Thomas Cook travel tips

Chinese conglomerate Fosun International is hoping its vacation business segment will pull it out of a slump.

The Madras High Court has made it mandatory for all motor vehicles seeking to enter the Nilgiris and Kodaikanal between May 7 and June 30 to obtain electronic passes. The aim is to collect data on the number of tourists visiting and the number and types of vehicles that are entering these hill stations.

In the fiscal year 2023-24 budget, the Indian government showed its recognition of the immense potential of the travel and tourism sector by allocating INR 24 billion ($290 million).

Chinese tourism group Fosun is in advanced talks to sell its Thomas Cook brand to Polish online travel agent eSky, Sky News reported on Monday, citing sources.

More Indians are taking personal loans to travel and meet vacation-related expenses, according to Madhavan Menon, executive chairman of Thomas Cook India. 

Air India has entered into an interline partnership with Bangkok Airways that will allow the Tata Group-owned airline’s passengers connections to 10 Southeast Asian destinations beyond the Thai capital. 

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.

Take it easy, seems to be the mantra for Indian travelers as they plan their summer getaway for the upcoming holiday season. Shedding light on summer travel trends, online travel company MakeMyTrip observed that the average number of room nights per booking for the ongoing April-June quarter has increased for both domestic and outbound holiday packages, hinting at the fact that travelers prefer relaxed itineraries. “The average nights booked for outbound packages for the summer quarter is 27 percent higher than last year’s corresponding period, and almost 85 percent higher than the pre-pandemic average,” said Rajesh Magow, co-founder and Group CEO of MakeMyTrip. In domestic packages, too, MakeMyTrip observed a 54 percent increase in average room nights booked this year over the corresponding period in 2019. “The preference for relaxed itineraries has positively impacted average per-passenger spend. Travellers are seeking experience-led travel, resulting in more bookings with pre-booked activities,” Magow said. And even asinternational airfares from India have shot up, with some sectors witnessing an increase of over 50 percent compared to last year, Indian travelers are still considering summer travel. And then of course, there are the visa delays. MakeMyTrip notes that although Indians are interested in traveling to Europe, the top five destinations preferred by them are short-haul international locations — Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Maldives, and the United Arab Emirates. On the domestic travel front, Goa, Kochi, Srinagar, Dehradun and Leh are the most sought-after destinations for MakeMyTrip users. “India’s rainbow offering of diverse cultures and landscapes, offering varied destinations to travellers, is coming to the fore in our booking mix,” said Magow. MakeMyTrip has also been witnessing strong traction for pilgrimage destinations such as Puri, Varanasi, Rishikesh, and Vrindavan. A trend that Oyo had also noted last year based on its booking data

Airbnb hosts in India collectively made over $12 million from bookings with families last year. Indian family travel on the short-term rental site grew by over 90 percent in 2022 compared to pre-pandemic in 2019, according to a new report released by the company. Most families booked Airbnb listings because of the value and space compared to hotel rooms — with the top-booked categories being near a national park, a pool, near a beach and lake house. Goa, Bengaluru, Karnataka, Pune, Hyderabad, Dehradun, Jaipur, Raigarh, Ernakulam, New Delhi and Nainital were the most preferred family travel destinations in India. Globally, Indians have been traveling to London, Toronto and Dubai for a family getaway. “Families are spending more on domestic as well as international travel and are more willing to support local communities and small businesses. We are glad to see the multiplier effect Airbnb delivers on the local communities as it creates meaningful earning opportunities for those considering hosting on the platform,” said Amanpreet Bajaj, general manager for India, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan for Airbnb. The company recently partnered with Sheroes — a New Delhi-based women’s networking and enabling platform — to grow its community of women hosts in India. Under the partnership, Airbnb will launch a digital content and training program for six months, which will be accessible on relevant Sheroes community channels. This collaboration will provide training to support members of the social platform who are interested in hosting on Airbnb to harness their passion for hospitality, as well as enable more women in India to travel the world independently. 

