Travel and Tourism Trends from India:
News and views on India Travel
Weekly News Updates on Travel and Tourism in India
Top Travel Destinations
Travel and Transportation Infrastructure
Medical Tourism
Religious Tourism
Holistic Healing
Service Providers
Travel Characteristics of the Indians
Investment Related
According to New7wonders.com—the website of the organisers of the campaign to shortlist the new seven wonders of the world—votes polled so far place the Taj among the top seven. The New7Wonders Foundation made the announcement on January 31. The new wonders of the world will be announced at a official declaration ceremony at Lisbon in Portugal on July 7
Thursday, February 1,2007
Source: IBN Live
1. India favourite tourist destination despite some hiccups
India has achieved a significant growth in terms of foreign tourist arrivals despite the recent incidents of foreign travellers, attacked in some parts of the country.
Foreign exchange earnings from overseas tourists have shown a phenomenal growth regardless of such incidents.
The Ministry of Tourism said in statement that India has achieved the significant growth in terms of foreign tourist arrivals with 4.43 million foreign tourists visiting in 2006 alone. This is up by 14.2 per cent, enabling foreign exchange earnings from tourism. This showed an exceptional growth from $5730.86 million in 2005 to $6569.34 million in 2006.
While for federal government this could be a reason to rejoice, all does not seem well with rising incidents of attacks and assaults on foreign tourists.
Tourism industry says such incidents have begun to show ‘Destination India’ as a country ‘unfriendly’ for foreign travellers. Large number of prospective travellers are wary of journey to India because of this problem.
Though recent incidents may not present a true picture of Indian hospitality and warmth, there are indications that images of assault could keep the wavering tourists away in 2007. Travel agencies dealing in with foreign travellers here feel that safety and security is the foremost consideration for tourists visiting India. So far the government has not addressed the issue of safety diligently.
There have been news of some foreign tourists gone missing across India; besides, there are cases of lynching and assault on them. There could be fear of militant threat lurking over the lure of beaches in Goa and Kerala. And militants going for chosen attacks on both foreign and domestic tourists in Jammu and Kashmir to deflate the claim of restoration of peace in the Valley, such attacks are having a cumulative impact.
However, the government seems unfazed on the issues of safety and security of foreign tourists. Federal ministry of tourism believes that cases like the one where a British tourist Stephen Bennett, was recently lynched by a mob at Raigarh in Maharashtra or the sexual assault on an Australian tourist in full public view at Gateway of India, last month are aberrations indeed.
The government admits there were attacks like the one on a tourist bus carried out by Samajwadi Party workers in Agra while protesting the execution of Saddam Hussein, the instance of some foreign tourists raped and sexually assaulted in Rajasthan etc. These do not augur well when the government is trying to project warmth and hospitality in its ‘Incredible India’ campaign, feels the government.
Still the ministry believes that India would continue to get bigger as a foreign tourism destination. “If the situation would have been truly alarming then India would not have got many international recognition,” said minister of State for Tourism and Culture Ambika Soni. Condenast Traveller, the world’s leading travel and tourism journal, has ranked India amongst the top four preferred holiday destinations across the globe.
Also ABTA (Association of British Travel Agency) has ranked India as No. 1 amongst the top 50 tourism destinations for 2006. India received world travel awards for being Asia’s leading destination, and the world’s leading travel destination; besides having world’s leading responsible tourism project for endogenous tourism.
The government has also decided that 2007 will be a crucial year for attracting more revenue from foreign tourists. There is an attempt to boost rural tourism. Soni said that in view of the huge development potential of tourism, 102 rural tourism infrastructure projects have been sanctioned to spread the tourism and its socio-economic benefits. The rural sites, with tourism potential, will be identified.
The capacity building programme has also been taken up for 43 rural tourism sites so that the benefit of tourism reaches the community at large.
The Ministry of Tourism has launched integrated international media campaigns covering Europe, US and Canada, Australia, the Far East and the Asia Pacific region to promote India as a must see destination.
“The campaign focuses on both the generic and niche areas to convert India into a destination for 365 days a year. ‘Chasing the Monsoon’ is a new theme for the Middle East market. A fresh creative commercial has been launched. In addition, brand personalities like Deepak Chopra, Mark Mobius, Jeev Milkha Singh, Zila Khan, Saira Mohan have been used to promote and market India’s unique products,” said the ministry
Thursday, 1 February, 2007
Source: Khaleej Times
2. Swedish history in the Chennai dock
As the Swedish ship Götheborg approached Chennai's shores on Wednesday, it was like history revisited.
A replica of East India Man that sank in the eighteenth century, the ship that used to once carry goods is now carrying a message of friendship.
The original version, built in 1745, had made three trade voyages to China before it sank. This new ship has been sailing for more than a year now, tracing its route to dock in Chennai.
