

trating our efforts to boost

Buddhist tourism and the visit

of His Holiness, Dalai Lama to

Sirpur highlights the signifi-

cance of the state as a promi-

nent Buddhist site.”

Sirpur National Dance and

Music Festival, the most-

awaited grand event was held

from January 4 to 6 in the New

Year. There are renowned In-

dian artists performing at the

event. “The festival has been

augmenting the grandeur of

the destination and highlights

the best of Chhattisgarh’s tra-

ditional music and dance

forms. This kind of event not

only stimulates the demand in

tourist arrival but also ensures

the economic and social uplift-

ment of the region,” said Sen

Bhowmick.

The department of tourism

is also focusing on cleanliness

drive since the flow of tourists

would be up if the tourism as-

sets are looked upon well. “We

are emphasizing on manpower

training and generating em-

ployment options with a view

to create human resource for

travel trade and hospitality

sector under the scheme –

Hunar se Rozgar Tak. We are

encouraging development of

destinations on public-private

partnership model (PPP).

There were only a few proper-

ties at the time of formation of

the state that have grown to 38

and 14 more properties are in

the pipeline. We have identified

few destinations for integrated

and circuit tourism,” added

Sen Bhowmick.

The tourism department

has published promotional lit-

erature in seven languages in-

cluding Korean, Thai,

Chinese, Japanese, Viet-

namese, Sinhalese and Eng-

lish. “The state is a popular

eco-ethno tourist destination

and we are attracting domes-

tic tourists into our niche seg-

ments. We are trying to tap

global tourists from East and

South-East Asia,” added Sen

Bhowmick. The state had

around 1.5 crore inbound

tourists and 4,172 foreign visi-

tors in the last fiscal.

On a growth curveChhattisgarh Tourism Board has been at theforefront in initiating to develop tourisminfrastructure and is all set to place the state onthe Buddhist tourist map of India.

P Sen BhowmickGeneral Manager, Chhattisgarh TourismBoard

Priorities ofChhattisgarhTourism:•Setting up tourisminfrastructure.•Developing destina-tions on PPP model.•Stressing on clean-liness drive.•New eco-touristspots setting up in abig way.•Few destinations todevelop integratedand circuit tourism.

Snapshot

�Swaati Chaudhury

�Prem Kumar

International Destination34


Romantic Adventuresin New Zealand

There could be no better place in the world to be whisked away on a romantic adven-

ture of a lifetime than new Zealand.

Lush landscapes, star-filled skies and the breathtakingbeauty of some of the world’s most untouched naturalwonders and pristine beaches makes New Zealand the

perfect place to fall in love.The opportunity to experience an intimate picnic atop the

majestic Southern Alps, hear tales of enduring love at an an-cient island, soak tired limbs in a warm natural spring or be en-chanted by the luxury of one of New Zealand’s premier lodgesis just what dreams are made of.

New Zealand gives couples the chance to escape the hus-tle and bustle of the world and embrace the beauty of thisunique country - and each other.

North Island romantic adventuresNORTHLAND - Tane as your witness

What to do: Allow the ancient and wise Tane Mahuta - King ofthe Forest - to be your witness as you profess your love whileimmersing yourself in one of the most magical cultural experi-ences in Northland.

Let Footprints Waipoua take you on a mystical journeythrough towering native Kauri trees to visit the mighty Te MatuaNgahere (Father of the Forest), the graceful Four Sisters andTane Mahuta - the largest Kauri tree in New Zealand - and kingof them all. Knowledgeable guides bring the forest to life, in-tertwining tales of the stately trees, the role they have playedin the lives of local Maori and the eco-system of the etherealand unforgettable Waipoua Forest.

Where to stay: Take a break from it all at award winningKokohuia Lodge - one of New Zealand’s most romantic luxurylodges. Perched high above native trees - overlooking themagnificent seascape of the Hokianga Harbour in the winter-less North - Kokohuia is as exclusive as it gets, providing a se-cluded retreat for just one couple at a time.

AUCKLAND - Flight of fancyWhat to do: Leave the City of Sails behind as you take flighthigh into the sky and above the volcanic crater of Rangitotoand the beautiful marine playground of the Hauraki Gulf with

The De Havilland Beaver Floatplane can take you to yourdestination of choice around the Gulf and beyond.Enjoy a romantic picnic on a secluded beach, an af-

ternoon of feast and fancy at Waiheke’s delectableOyster Inn or watch the clear blue waters lap the

white sandy shores with an overnight stay onthe rugged and unspoilt Great Barrier Is-

land. Where to stay: Just a short drive from the bustling Auckland

city centre brings you to Mollies Luxury Boutique Hotel. Victo-rian grace mixed with bold contemporary décor makes thisfive-star beauty the perfect place to enjoy a flawless romantic

retreat.Guests at Mollies can relax in the day spa, share a drink in

the beautifully crafted cocktail bar, enjoy dinner on their ownprivate balcony, grab a breath of fresh air in the lush leafygreen gardens or take a stroll to Ponsonby, one of Auckland'shippest suburbs filled with boutique shops and a variety of din-ing experiences.

TONGARIRO - Awe-inspiring adventureWhat to Do: There is nothing quite like sharing an adventure

with the one you love and the world renowned TongariroAlpine Crossing is the perfect place to do just that.

Hailed as one of the best one-day hikes in the world, the di-verse encounters experienced along the Tongariro Crossingtake you on a journey of epic proportions, through mars-likevolcanic landscapes, past sparkling blue and green lakes andrugged slopes filled with wild alpine flora and fauna. Adrift NZ

Where to stay: Experience luxury on Mother Nature’sdoorstep at the Chateau Tongariro Hotel. Couples can while


35International Destination

the night away in an executive Spa Suite, indulge at the Ru-apehu Room Restaurant, take a dip in the heated plunge pool,watch a movie at the onsite cinema or play a 9-hole round ofgolf on the highest course in New Zealand. Chateau TongariroHotel

WAIKATO - Wedding fit for a HobbitWhat to do: Visiting the Hobbiton Movie Set in the idyllic vil-

lage of Matamata is a dream come true for many visitors andHobbit fans alike.

Loved-up couples ready to take their relationship to the nextlevel can enjoy a wedding to remember amongst the blooms,birds and hobbit holes at the movie set - made famous in theSir Peter Jackson directed The Lord of the Rings and The HobbitTrilogies. Hobbiton Movie Set Tours

Where to stay: Step out of Hobbiton and into a fairy-tale atthe mesmerising Underhill Valley glamping site. Situated on aworking Waikato farm this secluded spot offers couples thechance to escape from reality.

Built into a hillside and situated on a picturesque pond, Un-derhill Valley allows you to shake off the shackles of modernday life and enjoy being together undisturbed by everything -except maybe the dawn chorus native birds.

ROTORUA - True love never fadesWhat to do: Prepare to feel chills as you visit the setting of oneof New Zealand’s most enduring love stories. Rotorua’s ancientMokoia Island, once home to Maori tribes, was and the placewhere love blossomed between Tutanekai - a young MaoriWarrior and Hinemoa - a Chief's daughter of a rival tribe.

The island is now a sanctuary teeming with native birds,plants and wildlife. Mokoia Island Wai Ora Experiences run dailytrips to the island where their knowledgeable guides offer in-sights into one of the most romantic and mysterious areas of aregion steeped in cultural history.

Where to stay: Laze about in the lap of luxury at Black SwanHotel - a sophisticated boutique lodge-style accommodationsituated on the shores of the stunning Lake Rotorua.Black Swan expertly combines classic elegance with aucourant design, creating a unique accommodation settingcomplete with a personalised service catering to your everyneed. Stop to smell the roses as you walk through the well-man-icured gardens, steal a kiss in the secret grotto before enjoyingsome of the finest Pacific inspired fusion food, overlooking thecalming waters of Lake Rotorua or in your own private dining

setting.

South Island romantic adventuresKAIKOURA/MARLBOROUGH - Gourmet GetawayWhat to do: There is an old adage that states "theway to a man’s heart is through his stomach" and therecould be no better place to test this theory than duringa Gourmet Getaway. The Gourmet Getaway tour beginsin Kaikoura - known for its bountiful seafood, venison andfresh organic produce - and ends in Marlborough - theSavion Blanc capital of New Zealand.

During the getaway couples will experience mouth-wateringdishes created by two experienced Executive Chefs. The foodis expertly matched to some of New Zealand’s most tantalisingwines from Marlborough’s Seresin Estate - purveyors of the or-ganic and biodynamical process of wine creation.

Where to stay: The four night gourmet getaway ensures ac-commodation is taken care of with two nights at the spectac-ular Hapuku Lodge & Tree Houses in Kaikoura and two nightsat the exquisite Bay of Many Coves in the Marlborough Sounds.

Couples will literally be one with nature as they look outthrough the canopy of native Manuka trees to the sprawlingPacific coastline and towering Kaikoura Mountains from theirown Upper Branch Tree House at Hapuku Lodge. In contrast -The Bay of Many Coves offers undisturbed views of the world-famous Queen Charlotte Sounds.

CHRISTCHURCH - Bubbles and BalloonsWhat to do: Experience the stillness of dawn as you fly high

above the unfolding New Zealand landscape in the first coun-try in the world to see the sun. Aoraki Balloon Safaris fly youabove ancient Canterbury plains while views of the snow-capped Aoraki/Mt Cook rise above. After the flight guests cancome back to earth gently as they enjoy a silver-served cham-pagne breakfast. Balloon weddings can also be arranged.

Where to stay: If fine dining is your thing then look no furtherthan the award-winning The George Christchurch. This luxuryboutique hotel - located in the heart of the vibrant Garden City- overlooks the iconic Hagley Park and picturesque Avon River.

The George has two award-winning restaurants, 50 Bistroand Psecatore, one of New Zealand’s most sublime contem-porary dining experiences, offering delicious delicacies that willleave you wanting more.

TEKAPO - Starlight, star brightWhat to Do: Get in the mood for love at Lake Tekapo’s

Church of the Good Shepherd. This iconic stone church is sur-rounded by the colourful lupins that grow on the shoreline ofthe turquoise hued lake and is the perfect setting for a wed-ding. Church of the Good Shepherd

When night falls see the Southern-stars reflecting in the eyesof your lover at the Aoraki Mackenzie Dark Sky Reserve, theminimal light pollution here makes it a perfect place to makea wish upon a shooting star.

Where to Stay: Surrounded by the commanding presenceof the Southern Alps and sitting on the serene shores of LakeTekapo, Peppers Bluewater Resort offers a truly romantic ac-commodation experience and provides a perfect base to ex-plore Tekapo, Mt Cook and the surrounding Mackenzie District.

FIORDLAND - Wondrous wilderness What to do: After a day exploring Franz Josef Glacier- one

of the most easily accessible glaciers in the world - it’s time toimmerse yourself in the steaming waters of the Glacier HotPools.

International Destination36


Sheltered in lush New Zealand rainforest these hot poolshave their own romantic tale to tell. According to Maori leg-end the pools are fed by the tears o K• Roimata o Hine-hukatere, pining for for her lost love. The Glacier Hot Poolsconsist of three main pools. Secluded private pools can alsobe hired.

Where to stay: Just because you’re in one of the most pris-tine environments in the world doesn’t mean you have toforgo modern pleasures. The 5-star, Enviro Gold rated TeWaonui Retreat offers one of the most indulgent experiencesto be found on the wild and rugged West Coast.

Health, rejuvenation and relaxation are the focus of thisheavenly retreat, while the five-course degustation menu, fea-turing some of the freshest cuisine in the region, will leave youfeeling blissfully fulfilled.

QUEENSTOWN - Picnic on a peakWhat to do: Hailed by Lonely Planet as one of the top hon-

eymoon destinations in the world for 2014, Queenstown offersadventure and luxury in one of the most romantic settings onthe globe.

Over the Top Helicopters can take visitors on a scenic heli-copter ride to a secluded location, atop the majestic moun-tains that rise above the playful town. Here couples can enjoya private, gourmet picnic surrounded by unrivalled panoramicviews.

Where to stay: After a day exploring the thrilling adventureson offer in the alpine resort town it’s time to relax, unwind andindulge. The award-winning Matakauri Lodge, situated onthe edge of the sparkling Lake Wakatipu, offers luxury ac-commodation with a private outlook to the lake and

breathtaking views of the Remarkables mountain rangeand the stately Cecil Peak. Despite being a mere

seven minutes from the buzzing centre of Queen-stown, Matakauri Lodge makes you feel like

you’re a world away.


37Aviation News

Qatar Airways welcomed

the Airbus A350 XWB as it

made its first-ever landing at

Qatar’s state-of-the-art Hamad

International Airport (HIA), be-

fore departing for its next stop,

the Singapore Airshow. As the

launch customer for the family

of long-range, two-engined

wide-body jet airliners, Qatar

Airways Chief Executive Offi-

cer, His Excellency Akbar Al

Baker, welcomed Didier

Evrard, Executive Vice Presi-

dent, Airbus A350 XWB Pro-

gramme, and Phil Harris,

Senior Vice President Cus-

tomer Business, Rolls Royce, at

the special event commemorat-

ing the inaugural landing.

Following the welcome

notes, a delegation of Qatar’s

distinguished officials including

H.E. Issa bin Mohammed Al

Mohannadi, Qatar Tourism Au-

thority’s Chairman, H.E. Jean-

Christophe Peaucelle,

Ambassador of the French Re-

public to the State of Qatar, H.E.

Angelikai Storz-Chakarj, Am-

bassador of the Federal Repub-

lic of Germany to Qatar and

H.E. Maria Del Carmen De

Labena, Ambassador of the

Kingdom of Spain to Qatar, vis-

ited the A350 XWB displayed

on the HIA tarmac.

The arrival of the A350 XWB

to Doha from its Airbus base in

Toulouse was a unique oppor-

tunity for both Airbus’ flight

crew as well as HIA air traffic

control and ground officials to

experience landing the new

mid-sized wide-body jet on

HIA’s brand new 4,850-metre

eastern runway engineered to

meet the requirements of the

world’s biggest and most ad-

vanced aircraft. HIA’s dual run-

way system comprises a

4,850-metre eastern runway

and a 4,250-metre western run-

way that are two kilometers

apart. Designed for superior

runway efficiency, it will be able

to handle an incredible 100 air-

craft every hour.

Commenting on the occasion,

Akbar Al Baker said: “This is

yet another key milestone in

Qatar’s aviation progress. We

have been steadily investing in

our infrastructure to enable us

to stay ahead of the latest de-

velopments in the global avia-

tion sector. Hamad

International Airport, which

was built for advanced aircraft

such as the Airbus A350 XWB,

is our flagship asset and will

soon be the new home of Qatar

Airways and our modern fleet

of aircraft, including the A350

XWB family.”

Now in its advanced flight test

program phase, the efficient

A350 XWB airliners are sched-

uled to enter into commercial

service in the fourth quarter of

2014. Qatar Airways has or-

dered 80 aircraft to date, lean-

ing towards the larger A350-900

and A350-1000 models, which

better suit its business model

and passenger requirements.

