Amrita Ghosh travel tips

The Google pages of many hotels — including premier properties — in the Himalayan hill towns of Darjeeling and Kalimpong in West Bengal have been defaced for fraud ahead of the holiday travel rush. Anybody looking for hotels in Darjeeling using the search engine will come across prominent photographs containing the hackers’ phone numbers over a section displaying pictures of rooms and amenities. “We have been lately facing incidents where fraudsters are posting their mobile numbers with payment options to book not only our properties but also several others in the region. We are continually monitoring this and flagging all such posts as ‘spam’ for Google to review and have them removed,” said Viraj Oberoi, director of Elgin Hotels & Resorts, a luxury heritage hotels chain with properties in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Sikkim. Cyber miscreants are removing hotel details and creating their own profiles with personal contact details, said Sandipan Ghosh, general secretary of regional travel trade body Eastern Himalayas Travel and Tour Operators’ Association. “Surprisingly, they’re also luring customers to pay in advance while knocking off the goods and services tax charge,” Ghosh said. In India, the goods and services tax on hotels range anywhere between 12-18 percent, depending on the pricing. Customers, while trying to book hotels online for Darjeeling, have been duped to pay advance amounts to bank accounts which don’t belong to the owners of the accommodations. “We’re in touch with the cyber cell department to track such incidents closely and take action accordingly,” Ghosh added. 

India has restored e-visa services for the nationals of Saudi Arabia wanting to visit the country with immediate effect, the Embassy of India in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia tweeted last week. The facility which had been available for five categories of travel — e-tourist visa, e-business visa, e-medical visa, e-medical attendant visa and e-conference visa — was suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic. The application and payment of fees are required to be made for a minimum of four days in advance from the date of travel and wait for the approval. For online filling and submission of the application, applicants need to visit the official website — indianvisaonline.gov.in. Earlier, Saudi Arabia had announced a few exemptions for Indian nationals to obtain a visa for traveling to the country as it looks to India as a key source market for tourism, especially with Saudi’s ambition to achieve 100 million visits annually by 2030. Saudi Tourism Authority during its recent delegation visit to India, featured a range of meetings, industry round-tables and networking events followed by two roadshows in Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Saudi Tourism Authority has also, commenced an official partnership with the popular cricket meet — Indian Premier League.

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As India plans to increase connectivity to the rest of the country, the government has approved 21 greenfield airports in smaller cities. A total of 11 such airports are operational so far, the latest being the Shivamogga airport in the south Indian state of Karnataka. Since 2018, eight airports, namely Pakyong (Sikkim), Kannur (Kerala), Kalaburagi (Karnataka), Sindhudurg (Maharashtra), Kushinagar (Uttar Pradesh), Orvakal (Andhra Pradesh) and Mopa (Goa) airports have been operationalized apart from Shivamogga. The government of India has formulated the greenfield policy for construction of greenfield airport, for which the state government or airport operator has to identify the site and get the feasibility study conducted for construction of airport. Greenfield projects are initiated on undeveloped ground and do not include the renovation or demolition of an existing building. There are no constraints from any previous work on the ground. The government has also granted site clearance for construction of three greenfield airports — Alwar in Rajasthan, Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh and Mandi in Himachal Pradesh. The responsibility of implementation of airport projects including funding of the projects rests with the concerned airport developer including the respective state government in case it is the project proponent. With India’s passenger traffic expected to double by 2030, International Air Transport Association (IATA) expects India to be the world’s third-largest air passenger market by 2030. In the post pandemic recovery, the civil aviation industry in India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing industries.

India will invest around $12 billion over the next two years in airports, aircraft and recruitment to meet the booming demand for air travel. The country aims to increase the number of airports from the present 148 to 220 by 2025, for which private builders will contribute roughly $9 billion, with the balance coming from the government-run Airports Authority of India. It entails new terminal construction, greenfield projects, and refurbishment of existing buildings, including old military airfields from the colonial era, as per a Bloomberg report. “We need to put in place the civil aviation infrastructure and capabilities that by 2047 would be able to support a $20 trillion economy within India,” said the country’s civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia at the ongoing CAPA India Aviation Summit in New Delhi. Scindia said passenger capacity at India’s six major airports is expected to grow to 420 million in four years from 192 million today, and Indian carriers’ fleet will grow to 2,000 aircraft in five years from 700. Additionally, India has eased leasing rules for airlines to lease more aircraft to address aircraft shortages as travel rebounds from the pandemic. He also highlighted how India had tweaked its airplane leasing program to enable airlines to add more aircraft to meet passenger demand, including more “wet leasing,” or renting of planes with crew, for domestic and international routes. Tata Group-owned Air India last month announced a record order for 470 jets and is due to take another 25 leased aircraft.