"We expect to meet a lot of people and make a lot of new friends. We have friendship as cargo and we expect to load as much of it in every port we go. We want to take as much before we get back to Sweden," says Peter Kaaling, the Captain of the ship.
The ship has already touched many a port before it reached India. And adding desi flavour on board were six Indians, including a celebrity sharing recipes with the crew.
"I like to take off and do something totally different from what I normally do in life cause I like the sense of adventure. We made some rice, potatoes and paranthas. The Swedish love potatoes in any form," says actor and filmmaker Revathi.
A ship that once took away nutmegs, cloves and other spices to the West is here again in a new avataar. Perhaps, the message of love and friendship it brings is what a deeply-divided world actually needs.
Thursday,February 01, 2007
Source: CNN IBN
3. Return to India: 20 years of change in the sub-continent
It was almost exactly 20 years ago. Two months of backpacking around India was coming to an end. I'd been standing in line for what seemed like hours trying to check into a Delhi hotel before taking an early-morning flight back to London. Or three lines, to be precise. The first was to register, the second was for the mysterious purpose of picking up a docket giving rights to the third queue, at the end of which, after more form-filling, was the promise of keys to the hotel room and a couple of hours' sleep.
Even by Indian standards this seemed an extraordinarily unnecessary process, but after a while on the subcontinent you get used to these things. Except that I hadn't. I really hadn't. Indeed, I had completely had it with the daily frustrations of Indian life. Can it really be that difficult to book into a bloody hotel room?
Emaciated by weeks of dysentery and still half-crazed by a dose of psychedelically-charged dope a phoney guru in Jaipur had persuaded me to imbibe, I was ready to explode. Approaching the front of the third queue, I fumbled in my pockets for the docket which would deliver the room keys. In my confusion, I had mislaid this apparently vital piece of paper. As the man ahead successfully completed his marathon, I desperately searched bags and rechecked pockets. The hotel receptionist was unyielding. Without the ticket, I couldn't have the keys. I offered him money but to no avail. It was back to the beginning of the first queue or no room. And so the eruption began, spilling out, quietly at first, in a disgraceful torrent of expletives, and continuing on to a loud-mouthed, shamefully rude rant on the iniquities of the Indian nation and all who dwelled there. That the bureaucracy I had just encountered was almost certainly a leftover from British rule didn't occur to me.
The queue of mainly Indian nationals behind me counter-erupted in an appropriate manner - with mocking laughter, that is - at this pitiful display of anger. A kindly-looking gentleman shook his head. "How long have you been in India? You really should know better. You cannot come to India and expect to live life at a Western pace. You'll go mad. Go home. Maybe you'll think better of us after a couple of weeks."
He was right. Nobody who visits this astonishing country is left untouched by it. My memories of that trip are still among the most vivid of my life. Within months I was longing to return to this intoxicating mass of chaotic humanity - the sights, the smells, the noise, the landscapes, even the brutality of the climate. Back home, things seemed colourless and predictable by comparison with this veritable feast for the eyes. Yet career, children and rival destinations have until now kept me from it.
* So here I am, 20 years later, fresh from a Jet Airways flight from London, back on Indian soil once more. The airline itself is instructive. It didn't exist when I was last here, but today is part of a plethora of new Indian airlines established to feed the country's explosive economic growth. The calm, service-oriented efficiency of the flight, more than a match for Western counterparts, is impossible to reconcile with the chaos of India I remembered.
This is a very different kind of trip to my first. I was a tourist then. Today I'm here to learn about the Indian development story. This is a happening of truly seismic importance that in time may come to be seen as of greater historical significance than many of the things we worry about closer to home, including the present traumas in the Middle East. Along with the rapid industrialisation of China, it is fast changing the way we must think about geopolitics. The long-term impact of Asia's integration into the global economy, which is still in its infancy, is likely to be profound.
Back then, India was just another Third World country, albeit still one of considerable cultural influence. It was largely closed to outside economic influences. Today, pockets of it are already virtually indistinguishable from the developed West. It is also growing and modernising with a speed that 20 years ago would barely have been conceivable. Rarely has India been so much in the news as it is now. It's not just Shilpa Shetty and the racist taunting of Big Brother, or even the possibility of a repentant visit by Jade Goody to the poppadom land of her imaginings. Nor is it call centres and the outsourcing of growing numbers of British jobs to this former jewel in the crown of the Empire. Nor still is it because globalisation and low-cost tourism is beginning to make cultural and social developments on the other side of the world as immediate, news worthy and influential as those in our own back yard. Much more important, in my view, is the realisation that India, with its population of more than a billion people, is finally joining the global economy. That forces us to engage, on an equal footing, with a nation Britain has largely ignored since post-war independence. It has also coincided with a huge revival of interest in the teachings and wisdom of Mahatma Gandhi. Large numbers of Indians may live in poverty, but in a world where Western capitalism plainly doesn't have all the answers, the striving for the spiritual improvement that he stood for has never had more relevance.
