About India Outbound Magazine

India Outbound, a bi-monthly print magazine with dynamic web and social media presence focused on outbound travel from India, is published by Media India Group. Distributed all over India, and in all the top tourism events across the world, India Outbound caters mainly to the tourism professionals and is looking to develop new and innovative circuits and promote new destinations to the high-end travellers.

OTOAI election for 2019-21 concludes with new team taking over charge

A new team has taken over the charge at the Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) for the term 2019-2021, effective from December 10, 2019.

Riaz Munshi, MD, N. Chirag, has been elected as the president for the term 2019-2021, while Himanshu Patil, MD, Kesari Tours Pvt Ltd will continue as vice-president of the Association. Shravan Bhalla, MD, High Flyer who was earlier in the executive committee (EC) will now serve as the general secretary, while Vineet Gopal joins as the joint secretary for the term. The post of treasurer has been retained by Sidharth Khanna, partner, Khanna Enterprises.

“I have been working with OTOAI in one capacity or the other since inception and irrespective of the post, I will continue to contribute to the success of the association and growth of the outbound industry in India,” said Munshi, the newly-elected president.

The EC retained its previous two members – Ankush Nijhawan, MD, Travel Boutique Online a unit of Lap travels and Adl Abdul Karim, director, Creative Tours &Travels India Pvt Ltd, Mumbai; while Arshdeep Anand, CEO, HMA Spectrum and Monia Kapoor, proprietor, Travel O Holidays have increased the ratio of women participation in the association. Gurdeep Gujral, director, Gujral Tours and Travels Pvt Ltd and Mahendra Vakharia, MD, Pathfinders Holidays Pvt Ltd complete the EC count with their participation. Sanjay Datta, MD of M/s Airborne Travels was the election officer of the OTOAI Elections 2019-2021.

TAAI gets a new managing committee headed by Jyoti Mayal

At the recently concluded 68th annual general meeting (AGM) of Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) in Mumbai where over 650 active members participated from across India, the managing committee of TAAI for 2019-2021 was elected.

The committee now has Jyoti Mayal as the president. She is one of the most well known industry veteran with many credits to her name. She was previously the secretary-general of TAAI for the term 2017-2019. Mayal was also the head of TAAI northern region during 2009-2013 and after being elected to TAAI’s managing committee in 2013 Mayal has been going from strength to strength besides being hugely involved in the last two conventions overseas.

“I feel so blessed and humbled with this new responsibility and my team is determined to take TAAI a notch up, as the premier and leading Travel and tourism association of India,” said Mayal.

Jay Bhatia has been elected as the vice-president, while Bettaiah Lokesh holds the office of secretary-general and Shreeram Patel, the office of treasurer. The managing committee members elected for the next two year term are- Anoop B Kanuga (Bathija Travels, Mumbai), Rajan Sehgal (Airborne Travels Delhi), P Murugesan (Pioneer Aero Travels Chennai), Devesh Agarwal (Victoria Travels Kolkata), Paras Lakhia (Utopia Travel Services Ahmedabad), Sunil Notani (Air Amani Travels Bhopal) and R Venkatachalam (Naveen Air Travels Trichy).

TAAI now does a lot of outbound activities and agent knowledge workshops and is integrating with the outbound industry more than ever.

New destinations join the OTM 2020 line-up

OTM, one of the leading travel show in Asia-Pacific has revealed its line-up for 2020 with many esteemed participants from the past like Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Maldives, Mauritius, Philippines, China, Fiji, Nepal and Sri Lanka coming on board for the upcoming edition.

The show has also caught the attention of Malaysia and Azerbaijan. Both destinations have expressed their interest in the trusted marketing platform of OTM for their marketing and trade promotional purposes in India and will be present at the 2020 edition. Also African nations including Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Mauritius and others showcase their destination only at OTM in India.

Almost 30 state tourism boards and Union Territories are planning to exhibit on the domestic front. The OTM Forum 2020 will focus on key areas of travel including outbound, MICE, travel tech, aviation and others.

