destination canada rebrand at rvc - travtalk india

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Vol. XXVII Issue 12; June 2nd fortnight i ssue 2015 A DDP PUBLICATION Pages : 32+16 Pages Supplement - Technology Talk ` 50/-

Maxime Bernier,Canada’s Ministerof State for Small

Business and Tourism andAgriculture, used the plat-form of Rendez-vousCanada in City of NiagaraFalls, Ontario in May tounveil the new operatingname of the formerCanadian TourismCommission, asDestination Canada. Thenew corporate identity,effective immediately, wascreated to reflect the vision

of Canada’s governmenttourism body, where advocacy and contenthave become the newmarketing mandate.

The rebranding exer-cise will clearly defineDestination Canada in theinternational marketplaceas a significant globaltourist board. The follow-ing months will see a fullrebranding overhaul toDestination Canada’s cor-porate websites, social

media handles, assets andcollateral materials toreflect the new name. Thewell-known consumerbrand identity, “Canada,Keep Exploring”, willremain in use asDestination Canada continues to connect with travellers throughmedia, social and contentmarketing campaigns. The transition to the newbrand identity will be com-pleted by November 1,2015, heralding an exciting new chapter forthe industry.

Canada Tourism Commission chooses the backdrop of Rendez-vous Canada to announce its rebranding toDestination Canada. The transition to the new identity will be completed by November 1, 2015.

Destination Canada rebrand at RVCDEEPA SETHI FROM RVC NIAGARA FALLS

(L-R) Chris Alexander, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, David Goldstein, President & CEO, Destination Canada, and MaximeBernier, Minister of State for Small Business, Tourism and Agriculture in front of the new Destination Canada branding

Over 1 lakh eTV arrivals from Jan-MayThe Government of India has extended e-Tourist Visa (eTV) scheme to 77 countries. The US, Germany and Australiaare among top 10 source countries availing e-Tourist Visa facility during May 2015.

During May 2015, a totalof 15,659 tourist arrivedon e-Tourist Visa as

compared to 1,833 during May2014, registering a growth of754.3 per cent. From January

to May, 2015, a total of1,10,657 tourist arrived on eTVas compared to 9,841 duringJanuary- May 2014, register-ing a growth of 1024.4 percent. This high growth may beattributed to introduction of e-Tourist Visa for 77 countries

as against coverage of earlierTVoA scheme for 12 countries.The percentage shares of top10 source countries availing e-Tourist Visa facility during May2015 are - USA (37.82%),Germany (9.35%), Australia(8.95%), Russian Federation

(5.85%), Republic of Korea(4.30%), UAE (3.53%), Mexico (3.16%), Ukraine(3.01%), Japan (2.89%) and Singapore (2.43%).

The percentage sharesof different ports in tourist

arrivals on e-Tourist Visa during May 2015 are NewDelhi (43.65%), Mumbai(22.14%), Bengaluru (9.66%),Chennai (7.25%), Hyderabad(4.55%), Kochi (3.97%) , Goa(3.81%), Kolkata (3.24%) andTrivandrum (1.73%).

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FINAL_TRAV TALK-June-2nd:TT Layout 6/12/2015 6:32 PM

BULLETIN

After a successful first stint,East India Travel Awards

is back with a bang. Havingregaled the travel and tourismindustry of the North, South,West and East India, last year,the much sought-after awardsnow occupy pride of place ineveryone’s hearts and shelves.

The award, to be held onJune 25, returns to NovotelKolkata Hotel and Residences,second time in a row. The cate-gories for the award showincludes Aviation, Hotels andResorts, Domestic, InternationalTourism Boards, Travel Agents,Technology partners, amongothers from the eastern regionof the country. Explaining theidea behind the awards,SanJeet, Mentor, India TravelAwards, says, “The awards area true specimen of the contribu-tion of various companies/indi-

viduals to take tourism to a dif-ferent level. These awards areto recognise extraordinaryexamples of people who madethe real difference. A first-of-its-kind formal event, India TravelAwards, will make a differenceto the industry by accommodat-ing recognition for regional talentthereby raising the bar.”

As Novotel Kolkata Hoteland Residences sets the

stage to recognise the hardwork and applaud the trueleaders for their dedicationand commitment towardstourism, Jai Kishan, GeneralManager of the hotel, prefersto remain tight-lipped aboutthe preparations afoot for theaward show. “About how weare preparing for the awardshow, that will have to remaina surprise, and it will berevealed only on the D-Day.”

Talking about hosting theeastern awards second time atthe hotels, he says, “It feelsabsolutely great! We hostedlast year’s event within a monthof our opening and had put upa fabulous show as our firstmajor event after launch. Thisyear the teams are geared upto do an even better job andhopefully delight everyone whoattends the event. The idea isto showcase the largest,newest and best property inEastern India to those in thebusiness of hospitality.”

He also acknowledgesthe importance of such awardshows in the region and says,“Such shows, though rare, area fitting tribute to the new surgeof development and infrastruc-ture in the region, they providethe much-needed recognitionfor year-round efforts and animpetus to the entire industryas a whole.”

Maya’s second stint in the EastNovotel Kolkata Hotel and Residences is ready to host the second editionof East India Travel Awards. The award show that honours the best in thetourism and hospitality industry will take place in Kolkata on June 25.

PEDEN DOMA BHUTIA

SanJeetMentorIndia Travel Awards

Jai KishanGeneral ManagerNovotel Kolkata Hotel and Residences


STATISTICS

VIEWPOINT

With June setting in well with thesummer, it is holiday time for all.

Outbound this season is growing in leapsand bounds. Even the proportion oftravellers planning to venture out hasincreased. RBI has also doubled annualoverseas investment ceiling for individualsto $250,000. This will go a long way inboosting outbound. What is interesting tosee is the rise of new unexplored outbounddestinations. Today’s neo-traveller is seekingnew experiences beyond the regular holidayspots that are just a tick in the box.Technology is also enabling inspiration-based search and is facilitating greaterchoice of options as well as morecustomised and relevant choices based onthe travellers’ behaviour, past purchasingdecision, etc.

With the rapidly increasing number ofoutbound tourists, it is but obvious that theNTOs are concentrating big time on theIndian market. The increase in travel budgetsand plans this holiday season also meansmore work and busier, better times for thetravel operators in our country. Going forward,it is personalisation that will allow the travelindustry to offer customised products. Thetravel agencies and providers, who know theirtravellers better, by collecting and using thispersonalisation data, will be at a competitiveadvantage. Personalisation would also helpin improving conversions and profits. Otheropportunities will lie in Indian travelcompanies leveraging online and mobile toprovide previously unavailable levels ofengagement, touch points and service rightthrough the various phases of the travelbooking, experience and post travel cycle.Thus, the travel operators should now servethe role of an expert curator.

However, as the outbound grows, manyIndian destinations are also waiting to beexplored. While the Ministry of Tourism isdoing a commendable job to boost inboundto our country with a slew of dynamicmeasures, connectivity to far-flung domesticdestinations needs to be enhanced to givea fillip to domestic footfalls as well.

The summer rush

Expedia released its Summer Trend Report 2015, an analysis of vacation destinationsand travel preferences across multiple cities in India. The survey was conducted with520 respondents across Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad.

Europe: Top summer destination

Vacation Planning

Next Vacation Please

Indians have a dedicatedvacations fund

Indians fund it from other sources(CC/DC/Vacation Loan)

63% 37%

Start planning the daythey return from holiday

Plan when they sit back andlook at photos

4% 14%

Start within a month After about 6 months22% 26%

We know where you’regoing this summer!

24%20% 18%

16% 12% 10%4%

Europe Middle Eastand Africa

Asia US & Canada Australia,NZ, Fiji

Central &South America

ScandinavianCountries

Post Vacations Syndrome

27% 21%Indians hate to catch upon office work/emails

post their vacation

Indians dislikethe huge creditcard statement

14%Indians hate to clean uptheir house and do dirtylaundry post vacation

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J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 TRAVTALK 5NTO

QHow much budget wenttowards Indaba this year?I can’t disclose that because it would

be competitive intelligence. But we will beincreasing the budget for next year by ameasure of our Consumer Price Index —that is the South African inflation rate — andthis would be around five to six per cent.Planning for Indaba 2016 has started andthe date will be announced afterour review.

QDid the xenophobicattacks affect this

year’s show?There was a big outcry

about the impact of xenophobia.Some countries had indicatedthey will not be here. But of the 15southern countries, we had 14 ofthem here. Mozambiqueannounced that they will notexhibit but they attended. Onlyone country that was absent wasDemocratic Republic of Congociting xenophobia as the reason.In fact, we saw an increase infloor space sold, with 90 per centof it being taken. No amount ofmarketing could have brought usthe kind of goodwill that we havebuilt through Indaba.

QHow many meetingswere recorded during

the show? When business closed on

day three of Indaba, the numberof meetings had increased by 69per cent from 17,191 in 2014 to29,058 meetings. Imagine thebusiness that will come from this.The Online Diary and the MatchMaking System were a key driverin improving the quality of thisIndaba and gave exhibitors betteraccess to quality hosted buyers.

QHow many meetingswere recorded during

the show? Prior to the start of Indaba,

we had about 10,000 meetingsconfirmed. By the end of the firsttwo days, about 8,700 meetingswere recorded as against just2,500 meetings last year. You canextrapolate on the kind of value and business such meetings will generate.

QWas there a fall in buyernumbers this year?Yes, the total number of

buyers is down by about 20 percent as compared to last year.But our focus is on quality ofbuyers and sellers and notquantity. So we are happy withIndaba stabilising in terms ofnumbers. A ratio of 1:3 is goodwith more buyers keeping theexhibitors busy.

QWhy are you lookingat outsourcing the

management of Indaba?

We started this conversation in 2012and invited Reed and few other compa-nies into the conversation. We realisedthat although SAT has done a good job atIndaba and Meetings Africa – another oneof our shows for MICE – we felt that therecould be a gap. We want to focus on ourcore business of marketing the destina-tion. We want a partner that will shoulder a lot more responsibility and the element of risk.

The CEO of South African Tourism, Thulani Nzima, says he will be increasing the budgetspend on Indaba next year which will be held in Durban again. It is also in the process offinalising a partner for its flagship show.

SAT to hike Indaba budget

HA Z E L JA I N F R O M DU R B A N

Rajeev Nayan Choubey takes over as new Civil Aviation Secretary

Rajeev Nayan Choubey has takenover as the new Civil Aviation Secretary.Choubey, a 1981-batch IAS officer of TamilNadu cadre, took over the charge from VSomasundaran. He is the third CivilAviation Secretary at Rajiv GandhiBhawan after the formation of the BJP-ledNDA government at the Centre in May lastyear. Prior to becoming the Civil AviationSecretary, Choubey was AdditionalSecretary in the Power Ministry.Somasundaran, a 1979-batch Keralacadre IAS officer, who had joined the CivilAviation ministry last September has beenshifted to the Ministry of Women and ChildDevelopment as its Secretary.

When business closed onday three of Indaba, the num-ber of meetings had increasedby 69% from 17,191 in 2014

to 29,058 meetings.

Thulani NzimaCEO , South African Tourism


AGENTS

In its bi-monthly monetary pol-icy statement recently, the

RBI states, “On a review of theexternal sector outlook and asa further exercise in macro-prudential management, it has

been decided to enhance thelimit under the LiberalisedRemittance Scheme (LRS) to$250,000 per person per year.”The apex bank had in August2013 reduced the ceiling from$200,000 to $75,000 per per-son in a year under LRS.

Consequently, with improve-ment in forex situation, it wasraised to $125,000 in June2014. LRS allows residents toacquire and hold shares, debtinstruments or other assetsoutside India, without priorapproval of the RBI.

Steering outbound travelThe Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has doubled annualoverseas investment ceiling for individuals to $250,000.

speaks to industry stalwarts to understand how thismove will boost outbound travel.

MEGHA PAUL

Enhancing thequota/limitunder LRS isa welcomestep and weapplaud RBIfor this posi-tive initiative.This is great

news for all travel verticals and foreignexchange businesses. This move wouldboost spending by Indians when they areon a foreign visit. The initiative has alsocreated opportunities to invest more inreal estate, stocks, debt instruments,etc., abroad without prior permissionfrom the RBI.

Vineet RainaHead-Outbound Tours, Jetair Tours

People are nowlooking at extremeadventure travel-ling to obscurelocations that canbe far away as wellas expensive. Inaddition, adven-ture travel is beingembraced by well-

travelled individuals who take at least two tothree trips a year. An increased LRS will nowmake it possible for discerning travellers toindulge in such holidays without having to worryabout how to work around the rules. Going for-ward, this move is expected to give a significantboost to not just adventure travel but to overalloutbound travel as well.

Gauri JayaramFounder, Active Holiday Company

We welcome this RBI move. It comes as a great relief for the entireoutbound industry. Also, it comes at the right time as our holidayseason has just begun. With the apex banks’s move to enhancethe quota under LRS, the new-age outbound traveller who is explor-ing beyond the conventional holiday destinations, will have moredisposable income to spend. The average spend of the Indian trav-eller while abroad is also going to increase now.

Guldeep Singh SahniPresident, OTOAI

Our reserves are at an all-time high, which is why our PM wantsto encourage businessmen to invest abroad. But this won'tencourage the travel industry to do so. We might see a slightsurge in travel but nothing significant. If an Indian tour operatorwants to have an office in UAE or Mauritius or Switzerland, hewill benefit from this move by having a global presence. But hewill still have to pay taxes in India whereas in those countriesyou don't have to pay tax. The government also needs to reducetaxes for this move to be completely beneficial to Indians. Withregards to service tax and other tax related issues TAAI hasalready sent a representation and is in discussion with officials at the Finance Ministry.

Marzban AntiaTreasurer, TAAI

We wholeheartedly welcome the recent announcement of enhanc-ing the quota under LRS. This move will greatly aid the overseastravellers across the spectrum and will serve to catalyse India’soutbound travel growth trajectory. The limit is all-inclusive and willhave travel for all purposes subsumed within this; categories likeemigration, medical treatment, and study abroad, however beingallowed the facility of a quota in excess of the $250,000 limit. Thisoffers public the ease and convenience of being able to avail of alarger amount of foreign exchange for bona fide purposes. It ismusic not only to the ears of our foreign exchange business and

travel-related business verticals, but the industry as a whole.