The A350 XWB is a family of

mid-sized wide-body airliners

designed to enhance fuel, oper-

ating costs and environmental

efficiencies during medium-to-

long haul airline operations.

Featuring the very latest in

aerodynamics, design and ad-

vanced technologies, these

highly efficient aircraft provide

better fuel efficiency of up to 25

percent. Over 70 percent of the

A350 XWB’s weight-efficient

airframe is made from ad-

vanced materials combining

composites (53 percent), tita-

nium and advanced aluminium

alloys. The aircraft’s innovative

all-new Carbon Fibre Rein-

forced Plastic (CFRP) fuselage

results in lower fuel burn as well

as easier maintenance.

“It was certainly a proud and

symbolic occasion for Qatar Air-

ways and our team of air traffic

and ground control crew at HIA

to experience landing the new

A350 at our new airport, as it

gave us a unique glimpse into

the exciting developments

around the corner,” concluded

Al Baker. by TNH DESK

Airbus A350 XWB makesinaugural landing atDoha’s HamadInternational airportAirbus A350 XWB recently made its inaugurallanding at Doha’s Hamad International airport.The company also honoured its A350 launchcustomer, Qatar Airways, with a stopover at HIAen route to Singapore Airshow.

Aviation News38


The 2013 performance

aligns with the average

annual growth rate of the

past 30 years. Capacity rose

4.8% and load factor aver-

aged 79.5% up 0.4 percentage

points over 2012.

Demand in international

markets (5.4%) expanded at

a slightly faster rate than do-

mestic travel

(4.9%).Strongest overall

growth (domestic and inter-

national combined) was

recorded by carriers in the

Middle East (11.4%) followed

by Asia-Pacific (7.1%), Latin

America (6.3%) and Africa

(5.2%). The slowest growth

was in the developed mar-

kets of North America (2.3%)

and Europe (3.8%).

“We saw healthy demand

growth in 2013 despite the

very difficult economic envi-

ronment. There was a clear

improvement trend over the

course of the year which

bodes well for 2014. Last

year’s demand performance

demonstrates the essential

and growing role that avia-

tion-enabled connectivity

plays in our world. And with

system-wide load factors at

79.5% it is also clear that air-

lines are continuing to drive

efficiencies to an ever-higher

level,” said Tony Tyler,

IATA’s Director General and

CEO.

International Passenger

Demand

International passenger

demand grew by 5.4% in 2013

compared to 2012 with all re-

gions reporting growth. Ca-

pacity rose 4.9%, boosting

load factor to 79.3%, up 0.4

percentage points over 2012.

Asia-Pacific airlines’traf-

ficrose 5.3% in 2013, the

highestincrease among the

three major regions and

slightly above 2012 annual

growth of 5.2%. After a slow

start, carriers in the region

saw a pick-up in demand in

the third quarter, supported

by stronger performance of

major economies such as

China and Japan. Capacity

expansion of 5.2%meant load

factor was virtually flat at

77.7%.

Europeancarriers saw

trafficrise 3.8% in 2013 com-

pared to 2012, a slowdown

compared to annual growth

of 5.3% in 2012. Capacity

rose 2.8% and load factor

was 81%, second highest

among the regions and a 0.5

percentage point rise over

2012. Modest economic im-

provements in the Eurozone

since the second quarter and

rising consumer and busi-

ness confidence are provid-

ing a stronger demand base

Air passenger demandsees robust growthrates in 2013The International Air Transport Association (IATA)announced full-year traffic results for 2013showing a 5.2% increase in passenger demandcompared to 2012.


39Aviation News

for international travel; and

after weakness in previous

months, job losses in the Eu-

rozone stabilized in Decem-

ber.

North American carrier-

sreported the slowest pas-

senger growth of any region

at 3.0% compared to 2012

but an improvement over

2012 growth of 1.3%.With ca-

pacity up just 2.2%, load fac-

tor rose 0.8 percentage

points to 82.8%, the highest

for any region. The economy

is showing some positive

signs: employment growth

has picked up, as has con-

sumer spending.

Middle East airlines-

recorded the strongest in-

crease in passenger traffic

in 2013, a riseof 12.1% com-

pared to 2012, but below the

15.4% growth recorded in

2012 compared to 2011.Car-

riers in the region have ben-

efitted from the continued

strength of regional

economies, particularly

Saudi Arabia and the United

Arab Emirates and solid

growth in business-related

premium travel, particularly

to developing markets such

as Africa. However, capacity

grew faster at 12.8% and

load factor declined slightly

by 0.1 percentage points to

77.3% from 77.4% in 2012.

Latin American carrier-

sposted an 8.1% rise in de-

mand in 2013 over 2012,

down slightly compared to

the 8.4% rise in 2012. This

was the second-strongest

performance (after the Mid-

dle East) and was support-

edby the healthy expansion

of economies like Colombia,

Peru and Chile. Capacity ex-

panded 7.4% year over year,

causing load factor to climb

to 79.2%, up 1.3 percentage

points compared to 2012.

African airlines’demand

rose 5.5%, slightly above the

global average but below

2012 growth of 7.5%. Capac-

ity expansion of 5.2% meant

load factor rose 1.9percent-

age points to 69%, the lowest

among the regions. Overall,

the demand environment is

strong, with robust eco-

nomic growth of local

economies and continued

development of internation-

ally trading industries. But

some parts of the continent

have shown weakness in-

cluding South Africa, which

recently experienced a slow-

down in its economy, with a

corresponding impact on the

demand base for interna-

tional air travel.

Domestic Passenger De-

mand

Domestic air travelde-

mand rose grew by 4.9% in

2013 compared to 2012, up

from 4.0% in 2012 versus

2011. Capacity rose 4.6%

and load factor climbed 0.4

percentage points to 79.9%.

All markets recorded posi-

tive gains, with the strongest

growth occurring in China

and Russia.

US trafficexpanded

by1.9% in 2013 (up from

0.8% in 2012), while capacity

grew at the same rate, with

the result that load factor

was flat at 83.8%, the high-

est for any market. The im-

provement in demand

compared to 2012 reflects

sustained increases in con-

sumer confidence through-

out the year as well as rising

employment activity, partic-

ularly over recent months.

Chinatraffic climbed

11.7% in 2013 compared to

2012, the strongest for any

market. Capacity rose 12.2%

Aviation News40


last year, with the result that

load factor declined 0.6 per-

centage points to 80.3%,

which was still the second

best among markets.

Japan’s domestic market

improved significantly in

2013 as annual demand

rose5.2% (up from 3.6% in

2012) while capacity ex-

panded by 5.1% and load

factor was little changed at

64.3%, by far the lowest for

any market. Significant gov-

ernment stimulus led to an

acceleration in the economy

in the first half of 2013 which

supported increases in busi-

ness activity and improving

employment rates, boosting

air travel demand.

Brazil’s airlines

recorded the slowest de-

mand growth last year, with

traffic up just 0.8% com-

pared to 2012. Efforts by the

government to stimulate the

economy have borne little

fruit, however capacity re-

ductions by airlines of 3.3%

pushed load factor to 76.3%,

well above the 71.8%

recorded in 2012.

Indian domestic traffic

rose 4.0% last year, com-

pared to a 2.1% decline in

2012. The demand environ-

ment has been challenging

in view of the weakening

economy, high inflation and

slowing manufacturing and

resource industries. Capac-

ity climbed 3.5% in 2013, and

load factor was 74.6%, up 1.7

percentage points compared

to 2012.

Russia had the second-

strongest domestic market,

with demand up 9.6% in 2013

on a 9.1% rise in capacity.

Russian demand is being

supported by a resilient

labor market and govern-

ment policy focused on

maintaining high employ-

ment and sustained income

levels. Load factor was 74%.

Australianairlines’ do-

mestic traffic rose 2.8% in

2013 compared to 2012,

while capacity rose 3.8%, de-

pressing load factor 1.0 per-

centage point to 76.5%.

Interest rate cuts have failed

to stimulate the economy,

which remains broadly slug-

gish, with rising unemploy-

ment and fragile business

and consumer confidence.

The Bottom Line

Commercial aviation is

celebrating its first century

in 2014. “What was impossi-

ble yesterday is an accom-

plishment of today, while

tomorrow heralds the unbe-

lievable.” With these words,

Percival Fansler, creator of

the St. Petersburg-Tampa

Airboat Line, inaugurated

the era of commercial avia-

tion on 1 January 1914.

“Fansler was right. The first

century of commercial avia-

tion has changed the world.

It has made it a better place

through connectivity. For-

ward-looking governments

recognize the power of avia-

tion to drive economic

growth and spread prosper-

ity. These governments are

laying the foundations for

our next century and in

doing so will reap enormous

benefits. But not all govern-

ments are on the same page.

This anniversary year is an

opportunity to remind short-

sighted governments that

they risk being left behind if

they cripple aviation with

taxes, over-burden it with

onerous regulation, or fail to

provide the infrastructure

that it needs to grow,” said

Tyler.

by TNH DESK

Highlights of IATA’s Air passenger market

analysis 2013

•Air travel markets grew by 5.2% in ‘13 against ‘12, despite

high fuel costs, slow global economic growth.

•Growth in air travel was driven by solid economic expan-

sion in emerging regions, where less mature air travel mar-

kets continue to increase strongly.

•Airlines in mature markets of Europe and North America

experienced the slowest rates of expansion in ‘13, rising

3.8% & 3.0% respectively.

•Both regions saw some recovery in air travel growth in ‘13,

but growth rate was far slower than in emerging market re-

gions.

•Carriers in the Middle East recorded the strongest in-

crease in ‘13, gained 12.1% compared to ‘12.

• Airlines in Latin America saw growth of 8.1% in ‘13.

•Domestic air travel increased by a strong 4.9% in ‘13,

China, Russia recorded the strongest growth rates.

•International air travel recorded robust growth in ‘13, ris-

ing 5.4% compared to ‘12.

•Growth in international travel on Latin American carriers

was also strong in ‘13, gaining 8.1% compared to ‘12.

•Asia Pacific airlines experienced a rise of 5.3% for the

year as a whole, in line with ‘12.

•African airlines international air travel expanded by 5.5%

‘13, solid but slower than in ‘12 (7.5%).

•Domestic air travel in China and Russia recorded the

strongest rates of increase.

•Air travel in China expanded 11.7% in ‘13. It is the

strongest performing domestic market.

•Russian domestic air travel volumes expanded 9.6% in ‘13.

•Other BRIC states – Brazil and India – have seen consider-

ably slower rates of growth in domestic travel, 0.8% and

4.0% respectively.

•Japan’s domestic air travel market improved significantly

in ‘13, expanding 5.2%.

•In the US, domestic air travel expanded 1.9% in ‘13, which

is more than double the pace of growth in ‘12.

•Australia domestic market recorded growth of 2.8% in ‘13.

Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General & CEO

“We saw healthy demand growthin 2013 despite the very difficulteconomic environment. There was

a clear improvement trend over the course ofthe year which bodes well for 2014. Lastyear’s demand performance demonstratesthe essential and growing role that aviation-enabled connectivity plays in our world.,”

“>>>


41Aviation News

The daily schedule will

see the addition of a

new daily non-stop flight

between Delhi-Bagdogra,

second non-stop flight be-

tween Kolkata-Bagdogra &

Bengaluru-Chennai, fourth

non-stop flight between

Chennai-Kolkata, ninth

non-stop flight between

Mumbai-Bengaluru and

one stop flight between

Chennai-Bagdogra via

Kolkata, providing seam-

less connection to the air-

line’s entire network

within India.

With 458 flights con-

necting 35 destinations

across the globe, these new

flights will further consoli-

date IndiGo’s position as

the fastest growing airline

in India.

Elaborating on the new

flights, Aditya Ghosh,

President IndiGo said, “We

at IndiGo are delighted to

offer the enhanced connec-

tions to the six cities and

are confident that the new

flights would prove im-

mensely popular with our

passengers. With the in-

creased flow of tourist and

business traffic to and from

the six cities, that have a

perfect balance of metros

and tier-I & II cities, we are

pleased to provide our pas-

sengers the opportunity to

experience the hassle-free

and on-time performance

that IndiGo is synonymous

with. We are confident that

these additional flights will

prove immensely conven-

ient for our passengers.”IndiGo launches 6new flights connectingsix citiesIndia’s largest and fastest growing low-cost andlow-carbon airline, IndiGo has announced sixdaily new flights on its schedule connecting sixdestinations, with effect from February 01,2014.

Key facts•new daily non-stop flight be-tween Delhi-Bagdogra; •Ninth non-stop flight betweenMumbai-Bengaluru •Fourth non-stop flight betweenChennai-Kolkata; •Second non-stop flight betweenKolkata-Bagdogra & Bengaluru-Chennai; •and one stop flight betweenChennai-Bagdogra via Kolkata•With 74 brand new Airbus A320s,6E will now operate¬458 dailyflights, connecting 35 destinations * All inclusive lowest one-wayfare valid for bookings made 90days before travel date. All faresare subject to change withoutprior notice. Limited seats.

Aviation News42


Inaugurated by Prime Minis-

ter Dr. Manmohan Singh,

Terminal 2 (termed as T2) of

Chhatrapati Shivaji Interna-

tional Airport, Mumbai is built

at an estimated cost of Rs

12,380 crore and is spread

across 439,203 square meters

of area. The airport houses 140

immigration counters 37 trav-

elators, 48 escalators, 72 eleva-

tors and can handle 40 million

passengers. The new terminal

will be operational from Febru-

ary 10 catering to international

traffic. Along with an increase

in passenger capacity, the air-

port will also have an extended

runway to handle bigger air-

crafts like A380.

At present, Mumbai airport

handles close to 30 million pas-

sengers annually, that is more

than the capacity of current in-

ternational terminal, and has

caused issues like airside con-

gestion and inadequate night-

parking bays. Though these

problems that have dogged the

growth of the Mumbai airport

will not change overnight, the

opening of the new terminal

will enable the airport to han-

dle more flights and offer much

better passenger convenience

in terms of check-in, security

hold and baggage delivery —

the areas for all of those are

substantially bigger than the

old terminal.

During the inauguration,

Singh said, “I believe today

marks a very important occa-

sion in the development of the

civil aviation sector in our

country. This shows our abil-

ity to build world class infra-

structure. The T2 is truly first

class terminal. It marks the

beginning of a new chapter in

the growth of civil aviation

sector in the country.” He also

informed that the government

is considering to open about

50 airports for commercial op-

erations in tier-II and tier- II

cities.

According to Sanjay Reddy,

MD, GVK Airports, Mumbai

airport development is consid-

ered as the most challenging

airport expansion project in

the world. “It will be a game

changer for the state’s avia-

tion sector, and it will become

the largest airport in the coun-

try with world-class facilities.

