Tourism and Travel Trends from India:
News and views on India's Travel and Transportation Sector

Weekly News Related to Travel Industry in India

Top Travel Destinations
Travel and Transportation Infrastructure
Medical Tourism
Religious Tourism
Holistic Healing
Service Providers
Travel Characteristics of the Indians
Investment Related

Top Travel Destinations

1. Rural pulse
Aranmula in Kerala, which bagged this year's National Award for Rural Tourism, offers an authentic cultural experience

FAR from the madding crowd and the fast pace of life in the West, here we enjoy a sublime rustic culture and lifestyle which is totally alien to us. Here, we are trying to make ourselves believe that we too can be a part of this rich culture, at least for a short period during our Indian tour," exclaim a group of foreign tourists visiting Aranmula village on the banks of river Pampa in central Kerala.

Aranmula, famous for its metal mirrors, Aranmula Kannadi, the centuries-old Vaishnavite temple dedicated to Lord Parthasarathy and the annual snake boat regatta during the Onam festival season, Uthrittathi Vallamkali, has found a special niche for itself in the world tourism map. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Government of India have jointly identified this Central Travancore village as one among 32 villages selected for implementing the Endogenous Tourism Project.

Hot destination

The Government of India has also identified Aranmula as one of the five rural tourism destinations in the whole country for promoting the Gurukul concept as part of its cultural tourism promotion programme. Reghurajpur in Orissa, Hodka in Gujarat, Pranpur in Madhya Pradesh and Pochampally in Andhra Pradesh are the other four centres.

Every year, tourists from France, the United States, Australia, Canada, England, Japan, Switzerland and many other European countries come to Aranmula where a French woman, Louba Schild, has been running a centre for arts and culture, Vijnana Kala Vedi, for the past 30 years.

Ms. Louba Schild, who came to Kerala in 1968, started the Vijnana Kala Vedi (VKV) way back in 1976 with a mission to propagate the traditional art and dance forms of Kerala. She has learned Kathakali, Kalaripayattu, Bharathanatyam and Mohiniyattam under the guidance of veterans like Ambalappuzha Shekhar, Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair and Mankombu Sivasanakara Pillai.

"Nowhere in the world could one see such a sublime culture that holds in its fold the richness of family values, simplicity of lifestyle and a mental frame that makes the people here see a divine touch in anything and everything," says Louba.

The steady growth in the number of tourists from different parts of the West over the past decade speaks volumes for the success story of the VKV Cultural Society. Dr D. Babu Paul, former Additional Chief Secretary to the Kerala Government, is its chief patron. "Most of the foreign tourists want to feel the pulse of rural India. People walking barefoot on the roads, the self-imposed discipline at various places of worship as part of the Tantric cult, the ritualistic art forms like Padayani, Theyyam, Column drawing and the soothsayers on the street are all enchanting experiences to a foreigner here," says Ms Louba.

Typical scenes

Elephants walking along the roads with a hefty bunch of coconut leaves tightly-clipped between its mouth and the tusk, mahouts giving the pachyderms a bath in the river, country boats ferrying commuters across the river and countryside toddy shops are all typical rustic charms in Aranmula.

The annual snakeboat regatta in the Pampa, Vallamkali, is a perfect blend of the native craft, devotion, and sports, the memories of which every tourist longs to keep in his/ her mind for years, says Ms Louba.

The 108-year-old Maramon Convention, billed as the largest annual Christian religious congregation in the whole of Asia, is held on the riverbed of the Pampa, about 200 metres upstream of Aranmula. As many as 100 small and medium old temples and churches in and around Aranmula are the other attractions to tourists here.

It is worth noting that the Indian National Trust for Arts and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) has recognised Aranmula as a Cultural Heritage Village. The Vasthu Vidya Gurukulam, a State-run autonomous institution under the Cultural Affairs Department for the promotion of traditional architecture and mural paintings is also located in Aranmula.

A different experience

Ms. Louba says that the foreign visitors who come to VKV for learning the different art and dance forms are all praise for the Gurukul system. "To them, the sublime practice of treating the Guru (teacher) as the incarnation of God himself is a new experience and all those who have visited the State at least once are yearning for a second visit to relish this pure experience," says she.