Mahesh IyerCOO– Foreign Exchange & Head - Visas, Thomas Cook (India)


Specialising in bespoke trav-el to India’s exotic and

unique locations, Wish BoneIndia helps plan an inspiringjourney that brings you closeto the very essence of the loca-tions. According to RishiKhandelwal, ManagingPartner, Wish Bone India, thefocus is on extending authenticand immersive experience ofeach destination with person-alised and seamless service.The company is targeting

France, Belgium and UK markets in a big way.

Talking about the evolu-tion of the company,Khandelwal says, “We startedoperations in 2006. Thus, weare a nine-year-old company.Besides history, culture andheritage, we are now lookingat new concepts such asadventure, rural, golf and well-ness tourism segments. Each

with its distinct characteristicsand offerings are increasinglyplaying a pivotal role in attract-ing tourists to our country. Inaddition, customised tour pack-ages with offbeat destinationsand newer experiences arefast gaining ground.”

Regarding the USP ofthe company, he adds, “Eachitinerary is created and devel-oped after detailed research of

our customer’s requirements.We discuss the destination,style of accommodation, modeof travel and experiences youwill have to ensure the combi-nation is just right for you. Ourexperience comes from longexpertise and unrivaled knowl-edge acquired and enhancedfrom years of organising toursfor individuals, couples, fami-lies, small parties of friendsand private label groups.

Going beyond history, culture and heritage, the nine-year-old company, Wish Bone India, is now looking at newsegments such as adventure, rural, golf and wellness tourism.

Teeing off with golf and wellnessJ U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 TRAVTALK 7AGENTS

Eye for DetailWish Bone India discussthe destination, style ofaccommodation, modeof travel and experiencesa traveller will undergo toensure the combinationis just right

The company is target-ing France, Belgium andUK markets in a big way.

Besides history, culture andheritage, we are now lookingat new concepts such asadventure, rural, golf and wellness tourism segments.

Rishi KhandelwalManaging Partner, Wish Bone India

Kadapa Airportinaugurated

Andhra Pradesh ChiefMinister N.ChandrababuNaidu inaugurated the newairport developed by theAirports Authority of India(AAI) at a cost of Rs 42crores, in the presence ofCivil Aviation MinisterAshok Gajapathi Raju and Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu.

As a mark of inaugura-tion of the new airport, thefifth in Andhra Pradesh, themaiden flight fromBengaluru landed at around1130 hours.

Air connectivity toKadapa is expected toenhance the businesspotential and employmentopportunities besides pro-viding impetus to the eco-nomic growth of the city andthe region. As part of thedevelopment, undertakenby the AAI as part of thefocus on promoting regionaland remote area connectiv-ity in Tier-II and III cities,Kadapa airport got a new,compact pre-fabricated ter-minal building that can han-dle 100 passengers at atime. The runway is capableof handling ATR-72 type air-craft operations, while thenew apron can accommo-date three such aircraft. Thestate government hasmade available 520 acresfor the airport development.

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8 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 AGENTS

QIs India doing enoughto tap the Chinese

outbound market? I think we are far behind in

tapping the Chinese outboundmarket. Even Nepal is doing bet-ter than us to attract Chinesetourists. We have so much tooffer to Chinese tourists but ithas to be done with deep study and understanding thedemands and mindset of theChinese tourists.

Q What do you makeof the Government’s

move to issue eTV toChinese travellers?

Yes, e-Tourist Visa toChinese tourists is a good moveto a certain extent. It will definite-ly help in reducing visa hurdles.It will also save lot of time forthose who are applying forIndian visa. At the same time itwill reduce all the malpractices.

QWhat are the hurdlesin promoting India in

China and vice-versa? There is an urgent need

to promote Indian destina-

tions in China, especially inthe middle level cities ofChina. People in China lackinformation about Indian des-tinations and culture. TheTourism ministry has to pro-mote India in a big way and ina strategic manner as per theground realities. ChinaTourism also needs to do thesame in India.

Q How is business forIndian travel agents? Indian travel agents are

trying individually to attract thebusiness. But need a coordinat-ed effort with the ministry andthe people who have in-depth

knowledge and idea aboutChina. At present, business ison the low side and declining.

QHow was businessin 2014? What are

you looking forward toin 2015?

We had problems inattracting tourists from Chinadue to lack of promotion.

Chinese agents are not show-ing much interest in promotingIndia. Hope that the relaxedvisa conditions and personalinterest of the Prime Ministerwill help improve the situationin the coming season.

Tap mid-level China citiesSurinder Kumar, China Specialist, speaks to about India extending eTV to China and how we arenot doing enough to tap the Chinese outbound market.

PEDEN DOMA BHUTIA

Chinese agents are not showingmuch interest in promotingIndia. Hope that the relaxedvisa conditions and personal

interest of the PM will helpimprove the situation.

Surinder Kumar China Specialist

One of the island wonders ofIndian Ocean, Reunion

Island, is the latest entrant to theIndian niche tourism market.The French territory, locatedabout 200 kms on the south-west of Mauritius, is planning tocash in on the high-end out-bound traveller in the country.This has been facilitated furtherby the introduction of new sim-pler rules for Indians.

Patrick Serveaux,President, Regional TourismBoard, Reunion Island, informs,“Reunion Island wants high-value, low-impact tourists fromIndia. Over the next one year,we hope to welcome 5,000Indian tourists to ReunionIsland. Currently, we receive asmall number from India. In2014, about 800 Indians visitedus.” Reunion Island can offeradventure of all sorts. The islandhas the greatest diversity oflandscapes and cultures. Whalewatching, deep sea fishing,paragliding, micro flights, etc.,are popular leisure activities inthe island, he affirms.

The island is betting big onMICE offerings as well, saysServeaux. “In the west, hotelscan accommodate about 250people in meeting rooms; in thenorth, 150; in the south 160; inthe east 35 people can beaccommodated. We have differ-ent showrooms situated on thenorth and the west of Reunion,which are specialised in busi-ness facilities and could accom-modate about 700 people inmeeting and over 10,000 peoplein general,” he adds.

Vineet Gopal,Representative-India, ReunionIsland points out, “Indiannationals no longer need a visa

for stay of up to 15 days. Toorganise their stay, they havethree options. Firstly, they maybuy an entire package tourfrom a travel agency in Indiaoffering Reunion Island as adestination. This agency willthen contact an incomingagency in Reunion Island witha licence to request visawaivers. Secondly, they mayapply to an incoming agencyon Reunion Island which canalso sell a package tour. Thirdly,they may book their flight direct-ly with the airline and apply toa local agency with a licence toorganise their stay (accommo-dation, activities, transport on the island, etc.)”

Reunion Island callingLocated in the Indian Ocean and about 200 kms on thesouth-west of Mauritius, the French island is betting bigon the high-end outbound leisure and MICE travel.

TT BUREAU

Patrick ServeauxPresident, Regional Tourism Board,Reunion Island

Vineet GopalRepresentative-India, Reunion Island


The meeting held at NepalTourism Board was head-

ed by Suresh Man Shrestha,Secretary, Ministry of Culture,Tourism and Civil Aviation(MoCTCA) and Chairman,NTB. Also present were JointSecretaries from the MoCTCA,Director General of theDepartment of Tourism, imme-diate and past DirectorGenerals of the Department of Archaeology, ExecutiveCommittee Members of NTB, Tourism AssociationPresidents, archaeologicalexperts and the AdministrativeChief of NTB.

At the meeting, BheshNarayan Dahal, DirectorGeneral, Department ofArchaeology, confirmed to openthe Kathmandu Durbar Square,Swayambhunath and PatanDurbar Square, for tourists officially from June 15. He further added thatBauddhanath, Budhanilkanthaand Pashupatinath were safefor sightseeing. Sharing ideason rebuilding of Nepal’s tourism,Shrestha emphasised on thenecessity to initiate internationalmedia marketing through exer-cises such as extending invita-tions for familiarisation trips topopular celebrities, tour opera-tors and travel writers to Nepal.He said this would provide aclear picture of what Nepalcould offer to tourists even afterApril 25. Supporting this view,Hotel Association of Nepal(HAN) committed on providingcomplementary accommoda-tion and Nepal Association ofTour Operators (NATO) agreedon handling ground transporta-

tion and guide for groups oftourists travelling to Nepal insuch cases. During interaction,it was noted that very fewtrekking routes and some cul-tural heritage sites weredestroyed, remaining severaldestination safe. The partici-pants mainly concerned thatNepal should focus to thediversification of tourism des-

tinations and product whileemphasising on safety, securityand quality assurances. Moreequally, it was also stressed toconcentrate on rebuilding ofthe destroyed monuments in acoordinated manner.

Andrew Jones, ViceChairman, PATA, says, “Theinternational media reports

showed that everything hadbeen destroyed. But when Iarrived here, it was much betterthan I had anticipated. To behonest, I didn’t have any prob-lems visiting the country. Nodangers at all. In general, I don’tfind Nepal unsafe to visit. Thereare many places in Nepal thathave escaped the disaster, andthere are many places to visit.”

According to Tourism Recovery Committee Nepal (TRC), the heritage sites of Kathmandu Valley will beopen to tourists from June 15, 2015. This was decided during a meeting of government officials with privatesector, TRC and Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), on May 25, 2015.

Resurgent Nepal beckons tradeJ U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 TRAVTALK 1 1NEWS

TT BU R E AU

I don’t find Nepalunsafe to visit.There are manyplaces in Nepalthat have escapedthe disaster, andthere are manyplaces to visit

Andrew JonesVice ChairmanPATA


ASSOCIATIONS

Zakir Ahmed, President,TAFI, says, “We have been

pushing IATA to come to Indiaand conduct a program for ourmembers and they have finallyagreed. It will be a half day ses-sion and will be by invite only.Both TAAI and TAFI areinvolved in this. All airlines, ofcourse, will also be present.”

Ahmed says that there willbe three speakers from IATA—Tony Tyler, Yanik Hoyles,Director (NDC Program), IATAand Eric Leopold, Director(Transformation) FinancialDistribution Services, IATA. “IATAwill be discussing their plans fornow and the future, as well asthe new things they plan to dothat will benefit the agents, plusthe future of airlines distributionsystem. There will also be a spe-cial session on NDC explainingwhat exactly it is and how it willwork. This will be conducted byHoyles,” he adds.

He says that one personfrom each member companythat has been invited will beaccommodated. For those whoare not able to attend, TAFI willhave a recording which will be

circulated amongst its mem-bers either through YouTube orthrough its mobile app. “Therewill also be a Q&A session sowe have requested our mem-bers to send their queries inadvance to the TAFISecretariat. Since there is timeconstraint, the Q&A sessioncannot be kept open to all,”Ahmed adds.

On the reasons for con-tinuously requesting IATA tocome to India, Ahmed saysthat the agents felt that IATAhas not been doing much forthem. “So we want IATA tocome and build confidenceamong the agents and to tellthem that IATA is there to lookafter their interests. They alsowant clarity on NDC as thereare a lot of misconceptionsabout it in the minds of agents.We will also discuss other day-to-day issues.

“IATA moved out of Indiawith only representatives herewho are not in position to actu-ally give a lot of details.Therefore, most of the commu-nication happens betweentheir Singapore office and Indiawhich results in time and com-munication gaps. We will berequesting them to have a fullfledged office in India again.They don’t realise that India is

a vast country, not like HongKong or Singapore or Dubai.It’s like a continent. This is agood opportunity for us to talkabout important issues,”Ahmed says.

Also gearing up for thisevent is Jay Bhatia,Chairman (Tourism Council)and Co-Chairman (AirlineCouncil), TAAI. “We will alsotake this opportunity to discuss the recent issueregarding the LufthansaGroup airlines charging a sur-charge of €16 for every ticketissued by a booking channelusing GDS from September1, 2015. TAAI has called for a

Managing Committee meet-ing on June 11, 2015 to dis-cuss the association’s standand our plan of action,” Bhatia says.

There is no confirmationabout this event from IATA,which recently concluded itstwo-day AGM and World AirTransport Summit in Miami onJune 8-9, 2015. It coveredareas such as the relationshipbetween airlines and manufac-turers, what’s on the mind ofthe industry’s CEOs, evolvingtraveler expectations, infra-structure challenges, and howto make airlines attractiveinvestments.

A three-member delegation led by Tony Tyler, Director General and CEO,International Air Transport Industry (IATA), will address travel agents in Mumbaion July 15, 2015. The Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) and the Travel AgentsAssociation of India (TAAI) will be a part of this.

IATA session for Indian agents

HA Z E L JA I N

Tapping IATATAFI will be requestingIATA to have a full fledgedoffice in India again

Agents want clarity onNDC as there are a lot ofmisconceptions about it

TAAI has calledfor a ManagingCommitteemeeting onJune 11 todiscuss theassociation’sstand and ourplan of action

We want IATA to come andbuild confidenceamong theagents and totell them thatIATA is there tolook after theirinterests.

Zakir Ahmed PresidentTAFI

Jay BhatiaChairman (Tourism Council) andCo-Chairman (Airline Council), TAAI

Tony TylerDirector GeneralIATA

Skal beats the heat with May meet

Skal International Delhi-125 organised a meeting on May 27 at the Shangri La Hotel, New Delhi. The guest speaker for the event was the distinguishedjournalist Sir Willam Mark Tully who kept Skal members engrossed with his knowledge and antidotes on India. The meeting was well attendedwith almost 120 members.


1 4 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 FAMILY ALBUM

Niagara Falls provided an inspirational setting for Destination Canada’s international marketplace. With more than 1500 travel industry stalwarts gatheringat the Scotia Bank Convention Centre, Niagara Falls, RVC 2015 set a tremendous pace. More than 24,000 pre-scheduled face-to-face meetings were completed between international buyers and 921 Canadian sellers.

Rendez-vous Canada: Gateway to growth



Madhya Pradesh Tourism organised a get-together for the travel trade and hospitality fraternity at The Ashok, New Delhi. The get-together showcaseddestinations, handicrafts, tribal dance forms, cuisine, Tourism Year, Simhastha 2016 and investment opportunities in the state. It was attended by a galaxyof people from travel trade, industry associations, trade associations, media and dignitaries from various walks of life.

MP extravaganza for the industry



With most parts of the Bollywood movie Dil Dhadakne Do being shot on Pullmantur Cruises’ Sovereign, its GSA in India, Griffon Cruises, held a special screeningof the movie for the travel trade before its official release. The preview was held at a PVR cinema hall in Mumbai with as its exclusive media partner.

