Indian carrier IndiGo announced on Monday it would be launching business class service for the high-demand Delhi-Mumbai route. The new top-tier cabin is due to start in mid-November.
17.07.2024 - 08:16 / skift.com / Bulbul Dhawan / Ajay Bakaya / Express
India’s largest online travel agency MakeMyTrip and budget airline Air India Express have partnered to launch ‘Xpress Holidays’ – a platform that would allow travelers to book end-to-end holiday packages.
The platform is hosted on the website and mobile app of Air India Express. MakeMyTrip is also displaying these holiday packages on its website.
MakeMyTrip’s Efforts: MakeMyTrip has been working towards becoming the first port of call for Indian travelers, and has been making several efforts toward that end:
The company has a long-term strategy of developing a travel superapp in India, not only increasing its product offerings but also focusing on ancillary products, including forex and travel insurance.
Following IndiGo? The joint move by MakeMyTrip and Air India Express comes about a month after budget airline IndiGo introduced a hotel booking option on its website and app, looking to offer its customers a one-step booking solution. For this, IndiGo partnered with the Expedia group.
Even before IndiGo, full-service airline Vistara was already offering a hotel booking platform powered by online travel company Booking.com.
Sarovar Hotels has opened the 97-key Sarovar Portico in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh. According to a statement by Sarovar, the property is Saharanpur’s first branded hotel. Although Skift could not independently verify if this is true, it indeed seemed to be the case when we tried searching for hotels in the city across OTAs and branded hotel chains.
Sarovar is among the fastest-growing hotel chains in the country. In the first four months of 2024, it had opened seven hotels, with the goal of opening another eight to 12 properties during the rest of the year, Sarovar Hotels managing director Ajay Bakaya had told Skift.
The company is looking to have 125 operational hotels by the end of 2024, and expects this to increase to 150 by the end of next year. It has a pipeline of 70 to 80 hotels.
Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH) has expanded its presence in India by entering into a partnership with MRS Group of Hotels. This marks SLH’s first collaboration with an independent hotel group in India.
Under the collaboration, MRS Group’s three properties – Suryagarh Jaisalmer, Narendra Bhawan Bikaner, and Mary Budden Estate Binsar – will be integrated into SLH’s collection of luxury boutique hotels.
This would also lead to the three properties of MRS to be included in Hilton’s loyalty program Hilton Honors due to SLH’s exclusive partnership with Hilton.
Experiential hotel chain Leisure Hotels Group has opened two new properties under its Bedzzz portfolio – Bedzzz Xclusiv Ikshana Luxe in Nainital and Bedzzz Xclusiv Baikunth in Manali.
The hotels continue the sociotel (social hotel)
Indian carrier IndiGo announced on Monday it would be launching business class service for the high-demand Delhi-Mumbai route. The new top-tier cabin is due to start in mid-November.
India’s outbound tourism market is expected to reach $55.4 billion by 2034, annual growth of over 11%, according to a new report by Indian commerce body FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry). The market is projected to reach $18.8 billion in 2024.
The hotel industry in India is estimated to reach around $247 billion in 2024, and projected to hit $475 billion by 2029, according to market research firm Mordor Intelligence. That’s an annual growth rate of nearly 14%.
Air India announced in July that it will fly its Airbus A350 jets to Newark and JFK Airports in just a few months.
The Indian government has advised airlines to self-regulate and exercise moderation in pricing air tickets, the civil aviation ministry has said. The move has come amid concerns over high airfares, especially during peak periods and festivals.
Skift Asia Editor Peden Doma Bhutia and India Reporter Bulbul Dhawan unpack some of the biggest takeaways from the recent Union Budget announced in India as well as the earnings calls of IndiGo, MakeMyTrip, and the Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL). Find out how the budget fared compared to the expectations of the travel industry stakeholders in this latest episode of the Skift India Travel Podcast.
India’s retail payments body National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has launched UPI One World wallet for international travelers visiting India.
Low-cost Indian carrier SpiceJet has secured its board’s approval to raise up to INR 30 billion ($358 million) through institutional investors, a move disclosed in a filing to the Indian stock exchange on Tuesday.
The Indian government is exploring adventure tourism as an avenue of promoting destinations across the country. For instance, earlier this month, the newly appointed minister of tourism Gajendra Singh Shekhawat went skydiving in Haryana on World Skydiving Day.
Two years ago, Gatwick had no flights to India, and today the airport connects around 24 weekly Air India flights to four cities — Kochi, Amritsar, Ahmedabad, and Goa. Next month, Air India will be connecting Bengaluru to London Gatwick. Catch Stephanie Wear, the vice president of aviation development, at London Gatwick Airport in conversation with Skift Asia Editor Peden Doma Bhutia on Gatwick’s ambitious plans for expanding its connectivity with India.
India’s foreign exchange earnings through tourism in 2023 was INR 2.3 trillion ($27.5 billion), according to the government’s latest Economic Survey for 2023-24 – a 66% gain over 2022.
Air India's new flagship aircraft will make its hotly anticipated U.S. debut later this year.