Amrita Ghosh travel tips

Nearly 92 percent Indians intend to explore domestic destinations during the summer, making coastal state Goa and Manali in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh as their top beach and hill vacation spots respectively, according to Oyo’s Summer Vacation Index 2023. “India’s favorite mountain destination is Manali, followed by Kashmir, Mcleod Ganj, Ooty and Coorg. Oyo hotels in Manali continue to see an uptick in demand as summer travel gains pace,” the company said in a statement. Respondents to the survey also showed a strong inclination towards exploring offbeat and lesser-known destinations. “Mawlynnong in Meghalaya and Ziro Valley in Arunachal Pradesh stood out as the top offbeat choices. Following closely behind was Valiyaparamba in Kerala,” Oyo added. The survey also found that 13 percent of respondents wished to travel to pilgrimage destinations, with Kedarnath occupying the top spot followed by Vaishno Devi and Varanasi. “This surge in travel demand is a promising sign for the growth and development of the Indian travel and hospitality industry,” said Oyo’s Chief Service Officer Shreerang Godbole. A noticeable trend that emerged in the aftermath of Covid is the preference for shorter trips and rejuvenating staycations of 1-3 days, he said. The survey is based on responses of over 15,000 people across India via the Oyo app. 

India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman invited U.S. aircraft maker Boeing to ramp up investmentin the country, given India’s flourishing aerospace and civil aviation market. The planemaker had earlier announced that it will invest about $24 million on setting up a logistics center in the country to stock spares for commercial airlines. During an interaction with a delegation from Boeing’s global senior leadership team, the minister underlined India’s focus on repositioning itself as a maintenance, repair and operations hub that can potentially cater to a wide region spanning Europe, Africa and the Far East. Earlier in March, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia also highlighted it was time for India to look at manufacturing aerospace products, adding that the aggregate fleet size of domestic carriers is estimated to reach around 2,000 aircraft over the next five to seven years. Sitharaman further emphasized the opportunities available for companies to relocate to India to be a hub for the region. In reference to Indian airlines’ record aircraft order, she informed the delegation about Gujarat International Finance Tech-city banks’ aircraft leasing operations.

India’s aviation security regulator – Bureau of Civil Aviation Security – has been deploying new-age security systems at airports across the country, including 3D perimeter security equipment, biometric-based access control and surveillance systems. “We are creating a dedicated special force for aviation security and a program for pre-verification of passengers for faster processing,” said Zulfiquar Hasan, director general of the regulator. Speaking at a webinar on ‘Aviation Security Trends and Insights: A Focus on India’ organized by International Air Transport Association, Hasan highlighted the success of DigiYatra, which allows biometric boarding using facial recognition technology to establish the flier’s identity. First launched in December 2022, the facility is now available at Delhi, Varanasi and Bengaluru airports, with the most recent one introduced at Kolkata airport. For Indian airlines, aviation overview, terrorism and travel warnings are key considerations to strategize on aviation security, the global airlines body said. It cited a transparent risk-based oversight and security management system as essential to ensuring that measures are being applied where vulnerability is assessed to be at its greatest point. “Given new-age emerging threats like cyber hijacking and drones, security and infrastructure at airports need to be modernized,” added Hasan. He also called congestion a serious security challenge as it leads to an “increase in the density of unchecked passengers with unchecked luggage.” In December 2022, several passengers complained of unending queues at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, leading to many missing their flights. Hasan said that the issue is now being addressed at all major airports in the country. India has also been mulling a unified security force for all its airportsakin to the Transportation Security Administration of the U.S., which will combine immigration and customs. 

Nearly 51 percent of Indians have fallen victim to online scams while trying to book holidays to save money, according to digital security company McAfee Corp’s Safer Summer Holidays travel report. Amid the financial pressures of today’s economic environment, Indians are more likely to seek out a bargain deal online (54 percent), move quickly to snap up a deal (50 percent), try a new booking site (44 percent) and even a new destination (47 percent), to save money, the report said. Travel scams can take many forms, with the report finding 27 percent of Indians have been tricked into making payments through fraudulent platforms and 36 percent have had their identity stolen when booking online. Of this portion, 13 percent entered passport information and 23 percent provided other personally identifiable information to a fake website, it said. Overall, 59 percent of Indians are estimated to be more concerned about digital threats than physical ones, such as being pickpocketed, and 94 percent of Indian adults hold either some or high concern about their identity being compromised as part of their travel, the report noted. The report is based on a survey of 7,000 people across seven countries, including 1,010 from India. Earlier in March, the Google pages of many hotels — including premier properties — in the Himalayan hill towns of Darjeeling and Kalimpong in West Bengal were defaced.