Cruising with stars


2 0 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 NEWS

QHow were 2014 numbersfor Oman from India?We received a little more

than 2,56,000 tourists in 2014which was an increase of fourper cent as compared to 2013.Oman has recorded a growthof 36 per cent in Indian arrivalsover the last five years. India isone of the top five markets forOman and we want it to benumber one soon.

QHow does the rest of2015 look like?

Since we opened theIndia office five years ago wehave been concentrating most-ly on leisure. It was the firsttime we started to create theimage of Oman in this market.It is very difficult for any coun-try, not only Oman, to cover thewhole of India at once. So wetaking one step at a time.

QWhich cities show goodpotential?

We have focused mainlyon four to five regions in India sofar and we will try to cover other

states in the coming years. Butexisting cities like New Delhi,Mumbai and Bengaluru willremain our priority. We haven’tdecided on the newer cities wewill focus on as we are finalisinga long-term strategy that we willexecute once it is ready.

QCan you share somedetails of this plan?

It will be a long-term strat-egy called the ‘Oman TourismStrategy 2015-2040’. This willinclude a marketing strategywhich will serve as a bible.Therewill be study on each marketincluding India that will tell ushow to start, when to start,

where to start and which seg-ment to focus on. This marketstudy will also tell us how muchbudget we need to invest inIndia. But I can say for sure thatthere is always an increase inbudget of not less than 20 percent every year.

QWhen can we expect to get more details

on this?We hope that this strategy

will be done by 2015 end andwe will be able to start imple-menting it by early 2016. It willbe implemented and evaluatedin phases of five years. Sobased on the results of the firstphase, we will re-evaluate andaction the second phase.

QDo you have any mes-sage for the Indian

agents?The mentality of today’s

tourists has changed. They donot travel for a change any-more, but seek value-add totheir knowledge and life experiences. We are trying tocreate those reasons andexperiences.

After completing a successful four-city roadshow, Oman’sMinistry of Tourism has announced a long-term plan for itskey markets including India that will be unveiled by 2015-end.

Oman’s 25-year strategy

HA Z E L JA I N

Salim Al MamariDirector General of Tourism Promotion,Ministry of Tourism - Sultanate of Oman

In a bid to stress on skill devel-opment in the travel and

tourism industry, TravelportGalileo held the second editionof the Student of the Year con-test in Delhi recently. The con-test aims at creating a talentpool for the travel industry andinculcating high standards ofexcellence among studentsfrom travel institutes. Theselection process that startedfrom March 1 had over 80 stu-dents participating in an onlineevaluation; the programmewas open to all travel institutesassociated with ITQ. However,after a strict selection process,five candidates made it to thefinal round to fight for the title.

Each of the five finalistsunderwent a presentation andPersonal Interaction sessionwith the panel of judges, afterwhich one student finallyclaimed the ‘Student of the Year’title. Applauding the winner, onthe occasion, Anil Parashar,President & CEO, InterGlobeTechnology Quotient, said, “We

are very pleased to have thisevent for the second year run-ning. We wish to create a plat-form for these students whereinthey can showcase their mettle.We would like to expand this forthe travel industry by creating atalent pool which can benefit all.The travel industry is growingand so is the enthusiasm oftravellers at being more educat-ed about their travel, thereforethe need of the hour is to havewell qualified professionalsserving them.”

Sandeep Dwivedi, ChiefCommercial Officer, InterGlobeTechnology Quotient, said, “We

are extremely delighted that wehad more than 80 students whoparticipated in this year’sStudent of the Year programme.The objective of this programmeis to provide skill sets and knowl-edge base to students who arekeen to be a part of the travelindustry. By undertaking thisventure we are enabling them tobroaden their horizon.” In asso-ciation with over 90 travel acad-emies, Travelport Galileoimparts training through theorycum interactive modules, suchas Galileo Basic GDS courseand Automated Ticketingcourse which consists of textdata, examples, case studiesand practical exercises for students.

The selection process for Travelport Galileo’s Student of TheYear started on March 1 and it recently culminated in fivestudents fighting it out for the title.

Mentoring young leaders

TT BU R E AU

Anil ParasharPresident & CEO, InterGlobe Technology

Experts’ LessonsThe programme wasopen to all travel insti-tutes associated with ITQ

It imparts trainingthrough theory cum interactive modules


Travel wholesaler and B2Bcompany, Travstarz Global

Group, recently hosted a net-working evening with cocktailsand dinner for the travel tradefraternity in Indore. This wasdone on May 21, 2015 at HotelSayaji in association with YASViceroy Hotel, Abu Dhabi forwhich Travstarz is the onlywholesaler in India.

The event saw atten-dance from more than 30 travelagents from Indore who werevery impressed with the prod-

uct knowledge about YASViceroy Hotel presented byVani Singh, Head – NorthIndia, Heavens Portfolio. Thiswas the first ever event con-ducted by Travstarz in Indorewhere YAS Viceroy Hotel madeits presence.

Pankaj Nagpal, MD,Travstarz Global Group, madea brief presentation about thecompany’s profile and the lat-

est products and offerings andinteracted with the audience ina one-on-one talk explainingthe company’s line of businessand future expansion plansincluding the launch of its ded-icated online B2B portalwww.travelrezonline.com.

This was the fifth suchevent by Travstarz in associa-tion with YAS Viceroy in last sixmonths starting from Ludhiana

in November 2014 and latergoing to Lucknow, Kolkata andthen Chandigarh.

Nagpal further addedthat there will be more suchevents in the coming monthswith YAS Viceroy besides theirother hotel partners as thecompany gets more aggres-sive in their marketing cam-paigns and spreading wingsacross the country.

Travstarz Global Group recently organised a successful product presentation along with Abu Dhabi-basedYAS Viceroy Hotel for travel agents in Indore.

Travstarz interacts with Indore agentsTT BU R E AU

J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 TRAVTALK 2 1AGENTS

In AttendanceMore than 30 travelagents from Indoreattended the event

This was the fifth suchevent by Travstarz inassociation with YAS Viceroy in last six months

Multiple entryvisa for UAE

A 30-day multiple entrytourist visa (for all countries)and a 90-day multiple entry(long term) visa (only forIndia, Jordan, Pakistan,South Africa, UAE citizens)will help drive tourists to thecountry. The UAEGovernment, for the first timeever, has launched two new

multiple entry visas — a 30-day multiple entry tourist visa(for all countries) and a 90-day multiple entry (long term)visa (only for India, Jordan,Pakistan, South Africa, UAEcitizens).

TT Services, the officialworldwide visa partner ofEtihad Airways, shall nowprocess these visas to allguests of Etihad Airways,globally. TT Services hasmade the process one stepsimpler. Guest simply applyfor a visa online and can getvisas by email.

The visas can benefit-tourists who would like tobreak their journeys into parts- visiting the UAE in the firstleg, going out of the region and returning to theUAE after a few days and fre-quent flier corporate travellers.Sridhar Krishnamurthy,Director-Operations, TTServices, says, “The UAEGovernment has given a rea-son to cheer. And we at TTServices have made it aseasy as possible for anyone toget these visas.”

The TT Services EtihadAirways co-branded website —www.ttsuaevisas.com — pro-vides a simple, user-friendlyapplication process for the twonew visa types along with otherexisting visas.

Pankaj NagpalMDTravstarz Global Group


2 2 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 HOTELS

This summer, Nira Montanalaunches the ‘Summer time’

campaign. Whether it is a familyholiday or a romantic getaway,there's a right package for all.From relaxing moments with adear one at Nira Spa to choco-late tasting for gourmands, NiraMontana offers a cheeringAlpine experience. MPS Puri,CEO, Nira Hotels & Resorts,

says, “Whilst La Thuile is per-ceived as a skiing destinationthe Aosta Valley is equally beau-tiful in the summer and we wanteveryone to know the beautyand the glory of the area. Ourmotto this time is ‘The simplepleasures of life’ and we inviteyou to come and experiencethese simple pleasures to thefullest at Nira Montana.” NiraMontana is located in the heartof Europe’s highest mountains

in the Aosta Valley. Being one ofthe smallest regions in Italy,guests are free to enjoy the nat-ural beauty of Valle d’Aosta fea-turing the four giants MontBlanc, Matterhorn, Monte Rosaand Grand Paradiso.

Puri adds, “The AostaValley has great traditions ofwine and chocolate making aswell. We would like to prolifer-ate that and acquaint guests

with what the region has tooffer — 4500 kms of trekkingand 500 for mountain biking,31 castles, the highest vine-yards, Gran Paradiso, MontAvic national parks, and thePiccolo and Grand SanBernardo Passes.”

Special spa relax sum-mer package — ‘MontanaBreeze’ includes special serv-ices for both women and men.

The ‘Pic Chic’ packageoffers the guests an experi-ence surrounded by naturewhere the key ingredients arefresh products of the regionand the creativity of NiraMontana chefs.

La Thuile Chocolatepackage celebrates thefamous chocolate of La Thuile, offering the guests the sweet-est experience.

The ‘secrets of a real piz-zaiolo’ has the pizzaiolo chefdisclose the secrets of theauthentic Italian pizza. Theguests may take on a chal-lenge of creating a real Italianpizza cooked in an originalFlorentin wood oven.

Health and anti stress package provides ateam of health and well-beingprofessionals to offering a quality and professionalservice.

The ‘Secrets of Alpine dry herbs’ package has a surprising excursion to discover the forgotten Alpineherbs and their beneficial prop-erties. Together with Fiorenzaone will discover the secrets ofthe plants followed by a tastingof Alpine infusions at Stars Bar & Lounge.

A new summer campaign launched by Nira Montana ensures travellers a different experience this time. There arepackages suiting various preferences. MPS Puri, CEO, Nira Hotels & Resorts, discusses what the region has to offer.

Summer’s more fun at Nira Montana

The Aosta Valley has great traditions of wine and chocolate making. We wouldlike to proliferate that andacquaint guests with whatthe region has to offer.

MPS PuriCEO, Nira Hotels & Resorts

Italian FiestaSpecial spa relax summer package‘Montana Breeze’includes special services for all

The ‘Pic Chic’ packageoffers the guests anexperience surroundedby nature

La Thuile Chocolatepackage celebratesthe famous chocolateof La Thuile

The ‘secrets of Alpinedry herbs’ packagehas a surprising excur-sion to discover theforgotten Alpine herbs

TT BU R E AU


Mittu ChandilyaBest Airline ProfessionalI am thankful to India Travel Awards for this award. It is a great honourto be acknowledged by the peers and stalwarts of the industry. Theaward for AirAsia India as the best emerging airline is a confirmationthat we are indeed on our way to revolutionising aviation in India. Thiscomes at a time when we have just announced the launch of Delhias our hub in North India for increasing our network reach.

Mittu ChandilyaCEO, AirAsia India

Novotel Hyderabad Airport Best Airport HotelThe award is a great platform for all of us to showcase our capabilitiesand features to the industry. It is also a platform which brings all of ustogether and talks about the industry as we are maturing towards theinternational events and a lot of business towards tourism as well astowards hosting diplomats. So altogether it is a great platform wherepeople come together and get to appreciate each other.

Javed ParvezDirector of Sales

UAE Exchange and Financial ServicesBest Travel Management CompanyI think the idea of India Travel Awards is wonderful. Thearrangements were also amazing. The idea of having theawards region wise is great as everyone from each of theregion gets their due recognition. If it is centralised thenpeople don’t get what they deserve.

Akula Srinivas KumarBranch Head, Visakhapatnam

Reunion IslandBest Emerging Destination

It is a great moment of pride when your work is recognisedin the industry by the people and to hold this pretty blacklady (Maya) in your hand says it all. I would like to thankDDP Publications for doing such a wonderful thing. Bringingthis award in a regional platform and recognising peopleis really amazing.

Vineet GopalHead India, India Marketing Partner

Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel MysoreBest Debut HotelI would like to congratulate India Travel Awards for theirsignificant effort to recognise accomplishments of thefraternity in each zone. This promotes a healthy competitivespirit within these zones to strive for the best. We arehugely motivated and honoured to receive this award whichis a testimony to our wonderful product and its people.Thank you India Travel Awards!

Harikumar BGeneral Manager

Novotel Hyderabad Airport Best Airport HotelI think it’s great to have won this award and it is a greatrecognition for the South India hotel and tourismfraternity. I feel great about it as Novotel Hotel Hyderabadis operational for just seven years and this fantasticrecognition is coming from everybody in the industry. Thisis really great.

Maverik MukerjiGeneral Manager

Southern stars shine on

Face of the FutureThe industry is going through a major revolution at the moment in thedistribution space. Ten years back when the Internet transformed theonline distribution, the airlines were left out of an opportunity that theycould have more innovatively reached to their customers. Afterreceiving the ‘Face of the Future’ award a lot of responsibility hasbeen put on me. It feels nice and is a humbling experience.

Rajeev Kumar GFounder, MD and CEO, Mystifly Consulting (I)

2 4 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5

The winners and guests of South India Travel Awards look forward to participate in the event again next year. Here’s what theyhave to share with .

Best Hospitality ProfessionalI would like to congratulate the India Travel Awards team and SanJeetfor thinking regional. This is the need of the hour and going regionalis not only about the awards but it is also about giving the regionalteams the kind of impetus that they need to further develop tourism.I think it’s a brilliant idea.

Nikhil DhodapkarRegional Director, Sales & Marketing-India, ACCOR

Chief Guest Ganta Srinivasa RaoMinister of Human Resource DevelopmentGovt of Andhra PradeshThis is a moment for all of us to celebrate the achievement of all SouthIndia tourist organisations which have contributions in nurturingtourism. They are all being recognised by DDP Publications. Icongratulate all the winners as well as India Travel Awards. It is theneed of the hour for entire India where we have to think seriously todevelop our nation as a tourist hub.

Guest of Honour Neerabh K Prasad, Principal Secretary TourismGovt of Andhra PradeshThis is a great event organised by DDP Publications. I am really happyand would like to thank India Travel Awards for giving us this chanceto be a part of this event. I look forward to it next year too.