Indian companies have failed to set targets to reduce corporate travel emissions, according to an annual report by campaign group Transport & Environment. Globally, only 50 companies out of 322 have set targets to reduce business travel, with information technology (IT) services company Wipro paving the way in India. Wipro has achieved a 15-20 percent reduction in air travel emissions between the 2015 and 2020 period. Among all 10 Indian companies featured in the ranking report, only IT services provider Tech Mahindra reports on air travel emissions specifically. “Advancements taking place in India are mostly being led by the technology industry. We invite these technology companies to continue to work on their travel policies and demonstrate leadership to catalyze change in other industries,” said Denise Auclair, corporate travel manager at Transport & Environment. Of the companies that have targets, only four companies meet the “gold standard” of reporting air travel emissions and commitment to reducing them by 50 percent or more, by 2025 or sooner. These are Novo Nordisk (pharmaceuticals, Denmark), Swiss Re (finance, Switzerland), Fidelity International (finance, Britain) and ABN Amro (finance, the Netherlands).

In line with its modernization drive, the Indian Railways has confirmed it will redevelop Thrissur railway station — in the south Indian state of Kerala — with airport-like infrastructure at a budget of $36.2 million to upgrade passenger amenities. “The modernization of Thrissur railway station will be completed by 2025. The action is taken keeping in mind the cultural heritage of Thrissur and the importance of Thrissur Pooram. The railway station will have a wide range of facilities, including a supermarket and a rest centre,” said PK Krishnadas, chairman of the railway ministry’s passenger amenities committee. Having started some time back with the modernization of Gandhinagar Capital railway station in Gujarat, Indian Railways’ spate of station beautification across the country now also includes New Delhi railway station, Bengaluru cantonment, Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji terminus, Ahmedabad junction, Chennai Egmore and Udaipur railway station, among others. The goal is to develop self-sustainable railway stations with world-class amenities, high standards of safety, security, comfort, user-friendly passenger facilities, and value-added services.

Indian airlines are expected to record a consolidated loss of $1.6 to 1.8 billion in the financial year 2023-24 ending March 31, 2024, according to aviation consultancy CAPA India. The full-service carriers are predicted to incur a loss of $1.1-$1.2 billion. With a net induction of 132 planes next fiscal, Indian airlines are estimated to take the total fleet of all carriers to around 816 aircraft. However, more than 100 aircraft from different Indian carriers are grounded as a result of supply chain and other issues. Highlighting the potential for growth in aviation, India’s civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that it was time for India to look at manufacturing aerospace products. He added that the aggregate fleet size of domestic carriers is estimated to reach around 2,000 aircraft over the next five to seven years. He claims that by the end of this year, up to 15 Flying Training Organizations (FTOs) could be established, bringing the total number of such organizations to 50 from the current 35. He emphasized the expansion of the drone industry, stating that it is projected to reach a value of approximately $40 billion by 2030 and produce about 250,000 million employees. All industries have an S-shaped evolution curve, and the minister noted that India is currently in the “infancy and growth phase” of its civil aviation industry.

India will boost Ayush treatment — indigenous medicine and associated treatment techniques — through health tourism, informed Ayush minister Sarbananda Sonowal. Set up in 2014, the Ayush ministry is responsible for developing education, research and propagation of traditional medicine systems in India. The government has been making efforts to boost traditional medicines for international tourists visiting India for treatments under Ayush methods — ayurveda, yoga, naturopathy, unani, siddha and homeopathy, among others. Earlier this year, the Ayush ministry had signed a memorandum of understanding with the tourism ministry’s India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) to work together for the promotion of medical value travel (MVT) in Ayurveda and other traditional systems of medicine. The Indian medical value travel market size is valued at $5–6 billion and is expected to grow to $13 billion by 2026. With 5,00,000 international patients annually, India is poised for a giant leap in medical tourism on the back of soaring cost of treatment in the West and the Russia-Ukraine war driving more patients for medical care to the country. In addition, the government’s initiatives under the ‘Heal in India’ scheme — of accrediting Ayush centers and launching Ayush e-visa — is also expected to fuel medical tourism.

