President’s Desk…

MTOA Newsletter 9th Edition – March 2016 Only for private circulation among members of MTOA Extracts from various reputed publications in Travel Industry

www.mtoa.co.in

‘MTDC’ and ‘Unlimited Maharashtra’ like every year was an enthusiastic host to the TTF and OTM. For the first time ‘Kolhapur Tourism’ was actively represented at the MTDC stall by the support, recommendation and a strong initiative taken by Hon. Minister Mr. Chandrakant Patil, Honourable Cabinet Minister of Co-operation, Marketing, Textiles and Public Works, Government of Maharashtra. Apart from these two major events, MTOA had also actively participated in a Jammu and Kashmir Roadshow. It was my honour and pleasure that I had an opportunity to address and interact with all travel industry partners and friends from Jammu and Kashmir. February, therefore was a very fruitful month which saw the travel fraternity come together at quite a few occasions. The peak season is just round the corner and we all would soon get very busy with the business. Let’s all do our best to fulfil the travel dreams of our guests. I wish you all a very happy and successful season ahead!

Sudhir Patil President - MTOA

The month of February has been quite an exciting one with some great events taking place around the city. Firstly the very first ‘Make In India’ week was organised in Mumbai and the much awaited ‘TTF and OTM’ followed it. It was indeed a matter of pride for our state to host a business convention and fair of the stature of ‘Make In India’. This mega-event, which went on almost for a week saw an overwhelming participation of the industrial and financial sector and an enthusiastic response by the visitors. Maharashtra Tourism was well represented at the Make In India Week as a part of the Maharashtra State Pavilion. The tourism industry looks forward to The Travel and Tourism Fair and Outbound Travel Mart (TTF and OTM) every year. This year the TTF and OTM preceded the Make In India Week in Mumbai. Like every year, it saw the participation of state tourism boards, hoteliers, transporters, tour operators and travel agents across India. The Maharashtra Tour Organisers’ Association (MTOA) had a special stall at the fair this year and it was visited by many over the three days of the event. It indeed provided a platform for many tour operators and service providers across the state to represent themselves and to connect to industry partners and also directly to the consumers.

MTDC introduces budget packages for travellers.

In strategic move to boost tourism, Maharashtra Tourism Development Commission (MTDC) has formulated Budget Holiday Packages – a novel initiative to encourage travelers to explore the beauty and culture of the state. According to MTDC, the contribution of Maharashtra tourism to the Indian Travel Industry in 2015 alone was 20.8% on inbound travel and 7.2% in domestic tourism, states a release.

A 25% discount is available on bookings for Indian tourists residing outside Maharashtra. MTDC officials will get 25% discount. A discount of 20% will be given on bookings for senior citizens who are of the age 65 and more. The senior citizens must carry their retirement certificate and should be present while booking to avail the discount. Other family members can also participate in the booking, while the payment is to be made in advance.

A 10% of discount is applicable for NRIs who make their bookings for Maharashtra tour through MTDC. It is mandatory to carry passport to avail the discount. A discount of 20% is valid for bookings made for destinations like Ganpatipule, Mahabaleshwar, Matheran, Ajanta T Junction, Ajante, Bhandardara, Malshej Ghat, Chikhaldar, Panshed, Holy pilgrims on Shridi, Kaila, Nagpur, Truvada and Tuljapur.

According to a report by The Times of India, the much-discussed Shirdi airport will be operational in four months with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) giving its green signal recently, when the first flight from Mumbai landed at the airport. The six-seater chartered plane of Bombay Flying Club took off from Juhu in Mumbai at 8.30am and landed at Shirdi airport in 45 minutes. The airport is located in Kakdi village, about 100 km from Shirdi on a 1,100-acre plot. The AAI inspected the landing and the airport facilities. The state government is also trying to start air services to Dubai and Singapore from Shirdi in the first phase, informed the airport development company. The total cost of the airport is INR 300 crore and to date, INR 200 crore has been used. The state government has approved the remaining INR 100 crore, which will be used to build the compound wall of the airport and connecting roads.

Shirdi Airport to be operational soon….

Malaysia to extend e-visa to Indian tourists

MTOA Newsletter 9th Edition – March 2016 Only for private circulation among members of MTOA Extracts from various reputed publications in Travel Industry

www.mtoa.co.in

Malaysia is planning to extend e-tourist visa facility to Indian travellers in order to attract more tourists from the country. According to Dato Daljit Singh, Indian Community Relations Advisor to the Minister of Tourism and Culture, Malaysia, they are looking at drawing in 10 lakh Indian tourists this year. Last year, Malaysia recorded 7,22,141 tourists from India. He said that tourism sector contributes 12% to Malaysia’s GDP and India has always been an important market. Singh is also a member of the Tourism Malaysia Board of Directors, and said that the country is working on e-tourist visa for China and the facility may be offered to the India as well. “After we complete working with the Chinese government, as we are in the middle of the process, then we are also going to work with the Indian government on e-visa,” he said.