INDIA TRAVEL AWARDS


J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 TRAVTALK 2 5INDIA TRAVEL AWARDS

Maya only for the best in trade

The Best Hospitality Professional Award was given to Nikhil Dhodapkar, Regional Director, Sales& Marketing - India, Accor from Ganta Srinivasa Rao, Minister of Human Resource Development,Government of Andhra Pradesh, Neerabh K Prasad, Principal Secretary Tourism, Government of

Andhra Pradesh, Sindhura Kaviti, Miss Vizag and SanJeet, Director, DDP Group

The Best Airline Professional Award was given to Mittu Chandilya, CEO, AirAsia India, received on his behalf by Gaurav Rathore, Commercial Director, AirAsia India from

Ganta Srinivasa Rao, Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of Andhra Pradesh,Neerabh K Prasad, Principal Secretary Tourism,Government of Andhra Pradesh,

Sindhura Kaviti, Miss Vizag

The award was given to Kempegowda International Airport Bengaluru and received by Raj Andrade, Vice President Business Development Marketing & Strategy, and

Lokesh Matta, Head of Airlines Marketing (Passenger & Air Cargo Network)

The award was given to Andhra Pradesh Tourism and received by G. Venkateswarlu, s.e. APTDC

The who’s who of tourism industry gathered for the second edition of South India Travel Awards hosted at Novotel Visakhapatnam Varun Beach to celebrate the best in trade. features some of the proud winners of Maya.

Best Hospitality Professional

Best Airport

Best Airline Professional

Best State Tourism Board


J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 TRAVTALK 2 7FAMILY ALBUM

Jammu & Kashmir Tourism organised the J&K Travel Mart 2015 at SKICC, Srinagar. This initiative was taken in order to promote J&K as an all time touristdestination and to showcase the state as a unique tourism product. A large number of domestic and foreign buyers and sellers were a part of the event.This is the first travel mart of this magnitude held in Kashmir that provided opportunities to the local tourism sector to grow in an efficient way.

Growth opportunities for trade@JKTM


NTO

9 airlines to test IATA’s NDC schemeThe International Air

Transport Association (IATA)announces further growth inthe number of airlines partici-pating in pilots and live deploy-ments to test and evaluate theNew Distribution Capability(NDC) schemas. The airlinesparticipating in this areLufthansa, Qantas, China

Southern Airlines, SwissAirlines, Hong Kong Airlines,Avianca, Gol Linhas Aereas,Insel Air, and UkraineInternational Airways. “We wel-come the participation of theseairlines as well as their travelagent and technology partnersin helping to test and imple-ment the NDC Standard. NDC

will modernise the way that air-line products are presentedthrough travel agents as wellas help to promote efficiencyand innovation. NDC is a pro-consumer move that isunleashing innovation. WithNDC, travellers shoppingthrough agencies will be ableto compare the full product

offering—tailored to their spe-cific requirements,” said TonyTyler, Director General andCEO, IATA. IATA alsoannounced the launch of theNDC microsite with informationon how to get started withNDC, including links to instruc-tional videos.

For more information, contact us at: [email protected]

JUNE 2015INTERNATIONAL21-25 Melbourne Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE)

NATIONAL15 Pune Why Spain? – Presentation &

Networking Dinner for Travel Trade25 Kolkata East India Travel Awards

JULY 2015NATIONAL10 Delhi VKonect MICE : B2C 10 -12 Bengaluru India International Travel Mart11 Delhi VKonect MICE: B2B 13-14 Mumbai Kiwi Link India workshop,

Tourism New Zealand13 Goa Learn South Africa14-15 Ahmedabad Learn South Africa14 Delhi Atout France Presentation15 Mumbai Tourism New Zealand Frontline Training15 Kolkata Singapore Tourism Board Networking

Cocktail Dinner15 Chandigarh Atout France Presentation16 Kolkata Singapore Tourism Board

Networking lunch16 Mumbai Atout France Press Networking

Dinner16 Delhi Tourism New Zealand Frontline Training16 Jaipur Learn South Africa17 Mumbai Atout France Presentation17 Delhi Learn South Africa

17-19 Chennai India International Travel Mart17 -19 Kolkata Tourism Expo India 18 Chandigarh Singapore Tourism Board

Networking Lunch & Cocktail Dinner20 Jaipur Singapore Tourism Board

Networking Lunch & Cocktail Dinner

20 Jalandhar Learn South Africa20 Kolkata Thailand Road Show22 Lucknow Learn South Africa22 Pune Singapore Tourism Board

Networking Lunch & Cocktail Dinner22 Delhi Thailand Road Show23 Kolkata Learn South Africa 23 Hyderabad Singapore Tourism Board

Networking Lunch & Cocktail Dinner24 Vizag Singapore Tourism Board

Networking Lunch & Cocktail Dinner24 Mumbai Thailand Road Show24 Mumbai Learn South Africa 24-26 Hyderabad Travel & Tourism Fair25 Pune Learn South Africa 27 Hyderabad Learn South Africa 29 Trichy Learn South Africa 30 Chennai Learn South Africa31 Bengaluru Learn South Africa 31–Aug 2 Kolkata Travel & Tourism Fair

AUGUST 2015INTERNATIONAL5-7 Beijing CIBTM

NATIONAL1 Cochin Learn South Africa 3 Mumbai Learn South Africa 4 Nagpur Learn South Africa4 Kolkata Tourism Authority of Thailand B2B

Roadshow4 Bengaluru Mauritius Tourism Promotion

Authority B2B Roadshow5 Delhi Mauritius Tourism Promotion

Authority B2B Roadshow6 Mumbai Mauritius Tourism Promotion

Authority B2B Roadshow6 Lucknow Tourism Authority of Thailand B2B

Roadshow7-9 Vadodara Holiday Expo

The Travel AgentsAssociation of India (TAAI)

and South African Tourism(SAT) signed an MoU on May28, 2015, in Mumbai to conducttheir workshop ‘Learn SouthAfrica’ - Module 6 in 15 citiesacross India from July 13 toAugust 4, 2015. It was signedby Jay Bhatia, Chairman,Tourism Council and Co-Chairman, Airline Council, TAAI,and Alpa Jani, Manager (TradeRelations), SAT.

The workshop is organ-ised by TAAI for all tourism pro-fessionals including frontlinestaff and managers. Each par-ticipant will receive certificatesand will also qualify for a famil-iarisation trip to South Africa.They will be chosen from everycity, possibly from every ses-sion as certain cities will havemultiple sessions. In total, there

will be 25 sessions spread over15 cities. Bhatia says, “TAAI’sendeavour is to educate thetrade about destinations thatshall enable agents to promotethe destination as well as theproducts available there. SATis looking to train at least1,500–1,800 frontline and mid-level tour operators who areTAAI as well as non-TAAImembers. We want to educatethe entire fraternity becausewe want everyone to benefit.”

Giving details of theworkshop, he adds that eachfour-hour workshop will havean hour of presentation fol-lowed by round-table discus-sion with each supplier sittingon one table with a group ofaround 10 buyers that willchange every 10 minutes. Thiswill ensure personalised atten-tion. “In the end it is the agentthat convinces a client tochoose South Africa over anyother destination. SAT is flying

down DMCs and hoteliers fromSouth Africa but we don’t havea confirmation on the numberof suppliers yet,” Bhatia says.

Each session will accom-modate around 65-80 peoplewith multiple people from onecompany. For Mumbai, Bhatiais expecting at least 300 peo-ple in total. TAAI will be coordi-nating for all sessions includingthe RSVPs. Agents can con-firm participation at [email protected] orcall the TAAI Secretariat.

TAAI has signed an MoU with South African Tourism to conduct the sixth module oftheir workshop ‘Learn South Africa’ in 15 cities across India.

Learn South Africa the SAT way

TT BU R E AU

Alpa Jani, Manager Trade Relations, SAT with Jay Bhatia, Chairman-Tourism Council, TAAI

Despite 2014 being a chal-lenging year tourism-

wise, SouthWest GermanTourism has recorded envi-able figures from India makingit the second-fastest growingmarket in percentage termsafter China.

Revealing some figuresis Hector D’souza, Director(India), SouthWest GermanTourism and President ofL’orient Travels. “India holds therecord for the highest numberof overnights which is an aver-age of 7.1 nights per visit inSW Germany as compared toother nationalities that stayedfor 2.4 nights. If this is multi-plied by number of visitors, ittakes India to the top 10 sourcecountries,” he says. Year 2014recorded 1,65,000 overnights

from India. The total number ofovernights from India for theperiod January-March 2015reached about 40,000 repre-senting a 35 per cent increaseas compared to the same peri-od last year. D’souza adds,“These three months, betweenJanuary to March, is generallythe off-season for travellers.We hope to close this year with

more than 2,00,000 overnightsfrom India which will amount toa 20 per cent increase.”

Citing good connectivityas one of the many reason forthis growth, he added, that theregion has very good connec-tions whether it was rail, roador air. “We have a new airlineentering the Stuttgart airportnow – Etihad with Air Berlin onthe Mumbai-Abu Dhabi-Stuttgart route besides allother airlines like TurkishAirlines, KLM, Lufthansa andAir France,” he says, addingthat self-drive is also becomingpopular in SW Germany.

The region has also seenan increase in the number ofspecialists in India through itsprofessional online training pro-gram – Going Cuckoo. “Thereare 475 specialists across India

now who have completed thetraining program with 1,500agents who are registered withthe program. One in three whoregister is a qualified specialist.Our target is to reach 1,000 spe-cialists by 2018,” D’souzareveals. It is the only state inGermany offering an onlinetraining program. This year, twolucky winners from the 475specialists will go on an all-expense paid trip to SWGermany. D’Souza says thatthe tourism board may evenintroduce an app next year butdid not confirm the same.

On a high from record-breaking overnights received from India in 2014-15, SouthWestGerman Tourism is keen to add more travel agents to its specialists fold.

HA Z E L JA I N

India No. 1 in overnight stays

Hector D’souzaDirector (India), SouthWest GermanTourism and President of L’orient Travels

Break evenSAT is looking to train atleast 1,500–1,800 front-line and mid-level touroperators who are TAAIas well as non-TAAImembers.

Going CuckooThere are 475 specialistsacross India now whohave completed the training program.


J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 TRAVTALK 2 9OPPORTUNITY/CLIPBOARD


3 0 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 MOVEMENTSAirbus Group IndiaBengaluruPierre de Bausset, a 25-year veteran of Airbus Group and its formerCorporate Secretary, is taking over as President of Airbus Group

India. His mandate is to further boost the Group’scollaboration with India and embed it durablyin the overall Airbus Group’s industrial organ-isation. Bausset served as General ExecutiveManager at European Aeronautic Defenceand Space Company EADS since April 2008. He has also served as Director of Investor Relations at European

Aeronautic Defence & Space anda Director of DassaultAviation.

Roots Corporation Limited MumbaiRahul Pandit has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer by RootsCorporation (RCL) which operates 'Ginger' chain of hotels, a wholly

owned subsidiary of The Indian Hotels Company(IHCL). An industry veteran with over twodecades of experience in the hospitality andtravel industry, Pandit first started his careerwith Taj. He is one of the founding membersof Lemon Tree Hotels where he played amulti-faceted role in developing diverse

aspects of new business includingOperations, Human Resources,

Technology and Sales.

Hotel The Royal PlazaNew DelhiFaisal Nafees has been newly appointed as the Executive AssistantManager at Hotel The Royal Plaza. This is a promotion from his

previous role as Director – Food & Beverage atthe same property. With over a decade of

exalted experience in the industry, he hastrained well on key management disci-plines of Operations, Sales & Marketing,Administration, Finance and Training. Inhis capacity as the Executive AssistantManager, Nafees will be spearheadingthe planning and implementation of

all operational procedures, recruit-ment, among others

things.

Eastin Hotel AhmedabadSuma Menon has been appointed as the new Director of Sales byEastin Hotel Ahmedabad. In this role, she will focus on developingand executing sales strategies that emphasiseenhanced property performance, meaning-ful and long-lasting client relationships andthe identification of new revenue-gener-ating opportunities. Menon comes toEastin with 10 years of experience inthe hospitality industry. She devel-oped her career through a seriesof appointments with luxury hotelsincluding Le Meridien HotelAhmedabad, The Fern, SheratonUdaipur Palace Resort & Spa,and Four Points Sheraton.

The SuryaaNew Delhi The Suryaa, New Delhi, has appointed Chef Sanjay Thomas as F&BDirector. He will oversee all of the hotel’s food and beverage pro-gramming including menu creation and executionfor some of Delhi’s most high-profile events,galas and weddings hosted at the hotel.Thomas began his career at The LeelaKempinski, Bombay, and later travelled toSeychelles, the UAE and Kuwait. ChefThomas has over two decades ofculinary experience andspecialises in developingnew menus, planningand strategising forF&B department.

The Grand New DelhiDeepak Behl has been appointed as Director Human Resourcesat The Grand New Delhi. In his new role, he will be responsible

for talent management, leadership develop-ment, employee reward strategy and

implementation, organisational capa-bility and operations support. Behl, analumnus of IIM - Lucknow started hiscareer as Dy. Supdt. of Police thoughlater shifted to corporate world andhas over 20 years of extensive workexperience with companies like BPL,

The Oberoi Group of Hotels, GapInc., InterContinental and Hilton

Hotels as Director HR.

Om Prakash has been appointed as Director of Engineering atThe Grand New Delhi. Prior to this appointment, he has beenassociated with Dusit Devarana, Lebua,ITC Fortune and The Lalit. With morethan 30 years of technical experi-ence, in which 10 years were withthe Indian navy, Prakash possessesin-depth knowledge and solid expe-rience in engineering. In his new role,Prakash will lead the EngineeringDepartment and contributing innova-tive ideas in energy saving andgreen technology.

Courtyard by MarriottGurgaonPuneet Sharma has been appointed as the new Food & BeverageManager by Courtyard by Marriott Gurgaon. He will be responsible

for the day to day operations of the F&B unit,achieving revenue targets and driving strategic

food and beverage promotions in the hotel.Sharma comes with over a decade ofexperience in the hospitality industry. Hehas worked with hotels like the SheratonBangalore, JW Marriott, Mumbai, JP

Palace Hotel and Convention Centre, Agra,Olive Beach Bar and Restaurant, Bangalore

and Graviss Foods Pvt. Ltd. (BaskinRobbins).

Orana Hotels & ResortsNew DelhiSushil Kumar has been appointed as Resident Manager by OranaHotel & Resorts, New Delhi. He comes with 19 years of experience

in the hospitality industry. Kumar is a graduateand holds a diploma in Hotel Operation.

