Tourism and Travel Trends from India:

News and views on India's Travel and Hospitality Sector

Weekly News Related to Travel Industry in India

Places in the News
Travel and Transportation Infrastructure
Niche Tourism
Policy
Travel and Tourism Support Industries
Travel Characteristics of Indians

Places in the News

Travel and Transportation Infrastructure

Sector: Aviation

1. Jet Airways to start Bangalore operations in April, 2008

After Jet Airways successfully launched its first class product on board Boeing 777-300 ER in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai, the airline launched the product here on August 30, 2007. Giving details about the future plans for South India, Harish Shenoy, General Manager, Jet Airway, said, "International flights were to be introduced from Bangalore in October, 2007 but now they will be launched in April, 2008 once the new Bangalore International Airport is ready. We have no immediate plans for Hyderabad right now. We might introduce the Hyderabad-Newark service by end 2008 or early 2009."

"We also have plans to operate on the Gulf routes in 2008-2009 subject to government approval," said Sonu Kriplani, Vice President - Passenger Sales, India, Jet Airways. It plans to introduce more international flights from Bangalore to JFK, San Francisco and so on, but nothing has been finalised as yet. All plans will depend on the new airport. "Today the three metros in South India contribute 40 per cent of the load factor of the airline, apart from contribution from smaller cities," added Shenoy. At present, the airline operates 115 flights in India, of which 34 operate from Bangalore.

The airline has ordered 10 new Boeing 777 - 300 ERs, of which four have already been delivered and are operating twice daily on the Mumbai-London route and a daily service on the Mumbai-New York route. It will take delivery of the additional Boeing 77-300 ERs during 2009. It also plans to take on lease six ATR 72-500 between November, 2007 and 2008. It has also signed an MOU for another seven of these turboprops for delivery during December, 2008 to July, 2010.
August 31, 2007
Source: Travel Biz Monitor

Sector: Hotels & Restaurants
1. DLF ties-up with Four Seasons for property at Gurgaon

Delhi-based real estate developer DLF announced yesterday that it has tied up with Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts to operate a luxury hotel in Gurgaon. DLF Hotels, the hospitality subsidiary of the group has signed an agreement with Four Seasons to set-up the property, as per a company release. Scheduled to become operational by 2010, the property will have 230 rooms and apart from restaurants, it will also have a state-of-the-art spa and meeting and conference facilities. The hotel will overlook the Arnold Palmer Signature Golf Course at DLF Golf Links
September 1, 2007
Source: Travel Biz Monitor

2. Taj to set-up a gateway hotel in Raipur by 2009

The Indian Hotels Company Ltd. (IHCL) that runs properties under the Taj brand has signed an agreement with Vicon Imperials (I) Pvt. Ltd. for setting up a Taj gateway hotel at Raipur in Chattisgarh. Located on the Mumbai-Kolkata highway, the property will be Taj's first business hotel in Central India. It will have 125 rooms and is slated to become operational by 2009, says a company release. The Taj Group is also partnering with Vicon Imperials to develop a lodge at the Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh. The company is a subsidiary of the Vicon Group of Companies, one of the leading business houses based in Chattisgarh.
August 31, 2007
Source: Travel Biz Monitor

3. Phoenix Mills to develop a Shangri-La property in Mumbai

Mumbai-based Phoenix Mills is planning to set up a 30-storey luxury property 'The Shangri-La Hotel Mumbai' at Lower Parel in Mumbai. It will develop the property through its subsidiary - Pallazzio Hotels and Leisure and Hong Kong-based Shangri-La will manage the hotel and will be its fifth property in India.

With an investment of Rs 300 crore, excluding the land cost, the hotel will have 400 rooms and is slated to become operational by end of 2009. Atlas Hospitality, another Phoenix Mills subsidiary, is developing luxury hotels at Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and Agra. Each hotel will have nearly 300 rooms, and will be executed through special purpose vehicles.

