Travel News September 2007

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Now, YouTube.com showcases India's tourism potential
Dreamland Launches Incredible India Special Promotion
Promoting cruise tourism

Kerala Tourism unveils common logo and branding for its ecotourism
BCCL acquires stake in Travel Masti
Have Net, will travel

'North-East India - A Gateway to South-East Asia'
ACTE plans executive forums in Delhi and Bangalore
India's biggest tourism fair opens in Ahmedabad
Upbeat about India at IATO meet
Abacus wins Best Ethical Business Practices Award
New Yorkers to get a big bite of India
India is the numero uno travel destination
Hospitality India International Awards recognises 28 top contributors
After skies, time to open up land: tourism experts

Service providers

Now, YouTube.com showcases India's tourism potential
August 13, 2007

The Tourism Ministry has tied up with the Google's video-sharing platform, YouTube.com to showcase the country's tourism potential.

The Ministry, known worldwide for its "Incredible India" campaign, have made promotional videos available to the YouTube, the eighth most trafficked website. From the Himalayas to the sun kissed beaches of Goa, or the boat ride in the backwaters of Kerala are now just a click away.

Launching the videos on the YouTube here today, Tourism Secretary Shilabhadra Banerjee said the venture would help boost India's image aboard. "This is to maximise the reach of the Incredible India campaign worldwide. It is important to not only project what India was and what India is today, but what attractions it holds for the people of the world. I think it is an excellent example of using technology for projecting India's image abroad," Banerjee said.

At present 18 film and other videos have been uploaded on the site.

Source: ANI via Yahoo

Dreamland Launches Incredible India Special Promotion
September13, 2007

The Indian Ministry of Tourism has launched Incredible India with the aim of providing standardized world class services to tourists visiting India and offer an authorized feedback portal to provide accurate and timely help and information regarding all aspects and services related to tourism in India.

Dreamland Tours, in partnership with authorized hotels and tourism logistics managers in India now launches a special promotional package which follows Incredible India guidelines for a complete tourism package. Statement from Dreamland Tours CEO Zach Thomas, “Incredible India is more of brand, a symbol of quality as regards to India and tourism. All we are doing is streamlining and tweaking our existing package deals to make sure that the services and packages we offer to our tourists are in tune with the Indian Ministry of Tourism’s vision and what it aims to achieve with the launch of Incredible India. Nearly 4½ million tourists visited India in 2006 and the current rate of growth is phenomenal. We agree that there needs to some kind of standards compliance to ensure that tourists enjoy their stay and are able to visit India without facing any hassles, starting from VISA issuance to local travel and hotel stay. You must also understand that it is impossible to regulate the hundreds of thousands of companies providing services to tourists. The only solution is to provide a set of standards which can be adapted voluntarily by all the tour operators and tourism service providers. Hopefully, more companies will follow in our footsteps and make an Indian holiday truly incredible for every visitor.”

Source: PR.com

Promoting cruise tourism
August 28, 2007

Cruise tourism is the latest in the line of offerings from travel trade in Chennai, with links to global tour operators, for the corporates, particularly the information technology sector. Board meetings on board cruise liners in exotic locales, dealer conferences and exhibitions figure on the list of events that the travel trade is organising for the corporates. Meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions in foreign land are tailor made to suit the specific needs of the sector.

“In the past three months, we have had several group inclusive tours and corporate travel to Bangkok, Hong Kong, Genting Islands, and Kuala Lumpur, from Chennai and Salem,” said V.S. Subramanian, regional manager-south India of Jetair Tours, a subsidiary of Jet Air.

“We have made detailed presentations [about the packages] to the IT and IT Enabled Services firms in Chennai and second tier towns of Tamil Nadu”, he said, while adding that end to end travel solutions with special offers are being made available on Star Cruise, Jet Escape and other global operators. “Recently, we handled a big group comprising top level executives of Saint Gobain who went to Singapore. This trend is catching on fast in Chennai,” Mr. Subramanian added.