* The idea of karma teaches you to accept life as you find it. You are born into your condition and are largely powerless to change it. Nor would you want to, for the soul is constantly reborn until it is perfected.
This core, religious belief was one of the most striking features of society on the Indian subcontinent when I was last here. It invites a passive acceptance of position, status, wealth and predicament which, to the Western mind heavily tutored on the idea of self-improvement, is hard both to understand and accept.
One of the most culturally shocking aspects of India to the Warner of 20 years ago was the way the Indian treated his fellow, but lower-caste, Indian. A dog, and certainly a cow, which is a sacred beast, would get more respect. On a rickshaw ride, I was reprimanded by my Indian guide for showing the skin and bones who towed us a little common courtesy. I was not to give him ideas, I was solemnly told.
Down the ages, these social mores have incited repeated rebellions. They are one of the reasons why Islam and Christianity have spread among lower-caste Hindus. Rival religions seem to offer a better prospect of self-respect and escape.
Yet even after independence, they remained a deeply ingrained aspect of Indian life. Not everyone shares this outlook on life, but most do. Gandhi sought release from the quagmire of materialism through the virtues of human dignity and social justice, but in this land of massive contradictions, many of the spiritual values that he championed are still a powerfully oppressive force and barrier to change.
As I left India two decades ago, it was hard to be anything other than pessimistic about its future. I had arrived hoping for a kind of enlightenment; I left wholly convinced of the merits of Western materialism.
What inroads into Indian society have our Western ways made in the years since I was last here? On first impressions, not very much. As I am driven from the airport to old-town Delhi, there's a lot more traffic. Roadworks and uncompleted flyovers seem to be everywhere. The Indians have also caught the Western fixation with mobile phones. Yet the human chaos and desolation remains the same.
As we stop at the lights - they seem to be new, too - a hand reaches up from the road and assumes a begging pose. Looking down, I see a small mass of humanity, its deformed, rag-clad body crawling dangerously around between the gaps in the traffic in search of compassion. Not much change there, then. Last time I was here, I taught myself to be immune to such sights. A grim smile breaks out on my face. They'd warned me that the place would be unrecognisable. Regrettably, it already seems only too familiar.
I have just a week in India, which is plainly inadequate even for the purpose of scratching the surface of such a vast land mass. What's more, it is to be filled mainly by meetings with business leaders and bankers. The chances of seeing much of the "real" India seem remote. My first trip was a slow-lane trundle by bus and rail around the boathouses of Kashmir, the palaces of Rajasthan, the temples of Varanasi and the backstreets of Kolkata.
This was to be a kerosene-fuelled quick step between Delhi, seat of the Indian government, Bangalore, centre of India's burgeoning IT services industry, and Mumbai , home to some of India's wealthiest entrepreneurs and financiers, as well as Asia's largest slum quarter. Mumbai is also home to Bollywood, whose studios in the north of the city produce more films than anywhere else on the planet.
* It's less than 20 miles from Bangalore airport to the Infosys campus, yet the journey takes more than two hours through customary scenes of abject chaos. To my disappointment, there is not an elephant in sight - "No elephants here," my taxi driver insists with pride, "all gone now." But there are plenty of cows amid the massed hordes and confusion of auto rickshaws, motorscooters and beaten-up cars. There's even the odd Merc and BMW fighting for progress in the scrum. How these status symbols of the new rich manage to avoid being pranged is beyond me, yet they seem blemish-free.
The outsourcing and IT services phenomenon has made Bangalore a boom city where seemingly everyone, even the beggar on the street corner, has a mobile phone and a story to tell. Yet though you are told to expect it, nothing prepares you for the bizarre sight of the Infosys cluster of futuristic office blocks and software labs looming out of the surrounding mayhem. It could be Microsoft in Seattle, or Google in California. Yet this is the very same India I had once dismissed as for ever stuck in a bygone age. There it stands, a monument to the new India I had come in search of.
Inside the walls all is quiet serenity. Workers ferry themselves between sites on electric golf carts and bicycles. The lawns are green and perfectly manicured. There's even a pitch-and-putt course, shopping facilities, restaurants and a hotel. You wouldn't have to leave the premises at all if you didn't want to.
Looking at the chaotic contrast that lies little more than a stone's throw away, it is easy to see why the Infosys workforce is so keen to come to work each day. The average age is just 26, and everyone feels privileged to be working here. For those who believe the future belongs to the emerging economies of Asia, there is no more startling example of progress than this. Sir Digby Jones, former director-general of the CBI, used constantly to warn that the Chinese and Indians would be eating our lunch, breakfast, tea and dinner if we weren't careful. The seriously minded, highly educated young Indians who work here don't look predatory to me. But they are absolutely determined at least to eat at the same table as us.