Kumar was working with The Umrao,before joining Orana Hotels and Resortsin New Delhi. Previously, he has alsoworked with Le Meridien, Crowne Plaza(IHG), and Park Plaza (Carlson Group).

“I am a birder. Birding is a big interest of mine,” saysShoba Mohan, Founder and Partner, RARE Destinations& Experiences. Mohan says she loves travelling andexploring people and places. “For me travelling to any ofmy hotels or any hotel is a part ofexploration that I do,” she adds.Mohan invests her time inwriting poems and othergeneral writing. She’s not a bigfoodie and always likes to keepit simple, whatever she has orcooks. Mohan loves travellingto Ladakh, a place which shehas visited thrice. “The barrenlandscape, the people and theBuddhist atmosphere bringsone’s focus backinwards,” sheconcludes.

Javed Parvez, Director of Sales & Marketing, NovotelHyderabad Airport, loves to travel and fine dine. “Being atrue Indian, I love to explore food from across all regions inIndia with biryanis being my all timefavourite, I can also dish out a fewvarieties of biryani for family andfriends,” he says. Parvez says thatvisiting unexplored places is whatexcites him. India has lot to offerwith so much to explore fromGulmarg in Kashmir to Panchmari inMP and Munnar down south. “I amalso fond of sports, I play table tennisor throw a ball (cricket) or even kick sometimes (football) with my kids.”

Sonica Malhotra, Director, MBD Group, says she likes totake time out to relax and visit spas to unwind after a hardday’s work. “I love to eat out. I like going to the spas andrelaxing. Well, in my job it’s very important to relax so Imake sure I visit spa regularly,”she says. Malhotra loves totravel to London. “I loveLondon as a destination.It is one of those placeswhere I like to spendtime in. Also, I am aperson who lovesbeaches. Destinationswith beaches nevermiss my sight and Imake sure I visit themwhenever I can,” sheadds.

Talking People is a special dedicated corner, created as a sounding board for the who’s who of the Indian and international travel industry. Talking People is our endeavour to bring you face-to-face with these professionals. Contributed by: Anupriya Bishnoi & Samapti Das


Postal Reg. No.: DL(ND)-11/6044/2015-16-17; WPP No.: U(C)-178/2015-17 for posting on 1st-2nd and 16th-17th

of the same month at New Delhi PSO, New Delhi - 110001, RNI No.: 53492/1991Date of Publication:15-06-2015

Tapping online marketAt the recently concluded

ATM in Dubai, Travelportreleased a report saying thatMiddle East’s $72 billion travelmarket is set to grow further.We have predicted that onlinetravel bookings will represent36 per cent of all bookings inthe region by 2017, asopposed to 25 per cent current-ly. We have no recent report forIndia. But the online penetra-tion here is much larger than inthe Middle East. The burgeon-ing OTA market in India is facil-itating this growth. There hasbeen a big growth in onlinespace here, whether it isthrough existing travel agen-

cies that are going into onlinechannels or new entrantswhich are exclusively online.

The beyond air strategyInterestingly, our compa-

ny has also recorded double-digit growth in the beyond airside of the business. While wehave a strong history with air-line products, representingmore than 100 airlines, wehave seen a spurt in beyondair business. The revenues inour beyond air grew by 14 percent in the fourth quarter oflast year. Our plan is to keepthis growth on track. We seethis segment as a growth driv-er. The company’s beyond airportfolio currently includesdistribution and merchandis-

ing solutions for hotels, carrentals, rail, cruise lines andtour operators, payment solu-tions, advertising and otherplatform services.

Smartpoint edgeThe travel commerce

platform is also focusing onSmartpoint, the smart desk-top solution and our RichContent and BrandingSolutions. We have workedwith Smartpoint in such a waythat we have basically takenthe desktop which the travelagencies have been using forthe past 40 years andenhanced it. Travelport’sSmartpoint gives usersaccess to over 400 airlinescontent, including low cost

carriers, over 600,000 hotelproperties and 35,000 carrental locations. With thismassive data travel agentscan provide their users withminute details from familyfares, sets, bags and muchmore. We still keep the oldfunctionality it had, but nowwe have launched more realtime data, revamped thegraphic interface, added moredata and made it a point andclick base. These new devel-opments make usability easi-er and productive for agents.For example—as soon as thecustomer books flight whichhas an overnight stay, there isa product called Agent Alert,which automatically prompts

the travel agent. And heknows this customer needs ahotel. The Smartpoint appwas launched last year in theIndian market and has donepretty well. The app is helpingin increasing options for air-lines and travel agents tomonetise profits by offeringconsumers more servicesfrom a single point like hotels,transport, travel and medicalinsurance, WiFi, etc.

New upselling opportunities

We are betting big on ourRich Content and Brandingmerchandising solution. Thepopular merchandising tech-nology, which is integrated intothe company’s travel com-merce platform, acts as a part-ner to the travel agencies. Itprovides the technology toallow them to operate effective-ly online. Specifically, RichContent and Branding allowsairlines to control how theirproducts are visually present-ed and described to agents.Some of the many benefits ofRich Content and Branding totravel agencies include poten-tial increase in ticket sales; theability to book through theirusual, preferred bookingprocesses, rather than havingto go to an airline’s website formore information; and signifi-cant upselling opportunities oncore fares, as well as ancillar-ies, or ‘optional extras’, suchas bags, lounge passes or‘next fare up’.

Addressing the complexities of creating and delivering effective strategies astechnology continues to transform travel trade, Rabih Saab, President and ManagingDirector-Africa, Middle East and South Asia, Travelport talks about the significanceof India for the company and current trends in the Indian travel industry.

Going beyond vanilla bookings

ME G H A PAU L

Enhanced Desktop The Smartpoint app was launched in India in 2014

The app gives users access to over 400 airlines content,over 600,000 hotel properties and 35,000 car rentallocations

The company is also focusing on Rich Content andBranding Solutions

Our company has also recordeddouble-digit growth in the beyondair side of the business. Therevenues grew by 14 % in the fourthquarter of last year.

Rabih SaabPresident and Managing Director-Africa,

Middle East and South Asia, Travelport


J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 TRAVTALK 1

Experts tell us which tech-trends will change thegame in the competitive

hotel market this year; what isthe relevance of guest intelli-gence data/big data analyticsfor today’s hoteliers; andamong the hotel laptop web-site, mobile websites, OTA and travel agents, who influences bookings and profitability the most.

RJ Friedlander, CEO,ReviewPro, says the prolifera-tion of big data runs the risk ofoverwhelming hoteliers, butmanaged correctly, it canunlock the door to highly per-sonalised experiences forguests and better operationsfor hoteliers - both online and on-site. One very clear application of Big Data analytics for hoteliers is the mining of guest feedback data, both from the social web and from direct survey responses.Savvy hoteliers are accessingmeaningful insight into traveller behaviour andlikes/dislikes to make decisionsthat improve operational andservice excellence, decreasecosts, improve guest satisfac-tionand increase revenue.

Mobile Recently, mobile device

usage including smartphones,tablets and everything inbetween has seen explosivegrowth among travellers. Today,travellers are using mobiledevices to research trips, makereservations and share theirtravel experiences.According to eMarketer,by the end of 2015,mobile will representan estimated 70 percent of the total searchaudience in the US.By 2018, mobile willaccount for an esti-mated 37 per cent ofall US digital travelsales, with similar

trends happening in countriesaround the globe.

However, Millenials are“mobile-first” travel consumers,making mobile even more

important for hotels in 2015.Mobile-first travellers rely heav-ily on their mobile device whiletravelling - not only for booking,but also to research and findsolutions for any issues theymight encounter.

Guest Intelligence is thein-depth analysis of onlinereviews and guest satisfactionsurvey data – which includesboth during – and post-stay surveys, to provide detailed

insight into what guests like and dislike about their stay, and determine how a hotel can improve the guest experience.

By collecting and analysing guest feedback,hoteliers no longer have toguess which actions willimprove a future guest’s

stay. They can pinpointexactly which areas/

departments of the prop-erty are performing welland which needimprovement.

Withincreased guest

satisfaction theproperty will receivefewer negative reviews

– and in many cases,

an increase in positive reviews. As the number of positive reviews increases, the property’s online reputation will also improve –a factor that can have a

significant impact on the property’s overall revenue.

Nikhil Sama, Co-founder& CEO, SnapLion, says, dataenables hotels to identify andsegment people by theirspending habits/frequency.Differentiated and relevantservices can then be providedto each segment.

Mobile, the gamechanger

Hotels with custom builtmobile Apps will be able toprovide a superior, more con-venient experience to theircustomers including bookingof rooms, ordering room serv-ice easily, making reservationsat in house restaurants/night-clubs, promotions and more.By providing this superior

service, hotels will be able toplace their brand squarely inthe centre of their customer'slife - on their mobile phone.They will cordon off a set ofloyal hotel customers and cre-ate a strong sense of loyaltywhere visitors are not evenlooking at alternate optionsavailable on the Internet –because their favorite brand isavailable, right here, on theirmobile phone.

Identifying guest segments

Top customers stay withbrands, who recognise themas top customers, and offersuperior, and differentiated,service to them. Data is at thecentre of it all, because itenables hotels to identify andsegment people by theirspending habits/frequency.Differentiated and relevantservices can then be providedto each segment.

Channels of profitAll of these channels are

great for getting a volume ofcustomers who are looking forthe lowest priced hotels.Unfortunately, this segmentdoes not drive profitability.Profits are driven by loyal cus-tomers who choose the hotelwithout repeated price compar-ison with competitors. This seg-ment can only be attracted bycreating a custom brandedCRM solution preferably via amobile App.

Ride the waveAvijit Arya, Chief Mogul,

Internet Moguls, says thatmobile is already dominatingmore than 67 per cent of our

attention span and bookingoptions are now best displayedon mobile for conversions.Simple live chat and Facebookchats are closing more book-ings for hotels since we startedthis last year. I don't believe intrends because trends are his-tory, this digital industry that I'ma part of is evolving muchfaster than any such trend gets

time to become a statistic. So, instead of focusing ontrends try to ride the wavebefore you see it coming likesometimes you swing the bat anticipating the bowler’shand movement.

Be data intelligent Data has been there for-

ever but now the data pointsare in thousands. The intelli-gence is not in the data; it’s inknowing which data to processwhen, how and what decisionsto make out of the same.

Cutting-edge technology not only gives a head start in a competitive environment, it also helps improve operationsand manage energy needs efficiently. In our cover story, we explore technology trends for 2015.

Virtually perfect future for hotelsKANCHAN NATH

Online reputation mattersAccording to a 2012 Cornell University study (using

ReviewPro’s data), a one-point increase in a property’s online reputation can lead to a possible:

0.89% increase in price (ADR).

0.54% increase in occupancy.

1.42% increase in RevPAR.

Try to ride thewave beforeyou see itcoming likeswinging thebat anticipatingthe bowler’shandmovement

Data enableshotels to identifypeople by theirspending habits.Differentiatedservices canthen be provided to each segment

Hoteliers areaccessingmeaningfulinsight intotravellerbehaviour that improveoperations andservice

RJ FriedlanderCEOReviewPro

Nikhil SamaCo-founder & CEOSnapLion

Avijit AryaChief MogulInternet Moguls

As MakeMyTrip continues tofocus on expanding its

Holidays business, it will utilisethe core strength of technologyto make travel-purchaseprocess convenient and seam-less, thereby creating cus-tomer delight. Talking abouttapping the Holidays businessin a big way, Ranjeet Oak,Chief Business Officer -Holidays, MakeMyTrip, says,“We want to be the consultantthat customers turn to for alltheir travel-related needs. Wehave taken a number of stepsto ensure a delightful and com-

fortable holiday experience forour customers. Arrivals toThailand are usually earlymorning but hotel check-inshappen post-noon. To ensurethat travellers have a comfort-able post-flight experience, wehave set up a specialCustomer Lounge in Thailandwhich is Wi-Fi enabled. Weoffer breakfast and a facility tofreshen up. Our customersreally appreciate this gestureas it helps them prepare for aday of sight-seeing withoutfeeling rushed or tired.”

Regarding other new ini-tiatives to make the holidayexperiences better, Oak adds,“We have also launched pack-age innovations such as INRpricing for our Europe pack-ages so the customer need notworry about how currency fluc-

tuation will impact the final costof their holiday. In the last fewyears, we have enabled Indiantravellers to visit destinationssuch as Ladakh andAndamans that were tradition-ally perceived as ‘expensive &inaccessible’. We did this bycreating bundled holiday prod-ucts with first-in-market charterflight tie-ups, bringing down theoverall cost of travel to these

previously unaffordable desti-nations. We are also the onlytravel company to offer Charterflights to Bhutan from Mumbaiand Ahmedabad.”

The company will con-tinue its journey of innovatingwith packages, enhancingservice and bringing new des-tinations closer to Indian trav-ellers. Elaborating on offer-

ings for travel agents, heinforms, “We welcome thelarge B2B travel agent com-munity to partner our efforts.Working with MakeMyTrip isas easy as booking a pack-age with us — our first-in-industry online booking mod-ule provides access to all hol-iday packages listed on ourwebsite. We have the largestnumber of online holiday

offerings — and now, thanksto technology, it is just a clickaway for affiliates who want topartner with us in our journeyto success. Affiliates canleverage our strong onlinepresence and make holidaybookings online for their customers. The entire pricing and availability portfo-lio is available online for mak-ing reservations.”

The online module offerslive and real-time inventory,pricing and booking optionswith no lag between anenquiry and booking requestto the actual booking confir-mation to the customer. Theaim is to let the partner agentsbecome a part of the fast-growing e-commerce industrywithout having to make hugeinvestments, he adds.

Betting big on the Holidays segment, MakeMyTrip has launched a slew of initiatives such as setting up specialCustomer Lounge in Thailand, INR pricing for Europe packages and bundling holiday products with first-in-marketcharter flight tie-ups, among other offerings.

Hassle-free holidays a click away

ME G H A PAU L

We want to be theconsultant thatcustomers turn to forall their travel-relatedneeds. We havetaken a number ofsteps to ensure adelightful andcomfortable holidayexperience for ourcustomers

Ranjeet OakChief Business Officer – HolidaysMakeMyTrip

J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 TRAVTALK 3TECHNOLOGY

4 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 TECHNOLOGY

Amadeus is enabling thetravel industry with

latest technology solutions toconnect and reach out to var-ious stakeholders, thusenabling a more connectedfuture of travel.