India’s largest private airport operator — Adani Airports will bid for about a dozen more airports in the country to expand its footprint in the world’s fastest-growing aviation market, confirmed the company’s chief executive officer Arun Bansal. “India will have 1 billion air passengers by 2040, with passenger traffic growing at a compound annual growth rate of 8.5 percent over the next 20 years,” he said. On their strategy to acquire more airports in the country, Bansal remarked, “Our strategy is simple, to create a scale [of operations]. If the bid condition is right, we will bid.” The Indian government recently privatized six airports — Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram — all of which were won by Adani Airports. Adani currently manages seven operational airports including Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport and is also developing the Navi Mumbai airport in Maharashtra. The airport is expected to handle 90 million passengers per year by 2036. In the first phase, which is scheduled to be completed by December 2024, the airport will have a passenger handling capacity of 20 million. All of Adani’s airports have experienced significant growth in passenger traffic in recent years. The company’s six airports together saw a 92 percent increase in domestic passengers and a 133 percent increase in international passengers. The number of domestic flights increased by 58 percent, while international flights increased by 61 percent.

Air India has become the latest entrant to hop on to the bandwagon of ChatGPT. Doing away with an outdated manual pricing system, the airline announced recently that it would be shifting to an algorithm-based software for setting airfares to extract more revenue from each flight. Its modern revenue management software continuously anticipates where people want to visit and how much each flyer is willing to pay, rather than the old method of having one fare for each block of seats — thereby ensuring higher revenue per flight. The airline will reportedly use GPT4 — the latest version of the revolutionary chatbot — to improve the FAQ section, pilot briefings, and more. Speaking at an event recently Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said that the use of the chatbot will not be “gimmicky”, but will be to actually enhance the airline’s functions. Last month, Air India partnered with cloud-based software company Salesforce to transform its customer experience. In another wheel of change under its new owner Tata, Air India is also testing ChatGPT to replace paper-based practices. “Frankly the system is almost so bad it’s good,” Wilson said, adding that this offered the chance to start from scratch rather than “jury-rig” existing architecture. The Tata Group is also integrating the Tata-related airlines, with the merger of Vistara with Air India and the integration of low-cost carriers Air India Express and AirAsia India. As part of its expansion plans, the Tata-owned airline last month had placed a record deal of 470 aircraft — 250 from European planemaker Airbus and 220 from U.S. aircraft manufacturer Boeing — at a list price of over $70 billion. 

Reports suggest that India-based budget hotel operator and aggregator Oyo will be reducing its Initial Public Offering (IPO) size by about two-thirds. The company is likely to file a fresh document for its IPO as soon as this week, according to a Bloomberg report. The company had initially filed to go public in October 2021. In December, India’s capital markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), had advised Oravel Stays, the parent company of Oyo, to refile the draft prospectus, updating all the relevant sections such as risk factors, key performing indicators, outstanding litigations and basis for offer. Oyo’s last submission to SEBI was the updated financial results of the first half of financial year 2022-23. Updating its draft red herring prospectus with results for the first half of the 2023 financial year in November, Oyo had reported that its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization for the second quarter grew eight times from $860,000 in the first quarter to $7 million primarily driven by a 23 percent quarter-on-quarter rise in gross booking value per hotel. However, speaking at a town hall on Monday, Oyo Founder and Group CEO Ritesh Agarwal told employees that Oyo expects its revenue in the financial year 2023 to be more than $692.5 million, up 19 percent from 2022’s $581 million. Agarwal attributed the company’s better financials to sustained growth in India, Indonesia, the U.S., and the UK, and relevant optimization and synergies in its European vacation homes business. He outlined that Oyo’s key focus areas this year would be on profit after tax along with consistent momentum in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, achieving cash flow positive in financial year 2024, cost efficiency and improving contribution margins, and making storefront additions. 

A debate over market access was rekindled at an aviation event in India as foreign carriers seeking additional capacity to serve more routes in India feared the Tata Group-owned Air India’s rebirth and record order of 470 jets might capture most of the market. Dubai’s Emirates, Turkish Airlines and Kuwaiti carrier Jazeera Airways have all called for sharp increases in air traffic rights to and from India to meet demand. Vietnam and Indonesia also want more flights, an Indian official said. However, speaking to Reuters India’s civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said the country has no plans to increase air traffic rights for the United Arab Emirates. He instead urged domestic carriers to fly long haul and help establish new hubs. “We are going to see an explosion of air traffic in India in the years to come,” he said, adding he wanted domestic carriers to focus on international expansion. “We are not getting enough share from this market,” Turkish Airlines Chief Executive Bilal Eksi said. Dubai has requested an extra 50,000 seats a week on India routes while Kuwait’s Jazeera Airways said the current weekly allowance of 12,000 was inadequate and asked for the cap to be raised to 28,000 seats.  