Commenting on the launch of the new property, Shishir Shrivastava, Director, Pallazzio Hotel and Leisure Ltd. and CEO, Hospitality division, Phoenix Mills said, "We selected Shangri-La to manage this property due to its sterling reputation for delivering a premium luxury hospitality experience. It also marks our foray into the hospitality industry, where we plan to extend our presence to operating multiple world-class luxury properties in the coming years. The long-term opportunity in this sector is immense and we are confident of creating best-in-class properties with right partners by our side."
August 31, 2007
Source: Travel Biz Monitor

4. Now, shell out more for luxury stay

Come October, travellers will have to shell out more for five-star hotel rooms across the country as hotels are set to increase room rates by 15-25 per cent across most locations. Industry analysts suggest that the revision in Mumbai and Delhi could be up to 25 per cent. At destinations such as Goa and Kerala it could be as much as 30 per cent.

In effect, customers would have to pay about Rs 20,000 for a room at a south Mumbai five-star, up from about Rs 16,000 they pay now. Last year, room rates increased 16 per cent in Mumbai. In Delhi, hotel rates overall will increase by over 20 per cent. Gurgaon-based Trident Hilton has already increased its rack rates by 30 per cent and its contracted rates by 15-30 per cent. "Trident Hilton is one of the highly-priced hotels in the country and we have revised our rates keeping in mind our past relationships and future commitments," an executive said. "In general, the Delhi market will see an increase in rates by over 20 per cent this year, against 18 per cent last year."

Bangalore, India's IT industry hub, may see an increase of about 10 per cent in room rates. "We will revise our rates from September, but this time it will be considerably less than last year as room demand in Bangalore is dropping," said an executive of The Leela Palace Kempinski, Bangalore.

Bangalore has had the highest rate of about 12 per cent in the past three years. But this year it will be lower as the supply of rooms is expected to exceed the demand by the year end. Bangalore, which accounts for over half the number of business travellers visiting India, has about 2,500 rooms in the premium category. The city will add another 3,000 rooms over the next five years. Chennai and Kolkata, could see a rate revision upwards to 15 per cent. ITC Hotel, The Grand Central and The Luxury Collection in Mumbai plan to give corporate clients an option of two rates.

Anil Malik, general manager, ITC Hotel, Mumbai said: "This year, for the first time, we will offer two different rates to our corporate clients. This would be 25-30 per cent less than the bar rate. While from September 2007 to March 2008 we will charge revised higher rates, it will be lowered from April 2008 to September 2009."

Bar rates are flexible rates over a week. Since hotels offer a different rate during the weekdays and a different one at weekends, they offer corporate rates to companies, which are lower than bar rates. This means that if a hotel charges a common traveller Rs 16,000, the corporate client will pay only Rs 10,500.

Hotels are known to revise rates around September-October every year, when the tourist season begins. Many prefer to make their business trips also at this time.

Shortfall fuels hikes
According to the department of tourism, foreign arrivals in India increased 15 per cent between 2005 and 2006. More than half the number of tourists are foreign business travellers.

Besides, about 300 million domestic tourists travel to various destinations annually and that number is expected to grow by 10-15 per cent over the next few years. The hotel industry has 110,000 rooms and estimates a shortfall of 150,000, which has fuelled the regular room rate hikes. The hotel industry will get a fillip with the 2010 Commonwealth Games to be hosted in Delhi. The government has given approval to about 300 hotel projects, nearly half of which are in the luxury range.
August 30, 2007
Source: Business Standard via Rediff

5. Leisure Hotels Ltd. to add six more properties in Uttarakhand

Leisure Hotels Ltd. (LHL) is planning to add six properties to its existing portfolio of 16 in Uttarakhand. Haridwar, Kashipur, Tehri and Naukuchiatal will get one property each, while Corbett National Park will get two. Following the success of the Haveli Hari Ganga in Haridwar, LHL has acquired another heritage haveli in the heart of the city and will convert it into an up-market boutique hotel with a spa. "Currently we are in the process of short listing renowned architects and designers for the 40 room project. The property is expected to be operational within the next 18 months. Our target market for this unique product is foreign tourists and special interest groups," states Vibhas Prasad, Director, Business Development, Leisure Hotels Ltd.