For instance, the ‘Jaya He’ at

the new T2 would showcase

artifacts from 16th to 19th

century spread across 3.2 km

long wall. It is also tagged as

world’s largest public art ex-

position and features around

7000 works of artifacts,” said

Reddy, adding, “By early 2015,

the integrated terminal will

handle both domestic and in-

ternational passengers while

the existing international ter-

minals will be demolished to

make way for the southeast

tier of the new terminal. By

this, the airport would be able

to host 45 million passengers

from the current 30 million

passengers.” Earlier, Mumbai

airport was blamed for heavy

taxation on airlines, conges-

tion in take off and landing,

etc. But with the new termi-

nal, few domestic airlines and

international carriers are

showing keen interest to add

Mumbai on their route map or

increase frequency from the

city.

Manu Monga, VP & Head,

Marketing, Musafir.com said,

“The opening of T2 will be

beneficial for passengers. It is

essential for airports to be re-

ceptive to the comfort of pas-

sengers and meet the highest

standards of efficiency and

safety.”

Mumbai Airport’s T2 opens The four-level mega structure will ease congestionat the airport, giving opportunity to airlines to addmore connections and improve frequency.

�Anand Shah

The preclearance facility al-

lows passengers to be

processed through US immigra-

tion and customs, public health,

and Department of Agriculture

inspections before boarding

their aircraft, eliminating the

need to do so on arrival in the

US.

Indian air travellers, flying

with Etihad Airways, can now

connect from Ahmedabad, Ben-

galuru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyder-

abad, Kochi, Kozhikode,

Mumbai, and Thiruvananthapu-

ram, via Abu Dhabi, to Chicago,

New York, and Washington D.C.

Etihad Airways will con-

tinue to expand and build depth

into its flight network in 2014

benefitting Indian air travellers,

with fights to Jaipur to start in

April, and Los Angeles and Dal-

las-Fort Worth to join the net-

work in June and December

respectively. by TNH DESK

Indian Air travellers get benefit of new USPreclearance facility at Abu Dhabi AirportIndian air travellers, flying with Etihad Airways to the United States, cannow clear US customs and immigration at Abu Dhabi Airport, enabling themto arrive in the US as domestic passengers.


43Hospitality News

Keys Resorts, an upscale

resort brand of

Berggruen Hotels today, an-

nounced the launch of its first

five star luxury palace prop-

erty, The Pratap Palace, A

Keys Resort, Pushkar - Ajmer.

Located on Ajmer – Pushkar

bye pass, the property has

been launched in association

with Rangwanis Hotels Pvt

Ltd. The Pratap Palace, A

Keys Resort, is Berggruen

Hotel’s first palace property

and marks their venture into

the five star luxury palace

segment.

The third resort property

of Berggruen Hotels comes

with a unique set of offerings

that promises a royal experi-

ence of a singular league. Sur-

rounded by the Aravali hills,

the property is a true amal-

gam of intricate arches,

domes, rich green courtyards,

colorful gardens paved with

marble flooring and railings

which revives the cultural her-

itage of Rajput era.

Fashioned as the epitome

of royalty and magnificence,

The Pratap Palace, A Keys Re-

sort comprises of 80 well fur-

nished palace rooms including

3 suites with one Royal suite.

The resort promises the

bounty of nature’s flora and

fauna. It ensures a heightened

sense of pleasure and serenity

enthralling the guests with its

offerings. It has two confer-

ence halls, a 24 hour global

cuisine restaurant, a fine din-

ing restaurant with bar, a

large swimming pool, gymna-

sium, business center, beauty

shops, spa, meditation room,

several engagement activities,

courtyards, enormous parking

space, water fountains along

with a vast banquet hall with

a 40 feet high grand entrance

to accommodate fairy tale

royal weddings with the

groom and his entourage en-

tering the hall riding an ele-

phant.

On the occasion of the re-

sort opening, Sanjay Sethi,

MD and CEO, Berggruen Hotel

said, “The launch of The

Pratap Palace, A Keys Resort

is a very important milestone

for Berggruen Hotels. This

showcases our relentless ef-

fort in making Berggruen Ho-

tels a holistic hospitality

company. This will provide

travelers to Ajmer, Pushkar

and Mayo School a high qual-

ity hospitality experience. The

Resort is also an outstanding

venue for destination wed-

dings and high profile events.’

Pratap Rangwani, MD

and Visionary, Rangwani Ho-

tels added that this resort is a

great addition to Ajmer. One of

the core attractions of the re-

sort is its location. It is conve-

niently located for visitors to

the Dargah Sharif, Ajmer, The

Brahma Temple and Pushkar

and will be an outstanding lo-

cation for high end events and

weddings. We are sure the re-

sort will soon become an im-

portant attraction in Ajmer

and Pushkar and one of the

top tourist halts across the

globe.

Funded by Berggruen

Holdings, a New York head-

quartered proprietary fund,

Berggruen Hotels was formed

in September 2006. It boasts

of a strong management team

lead by Sanjay Sethi. The top

management has a cumulative

experience exceeding 200

years.

Berggruen Hotels

launched its first brand

‘KEYS HOTELS’ in January

2007 and positioned it as mid-

market hotels. KEYS HO-

TELS already boasts of 33

properties in India including

those under development and

follows the following modes of

growth: Buying land, building

and operating, Management

contracts, Lease arrange-

ments and now franchise. Re-

cently the company launched

its upscale business hotel

brand the Keys Klub.

by TNH DESK

Keys Resorts launches‘The Pratap Palace’The five star palace resort promises distinctluxury and royalty

“The launch of The Pratap Palace, A Keys

Resort is a very important milestone for

Berggruen Hotels. This showcases our re-

lentless effort in making Berggruen Hotels

a holistic hospitality company. This will

provide travelers to Ajmer, Pushkar and

Mayo School a high quality hospitality ex-

perience.

Hospitality News44


This is Premier Inn’s third

property in India after

New Delhi and Bangalore and

this edition marks the debut

of Premier Inn hotels in west-

ern India catering to the vi-

brant city’s mid-market

segment. Speaking on the oc-

casion, Aly Shariff, Managing

Director, Premier Inn India

said “The launch of Premier

Inn, Pune is a very proud mo-

ment for us and is essential to

the brand’s growth strategy

of catering to the demands of

the new age smart traveller.

There is immense growth and

development potential in a

burgeoning market like Pune.

We look forward to welcoming

guests to the Premier Inn ex-

perience.”

“Premier Inn, Pune presents

a refreshingly new face of

hospitality to the evolving me-

tropolis, Pune. Located in the

heart of the IT corridor, the

property has been designed to

our global Premier Inn stan-

dards, offering consistent,

world class service to both

leisure and business travelers

seeking hassle-free and con-

temporary experiences. As

with our other properties, our

product and services have

been appropriately adapted

to the Indian and local market

tastes. Our mission is to be

trusted for a good night’s

sleep and great value food

and drink to transform the

hotel market by uniquely

combining high quality with

total commitment to guest

satisfaction, at an affordable

price” said Shwetank Singh,

Regional Vice President, Pre-

mier Inn, South Asia.

Premier Inn, Pune Kharadi

will cater to its guests with

109 rooms including 4 serv-

iced apartments. by TNH DESK

Premier Inn launchesproperty in Kharadi PunePremier Inn India has launched its third propertyin India, in Kharadi Pune. New launchestablishes Premier Inn footprint in WesternIndia.

The new address of luxury

in Noida and Greater

Noida opened its gates to its

guests officially on December

20, 2013. A day of golf, relax-

ation and dining extravaganza,

the hotel hosted 100 elite

guests redefining hospitality

through a thorough experience

of all facilities of the hotel.

Spread over 8 acres, the

hotel has everything to offer

that today’s business and

leisure traveler would desire.

The 400 key-hotel boastd of 272

well- appointed base category

rooms, 62 Club rooms, 49

apartments, 16 suites and 01

Presidential Suite. The well

planned and appointed rooms

with flat LCD TVs, Bose music

system, media hub etc gives

the base room of 36 Sq M, a

sense of space and luxury to

the guests. Noteworthy are the

apartments with a living room

and a well laid out kitchenette

with a dishwasher, convection

heater, microwave, refrigera-

tor, washing machine and

clothes dryer.

The Crowne Plaza Greater

Noida brings in their signature

brands of food outlets ensuring

a gastronomic extravaganza to

the residents of the hotel and

Greater Noida. The 220 cover

All Day Diner – Mosaic with an

onsite kitchen ensures that the

freshest food reaches the

guests with the Chefs more

than willing to interact and

customize. Chao Bella brings

together the world’s two most

popular cuisines under one

roof – Italian & Chinese. Hand

Rolled pizzas, freshly tossed

pastas, soup noodle stations,

luscious dimsums, Pecking

Duck are just to name a few. An

Indian specialty restaurant,

Spice Art serves delicacies

from the North Western Fron-

tier. Mosaic Pastry Lounge is a

34 cover delicatessen serving

an assortment of bakery items

produced fresh in the premises

and backed with an impressive

selection of exotic teas and cof-

fee blends. A hotel is not com-

plete without a watering hole

and Crowne Plaza Greater

Noida takes pride in having

two. While Connexions will be

serving exotic brands with

great music and finger foods,

the soon to open Belgian Beer

Café will be the first of its kind

in India serving Belgian beers

in contemporary settings.

by TNH DESK

Crowne Plaza Greater Noida:new address of luxury Crowne Plaza Greater Noida has become the newaddress of luxury in Noida and Greater Noida.The hotel recently opened its gates to guests.

Aly ShariffManaging Director, Premier Inn India

“The launch of Premier Inn, Pune is a veryproud moment for us and is essential to thebrand’s growth strategy of catering to the de-mands of the new age smart traveller. Thereis immense growth and development poten-tial in a burgeoning market like Pune. Welook forward to welcoming guests to the Pre-mier Inn experience.”

Hospitality News46


Hilton Worldwide recently

announced the signing of

a management agreement with

Palm Grove Beach Hotels Pvt.

Ltd., a part of the K. Raheja

Constructions Group, to open

the first Conrad hotel in India.

The launch of Conrad Pune in

Maharashtra next year will

mark the global contemporary

luxury brand’s entry into the

country.

“Conrad Hotels & Resorts

has a global portfolio of more

than 23 stylish properties in

key cities and resort destina-

tion that offer a luxury experi-

ence that is personal, flexible,

empowering and connects the

global elite to the world around

them,” said John T. A. Van-

derslice, global head of Lux-

ury and Lifestyle Brands,

Hilton Worldwide. “Pune is a

key gateway destination and

we are delighted to establish

our brand’s presence in India,

one of the key strategic growth

markets for Hilton Worldwide,

starting with this wonderful

city.”

Staying true to the brand’s

essence of providing a world of

style within, while connecting

guests with the local splen-

dours around them, Conrad

Pune will be an iconic struc-

ture towering over Mangaldas

Road, strategically located

within the central business dis-

trict of Pune. It will be minutes

from the commercial and en-

tertainment hubs in Kalyani

Nagar, prime government insti-

tutions in Yerwada and pre-

mier residential

neighbourhoods of Koregaon

Park and Bund Garden.

Kharadi and Ganeshkind Road

will be within eight kilometres

of the hotel and the Pune Inter-

national Airport six kilometres

away.

“The signing of this agree-

ment reiterates our commit-

ment to developing Hilton

Worldwide’s portfolio of

brands in India. At present,

Hilton Hotels & Resorts and

DoubleTree by Hilton, as well

as Hilton Garden Inn and

Hampton by Hilton have a

presence in India,” said Mar-

tin Rinck, president, Asia Pa-

cific, Hilton Worldwide. “In

launching the first Conrad

hotel in India, we are delighted

to have as our partner the K.

Raheja Constructions Group

who understands and shares

our vision of the brand essence

in delivering the Luxury of

being yourself.”

With its foundation in the

Art Deco style, the design of

Conrad Pune will be character-

ized by bold geometric shapes,

dashes of striking colour and

hints of lavish ornamentation.

Providing the backdrop will be

expansive public spaces with

high ceilings of up to 40 feet (12

metres) and dramatic

columns. The hotel will feature

310 tastefully-appointed gue-

strooms with the latest in-room

technology and six-fixture

marble baths. Guests at the

hotel will be spoilt for choice

with six stylish and innovative

dining outlets. The Large Ball-

room, divisible into three, will

have a break-away function

room and a spacious pre-func-

tion area. Additional confer-

ence and event facilities will

include four boardrooms and a

fully-equipped 24-hour busi-

ness centre. Guests of the

hotel will also be able to enjoy

the outdoor swimming pool, fit-

ness centre, luxurious full-ser-

vice spa and a salon.

"We are pleased to partner

with Hilton Worldwide, a lead-

ing global hospitality company,

and we are very excited about

opening the first Conrad hotel

in the country,” said Sandeep

Raheja, managing director,

Palm Grove Beach Hotels Pvt.

Ltd. “We believe that with its

unique offering of luxury that is

contemporary, stylish and inno-

vative, the Conrad Hotels & Re-

sorts brand will set a new

benchmark in the hospitality

industry in the country.”

Hilton Worldwide currently

operates the following hotels

and resorts in India - New

Delhi: Hilton Garden Inn New

Delhi/Saket; Gurgaon: Hilton

Garden Inn Gurgaon Baani

Square and DoubleTree by

Hilton Gurgaon-New Delhi

NCR; Mumbai: Hilton Mumbai

International Airport; Chennai:

Hilton Chennai; Bangalore:

DoubleTree Suites by Hilton

Bangalore; Trivandrum: Hilton

Garden Inn Trivandrum; Vado-

dara: Hampton by Hilton Vado-

dara-Alkapuri; Pune:

DoubleTree by Hilton Pune-

Chinchwad; Goa: DoubleTree

by Hilton Goa-Arpora-Baga

and Shillim: Hilton Shillim Es-

tate Retreat & Spa.

Conrad Hotels & Resorts is

the destination for the new gen-

eration of smart luxury trav-

ellers for whom life, business

and pleasure seamlessly inter-

act – people who know that the

greatest luxury is the luxury of

being yourself. A global brand

consisting of 22 properties

across five continents, Conrad

Hotels & Resorts offer guests

personalised experiences with

sophisticated, locally inspired

surroundings and connections

to people and places around

the corner or halfway around

the world. Intuitive service is

delivered with the Conrad

Concierge App that puts Con-

rad’s services and amenities at

the guest’s fingertips, whether

ordering room service or a

wakeup call to customising the

room’s pillow options or ar-

ranging reservations at our lo-

cally inspired cuisine and spa

offerings. Conrad is a global

luxury brand of Hilton World-

wide with plans to add 12 more

properties to the brand’s port-

folio. by TNH DESK

Hilton signs contract with K. RahejaConstructions GroupHilton Worldwide has signed agreement with K. Raheja ConstructionsGroup to open first Conrad Hotel in India.

“Conrad Hotels &

Resorts has a

global portfolio of

more than 23 stylish

properties in key

cities and resort

destination that

offer a luxury expe-

rience that is per-

sonal, flexible,

empowering and

connects the global

elite to the world

around them.”

