International tourist arrivals grew 4% during the first two months of 2011, consolidating the 7% rebound registered in 2010.

India’s travel and tourism sector is expected to be the 2nd largest employer in the world which is likely to employ over 40,037,000 people by 2019, considering the way the travel and tourism industry has started growing, according to a joint study conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) and YES Bank.

According to a PTI report, India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), a public-private partnership between Ministry of Commerce and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), recently quoted a market research report ‘Booming Medical Tourism in India’ stating that despite the economic slowdown, Medical Tourism in India is the fastest growing segment of the tourism industry.

A global benchmark survey of leading airport hubs has found that the rates of online booking and web check-in are among the highest in the world at Mumbai International Airport.

American Express Business Travel today announced the results of its 2009 European Barometer, during its 19th Espace Voyages Professionnels (EVP) in Paris, the leading business travel event in Europe. The Barometer highlights the impact the global economic crisis has had on business travel expenditure, revealing an 18% fall in budgets reported on average. Sixty-six percent of companies report a reduction (-31%) of their travel budgets, 23% have witnessed no change and a mere 11% have noted an increase (of +23%).

‘Faced with an unprecedented economic crisis, we are seeing a new normal emerge with corporate behaviour. We’ve seen travel policies tighten up, purchasing controls increase and employee travel driven by client retention needs where as a focus was on driving new business. Travel management companies (TMC) play a key role in helping companies maximize savings without sacrificing the tangible benefits of a robust travel and entertainment program’, said David Herrick, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Business Travel EMEA.

As the aviation industry today is facing enormous challenges because of rising fuel costs and the necessity of using energy sustainably, international aviation experts believe that India has the potential of becoming an air traffic hub in future.

During the ongoing ‘Asia-Pacific Weeks (APW) 2009’ in Berlin – the German capital, some renowned aviation experts said that India may be a key strategic hub for air traffic in future.
Werner Heesen, the former Director South Asia for German airlines Lufthansa said that despite infrastructural problems at Indian airports the future of Indian aviation industry seems bright. “Yes, there is a problem of infrastructure but Hyderabad and Bangalore airports have already been commissioned and a new run-way prepared in New Delhi.”
Lufthansa flights go to New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and now to Pune as well.
Heesen, who remained in India from 2003 to 2008, said he witnessed many positive changes in Indian aviation industry during his five year stint there. “India started opening doors to liberalization and country’s economy has contributed a great deal in the development of this industry.”
Gowhar Geelani /Rising Kashmir

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Global - 2010 Forecast
Region Airfares Hotel Rates
Domestic/Short-Haul
(Economy Class)
International/ Long-Haul
(Business Class)
Mid-Range Upper-Range
North America 2% to 7% 1% to 6% (-4%) to (-1%) (-6)% to (-3%)
Europe 0% to 2% 5% to 7% (-2%) to 2.5% (-2.5%) to 2%
Latin America (-3)% to 2% (-1)% to 2% (-2)% to 2% (-6)% to 0%
Asia-Pacific 3% to 8% 1% to 6% 1% to 6% 1% to 6%
Global 0% to 5% 1% to 6% (-3%) to 2% (-4%) to 1%
"Considering airfare, hotel, and ground transportation, we expect the average domestic business trip to increase 1.2 percent, or $13 USD, to a total of approximately $1,080 USD," continued Sedky. "An increase of 2.4 percent, or approximately $67 USD, is expected for international business trips to bring the average cost to $2,818. However, as unbundled and ancillary fees continue to add to the cost of trips, businesses should expect to add up to an estimated 15% to the total trip cost for air, hotel, and ground transport elements alone."


source | http://ehotelier.com/hospitality-news/item.php?id=P17239



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Shrinking number of air passengers on the domestic sector has pushed up the share of international sector in India's total air passenger traffic.