India will soon declare a national tourism policyand is also planning a global tourism investment summit, said Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy. “Without private investment, we cannot become a global destination,” he said, adding the government is allowing 100 percent foreign direct investment in tourism. Speaking at the third G20 tourism working group meeting in Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar, Reddy said the tourism ministry is working closely with all the other ministries and state governments to encourage tourism. The new national tourism policy for the country has been in the making for almost two years, with the current one dating back to 2002. The policy would help lay down a framework to make India more competitive in the international market, at a time when the world is reopening to tourists. It aims to increase visitation, stay and spend and make India a year-round destination, besides creating jobs and opportunities in the sector. Last month, Tourism Secretary Arvind Singh highlighted India’s plans to open up to 50 new tourism destinations, promote green tourism, launch a publicity campaign in overseas markets and operationalize 59 new air routes this year. 

Getting its first overhaul in 14 years, online travel agency Cleartrip unveiled a revamped version of its booking tool for agents. With what Cleartrip describes as a user-friendly design and round-the-clock support center, AgentBox 2.0 enables travel agents to book over 100 airlines, more than 500,000 hotels, exclusive holiday packages, group bookings, and meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions. “While the earlier version, first introduced in 2009, was more about making agents familiar with online adoption, the upgraded tool focuses heavily on the backend stack, offering a suite of products including flights, hotels, packages, buses and trains,” said Sukesh Shetty, head of B2B at Cleartrip. One of the reasons why the tool was never upgraded after 2009, he said, was because the company was so extensively concentrated on business-to-consumer that business-to-business was just an ancillary product for Cleartrip. “We want to be a catalyst in agents’ growth and not just another platform provider,” Shetty added. Additionally, Cleartrip registered 70 percent growth in monthly agent transactions and onboarded over 5,000 agents in the financial year 2022. The company also reported a 200 percent surge in summer travel bookings compared to the same period last year.

Radisson Hotel Group has signed 11 new hotels in Indiaacross brands between January and April this year. The hotels are located across Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Ujjain, Raipur, Sonamarg, Manali, Kerala and Visakhapatnam. In April, the group also announced the debut in India of its luxury lifestyle brand, Radisson Collection, with the signing of the first hotel in Hyderabad— the 300-room Radisson Collection Hotel Hyderabad Financial District is set to be operational by the second quarter of 2026. Further strengthening its partnership with Ruptub Solutions — which operates India’s Treebo brand of hotels — the group also signed three new hotels under its Park Inn & Suites by Radisson brand in the south Indian states of Bengaluru and Kerala. Park Inn & Suites by Radisson Thrissur will open in the second quarter of 2024, Park Inn & Suites by Radisson Wayanad Ambalavayal is expected to open in the first quarter of 2024 and Park Inn & Suites by Radisson Yelahanka in Bengaluru will also open doors in the first quarter of 2024. “2023 marks a significant milestone for us at Radisson Hotel Group as we have successfully completed our 25-year journey in the Indian market. To translate our ambitious five-year expansion plan, we have signed 11 new hotels since January and have a strong pipeline ahead for this year,” said Zubin Saxena, managing director and area senior vice president, South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group. Last month, the group introduced its ‘Skip to Rewards,’ campaign showcasing the new benefits members can access as part of the recently relaunched Radisson Rewards loyalty program. 

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Cash-strapped airline Go First said it would raise salaries in an effort to retain workers during the ongoing insolvency proceedings that has forced the airline to temporarily suspend its operations since May 3. It said it would raise captains’ monthly salariesby $1,211; first officers will get a $605 increase. The additional pay along with their existing salary, which the airline calls a retention allowance, will go into effect on June 1, Go Air said in an internal note. The airline has also offered the allowance for pilots who have recently resigned, but are willing to “withdraw their resignations by June 15.” Go First further noted that it would soon roll out a “longevity bonus” to reward its long-serving staff members. The note also added that “if things shape up as per the present progress and plan, it won’t be long before we will be flying again which will also enable us to be regular on salary payments.” On Monday, Go First discussed revival plans with the officials of Indian aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation where the airline’s management team presented the roadmap for the revival of operations. Last week, the regulator asked the crisis-hit airline to submit the status of availability of operational aircraft, pilots and other personnel, maintenance arrangements and funding, among other details. 

Fitch Ratings has revised the outlook of Oravel Stays’ – the parent company of India-based Oyo Hotels and Homes – to “positive” from “stable.” Fitch estimates that Oyo is on track to generate positive (EBITDA) — a measure of profit — and cash flow from operations. “The rating reflects its asset-light business model that benefits from minimal capex needs, largely exclusive distribution rights, pricing control over storefront inventory, fixed revenue share and strong long-term growth potential,” a statement from Fitch said. The ongoing demand recovery in the industry is expected to drive revenue growth of over 20 percent. Fitch expects the cost-reduction measures Oyo undertook in recent years to support its improving profitability. Meanwhile, Chinese hospitality company H World Grouphas sold 10 million equity shares, which translates to one-fifth of its holding of Oyo to United Arab Emirates-based family offices and institutional investors for around $9 million, a source told Skift. Earlier this month, rating agency Moody’s Investors Servicealso said it expected Oyo to generate between about $50 million and $55 millionin EBITDA this fiscal year.