Source: The Hindu

Travel ecommerce

Kerala Tourism unveils common logo and branding for its ecotourism
September 13, 2007

Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Minister for Tourism and Home, Kerala Government, recently unveiled a common logo and branding - Kerala by Nature - for the State's ecotourism offerings and also launched an online portal - www.ecotoursimkeralam.org - in order to aggressively market the ecotourism initiatives launched in the State. According to Dr Venu V, Secretary, Kerala Tourism, the common logo and branding will help create a unified brand and make it easier to market eco-tourism initiatives. The website has information on 16 ecotourism projects, apart from information on ecotourism certification norms and tips for people visiting forest-based projects.

At present, 56 sites across the State have been identified for ecotourism projects, of which work on 47 sites is already underway in collaboration with the Kerala Forest Department. Besides, in a recent development, Kerala Tourism gave the go ahead for the eco-tourism project at Sasthamcottah Lake, the only fresh water lake in Kerala. It is expected to be implemented in the current financial year itself. However, no boating service will be offered at the lake.

Source: Travel Biz Monitor

BCCL acquires stake in Travel Masti
August 31, 2007

Bennett Coleman and Company Ltd.(BCCL) has acquired a stake in Travel Masti, an Online Travel Portal (OTP) that specialises in domestic, inbound tours and corporate conferences. The portal primarily offers information on various properties as well as online hotel booking to users and is gradually offering other travel-related services. At present, Travel Masti's client segmentation is 60 per cent domestic clients, 25 per cent inbound clients and 15 per cent corporate clients.

Source: Travel Biz Monitor

Have Net, will travel
August 2007

First the good news. Over 15 million Internet users now surf the Net for travel products; out of which, nearly nine million also buy these products online.

Now the bad. They continue to face the same problems as they did two to three years ago. 53 per cent surfers prefer to buy just train tickets and that too from a non-differentiated, not-so-happening government portal maintained by the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). But they are not too happy about the IRCTC portal and, given a choice, are ready to switch to specialised travel sites such as makemytrip.com, travelguru.com and yatra.com. These are some of the surprise findings of JuxtConsult's recent "India Online 2007" end-user survey that covered 10,000 offline and 25,000 online respondents.

Among the reasons cited for the Internet users' lack of interest in e-tickets and e-bookings for hotels were: slow website navigation, threat of spam, language barrier, lack of response, difficulty in connecting etc. These problems were attributed to all the top ten online travel portals, including IRCTC, which, not surprisingly, has lost 23 percentage points in consumer preference, according to this survey.

The country's travel and tourism market is valued around US$ 50 billion; of which the online travel market makes up only around US$ one billion. This is because people still like planning complex itineraries face-to-face with a travel agent.

Yet sites like travelguru.com are doing well, primarily on the strength of their foreign customer base (15 per cent) and their specific focus on discount holiday packages with a tie-up with 400 Indian and 72,000 global properties. Business, according to Damera has been growing at 250 per cent every year against the market average of 55 to 60 per cent. The hotel booking segment is indeed so lucrative that all the recent market communications of makemytrip are also focused on it.

As of now, the site sells 5,000 air tickets out of the 1,20,000 available every day and 500 room nights out of roughly the same pool size. "So the potential for growth in the hotel and non-air segment is tremendous," says Bhatia. In the air segment also, only two to three per cent air tickets are sold online, the rest is still handled offline by travel agents and travel companies.

But things are changing. The JuxtConsult survey indicates that small players like travelguru and yatra have gained substantially in terms of preferred usage; the latter as much as 16 per cent within the first year of its launch, owing perhaps to the promotional activities undertaken by Reliance ADAG, the TV18 Group, and NVP, the three big promoters of yatra.com.

All said and done, makemytrip retains its numero uno position in terms of both secondary preference share (including duplicated website usage) and primary preference share, according to Mrutyunjay Mishra, the co-founder and director of JuxtConsult. In contrast, IRCTC, which had a preference usage of 38 per cent last year, has now slid to the third position as a 'default' train ticket buying website with just 15 per cent preferred usage this year.

This decline is attributed partly to the popularity of low-cost carriers and the emergence of specialised travel portals that peddle not just the cheapest air fares but also hotel inventories and discounted holiday packages through exclusive tie-ups with all sorts of holiday properties and luxury resorts. Understandably, these portals have also dented the travel sales of generic portals like Google, Rediff, Indiatimes and Yahoo, where again, users land up mostly by default, when they can't find a specialised travel website.