““


47Hospitality News

Clarks Inn Group of Ho-

tels, India’s fastest growing

hotel chain, recently an-

nounced its foray in Agra, the

city of Taj Mahal and opened

of 58-key Bhawna Clarks Inn

in the city. A contemporary,

new-built hotel, the property

is designed to cater to the

new age well-heeled business

and leisure travellers.

Bhawna Clarks Inn is

strategically located in the

city-center, in close proximity

of Agra’s key corporates and

business hubs and just eight

km from Agra’s biggest

tourist attraction, the TajMa-

hal, and will cater to the

growing demand of reason-

ably priced quality accommo-

dation from the business as

well as leisure travelers in the

city.

The hotel features 58 well-

furnished and spaciously de-

signed rooms across different

categories including Superior,

Deluxe, Family Rooms and

Suites to cater to the diverse

needs and requirements of

the discerning travellers. Key

features of the hotel include

extensive meeting and ban-

queting facilities, 24-hour

multi-cuisine restaurant, a

lounge bar, roof-top fitness

center, seamless Business

services, state-of-the-art Fit-

ness Center, among others.

Hailing the occasion as a

landmark in company’s

growth plan, S N Srivastava,

President, Clarks Inn Group

of Hotels, said, “The opening

of Bhawna Clarks Inn is a

great moment for us and a re-

sult of great demand that we

have witnessed from our busi-

ness and leisure clients for

Agra. Agra is India’s foremost

tourist destination, both in

India and internationally, and

has also emerged as a signifi-

cant economic hub in the re-

gion. Bhawna Clarks Inn

reflects the true values of the

destination as well as Clarks

Inn brand.This property will

continue to deliver on its

brand promise of providing

world-class hotel experience

with luxurious services and

tremendous quality to the

value-conscious travellers.”

The restaurants - Bridge

and the lounge bar - Illusion

are sure to indulge guests’

taste buds. With local delica-

cies; specialties from the

Mugal era and international

dishes dining experience at

Bhawna Clarks Inn will surely

be unforgettable.

With two function rooms

and a ballroom coupled with

state-of-the-art technical facil-

ities and a team of dedicated

and knowledgeable staff,

Bhawna Clarks Inn offers ex-

tensive meetings and events

space. The two halls, Barsha

and Ivory, spread over 1600

and 4600 sqfts respectively,

can take upto 500 guests at a

time and are well equipped

with latest audio-visual equip-

ment, LCD projector and

other such state-of-the-art

amenities and offers ideal

place for cocktail dinners, of-

ficial get-together, confer-

ences, seminars, workshops

training programme and even

social events. by TNH DESK

Clarks Inn entersthe city of TajThe latest addition of India’s fastest growing hotelchain, Clarks Inn Agra promises to redefinehospitality in the historic city of Taj.

S N SRIVASTAVA, PRESIDENT, CLARKS INN GROUP OF HOTELS

The opening of Bhawna ClarksInn is a result of great demandthat we have witnessed from our

business and leisure clients for Agra.Bhawna Clarks Inn reflects the true valuesof the destination as well as Clarks Innbrand.

“

InterContinental Hotels

Group (IHG) has tied up

with prominent real estate

company Jain Group to bring

its popular and most recog-

nized hotel brand, Holiday Inn

to West Bengal. As a part of

the agreement, the hotels will

come up in Kolkata, Siliguri

and Durgapur within the next

two-three years. The hotel will

add to IHG’s strong pipeline of

Holiday Inn brand family ho-

tels, which represent more

than 85% of the company’s

growth in India.

Holiday Inn Kolkata lo-

cated next to City Centre 2 in

New Town, will have 150

rooms, including four deluxe

suites. The hotel will be built

on an area of one lakh sq. ft.,

and will offer three specialty

restaurants, two floors of ban-

queting facilities, swimming

pool, gym and a spa. Holiday

Inn Durgapur will be the first

internationally branded hotel

in Durgapur, located next to

NSHM Knowledge Campus in

Muchipara on National High-

way 2. Built on an area of

80,000 sq. ft., the hotel will

have 100 guest rooms, three

banquet halls, a 24-hour coffee

shop, three fine-dining restau-

rants, swimming pool, gym

and a salon. Holiday Inn Silig-

uri will be the first internation-

ally branded hotel in the city

and North Bengal area. Lo-

cated on Hillcart Road near

Darjeeling More, the hotel will

be built on an area of one lakh

sq. ft. with 80 rooms, three

banquet halls, a 24-hour coffee

shop, three specialty restau-

rants, swimming pool, health

club and a salon.

On announcement of the

partnership, Douglas Martell,

Vice President Operations,

South West Asia, IHG said, “It

is a significant milestone for us

today as IHG marks its entry

into the eastern part of the

country. Holiday Inn as a

brand focuses on needs of both

the business and leisure trav-

ellers and we are confident

that these hotels will address

the increasing demands of

today’s consumers who are fa-

miliar with global standards of

hospitality.”

Commenting on the occa-

sion, Shrayans Jain, Vice

Chairman, Jain Group said,

“We are pleased to join hands

with IHG, one of the biggest

hotel companies of the world,

for our first venture into the

hospitality sector, with the Hol-

iday Inn brand. We are invest-

ing over 300 crores in

developing the properties. The

Holiday Inn, Kolkata is ex-

pected to be operational by the

end of this year”.

by TNH DESK

IHG signs deal with Jain Groupfor 3 Holiday Inn hotels inWest BengalKolkata, Siliguri and Durgapur will witness entryof the international hotel brand in the state.

Hospitality News48


After a long hiatus of 24

years, the Taj Group has

thrown open the gates of its

second five-star hotel in

Kolkata known as The Gate-

way Hotel. The upscale

property with 197 rooms on

1.97 acres of area was for-

mally launched on December

18, 2013 and is the premier

venture of Gateway brand in

the city.

Offering affordable luxury

to contemporary travellers,

the five-star hotel enjoys a

number of advantages.

Manu Sharma, General

Manager, The Gateway Hotel

explained, “Our strategic lo-

cation in the city bears a

close proximity to the Infor-

mation Technology hub in

Salt Lake and residential

areas as well. For the time

being, we are operating with

80 luxury rooms and plans

are on to make our other

rooms on third, fourth and

fifth floors operational by

April, 2014. We are catering

to the corporate, free indi-

vidual travellers staying for

long period and we are open

to all corporate tie-ups. Our

guests comprise around 90

per cent contemporary,

business travellers and only

5 per cent are leisure

groups. Our value-based of-

ferings are smart, clean and

functional and we are well-

positioned to take on MICE

groups. It is the unique

quality of our service; well-

trained staff and price fac-

tor that makes our group

stand out in Kolkata.”

The luxury hotel has

rolled out an innovative con-

cept of health food in the

city called Active Food.

Sharma said, “For health-

freaks, there is a separate

breakfast menu serving

super nutritious, home-style

food. We are planning to

come up with a speciality

outlet in the next six months

that would exclusively serve

cuisine from one particular

region. Very soon, a spa and

salon will open.”

There are many chal-

lenges for the newly-opened

hotel. Sharma added, “A

number of five-star groups

are foraying into the city on

E M Bypass and competition

would build up in the hospi-

tality scene. Our challenge

is to sustain high quality

service and offerings for our

esteemed guests.” The hos-

pitality set-up is witnessing

continuous, upward growth

trend. “We are targeting at

least 75 per cent occupancy

for corporate travellers in

the current fiscal,” quipped

Sharma.

Taj Group sets up second luxuryhotel in KolkataThe Gateway Hotel, the newest upscale, five-star property from the TajGroup in Kolkata promises high quality, quick service, value-for moneyproducts and health food keeping with the price point.

The GatewayHotel’s new prod-ucts are:•Introducing ActiveFood.•In-house yoga.•A speciality outletwith cuisine from oneregion.

Snapshot�Swaati Chaudhury

Manu SharmaGeneral Manager, The Gateway Hotel


49Hospitality News

Sofitel Luxury Hotels re-

cently announced its

move to a new geography-

based organization, based

on five key regions world-

wide. Inside this new organ-

ization, Sofitel, part of Accor

Group and formerly a stand-

alone brand, is now part of a

newly created luxury and

upscale segment including

Accor hotel brands Pullman,

MGallery, Grand Mercure

and The Sebel. These orga-

nizational changes further

reinforce the Group’s sup-

port of Sofitel’s luxury ap-

proach, and enable Accor to

leverage Sofitel’s expertise

and best practices. As part

of this realignment, the

Accor luxury and upscale

segment marketing and de-

sign functions will relocate

to Singapore in the first

quarter of 2014.

This reorganization fol-

lows the announcement at

the end of 2013 from Accor

Chairman and CEO Se-

bastien Bazin outlining a

new strategy for the Group,

focused on enhanced growth

and sustained value cre-

ation. The vision is to trans-

form Accor into the world’s

most valued and best-per-

forming hotel group.

“This year Sofitel cele-

brates its 50th anniversary,

and moving forward, the

new organization will help

share the excellence and ex-

pertise in luxury that Sofitel

has so strongly developed,”

said Rick Harvey Lam,

Senior Vice President Global

Marketing – Luxury & Up-

scale Brands ACCOR. “With

our marketing and design di-

visions based in Singapore,

we will harness the dy-

namism of this region that

has a high luxury demand,

blending it with a touch of

French elegance as only Sof-

itel can do.”

This new organization

reinforces Sofitel’s core mis-

sion: to be the symbol of

French elegance in luxury

hospitality around the

world. Robert Gaymer-

Jones, CEO of Sofitel World-

wide will be leaving Sofitel

after successfully transform-

ing the brand to be a key

player in the luxury hotel

segment as evidenced by the

multiple global awards and

recognition achieved over

the past years.

Sofitel is the only

French luxury hotel brand

with a presence on five con-

tinents with 120 addresses,

in almost 40 countries (more

than 30,000 rooms). Sofitel

offers contemporary hotels

and resorts adapted to

today’s more demanding and

more versatile consumers

who expect and appreciate

beauty, quality and excel-

lence. Whether situated in

the heart of a major city like

Paris, London, New York,

Shanghai or Beijing, or nes-

tled away in a country land-

scape in Morocco, Egypt,

French Polynesia or Thai-

land, each Sofitel property

offers a genuine experience

of the French “art de vivre”.

Sofitel Legend and &

Sofitel So are two labels that

come to enrich Sofitel Lux-

ury hotels. Sofitel Legend

hotels are iconic and mythi-

cal; they are often centuries-

old listed heritage buildings:

Sofitel Legend Metropole

Hanoi, Sofitel Legend The

Grand Amsterdam and Sofi-

tel Legend Old Cataract

Aswan, Sofitel Legend Santa

Clara Cartagena.

by TNH DESK

Sofitel moves to a new geography-based organizationReinforcing its mission to be the symbol of French elegance in luxuryhospitality around the world, Sofitel joins Accor’s new luxury / upscalesegment.

The philosophy of the In

Balance Spa is Sable –

Sand. The idea behind the

theme is that the feel of sand

and colours can have a signif-

icant effect on our mood, be-

haviour and body. The experts

at In Balance spa have crafted

treatments that use sand as

an effective beauty tool.

Located at the lobby level,

the In Balance Spa has two

Ayurveda rooms, a couple

suite, two western treatments

room and a Salon. Done in

warm appealing color hues

blended perfectly with elegant

sheers and suffused lights,

the In Balance Spa is ideal to

soothe your senses.

To help keep the stress of

modern day lifestyle at bay,

the menu at the In Balance

Spa strikes a perfect balance

between Ayurveda, Eastern

and Western treatments.

Ayurvedic treatments such as

Shirodhara, Uzhichil, Ab-

hyangam, Udwartanam,

Mukhlepa, Shiroabhyangam

and Padaabhyangam use

herbal medicated oils and

herbal powders to help you

de-stress and relax. Western

treatments such as Swedish

massage, Jet-lag recovery

massage, Take load off my

back massages are specially

designed for the modern day

business executives and trav-

elers. While that’s not all the

Eastern treatments such as

Balinese Massage, Foot Re-

flexology and Foot Bliss will

help eliminate stress and

sooth your senses. The treat-

ment rooms are equipped

with individual steam unit, a

shower and a wardrobe.

by TNH DESK

In Balance Spa at Novotel Goa ShremResort now open!Rejuvenating in Goa now has a new address, as Novotel Goa Shrem Resortannounces the opening of their In Balance Spa.

Hospitality News 50


The Federation of Hotel

& Restaurant Associa-

tions of India (FHRAI) re-

cently released the latest

edition of its annual publica-

tion, the FHRAI Indian Hotel

Industry Survey, published

in cooperation with HVS

Hospitality Services.

A presentation on the

key highlights and trends

emerging from this year's

survey was made by Manav

Thadani, Chairman-Asia Pa-

cific, HVS, to a select audi-

ence comprising of top

hoteliers, senior government

officials and the media, at an

event hosted by FHRAI at

The Leela Palace, New Delhi

today. Parvez Dewan, Secre-

tary, Ministry of Tourism,

Government of India graced

the occasion as Chief Guest.

On this occasion, adress-

ing the media, S.M. Sher-

vani, President, FHRAI said,

“As the leading national

voice of the Indian hospital-

ity industry, FHRAI accords

high priority to producing

credible research and con-

temporary thought leader-

ship which can shape policy

and guide business strategy.

Our annual Indian Hotel In-

dustry Survey is an exem-

plary reflection of this very

commitment and it is ex-

tremely gratifying that this

publication serves as an in-

dispensable reference and

benchmarking resource for

hospitality professionals,

policymakers, investors,

media persons and other

stakeholders.”

Sharing his assessment

on the hotel industry's per-

formance in the past year,

Shervani said: “Despite sin-

cere efforts, both by the Gov-

ernment and the private

sector, India’s global market

share in tourism remains at

a disappointing 0.68%, with

the country being ranked

41st in the world in interna-

tional tourist arrivals. The

World Economic Forum’s in-

fluential Travel & Tourism

Competitiveness Index,

placed India at the 65th po-

sition among 140 nations in

2013.” Shervani further said,

“It is pertinent to note that

on their three pillars of com-

petitiveness, India was well

assessed in terms of its

human, natural and cultural

resource endowments with a

rank of 21, but scored an

abysmally low position of

110 globally in its regulatory

framework for travel and

tourism and 67 on business

environment & infrastruc-

ture. It is thus amply evident

that India has been unable

to convert its inherent com-

parative advantages into a

sustainable competitive ad-

vantage for our hospitality

and tourism sector.”

2013 was certainly a

challenging year for the in-

dustry on account of the

global and domestic slow-

down, which is also visible in

the pressure, witnessed on

hotel occupancy and aver-

age room rates. In a tough

macroeconomic environ-

ment marked by high infla-

tion, rising interest rates,

currency volatility and a

tepid demand scenario, hotel

companies have prioritized

realignment of their cost

structures, optimizing oper-

ational efficiencies and

adopting flexible business

models. At the same time,

the industry is optimistic

about the long-term poten-

tial of the Indian hospitality

sector and we remain stead-

fastly focused on pursuing

customer-centric innovation,

delivering service excellence

and tapping newer market

segments.