Ms. Tara Fischer, a 32-year-old Canadian who had come to VKV to learn Mohiniyattom and Ayurveda says she learned a lot about the value of tradition and culture from her three-month-long stay at Aranmula. According to Ms. Jocelyne Chua, an American tourist, "there are immense opportunities for direct and intimate access to the various art and dance forms in Kerala, more than in any other State in India. The Sree Parthasarathy Temple, the Gurukulam mural art gallery, river Pampa and above all, the people, with a simple and humble lifestyle, here all contribute to a simply superb experience."

However, Ms. Louba is of the view that the State should provide enough opportunities and facilities for the foreign tourist to interact and understand better the rich culture and tradition prevailing in the countryside, instead of organising stage-managed festivals and shows in the name of tourism promotion.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Source: The Hindu

Travel and Transportation Infrastructure

1. Airbus sees India passenger, freighter plane demand
Airbus expects demand for aircraft to grow quickly in India, led by travel as well as freight traffic, and the European company said it will look to source more materials, design and engineering services from the country.

The plane maker, part of the EADS, expects Indian firms to place orders for 1,100 passenger and freighter aircraft valued at about $105 billion over 20 years.

"India will be the fastest-growing country for air travel for the next 10 years," Sanjay Sharma, senior marketing analyst at Airbus, said at a news conference on Monday.

Strong economic growth, greater liberalisation and a "large, frustrated pent-up demand" would help the Indian air travel market grow faster than the global average, he said. Airbus estimates the Indian air travel market will grow at an average 7.7 percent per year over the next 20 years, compared to the worldwide average of 4.7 percent. India's passenger aircraft fleet will grow five-fold in the same period, Sharma said.

"While the bulk of the demand will be for single-aisle aircraft, there is a market for long-range and large aircraft, as well," Sharma said, ahead of Airbus' participation at the Aero Show in Bangalore this week.

Air fIndia's Flyington Freighters recently ordered six Airbus freighters valued at $1 billion, and Airbus estimates there will be demand for 165 freighter aircraft over the next 20 years.

Airbus, which made its first delivery in the country for state-owned Indian [IA.UL] in 1976, has seven clients including Jet Airways Ltd. , Deccan Aviation Ltd. , Indigo, and Kingfisher Airlines, which has ordered five jumbo A380 aircraft.

EADS has said it would invest would invest up to 2 billion euros over the next 15 years in India in production and research and development facilities. An engineering centre, a fully-owned subsidiary, would be operational in the second half of this year.

It was also looking at more cooperation with Indian firms in engineering, design and manufacturing, and may identify modern materials suppliers, Sharma said.

State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. makes doors for the A320 planes, and EADS said last year it would extend its cooperation with HAL to other areas.

Freight traffic would also gain as more domestic airlines entered and better infrastructure boosted profitability, he said.
Monday, February 5, 2007
Source: Reuters via Yahoo! News

2. World’s top plane makers compete for Indian air market

Drawn by the world's fastest-growing market for air travel, more than 500 companies will display their wares at the Aero India show starting Wednesday, hoping to secure a slice of the country's booming aviation needs.

Boeing and its big rival Airbus, Lockheed Martin and Dassault, are locking horns for a share of a surging market for both military and civilian aircraft estimated as being worth many tens of billions of dollars.

Air travel is booming as the Indian economy expands, with Airbus predicting annual growth of 7.7 percent through to 2025, the fastest pace for any single market.

An affluent middle class -- estimated at 300 million -- is being served by an increasingly diverse patchwork of airlines such as Kingfisher, Spicejet and Air Deccan.

Industry estimates suggest traffic in India could double by 2010 to 50 million passenger journeys a year.

Boeing expects India's requirements over the next two decades to be 856 extra planes -- four times the size of the current commercial fleet -- worth a total of 72 billion dollars.

Airbus forecast recently that India would need 1,100 planes over that same period, worth some 105 billion dollars, while both companies say improvements to the creaky aviation infrastructure would bring even faster growth.

This is the sixth edition of Aero India and, testifying to its popularity, the number of aerospace and related companies taking part is up by 35 percent from 2005, when the last show was held.