Nonetheless, a substantial 84 per cent of all online buyers are buying a travel product online, a statistic that would undoubtedly improve with broadband availability, simplified navigation and the introduction of other user-friendly e-tools.

Source: Express travel world

Events

'North-East India - A Gateway to South-East Asia' summit focused on the importance of developing tourism infrastructure
September 15, 2007

'North-East India - A Gateway to South-East Asia', a three day summit was held at the Rabindra Satabarshiki Bhavan in Agartala from September 7th-9th, 2007. Apart from discussing the possible communication links for connectivity within the North-East as well as to link it with South-East Asia, the summit highlighted the importance of developing tourism infrastructure in the North-East as well as developing tourism links with South-East Asian countries.

Manik Sarkar, Chief Minister, Tripura, emphasised that Buddhist heritage and pilgrimage circuits contributed a major share to North-East's tourism industry. In context to the recent infrastructure developments taking place in the region, he said that the setting-up of more hotels in the region along with better air-connectivity with the South-East Asian countries will lead to a huge increase in the number of inbound travellers visiting the North-East. Aimed at improving connectivity between the regions to promote trade, the event was jointly organised by the Institution of Engineers (India) Agartala Local Centre and the Public Works Department, Government of Tripura.

Source: Travel Biz Monitor

ACTE plans executive forums in Delhi and Bangalore
September14, 2007

The Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) is marking its third year in India with two executive forums planned for October. According to the Association's Executive Director Susan Gurley, Delhi (9 October 2007) and  Bangalore (11 October 2007) will each host a four-part educational program positioning travel management as a strategic corporate asset.

"These forum programs will define the role travel management can and should play within a corporation, how data translates to corporate growth and professional influence, the significance of a strong payment medium, and the impact the privatisation of India airports will have on the business travel industry," said Gurley. "For the investment of a day, forum participants in these two cities will explore advanced management theory, proven techniques, new product options, and the impact of a developing trend."

The programs for both Delhi and Bangalore are identical, and are based on membership surveys and requests submitted by members in the region. The first session, Making Corporate Travel A Strategic Corporate Function, focuses on the expectations of upper management from a travel program. The session will illustrate how to develop the most appropriate value metrics, KPIs and dashboards that clearly depict cost avoidance. There will be an emphasis on building supplier relationships with clearly delineated roles and responsibilities. The session will answer the question of how a managed travel programme is more effective that booking a trip on the web.

Source: Travel Daily News

India's biggest tourism fair opens in Ahmedabad
September 14, 2007

The 58th Travel and Tourism Fair (TTF) was inaugurated by the Rajasthan Tourism Minister Usha Punia at Rajpath Club here today.

The three-day long fair, which is the biggest tourism fair organised in the city, has attracted over 200 participants from all over the country, including representations from 17 states, union territories and two foreign countries.

TTF provides a platform to all the tour operators, travel agents, hoteliers, and other members of the travel trade to interact with prospective tourists from Ahmedabad and Gujarat. It also provides a forum, to the travel trade in the region, to interact with their counterparts from all over country as well as abroad.

Source: UNI

Upbeat about India at IATO meet
September 13, 2007

IATO, celebrating its silver jubilee, held its convention from September 1, 2007 at The Ashok. Livened up by with colourful displays, folk musicians and dance, the meet was chaired by Vijay Thakur and co-chaired by Arun Anand. The 1800 delegates included tour operators, travel agents, hoteliers, restaurants, tourism consultants, government bodies, airlines and other service providers.

Mr Thakur expressed IATO's special thanks to the minister for tourism and her team for the 75% abatement of service tax for the travel industry. Torism minister Ambika Soni, in her inaugural address, said guest houses in Delhi have been regularized and can be registered at one third the regular fee. Regularisation of guest houses have been simplified and in the B&B scheme, electricity and water will be charged at normal, not commercial, rates.

In his keynote address, Lt Governor of Delhi Tejendra Khanna said, “Inbound tourism is growing rapidly and tourists should take back happy memories of their visit. IATO should develop high level of commitment to service.” He mentioned Delhi will have a totally new look for the Commonwealth Games.

Delhi Tourism Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely reassured IATO delegates that his ministry will take up the issue of luxury tax on actual tariff and not printed tariff.