Infosys started life as a conventional IT services and outsourcing company. Modern communications technology allows it to take work that Western corporations and governments no longer regard as core to what they do, and service it remotely from centres in India. The country's vast and fast-growing pool of young graduates, many of them more fluent in English than their British and US counterparts, allows India to do this a lot more cheaply, and often to a higher standard, than is possible in the West.
As the company has grown, it has climbed further up the value chain, branching out into other areas of business process outsourcing, such as accountancy, design, engineering, consultancy, and even proprietary software and operating systems.
In so doing, Infosys and other Indian-based companies like it have become one of the key catalysts driving corporate change in the developed West. The modern, customer-facing corporation is, progressively, just about brand and marketing, with virtually all else outsourced to others that can do the work better and cheaper. Technology has made it easier for companies to slice the pie and give what used to be undertaken internally to someone else.
Sheer weight of numbers means that India is more likely to have the right skills at a competitive price than Europe or America. The majority of Indians are still essentially uneducated. Infrastructure is poor to appalling, while bureaucratic restriction and corruption ensure that change proceeds at a glacial pace. Yet among the 650 million who are literate, there are bound to be quite a lot of people who are exceptional. Technology allows the ageing West to plug into this youthful new resource.
Nadan Nilekani, chief executive of Infosys, smiles politely as he anticipates my question. "We have a lot of Western journalists who come through here," he says, "and they all ask the same thing: 'How come you can get such a smart company from such a poor country? How come order can spring from such chaos?'"
The joke answer to this question is that the government didn't understand IT services and therefore failed to crush the industry at birth, in the way it has most others, with restrictions, tax and bureaucracy. By the time India noticed, it already had a roaring success on its hands, and the industry has therefore been untouched ever since.
Benign neglect has allowed Infosys and others to flourish. There's more than an element of truth in this explanation. Prior to the economic reforms of 1991, there were few domestic opportunities for the ambitious entrepreneur to pursue at home.
To succeed, he had to seek markets in the outside world. The young turks of IT services, many of them sent by rich families to top US universities, knew exactly where to look. The drive to ever-greater levels of productivity in corporate America and Europe meant the Indian IT pioneers were pushing at an open door. Even today, less than 5 per cent of Infosys revenues come from domestic sources, though as the Indian economy achieves lift-off, this segment of the business is now growing fast.
The success of Infosys and other entrepreneurially driven companies like it has encouraged the Indian government to seek private-sector solutions to India's many challenges. The emphasis in public policy is, as a consequence, on deregulation - the opposite of the approach being pursued in Venezuela by President Hugo Chavez. It is also quite at odds to the more centralised, controlled approach to development being followed in China. The self-evident constraints under which business operates in India leads it to seek out new solutions and approaches that are now driving change on a global scale. In India, necessity truly is the mother of invention.
There are perhaps some other equally important influences. There is nothing intrinsically superior about the Indian mind that makes it more mathematically or computer-literate than its European or US counterpart. On the other hand, young Indians are still on the whole socially restrained by family and religion.
Relatively poor parents make enormous sacrifices to send their children to private school so that they can better themselves and break permanently free of poverty. There is, as a consequence, a hunger to succeed among the young that is perhaps now lacking in the decadent West.
An Indian acquaintance of mine says of his country that you can offer any view you like of India, and you will certainly be right. If you then say the exact opposite, you would be right too. The diversity and contradictions of India are both its fascination, its attraction and its strength. As the country grows and develops, the danger is that much of this diversity, together with many ancient traditions, will disappear. India is completely different to the West. That's what makes the country so attractive. India must develop to survive and meet the aspirations of a population where 200 million and growing are between the ages of 15 and 24. Yet if it loses its diversity and traditions, it will lose its soul.
Today, though, there are many more reasons for optimism about India than there were 20 years ago. Even so, what I had witnessed at Infosys is plainly not the "real" India, the great bulk of which is still untouched by these developments. The "inclusive" economic growth sought by the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, remains only an aspiration. The reality sometimes seems the reverse. At least 40 per cent of the population still lives on less than $1 a day, and an equal magnitude on not much more. Last year the economy may have grown by a record rate of more than 10 per cent (the final estimate has not yet been published), but agriculture, which accounts for the great bulk of employment and livelihood, grew by less than 2 per cent, and production of key bulk crops actually declined. Much of the country is going backwards.
The famous demographic bulge, which means that there will soon be a higher proportion of people in India under the age of 30 than in any other country in the world, is what makes this market such a mouth-watering proposition to multinationals.