The five-day exhibition itself is taking up 50 percent more space.
Partly fuelling that expansion is the United States, which is providing 30 firms, the first time US defence companies are taking a major part.

Up for grabs on the military side of the show is an Indian air force tender for 126 fighter jets to replace its ageing fleet of MiG-21s.

Those in the running for the deal, estimated to be worth about nine billion dollars, include Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Russia's MiG-29 and the Gripen, made by Sweden's Saab.

The European defence and aircraft group EADS is touting its Eurofighter and France's Dassault its fourth-generation Rafale.

Meanwhile, India's plans to upgrade 80 domestic airports offer potentially lucrative business opportunities for companies from builders and designers to cargo handlers, retailers and caféterias
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Source: AFP via Yahoo! News

3. Massive turnout at India air show

Some 500 aircraft companies from around the world have flocked to an air show in southern India hoping to cash in on the country's booming aviation sector.

The five-day event at the Yelahanka air base in Bangalore will showcase a range of new civilian and military aircraft.

India plans to buy 126 fighter jets for its air force to replace its fleet of ageing Soviet-era MiG-21s.

Industry estimates suggest India will need more than 1,000 planes over the next two decades as air travel booms.

Air traffic in India could double by 2010 to 50 million passenger journeys a year on the back of a growing economy, according to one estimate.

Some 45 foreign delegations and 35 air force chiefs from various countries are attending the five-day air show.

Indian Defence Minister AK Antony, who officially opened Aero India, said a decision on the purchase of the fighter jets would be made very soon.

"It [the request for proposals] is almost in the final stage... I can assure that a decision in this regard will be taken very quickly," he told reporters.

The BBC's Habib Beary in Bangalore says the deal is estimated to be worth more than $10bn.

He says the race is primarily between Lockheed Martin's F-16s, the Gripen made by Sweden's Saab, Russia's MiG-35, the Eurofighter from Europe and the Rafale made by French company Dassault.

Hundreds of civilian aircraft and fighter jets will be displayed during the air show, which is being attended by more international visitors than ever before.

More than 50 US firms are among companies present.

Ron Somers, president of the USINDIA Business Council, said it was no longer about the US selling equipment to India.

"What is important is that India is being viewed by the US as a major link in the global supply chain, which will create thousands of jobs," he told the AFP news agency
Wednesday, 7 February 2007
Source: BBC

4. Thar Express likely to be resumed
The Thar Express between India and Pakistan, suspended in last August following flash floods in Rajasthan, is likely to be on track once again from February 17 subject to visa clearance to Indian Staff by Pakistan.

"We have applied for visa for our staff. If it is cleared, then Thar Express will run from February 17," said sources from the North-Western Railway (Jodhpur).

The decision to re-run the train via Munabao-Khokhrapar was taken as the Jodhpur-Barmer railway section on the train's route (Kawas Railway Station), closed since August due to water logging, has been cleared, they said.

Resumed after four decades of halt, people of the two neighbouring countries are eagerly awaiting the resumption of the suspended train to facilitate travel from the two sides.

Munabao-Khokhrapar is the second rail link between India and Pakistan.

Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Source: Press Trust of India via NDTV

Service Providers

1. Amadeus ties us with five online travel agencies in India
The five OTAs are Indiatimes, MakeMyTrip, Sify, Travelguru and Yatra.

Each of these online travel agencies (OTAs) is using the Amadeus API, giving online access to - and the ability book - the full range of domestic and international airline content in Amadeus’ distribution system. Each has also chosen Amadeus Master Pricer, an international air fare search engine.

Ankur Bhatia, managing director, Amadeus India said, “The new genre of online travel is fast sweeping the nation and Amadeus is right there in the leadership slot empowering all major players who at present account for almost 65 percent of total online travel in India.”

During the EyeforTravel’s inaugural conference in New Delhi in October last year, the online travel market in India was expected to cross $750 million in 2006. By 2008, it is expected to exceed $2 billion.
Monday, February 5, 2007
Source: EyeforTravel via Yahoo! News

Religious Tourism

1. Indian pilgrims to attend festival at Katas Raj temple in Pak held after five decades
Around 200 Hindu pilgrims from India are likely to travel to Pakistan to attend a three-day festival at the famous Katas Raj temples in (Pakistan's) Punjab province.