For the first time ever, OTM is launching an Adventure & Experiential Travel Zone, specially dedicated to the growing demand of immersive travel. The zone will be dedicated to trekking, caving, parasailing, fly boarding, skydiving, flying fox/zip line, rock climbing, bungee jumping, scuba diving, paragliding, kayaking, surfing, river rafting, hot air ballooning, wildlife safari/bird watching, cycling, camping, and much more.

A special ITM pavilion dedicated to Hajj, Umrah, Ziyarat and Halal travel market in India will now be present at the upcoming edition of OTM, with the promise of providing all-round support to India’s growing Muslim travel industry.

Vistara and Lufthansa enter into a codeshare agreement

Vistara and German airline Lufthansa have signed a codeshare agreement, strengthening their existing interline partnership. The two airlines are planning to soon expand the scope of the agreement, enabling frequent fliers of both airlines to earn miles or points when travelling on each other’s networks and enjoy other benefits.

As part of the agreement, Lufthansa will add its ‘LH’ designator code to nearly 18 Vistara-operated flights covering 10 Indian cities, namely Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Goa, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kochi, Mumbai and Pune.

Sales under the codeshare agreement opened on Monday on all channels and major global distribution systems (GDS) for flights starting December 16, 2019, the airlines said in a statement.

Announcing the agreement, Vinod Kannan, Vistara’s chief strategy officer, said, one of Vistara's key goals is to offer an extended international network to customers through such strategic associations.

"Our codeshare with Lufthansa is another important step in this direction and helps us widen our customer base outside of India,” he added.

"As part of the new agreement customers benefit from 126 weekly flights connecting 10 key Indian cities to the Lufthansa Group network via Delhi / Lufthansa and Vistara in final stages on enabling customers being able to earn miles flying with both airlines," the German carrier said in a release.

SOTC Travel launches special holiday package to mark their 70th year

SOTC Travel has curated a special holiday ‘Around the World in 70 Days’ spanning seven continents comprising of incredible destinations and experiences from across the globe. In the 70th year of a fulfilling existence and inspired by a widely beloved travel saga, this holiday experience includes some of the most picturesque destinations, adrenaline-pumping adventures, stunningly beautiful nature and wildlife, natural and manmade wonders that this planet has to offer.

‘Around the World in 70 Days’ is designed specifically to take one through a plethora of unique experiences, encompassing the rich culture, heritage, trade, cuisine, and history, of a destination. It is designed to provide the Indian travellers with a chance to choose and explore an experiential journey across spectacular destinations in the world.

Madhavan Menon, chairman, SOTC Travel Ltd said, “Indian travellers have evolved rapidly, and are now increasingly seeking curated, experience-led holiday propositions. This launch of the exclusive limited edition offering ‘Around the World in 70 Days’ to commemorate SOTC’s 70th anniversary, is a ‘bucket list’ once in a lifetime experience - packaged seamlessly to offer new and unique experiences to the discerning traveller. Worthy testament to the millions of customers who have travelled with SOTC over the past 70 years and the many more to follow!”

flydubai signs wet lease agreement with Smartwings

Dubai-based carrier flydubai has finalised an agreement with Smartwings to wet lease four next-generation Boeing 737-800 aircraft between December 14, 2019-January 25, 2020. The aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance (ACMI) agreement with Smartwings will see four-leased aircraft supplement the carrier’s fleet of 40 next-generation Boeing 737-800s and will add more capacity during the busy seasonal travel period.

Commenting on the agreement, Ghaith Al Ghaith, chief executive officer at flydubai, said, “The continued grounding of our MAX aircraft has had a significant impact on our operations with a 30 pc reduction of our flying schedule. We are taking every effort to minimise disruption for our passengers and these four additional aircraft will enable more passengers to have more options to travel during the holiday season.”

“We are pleased to have concluded our first wet lease agreement with Smartwings, an IOSA certified (IATA Operational Safety Audit) company with a track record of successful ACMI agreements,” he added.

