Mice tips

While metropolises like New Delhi and Mumbai continue to be on the travel list, leisure destinations like Udaipur, Puri, Goa, Jaipur and Munnar are some of the top searched domestic destinations during the festive season (between November 10-14), according to Booking.com.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts said Tuesday it’s taking steps to improve how companies book and manage group bookings, meetings, events, and business travel at its North American hotels.

Incentive trips are making a comeback, according to FCM Meetings & Events India. The corporate travel firm noted a 30% jump in requests for them in the first quarter from a year earlier.

Dubai Business Events, part of the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism and the city’s official convention bureau, on Monday will announce its first-ever recognition program for Indian intermediaries for meetings, incentives, conferences and events business.

Australia saw a record-breaking number of arrivals from India last year.

India’s business travel spending is set to reach $38 billion this year, with a projected full recovery to pre-2019 spending levels by 2025, according to the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA).

ATM 2024 will continue to go beyond leisure, highlighting how business, luxury and MICE travel are impacting destinations, hotels and airlines

The fourth ITB China marked its grand live- return, concluding its 2023 edition with impressive achievements in business meetings and Chinese and international dialogues.

The 17th International Travel Expo Ho Chi Minh City 2023 (ITE HCMC 2023) is scheduled from September 7 to 9, 2023, at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center (SECC), District 7. Themed “Connectivity, Growth, and Sustainability,” ITE HCMC 2023 aims to propel Vietnam’s tourism industry, ensuring sustainable development while showcasing its allure globally.

Las Vegas Sands is pursuing a multi-billion flagship casino, entertainment and hospitality development following its agreement to purchase a long-term lease over the home to the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, opened in 1972 on Long Island in New York. This would be the company’s first entertainment project in the U.S. since it sold its Las Vegas properties last year.

Fly91, a new Indian airline named after the country’s telephone code, is aiming to take advantage of India’s rising middle class by focusing its services on second and third-tier cities.

Abel Zhao, co-founder & CEO of FreeD Group, a technology innovator that specializes in proprietary enterprise application solutions, has acquired 75-year-old Connexus Travel from the parent company of Cathay Pacific, Swire Group. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

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.

Accor, the Paris-based hotel giant, said Friday it had begun “exclusive” talks with Andera Partners and partner investors to take a 63% stake in Potel & Chabot Group, an events specialist. Until now, Accor had a minority shareholding.