Apart from this, LHL recently bought the palace of his highness Shri Manvendra Shah in Tehri and is also looking at acquiring another property in Nainital called the Earls Court. Plans are also afoot to start a 30 room property in Naukuchiatal called Astoria Waterfront by January 2008. It is modelled on the colonial structures of British Raj. "We propose to restore, renovate and upgrade the palace in Tehri into a 12-room hotel within a year's time. The palace enjoys a lovely view of the Tehri Dam and the man made lake and will serve as an ideal destination for travellers seeking solace from the maddening crowds and those who want to enjoy water sports at the Tehri Lake. With regards to Earls Court, which is spread over six acres, we are planning to upgrade the 40 room property to a lifestyle resort and also add 12 villas with five rooms each," informs Prasad.

LHL that currently offers more than 300 rooms primarily catering to the leisure and spiritual tourist segments is also opening the second phase of The Hideaway River Lodge in Corbett National Park by March, 2008. "While the lodge was started with luxury Swiss cottage tents, the second phase will consist of 10 pre-fabricated cottages," states Prasad. Another upcoming property tentatively named Corbett Retreat with 80 rooms will be the fourth property of LHL in Corbett and will target tourists from all segments. LHL is also redesigning its website www.leisurehotels.in. While the site will continue to function under the same domain name, it will now have an online booking feature and will be operational by October 1, 2007. 'Book-A-Res, an online technology solutions provider, will provide access to leading GDS systems for the website. "The overhauled website will be more user-friendly in terms of search options. We are also are working on getting the website on the first page of any search engine," says Prasad.

The company is also planning to give out GSA arrangements in 10 different cities in India starting with Kolkata, Pune, Jaipur, Agra, Bhopal, Bangalore, etc. within a span of one year. "We want to give more facilitation and visibility to our customers and travel agents for the maturing market," explains Prasad.
August 30, 2007
Source: Travel Biz Monitor

6. Oberoi Group to invest around Rs 4,500-cr in new projects

EIH Ltd, the flagship company of the Oberoi Group, will infuse around Rs 4,500 crore in new projects for 60 per cent capacity augmentation both in the country and overseas over the next five years. Announcing this here today at the end of the company’s 57th annual general meeting, the Oberoi Group chairman Mr PRS Oberoi said during the period the number of rooms would soar to 6,800 from the present 4,100.

“With rapid growth in the hospitality industry, we plan to invest between Rs 4,300 crore to Rs 4,500 crore in new projects over the next five years. Of this, EIH will contribute Rs 1,000 crore and the rest will come from borrowings and partners,’’ he told reporters.

Having set a target of 50 per cent capacity addition in the country alone, EIH will add up 1,400 more rooms in its Trident Hilton category projects in Mumbai, Bangalore International Airport and Hyderabad City, entailing an investment of Rs 800 crore, he said.

The construction of the 440 key Trident Hilton located at Bandra Kurla, Mumbai was expected to open in the third quarter of 2008, while two joint venture projects—one in association with L and T in Bangalore and another in Hyderabad with the Rama Rao Group—are likely to be completed by 2010.

The Oberoi Luxury Hotel at Gurgaon is expected to open in 2009.

The company had earlier announced its plan to set up seven additional luxury hotels—two in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, including a resort and one each in the Sultanate of Oman, Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt, Marrakech in Morocco and Paro and Thimpu in Bhutan. In reply to a question, Mr Oberoi said EIH was eager to set up its second property in Kolkata in league with a partner for which it was in a prowl for land.

The company is planning new flight kitchens at the international airports at Kolkata Airport at an investment of Rs 70 crore and in Mauritius after commencing the service in Chennai. Mr Oberoi said the company has a 70 per cent market share in the country in flight kitchen business which contributed about 13 per cent of the profitability.

Earlier, speaking at the AGM, the chairman said the travel and tourism industry had shown significant growth in the past few years and the number of visitors to India had doubled in five years resulting in more competition. “This trend will continue as India is now an important destination for leisure and business travellers,’’ he observed.