Before the pandemic, solo travelers accounted for roughly a third of hotel bookings by inbound travelers. But a push for social interaction and India’s growing reputation as a couples getaway has since led families and couples to take a majority share of inbound bookings, according to travel tech firm RateGain Travel Technologies’ India Inbound Travel Trends report. Family hotel bookings have increased from 4 percent in the first quarter of 2019 to 10.2 percent in the first quarter of 2023. France and Spain are the top origins for families visiting India. Solo bookings have significantly declined in recent years — from 41.6 percent in the first quarter of 2019 to only 6.6 percent in the first quarter of 2023. The report studies travelers’ behavior from nine countries, including the U.S., UK, Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Russia, Germany and France. We wonder where the inbound business travelers have gone. Here’s another startling statistic from the RateGain report: the share of female travelers visiting India from developed countries has increased to 49 percent over the past five years. While the share was a little more than 33 percent of all travelers between January and March 2018, it rose by 50 percent to occupy 49 percent of the total share of international travelers between January and March 2023.

Dubai welcomed 4.67 million international overnight visitors in the first quarter of 2023, compared to 3.97 million tourists during the same period in 2022, according to the latest data published by the Department of Economy and Tourism. This marks a 17 percent year-on-year growth and the city’s best first quarter performance since the pandemic. The number of visitors in in the first quarter was just two percentage points short of pre-pandemic volume of 4.75 million tourists that arrived in Dubai in the first three months of 2019. Dubai’s traditional source markets in its key regions continued to perform strongly during the first quarter of the year. The Gulf as well as the Middle East and Northern Africa region collectively contributed 29 percent of total volumes, while Western Europe accounted for 22 percent of tourism arrivals, and South Asia accounted for 16 percent of total international visitation. “The tourism sector is not only the strongest pillars of our economy but also a key enabler of Dubai’s distinctive role in the world as a bridge between markets, cultures and regions,” said Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, crown prince of Dubai and chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai. The crown prince said Dubai would continue to introduce new initiatives to achieve its goal of becoming the world’s best place to live, visit, work and invest in. “The first quarter has set us off on a very strong trajectory for the year and is driving us closer towards realizing the vision of making Dubai the most visited and re-visited destination,” said Helal Saeed Almarri, director general of Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism.

Indian bankruptcy court National Company Law Tribunal has granted bankruptcy protection to cash-strapped airline Go First and a full moratorium on its assets and leases. The order prevents the airline’s lessors — some of which include Sky High XCV Leasing, ACG Aircraft Leasing Ireland, and SMBC Aviation Capital — from taking back aircraft. “This is a historic ruling as an application of insolvency has been admitted so fast. The order prevents a viable airline from becoming an unviable one. The purpose of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code has always been revival,” said Go First CEO Kaushik Khona. This means there are chances that the airline might end up protecting some of its assets under the bankruptcy code to ensure its survival, as all its assets and properties remain as it is till the completion of the bankruptcy. The tribunal, in its order, said that an interim resolution professional would take over the airline management with immediate effect. The current operation of the airline’s 27 aircraft is also expected to continue and no employee of the company would be laid off, the Indian tribunal ordered. Earlier this month, the airline filed for bankruptcy, blaming “faulty” Pratt & Whitney engines for the grounding of about half its fleet.

Using reusable water bottles or shopping bags, traveling outside of peak season and opting for walking, biking, or taking public transport are only some of the ways in which Indian travelers are integrating sustainability into their vacation planning, reveals Booking.com’s latest Sustainable Travel Report. In a bid to save water, 55 percent of travelers reuse their towels multiple times, up 21 percent from 2022. As more travelers are swearing by the ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ mantra, 57 percent of them brought their own reusable water bottles, up by 12 percent since 2022; 52 percent of individuals are utilizing reusable bags; and 44 percent recycle garbage while traveling. When it comes to transportation, 51 percent of Indian travelers now plan their sightseeing which allows them to walk, use bicycles or take public transportation. Looking to further reduce their impact, 41 percent decide to go off-peak to avoid overcrowding, up 5 percent since 2022. Additionally, the ‘buy local’ ideology is gaining popularity amongst travelers on vacation with 52 percent respondents favoring small, independent stores. “To help travelers in their sustainability journey, Booking.com has taken measures to help not only travelers but also local communities and the environment. This includes awarding thousands of properties in India and globally with the Travel Sustainable Badge, the ability to compare the CO2 emissions for different flight options or being able to find and book greener taxi options,” said Santosh Kumar, country manager of India, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia at Booking.com. 

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.

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Cited as the number one reason for corporate travel, face-to-face meetings and events are primarily driving corporate travel, according to FCM Consultancy’s Global Quarterly Trend Report. 

By traditional measures, Alaska Airlines is a carrier of decidedly modest size, even after its acquisition of Virgin America. Its own flight network is small, compared to those of American, Delta, and United. And it’s not a member of one of the three global airline alliances.