Source: Economic Times

Abacus wins Best Ethical Business Practices Award
September 10,2007

After the grand success of the 1st and 2nd Edition of Hospitality India Annual Awards in 2005 and 2006, the 3rd Edition of ‘Hospitality India Annual International Awards-2007’ lived up to its expectation of being a major event in the calendar of Tourism industry. The event honoured achievers in 28 categories in the hospitality, travel & tourism sector.
 
A galaxy of leaders across all the segments of travel and tourism rubbed shoulders with the who’s who of the industry.Mr. Praful Patel, Hon’ble Union Civil Aviation Minister, the Chief Guest at the award function and Mr. Peter de Jong, President, PATA Worldwide, the Guest of Honour, addressed the 500-plus industry leaders and participants about the opportunities and challenges the booming Indian travel and tourism sector presents. Mr. Viiveck Verma, MD, Abacus India was presented the Award for Best Ethical Business Practices by Mr. Praful Patel, Hon’ble Union Minister for Civil Aviation They also gave away awards to the winners hailing from various segments of the travel and tourism industry.
 
“We are definitely pleased to receive an award once again but this time, it holds a special value as the category in which we were nominated “Best Ethical Business Practices” – is something from the core of our hearts at Abacus India. We have been engaged in trying to practice fair business and involve others in other process. This award is a recognition of our efforts which have been ongoing for quiet some time now and has really helped in boosting our morale up in keep on the fight to keep the industry as clean as possible.”, said Mr. Viiveck Verma, MD, Abacus India on the occasion.

Source: Moneycontrol.com via ICPAR

New Yorkers to get a big bite of India
August 31, 2007

The Big Apple is set to get a big bite of India. New Yorkers will savour Indian song and dance, food and fashion, feel India's incredible energy, hear about the nation's march into the future, even see a Taj Mahal replica at a multi-venue festival in September to celebrate 60 years of India's independence.

Called Incredible India @60, the September 23-26 festival in Manhattan has been organised to coincide with the September session of the UN General Assembly in New York that is attended by thousands of delegates from across the world.

The mega festival has been organised by the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Culture of India, and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Co-hosts for individual conferences and panel discussions include BBC, National Geographic Channel, Columbia University and Asia Society.

A mini Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, celebrating the Indian diaspora, inaugurates the festival. This event has been organised by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs and CII at Pier 60 on the Hudson river waterfront.

The opening ceremony of Incredible India @60 will be held at the prestigious Lincoln Center with a specially choreographed production of music and classical dances of India. The sand sculpture of Taj will be on view at the Port Authority Bus Station, New York's main bus terminal. Its creator is Sudarshan Patnaik, known for his sand sculptures.

An 'Incredbile India' exhibition of photographs by Steve McCurry will be hosted by the National Geographic Channel at Bryant Park Hotel. Bryant Park in midtown and South Street Seaport, a mall-cum-museum on the Lower Manhattan waterfront, are the arenas for dance and music.

The folk forms coming from four corners of India include Bhangra, Garba, Yakshagana, Sufiana and Rangeela Bihu.

Bollywood, which used to be barred from India festivals of yore, also finds its well-deserved place here. Bollywood Live and Mumbai Masala will feature contemporary dances from Indian films. There will be fusion music too, created by Remo Fernandes, Colonial Cousins, Louis Banks, Sivamani and others.

And New York Library is to host a sarod recital by Amjad Ali Khan and his two sons, Amaan and Ayaan. Bryant Park is the venue for fashion shows by leading Indian designers such as Ritu Kumar, Raghavendra Rathore and Wendell Rodericks. Indian handicrafts and handlooms will also be on display there.

For a culinary experience of India, culinary demonstrations, tasting of Indian food and beverages, New Yorkers can go to South Street Seaport. Top chefs such as Manjit Gill and Hemant Oberoi are flying down for this event and Indian restaurants in New York will offer special menus and gifts to their customers during the event.

Besides the New York festival, the tourism ministry is holding a one-day event in London on Sep 2, showcasing the country's wealth in terms of art, music and creativity.