With the demand for hotel accommodation remaining buoyant, the trend was evident not only in the cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, but also other destinations. The growth of the sector, comprising services such as tourism, trade, transport and communication, was more than 13 per cent, he said.
August 27, 2007
Source: Navhind times via UNI

Niche Tourism

Medical
1. Hospitals prepare to get NRI, foreign clientele

With 200 Gujarat hospitals registering themselves with US-based Om Healthcare Providers Network Inc (OHPN) to help get NRI and foreign clientele, State hospitals can soon boast of international standards and facilities. Come September and OHPN will re-launch itself with upgraded facilities on its web portal and is already eyeing medical fraternity from important metros. Meanwhile, authorities have confirmed that more than 12,00 persons from the State medical fraternity will be screened next year in March.

"OHPN will act as a navigator between NRIs, foreign clientele with Indian medical fraternity on 3 important issues _ Patients' privacy, safety and hospital standards in cognizance with International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) and Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organisation (JCAHO) respectively," said Dr Jignesh Patel, vice-president, OHPN.

There are very few hospitals in India, which have been able to reach international standards and there is only one hospital with an international accreditation in State, said Dr Patel. "OHPN will set up a body which will facilitate guidance to small hospitals," he adds. There are private practitioners and hospitals in Gujarat which are willing to standardising themselves with international norms, he added.

Dr Patel said that after their re-launch they'll focus on metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Banglore, Chennai , Hydrabad, Pune, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. "Eventually we will put up the profile of Thailand, Malaysia and Philippines so that patients can select medical experts," he adds. "We also have travel agency and medical tourism vendors' list in our portal. In short, OHPN will be a search engine for medical tourism," he claimed.

Detailing on the change in their web portal, he said, "In our pilot project, only medical fraternity could register themselves but now patients can register. It will be a two-way communication.
August 26, 2007
Source: Indian Express

Adventure Tourism

1. Himachal to promote ‘socially responsible’ tourism

A ski resort being developed in the western Himalayas will not only promote adventure sports and give India a chance to bid for the Winter Olympics but also pioneer the concept of socially responsible tourism, its developers say.

"We are committed to social and environmental sustainability and plan to become an international flagship for responsible tourism," John Sims, managing director of the Himalayan Ski Village (HSV), which is coming up at Manali in Himachal Pradesh, said of the 350-million euro project.

Being funded by Henry Ford's great grandson Alfred Ford, HSV aims to create world-class infrastructure to position Manali amongst the world's best tourism destinations.

And to ensure it practises what it preaches, HSV has enlisted the services of a variety of experts in the field of environmentally sustainable tourism, resort development, construction and snow management, Sims pointed out.

Among the experts is Sanjeev Pande, a former director of the Great Himalayan National Park in the Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh that is home to a rich diversity of flora and fauna.

"So, inside the chicken coop, we have a fox," Sims said of the watchdog role Pande would perform.

Prominent environmental agencies like The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and the Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM) have completed their EIA (Environment  Impact Assessment) of the project and are in the process of developing environment management policies that will be incorporated during the construction and operational phases of the resort.

"The policies will cover all aspects of environmental impact on flora, fauna and local communities from all possible sources including solid and liquid waste, and air and noise pollution," Sims stated.

"The latest energy conservation technologies like solar energy and green disposal technologies for sewage will also be employed," he added. The HSV project includes the development of luxury hotels, chalets, suites, conference facilities, an entertainment centre, restaurants and retail options. Access to the mountain area for skiing, trekking and other adventure activities will be provided by a network of gondolas and chairlifts.

The project aims to employ more than 3,500 people when fully developed and HSV will hire more than 70 percent of them from the villages around Manali.

"Once we are fully up and running, we will have all the facilities in place for staging the Winter Olympics and it will be then for the authorities to bid for this," Sims maintained.

The Himachal Pradesh government cleared HSV's Detailed Project Report in June. Its EIA is now awaiting approval from the ministry of environment and forests and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) before commencing construction later this year.

HSV has also set up a training institute for winter sports operations. The first phase saw 75 skiers from local villages being trained for the roles of ski instructors, snow safety and search and rescue operations when the resort begins its operations. This group was then whittled down to 40 for advanced training in Finland.