The festival is going to be held for the first time in several decades next week, after a team of Pakistani archaeologists travelled to India to study techniques for its restoration, reported the Daily Times.

The festival is taken as another sign of the thaw between the two countries.

"We are expecting some 200 pilgrims from India to visit," the paper quoted Oriya Maqbool Jan, director-general of the Punjab Archaeology Department, as saying.

According to the paper, the festival will be the first at the temple since 1947 although a trickle of pilgrims from India had visited over the years. The temple, built on a hilltop named Saidan Shah about 120 km south of Islamabad, is mentioned in ancient Hindu and Sikh scriptures.

Maqbool Jan led a team of experts to India last year to learn techniques used in the successful restoration of part of the temple. He said that the complete restoration of the temple would cost about 1.8 million dollars. (ANI)
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Source: ANI

Investment Related

1. Funds: Leisure and luxury are the magic words
The Aim Leisure Fund, managed by Mark Greenberg, returned almost twice as much as the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index during the past year as consumers around the world spent more on travel, liquor and entertainment.

The $886 million mutual fund rose 27 percent, compared with 17 percent for the S&P 500, making it the top performer of eight major leisure and entertainment funds. Greenberg's biggest holdings include Hilton Hotels, the brewer Carlsberg and the cable-television company Comcast. All three climbed more than 45 percent in the past 12 months.

Greenberg, who has run the Aim fund since 1996, almost doubled his stake in lodging stocks to 16 percent of assets in the past five years as fewer hotels were built. Now he is adding to casino and liquor holdings because consumers are gambling more than ever in Las Vegas and Macao and buying more Absolut vodka at $40 a bottle, he said.

"I don't try to predict the economy, the stock market or interest rates," Greenberg said from his office at Aim Investments in Denver. Instead, he said, he focuses on earnings prospects.

Rising incomes will make China the world's leading consumer of luxury goods in less than a decade, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs Group. Management consultants at McKinsey estimate that in India, there will be 351 million middle-income people in 65 million households by 2010, up from 40 million households today.

With more disposable income in the most populous nations, the number of tourist visits worldwide rose to a record 842 million last year, the World Tourism Organization said. The Chinese and Indian economies probably will expand 9.2 percent this year, economists estimate. The U.S. Treasury secretary, Henry Paulson Jr., expects the U.S. economy to grow about 3 percent.

Greenberg doubled his holdings in brewers and distillers to 8 percent since 2001. U.S. liquor sales climbed 6.3 percent to a two-year high of $17 billion in 2006, driven by so-called super- premium vodka and whiskey, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. Vodka sales rose 11 percent to $4 billion.

Fourteen percent of the fund is in broadcasting and cable-television companies, 8.8 percent in advertising firms and 8.6 percent in casinos and gaming establishments.

Greenberg invests in companies with established records of increasing profits at an annual pace of more than 10 percent. He holds the stocks for as long as five years. The Aim fund advanced at an annual rate of 11 percent over the past five years, compared with the S&P 500's 7.8 percent and the 9.4 percent return of the average leisure fund.

Morningstar, an industry research firm in Chicago, gives Aim Leisure its highest rating of five stars. The fund has a Sharpe ratio of 0.89, compared with 0.54 for funds that invest in large- company growth-style stocks. A higher Sharpe ratio means better risk-adjusted returns.

The Morningstar analyst Karen Wallace wrote in a report to clients, "Our main concern is what would happen to the fund if the tide turns, and the consumer economy takes a back seat to the general economy."

The Aim Leisure Fund fell 1.2 percent in 2005 after concern about a slump in housing and higher energy prices depressed consumer spending. Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast in August 2005, crimped spending on hotels and leisure activities.

The fund's top holding is Omnicom Group, the world's largest advertising company, whose shares rose 26 percent in the past year. Omnicom moved beyond advertising into brand-consulting and public relations, earning more than analysts' estimates in the third quarter.