"Smartwings is delighted by a new business relationship with flydubai which we value very greatly. This kind of cooperation by Wet Lease Agreement is one of way to achieve even higher and more effective use of our aircraft in winter season when there is lower demand for flying in Europe," said Roman Vik, CEO of Smartwings.

The all-economy class leased aircraft will operate on select routes on the flydubai network including- Bahrain, Colombo, Faisalabad, Karachi, Kuwait, Muscat, Multan, Prague and Sialkot

Travelport says digital experience is deal-breaker for Indian millennial travellers

The recent Global Digital Traveller Research 2019 by Travelport, a travel commerce platform, highlighted that millennials in India seek a premium digital experience across all aspects of travel. In a research which surveyed 23,000 people from 20 countries; including 2,000 from India underlined that travellers in India want and expect travel providers to help them personalise their experience seamlessly.

It revealed that Indian millennial travellers were one of the world’s most likely (84 pc, above the global average of 71 pc) to consider it important that an airline offers a good digital experience – for instance, offering online check-in and gate information. Similarly, Indian millennials were the world’s most likely to consider the digital experience when booking hotels– 82 pc in India considered it important, well above the global average of 58 pc.

Commenting on the findings of the research, Sandeep Dwivedi, chief operating officer, InterGlobe Technology Quotient, said, “The findings of the research clearly establishes that Indian millennials have a strong penchant for a superior digital experience while planning their travel. The travel ecosystem in India is headed towards a digital-first future and we, working with Travelport, are committed to innovate and develop solutions that can help the industry cater to the expectations of the modern traveller.”

Air New Zealand conducts trials with edible coffee cups

Air New Zealand has begun trialling edible coffee cups with customers in the air and on the ground in order to explore new and innovative ways to meet its sustainability challenges.

The airline currently serves more than eight million cups of coffee each year.

Air New Zealand senior manager, customer experience, Niki Chave says that while the cups are compostable, the ultimate goal would be to remove these totally from landfills. "We've been working in partnership with innovative New Zealand company 'twiice' to explore the future of edible coffee cups, which are vanilla flavoured and leakproof. The cups have been a big hit with the customers who have used these and we've also been using the cups as dessert bowls," Chave said.

"It's terrific that Air New Zealand has partnered with us to showcase to its customers and the world that a little bit of Kiwi ingenuity and innovation could have a really positive impact on the environment while at the same time delivering a really cool and tasty customer experience," said Jamie Cashmore, cofounder of twiice.

Chave also said that the airline will continue to trial 'twiice's' edible coffee cups and work with the company and other partners to explore scaling options that could make it a viable long-term product for the airline.

Ski Dubai announces its festive programme for Christmas

Ski Dubai is creating a Christmas Wonderland full of cheer with the chance to meet Santa, stories with Mrs Claus, carol singers, and a tree lighting ceremony. Get ready to spread some festive cheer as Ski Dubai at Mall of the Emirates announces a Christmas Wonderland from December 12-24. The packed programme of activities offers the opportunity to meet the main man himself - Santa Claus, witness the lighting of a glittering Christmas tree, revel in artistic craft-making workshops for the kids and share in some carol singing.

Stretching across both the cold and warm sides of Ski Dubai, the packed programme of complimentary activities kicked off on December 12 with the lighting of the Christmas tree preceded by the parade with Santa, Mrs Claus, and carollers in festive song to mark the start of the celebrations.

Walking through the Christmas Wonderland, guests will be treated to much more. At a cozy nook by the fireplace, kids will find Mrs Claus sitting in her rocking chair waiting to regale them with stories.

And, right before leaving, visitors can share one last experience (until they return) by writing their Christmas gift wish to hang on the SHARE-a-wish tree. In the true spirit of giving, one lucky wisher will be selected on the morning of December 24 to have their gift personally delivered to them by Santa Claus!

India Outbound is a publication of Media India Group