According to Sims, in addition to direct employment, the HSV project will bring indirect employment and business opportunities to the local community through sourcing of local produce like fruits, flowers, milk, and vegetables for daily consumption in the resort and services like adventure and tour operation.

"These will be linked via specific HSV-sponsored rural development initiatives like cheese making, beehive products and green-house farming," Sims added.
August 31, 2007
Source: IANS via MSN India

Policy

1. US, UK, Australia issue travel advisories

The twin blasts have cast a shadow on Hyderabad's image of becoming a city where tech professionals and tourists from the world over flew in. The US, Britain and Australia have issued travel advisories warning citizens to be careful while in Hyderabad.

The number of foreign visitors to Hyderabad has been steadily increasing over the years with 5,70,187 foreigners visiting the city last year, as per tourism department figures. A majority of these — as much as 31.3% — are from the US followed by 9.7% from UK, 6.7% from Germany and 6.5% from Asian countries.

"There have been terrorist attacks in major cities, including Mumbai, New Delhi and Hyderabad. You should be vigilant in all parts of India," a British advisory said, mentioning the two explosions in Hyderabad. The US has urged its citizens in Hyderabad and 'other areas in southern India' to be cautious while travelling. The information to travellers also said there were 'unconfirmed reports that additional explosives were found at other locations in Hyderabad'.

An advisory by the Australian government asked its citizens to avoid places like Lumbini Park and Koti area until the situation returned to normal. "We advise you to exercise a high degree of caution in India because of the high risk of terrorist activity by militant groups," the advisory said.
August 31, 2007
Source: Times of India

Travel and Tourism Support Industries …and much more

Service providers

1. BCCL acquires stake in Travel Masti

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.
August 31, 2007
Source: Travel Biz Monitor

2. New Yorkers to get a big bite of India
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.

Conferences and panel discussions will focus on the socio-economic progress made so far in India and the roadmap for the future. India Conference with the Asia Society will be held at New York Hilton Hotel. And Columbia University in collaboration with the Earth Institute hosts a conference on India's looming water crisis.

'Cherishing Democracy, Sharing Prosperity' is the title of a panel discussion organised by BBC World and moderated by Tim Sebastian, presenter of Hard Talk show, to be held at the New York Metropolitan Library.

Yale Club hosts two panel discussions, 'India 2050-A Grand Strategy for India Rising' and 'Women and Global Leadership'.

Travel + Leisure magazine presents an interaction with the travel trade honchos at Hotel Pierre.

Private events and receptions have also been organised by the Rockefeller Center, Citigroup and Louis Vuitton Store, 5th Avenue. The entire event is being promoted by an advertising campaign that includes outdoor publicity, daily programme cards and e-mailers.

The scale of the festival reflects the importance of the US travel market to India. In the current year, the number of US tourist arrivals is estimated at over 850,000 - 18-19 per cent of all tourists coming to India.

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.
August 31, 2007
Source: Economic Times

3. Promoting cruise tourism

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.
To cater to the corporate travel segment, Europe’s largest car rental and mobility service organisation, Europcar, has been launched in the city with Jetfleet as the General Sales Agency.

“We have a fleet of trained, uniform and tie-clad chauffeur driven cars offering a wide range of on-board services including mobile charger facility and the vehicle equipped with Global Positioning System,” says V. Krishna Kumar, Branch Manager of Europcar.
August 28, 2007
Source: The Hindu

Research and Market reports

1. After skies, time to open up land: tourism experts

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. 'I had a word with Minister of State for Urban Development Ajay Maken recently and suggested that the shortage of hotel rooms that Delhi is facing can be removed by converting the guest houses into motels and motels into hotels.' There are so many beautiful farmhouses in the vicinity of the capital which can be easily converted into hotels,' Goyal said. Among the other topics discussed was the safety provided by the airlines and the service provided by them.

'Airlines must give safety the topmost priority. One unhappy incident and the mark will remain forever. Besides the lives that are at stake, safety is one thing which also affects insurance and the markets,' said Robey Lal, former country manager of the International Air Transport Association.