Aim Leisure's second-largest holding is News Corp., the media company controlled by Rupert Murdoch, which had a 45 percent increase in its stock price in the past year. The third-biggest is the casino operator Harrah's Entertainment of Las Vegas. Its shares climbed 17 percent.

Greenberg started loading up on hotel stocks after construction stopped following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York. Today in New York, hotel occupancy is at a record 84 percent and the average room rate is $241 a night, according to the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The number of new hotel rooms built in the United States rose 6 percent slower than estimates last year because of budget constraints and project delays, according to Lodging Econometrics, a New Hampshire-based consulting firm. Lodging Econometrics expects a 38 percent surge in construction in 2007 based on the number of planned projects.

The fund owns Hilton Hotels as its fourth holding. Greenberg also has a stake in Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, whose stock jumped 39 percent in the past year, and Marriot International, which rose 48 percent.

Greenberg has been investing in the leisure industry for more than two decades. Before joining Aim, he was a media and entertainment analyst at the investment firm Scudder, Stevens & Clark in New York.

He spends as much as one week a month on the road, traveling to consumer and trade shows, making three to four trips a year to Las Vegas and regular journeys to Europe. On a two- week family vacation to Australia in August, Greenberg took two days to tour companies including News Corp.

"I'm constantly looking at what brand shoes people are wearing, what people are saying in Internet chat rooms, what toys kids want," he said.
Friday, February 9, 2007
Source: Bloomberg News via International Herald Tribune

Travel Characteristics of Indians

1. Air rage: Tempers soar in sky
Fed up of hovering over Delhi for eternity, passengers of a plane assembled in front of the cockpit door. The aircraft started tilting and had to make an emergency landing.

When a pilot went to talk to pacify passengers over an AC glitch, he was pushed back into the cockpit as people worried how the plane would fly without him in the hot seat!

The long wait inside an aircraft to take off made an angry passenger walk to the door and attempt to open it for fresh air.

Frustrated air passengers aren’t gritting their teeth or cursing under their breath anymore. They are screaming and kicking — a phenomenon called air rage brought on by rickety aviation infrastructure.

An 'internal security report' prepared by a leading airline has shown shocking incidents of how passengers, mostly first-time fliers, have reacted angrily to the pressure cooker situation both in the air and at terminals. Experienced fliers, on the other hand, accept flight delays, cancellations, dirty airports and terrible ATC congestion as the punishment for choosing to fly.

"Last month, a passenger opened an emergency exit to soothe his nerves. More recently, two passengers tried to open the doors of an aircraft while it was moving on the runway," the study states.

These incidents often expose female staffers to great risk. An airline official said: "Air rage is clearly rising. The reason is lack of infrastructure and delays that has passengers, especially first-time fliers, up in arms. These reasons, however, can be used to justify bad behaviour but not eve-teasing, which is also increasing.
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Source: Times of India, Times News Network

2. First-time flyers trouble India

India's rapid economic growth has made air travel an option for many more people, as a host of new airlines have taken to the skies in recent years.

But the burgeoning demand for flying has brought its own problems.

A report by one airline revealed that passengers trying to have a chat with a pilot forced an emergency landing.

Frustrated passengers

India is one of the world's fastest-growing aviation markets, but the surge in demand has led to chaotic scenes on flights, with some people struggling to overcome their nerves and adapt to flying etiquette.

According to a report seen by the BBC, a series of recent incidents have highlighted the "growing menace of unruly passengers in India".

On one occasion, a passenger tried to open a door shortly before take-off while a flight circling around Delhi was forced to make an emergency landing after a group of passengers approached the cockpit to complain.

The BBC's Damian Grammaticas said one airport manager quoted in the report said troublemakers were often first-time fliers, but bureaucrats, politicians and other professionals had also proved unruly.

The report recommends that people should be taught the do's and don'ts of air travel and that airlines should be able to breathalyse passengers before boarding if they seem drunk.

Ajay Jasra, from budget carrier Spicejet, told the BBC that there were many reasons why passengers became disturbed.

"Inadequate airport infrastructure, lack of food and nicotine, long delays due to congestion, fog or whatever can frustrate people," he said.

Friday, 9 February, 2007
Source: BBC