Latest statistics put out by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), shows the domestic sector's share declined to 71% last fiscal from 74% in financial year 2008 even as the international sector's share moved up to 29% from 26%.


story continues below>





The drop was on account of an 11% drop in air passengers on the domestic sector, even as passengers flying into and out of the country grew 6%.
The Airport Authority's year-to-datedata for the current fiscal, brought out in May, show a fall of 10% in domestic traffic as international traffic went up 4% during the same period.
The share of international traffic at Delhi and Hyderabad airports during year to date jumped to 31% and 27% from 28% and 17%, respectively as compared with the year ago period.
A senior executive at the Hyderabad airport said international traffic was growing because airlines were launching new flights and adding more frequencies even as domestic airlines were cutting back capacity.
source| Praveena Sharma/Daily News & Analysis

Bid2travel prices are 30-50% cheaper than reputed online travel sites -




story continues below>>





Noble Travels Group, which had launched an online bidding site Bid2Travel.com in April this year, believes the timing of its latest offering is an appropriate one.

Pritpal S. Saini, founder and director of Bid2Travel.com, says this is the perfect time for the launch considering that the travel industry is “transiting through the recessionary period”.

“Everyone is searching and exploring for the new revenue channels and Bid2travel.com delivers the classic win-win situation....more satisfied guests and higher occupancy. We considered various factors before finalising this unique concept and the most important was to make a travel bidding site where nothing is mysterious or hidden from the travellers. Secondly, provide an online platform where customers and hotel owners interact directly with each other,” says Saini.

Indian travel agents are diversifying into other tourism-related businesses and increasing service charges to make up for the scrapping of commission payments by most of the international airlines.





Three thousand travel agents licensed by the International Air Transport Association (Iata) and 50,000 non-Iata licensed agents in India strongly opposed the introduction of the zero commission system. Until recently, these travel agents accounted for 85 per cent of bookings in the country but most airlines are now concentrating on online sales.
Commission rates were progressively reduced from nine per cent to seven and finally to five before being eliminated entirely.
The Travel Agents Association of India (Taai) has approached India's Director General of Civil Aviation to resolve the dispute with major airline companies and a final decision is expected soon.
"There has been a 30 per cent drop in business due to the airlines' zero commission rules," NM Sharafudeen, Chairman of the Kerala Chapter of Taai, told Emirates Business.
"Most of the agents are trying to compensate for the loss of business by focusing on package tour sales and other related businesses," he said.
Air traffic from the Gulf countries to Kerala is at its peak in the summer.
Vinay Nambiar, Area Manager for the UAE, Oman and Qatar at Kingfisher Airlines, said most carriers serving routes between the Gulf and India had abandoned agency commission and switched to internet booking.
In India agents are diversifying into hotel bookings, ground handling, holiday packages and sightseeing to earn commission.
Travel agents in the UAE are working on a zero commission basis.
A travel agent in Deira said the change to zero commission had affected business but the number of passengers remained high during the summer season.
Agents in India previously saw business boom in the summer as Indian expatriates rushed back home and ticket rates skyrocketed. Now major agencies are boycotting Singapore Airlines in protest against the ending of commission payments and have stopped promoting Singapore as a tourist destination.
VM Sathish/EmiratesBusiness 24-7, UAE

In the last quarter of 2008, Travelport's bookings plummeted and there is no reason to believe that Sabre is not down by a similar amount, and Amadeus is probably doing a little better but not by much.

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GDS based total transactions were off a stunning 15%. What was a worry in August at the Q2 numbers has turned into a full scale rout and ensuing panic with these numbers.

Once you peel back the usual corporate BS - you see that there is some very worrying underlying trends.

Trend #1 - move to a late booking environment. This has not been seen in the USA for a long time if ever. In Europe the switching of consumer behavior occurs often. Early vs late has therefore become something of a game between sellers and consumers. For the US sellers this is a very worrying trend. Even more so when US players have to play by the quarterly report microscope rules.

Trend #2 - traffic is just off. its off 10%+ at the end of last year judging by all the data with a pretty steep dive at Xmas and also January started way off.

Trend #3 - all markets are similarly affected with the exception of LATAM (which is relatively small) and GCC also relatively small at around sub 10%. What is also noticeable is that Europe seems to be holding up about the same as the USA but that Asia Pac is really off. This bodes better (but not well) for Amadeus but not for Travelport and Sabre must be really hurting, the latter as a result of powering Abacus.