Talking about new initia-tives in the company, RakeshBansal, CEO, Amadeus India,points out, “Amadeus alreadyoffers multi-mode options andis expanding in this domain aswell. Amadeus continues toinvest in new products andsolutions that allow travel com-panies to give travellers fasterand more accurate answers sothey can create their ownunique travel experiences.”Amadeus believes that infuture, “personalised bundles”of products and services will beavailable to travellers. Thesewill be distributed via a seriesof new sales channels, whichit has divided into “inspiration”channels such as smart-phones, tablets and virtual

reality headset, or “information”channels like the smart watch,augmented reality glasses andservice robots, Bansal adds.

According to Bansal, theindustry is seeing a shift in

power back into the hands ofthe traveller. “Airlines todayneed to have a clear under-standing of what motivatestravellers and how their pur-chasing behaviors haveevolved, if they truly want to

build a more rewarding andconnected journey for tomor-row’s traveller. Mobile andsocial media channels will hold the keys to gathering data required forpersonalisation and contextu-

alisation and for connectingwith customers.”

Talking about how per-sonalisation will drive thegame plan, Bansal says,“Personalisation allows the

travel industry to offer cus-tomised products. The travelagencies and providers, whoknow their travellers better, bycollecting and using this per-sonalisation data, will be at acompetitive advantage.Personalisation would alsohelp in improving conversionsand profits. Thus, customerdata will become the mostimportant resource availableto companies and those that collect and use it mosteffectively will be at the greatest advantage.”

Technologies such asaugmented reality, gamifica-tion mechanisms and smartmobile devices have beentransforming the travel expe-rience, he feels. Predictingnew patterns and consumerbehavior that will drive new ini-tiatives, he comments,“Check-in at airports willbecome exception rather thanthe norm as manual check-insecurity will be replaced byfaster and more efficient sys-tems that track flows of peo-

ple. In future, all data on trav-el-related payments will beintegrated, acting as a mem-ory of expenditure and activityfor individuals, groups andtravel businesses. Travelagents of future will serve therole of an expert curator oreditor of recommendationsand reviews. Travel technolo-gies of future will help reducestress as intelligent luggagetags and tickets will givegreater reassurance whilst m-Health (mobile-Health)applications will allow travellers to manage and monitor their health.”

Continued emphasis onwork-life balance may meanemployers encourage peopleto take time off on either sideof a business trip. Travelagents of future must servethe role of an expert curatoror editor of recommendationsand reviews. Hotels will addvalue through technologiesthat make working away aseasy and painless as possi-ble – and help turn the busi-

ness traveller into the business tourist. Virtual business meetings, enabledby increasingly sophisticatedICT, will supplement ratherthan supplant face-to-facecontact, he adds.

Elaborating on the USPof the company and itsaggressive plans for theyear, he says, “Amadeus iscommitted to shaping thefuture of the travel industry,and has long been commit-ted to understanding its cus-tomers’ needs more specifi-cally. We believe that byunderstanding the future,values, priorities and result-ing needs of travellers andprompting discussion anddebate at the same time, weare all better placed to shapeit. At the same time,Amadeus has a long her-itage in producing thoughtleadership and researchpapers, which throw light ondifferent areas of our indus-try. We are a very customerdriven company.”

Travel agents of future must serve the role of an expert curator or editor of recommendations and reviews.The travel agencies who know their travellers better by collecting and using personalisation data will be at acompetitive advantage, feels Rakesh Bansal, CEO, Amadeus India.

Making way for travel curators

ME G H A PAU L

Amadeus continues to investin new products and solutionsthat allow travel companies togive travellers faster and more

accurate answers so theycan create their own unique travelexperiences.

Rakesh BansalCEO, Amadeus India

In a bid to boost businessthrough the mobile platform,

OYO Rooms, a network oftechnology-enabled budgethotels in India, has intro-duced a mobile App platformfor their hotel booking as well as booking stay experi-ences. The applications are available both on GooglePlay Store and Apple Appstore. The OYO Roomsmobile App is offering usersan industry-first three-taproom booking experience.

According to RiteshAgarwal, Founder & CEO,OYO Rooms, the companywanted to address all the pain

points related to the bookingand standardisation of prod-ucts in the budget space of thehotel market. Introducing thenew App, he says, “OYORooms was the first hotelbrand to bring the comfort andexperience of an expensivehotel at a much lower price, byusing technology to pioneer abranded network of budgethotels. Now, we are using a

smartphone App to completelyredefine guest experience atan OYO, allowing customers tonot only book rooms in lessthan 30 seconds, but alsoorder room service directlyfrom the App.” Going forward,the company would continue tomake the whole customerexperience, starting from book-ing to check out, “hassle-free”.

Besides booking rooms,the App will also enable cus-

tomers to search for the near-est available OYO Room fromover 4,000 rooms in more than15 cities across the country. Auser can search a specificlocation in a city and exploreavailable rooms on a map. TheApp will also provide details ofall the amenities available withthe pictures.

Talking about the evolu-tion of OYO Rooms, Agarwalsays from one hotel property

with nine rooms a year agotill date, the journey has beenexciting to become India’slargest network of technolo-gy-enabled budget hotelswith almost 350 hotels in 15cities in the country, selling atotal inventory of almost4,000 rooms. By the end of2015, Agarwal says the company would increase itsfootprint to at least 50 citieswith a total inventory of10,000 rooms.

On the back of the newly launched App, the company would increase its footprint to at least 50 cities with a totalinventory of 10,000 rooms by the end of 2015.

Get ‘App’ed with OYO Rooms

ME G H A PAU L

J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 TRAVTALK 7TECHNOLOGY

Ritesh Agarwal, Founder & CEO, OYO Rooms

OYO to add2,000 rooms inBengaluru in 12 months

OYO Rooms will offer2,000 high-quality rooms in150 hotels acrossBengaluru by the end of 12months. OYO currentlyoffers 300 rooms in 29hotels, spread acrossBangalore’s major businessand tourist-friendly loca-tions, including BrigadeRoad, Koramangala,Whitefield, Indiranagar andMG Road. The companyhas recently raised `150crore ($25 million) in ven-ture capital funding andplans to use this money toundertake a massiveexpansion in Bengaluruand other cities.

Ritesh Agarwal, CEO,OYO Rooms says, “OurBengaluru expansion is animportant part of our jour-ney of building the world’s largest network ofbranded hotels.

“Our team is workingvery hard to create a nichein the branded budget hotelsegment offering conven-ience that is technologybased, exactly what theyouth today understandsand expects.”

8 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 TECHNOLOGY

QHow has the responsebeen to the Pay as you

Go model for SME TravelBusinesses?

The response is over-whelming, especiallybecause we are being seenas a partner, rather than atechnology company offeringportal development services.Most importantly, cost pointsare attractive while keepingthe service quality intact.Each and every new function-ality customers think of, theyshare with us. Based on itssignificance and classifica-tion, we prioritise the devel-opment and deliver on peri-odical basis. I would say thatnow it is basically a cus-tomer’s driven developmentwhich gives them a comfortlevel and instant solution totheir problems in the sameorder of priority. Our offeringof two week-no obligationtrial, to test the application in production with live ticket issuance and hotelbookings, before deciding tomove ahead, is allowing cus-

tomers to evaluate and match their requirements withour offering.

QHow does technologyhelp travel business to

become more efficient?Every travel business

has a different customer typeand modus operandi. It isimportant for both the travelbusiness and the technologyprovider to understand howtechnology can help and con-tribute in making the life sim-ple for each travel business.A common rule does notwork for all and those whohave timely evaluated the

needs and found a matchingsolution have set an exampleof successful technologyimplementation yieldingincreased revenue, widerreach, improved efficiency,better conversions and in-turn added profits.

One of the facts westress upon is that with suchautomation, agency can focuson areas which needs moreattention and intelligence. Theclerical work can be handledby technology based on therules set and allow dynamicrules for increasing the profitwhile selling at the same price.

QIn the context ofmobile empowerment,

what is the future of tech-nology in travel?

We are currently witness-ing a growing mobile ecosys-tem. It will become a necessityfor each travel agency busi-ness to be connected with theircustomers over mobile.Connectivity is easily available,smart phones are widely usedand users are next generationwho want everything on a tap.

Most of the travel businesseswill agree that if they can pro-vide a simple tool to help cus-tomers receive post sales sup-port, it can be a good begin-

ning for both the agency andcustomer. As a first measure,we have enabled mobile friend-liness in the IBE.

QHow can the travelindustry embrace

technology for their businesses?

Our opinion here is tomake it more meaningful interms of the “what they canget/expect” and make itaffordable (balance the costs)and increase accessibility

(easy to configure) i.e. if apartner, like ours, can helpconsolidate the information,help travel agencies makebetter and faster decision

based on their knowledgeand experience, the resultswill be in line with expecta-tions. This can happen only ifthe expectations are set righti.e. “what does the customerneed” rather than “we havethis”. At this junction, whenthe opportunities are openingup, we have to help themunderstand the nitty-gritty,offer consultation, provideeducation and handhold themto be able to make use oftechnology.

QWhat are your plansfor 2015? Our agenda remains the

same, “Empower the SMETravel Business” with robust andscalable solution which theycan afford and which can helpthem grow their business. Inaddition to constant features,services and suppliers addi-tions to the SaaS offering, themajor developments plannedare Corporate Travel Module,Travel Planning Modules andmobile Apps for iOS andAndroid platform in the currentyear. These additional saleschannels will not only help trav-el agencies to sell more butmore travel agencies can adoptto our solution going forward.

Vivek Sanghi, Director, ecare Technology Labs, says they want to help the travel trade to understand the nitty-gritty, offer consultation, provide education and handhold them to be able to make use of technology.

Empowering SME travel businessPEDEN DOMA BHUTIA

Our offering of two week-noobligation trial, to test the applicationin production with live ticket issuanceand hotel bookings, before decidingto move ahead, is allowing customersto evaluate and match theirrequirements with our offering

Vivek SanghiDirectorecare Technology Labs

Going ForwardMajor developmentsplanned are CorporateTravel Module, TravelPlanning Modules andmobile Apps for iOSand Android platformin the current year

TECHNOLOGY

QYou expect double-digit growth this year.

How do you plan toachieve this?

We have been doingexcellent as far as growth isconcerned taking all marketsinto consideration and aremoving as per the plans setfor every quarter. The MiddleEast and the Asian region(especially India) deliveredan outstanding performancedue to demand for this mar-ket for inbound and outboundtravel. Our aim is to continueto consolidate our expansioninto international markets,especially in Africa andEurope, while maintaininggrowth in our home marketsof Middle East and Asia. Wehave also increased ourreach to deeper pockets ofthe market with a bigger glob-al sales team, in order to con-nect with every single travelagent and make sure wecater to their travel needs. Wewill also continue to give ourvalued partners extraordinarysupport service and diversi-fied inventory.

QHow was ATM Dubaifor you this year?RezLive.com was pres-

ent at the ATM sixth year in a

row in order to increase itsfootprint in the MENA Regionand connect with local clientsand suppliers. Over the fourdays of the event, we wereable to leverage real businessopportunities and engaged invaluable business conversa-tions, met new contacts, net-

worked in a fresh environ-ment and were able to gainbetter insights about some ofthe markets where we intendto take our growth forward.Also as expected, travel part-

ners across the globe turnedup in great numbers to look atthe various possibilities inwhich they can associatewith us and at the same time witness our award-win-ning innovations.

QWhat new can theagents expect from

you this year?This year we will be

looking at revampingRezLive.com. We havealready launched a new ver-sion of Rezlive.com which

has been well-appreciatedby travel agents across theglobe, and making theinventory even bigger bycontracting with other lead-ing hotel chains, so that weput the whole world at thefingertips of our travel part-ners. We are also looking at

expansion into internationalmarkets, specially Africaand Europe, in order to getone step closer to the localtravel trade. Furthermore,we have also revamped

Designer Indya andDesigner Packages as aone-stop solution for theinbound and outbound travelneeds of our travel partners.

QHow is the new officein Dubai performing?RezLive.com has

strengthened its propositionin the Middle East with anew and bigger office inDubai (JLT) and with a largeteam of multilingual profes-sionals. While we were sat-isfied with our former space,

there were several factorsthat motivated us to move,such as size (we have dou-bled our staff), and location.The days we spent atPalladium Tower were event-ful and we look at this moveas the start of the brightestchapter in our history.

Spreading wings overseasRezlive.com is ready to expand into the markets of Africa andEurope, while maintaining growth in ME and Asia by connectingwith every single travel agent. Jaal Shah, Founder, RezLive.comand Group MD of Travel Designer Group, tells more.

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We have revamped DesignerIndya and DesignerPackages as a one-stopsolution for the inbound andoutbound travel needs of

our travel partners.

Jaal ShahFounder, RezLive.com and Group

MD of Travel Designer Group

Designer IndyaDesigner Indya promotes

luxury inbound Indian holidaysto the international markets. Itcaters to the needs of travelpartners all across the globe and also empowersRezLive.com with 1600+ Indianhotel allocations and extendsthe facility to book Indian hotelsonline. Its detailed itinerariesand package module allowsinternational travel partners tosend their booking requestsonline and customise their pack-ages and inclusions through‘book your own tour’. With inno-vation of technology, DesignerIndya has huge online presence,attracting large traffic of B2B aswell as retail consumers, lookingfor customized Indian holiday experience. It recently launched a Designer Indya brochure during ATMthrough the hands of Manas Ranjan Pattanaik, Director – India Tourism (Ministry of Tourism, Govt.of India) and IRV Rao, Assistant Director – India Tourism, to showcase the different meticulouslydesigned itineraries for the travel trade within India and abroad. A launch event was also held in Omanto present the brochure in front of the local travel trade.

Manas Ranjan Pattanaik, Director – India Tourism (Ministry of Tourism Govt.of India) with Jaal Shah, Group MD, RezLive.com, and IRV Rao, AssistantDirector – India Tourism, Dubai

1 0 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 TECHNOLOGY

Betting big on technology,Arjun Seth, Managing

Director, Pearl Group ofCompanies says, “Technologyis at the heart of everything wedo today. Both from a clientservicing ability and your backoffice systems and processes,technology is the singlebiggest enabler helping com-panies transition into the digi-tal era of work flow and

processes. Travel is such acomplex and dynamic industry wherein without good technology companieswill not be able to keep up to customer requirements and

become redundant in anevolving landscape.”