Budget carrier IndiGo is preparing to take delivery of around 500 narrow-body A320-family jets from Airbus worth $50 billion. The European plane maker has emerged as frontrunner for an order eclipsing Air India’s historic provisional purchase of 470 jets in February, the sources said on the sidelines of an airline industry meeting in Istanbul. IndiGo is one of Airbus’s largest customers and has so far ordered a total of 830 Airbus A320-family jets of which nearly 500 are yet to be delivered. Airbus and U.S. aircraft manufacturer Boeing are also in separate talks to sell 25 A330neo or Boeing 787 widebody jets to the carrier, the industry sources said.

India’s domestic air passenger traffic was strong in May – 15 percent higher than a year earlier and 8 percent higher than pre-Covid levels, according to ICRA’s monthly report on the country’s aviation industry. The traffic was estimated at 13.18 million for May, 2.3 percent up from April. The growth in traffic comes even as cash-strapped airline Go First suspended its flights on May 3 and is yet to restart operations.Airlines’ capacity was higher by about 1.4 percent. The international passenger traffic for Indian carriers for the financial year 2023 stood at approximately 23.94 million, improving from the pre-Covid levels of about 22.72 million. 

Top U.S. lawmakers have urged the Biden administration to address the visa wait time issue in India on a priority basis. Visa delays are the single biggest impediment to exponential growth in travel between the U.S. and India. The U.S. Consulate’s all-hands-on-deck approach — such as bringing processing staff in on weekends, making embassies available to Indian nationals in other countries and hiring more staff — has reduced the wait times in the country by 50 percent, from an average of 669 days in mid-March to 337 days in early April, according to the U.S. Travel Association. 

The committee of creditors of troubled airline Go First recently had its first meeting and has reportedly decided to replace the team in charge of resolving the airline’s financial problems. The committee wants to have complete control over the process of finding a solution for Go First.

India is a big potential market for aviation, but not a cheap one due to the high taxes, said International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Director General Willie Walsh.

Amid the surge in domestic airfares, India’s Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia asked airlines to “self-monitor” the prices on certain routes, particularly the ones that have been most affected by suspension of cash-strapped airline Go Firstfrom May 3.In a meeting with airline executives, Scindia shared concerns over recent reports of “abnormal surge pricing on certain routes,” the Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a statement. “Airlines must self-monitor air fares on certain select routes that have seen considerable surge pricing of late, particularly those that were earlier being serviced by Go First…a mechanism for ensuring reasonable pricing within the high reservation booking designators may be devised by airlines. This shall be monitored by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation,” the ministry informed. 

Singapore Airlines has refuted a media report saying it may raise its stake in Tata Group-owned Air India from the 25.1 percent which it secured as part of the group’s Vistara merger to create a bigger full-service national carrier. “The Mint story dated 16 June 2023 is incorrect. There (is) no change in SIA’s position from the November 2022 announcement,” Singapore Airlines said. Singapore’s state carrier’s statement was in response to a report by Indian daily Mint, which said the carrier had expressed its desire to gradually raise its stake in the Indian airline to about 40 percent. The media report, citing three people familiar with the development, stated Singapore Airlines and the Tata Group have had initial talks regarding the potential increase in stake. 

Domestic flight searches in India have increased by around 32 percent and international searches by 24 percent for the monsoon season between June and August, according to Kayak’s latest insights. The increased travel interest comes despite a surge in airfares, up an average 8 percent and 11 percent for domestic and international airfares. The average return economy flight price domestically stands at $130 while the average return economy international flight is priced at $985, the report said. 

Airbnb has signed a memorandum of understanding with India’s Ministry of Tourism to showcase the country’s heritage stays and promote cultural tourism. As part of the ministry’s “Visit India 2023” initiative, Airbnb will launch a dedicated ‘Soul of India’ microsite; offer support to hosts in untapped tourist areas; assist them in promoting their homestays; build host capacity; and foster a culture of responsible hosting.

The number of foreign tourists who arrived in India this year from January to April is 166 percent higherthan a year earlier, Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddysaid at the inaugural session of the fourth G20 tourism working group meeting in Goa. “India’s inbound travel is expected to reach pre-pandemic level in 2023,” he said. Last year, the country received 6.19 million foreign tourist arrivals. Earningsfrom tourism more than doubled from $8 billion in 2021 to $16.4 billion in 2022, according to the government’s provisional estimates.

The U.S. will open new consulates in Bengaluru and Ahmedabad while India will establish a mission in Seattle and two other locations in the U.S. Currently, India has five consulates in the U.S.: New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston and Atlanta, apart from the embassy in Washington. Visa delays are the single biggest impediment to growth in travel between the two countries. The two new consulates could help expedite the Indian visa application process, which the U.S. State Department now considers a “top priority.”