Following in the footsteps of Air India, Jet Airways will also relocate its domestic operations to the Terminal 2 at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) from March 15, 2016. This will lead to the integration of domestic and international flight operations at one terminal. Flight 9W 484 from Mumbai to Kolkata departing at 02:25 hrs will be the first Jet Airways domestic flight to operate from T2 on March 15, 2016. The first arriving flight will be 9W 628 at 00:10 hrs from Kolkata. Gaurang Shetty, Sr. Vice President – Commercial, Jet Airways, said, “The integration of domestic and international operations at Mumbai’s Terminal 2 will enable Jet Airways to transform Mumbai into a critical international transit hub.”

Dream Cruises’ first ship, Genting Dream will dock in Mumbai on October 29, 2016, said Thatcher Brown, President of Dream Cruises.

He said, “We will announce the price of the packages for agents by February end. We will offer a really good value proposition to our trade partners and the commission structure will be similar to the one of Star Cruises.” The ship will make its way from Germany to

Singapore via Colombo, making a stop in Mumbai on its way.

'Genting Dream' to dock in Mumbai on Oct 29

Jet Airways moves domestic ops in Mumbai to T2. Philippines Tourism conducts roadshows in Pune & Ahmedabad.

The Department of Tourism (DOT), Philippines has successfully conducted the ‘Visit the Philippines Year Again (VPA) 2016’ roadshow for its travel trade partners based in the cities of Pune and Ahmedabad. The 25-member delegation, comprising hoteliers, resorts, spas, and representatives of tour attractions, interacted with over 200 key travel and tour operators, MICE providers, up-market leisure operators and media personnel. Raymond Glen A Agustin - Chief Tourism Operation Officer, Market Development Group- Russia, India & the Middle East, DOT Philippines, led the delegation. Speaking at the event, Agustin affirmed that India is an important source market for the Philippines with 74,824 Indians visiting the destination last year, which was a 22.36% year-on-year increase. Overall, the Philippines expect to welcome 100,000 Indian tourists by 2017. VPA 2016 campaign’s aim is to drive excitement among travellers so that they revisit the country in 2016 for more fun and adventure and to garner fabulous memories to cherish. “In order to strengthen co-operation between DOT and our important business partners in the Indian travel industry, several promotional activities such as roadshows, taxi branding, participation in fairs and exhibitions and FAM trips have been carried out and further activities will be organized during this year,” further added Glen.

The roadshows included interactive B2B sessions, education programmes and workshops to aid trade members in planning itineraries and responding to customer queries in these cities. As a part of its marketing development strategy, the DOT, Philippines has recently branded 100 radio cabs in Pune and Ahmedabad.

MTOA Newsletter 9th Edition – March 2016 Only for private circulation among members of MTOA Extracts from various reputed publications in Travel Industry

www.mtoa.co.in

Introduction The Indian tourism and hospitality industry has emerged as one of the key drivers of growth among the services sector in India. The third-largest sub-segment of the services sector comprising trade, repair services, hotels and restaurants contributed nearly US$ 187.9 billion or 12.5 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2014-15, while growing the fastest at 11.7 per cent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) over the period 2011-12 to 2014-15. Tourism in India has significant potential considering the rich cultural and historical heritage, variety in ecology, terrains and places of natural beauty spread across the

country. Tourism is also a potentially large employment generator besides being a significant source of foreign exchange for the country. The industry is expected to generate 13.45 million jobs! across sub-segments such as Restaurants (10.49 million jobs), Hotels (2.3 million jobs) and Travel Agents/Tour Operators (0.66 million). The Ministry of Tourism plans to help the industry meet the increasing demand of skilled and trained manpower by providing hospitality education to students as well as certifying and upgrading skills of existing service providers. India has moved up 13 positions to 52nd rank from 65th in Tourism & Travel competitive index@.