Yet with still hopelessly inadequate nutritional standards among many children and widespread health issues, including the fastest-growing rate of HIV/Aids in the world, the demographics could be as much a liability as an asset. Poor levels of general education and training compound the challenges.
All these people will require jobs, and if they cannot get them or are incapable of doing them, they will require welfare. To meet these aspirations, India needs to keep growing by 10 per cent-plus per year in the indefinite future.
The state cannot provide such growth, but the private sector perhaps can. To stimulate this investment, India must hugely increase the pace of deregulation by dismantling what remains of its protections, opening the flood barriers and allowing foreign capital to flow in. The dangers of this approach in a country steeped in tradition are only too obvious. It's like driving a car - the more you hit the accelerator, the more dangerous your journey becomes. Yet India has no choice but to proceed at breakneck speed.
To see why this is the case, I've come to Dharavi, Asia's largest slum. Around 60 per cent of Mumbai's population of 20 million lives in slum quarters like it, and this number is growing all the time as more people leave the land in search of employment in the cities.
I don't want to be too downbeat about these places, for they fulfil the vital purpose of providing affordable accommodation in a city where rents are now among the highest in the world. Many of those who live amid the open sewers and refuge-filled alleyways are second generation and actually seem to like the place. There's no running water, but most of the huts have both electricity and television, and with evident pride are kept spotless.
It is here and in other slums around Mumbai's urban sprawl that Mithu Alur practices her own particular brand of "inclusive education". She's the head of the Spastics Society of India and even the most cynical of observers couldn't help but be inspired by her work.
In India, disability is widely seen, particularly among the uneducated, as quite literally a curse - a punishment for misdemeanours in a former life, or perhaps worse, as some kind of retribution visited on the mother of the disabled child.
Ms Alur calls them India's "invisible children". Many would rarely see the outside world and are kept hidden away in back rooms as an object of shame. Her charity seeks to break down these attitudes and prejudices through schooling programmes located deep in the slum districts. Here the disabled are educated alongside the able-bodied. The parents of ordinary children use the schools because they teach English and provide the opportunity of improvement. In so doing, the programme both provides a vital educational service in the slum quarters, allowing mothers the freedom to go to work, and helps to normalise disability. Set against India's vast panoply of problems, this particular one might seem of quite marginal importance, or at least a long way down the scale of priorities.
Yet by chipping away at these specific challenges, Ms Alur and other such social entrepreneurs are galvanising wider change. The success that they evidently achieve is one of the reasons for remaining optimistic about India's future.
To me, India doesn't seem to have changed fundamentally in the 20 years since I was last here. Few places do. While I'm in Mumbai, there's a riot by the lower castes that kills several people and brings large parts of the city to a standstill. The disturbance is undoubtedly a sign of wider social tensions, but its immediate cause is that a necklace of slippers has insultingly been hung round an idol's neck, probably by Muslims.
According to the local police chief, this makes the riot, if not entirely justifiable, then certainly understandable. In another part of the city there is a celestial wedding, while outside the city, incompetence in the dismantling of a bridge causes it to collapse on to a passing train, killing scores of its passengers. Life for most in India remains precarious and cheap.
As the aircraft turns for take-off, I notice that there is a large slum quarter backing on to the runway, literally yards away from the point where the aircraft throttle back for flight. There are children waving from this exhaust-filled shanty town. I've been told that they live here because they want to. This I doubt. They are here because this is what they were born into. If I were them, I'd want my lifestyle. It's unlikely they will ever have it. But their children's children just might.
Tuesday, 29 January 2007
Source: Independent
Travel and Transportation Infrastructure
1. Air services to Mysore, soon a reality
This city of Palaces now emerging as a major Information Technology destination, is all set to regain its lost position in the aviation map of the country within the next couple of years with all hurdles for the development of a full fledged airport removed.
Initially the airport, at Mandakalli on the outskirts of the city towards temple town of Nanjangud, would cater to ATRs and aircraft that could carry about 70 passengers. However, in a later phase the facilities would be enhanced to handle Boeing and Airbus aircraft.
Fuelling the requirement of a airport is the flurry of economic activity the city is witnessing besides the humdrum of the tourist inflow is the growing IT Sector, making the city an alternate destination to Bangalore.
The city, one of the major tourist destinations in the country, had been on the aviation map more than five decades ago when a leading national newspaper was dropping its newspaper bundles using a Dacota aircraft. Thereafter it was linked with the rest of the country through Vayudoot services. However, poor patronage had led to discontinuance of the services by national carrier Indian.
With the hurdles for launch of work of upgrading the airport by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) cleared, Vishal Infrastructure Company, which had been awarded the tender for civil works by AAI had commenced the work. It would build two runways, apron, taxiway and other allied works under the supervision of AAI officials.