'Quality of service is another issue which airlines need to concentrate on. When we talk about being a world-class airline, we have to ensure that the quality of service that we provide the passengers, on board as well as on the ground, is vital,' he added.

This is the third time that PATWA, a decade-old organisation, has organised its seminar in India. 'PATWA, with its 100 members from 70 countries, has two meetings annually in London and Berlin. In these meets, the members talk about a wide array of issues related to travel and tourism as well as those which affect the world at large, such as global warming or the tsunami, and present papers on that.

'These are being collected by the UNWTO and put together in the form of reports,' Sagar Ahluwalia, secretary general of PATWA told IANS.
August 28, 2007
Source: IANS

Travel Characteristics of Indians

1. Dubai aims for more Indian tourists

Dubai is eyeing Indian tourists, especially those from second rung cities like Chandigarh, Nagpur and Coimbatore, and intends to push up the number of visitors from India by 32,000 this year. Carl Vaz, the director of Dubai tourism in India, is going all out to make Dubai one of the most sought after destinations for Indians.

'An estimated 398,000 Indian tourists visit Dubai every year. And this figure is exclusive of the number of Indians who go there for employment purposes. But now we are aiming at making this number touch the 430,000 mark by the end of this year,' Carl Vaz, director of Dubai tourism in India, told IANS.

Of the total tourist inflow into a booming Dubai, Indians constitute just 6.3 percent, Vaz said. 'To begin with, we are targeting the population of the tier 2 cities like Chandigarh, Nagpur and Coimbatore,' Vaz said.

'There is a great surge of people from small towns and tier 2 cities willing to travel abroad for a vacation. But while the metros are already aware of the holiday destinations, the smaller cities and towns are not as much aware. Hence we are promoting Dubai in such places to trap the market there.'

Besides road shows and exhibitions, a number of below-the-line activities are being used for promotion. 'For instance, we give offers like 'Watch a movie and win free tickets to Dubai' or 'Have a happy meal at McDonald's and go to Dubai'. We also tied up with National Geographic to promote Dubai as an ideal holiday destination,' he said.

Extensive training for travel and tour operators is another thing that they are focussing on. An average holiday package from India to Dubai, which they call a weekend getaway, for three nights comes for Rs.50 ,000 for a couple. This includes air tickets, both to and fro, accommodation in a four-star hotel, a ship cruise and a city tour.

'Although this package is quite sought after, we now want to convert the three- day package into seven days. We want people to stay in Dubai for more days,' Vaz said.Dubai is coming up with a number of big projects aimed at attracting tourists from all over the world. Amongst them is Hydropolis, the world's first luxury underwater hotel. 'The entire hotel is submerged under water, except the reception. It includes three elements: the land station, where guests will be welcomed, the connecting tunnel, which will transport people by train to the main area of the hotel, and the 220 suites within the submarine leisure complex.' It is one of the largest contemporary construction projects in the world, covering an area of 260 hectares, about the size of London's Hyde Park,' Vaz said.The hotel's construction, which began in 2005, is scheduled to culminate by the end of this year.

Dubailand, a major competition to Disneyland in Florida, will be another major tourist attraction with 45 mega projects and over 200 tourism, leisure and entertainment sub-projects. On completion in 2018, the amusement park is expected to be a city divided into six theme worlds. Its first phase will, however, be completed by 2010 and by then it aims to attract 15 million tourists.

Dubai Sports City is yet another large project in the pipeline.
'Dubai Sports City is the world's first purpose-built sports city and will incorporate state-of-the-art sporting venues and academies along with residential and commercial developments,' said Vaz. He also had suggestions for Indian tourism. 'Out of the top five countries in the market of regional tourism, India is one. The rest are Saudi Arabia, Iran, Germany and the UK. So India must concentrate on regional tourism and especially try to attract the non-resident Indian (NRI) community staying abroad,' he said. Vaz said he would like to emulate India's medical tourism. The Indian tourism department's initiative in health tourism is truly commendable.

'The Dubai Health Care City building which is still under construction will most probably be completed in 2008. After that we will concentrate more on this sphere of medical tourism,' he said.
August 31, 2007
Source: IANS