Trend #4 - GDS based bookings seem to be falling off faster than total pax. This is very worrying and I have written about this before. This is driven by two factors: less corporate traffic (which is way off as we have seen from premium airlines like Cathay and BA) and by more shopping which has resulted in leisure shoppers moving towards buying direct (as we have seen from Expedia).

Travelport therefore stated that Q4 2008 "overall volume declines and 9 percent lower GDS revenues. GDS bookings fell 14 percent in the Americas, 15 percent in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and 21 percent in Asia-Pacific." Moreover Gordon Wilson head of Travelport's GDS business reported that traffic was even further down in January of 2009. Still a 6% point delta between GDS revenues and transactions points to airlines paying more. This will further exacerbate the conflict between airlines and their former GDS children.

Interestingly in this debate - what we see are the first signs of an acknowledgment of the sea change. The withdrawing from the holistic one size fits everything model has finally come to be acknowledged by the external analysts and even the GDSs themselves.

Former Thomas Weisel stock watcher Jake Fuller--last week hinted at the Masters' Program conference - that the Private Equity players would not be able to sell their GDS based assets in a recovering market any time before the seminal 2011 airline contract negotiating period. Thus the value of the GDS write downs will have to be massive. In turn this would trigger concerns of the debt holders and also any bank to lend more money for basic services such as continuing "normal" investment at usual levels let alone investment in any fundamental changes to cope with a downsized GDS business.

Even Jeff Clark hinted at a number of scenarios such as a return to the NMC/NDC model. he said "If in 2010 and 2011 we continue to go down by 15 percent per year, all bets are off. At that point, you start to look at very different types of technology to move fewer volumes, you start looking at different regions in different ways, and perhaps go to different partnership agreements. Today we're investing in sales and marketing organizations because we have enough scale in those markets to do it. You might go back to (NMC/NDC type) relationships at that point to 'variable-ize' your cost structure."

That type of commentary makes Sabre's recent comments on being THE aggregated source for content sound pretty hollow. Especially when being used to beat up on emerging potential competitors.

I will say this again. The GDS model is definitely wonky if not completely broken. Someone just needs to be honest about it and address the reality of the new world order. Sounds like some people already have it on their radar.

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The value of the U.S. dollar is surging, gas prices are at their lowest levels in four years, and hotel rates are softening. If you can afford a vacation, 2009 will be “the year of travel deals,” predicts Genevieve Shaw Brown, senior editor of Travelocity. “As long as the economic slowdown continues, deals will abound for people who do have discretionary income to travel.”

Pauline Frommer, the guidebook writer, agreed. “Because of the sharp drop off in bookings, we’re seeing some pretty deep discounts to just about everywhere,” she said, citing as an example Walt Disney World’s offer of seven nights for the price of four. “It’s definitely going to be a buyers’ market next year.”

But even though travel is becoming more affordable, more people are expected to stay home due to the recession. The Travel Industry Association predicts a 1.3 percent drop in 2009 leisure travel.

Here are some details on these and other trends, like increased interest in presidential sightseeing, thanks to events like the Lincoln Bicentennial and the Jan. 20 inauguration of Barack Obama.

TRAVEL ABROAD AND THE DOLLAR: In April, it cost $1.60 to buy a euro. As of mid-December, a euro cost just $1.36, meaning your dollar goes nearly 20 percent farther now.

Travel to Europe by Americans was down 4.8 percent in the first eight months of 2008 compared to the same period in 2007, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. But now, “prices are coming way down and 2009 may be the year to plan your European trip,” said Anne Banas, executive editor of SmarterTravel.com. She cited “two big reasons: the slow economy and the fact that the dollar is gaining on the euro.”

The dollar is doing even better elsewhere. An Australian dollar costs just 67 cents in U.S. currency, down from nearly $1 this past summer, and Canadian dollars are worth just 80 (U.S.) cents now. Earlier this year, the Canadian dollar was worth more than a U.S. dollar. And the guidebook publisher Lonely Planet put Iceland on its top 10 destination list for 2009, citing great deals in a country where local currency and the national economy have collapsed.