The Karnataka Government and AAI had earlier signed an MoU for the development of the airfield two years ago, and Industry and Tourism circles were egarly waiting for the project to take off.
With a 24-month dead line set for completion of Airport work, the air traffic was expected to commence in January 2009. A terminal building with a capacity to accommodate 200 passengers would be ready by the time flights began operating out of Mysore.
AAI's Deputy General Manager M N N Rao told UNI that the two runways measuring 1740 metres and 1350 metres, respectively, a taxiway peripheral road, boundary wall, a technical block-cum- control tower, a fire station, parking lot and electricity sub station. It would also have night landing facility. The total cost of upgraditon had been put at Rs 70 crores.
AAI officials were optimistic that the civil works would be completed ahead of deadline except for the terminal building. The rest of work including runways, apron, taxiway and peripheral road, besides the air traffic control tower, would be completed in about 15 months, a senior officials said.
Official sources said clearances from different civil aviation regualatory agencies including the DGCA, aviation safety cell and air trafic controller would be secured before the terminal building was complete so that the airport could resume its operations at the end of the deadline.
The New Delhi based MS Consultants Engineering Services had been entrusted with the task of destingning the 'Modular' terminal building. The upgraded airport would spread across a total of a 416 acraes of land including the existing 242 acres and the 174 acres recently acquired.
The AAI had already drawn up plans for development of Mysore Airport into a full fledged one with capacity to operate bigger aircraft like Boeing 737s and Airbus 320s, which accommodate more passengers. The Mysore district administration had begun the process of acquiring an additional 95 acres of land for developing the airport for operation of big aircraft. The fullfledged airport when ready would be located in a 511 acre land.
The process for upgrading the airport began after the city figured in AAI's master plan for development of airports across the country prepared recently.
The dire need for an airport was felt by the state adminstration following a steep increase in the flow of tourists, not only into the city but also to neighbouring areas such as Bandipur and Nagarahole National Parks and other tourist attractions in the neighbourhood by 30 per cent during the last three years.
The potential for air traveller to Mysore was reflected in the large number of tickets booked by the five international air travel association (IATA) recognised travel agencies in the city.
More then 70,000 air tickets were booked by people in Mysore per year highlighting the potential for air traffic in Mysore, said a tour operator.
State Tourism Commissioner Kumar Nayak, who was in the city recently prepare a detailed project report for boosting tourism in Mysore under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) of the Union government project, was optimistic about the city's air traffic generating potential.
Referring to the packed flights operating on the Bangalore-Hampi-Goa route, he said a similar response could be expected to when Mysore was airlinked. The tourism department was in a better position to market Hampi as a tourist destination with the availability of flight services. He also hinted that the tourism department would extend the same kind of support to private airline operators, who launch flight services from Mysore as well.
With a host of low cost airliners scounting for destinations to expand their business, experts from the aviation industry were hopeful of many airliners would make a beeline to launch flights from Mysore, which has emerged as an alternative destination ot Bangalore for industrial investment apart from being a tourist hub.
Once infrastrucrture was in place, airliners would start operating flights with the aviation industry undergoing an intense competition, said an top AAI official. Besides, air travel was no longer considered a luxury, it has become a common man's mode of transport with a number of low cost airliners operating in the country, he said.
Experts from the IT sector felt that Mysore to become home to more then 50,000 professionals from the software sector during next two to three years, the civil aviation industry would not be lagging behind in introducing flight services from the city.
Monday, January 28, 2007
Source: Deccan Herald, UNI
2. Budget airlines set for massive expansion
Low-cost carriers are on a fund raising spree. New Delhi-based SpiceJet and Bangalore’s Air Deccan are in the process of raising funds to build warchest for massive expansion of their fleet.
SpiceJet just finished raising around Rs 300 crore by divesting up to 25% stake. The Tata group — through two of its investment arms — picked up 7% stake for Rs 75 crore. SpiceJet is in the process of firming up orders worth around $400 million for 10 Boeing 373-900 aircraft to be delivered in 2009. “We would require around $50 million for part payment if we decide to place firm orders for additional 10 aircraft,” SpiceJet CEO Siddhant Sharma told ET. SpiceJet is likely to approach US-Exim Bank for financing over 85% of the fund requirement. The balance would be raised through another round of equity dilution.
Air Deccan plans to raise up to $75 million over the next three months by diluting around 15% equity to part finance 12 aircraft purchases — comprising eight ATR and four A320 — that are to be delivered in the current calendar year. The total fund requirements will be around $300 million, most of which will be met through sale-lease-buyback process. Air Deccan finance director Mohan Kumar told ET that the airline is evaluating the option to further dilute equity to raise funds for expansion of its fleet.