The Indian government has advised telecom service providers to take precautions that minimize the interference of fifth generation (5G) networks — which allows for faster wireless speeds — in aircraft operations, including establishing safety and buffer zones and placing 5G towers near airports, according to a Press Trust of India report. Indian aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has not conducted any research on the potential impact of 5G signals on safe civil aircraft operations, according to VK Singh, minister of state for civil aviation. “However, DGCA has reviewed the studies/action undertaken by various countries during the launch of 5G on the potential interference of 5G C-band signals on radio altimeters installed on the aircraft and risk involved in air travel,” Singh was quoted as saying. He said there is a possibility of interference with radio altimeters, which could jeopardize safe airline operations. Concerns over the 5G network interfering with flights had been raised internationally. U.S. aviation regulator Federal Aviation Administration had warned last year that potential interference could affect sensitive airplane instruments such as altimeters and impact on low-visibility operations. Last month, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) had also expressed concern that many airlines would not be able to retrofit their planes to handle new 5G wireless technology in time for the peak summer travel season. 

Travel exchange company EbixCash — the Indian arm of insurance software company Ebix — has been granted regulatory approval for its long-awaited initial public offering (IPO). The IPO is expected to raise between $732 million to $975 million, making it one of the largest IPOs in the financial services sector in India. The company has already filed a draft red herring prospectus, but the IPO is still subject to the necessary approvals, market conditions, and other factors. In the run-up to the anticipated IPO, EbixCash had filed its prospectus with the Indian stock market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on March 10, 2022 after CEO Robin Raina declared on the company’s quarterly earnings call that EbixCash would file its prospectus “imminently.” Ebix declared its intent to raise $787 million via the IPO, while retaining a significant majority stake in EbixCash. While EbixCash operates in several segments — payment solutions, travel, financial technologies, business processing outsourcing services and startup initiatives — it receives over 80 percent of its revenue from the payments services business. Under this business, the company offers domestic remittance, forex, international remittance and prepaid cards/gift cards. It largely generates revenue based on commissions and transaction fees from providing these services. 

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) — the company belonging to Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani — is set to foray into the hospitality industry under its new arm Reliance SOU, engaging in hotels, resorts, and service apartments that will provide short-term lodging facilities. According to the details available with the registrar of companies, the company is planning to develop hotels and resorts near the Statue of Unity in the west Indian state of Gujarat’s Kevadia. In a stock exchange filing, Reliance said that it had incorporated a wholly-owned subsidiary called Reliance SOU (RSOUL) with the intention of developing commercial properties. However, it did not elaborate on whether it would manage those properties directly, an Indian daily said. Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Limited (RIIHL) — a wholly owned subsidiary of the listed parent RIL — had earlier bought a 73.4 percent stake in the luxurious Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York for $98 million. It also acquired Stoke Park Country Club, another UK-based hotel, for $69 million. 

Leading operators in the Indian tours and travel sector are set to report 6-7 percent growth in operating profits in fiscal 2023, after having reported losses for the past two fiscals due to pandemic-induced travel restrictions, according to Crisil Ratings. Revenue is likely to recover 90 percent of pre-pandemic levels, buoyed by strong recovery in both corporate and leisure travel segments in India and abroad. Crisil Ratings expects operating margins to sustain at these levels next fiscal, due to implementation of cost optimization and automation initiatives undertaken by travel operators commencing from the pandemic period, even as revenues are expected to pass pre-pandemic levels next fiscal. This marks a significant turnaround from operating losses of 25.8 percent and 2.7 percent in fiscals 2021 and 2022, respectively. “Rising business travel, along with increasing return-to-office and preference for face-to face meetings besides increasing consumer preference for short breaks will push revenue past pre-pandemic levels in fiscal 2024. Interestingly, preference for short holidays is seeing momentum, especially within India and Asian destinations,” said Poonam Upadhyay, Director, CRISIL Ratings. The improvement in operating performance, together with healthy liquidity and net debt free balance sheets, will help strengthen credit profiles of the players, the report said.