Talking about the USP of their portal www.sast-

iticket.com, he adds, “We area family owned, employee driv-en organisation. We believe weemploy the best minds in the

business and continue to be onthe lookout for people withdiverse skills and backgroundsthat help us grow brand Pearl.For 25 years we have nurturedrelationships with our partner

agents, corporate customersand principal suppliers.”

Regarding how busi-ness in the company has

grown in the last twoyears, he informs,“Our online portalwww.sastiticket.comis growing every

month. Being amongst thelast recognised branded trav-el companies to roll out anonline B2B platform and thencompete for market sharewasn't easy but I am quitesatisfied on our cautious yetpositive approach to busi-ness. Our corporate, leisureand luxury vertical are seeinggood traction as well.” Bigdata is the biggest trend intravel, Seth feels. “How com-panies can use data points tocustomise solutions for theircustomers would be settingthe differentiators going for-ward. While a mobile onlystrategy would work for theB2C companies, in the cor-porate and B2B segments Idon't see mobile being usedas a transacting medium inIndia,” he points out.

Nurturing partnershipsThe corporate, leisure, and luxury verticals of onlineportal www.sastiticket.com are seeing good traction anddoing extremely well, says Arjun Seth, MD, Pearl Group.

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QuadLabs is a travel tech-nology specialist with an

aim of delivering world-classproducts to the travel industry.The products and servicesare powered by their world-class XChange platform. Theflagship XChange ERP sys-tem powers market leadersacross the globe and has emerged as the systemof choice for growing enter-prises. The products help the customers update theirbusiness processes, optimiserevenue streams andenhance their customer serv-ice experience.

Gaurav Chiripal, CEOand Director, QuadLabsTechnologies, says,“Technology has been thebackbone of the travel industryfor many decades. The entirereservation and fulfillmentprocesses for airlines havebeen on the GDS and reserva-tion systems for long. We areseeing growth on the use oftechnology on the land prod-ucts for the last few years. Themost important aspect is theautomation in distribution tech-nology at the consolidator andaggregator level. It is impera-tive to have a completely auto-mated distribution platformwhich can reduce human inter-

vention and help these companies to scale up withouta major cost.”

As far as the newtrends in the travel industryare concerned, Chiripal hasto say that they today will bethe game changers for thecompanies for the next fewyears. Trends like mobileand handheld interfaces,social media adaption andcontent distribution andemerging marketplaces fortravel agents are some of thefew. Chiripal adds, “We arebuilding multiple next gener-ation tools for the industry toadopt for their growth.”

Delivering software for growthGaurav Chiripal, CEO and Director, QuadLabsTechnologies brings forward the dedication of his companyin providing the best solutions to the travel industry.

SAMAPTI DAS

Gaurav ChiripalCEO and DirectorQuadLabs Technologies

Four ways technology is reinventing the travel industry1. Automated distribution of content through multiple

selling channels - Consolidation of content centrally for electronic distribution

2. Being with the customer all the time through mobile apps

3. Business intelligence tools helping projection of sales and better revenue optimisation

4. Collaboration and sharing of data internally – Use of a comprehensive Mid office platform

How companies can use data points to customise solutions for their customers would be setting the differentiators going forward.

Arjun SethManaging Director, Pearl Group of Companies

One of the largest B2B trav-el portals in India, TBO

Group currently has over14,000 travel agents as its cus-tomers and has presence inmore than 300 cities in Indiaand Middle East. TBO offers awide range of travel services toits partners, which in turn

enables them to serve the endcustomers more efficiently withthe right pricing and inventory.

TBO continues to growwith innovating travel productsand widening its travel agentnetwork. Speaking about the

company’s new initiatives,Ankush Nijhawan, ManagingDirector, Nijhawan Group ofCompanies, says, “TBO Groupis the first portal in India tointroduce dynamic packagingfor outbound, inbound as wellas domestic packages. Wehave now opened an office inBrazil which will now help usgrow in the Latin American

markets. TBO is the only portalwhich allows auto re-issuancefor GDS airlines.”

He adds that the portalwill continue to focus more andmore on its hotel verticals,strengthen its air business and

keep exploring opportunitiesglobally. Nijhawan Group hadrecently conducted a road-show. “We always get over-whelming response for ourroadshows. We will be doingroadshows in Tier II cities thisyear and we recently conduct-ed roadshows in Raipur, Indoreand Dehradun. These Tier IIand III cities are where there isa lot of disposable income andpeople wish to travel,” he adds.

Tech mantra Underlining the impor-

tance of technology for thetravel industry in these times,Nijhawan says that it is the onlyroute or mantra for successtoday in this fast-growingdynamic travel industry.“Technology enables scalewhich is very important in abusiness model like ours. Iwould say that all companiesneed to keep innovating andthinking out of the box. At TBO,we believe in being trendset-ters when it comes to technol-ogy. We have 155 software

engineers in the house who are devoted to build cutting-edge technology,”Nijhawan says.

Sharing his opinion onthe luxury travel market inIndia, he says that it is growingand shall be an important seg-ment of the business soon.“With the economic sentimentson a high, this segment shallsurely grow in 2016,” he adds.The TBO Group is active in 18countries and services travelagents in 52 countries.

Being the first portal in India to introduce dynamic packaging for outbound, inbound and domestic packages, Travel Boutique Online (TBO) Group has now opened an office in Brazil which will allow monitoringgrowth in the Latin American market.

Latin America on the radar

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At TBO, we believe in being trendsetterswhen it comes to technology. We have155 software engineers in the housewho are devoted to build cutting-edge technology

Ankush NijhawanManaging Director, Nijhawan Group ofCompanies & ITA Winner

TripAdvisor launchesandroid wear App

TripAdvisor hasannounced the launch of itsApp for Android Wearsmartwatches. The freeApp, which is currentlyavailable on Google Play,helps travellers find nearbythings to do with access toTripAdvisor traveller reviews

and ratings of hotels,restaurants and attractions.The launch of the newTripAdvisor Android WearApp follows the company’slaunch of its Apple WatchApp in April and Pebble

smartwatch app in May.

The TripAdvisorAndroid Wear App featuresrecommendations for near-by restaurants, attractionsand hotels, displays a list oftop-rated points of interestbased on the person’s loca-

tion (using GPS) along withratings and review titles tohelp them pick a great spot.Point of interest detailsshows addresses, pricerange, and hours of opera-tion and distances of pointsof interest from the user."Saves” for easy accessfeature allows travellers tosave their favourite restau-rants, attractions and hotelsand view them later onanother Android device orTripAdvisor.com. Directlinks to the phone allowstravellers to easily accessmore information on theirAndroid device about pointsof interest viewed on their smartwatch. TheTripAdvisor App is nowavailable on Google Play worldwide

J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 TRAVTALK 1 1TECHNOLOGY

Airfare consolidationtechnology crucial

While automationthrough technology has con-tributed immensely to the travelindustry, there is still a highdegree of manual pricingdependency that ensures air-fares are sourced at the lowestprice possible. Manually sourc-

ing airfare deals from differentproviders including GDSs canbecome a costly and time con-suming affair for travel man-agers and hence error proneas well. Travel companiestherefore need a revolutionarytechnology that can help themsave time, reduce cost, simplify

procurement processes, andconsolidate airfares from differ-ent sources at one pointbesides providing multi-func-tional options. In the currentmarket scenario, most airfareconsolidation servicesproviders either cover limitedgeographies or have access toonly a few GDS. Hence, travelorganisations need to searchdifferent GDSs, airlines individ-

ually and compare them manually to find lowest airfares. In addition, they facecurrency hurdles andexchange costs while manag-ing international travels.

As business of the cus-tomer grows, managing the

global spread locallybecomes a nightmarefor travel companies.This has given rise tothe need of a traveltechnology that canconsolidate airfaresfrom different GDSs,pseudo points and air-lines all in one place toenable search, compar-ison and booking thebest airfare deals fromacross the globe.

Growing business

Starting with ourair consolidator plat-form MyFareBox, todayMystifly has come a long way.MyFareBox itself has beenupgraded to version 5G, withadvanced user-friendly fea-tures & benefits, transformingthe ticketing fulfillment processfrom 2G to 5G, in additionthere is a white label solutionvariant MyFareBox Xclusive,an XML webservices integra-tion solution – MyFareBoxOnePoint, and very recently wehave introduced 247TravelDesk, a self-booking and

fulfilment platform for TravelManagement Companies(Corporate specific). Our glob-al travel technology solutionhas been honoured byMicrosoft through “Code forHonor” for Microsoft's SolutionExcellence Awards 2014. Theaward is specially designed torecognize and reward compa-nies building outstanding soft-ware solutions. Mystifly hasalso been named as DreamCompany to Work For (Travel

Technology) 2015 by 23rdWorld HRD Congress. Thecompany has also achievedBest Global TravelConsolidation Services awardconsecutively in 2014 and2015 by India Travel Awards. Inaddition to these air ticketingplatforms, Mystifly also offersa travel communications man-agement solution Azizt, this isa back end support system fortravel businesses that inte-grates phone, chat, email com-

munications into a singleplatform.

New trends in airtravel

Today travel busi-nesses have moved withthe times, even the small-est travel agent next doortoday wishes to have anonline portal, to be ableto provide content to theircustomers to choose andbook from. With cloudcomputing, mobile appli-cations and other tech-nology advancementstravel businesses havehopped on to App based,web based travel busi-

ness model. Enabling themsucceed and grow with tech-nology support at their back-end is the goal of Mystifly.

Initiatives this yearThis year our prime focus

would be on changing the waybusinesses have been han-dling their travel needs, air trav-el in particular and empowerthem to better manage andcontrol their costs, time andtravel procurements.

Technology that can consolidate airfares from different GDSs, pseudo points and airlines all in one place to enable search,comparison and booking the best airfare deals is the need of the hour, says Preetham N, COO, Mystifly ( winner).

Revolutionary tech for air travelTT BUREAU

MyFareBox itself has beenupgraded to version 5G, withadvanced user-friendly features &benefits, transforming the ticketingfulfillment process from 2G to 5G

Preetham N, COO, Mystifly

The award for Best Global Consolidation Services was given to Mystifly Consulting (I) and receivedby Preetham N, Chief Operating Officer

1 2 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5

QHow important istechnology to the

hospitality domain?It is impossible for the

hospitality industry to func-tion without technology. Thehotel property managementsystem manages guests’stay right from the time hebooks their hotel room onlineor at the hotel’s Front Desk,to when the guest checksout. Technology gets moreimportant to the hospitalityindustry as tech-savvyguests research hotelsonline, locate last-minute

hotel room booking deals,post travel plans on socialmedia, engage the hotelthey will stay at on Facebookor Twitter, post pictures oftheir stay on Facebook, etc.Since today’s guests areextremely networked andinformed, ensuring a wow

guest experience and build-ing loyalty is a huge chal-lenge for the hospitalityindustry. Here, hospitalitybusinesses leverage tech-

nology to maintain guest his-tory and personalise theirinteraction with guests at thehotel, and even after theyhave left.

QHow has business inyour company grown

in the last two years?

The mid-market seg-ment is currently showing thehighest growth in India. Thissegment requires less invest-ment compared to luxuryhotels. Hotels can be quicklybuilt and launched, and deliv-er value to price consciousIndian travellers. The mid-market hospitality segment iswhere IDS Next has thelargest set of customers. Asa private company, we areunable to divulge numbers,but we can definitely say thatthe hospitality industry inIndia has a strong growth tra-jectory and the horizon lookspositive.

QNew trends that yousee in the travel

industry currently?We see that cloud and

mobile are the way forward,for both the travel and thehospitality industry. Potentialguests are accessing cloudand mobile solutions for infor-mation on-the-go. The hospi-tality industry must keep upand stay updated on whentheir guests check in andcheck out, their expectationsand requests and anticipatethe guest’s needs or respondto them immediately. We seea greater use of cloud solu-tion and smart mobile apps inthe hospitality industry, all designed to enhanceguests experience.

The cloud and mobile storyPotential guests are accessing cloud and mobile solutions forinformation on-the-go, says Binu Mathews, CEO, IDS Next.

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Zo Rooms is a low-budgethotel chain that enables

users to book affordablerooms through a mobile App which geo-detects alocation and books into the nearest Zo Rooms availableat a single touch.

Giving more detailsabout the company, AbhishekShivhare, Head, StrategicPartnerships, Zo Rooms says,“Currently, there is no brand

promise in budget accommo-dation space. Business trav-ellers, looking for budget hotelsstruggle to get assurance onbasic amenities, hygiene, andsafety. We are committed tosolve this problem through ourbrand Zo Rooms. We spe-cialise in creating an experi-ence and that is our USP. Let’stake Zostel, our flagship brandas an example. Apart from pro-

viding budget accommodationin leisure travel space, we havesuccessfully created a commu-nity tied together by their expe-rience with Zostel. The USP is

the experience that we are facilitating for businesstravellers by ensuring a thick presence across mostcities in India. We are able toachieve this through ourmobile App, website and serv-ice assurance.”

The company is lookingat an aggressive expansionplan. “We have been expand-

ing rapidly. We started inleisure travel space andquickly moved to the busi-ness travel space, too. Infour months of launch of ZoRooms, we are present in 13cities with over 200 proper-ties. By December, we willbe present in 40 cities with1,500 properties,” he adds.

The reason behind ZoRooms’ accelerated growthis its technology offering. Amajority of unbranded hotelsare not sophisticatedenough to manage theironline listing, bookings, andcustomer reviews.

“There is enough resist-ance to invest in installinginventory and property management software. Also, a lot of them don’t havesufficient clarity on theessential requirements oftoday’s tech-savvy budgettraveller,” he opines.

Find hotels with one clickZo Rooms’ mobile App geo-detects a location and books intothe nearest Zo Rooms available at a single touch.

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Binu MathewsCEOIDS Next

QHow important is tech-nology for the travel

industry?Technology bridges the

demand with the supply morerapidly in travel industry.Information is now available tothe travellers that are relevantand structured, combined withthe intelligence and servicebehind it. The industry is cen-tered on the communicationand processing of informationand is hopefully bypassing theintermediaries with technologyadvancements, giving muchmore accessible experience forthe travellers. Equally technol-ogy helps the travel industrystakeholders such as travelagencies to get proper control,insight, transparency and busi-ness insights which help themto have a clear direction for

growth and save them fromrevenue leakages. Adoption ofright technology and solutionsto keep up with the expectationof new generation travellers orcustomers is important.