Source: Economic Times

Research and Market reports

The new leisure class
September 9, 2007

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), India is expected to be the third fastest growing country in the world over the next ten years, as far as travel and tourism demand is concerned. That growth potential, coupled with the 19.8% increase in the number of Indians living in India with financial assets of more than US$1 million, (compared to the 6.5% growth worldwide) are important factors in promoting the growth of leisure real estate in India. Leisure real estate means planning mixed-use development and fractional ownership to boost tourism in India.

Leisure real estate also entails owning a second home, which many Indians are going in for today after satisfying their need for a first home. The demand for a second home is more in tourist destinations like Goa, Uttarakhand and Himachal. Says Radhika Shastry, Managing Director - Indian Subcontinent, Group RCI, "With land bank choking in mega cities and people already having fulfilled their requirement of owning a home, the next step is to look for a second home. This comes under the purview of leisure real estate, which also encompasses timeshare/fractional ownership."

As far as the scope of this field goes, Arindam Kumar, general manager, Marketing & Retail Sales, Mapsko Builders Pvt Ltd says, "The scope for leisure real estate is very good. People want to enjoy their leisure time and for that they want a few good options. Nowadays, with the growing economy, the income status of the people is growing, leading to a change in tastes and wants.The demand for resorts, amusement parks etc. is soaring in the market."

Adds Kaushik Sengupta, VP-Sales & Marketing, Eros Group, "The scope of leisure real estate is immense in India. With stress levels at their peak both at work and home, people are looking for weekend getaways such as resorts, water parks, spas, nature cure centers eating joints etc. Moreover they are also looking for a home away from home which can be a private home, a farmhouse or a cottage on the outskirts of the city or in the hills." Says PK Sanyal, President, OSB Group, "Growth prospects of this segment are really good. With customer preferences changing, everyone needs a different option. Therefore, developers have to invest seeing the rise in demand."
In fact, property experts opine that this segment will be a key driver of real estate in the country in the coming years.

Source: Indian Express

India is the numero uno travel destination
September 4, 2007

Known for its incredible snake charmers and age-old monuments to the world of tourism, India has emerged as the numero uno travel destinations trailing beauties of Italy, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.

India's emergence to the top spot, over the fourth last year, was revealed by a survey conducted by a widely-read British magazine Conde Nast Traveller, which gives away Readers Travel Awards, considered to be the Oscar awards of the tourism industry.

"India was the 10th most preferred destination in 2004, the 4th in 2006 and is now at the top in 2007 and that is where we want to be," Union Tourism Minister Ambika Soni said while receiving the award at a glittering ceremony Monday night in London.

Conducted among the readers of the magazine that includes some of the most sophisticated and avid travellers across the world, the survey included a range of criteria for each category from 'range of accommodation' to 'environmental friendliness', the magazine said in a release.

Source: PTI via Times of India

Hospitality India International Awards recognises 28 top contributors
September 3, 2007

More than 500 industry leaders gathered in New Delhi last week to celebrate the top achievers in India’s hospitality sector in the third annual Hospitality India International Awards.

To recognise the importance of the emerging India tourism and travel market, the event was attended by leading tourism representatives such as India Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and Peter de Jong, Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), President and CEO.

“The Indian aviation sector is on a growth path, but more needs to be done,” said Mr Patel in his speech on the night. “The inward flow of tourists will grow further if infrastructure for tourism is improved. A committee on infrastructure has been formed under the aegis of the Prime Minister’s Office, and travel and tourism is high on its list of concerns.”

During the evening, 28 organisations and individuals were awarded for their achievements in the Indian tourism sector for the year. “India has one of the fastest growing travel and tourism sectors in the world,” commented Mr de Jong.

Source: www.etravelblackboardasia

After skies, time to open up land: tourism experts
August 28, 2007

It is not enough to open up the skies without also opening up the land and creating more hotels and resorts for the heavy inflow of tourists, according to participants at the India Summit of Aviation and Tourism.

The Pacific Area Travel Writers Association (PATWA), a body with members from 70 countries that promotes tourism and is supported by the United Nations World Travel Organisation (UNWTO), Monday invited prominent members of the industry from India to discuss various matters related to the issue.

Subhash Goyal, president of the Indian Association of Travel Operators (IATO), said that the advent of more airlines is a very good thing but without as many hotels to cater to all tourists and visitors, it does not hold much meaning.

Source: IANS