Earlier this month, Go Air had announced plans to dilute up to 20-25% of promoter’s equity to raise funds. Indian carriers have enhanced seat capacity by around 40%. Air Deccan would add on an average one aircraft a month in 2007 while SpiceJet would take delivery of at least seven new aircraft.
Other low cost carriers such as IndiGo and GoAir are likely to add another dozen odd aircraft between them in 2007.
“Given the aggressive expansion plans of our rivals we have to stay ahead of the pack,” said CEO of low-cost carrier. Low-cost carriers captured around 32% market share in 2006. As per an estimate by Centre of Asia Pacific Aviation, LCAs are expected to garner 70% of the domestic market over the next three years
Monday, January 29,2007
Source: Economic Times
3. Toughest Business to be in
The Indian aviation industry’s appetite for making losses is huge.” That is one of the main lessons Air Deccan chief operating officer (COO) Warwick Brady, formerly with Ryanair, has learnt in the first year of his five-year stint with Air Deccan. For every passenger flying today in India, airlines are losing on an average roughly $15 (gap between revenue and costs; some airlines are losing less than others and some routes are losing less than others). At 32 million passengers expected to fly in 2006-07, that works out to $480 million or Rs 2,200 crore. A back-of-the-envelope calculation of each carrier’s losses combined is around Rs 2,100 crore. Nobody in the industry BW spoke to for this story expects the combined losses to be lower than Rs 2,000 crore in 2006-07 (that, mind you, is the number with the sale and lease back profits excluded, financial jugglery each airline has been doing to keep its balance sheet looking, somewhat, respectable).
Normally, November is a peak month when most carriers begin to expect to fly the good times. Contrary to yearly trends, November 2006 showed a dip in terms of load factors, a fact at least three airline CEOs confirmed to BW. Says Saroj K. Datta, executive director, Jet Airways: “Yes, it has been surprisingly poor on load factors.” Brady attributes the November fall to a “short term overcapacity”. Sahara’s CEO and president Alok Sharma sees it as a “warning signal” of the industry slipping into sickness.
But that may be a trifle alarmist (in fact, December numbers are better, despite the fog). “He is probably talking of Sahara! What has really happened is that huge capacity was added in November and that has shown up in the drop in load factors,” says one of the low-cost airline CEOs (many airline chiefs firmly believe that Sahara alone is contributing close to half the industry’s total losses this year, with guesstimates ranging between Rs 800 crore to a more bizarre Rs 1,200 crore).
Officials of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) confirm his and Brady’s assessment. In September 2006, a total of 100,000 seats were available per day. By December that went up to 120,000. Since April 2005, the industry has added 120 aircraft. Airlines are buying planes like they were peanuts and adding capacity at a frenetic pace. “What, then, do you expect?” asks a senior DGCA official.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Source: Business World
4. Corporate jet makers woo high fliers
The corporate jet market is finally flying high in India. And not surprisingly the makers of these magnificant flying machines are laying out the red carpet to woo the high profile buyers. Private jet manufacturers, aircraft maintenance firms, private oil companies and airport operators, are setting up dedicated Fixed Base Operations (FBO) for the first time in the country to tap this growing market.
FBOs offer private jet owners one-stop service not only for repairs, maintenance, hangarage and re-fueling, but also facilitate getting security and flight clearances, flight planning, custom clearances while flying in and out of the country. That, apart from other value-added services like car rentals, charters, private lounge, and gourmet meals.
What it means for the busy country or city-hopping corporate head-honcho is that he has a private enclosure of his own in the airport with exclusive walk through facilities. There are over 5,000 such FBOs across the US. FBOs such as Jet Aviation, TAG, Hawker Pacific and others have operations worldwide.
To start with, aircraft manufacturers want to collaborate with maintenance and repair companies to offer FBO services in the country. Aviation analysts note that the profile of the private jet owner in India has changed over the last couple of years. Till a few years back, a typical private aircraft owner with a small turbo-prop airplane would largely fly to remote manufacturing sites within the country.
State governments too were among keen users of such aircraft for VVIP travel. However today’s corporate chieftains now want to traverse countries, if not continents - mostly to destinations in Europe, Middle East or South East Asia - to check out a prospective customer or size up a takeover candidate.
The multi-billion dollar cross-border deals that India Inc has been busy chasing off late is also reflected in their choice of private jets. Business houses who have placed orders for corporate jets recently include groups like Reliance, UB Group, DLF, GMR, Suzlon, Videocon, TVS Motor, DS Construction and Raymond.
“Emergence of an upwardly mobile class, a growing business business footprint of corporates across regional centres, and the resultant need for frequent business travel are driving demand for business jets in India,” said Mr Ted Farid, VP (international sales), Raytheon Aircraft Company.