QWhat are the new ini-tiatives that you have

taken this year?

Travel BI - to help ourcustomers to unveil the powerful source of businessintelligence information fromtheir own transnational datafrom the operations andfinance for last many years. In short, to transform data into decisions to understandyour best customers, demanding customers, profitable destinations, prof-itable airlines etc.

Mid Office and GDSscripting tools - We havealready introduced a numberof scripting solutions integratedwith GDS systems for support-ing the Mid-Office and opera-tional activities which helpsthem to increase their rev-enues and at the same time protecting from the exist-ing revenue leakages due to

lack of timely information withmanual efforts.

IATA NDC Compliance -NuCore has taken its

initiative to make its TRAACS -The Travel AgentMid and Back office Solutions, an IATA NDC (New Distribution Capability)compliant solution, which isIATA's new initiative and is

going to revolutionise the waythe travel contents and shopping of travel productshappen between airlines andtravel agents.

QWhat kind of competi-tion do you face in

this tech dominated world?

There is tech dominationand being in a B2B segment,adoption of the technology for

fancy sake is not required.Hiring or getting right talents having technologyexpertise will be a challenge,as far as NuCore is concerned.All its management andfounder team are from puretechnology background andwe are highly passionate inbringing the latest technology.

QAnything else that youwould like to add.We are not just a soft-

ware solution provider for travel agencies and travel companies, but we want to establish ourselves as a perfect enabler for travelagents to leverage their results by proper convergenceof latest technology trends,best business knowledge and exact regulations in the industry.

Being in a B2B platform, NuCore Software Solutions is proud to have a purely technology based staff membersand looks forward to provide the best to the travel industry. Mohan Das, Head - Products and Solutions, NuCore Software Solutions, discusses the importance of technology and the new initiatives for this year.

Convergence of trends & knowledge

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Technology helps the travel industrystakeholders such as travelagencies to get proper control,insight, transparency and businessinsights which help them to have aclear direction for growth and savethem from revenue leakages

We see that cloud and mobile arethe way forward, for both traveland hospitality industry. Potential guests are accessingcloud and mobile solutions forinformation on-the-go

Mohan DasHead - Products and SolutionsNuCore Software Solutions

Business travellers, looking forbudget hotels struggle to getassurance on basic amenities,hygiene, and safety. We arecommitted to solve this problemthrough our brand Zo Rooms

Abhishek Shivhare, Head, Strategic Partnerships, Zo Rooms

Expansion PlansZo Rooms is present in13 cities with over 200properties

By December, it will bepresent in 40 citieswith 1,500 properties

TECHNOLOGY

J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 TRAVTALK 1 3TECHNOLOGY

Promoted by one of the fast-growing business groups in

South India that expects tocross `1,000 crore in the cur-rent financial year, GIHospitalities is focused on pro-viding comprehensive and cus-tomised accommodation tocustomers across large andSME companies, individuals,groups and incentives tours.

It has been creating avast inventory of hotels, serv-ice apartments and uniqueground travel products andservices and dreams of creating an accommodation hyper mart which will involvecreating a platform that can be used by the travel agentsto book hotels online.

On the new develop-ments, AV Varada Raju,Head Leisure, GIHospitalities, says, “Ouremphasis has always been onthe quality service with honestpricing. It’s been some timesince we had started with

simple products, but nowhave graduated to deal withcomplex itineraries for placeslike South Africa, Alaska,China, Brazil, Europe etc.With things moving in the rightdirection, we intend to comeout with our fixed departuresfor both domestic and interna-tional packages and are ven-turing into a new domain ofinbound tourism under ourflagship brand of ‘GioIndia’especially focusing on expe-rience-based tourism.”

Jatin Gulati, VicePresident- Marketing & Sales,Hermes i tickets, says this yearhas been specifically good forthem with over 300 per centgrowth as compared to lastyear. “We did very well withdomestic products likeHimachal, North East, Kashmirand Andamans. Internationally,we did extremely well withDubai, Thailand, SingaporeMalaysia and Bali. Much hasbeen possible due to goodcompetitive pricing mechanismand to ensure top service

with quick redressal for allissues,” he adds.

Its biggest strength,Gulati claims, is their sales net-

work that caters to nearly50,000 traditional and non-tra-ditional agents across India.“Much is possible due to per-sonal relationships and PR.Besides, we keep updating ouragents with weekly mailers,SMS blasts, WhatsApp pro-mos and are also active insocial media like Facebookand Twitter where we have alarge following,” he says.

Metro cities have alwaysbrought good returns for GI Hospitalities but the company is getting very goodvolume from other B Classcities like Raipur, Guwahati,Indore, Bhubaneswar,Coimbatore, etc.

GI Hospitalities’ profile ofbeing in B2B and B2C andservicing over four billiondomestic customers vide itsagent and corporate network,is quite lucrative to any hotelieror supplier. Further, its policyof working on instant cash with‘zero credit’ is quite acceptedby the hotels. “Our mantra of

reliable quality service at mostaffordable pricing has workedwell for us. Apart from that,customer delight in terms of24x7 customer support, tourissues redressal, instantrefunds and compensationsand importantly our emphasison maintaining a personal rela-tionship have all helped us togain confidence with our travelagent base,” Gulati says.

Underlining how technol-ogy will change the way theindustry functions, he says thattechnology goes hand in hand with growth in any industry and travel is no exception. “Today, the travellerdoes in-depth research beforebooking a hotel or a holiday interms of reviews, pricing, localinformation, food, etc. andonce he is content, expectsease of booking and definitelyseamless services. All this ispossibly only through technol-ogy and one that is easilyaccessible like a mobile or atab. Technology is the future,”Gulati adds.

GI Hospitalities plans to launch fixed departures for both domestic and international packages and is also venturing into a new domain of inbound tourism under its flagship brand of ‘GioIndia’ especially focusing on experience-based tourism.

Venturing into inbound with GioIndia

TT BU R E AU

Internationally,we didextremely wellwith Dubai,Thailand,SingaporeMalaysia andBali

We intend tocome out withour fixeddepartures for bothdomestic andinternationalpackages

AV Varada RajuHead LeisureGI Hospitalities

Jatin GulatiVice President- Marketing & SalesHermes i tickets

1 4 TRAVTALK J U N E 2 N D F O R T N I G H T I S S U E 2 0 1 5 TECHNOLOGY

Based in New Delhi, Zilliousis a technology solutions

provider and business process consulting firm for the travel industry. Speaking aboutthe new developments is BRajan, Director Sales, ZilliousSolutions. He says, “We areready with our mobile App forAndroid and Apple iPhones.We will also tap the overseasmarket and have recentlyopened an office in Dubai.Now, Zillious products will beavailable to all our customersin the Middle East marketgoing forward.”

He outlines the compa-ny’s marketing strategy andadds, “We are a pure technol-ogy company and we believein focusing on the same. Ourcost-efficient approach cou-pled with early adoption ofleading-edge yet effectivetechnologies help us deliverquick-to-market solutions thatdrive up the bottom-line of ourcustomers. Our collaborativestyle of working encourages

active involvement of client atevery stage of the product lifecycle through its inception,design and development toimplementation.” One of itsmain markets is the travelmanagement companies forwhich it has launched a newversion of Travolution v2.4. The

new version allows these companies to service their customers through back-officestaff, implants and self booking as well.

“Zillious Solutions contin-ues to work with travel agen-cies and we customise ourproduct according to corporaterequirements. As of now we donot conduct training work-shops for the industry but weare open to conducting/partic-ipating in seminars in order toemphasize the need and high-light the benefits of moving onto the e-commerce platform.Our focus has been the travelagencies across India whohandle corporate customers,”Rajan adds.

The company is currentlypromoting its products throughadvertisements. “But now thefocus is on meeting people at various trade shows and events. Of course, business through word ofmouth and references hasbeen our greatest promotionalplatform,” Rajan quips.

Foray into the ME marketNow ready with its mobile App, Zillious Solutions hasrecently opened an office in Dubai that marks its full-fledged foray into the Middle East market.

TT BUREAUIntegrated and seamless dis-tribution systems are critical

requirements for hoteliers; andthey must have their opera-tions and systems adopt thismodel. Connected systemsand processes allow for action-able intelligence to flow acrossdepartments empowering thestaff to make right decisionsquickly to leverage any and allmarket opportunities.

Hotels have a repositoryof information from differentparts of their business, such asbookings, customer prefer-ences, business sources, cus-tomer acquisition cost, foliodata and much more. This dataneeds to be mined intelligentlyto see how it can influencestrategic decisions.

Data such as businesssegment or booking trends, forexample, can be leveragedacross different departments.For the revenue managerinsights into this informationwill help them know if last yearduring the same period thebusiness segment provided agood source of business or

not. Based on this they canplan on distributing to theappropriate channels. Also,booking trends can be furtheranalysed to see what pricesand room types sold more. Thepricing team needs this infor-mation to see how the ratesyielded in the past and basedon that they can strategise thepricing for the future period.The booking trends can alsoprovide information on whichpromotions worked best; thisis relevant information for themarketing team to designappropriate promotions andpackages. The reputation man-agement function should alsolook at the reviews receivedfrom this segment and provideintelligence on what servicesappealed and did not. Thisinformation is important for therevenue manager to analyseand accordingly increase ordecrease rates.

Information needs toflow across all departmentsand the interactions betweeneach department must bemeasured to understand howdata can be leveraged to

improve operations. Suchdata intelligence will not justhelp in selling the right roomto the right customer but alsohelp in building additional rev-enue streams by leveragingall cross-sell and upsellopportunities as well.

Manually mining the datais a time consuming effort andprone to errors. Next gen busi-ness intelligence tools canaddress this need. This willhelp hoteliers arrive at a singletruth after analysing dataacross all functions and theirinterdependencies.

Empowering hotelsWith tech-savvy consumers on the rise, hoteliers needintelligent technology tools to stay on top of customerpreferences to engage them better.

Our focus hasbeen the travelagencies acrossIndia who handlecorporatecustomers

B RajanDirector Sales Zillious Solutions

Mike KistnerChief Executive OfficerRezNext Global Solutions

Blue Star Air Travel Servicesoffers a bouquet of prod-

ucts to travel agents, whichincludes air tickets, foreignexchange, visas, travel insur-ance and bus bookings on itsnew site bookonbluestar.com.

Madhav Oza, Directorand Co-founder, says, “Ournew portal highlights the addi-tional services that we offer,which no other portal is offeringon a B2B model. We will soonbe adding the option of ‘SeatRequest’. We have also startedaggressive marketing. We have also developed a newbranch under our tours teamfor MICE.”

Started in 1987, thecompany has a lot of agentmembers also allows agentsto book and pay for food andseat preferences of their cus-tomers after LCCs startedunbundling their services.Speaking about the compa-ny’s performance in 2014,Oza says, “Our performancelast year was very good interms of profit as well as vol-

umes. We have a robust sales team who meet the travel trade on a daily basis.

We have an excellent marketing team who are pro-moting our products and our brand through the electronic platform.”

He adds that the NorthIndia market, specially Punjabis showing phenomenal growthfollowed by Uttar Pradesh.Underlining its USP, he saysthat its services with a face24x7 to its clients, its qualityassurance and the companypolicy of never to poach theclients of its agents has

enabled Blue Star to grow overthe years.

With technology lookinglike the only harbinger ofgrowth in these times, Ozasays that the travel industryadopted technology more thantwo decades ago and has

prospered due to it. “Overthe last 10 years, clients inIndia have accepted technolo-

gy and are more comfortablebuying travel requirements ontheir mobile or computers.Since travel is a very wide field,it needs a human touch. WhatI see is that technology willtake care of major aspects(monotonous jobs) like ticket-ing, hotel rooms, etc andagents can take care of the

hospitality part where personalservices are required. We wel-come technology as it is help-ing us to increase our businessand also helps in giving excel-lent services,” he says.

The company has anoth-er unique feature – a dealsheet archive. While all B2Bonline travel companies havedeal sheets, they don’t offerarchives of deals done before.

Blue Star offers this for the con-venience of its agent partnerssince they like to refer to thepast deals. Oza is not a big fan of faceless online portals. He has therefore triedto give his customers a face tointeract with. “We have teamsdedicated to a group ofagents,” he said.

Blue Star Air Travel Services’ new portal highlights some additional services,thereby claiming to be the only one to offer them on a B2B model.

Cashing in on new portal

HAZEL JAIN

We will soon be adding the optionof ‘Seat Request’. We have alsostarted aggressive marketing. Wehave also developed a new branchunder our tours team for MICE

Technology is very importantto tap the main trends that

are affecting the supply anddemand in the tourism sector,feels Meenu Sachdeva, Co-

founder and Managing Director,TI Infotech. “Today’s travellersare much more tech-savvy aschanging technology in the glob-al tourism is evolving faster.

Hence, it has becomeimportant for the Indian tourismindustry to adapt and elevateits practices and skills to

meet the global standards andkeep a tap on its true potential,”she says. Giving details aboutthe latest offerings from thecompany that will help travelpartners tap the most ofemerging business opportuni-ties, Sachdeva reveals, “Wehave enhanced one of ourproduct — Travel CloudSuiteTM (Online TravelBooking Engine) by adding anew module – Corporate SelfBooking Tool. It is a robust,user-friendly web based solu-tion designed to run a smoothliaison between corporateclients and travel houses. Weare also looking at launchingfew new products by the end ofthis year.”

Regarding how therecently concluded show ofATM in Dubai was for the com-pany, she adds, “It was a greatshow at ATM Dubai 2015. Weshowcased a strong presenceat the event and exhibited ourtravel technology products –Travel Cloud SuiteTM (OnlineTravel Booking Engine) andTravel AssistTM (DestinationManagement Solution).”

Corporate Self Booking Tool isdesigned to run a smooth liaisonbetween corporates and travel houses.

Big bet on Booking Tool

TT BU R E AU

Meenu SachdevaCo-founder and Managing DirectorTI Infotech & India Travel Award winner

Madhav OzaDirector and Co-founderBlue Star Air Travel Services

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