Representatives of private airlines in India — including IndiGo, Vistara, GoFirst, Air India, and SpiceJet — were summoned by the parliamentary standing committee for transport, tourism, and culture to depose on the subject of exorbitant airfares. “The secretariat has sent an invitation to several private airlines and the Association of Private Airport Operators (APAO) to discuss this issue of urgent public importance,” Indian news agency Asian News International reported, citing sources. Last month, a parliamentary panel had asked the Indian civil aviation ministry to cap the upper and lower levels of airfares and ensure that predatory pricing mechanism is not adopted by airlines in the guise of “free market economy.” The reports mentioned that a perfect balance must be maintained between the commercial interests and passengers’ interests. The committee also pointed out the inaccurate information provided by the private airlines on their websites regarding the number of seats left on the flight and the cost of the tickets. There has been a huge surge in air fliers domestically in India since November last year. As per Indian aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s domestic air traffic figures, over 12.5 million passengers were ferried in January and 12 million in February.

Aiming to be a top adventure tourism destination, the Indian tourism minister recently spoke about focusing on infrastructure development to boost this segment. However, India would need more than just infrastructure development. Quality standards, regulation and oversight would be needed for India to become a leading adventure tourism destination. Most guides, operators and instructors in the country fail to meet basic safety requirements as there are over 5,000 unregistered adventure tour operators in the country, said Vaibhav Kala, founder of New Delhi-based Aquaterra Adventures, told Skift. Highly specialized activities are operated by non-specialized operators due to lack of guidelines and limited skilling facilities. “We need a uniform nationwide regulatory system with ease of registration, training institutes and licensed guides to offer quality and safe experiences to tourists from around the world,” said Kala. Tourism in India lacks legislative backing and is therefore, a state subject. The Centre doesn’t have a mandate to enforce approved regulations and guidelines on the states. States like Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal have all been working on adventure tourism standards and guidelines — but in total isolation. Pradeep Murthy, director of Kerala-based MuddyBoots Vacations, highlighted to Skift how several unregulated adventure bucket shops which provide low-quality equipment severely impact safety. “Many operators use plastic helmets for bungee jumping and white water rafting which are otherwise used for scaffolding work in construction,” he said. It’s important that consumers understand and find out if the right adventure equipment is being used — which should ideally be tested in proper laboratories and certified to international standards. “Operators would be forced to adopt regulatory practices only if customers start demanding for licensed operators. The government should therefore, look at educating consumers on a mass level,” added Murthy. India also needs to have a proper mechanism for evacuation and rescue so that tourists are airlifted to safety. 

Thailand-based Minor Hotels will launch its luxury Anantara brand in India with Anantara Jaipur Hotel in the north Indian state of Rajasthan, scheduled to open in the fourth quarter of 2023. The hotel will feature 150 guest rooms and suites, including four terrace suites with private plunge pools, and a 160-square-meter royal suite with a large terrace and private pool. Besides bars and restaurants, other facilities will include a spa, beauty salon, gym, semi-outdoor pool, kids’ club, and event spaces. The hotel will be able to cater to weddings of up to 2,500 guests with its collection of indoor and outdoor venues. “Jaipur is one of India’s most vibrant destinations, with a huge destination wedding potential, and I look forward to working with (owner) Ajay Gangwal and his team to launch our first Anantara in India, which is a significant strategic step for Minor Hotels,” said Dillip Rajakarier, CEO of Minor Hotels. Minor Hotels currently has a portfolio of more than 530 hotels and resorts in 56 countries across its brands, which include Anantara, Avani, Elewana, Oaks, NH, nhow and Tivoli. In other developments, Hilton announced that it, too, has an interest in Jaipur, where it will debut its luxury brand, the Waldorf Astoria. Radisson, too, is thinking luxury, and announced on Wednesday that it would be debuting its luxury lifestyle brand, Radisson Collection in India with the signing of the first hotel in Hyderabad.

In a much-needed impetus for adventure tourism, India would be looking to focus on developing infrastructure for this segment, Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy said recently. Reddy said India aims to be the a top adventure tourism destination. The second tourism working group meeting under G20 hosted by India’s tourism ministry began with a side event, a panel discussion on “Adventure tourism as a vehicle for achieving sustainable development goals.” Delivering the keynote, Reddy highlighted how India’s topography is conducive for a variety of adventure activities like camping, paragliding, hot air ballooning, river cruising, sailing, snorkeling and wildlife safari. “We have a 4,349-mile coastline, 70 percent of the Himalayas, about 435 miles of rivers, sand desert and cold desert in Ladakh…all of which provide opportunities for a variety of adventure activities for both domestic and foreign tourists,” Reddy said. Talking about the national adventure tourism strategy framed last year, Reddy said it would focus on initiatives like state ranking criteria for adventure tourism sites, a model adventure tourism law, development of mega trails, development of adventure activity guidelines, adventure tourism rescue centers, and development of website and social media pages for adventure tourism.