AIRLINES

Cathay Pacific reduces passenger fuel surcharge
 
Cathay Pacific Airways has reduced its fuel surcharges. From now on, the new surcharges of US$ 6.7 for short-haul services in north and south east Asia and US$ 30.6 for long-haul will be levied. The new surcharge will apply from April 1 and these changes were made following an adjustment to surcharge levels approved by the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department (CAD). The adjustments represent reductions of about 15 per cent from the current surcharges of US$7.8 for short-haul services and US$35.90 for long-haul services.
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IAAI to boycott Qatar Airways and British Airways
 
At its recent AGM (annual general meeting), organised at Kochi in Kerala, IATA Agents Association of India president, Biji Eapen, laid down IAAI’s next round of action to win back the carriers who have implemented zero commission. Considering the fact that the boycott of Singapore Airlines has not had much of an effect so far, the association has now decided to intensify its agitation against the zero airlines and boycott Qatar Airways and British Airways starting April 1 and has invited other members of the Joint Council of Travel Trade Association (TAAI, TAFI, IATO, ETAA and ADTOI) to join forces and further strengthen the protest.

IAAI has also formulated an e-mail campaign called ‘Operation E-mail.’ The association plans to send one lakh e-mails through its members across India to Lee Hsien Loong, prime minister, Singapore, on April 1 in order to bring to his notice what IAAI terms as ‘the plight of millions of people in the Indian travel industry’ and intervene to resolve the faux pas. Besides, effective April 1, IAAI also plans, through its members across India, to send 5000 e-mails on a daily basis to the Indian operation head of all the zero airlines in order to flood their email boxes and incapacitate them from normal functioning.
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HOTELS

Concept Hospitality merges with Beacon Hotels
 
Concept Hospitality (CHL), Mumbai based hotel management company has merged with Beacon Hotels (BHL), another Mumbai based hotel management company set-up in 2006 and headed by Manoj Bhatia. The merged entity, now CHL, is headed by Param Kannampilly as its executive chairman whereas Bhatia has taken over as the managing director. CHL currently has 13 operational hotels in its portfolio including three Beacon properties. Besides, CHL has tied-up with 16 hotels across India which are all expected to be operational within the next three years. CHL has also recently launched a premium hotel brand ‘GRAZIA.’ GRAZIA, which means “graceful” in Italian and “thank you” in Spanish, has Grazia Grand (5 star luxury), Grazia Prestige (mid-priced brand) and Grazia Select (best value for money) under its umbrella.
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Global Hotel prices drop 12 per cent; Mumbai tops the list with 41%
 
The average price of a hotel room around the world fell by 12 per cent last year, according to the latest Hotel Price Index from Hotels.com, the global hotel specialist. The Hotel Price Index looked at hotel prices for the period October to December 2008, compared to the same period the year before.

Mumbai topped the list of biggest falls in hotel prices around the world, with a drop of 41%, in the wake of a sharp fall in demand for the city’s hotels following the terrorist attacks. Other cities to experience substantial declines were Manila, down by 32%, Sydney (-22%), Seoul (-20%), Singapore (-14%) and Beijing (-13%). Asian cities recording moderate drops in hotel prices include Bangkok (-3%); New Delhi (-4%); Kuala Lumpur (-5%) and Tokyo (-6%).
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NTOs

MGTO invites Indian outbound agents for joint marketing and promotion
 
In order to further boost arrivals from India, Macau Tourism has invited Indian outbound travel agents to come up with new and innovative marketing ideas. The NTO has shown keen interest to embark on joint marketing and promotion with the Indian outbound agents. “We expect the joint marketing and promotion with outbound agents to be a further shot in the arm to the burgeoning Macau tourism and will support any such initiative with 50 per cent of the expenses incurred. India is one of the fastest growing outbound source markets in the world tourism today and we have far surpassed the average growth registered by most of the destinations,” said SanJeet of MGTO. The destination received 84,000 arrivals from India in 2008, registering a growth of 85 per cent. Despite the economic meltdown, January 2009 saw a growth of 33 per cent in arrivals over the same period last year, reinforcing that India is one of the fastest growing source markets for the city-state destination.
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Singapore Tourism to launch e-visa from April 1, 2009
 
With an objective to enhance the process of visa applications the Singapore Tourism Board has decided to launch e-visas across India from April 1, 2009. According to the tourism board sources, e-visas are designed to enable ‘trusted partners’ including visa service providers in India to submit online applications for visas on behalf of their customers. They will also be able to print the approved visas through the SAVE (Submission of Applications for Visa Electronically) system. The ‘trusted partners’ will not require to visit the consular offices either to submit documents or for collecting visas. The approved e-visas must be printed out to be produced at the airline counter before the point of departure.
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STATES

West Bengal plans a Ganga River Cruise Project worth 130 crore
 
In an attempt to promote river cruise, the government of West Bengal has planned 130-crore Ganga River Cruise Project under Public Private Partnership (PPP). The WBTDC will have less than 50 per cent stake in the project. The WBTDC will soon issue letter of intent (LOI) for this purpose. Under the project, vessels for the cruise will be launched in the river Ganga. The state government is also focussing on the development of tourism infrastructure and has allotted Rs. 80 crore for development of tourism infrastructure. This money is being spent for the development of tourist amenities, tourist information centres, lounge, parking, signage, water supply, sanitation, roads, lighting and illumination. Safety and security of tourists is also being revamped.
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