A heartening trend for

the sector in the last few

years has been the robust

double-digit growth in do-

mestic tourism. However, to

sustain this momentum, it

will be imperative to steadily

augment our hotel room in-

ventory in the affordable

tourist accommodation seg-

ment. In order to achieve the

12th Plan target of 1452 mil-

lion Domestic Tourist Visits

(DTVs) by 2017, the industry

needs to add 1,20,000 rooms

in the budget and mid-mar-

ket category, entailing an es-

timated capital investment

of rupees 50,000 crore. The

Government must facilitate

this massive investment by

reducing the minimum proj-

ect cost stipulated for inclu-

sion of hotels in the RBI's

Infrastructure Lending List

from the present rupees 200

crore to a more reasonable

threshold of rupees 50 crore.

FHRAI has also proposed

that bank loans up to rupees

10 crore extended to SMEs

in the hospitality industry

should be permitted to be

classified as “priority sector

lending” under RBI norms.

Achieving a meaningful

growth in Foreign Tourist

Arrivals (FTAs), requires

that the Government must

empower the industry to ef-

fectively compete with our

peers in neighboring desti-

nations such as South-East

Asia, by urgently rationaliz-

ing our complex multiple tax

structure, adopting a

streamlined electronic visa

regime for international

tourists and reviving in-

vestor sentiment in the hotel

sector through measures

such as single-window proj-

ect clearances and access to

lower cost long-term fund-

ing.”

by TNH DESK

2013: a challenging year for thehotel industry2013 was a challenging year for the India hotel industry on account of theglobal and domestic slowdown, which impacted hotel’s occupancy andaverage room rates (ARR).

S.M. Shervani, President, FHRAI

As the leading national voice of theIndian hospitality industry, FHRAIaccords high priority to producing

credible research and contemporary thoughtleadership which can shape policy and guidebusiness strategy. Our annual Indian HotelIndustry Survey is an exemplary reflection ofthis very commitment.

“>>>


51Hospitality News

Asteady 60.4% occupancy

by the Indian hotels in

2012-13 is significant in view of

the country experiencing a

slowdown in growth across

sectors, as reflected in GDP

growth of 5% for the year 2012-

13.

HVS estimated that major

cities across the country wit-

nessed a growth of 11% in

hotel room supply in 2012-13,

while demand exhibited a

strong increase of 9.2% during

the same period. The nation-

wide results of this year's Sur-

vey, however, reveal that the

average rates declined by 3.6%

when compared to those in

2011-12.

An interesting trend ob-

served in the survey is the cor-

relation between the supply

and demand growths, with the

supply growing at 17.8% com-

pounded annual growth rate

(CAGR) and demand at 17.3%

from 2008-09 to 2012-13. The

fact that occupancy levels re-

mained generally stable during

this period despite strong in-

creases in supply is indicative

of the healthy growth in de-

mand. As per the survey other

key trend is that hotels are

dropping average rates to at-

tract customers in the face of

increased supply. As a result, a

new customer mindset is

emerging that is sensitive to

the price instead of the tradi-

tional one, which was more

loyal to a hotel/brand. As oper-

ators battle increasing depart-

mental costs and owners

struggle with debt service pay-

ments, hotel companies need

to reconsider their rate strate-

gies.

Increasing contribution from

F&B, Banquets & Confer-

ences to revenues

The FHRA India continues to

receive a greater contribution

from both the Food & Beverage

(F&B) and the Banquets &

Conferences department. The

Banquets & Conferences seg-

ment also recorded a year-on-

year increase of 17.4% in PAR

revenue in 2012-13 (2,26,793)

over that in 2011-12, while

Food & Beverage recorded an

increase of 4.2% in the PAR

revenue (`5,41,494) for the

same period.

Average Rate Occupancy

According to Economic Survey

2012-13, Ministry of Finance,

Government of India, the rev-

enue contribution (in percent-

age of total revenue) from

Rooms has seen a steady de-

cline over the last five years,

recording a negative CAGR of

4% between 2008-09 and 2012-

13. Going forward, as the com-

petition further increases in

the market with the entry of

new supply, we expect F&B

revenues to continue to con-

tribute a large portion of gross

revenues as they are not solely

driven by occupancies. Addi-

tionally, the burgeoning middle

class and its propensity to

spend will continue to augment

demand for F&B across cities

in India. With hotels focusing

on the Banquets &

Conferences segment in

off-season months to beat sea-

sonality, this department is

also anticipated to increase its

contribution to the total rev-

enue pie.

Declining Net Income (as a

percentage of total revenue):

The FHRAI Survey results in

the last five years have shown

that Net Income as a percent-

age of the total revenue has

consistently declined year-on-

year, as witnessed by a CAGR

of -5.7%. The year 2012-13 has

seen a decline of 4.7% in Net

Income as a percentage of rev-

enue over the previous year.

This phenomenon is mainly at-

tributable to rising departmen-

tal costs, which are a result of

rising inflation coupled with an

increase in Energy costs. The

last year also experienced an

increase in departmental ex-

penses as a percentage of total

revenues, resulting in declin-

ing profits

Revenue and Net Income –

2008-09 to 2012-13

Increasing Utility Costs: En-

ergy costs continue to rise and

pose a challenge to the hotel

industry. The Survey, this year,

has revealed a rise of 13% in

PAR energy costs (1,82,067)

over that in the previous year

(1,61,479). Additionally, the

Survey results show that only

26% of the hotels surveyed

have an energy management

Indian hotels maintains 60.4% occupancyin 2011-12: FHRAI According to the FHRAI Indian Hotel Survey 2012-13, the Indian hotelindustry maintains its occupancy levels at a steady 60.4% in 2012-13 ascompared to 60.9% in 2011-12.

Hospitality News52


system in place across India

(Table 1-10). The rise in En-

ergy costs coupled with the

limited conservation measures

employed highlight the dire

need for sustainable practices

to be used in the industry. HVS

is currently tracking a pro-

posed supply of 84,650

branded rooms, of which 60%

is actively under development

and is expected to enter the In-

dian hotel market over the

next five years. Given the an-

ticipated increase in hotel

room supply, together with a

high inflationary environment,

HVS re-emphasizes the need

for operational efficiency and

sustainable practices in order

to curtail further decline of

profitability. Going forward,

companies like HVS sustain-

ability can assist hotels in im-

proving their financial

performance along with the en-

vironmental and social one.

Continuing high manpower

to room ratios: Employee-to-

room ratios in India continue

to be on the higher side when

compared with global bench-

marks, almost twice as much.

The all India average of em-

ployee-to-room ratio stands at

1.6. This can be attributed to

the large chunk of four star

and three-star hotel respon-

dents, which have an average

employee-to-room ratio of 1.7.

Typically, hotels in India pro-

vide services and facilities be-

yond their positioning; hence,

they require more manpower.

With rising manpower

costs, the higher ratios are

posing a problem to hotel com-

panies. Hence, companies are

now seeking ways to ratio-

nalise employee-to-room ratios

and cut down on payroll costs,

which will improve operational

efficiency. Effective manpower

management is the need of the

hour along with effective train-

ing programmes. The training

programmes include cross ex-

posure to other departments,

hotels and brands, conse-

quently incentivising staff and

simultaneously training them

to multitask. This training fo-

cusing on multitasking would

save on manpower and reduce

payroll costs, leading to overall

increase in efficiency.

Additionally, given the in-

creasing supply of new hotels

entering the country, effective

training should be accompa-

nied by growth opportunities

for existing employees and

sound retention policies, to

keep good talent from moving

to the competition. This will

also help stabilize costs over

time, as companies need not

incur fresh costs in hiring re-

placements.

Changing Source Markets:

The United Kingdom and the

United States of America are

the largest international

source markets for the Indian

hospitality sector, contributing

23% of the overall demand in

2012-13. however, it has been

observed that their share con-

tinues to decline as witnessed

by the 4.3% drop this year as

compared to last year’s ar-

rivals. This may be attributed

to the fact that Indian hotels

have seen a greater contribu-

tion from the Middle East, Rus-

sia, and the SAARC nations.

The rise in visitation from Asia

and the Middle East may be at-

tributed to the improved con-

nectivity, easier visa norms

and infrastructure develop-

ment.

Market Mix and Declining

Seasonality: The Indian hotel

industry continues to cater to

the Business traveller, who

contributes the largest share

to the market mix at 39% (Ex-

hibit 4); this is primarily due to

the fact that most hotels are

situated in business cities. The

Survey also reveals an in-

crease in the growth of Meet-

ing Participants segments

(fewer than 100 and more than

100 attendees). As mentioned

earlier, it has been noticed

across the country that hotels

are targeting Banquets & Con-

ferences in off-season months

with attractive packages and

rates in order to off-set the low

occupancies experienced dur-

ing the traditionally slow sea-

son. Additionally, both the

Domestic Business and the Do-

mestic Leisure traveller have

continued to show resilience

and maintain their share of the

pie and overall length of stay,

when compared to the nation-

wide average from last year's


53Hospitality News

survey. While the real growth

in 2012-13 came from the Do-

mestic travellers, it is interest-

ing to note that India also

experienced an increase of

5.4% in foreign tourist arrivals

(FTA).

Trends in Indian Hotel In-

dustry – Star Category

Rooms Profile: The Survey

results reveal that the three,

two, and one-star hotels, along

with heritage and others cate-

gory make up 84% of the re-

spondents; this contributes to

the all India average of 58

rooms per hotel. Another ob-

servation is that the average

inventory continues to decline

from higher to lower category,

implying that the lower cate-

gory and smaller hotels do not

benefit from economies of

scale. Their Net Incomes as a

percentage of total revenues

are also lower when compared

with hotels of higher cate-

gories. Going forward, with the

increasing demand for budget

and mid market hotels, HVS

believes that lower category

hotels will increase in number

and also have larger invento-

ries.

Departmental Expenses:

We note that departmental ex-

penses steadily increase as a

percentage of departmental

revenues as the category of ho-

tels decreases. The Rooms ex-

pense is as high as 35.7% and

28.1% for the two star and

one-star hotels respectively, as

compared to 19.1% and 18.5%

for the five-star deluxe and

five-star hotels, respectively.

Poor performance of the

Rooms department with re-

spect to occupancy levels and

low average rates results in

the departmental expenses

being high when represented

as a percentage of departmen-

tal revenue. Also, Food & Bev-

erage expenses range from

63% to 70% of the departmen-

tal income in three and one-

star hotels as against 50% in

five and five-star deluxe cate-

gories.

Key Trends observed in the

survey

•An interesting trend ob-

served is the correlation be-

tween the supply and demand

growth, with the supply 1

growing at 17.8% compounded

annual growth rate (CAGR)

and demand at 17.3% from

2008-09 to 2012-13.

•The fact that occupancy

levels remained generally sta-

ble during this period despite

strong increases in supply is

indicative of the healthy

growth in demand.

•Other key trend is that

hotels are dropping average

rates to attract customers in

the face of increased supply. As

a result, a new customer mind-

set is emerging that is sensitive

to the price instead of the tra-

ditional one, which was more

loyal to a hotel/brand.

•As operators battle in-

creasing departmental costs

and owners struggle with debt

service payments, hotel com-

panies need to reconsider their

rate strategies.

•Despite economic slow-

down in 2012-13 in India as re-

flected in GDP growth of 5%,

the year saw hotels maintain

occupancy levels at a steady

60.4% (60.9% in 2011-12).

•HVS estimated that major

cities across the country wit-

nessed a growth of 11% in

hotel room supply in 2012-13,

while demand exhibited a

strong increase of 9.2% during

the same period.

•The nationwide results of

this year's Survey, however, re-

veal that the average rates de-

clined by 3.6% when compared

to those in 2011-12.

•India continues to receive

a greater contribution from

both F&B and the Banquets &

Conferences department.

•The Banquets & Confer-

ences segment also recorded a

year-on-year increase of 17.4%

in PAR revenue in 2012-13

(`2,26,793) over that in 2011-

12, while Food & Beverage

recorded an increase of 4.2% in

the PAR revenue (`5,41,494)

for the same period.

by TNH DESK

International News54


The Nevada Commission

on Tourism recently at-

tended South Asia’s leading

travel and tourism event,

SATTE to open the doors to

Indian visitors, Brian

Krolicki, Lieutenant Gover-

nor, Nevada said. “We know

that Nevada is already a top

destination for Indian travel-

ers and that can only increase

as the Indian economy

strengthens in 2014,” said

Krolicki, chair of the Nevada

Commission on Tourism .

“With more than 50 million

passport holders in India, and

a large – and growing – mid-

dle class with a desire to

travel internationally, India is

primed to be the next big mar-

ket for Nevada,” Krolicki

added.

Krolicki joined members

of the international marketing

organization Brand USA to

address dignitaries and

media in New Delhi while

NCOT and the Las Vegas Con-

vention and Visitors Authority

attended SATTE, an interna-

tional trade show joining des-

tinations with more than 2,000

travel agents and tour opera-

tors in India.

The appointment-style

trade show was an opportunity

for Nevada to meet agents and

tour operators who send trav-

elers to the United States and

encourage them to consider

adding more Nevada destina-

tions to their tours.

“We know that trade shows

such as SATTE directly in-

crease tourism to Nevada, and

this opportunity is strength-

ened by the cooperative efforts

of Las Vegas and Brand USA,”

Krolicki said.

Tourism is a $58 billion in-

dustry in Nevada, employing

more than 450,000 Nevadans

and generating $2.7 billion in

tax revenue for the state. Las

Vegas is a world-famous desti-

nation within Nevada. The

contrast of Las Vegas’ exciting

entertainment and nightlife

with the state’s historic and

natural attractions makes it an

attractive destination for inter-

national travelers. Visitors can

experience the thrill of Las

Vegas and the natural beauty

and serenity of the mountains

and desert in one convenient

vacation.

“Research shows that In-

dian travelers want a destina-

tion with shopping, fine

cuisine, entertainment, cul-

ture, adventure, and beauty,

and Nevada has all of that and

more,” Krolicki said. “I have no

doubt that our time will be well

spent educating South Asia’s

travel industry what Nevada

has to offer.”

by TNH DESK

Nevada joins Brand USAto welcome travellersfrom India

Brian K. KrolickiLieutenant Governor Nevada

In future, visa applicants

can file their visa requests

in sixteen Visa Application

Centres in India and one in

Bhutan. This new service-ori-

ented and customer-friendly

service will avoid major travel

expenses, unnecessary time

spent and speed up the whole

application process.

The Germany Visa Appli-

cation Centres in New Delhi,

Chandigarh, Jalandhar,

Jaipur, Gurgaon, Thimpu,

Chennai, Hyderabad,

Puducherry, Bengaluru and

Mumbai are already serving

the clients of their respective

region. The centres in Goa,

Pune, Ahmedabad, Cochin,

Trivandrum and Kolkata will

be operational over the next

two months.