CARS, TRAINS AND BUSES: Feel like a road trip? Go for it. Gas hasn’t been this cheap in four years. A gallon of gas averaged $1.65 in mid-December, down from an all-time high of over $4 a gallon in July.

Between November 2007 and October, Americans drove 100 billion fewer miles than the same period a year earlier, according to the Federal Highway Administration. But Amtrak set a record for train ridership in its 2008 fiscal year — 28.7 million passengers, an 11 percent rise over the previous year.

Bus ridership also surged, with intercity bus departures rising nearly 10 percent, according to research from DePaul University’s Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development, http://las.depaul.edu/chaddick/. The study cited “large declines“ in air and car travel and “the growing acceptance of bus travel among younger travelers and pleasure-oriented travelers.” Bus options have grown beyond Greyhound to cheap Chinatown-to-Chinatown buses and trendy BoltBus, known for onboard wireless Internet service and online deals.

AIR: Don’t expect lower fuel prices to lower domestic airfares. Richard Seaney, CEO of FareCompare.com, predicts “stable high prices for domestic airfares. We had 30 airfare hikes between the summer of ‘07 and ‘08, which raised the price point 20 to 40 percent. I think that price point will stay stable in 2009.”

The trend toward fewer flights may continue too. The Air Transport Association of America’s outlook for 2009 noted that seating capacity has fallen between 10 and 12 percent nationally the past year, with a 25 to 50 percent decrease at many of the nation’s top 100 airports. “All signs suggest that the schedule cuts prompted by high fuel prices in 2008 will deepen in 2009,” ATA chief economist John Heimlich said.

Travelocity’s Brown says consumers are choosing destinations based on airfare. For example, with fares to Honolulu up 18 percent, the city has fallen off Travelocity’s top 10 spring break bookings.

With fewer flights and passengers, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported that on-time arrival rates are up, while flight cancellations, passenger complaints and lost baggage are down.

The good news: FareCompare’s Seaney says “international travel is going to have the best deals in the last three to four years,” due to decreases in fuel surcharges and some new start-up routes with introductory prices. For a peak summer trip to Europe, March is typically the best time to buy tickets, he said, but pricing may be volatile, so sign up for fare alerts.

LODGING: Travelocity’s Brown encourages savvy travelers to look beyond airfares “to see what they can get out of their hotel stay, whether discounted room rates or value-added promotions which are everywhere - free nights, free breakfast, free room upgrade. In Vegas, it’s gambling credits and spa credits.”

Demand for hotel rooms in the first quarter of 2009 is expected to be down 1 to 2 percent, while supply will be up about 3 percent, with new properties opening that were planned before the recession, according to Smith Travel Research, which tracks the industry. “A drop in occupancy is certain, and with that we can already estimate that rates will soften somewhat,” said Smith Travel spokesman Jan Freitag.

Frommer adds that more folks are staying in hostels, which are cheaper than hotels, and the number of hostels is increasing. “People are throwing up hostels everywhere, converting old hotels, even taking what are just ordinary homes and adding bunkbeds to create unlicensed hostels,” she said.

ANNIVERSARIES AND PRESIDENTIAL SIGHTSEEING: Anniversaries often bring out the best in a destination with exhibits, festivals and deals. Here are some big anniversaries in 2009.

-The bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth will be celebrated in Washington and many states with exhibits, events, heritage trails and performances. Details at http://www.lincolnindc.com/ and http://www.abrahamlincoln200.org/. The interest in Lincoln coincides with a surge in interest in President Franklin Roosevelt’s Depression-era New Deal and sites associated with President-elect Barack Obama, from places where he lived like Chicago and Hawaii, to Washington, where record crowds are expected for the Jan. 20 inauguration. All this has led the ad agency JWT to declare “presidential sightseeing” a top travel trend for 2009. One event to look for: A recreation of Marian Anderson’s 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial will be held on Easter Sunday.

-Alaska marks 50 years of statehood in 2009 with a three-day celebration ending Jan. 3. Check http://www.alaskaturns50.com for deals and events.