Government Initiatives The Indian government has realised the country’s potential in the tourism industry and has taken several steps to make India a global tourism hub. Some of the major initiatives taken by the Government of India to give a boost to the tourism and hospitality sector of India are as follows: The Union Cabinet has approved the signing of Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Tourism of India and the Ministry of Trade Industry and Tourism of Colombia in order to boost cooperation in the field of tourism between the two countries. The Central Government has given its approval for signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Cambodia for cooperation in the field of tourism with a view to promote bilateral tourism between the two countries. Ministry of Tourism has sanctioned Rs 844.96 crore (US$ 142 million) to States and Union Territories for developing tourism destinations and circuits during FY 2014-15, which includes projects relating to Product/Infrastructure Development for Destinations and Circuits (PIDDC), Human Resource Development (HRD), Fairs and Festivals & Rural Tourism. The Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) action plans for eight missions cities including Varanasi, Mathura, Ajmer, Dwaraka, Badami, Vellankini, Warangal and Amaravati have been approved by HRIDAY National Empowered Committee for a total cost of Rs 431 crore (US$ 64.7 million). Government of India plans to cover 150 countries under e-visa scheme by the end of the year besides opening an airport in the NCR region in order to ease the pressure on Delhi airport. Under ‘Project Mausam’ the Government of India has proposed to establish cross cultural linkages and to revive historic maritime cultural and economic ties with 39 Indian Ocean countries

Tourism & Hospitality Industry in India

Source: World Travel and Tourism Economic Impact 2015. MoT

Rajan P. Parekh, Founder of Arihant Travels - The Link between you and your Dream holidays , started the Journey into travel & tourism world from 1995 with Educational excursions. Moving step ahead in 1998 he started organizing Pilgrimage tour to Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand & Bihar, for various Organizations of Jain Communities in Mumbai and Maharashtra, further moving one more step ahead in 2000, he also started organising group tours and tailor made holidays to all Major tourist destinations in India. In 2003 with our esteemed client’s demand we started our International tours, and now we specialize ourselves to arrange tours across globe. In 2012, we added a feather in our hat by starting MICE (Meetings, Incentive Tours, Conference & Exhibitions) & Destination Wedding. We understand the responsibility to take care of every arrangement starting from the pre-event preparations,

a will to prepare to win RAJAN PRADIP PAREKH, Arihant Travels.

during the event, and after the event settlements, he always tries his best to meet the expectations of the Organizers to have the most memorable experience with Arihant Travels. Ultimately his strategy and main goal is to provide the genuine, professional & personalized services at best prices with high quality services to our esteemed guest, without compromising in any kind of quality and as a reward from them we have gained many clients through the word of mouth publicity. Rajan has specialised his performance in Domestic & International tours, Medical /Pilgrim Tours , Wedding Planning, Conference & Event Organizer ~ Assisting in Visa & Travel Insurance. Rajan is a former president of Lions Club and currently a committee member of MTOA. Since 3 years organising free Jain Pilgrimage luxury tour once a year for minimum of 50 persons. Got new name “Shravan Balak”

MTOA member Rajan Parekh on

OTM magazine cover page.

MTOA Newsletter 9th Edition – March 2016 Only for private circulation among members of MTOA Extracts from various reputed publications in Travel Industry

www.mtoa.co.in

MTOA at OTM, Mumbai

• Strong presence.

• Meeting potential

customers.

• Happy moments with

celebrities.

• Promoting off -beat

destinations around the

Globe.

• Achieving new horizons.

It was great platform all tour operator to be at TTF OTM Exhibition. We MTOA gave opportunity to members to be present in the event and chance to grow in business . Hope more and more members will Encash this opportunity in future. We had great networking sessions with various suppliers from India and aboard . Hope this interactions will help our members to associated with them and have better products in the market.

….Sudhir Patil

Like last year MTOA booked stall in OTM this year also and it given to MTOA members at very reasonable price, so many MTOA members took advantage. So many govt officials, ministers, film actors visited our stall. I must say " MTOA" is now on radar of Travel Industry. ....

….Atul Mohile

It has been pleasure to Attend OTM, Mumbai Exhibition Centre on 18th, 19th & 20th February 2016. We Feel good as a part of MTOA. The potential of OTM is outstanding.

…..Uday Kadam

The presence of MTOA at OTM has enhanced the scope of tourism and hospitality managemernt in Maharashtra. Needless to mention that our naturally resourceful Maharashtra will come soon on the hotlist of Indian and Overseas Travel Companies.

…… Devendra Gandre

Ladies special tour at Rann Utsav organised by Choice Tours and Travels.

MTOA Newsletter has been published by MTOA at its Office Veena World, Mahalaxmi Estate, L. J. Cross Road No. 1, Mahim (W) Mumbai – 400016. President – Shri. Sudhir Patil Gen. Secretary – Shri. Atul Mohile Chief Editor – Shri. Amol A. Hendre

MTOA Newsletter 9th Edition – March 2016 Only for private circulation among members of MTOA Extracts from various reputed publications in Travel Industry

www.mtoa.co.in

Dhammal Masti at Singapore !!! By Heena Tours

Happy Newly Married Couples for Honeymoon with Veena World in God’s Own Country – Kerala.

Inbound group from USA at Taj Mahal, Agra. ….by Contour Travels