This new service is being

run by VFS Global, the con-

tract partner of the German

Embassy. Highlighting the

new features of the out-

sourced visa application

process, the German Ambas-

sador to India Michael

Steiner said: “For most Indi-

ans and Bhutanese travelling

to Europe, be it for business

or leisure, Germany is high

on the wish list. Therefore,

the visa application process

should be as smooth as pos-

sible. With our new policy, we

take the visa application

process to the people’s door.

This is good service and cus-

tomer-orientation at its

best.”

Vishal Jairath, Regional

Head-South Asia, VFS Global

said: “The fact that the Ger-

man Embassy has commis-

sioned us with the visa

outsourcing application

process imbibes confidence

in our abilities. I am sure this

association has a long way

ahead. VFS Global in associ-

ation with the German Em-

bassy New Delhi will bring

convenience to all Indian

business and leisure trav-

ellers.”

Catering to the growing

demand of Germany bound

travellers in the region, the

strategic move of the German

Embassy New Delhi is aimed

at offering new services, fa-

cilities and benefits to visa

applicants to support the

growing demand in tourism,

trade and investments, and

strengthening bilateral ties

between Germany and India.

by TNH DESK

Germany eases visa applicationprocess in India and BhutanTravellers from India and Bhutan to Germany willnot require to apply for the necessary SchengenVisa (short-term visa) at the German missions inIndia any more, but can do so much moreconveniently.

•Conveniently locatedand easily accessiblestate-of-the art VisaApplication Centres•Longer operatinghours allowing appli-cants to visit at a timeof their convenience•Shorter waiting pe-riod between makingan appointment andsubmitting the appli-cation•Dedicated countersfor applicants andtravel agents/ tour op-erators

Snapshot

Vishal JairathRegional Head-South AsiaVFS Global

“With more than 50 million passportholders in India, and a large – and grow-ing – middle class with a desire to travelinternationally, India is primed to be thenext big market for Nevada,”


55International News

The mention of Great

Barrier Reef, one of

the natural wonders of the

world brings to mind the

spectacular land of Queens-

land that provides an entire

gamut of opportunities for

all segments of travellers.

Tourism Queensland in cur-

rent times is taking a big

stride forward to entice a

major chunk of outbound

leisure travellers from

India.

In the first concrete

step in the New Year,

Tourism Queensland is

hosting “Queensland on

Tour 2014” across five

cities of India like New

Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata,

Chandigarh and Pune. Ryna

Sequeira, Marketing Man-

ager, Tourism and Events

Queensland informed, “For

the first time, we would

step in Chandigarh and

Pune. The latest Bollywood

flick- “Shaadi ke side ef-

fects” has a particular song

that has been shot exten-

sively in Gold Coast -a hot

destination for fun-loving

travellers. We are promot-

ing the film in India along

with Tourism Australia. We

are working with Singapore

Airlines to introduce spe-

cial air fares in February,

this year. Tourists can avail

of our promotional air fares

next month and reap the

benefits till September, this

year. There is also Aus-

tralia Tourism Exchange

2014 event with Indian

travel groups across Indian

metros and they can em-

bark on destination famil-

iarization trips to

Queensland.”

The most-visited desti-

nations for Indian tourists

are Gold Coast, Cairns and

Brisbane, the capital city.

Sequeira said, “India forms

the 10th largest outbound

tourism market for Aus-

tralia and Gold Coast is a

highly popular MICE desti-

nation. India also has a fair

share of MICE tourists to

Queensland. We have joined

hands with Sydney New

South Wales Tourism to or-

ganize road shows in tier-II

cities like Nagpur, Guwa-

hati, Ludhiana, Trivandrum

and Surat in March.”

Maharashtra has the

most number of Indian

tourists visiting Australia

followed by New Delhi and

Bengal ranks eighth in po-

sition. “Around 37,000 In-

dian tourists have toured

Queensland last year of

which 53 per cent were

leisure travellers, 10 per

cent were business tourists

and 4 per cent were stu-

dents going for higher edu-

cation. We are hoping that

there would be a spike of 22

per cent in Indian tourist

arrival this year,” added

Sequeira.

New Year bonanza fromTourism QueenslandTourism Queensland is making a major drive byrolling out events and promotional offers toincrease the Indian tourist footfall. New initiatives of

Tourism Queens-land:•Queensland on Tour2014•Introducing promo-tional fares fortourists.•Australia TourismExchange 2014. •Promoting popularBollywood flick.

Snapshot

�Swaati Chaudhury

Spa News56


The Khyber

Himalayan

Resort and

Spa, Gul-

m a r g ’ s

first luxury

resort, opened its world class

international spa, The Khyber

Spa by L’OCCITANE and the

Khyber Wellness Block.

Within a year of its launch (in

December 2012), the resort

has earned accolades for its

design, services and hospital-

ity. It will now offer luxurious

and holistic spa treatments

inspired by traditions and rit-

uals of Provence, France to its

discerning guests from across

the world and India.

Situated amidst the pic-

turesque Himalayas, The

Khyber Spa by L’OCCITANE

located within the resort pro-

vides an experience of

Provence in Gulmarg along

with stunning views no matter

where you are. With three sin-

gle treatment rooms and two

Couple suites, each with its

own private steam chamber,

The Khyber Spa by L’OCCI-

TANE is a place to unwind

and be pampered, be it after

an exhilarating ski session, or

a leisurely walk in the dense

woods or meadows, or at the

beginning of your day.

“We are delighted to be as-

sociated with L’OCCITANE

which is a well recognized

French beauty and wellness

brand across the world. It will

offer world class spa treat-

ments and unique therapies

that will enhance the charm of

Gulmarg,” said Umar Tram-

boo, MD, Pinnacle Resorts

Pvt. Ltd, promoter of The Khy-

ber Himalayan Resort & Spa,

Gulmarg, on the opening of

The Khyber Spa by L’OCCI-

TANE.

“Opening of The Khyber

Spa by L’OCCITANE is a mar-

riage of luxury with style and

well-being. Through The Khy-

ber Himalayan Resort and

Spa we will be able to serve

travelers to Kashmir and pro-

vide an international or

rather Mediterranean experi-

ence in Gulmarg itself.” said

Darpan Sanghvi, MD,

Sanghvi Brands that is L’OCC-

ITANE’s exclusive Spa part-

ner in India. The Spa aims to

bring to life the invigorating

climate of Gulmarg. Be it

spring, summer, autumn or

winter, guests can choose

from a repertoire of signature

treatments specially crafted

with home grown seasonal

flora combined with original

L’OCCITANE products and

pure water from the springs

in the Himalayas.

Just as Provence is a

unique restful place, the spa

at the resort too is your “Piece

of Paradise.” It is a haven of

tranquility where rejuvenat-

ing the body and soul is the

prime focus of the well-

trained staff. The Lemon

Balm signature massage for

instance is a blend of Bali-

nese, Swedish and acupres-

sure massage techniques that

rebalances the skin and re-

vives the inner energy

through the senses. For the

skiers, the Deep Tissue In-

tense Relief massage is an

ideal recuperation after their

exhilarating run on the slopes

of Gulmarg. Apart from this,

the menu offers a gamut of

over 50 rejuvenating treat-

ments from aroma therapies

to concentrated deep mas-

sages to nourishing body

scrubs and body wraps for

complete wellbeing.

The spa experience at The

Khyber Spa by L’OCCITANE

begins with a welcome ritual

and then the guest is taken on

a relaxing journey, sequenced

at every step by soothing and

energizing aromas. The voy-

age continues through mas-

sages, relaxing music and

herbal teas inspired by

Provencal traditions. Wellness

Consultant and Spa Manager,

Dr Praseed Nair is always at

“we are delighted to be associated with l’occi-tAne which is a well recognized French beauty andwellness brand across the world. it will offer worldclass spa treatments and unique therapies that willenhance the charm of gulmarg.”

uMAr tRAMBoo, Md, PinnAcle reSortS (Pro-Moter oF the khyBer hiMAlAyAn reSort & SPA,gulMArg)


57Spa News

hand to provide expert advice

on treatments best suited to

an individual.

The Khyber Spa by L’OC-

CITANE is a fusion of Indian

and Mediterranean well

being. In order to preserve the

beauty and natural environ-

ment, the products used are

made of natural materials

with traceable origins. In ad-

dition, features like an in-

house laundry and minimalis-

tic use of utilities ensures the

most hygienic and eco-

friendly experience.

Adjoining the Spa in The

Khyber Wellness Block is a

state of the art gym with the

latest equipment, separate

steam and sauna chambers

for men and women and an

impressive heated indoor pool

offering dramatic views of the

mountain ranges.

The resort in a short span

of just one year of operations

has received recognition from

Condé Nast Traveller India’s,

Readers’ Travel Awards

where it was voted as 1st

Runner Up – Favourite Bou-

tique Hotel – India, for 2013.

Earlier in the year the resort

also featured in the Condé

Nast Traveller India 2013 Hot

List. The resort has also been

featured as one of Asia-Pa-

cific’s best new hotels and re-

sorts for 2013 in the

Destination Asian Luxe List

2013.

The Khyber Himalayan

Resort & Spa, Gulmarg lo-

cated at an elevation of 8,825

ft. in the Pir Panjal range of

the majestic Himalayas is

spread over seven acres in a

pristine pine valley. This in-

ternational class, 85-key re-

sort, clad in timber and

stone, offers breathtaking

views of snow capped Affar-

wat peaks. Also situated here

is The Khyber Spa by L’OCC-

ITANE with stunning vistas

from all its treatment rooms,

offering luxurious and holis-

tic spa treatments inspired

by the rituals of Provence,

France. The Wellness Block

spread over 8000 sq. ft, in-

cludes a Gym, separate

steam and sauna rooms for

men and women and a heated

indoor swimming pool. The

awe-inspiring location of the

resort combined with the un-

folding drama of Gulmarg’s

changing seasons has been

tempting guests to return

again and again. The resort

is an easy walk from the Gul-

marg Gondola, the highest ski

lift in the world.

The luxurious Mediter-

ranean themed Spa L’OCCI-

TANE invites every guest to

open the door to a Spa in

Provence, to experience the

simple warmth of sunny soil

and a unique journey. Every

gesture, every ingredient is

drawn from the L’OCCITANE

grand herbarium, providing

an unforgettable authentic

and sensorial experience for

its guests.

With an incredibly wide

and yet bespoke set, Spa

L’OCCITANE has an unparal-

leled expertise in catering to

the needs of the most individ-

ual and yet diverse tastes.

Our therapists and opera-

tions team receive their

training from the Spa L’OCC-

ITANE team in Paris and

Hong Kong. L’OCCITANE

branded Spas are currently

present in over a dozen coun-

tries worldwide and we

launched the first set of L’OC-

CITANE branded Spas in

India in 2010 to great acclaim

from the Media and Award

associations globally. Within

three years of launch, Spa

L’OCCITANE has become the

number 1 international Spa

brand in India with locations

in 10 cities in India. Every

L’OCCITANE branded Spa in

India will also exclusively re-

tail L’OCCITANE products.

by TNH DESK

“opening of The khyber Spa by l’occitAne is amarriage of luxury with style and well-being.Through The khyber himalayan resort and Spa wewill be able to serve travelers to kashmir and pro-vide an international or rather Mediterranean expe-rience in gulmarg itself.”

dArPAn SAnghvi, Md, SAnghvi BRAndS (l’occi-tAne’S excluSive SPA PArtner in indiA)



Memorandums of Under-

standing signed between

the trade associations of the

two countries include MoU be-

tween the European Tour Op-

erators Association (ETOA)

and Travel Agents Association

of India (TAAI), between The

European Tour Operators As-

sociation (ETOA) and Travel

Agents Federation of India

(TAFI), and between Outbound

Tour Operator Association of

India (OTOAI) and UKinbound.

This is the first ever MoU be-

tween UK and Indian trade as-

sociations to enable a positive

business environment for the

travel industries of the two

countries.

The signing of MoUs were

witnessed by Sir James Bevan

KCMG, British High Commis-

sioner to India and Sandie

Dawe, Chief Executive, Vis-

itBritain at the VisitBritain

stand at SATTE, India's biggest

travel exhibition, in New Delhi.

Commenting on the announce-

ment, Sandie Dawe, Chief Ex-

ecutive of VisitBritain said, “As

per our latest data, VisitBritain

is more than likely to surpass

its ambition to attract 425,000

visits from India by 2016 -

worth £380 million in annual

visitor spend. The Indian trav-

ellers visiting Britain last year

were not deterred by the falling

value of the rupee against the

pound, which closed around

INR100-level for the first time in

history in August 2013.

“India is one of the priority

markets for VisitBritain and we

are committed to strengthening

the links between British and

Indian travel and tourism in-

dustries. This strategic engage-

ment between the two trade

associations is aimed at closer

collaboration to significantly

benefit the travel industries of

the UK and India.”

Sir James Bevan KCMG,

British High Commissioner to

India said: “Well over one mil-

lion Britons and Indians travel

between our two countries

every year. This is the lifeblood

of the unique relationship be-

tween our two peoples. The 9%

growth in the number of Indian

tourists to the UK in 2013

shows that this relationship is

going from strength to strength.

I am delighted to see the enthu-

siasm of the British and Indian

tourism industries to take this

to the next stage and offer my

full support to their efforts.”

India & the UK have been

historical trade and investment

partners. This is the first ever

stand-alone participation by

VisitBritain at SATTE with 19

UK travel trade suppliers. This

Memorandum aims at defining

the common territory between

the associations, establishing a

framework within which the as-

sociations can jointly develop,

create programmes and ad-

dress issues. VisitBritain’s stall

at SATTE 2014 also exhibited

the remarkable Mini Cooper – a

car that invokes tremendous

love and enthusiasm among the

UK and Indian audiences.

Holiday visits from India

up despite rupee going down

New figures show that dur-

ing the first three quarters of

2013, visits from India to the

UK were up by 9% on the same

period in 2012 - reaching new

records of 306,000 visits and

£349 million in spending. Con-

sequently, VisitBritain is more

than likely to surpass its ambi-

tion to attract 425,000 visits

from India by 2016 - worth £380

million in annual visitor spend.

The Indian travellers visit-

ing Britain in their scores last

year were not deterred by the

falling value of the rupee

against the pound, which

closed below Rs 100-level for

the first time in history in Au-

gust 2013.

While 2012 saw visiting

friends and family (VFR) over-

taking holiday and business

visits in volume, in 2013 VFR

visits were down by 4% and

visit growth from India was in-

stead driven by 11% and 14%

uplifts in holiday and business

visits respectively. As a result,

holiday visits reached their

highest level for five years -

121,000 in the first three quar-

ters of 2013 - and the amount

spent on these visits hit a

record amount of £62 million,

31% up from the same period

last year and breaking 2008’s

pre-financial crisis record of

£60 million.2

The results are a boost as

VisitBritain commences a

strong programme of 2014

GREAT marketing activity in

India, including the develop-

ment of a Culture is Great ‘Bol-

lywood in Britain’ campaign

launching later this year on the

red carpet.