-The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was established in 1909 and kicks off a three-year centennial celebration in 2009, marking the 100th anniversary of the facility in 2009 and the 100th anniversary of the Indy 500 in 2011, http://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/.

-Baltimore, Philadelphia and Richmond, Va., mark the 200th anniversary of poet Edgar Allan Poe’s birth, with many events taking place in January.

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Source : Great Hotels Organisation

Middle Eastern supply set to overtake demand forcing hotels to attract international guests -

Great Hotels Organisation has announced it believes the current hotel market’s bubble will burst by 2010.

Currently the Middle Eastern hotel market is enjoying a period of sustained growth due to the fact that demand for rooms outstrips supply.

During 2007, the Middle East hotel industry was the third fastest growing in the world, with occupancy levels increasing by 5% to an average of 71.6%. Dubai continues to achieve the highest absolute occupancy at 84.2%, yet Oman has emerged as having the region’s strongest growing market.

Oman’s growth has been attributed to the current imbalance between demand and supply, yet with room capacity set to double by 2012, this bubble could burst as part of a wider trend also to be seen across the region as a whole.*

According to GHO, this burst is due to occur as a result of the region’s over-reliance on Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) guests. This is possible due to the high demand for a limited number of rooms, meaning occupancy can be filled by these local markets alone.

‎

Soon mobile phones would replace the physical airline ticket. Passengers would just be required to flash their mobile phone and gain access to the terminal building and speedily finish boarding procedures thereafter. For the airports, it would mean efficient boarding and handling more number of passengers.

Siemens Airport Systems Laboratory in Bangalore is working out a technology which would replace the physical boarding pass.

“This is different from the facility being offered by some travel portals and airlines currently. When you book a ticket, the airline sends you information like PNR number, etc as an SMS. This still means that you need to show it at the airline counter and take a print out.

However, this new technology works just like Web check-in, where you can check-in, select your seat through the mobile phone and then you receive a 2D Bar Code which would replace the boarding pass.

You could flash it at the airports where a reader validates it and so wherever required passenger will use this bar code,” Mr Ravi Shankar, Head of Aviation Systems, Siemens Information Systems Ltd, told Business Line.
Shubhra Tandon/Business Line

‎ Click here to read the full story>

World Travel & Tourism Council The Latest Research for Travel & Tourism Anticipates a Slowdown in the Industry in 2008 but Prospects are Bright for the Coming ten Years
World Travel & Tourism is expected to generate close to US$8 trillion in 2008, rising to approximately US$15 trillion over the next ten years, according to the latest Tourism Satellite Accounting (TSA) research launched today by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) and its strategic partner Accenture.

Overall, the new TSA results reveal a moderate impact on the Travel & Tourism industry as a result of the global economic downturn, with its annual growth rate experiencing a slowdown in 2008, to 3%, in comparison to 3.9% in 2007.

Looking past this present cyclical downturn, the long-term forecasts point to a mature but steady phase of growth for world Travel & Tourism between 2009 and 2018, averaging a growth rate of 4.4% per annum, supporting 297 million jobs and 10.5% of global GDP by 2018.

full story at| http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article31479.html

The demand for air travel is growing in India as a result of economic development, globalisation, regulatory liberalisation and declining passenger fares.

An aviation analyst at Prabhudas Lilladher expects air travel to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16 per cent over the next four years until FY10. This growth in passenger traffic will drive far larger growth of 20 per cent in airline revenues.



The Indian aviation is growing at a fast pace and is poised for a further leap, with large airports modernisation efforts under way.
Currently, profitability is constrained heavily by costs thrust on the industry due to the inadequate infrastructure support.
While the airline industry is currently making losses, analysts expect a turnaround for the industry with the onset of rational pricing.
The move by a large number of international operators to offer improved connectivity to Indian cities opens up opportunities in the feeder segment.
Put simply, international flights discharge passengers at major hubs, who are thereafter flown by feeder airlines to smaller towns.
Rapid growth in the domestic passenger traffic has been quite remarkable with a clear contribution from low-cost carriers (LCCs). Of the total 9.48 million additional domestic passengers carried by local carriers from FY03 to FY06, 4.16 million (or 44 per cent) were carried by LCCs.
Business Standard

Indian carriers are all set to turn the heat on foreign airlines on the lucrative Delhi-US market. Air India will launch its Delhi-New York nonstop flight in February, with a tariff for economy class at about Rs 45,000 (inclusive of taxes), same as Jet’s via Brussels connection. Comparative fares of foreign carriers like British Airways, Lufthansa, Continental and American Airlines is higher by Rs 6,000 to Rs 16,000.