As per industry estimates, Indian corporates placed orders for anywhere between 110-150 private corporate jets in 2006, both for personal and official use. The biggest private aircraft player in the country, Raytheon Aircraft Company - makers of Hawker and Beechcraft planes - which claims to have over 60% share of the market, is exploring the possibility of establishing a Hawker maintenance facility in India, in association with an FBO service provider.
Wednesday,January 31, 2007
Source: Economic Times
5. CAE to invest $20 mln in training centre in India
Canada's CAE Inc. said it will invest $20 million to set up an aviation training centre in India, where local carriers are expanding operations to meet booming demand for air travel.
The centre in Bangalore will be open by the end of 2007 and when fully operational will train up to 1,000 pilots annually, Jeff Roberts, CAE's group president for innovation, civil training and services, told a news conference on Friday.
"It is very possible that India will become the world's fastest-growing air travel market in the next decade, and I think certainly it is only appropriate timing for us now to take our next step and create localised solutions," he said.
Roberts said CAE was open having an Indian partner in the centre, which will offer pilot, cabin crew and maintenance training on the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft.
"If you just look at the number of aircraft that are ordered and that are in operation here in India, I think at least 1,000 pilots will need to be created (annually) to support the growing aerospace market here," Roberts said."
In December, CAE signed a contract with Jet Airways Ltd., India's biggest domestic airline, for two full-flight simulators.
CAE provides simulation and modeling technologies, and integrated training services to the civil aviation industry and defence forces.
Boeing Co. has said it expects India would need 856 new jet aircraft worth more than $72 billion over the next 20 years because of a booming economy and greater travel demand.
Friday, February 2, 2007
Source: Reuters
Medical Tourism
1. Health tourism: Kerala govt to cash in
In a bid to promote health tourism in the state, the Kerala government is all set to formulate a policy soon.
The aim of the policy is to attract around 100,000 health tourists to the state over the next five years.
Last year nearly 15,000 people had come to the state for various medical treatments.
Nadeem Wajli, a tourist from Canada, feels like a king at the Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences in Thiruvananthapuram.
This 27-year-old had met with an accident back home but even after treatment there couldn't fully recover.
It was only a chance meeting with a friend that brought him to this Ayurvedic Centre in Kerala and that seems to have worked. And he's not paying through the nose.
"The amount I have to spend here is a lot cheaper and I am getting better service. It feels as though I am in a five-star hotel with doctors visiting me and for a fraction of what it would cost me back home," he said.
With such compliments no wonder the medical institute firmly prescribes what is known as medical tourism.
As it means satisfied customers and more revenue that could be ploughed back to lower treatment costs for the general public in the state.
"There is a common belief among people that if medical tourism comes up in a big way, the cost of medical treatment will go up. This is totally without any basis. As with it employment opportunities will be generated plus hospitals will be able to augment their income which means that health costs for public will go down and not up," said M I Sahadulla, Chairman, KIMS.
Gets govt support
The state government it seems is all for the idea. In the face of stiff competition from countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore, the tourism department is expected to hold road shows in Europe, US and the Gulf.
An essential component of this programme is the accreditation of hospitals and maintaining international standards.
"Kerala tourism's role is one of a facilitator and as a marketing agency, in terms of liaising with hospitals and CII, which is spearheading this. Already Kerala Tourism has a brand equity abroad," said Dr V Venu, Tourism Secretary.
Premier hospitals in the state are hoping to cash in on the health traveller to Kerala.
The tourist would be given the best possible treatment at cost-effective rates plus he takes back with him beautiful memories of God's own country.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Source:NDTV
Travel Characteristics of Indians
1. Direct Indian access a Queensland priority
Increasing direct aviation access and capacity from India will be a major priority for Queensland Tourism during 2007.
Queensland Tourism Minister Margaret Keech said she would be urging airlines to consider adding Queensland to their schedules during a trade mission she has led there.
India offers enormous potential, particularly in the student, honeymoon and business tourism segments. But to maximise the benefits that can flow from India, we need to boost airline capacity, she said.
Discussions have already been held with Indian Airlines and meetings are scheduled with Kingfisher Airlines, Jet Airways, Qantas and Singapore Airlines, she said.
India was one of Queensland's fastest growing tourism markets, with visitation increasing by more than 23 percent to 23,300 in the year ending September 2006.
One of the key issues is that while we are seeing significant increases in visitor and expenditure growth, there are currently no direct flights to and from Queensland and India.
Considering India has a population of well over one billion people and Queensland is experiencing unprecedented visitor growth from the market, the time is right to start working with airlines and the Indian tourism industry to increase direct access, Mrs Keech said. - Travelpress travel news
Thursday,February 1,2007
Source: Yahoo News
|
Stay abreast of the fast moving economic super-power — India!