Supporting the GREAT

marketing programme is Vis-

itBritain’s annual India trade

mission, taking place in Mum-

bai and New Delhi from Tues-

day 28 January until Friday 31

January. This year the mission

is part of SATTE, India’s

largest Travel-Trade exhibition,

giving mission attendees in-

cluding Wimbledon Lawn Ten-

nis Museum & Tour, Historic

Royal Palaces, VisitManches-

ter, St Paul’s Cathedral and

Westfield UK the opportunity to

meet with over 10,000 agents

from all over India to promote

their destinations, tour pack-

ages and attractions, highlight-

ing value-for-money deals and

unique experiences.

Indian perceptions of

Britain are very positive, as

shown in the latest 2013 Anholt

GfK Nation Brand Index. Re-

spondents from India rated

Britain third out of fifty coun-

tries for historic buildings, vi-

brant city life and

contemporary culture, second

for rich cultural heritage and

fifth for natural beauty and

sport. Sandie Dawe, CEO of

VisitBritain, commented: “We

are fortunate that Indians are

choosing Britain once again

with new records broken for

both spend and visits. This is

testament to Britain as an in-

herently attractive and good

value destination with a warm

welcome and huge variety of

locations and experiences – all

of which will be showcased

and sold at our mission this

week.” by TNH DESK

MoU signed between UKand Indian trade bodiesAs per the UK Government’s agenda for India asa priority market, VisitBritain recently announcedthe signing of MoUs between UK and Indiantravel trade associations.

“well over one million Britons and indians travel be-tween our two countries every year. This is thelifeblood of the unique relationship between ourtwo peoples. The 9% growth in the number of indiantourists to the uk in 2013 shows that this relation-ship is going from strength to strength.”

Sir jAMeS BevAn kcMgBritiSh high coMMiSSioner to indiA



Bangkok, the capital as

well as commercial hub

of the country, has been

ranked third in the latest Eu-

romonitor International’s 100

Top City Destinations Rank-

ing (2013 edition), covering

100 of the world’s leading

cities in terms of international

tourist arrivals. Three other

popular Thai cities, Phuket,

Pattaya, and Chiang Mai, were

respectively ranked 15, 17 and

70 in the same listing.

The top two cities ahead of

Bangkok were Hong Kong and

Singapore. Within the top 10,

six cities are located in Asia,

demonstrating the importance

of the region to international

travel, especially the increas-

ing numbers of Chinese and

Russian visitors, according to

Euromonitor International.

Overall, 32 of the top 100

city destinations are in the

Asia-Pacific, 12 more than in

second-placed Western Eu-

rope. Thawatchai Arunyik,

Governor of the Tourism Au-

thority of Thailand said, “The

vast majority of travel move-

ments within the Asia-Pacific

region is taking place between

cities. There is no doubt that

Thai and regional cities are all

changing remarkably to cater

to the demand. We are happy

to see Bangkok, Phuket, Pat-

taya and Chiang Mai rated so

prominently in the rankings.”

According to Euromonitor,

“Continued economic growth

helped (the Top 100) cities

collectively experience a gain

of 6.6% in 2012, outpacing the

4.2% growth of overall inter-

national arrivals.” While

China was the fastest grow-

ing source market and helped

Singapore, Hong Kong and

Bangkok retain their leading

positions, Singapore relies

heavily on arrivals from

Malaysia and Indonesia,

which together account for

slightly more than half of all

arrivals, the report noted.

Chinese tourists were

also a boon to Thailand’s

tourism industry, increasing

by 62% in 2012 to become the

largest source market for

tourists. As a result, Bangkok

edged out London for third

place in the rankings.

The report also stated,

“By 2017, China will lead (the

rankings of the world’s

largest number of outbound

travellers) with Germany in

second place and Russia in

third. Therefore, cities which

appeal to Chinese and Russ-

ian travellers will experience

stronger growth, especially

those in neighbouring coun-

tries.”

In particular, Thailand is

well positioned to benefit

from the strong growth of

both Chinese and Russian

travellers thanks to its prox-

imity, shopping and attrac-

tions although the current

political unrest may under-

mine growth in the short

term, more so for Bangkok

than other destinations

which can be reached di-

rectly.

“In the long term, never-

theless, Euromonitor Interna-

tional expects that Bangkok

will cement its position as the

third most visited city, while

Phuket, Pattaya and Chiang

Mai will continue their ascent

in the rankings.”

The report noted that

countries which relax or

streamline visa processes,

develop strong relationships

with tour operators, imple-

ment targeted marketing and

expand air travel will get an

increased flow of travellers,

which will benefit their main

city destinations.

Euromonitor Interna-

4 Thai cities ranked intop 100 city destinations Four cities of Thailand including its capitalBangkok have been ranked in top 100 citydestinations by Euromonitor International.

Chinatown at Yaowarat Road, Bangkok

Wat Arun or the Temple of Dawn in Bangkok



The road show will as-

semble more than 30 key

travel partners from Thai-

land under one roof in each of

these important gateway

cities. “We have brought to-

gether a sizeable contingent

of the most relevant hotels,

DMCs and attractions to arm

the travel agent for the year

ahead,” says Sethaphan

Buddhani, director, TAT

Mumbai Office.

The industry-connect

event also promises to bolster

confidence among travel

agents amidst protests in

Bangkok. There have been

little or no cancellations re-

ported out of India and with

the Thailand elections com-

pleted on February 02; tourist

confidence is expected to in-

crease in the coming weeks.

Travel agents will also gain

macro-level insights into

TAT’s tourism strategy for

the coming months. Pichai

Raktasinha, director of

ASEAN, South Asia and

South Pacific Market Division

will address attending mem-

bers of the travel trade at the

event.

A preview on TAT’s new

strategy: Besides traditional

markets which continue to

serve the destination well

such as budget-seekers,

groups of young people who

visit for its nightlife and first-

time travelers, Thailand is

also looking to attract the

luxury-seeker and the well-

travelled tourist that could be

drawn by unexplored facets

of Thai culture and heritage,

such as Muay Thai (Thai

kickboxing). TAT is also cre-

ating awareness about its

biggest festivals as part of

cultural promotions.

Songkran; Thailand’s New

Year and Loi Krathong; best

recognized by its floating

lanterns are already a big hit

among Indians who have ex-

perienced them.

For the luxury-seeker,

TAT is engaging travel agents

in promoting yacht excur-

sions, limousine transfers

and jet rides, high end hotels

and exclusive dining, shop-

ping and entertainment expe-

riences.

Niches such as rural

tourism, voluntourism and

golf tourism are picking up

from India. Culinary travel is

seeing a large number of tak-

ers even if only as a compo-

nent of a larger itinerary. To

attract India’s gourmets, TAT

is also hosting a Thai Food

Festival at The Four Seasons,

Mumbai from April 8 to April

15, 2014.

Another noteworthy trend

is the expanding scope of

Thailand itineraries: travel

agents reveal that soft-adven-

ture activities such as ziplin-

ing, parasailing and

snorkeling find their way into

almost every Indian itinerary.

Moreover, tourists – 60 per

cent of whom are return trav-

elers – no longer restrict

themselves to Bangkok alone.

The Indian market is moving

beyond Bangkok, Phuket and

Pattaya. Chiang Mai, Chai

Rai, Koh Kut, Krabi, Hua Hin

and Koh Samui are seeing

rapidly escalating demand.

The three-city roadshow

is the latest among a host of

B2B initiatives in Ahmed-

abad, Bangalore and Chen-

nai. For instance, given the

Gujarat market’s focus on In-

dian food while on holiday,

TAT has worked to ensure

that travel agents are

equipped with names and lo-

cations of Indian restaurants

across the Kingdom. Mean-

while, consumer-connect ac-

tivities promoting niches

such as golf and biking trips

in Thailand have been a per-

sistent practice for Chennai

and Bangalore markets. TAT

has escorted groups of

golfers and bikers to the des-

tination. Additionally, across

all three markets, TAT has

been hosting wedding plan-

ners on familiarisation trips

to Thailand.

India remains among

Thailand’s top inbound mar-

kets, having crossed a million

arrivals during 2012. Mean-

while, even as skeptics antic-

ipated sliding outbound

numbers in 2013 due to the

unstable dollar and falling

rupee, numbers to Thailand

remained strong at 1,049, 856

arrivals which corresponds to

nearly 4 per cent growth over

2012. by TNH DESK

TAT to host 3-cityroadshow in IndiaThe Tourism Authority of Thailand’s (TAT)Mumbai Office is getting geared for its annualroadshow, which will take place in Bangalore (10February), Chennai (12 February) andAhmedabad (14 February).

tional’s Top City Destinations

Ranking (2013 edition) was

built from the results of the

global travel research pro-

gramme conducted in 57 core

countries by in country ana-

lysts, which follows Euromon-

itor International’s methodol-

ogy and definitions for travel

and tourism. City arrivals

data was sourced directly

from national statistics of-

fices, airport arrivals,

hotel/accommodation stays

or other methods.

The main secondary

sources included governmen-

tal, inter-governmental and

other official sources; na-

tional and international spe-

cialist trade press and trade

associations; industry study

groups and other semi-offi-

cial sources; and reports pub-

lished by major operators,

travel retailers, online data-

bases and the financial, busi-

ness and mainstream press.

Trade interviews were con-

ducted with national tourist

offices, trade associations

and travel operators to fill

gaps in secondary research.

by TNH DESK



South African Tourism wel-

comed the new-year with its

biggest travel trade engagement

initiative - the annual roadshow,

which was organised in Kolkata,

Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai was

attended by over 1200 Indian

travel agents.

The annual roadshow is an

interactive platform of enhancing

the destination knowledge of the

frontline staff of travel agencies,

helping them in planning itiner-

aries and managing customer

queries.

Speaking on the 11th road-

show commencement, Hanneli

Slabber,Country Manager, South

African Tourism, India, said “We

organize one of the biggest trade

roadshows in the travel and

tourism industry in India. Seeing

the increasing outbound travel

demand from the Indian market

and the year-on-year success of

our roadshows, we have put in

our best efforts to get a diverse

mix of South African suppliers to

this year’s roadshow and are

hopeful to forge many more suc-

cessful partnerships with the In-

dian travel trade.”

Evelyn Mahlaba, Regional

Director, Australasia, South

African Tourism said, “Over the

last decade, the annual road-

shows have proven to be a great

learning tool for us to grow in the

Indian market by improving our

travel trade outreach and engage-

ment in the country. Each year,

our roadshow has provided a

great platform for travel opera-

tors from India to further expand

their understanding of South

Africa as a leisure holiday and

MICE destination. South African

Tourism alongside our partners

from South Africa, have used this

platform to further develop and

strengthen business opportuni-

ties with the Indian travel

agents”.

Last year, the annual road-

show saw participation from over

1100 Indian travel agents and

over sixty-six South African sup-

pliers.

Over the years, South African

Tourism has witnessed a tremen-

dous increase in Indian tourist ar-

rivals to South Africa. 76,116

Indian tourists have visited South

Africa between Jan 2013 to Au-

gust 2013, which is an increase of

8.4% vis-à-vis the same period

last year. by TNH DESK

South African Tourism conducts its11th roadshow in IndiaThis year the four-city roadshow travels to Kolkata, New Delhi, Chennaiand Mumbai with 66 South African suppliers.

The region aims to attract

over 1,75,000 overnights

in 2014 and 2,00,000

overnights by 2015 from India

by promoting unique attrac-

tions, activities and regions.

One of the focus activities for

this year is ‘Stuttgart meets

Mumbai’ – an exclusive wine

event for wine lovers. The re-

gion is promoting Stuttgart,

which has over 430 hectares of

vineyards, wine museums and

wine institutes, to attract In-

dian wine lovers. Moreover, the

tourism board will be conduct-

ing its annual trade and media

FAMs, engage with trade

through online and offline

training programmes and

much more.

Talking during the ‘Stuttgart

meets Mumbai’ event, Hector

D’souza, Director – India,

SouthWest Germany said,

“India is currently the top mar-

ket for our region in terms of

overnights. Indians spend

close to 6.5 nights on an aver-

age in our region and the ex-

penditure goes to EUR 175 per

person per day. This way, India

is one of our top markets and

we will continue focusing on it

through innovative ideas and

events. Additionally, we are not

just positioning our region as a

leisure or business destination

but are also aiming to attract

niche travel segments.

SouthWest Germany aims2,00,000 overnights fromIndia by 2015It received about 1,55,000 overnights from Indiain 2013.

The tourism board has an online specialistprogramme named Cuckoo Specialist. Atotal of 410 travel agents in India areCuckoo Specialist and the tourism boardis aiming to further improve the specialistnumbers through educating agents aboutthe region.

�Anand Shah

Hanneli SlabberCountry ManagerSouth African Tourism, India

Event Watch62


Promising new TAAI-NRteam conducts its first meetA promising new team of Travel Agents Association of India(TAAI)-Northern Region (NR) recently held its first meeting inNew Delhi. The meeting was conducted differently thanmeetings in the past. Each and every member got a chanceto interact and give valuable suggestions to the committee.This is a step in the right direction since the members are moreinvolved and enthusiastic which will hopefully help TAAI regainits lost glory and cater to the larger interest of the industry.



Having recently partici-

pated at SATTE in

Delhi, Zambia Tourism Board

(ZTB) is all set to tap the

growing Indian market ac-

tively in 2014. Implementing a

stronger marketing campaign

in India will be the main focus

for ZTB this year which will

involve conducting road

shows, organising workshops

and familiarization trips for

the Indian travel trade and

media.

Mato Shimabale, Direc-

tor Marketing, Zambia

Tourism Board said, “India is

a very important market with

great potential as it is among

the top ten in terms of ar-

rivals. We have seen Indian

arrivals of around 20,000 in

the last two years and are

looking at doubling the num-

bers in the next few years. We

will work closely with our

India representative Blue

Square Consultants to im-

prove the leisure arrivals with

increased destination aware-

ness in the Indian market. We

feel Indians are looking at ex-

ploring new and exciting des-

tinations and Zambia in

Africa is a product they will

love. The country has tourist

attractions like parks, lakes,

rich heritage and culture but

the main USP of Zambia re-

mains the World Heritage Site

of Victoria Falls, the only nat-

ural wonder of the World in

Africa and the largest curtain

of falling water in the World.

Another interesting feature of

the falls is the Devil’s pool

rated by Trip Advisor as the

Best natural swimming Pool in

the World. It is right at the lip

of the Victoria Falls providing

a vantage and unforgettable

view of the falls. Zambia also

houses a huge Indian commu-

nity thus making it easier to

tap the Indian market.”

Zambia Tourism debuted

in the Indian market in 2013

when they participated at Out-

bound Travel Mart (OTM),

Mumbai and also won the

award of ‘Best New Destina-

tion’ at the mart. Zambia con-

nects with India through

Kenya Airways, South African

Airways, Ethiopian Airlines

and Emirates.