AI seems to have learnt from the Mumbai-JFK experience when it had to slash its introductory high fares within 10 days of August launch. With Kingfisher also going to join the list of Indian carriers flying to US by next year, foreign airlines will have to fly the extra mile to woo fliers.
The fare war, said analysts, will be for price-sensitive economy class passengers. With visiting relatives and leisure travel to US on the rise, this sector will become more important.
"Although traffic on this sector is growing, foreign carriers will have to fight for passengers with Indian airlines. For economy class passengers, this would mean more attractive fares. For premium business and first class fliers, this will elad to better services," said a travel agent.
Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

India is moving up another global listing — of being among the top 10 revenue generating routes for several global airlines.

Whether it is neighbouring Singapore or Sri Lanka, or the faraway US or Britain, flying to India makes good business sense.

For Singapore Airlines, India has been registering double-digit growth in capacity even when the rest of its global route network is growing in single digits. “For us, India is definitely among the top 10 revenue generators globally and features very strongly among our scheme of things,” Mr Subhas Menon, Regional Vice-President, West Asia and Africa, Singapore Airlines, told Business Line.

According to Mr Robert James Baird, Area General Manager, Asia and the Pacific, British Airways, the latest results show that the India route is among the top three revenue generators for the airline.

Adds Ms Nisha Maharaj, Regional Manager, American Airlines, “The launch of any new sector has to make good business sense. We are seeing growth on a year-to-year basis on the India route.”

According to the Mr Peter Hill, Chief Executive Officer, Srilankan Airlines, while India was not among the top revenue generator for the airline earlier, the situation is different now.

02/12/07 Ashwini Phadnis/Business Line

An increasing number of businessmen are entering the aviation business.

Kochi-based Emric Aviation, Air Dravida, Bird Group, Indus Air -by breweries company Mohan Meakin, Star Aviation, Trans India Aviation and many more...



Kochi-based Emric Aviation is a proposed regional carrier promoted by Martin Sebastian, a Kerala-based real estate and infrastructure developer who has diversified into the hospitality and SEZ development businesses, and digital film production.

The company is targeting cities like Madurai, Trichy, Coimbatore and Mysore, and is in negotiations with Bombardier and Embraer for its aircraft fleet.

Emric Air is joined by travel firms Air Dravida in Chennai and the Bird Group in Delhi, Indus Air -by breweries company Mohan Meakin in the North, Gurgaon-based MDLR Airlines, Star Aviation and Trans India Aviation, who are all set to enter this emerging segment.

The opportunities opening up in regional routes, connecting the tier-II cities, is fuelled by a variety of factors. Air Dravida is eyeing passengers who fly international routes from smaller towns via the metros - say from Trichy or Coimbatore to Chennai onwards to Singapore.

Up North, for the Bird Group - with a background in the travel and hospitality businesses - launching an airline is a natural step forward. The group, which has a joint venture with Amadeus, a GDS player for air ticket reservation and Thai-based Dusit Thani Group of Hotels, does ground handling, airport checkins and also runs a training academy for travel industry.

03/12/07 Vishakha Talreja & Shruti Chauhan/Economic Times

Total passenger numbers are set to rise by 6.3% in Q1 International passenger growth is the driving force behind the Air4casts November projections for Quarter 1 next year.

Total passenger numbers are set to rise by 6.3% in Q1. While the rate of increase in domestic travel appears relatively modest at 4.9%, it is in international travel that the real growth surge is expected. In both areas there is now a better than good case for raising the 2008 full year forecast which should now stand at above the six percentage point mark for total passengers.