Zambia is the new face of

Africa and is a safe and se-

cure destination with one of

the fastest growing economies

in the world. With 20 national

parks, including South Lu-

angwa National Park and

Kafue National Park, adven-

ture activities like abseiling,

bungee jumping, microlight-

ing, white-water rafting, re-

sorts and hotels from budget

to luxury, Zambia is an ideal

destination for the perfect mix

of business and pleasure trav-

ellers. The Travel Chanel “An-

imal Planet” has recognised

the South Luangwa as having

one of the highest concentra-

tion of animals in Africa. Zam-

bia receives over one million

arrivals every year. by TNH DESK

Zambia Tourism to augment itsgrowth in Indian marketZambia Tourism is keen to augment its growth in Indian market. ZambiaTourism Board will conduct road shows and familiarization trips for Indianmarket.

There were 16,300 visitors

from India during Novem-

ber 2013, a rise of more than 18

per cent over same month in

2012. A total of 173 500 people

from India visited Australia in

the first 11 months of 2013 – up

more than 13 per cent from the

same period last year. India is

now Australia’s 10th largest

market for visitors.

“It’s wonderful that an ever

increasing number of Indians

are being drawn to Australia’s

diverse and cosmopolitan cities,

as well as our stunning natural

landscapes,” Suckling said.

“I’m confident Australia will

continue to receive more and

more visitors from this country,

which will continue to benefit

our bilateral relationship.”

Just over 40 per cent of the

total number of visitors to Aus-

tralia came to visit friends and

relatives.

“The flow of people between

India and Australia is increas-

ing in volume, and this is deep-

ening and strengthening the

bonds between our two coun-

tries,” Suckling said. Suckling

said Air India’s new direct

flights to Australia - as well as

a renewed marketing campaign

by Tourism Australia which

draws attention to the country’s

stunning attractions – no doubt

contributed to the strong in-

crease in numbers.

Tourism Australia is re-

sponsible for promoting Aus-

tralia world-wide as the world’s

best destination for business

and leisure. Through a wide

range of activities Tourism Aus-

tralia aims to raise awareness

of Australia’s unique attributes

which attract and entice visi-

tors to experience our country.

Our activities in 23 markets, in-

cluding Australia, include ad-

vertising, public relations and

media programs, trade shows

and programs for the tourism

industry, consumer promotions,

online communications and re-

search.

In November 2010 Tourism

Australia unveiled a new strate-

gic approach for Australian

tourism – the 2020 Tourism In-

dustry Potential - to improve the

industry’s performance and

competitiveness. The 2020

Tourism Industry Potential is a

10 year vision for the industry

which aims to grow the

overnight expenditure gener-

ated by tourism to as much as

$140 billion by 2020.

To achieve the 2020 Poten-

tial, Tourism Australia operates

in key markets around the

world offering the greatest op-

portunities for tourism growth

including Australia. This in-

cludes established markets

such as the United Kingdom,

Japan, New Zealand, USA, Ger-

many, Korea, and China; growth

markets such as Canada, Sin-

gapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong,

Taiwan, India; Thailand, and

Gulf Countries. by TNH DESK

Indian nationalscontinue to flock toAustraliaAustralia’s High Commissioner to India,Patrick Suckling, has welcomed new figuresshowing another increase in the number ofIndian visitors to Australia.

Mato ShimabaleDirector MarketingZambia Tourism Board

In Conversation64


Explaining key features of his

hotel, Vineet Mishra said, “Our

hotel caters primarily to the

business travel segment, so all

our services, facilities and

amenities are designed to suit

the requirements of the modern

business traveller. Our refresh-

ing lobby is spacious, has a lot

of natural lighting and has pro-

visions for guests to work on

their laptops/mobile

phones.” He further

e x -

plained, “Our

rooms are clut-

ter-free and have

access to high-

speed internet, an

LCD plasma TV, an

iPod station, a lap-

top-sized elec-

tronic safe,

among other

features that en-

able guests unwind. To help

travellers make the most of

their time on the road, we also

have recreational facilities such

as Evviva Sky Lounge our

rooftop bar, an outdoor pool and

a state-of-the-art fitness center.

We also extend outdoor cater-

ing services and have dedicated

on-site wedding specialists.”

As regards the USP of the

hotel, Mishra said, “Our USP is

definitely the location. We are

located right in the heart of the

city and in proximity to the rail-

way station. The airport and

the city’s key business districts

are a short drive from the hotel.

Shopping malls and entertain-

ment hubs are also very well ac-

cessible.”

Marriott Pune City Centre has

done very well over the past six

months. “Our room revenues

have grown by 22.7% over last

year, our F&B revenues have

more than doubled over 2012

and we have seen a manifold in-

crease in the number of social

caterings we do. Our TripAdvi-

sor ratings have also gone up –

we now feature among the top

10 hotels in the city,” said

Mishra.

In 2013, Courtyard by Mar-

riott Pune City Centre focused

a lot on social media and build-

ing and strengthening its pres-

ence on the digital platform.

“Our primary focus was to in-

crease our targeted fan base on

Facebook which was driven by

our creative and interesting

content,” said Mishra. He

added, “Through Twitter we

took the opportunity to connect

and interact with the city’s key

influencers and food bloggers.

We also heavily focus on PR and

consistently participate in food,

hospitality and industry stories.

We also leverage our relation-

ship with online travel partners.

Going forward, we will continue

In conversation with , Vineet Mishra, General Manger, Courtyard byMarriott Pune City Centre talked about various aspects of his hotel.

‘Location is the USP of our hotel’

Our hotel has done verywell over the past six months.Our room revenues havegrown by 22.7% over last year,our F&B revenues have morethan doubled over 2012 and wehave seen a manifold increasein the number of socialcaterings we do.

Vineet MishraGeneral ManagerCourtyard by Marriott Pune City Centre

“ “�Prem Kumar


65In Conversation

to reinforce these mediums and

also focus further on search en-

gine optimization and driving in

traffic to our hotel website.”

Every hotel has the basic offer-

ings in terms of rooms and ameni-

ties, but what each hotel does over

and above this to differentiate it-

self is what is crucial. “We at

Courtyard by Marriott Pune City

Centre believe in giving a personal

touch to enhance the guest experi-

ence. For instance, F&B offers are

customized and meal/diet prefer-

ences are monitored for long stay

guests,” said Mishra. He added,

“We even offer in-room check in

and express check out facility to

our repeat guests. We are moving

towards unconventional ways of

conferencing and have started of-

fering theme-based tea/coffee

breaks.”

Courtyard by Marriott Pune

City Centre is working on upgrad-

ing its F&B outlets where it is in-

novating with its menu and dishes

and outlet styling. “Innovative

food promotions are being

planned out for MoMo Café our all

day restaurant and weekly food-

and wine-based and music-based

properties are in the pipeline for

Evviva Sky Lounge,” said Mishra,

adding, “Our sales associates are

technologically-equipped on their

sales calls with tabs to showcase

our hotel and pitch for business.”

The hotel is also exploring differ-

ent and creative set-up formats in

its banquets to enhance guest ex-

perience. “Meetings are going to

be of big focus moving forward,

using guest feedback, we are

working on experiential elements

to make meetings more produc-

tive,” said Mishra. He added, “We

also want to take weddings to a

different level – with our on-site

wedding specialists, theme based

menu offerings and multiple

venue options, we personally con-

nect with the guest to ensure they

are given a very personalized and

tailor-made experience.”

Speaking about the hotel’s dis-

tribution channels, Mishra said

that the hotel’s biggest distribu-

tion channel is property based

which involves its sales and reser-

vations team. “We also have the

corporate driven Global Distribu-

tion System and Marriott.com,

and online travel partners like

Makemytrip, Expedia, Orbitz, etc.

Our main distribution channels

among the OTAs are Expedia and

Booking.com and among GDSs

are Sabre and Galileo. Not many

customers even today prefer

booking through the hotel website

whereas we still see a lot of book-

ings coming through the OTAs,”

said Mishra.

Sharing his assessment of the

current hotel market in Pune,

Mishra said that Pune has been

transformed from a quiet town to

a bustling city. The hotel industry

witnessed an improvement in oc-

cupancy rates in 2011-12 com-

pared to the previous years as per

HVS report 2011-2012. This is due

to the city housing manufacturing

industries especially in the auto-

mobile sector as well as the emer-

gence of the IT sector. Also, the

hospitality sector has seen a rise

in the number of conventions it

has to cater to.

Mishra added that Pune has also

proven to be a very competitive

market for the hospitality indus-

try. In the past five years, the city

has seen a staggering growth of

over 320% in room supply result-

ing in a decline in occupancy each

year as per HVS report 2011-

2012. However hotels are focusing

on improving occupancy rates

and the forecast for 2013-14 looks

positive

As regards the future outlook for

the Pune hotel market, Mishra

said that Owing to the increasing

demand for rooms that was wit-

nessed in the past five years, ho-

tels stepped up their occupancy

capacity manifold. “These efforts

then led to an over-supply of

rooms vis-à-vis the demand,

which has proven to be our indus-

try’s biggest challenge. Due to

this, there has undeniably been a

downward trend observed in pric-

ing. As the growth in supply

plateaus, we look at occupancy

rates to continue to improve.

However, hotels located in the

Nagar Road belt will continue to

face pressure from over-supply of

rooms,” said Mishra.

A major challenge for hotels in the

city is that they operate in a very

competitive market. “Over the

past few years, growth in supply

of rooms is especially being wit-

nessed in the industrial belts of

the city namely Chakan, Pimpri

and Talegaon that are located

along the periphery of Pune,” said

Mishra. He added that hotels in

the city don’t see much of tourists,

and there lies an opportunity.

“With its rich heritage and Pune

being a cultural capital of Maha-

rashtra has potential to become a

tourism hub,” said Mishra. “I also

think that hotels can fill in the

huge hole when it comes to having

attractive and quality F&B op-

tions in the city.”

by TNH DESK

Lemon Tree Hotels has ap-

pointed Rattan Keswani as

Deputy Managing Director of the

Group. Rattan joined the Lemon

Tree Group in May 2012 as

Chairman of Carnation Hotels, a

company he jointly promoted

with Lemon Tree Hotels. He will continue to play

this role. A hotelier for over 31 years, Rattan

Keswani has worked across various hotels in

India and overseas, including in Saudi Arabia,

Colombo, Shimla, Bengaluru, New Delhi and

Mumbai.

Rattan Keswani Lemon Tree Hotels

Musafir.com has appointed Vijay

Kesavan as the new CEO for its In-

dian operations. In this new role,

Vijay will be responsible for driving

Musafir.com’s business strategy

which is aimed at capturing the

brand’s position among the top 5

Online Travel Agency (OTA) in India. Prior to this,

Vijay ran operations for Thomas Cook as the Senior

Vice-President and Head of Online Sales and Distri-

bution. He comes with extensive experience in the

travel industry having worked across the sector with

akbartravelsonline.com and Indigo Airlines.

Vijay Kesavan Musafir.com

The Leela Palaces, Hotels, and

Resorts has appointed Kunal

Chauhan as the General Man-

ager of The Leela Palace Banga-

lore. Kunal brings with him a

broad array of experience in var-

ious senior positions with The

Oberoi Group and The Leela Group. Prior to this

appointment, he was the Resident Manager at The

Leela Palace New Delhi. In his new role, Kunal will

manage the award-winning Leela Palace Banga-

lore that was voted the world’s Favourite Overseas

Business Hotel by Condé Nast Traveller, UK.

Kunal Chauhan The Leela Palace Bangalore

Raghu Sapra has been appointed

GM for DoubleTree Suites by Hilton

Bangalore, a full-service, upscale

hotel conveniently located on Sar-

japur - Outer Ring Road. Raghu is

responsible for the successful

launch of the first DoubleTree Suites

by Hilton™ hotel in India. Raghu has over 17 years

of experience in the lodging industry. He has held

several positions with Marriott Hotels, Hyatt Hotels

and Resorts and The Imperial, New Delhi, in India,

before joining Hilton Worldwide in 2011.

Piiyush Kapoor has been ap-

pointed as the new General Man-

ager at The Lalit Jaipur. His

experience in the hospitality in-

dustry spans over 21 years. Prior

to this, he was associated with

hotel chains such as IHG, Wellworth

Hotels, ITC Welcome Heritage, Jaypee Hotels, Hyatt

Regency and many more. A hospitality-aficionado,

he has cross-functional exposure in both brand ho-

tels and independent properties in India and over-

seas. Piiyush is a management generalist.

Rakesh Mitra is the new General

Manager of the iconic property,

The Lalit Great Eastern Kolkata.

His experience in the Hospitality

Industry spans over 17 years,

which includes 5 cities and two

continents, India and Australia. Prior to joining

The Lalit Great eastern Kolkata he was associated

with several other properties under The Lalit Suri

Hospitality Group, such as, Intercontinental The

Lalit Mumbai, Intercontinental The Grand Goa Re-

sort and The Lalit Temple View Khajuraho.

Sofitel Luxury Hotels, Luxury

Brand of the Accor Group has ap-

pointed Biswajit Chakraborty as

GM of their flagship property in

India, Sofitel Mumbai BKC. Respon-

sible in overseeing all the activities

of the hotel, Biswajit joins Sofitel with

over 25 years of hospitality experience. Known for his

acumen in hospitality and understanding of guest and

human nature, coupled with his knowledge of the lux-

ury market, Biswajit Chakraborty brings several

path-breaking ideas and concepts to the table which

will undoubtedly be revolutionary in its effect.

Biswajit Chakraborty Sofitel Mumbai BKC

Bindiya Yadav has been appointed

new Director of Services at JW

Marriott Mumbai. Prior to joining

JW Marriott Mumbai, Bindiya was

working with Vivanta by Taj in

Bengaluru where she completed a

year’s stint. Bindiya brings with

her 12 years of experience in the hospitality industry.

She began her career as a housekeeping assistant at

the Oberoi, Udaivilas and soon moved up the ladder

in roles varying from assistant housekeeper to assis-

tant executive housekeeper and executive house-

keeper at different hotels.

Bindiya YadavJW Marriott Mumbai

Appointment News66


Aditya Mata has been appointed

VP & GM of The Khyber Himalayan

Resort & Spa, Gulmarg. Aditya

comes to The Khyber with over two

decades of experience in the hos-

pitality industry across various for-

mats, brands and locations

spanning the Middle East, Nepal, Africa and India. In

addition to his experience in the hotel industry, Mata

has also had a brief association with Manipal Hospital

Bangalore for asset management and healthcare and

a stint with Jet Airways for their inflight services in-

cluding catering and brand standards.

Aditya MataThe Khyber Himalayan Resort &Spa, Gulmarg

Raghu Sapra DoubleTree Suites by HiltonBangalore

Piiyush Kapoor The Lalit Jaipur

Rakesh MitraThe Lalit Great East-ern Kolkata

Documents

TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY - FEBRUARY 2014