About India Outbound Magazine

India Outbound is India’s only B2B travel media platform, that encompasses a print magazine, a website, an online TV channel and dynamic social media platforms, entirely dedicated to the promotion of foreign destinations and products in India. India Outbound is a niche platform not just for tourism destinations and products to promote themselves to the Indian travel industry, but also for decision makers to build/change their strategy in a context where the Indian outbound market is not only growing but changing with new dynamics. India Outbound brings to you the latest trends of the market with in depth analysis.

IATA agents ask airlines to let them issue Vande Bharat Mission tickets

The IATA Agents Association of India (IAAI) has sent a written plea to the CEOs of Air India, Air India Express and IndiGo requesting them to allow travel agents based in India to issue tickets under the Vande Bharat Mission.

Air India and Air India express have been given the authority to grant special permissions to all authorised travel agents in the UAE to take part in this evacuation programme. Travel agents in UAE are now allowed to issue tickets for Indian nationals who all are registered on the website of the Indian Consulates and fulfil the required entry conditions and desires to be repatriated by Vande Bharat Mission fights to India.

“Provision to issue tickets in India will be a blessing for many of the Indians stranded in foreign countries jobless and without money to buy air tickets, can get help from their families or relatives in India. Many such families are in constant touch with our travel agencies looking for the provision to send air tickets to bring their relatives back to India and this will also helpful for the outbound passengers travelling from India to foreign countries, as many are clueless for a way out,” IAAI said in a statement.

Following the plea, Air India Express has decided to allow Indian travel agents to book these tickets from July 12. However, Air India which operates the largest number of these flights is yet to respond to it.

Meanwhile, India and UAE have agreed to operationalise an arrangement for repatriation flights starting from July 12. As per the agreement, charter flights operated by the UAE carriers to bring Indian citizens from the UAE to India will be allowed to carry ICA (Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship) approved UAE residents returning to UAE from India on their return leg. Similarly, Indian carriers operating repatriation flights to bring Indian citizens from the UAE to India will be allowed to carry ICA approved UAE residents returning to UAE from India. However, all these flights will carry only passengers who are destined for the UAE. The agreement will be for a limited period of 15 days starting from July 12, and will be reviewed as required later, says a statement made by the MoCA.

Seychelles to open for select countries; leaves India out

Seychelles has announced that it will allow commercial flights to enter the holiday destination from August 1, 2020. This marks successful implementation of the first phase of removal of restrictions on movements. An official document released on July 3 lists countries in two categories - low and medium risk. While China makes it in the low-risk countries and nations like France, Germany and Italy are featured in the medium risk list, India does not figure in either. The low-risk list has 17 countries and medium-risk list has about 20 countries.

Etihad wants to resume services in India if restrictions are lifted

Following the easing of travel restrictions in the UAE, the Abu Dhabi-based carrier Etihad Airways says it would like to resume services to India. The airline has a wide network of routes in India in cities like Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram.

With the gradual resumption of services to more destinations across its global network, the airline has hinted that subject to easing of travel restrictions by UAE regulatory authorities and the entry and health regulations set by the end destination, it plans to fly to 58 destinations worldwide throughout July and August. These will include major gateways in the Middle East, North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.

“We are delighted to announce the gradual expansion of normal scheduled services to more cities across our global network. The easing of restrictions on travel to and from the UAE is an important first step and a great development for Abu Dhabi. By August we aim to operate approximately 45 per cent of our pre-Covid-19 capacity,’’ says Tony Douglas, group chief executive officer, Etihad Aviation Group.

GlobalData says millennial influencers will be key in travel recovery

The elite and young independent travellers are crucial to the recovery of the travel sector as they are likely to be the first tourists to embark on international travel. However, according to a survey by GlobalData, a data analytics company, conducted between May 25 and 31, the result shows 35 pc of Gen Z and 48 pc of Gen Y are still extremely concerned about Covid-19.

Many travel and tourism influencers are drawn from this traveller group, and what they think of and write about in their travel experiences can be highly useful to travel marketing and so they will be indispensable for destination recovery if utilised effectively.

“Amid the pandemic, consumer habits have changed and the importance of having an effective social media presence has been heightened. Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) should engage with influencers and operate across multi-channel platforms to ensure a stronger position for recovery,” says Johanna Bonhill-Smith, travel & tourism analyst at GlobaData.

Both VisitGreece and FailteIreland top the list. Both DMOs have utilised influencers in marketing campaigns in the past to captivate travellers’ interests bringing real-time engagement worldwide. Twitter and YouTube have been the most widely used platforms for travel campaigning during Covid-19. Some campaigns released by DMOs, such as #DreamNowVisitLater (VisitNorway), have gained considerable interest and this is likely to reflect positively on the perception of the destination among younger demographics.

Thailand conducts #ThrowbackThailand video contest among Indian bloggers and influencers

To stay connected with the bloggers and social media influencers of India who otherwise keep travelling to various parts of Amazing Thailand and share their amazing experiences round the year, Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) India Offices, New Delhi and Mumbai, conducted a video contest called #ThrowbackThailand where all top bloggers and social media influencers of India participated. TAT wanted to convey to the social brand ambassadors their importance in promoting a destination to the audience.

During the last week of May 2020, the contest was thrown open to all Indian bloggers and influencers. They were asked to create a video / photo story from their stock materials of previous trips to Thailand, a story that gives a throwback memory. With more than 100 entries, including from many top/award-winning ones; the contest reached out to over 2.4 million people across India.

The pan-India contest saw participants and winners from all over India. After a very careful process of multiple layered selection considering both quality and engagement, the winners were picked by the selection committee. The winners received GoPro Hero 8 Sports and Action cameras and other attractive gifts along with the certificates.

“This activity was conceptualised keeping the millennial in mind, considering that they would be the early travellers once situation normalises. I would like to congratulate all the winners who have shared their bond with Amazing Thailand by creating some beautiful videos and made Thailand as 'Top of the Mind Destination',” says Vachirachai Sirisumpan, Director - TAT (New Delhi) on the response to the contest.

‘‘Congratulations and thanks a lot to all the bloggers who kindly shared their experiences while they were in Thailand with us. Although the world has experienced several pandemics, through all dystopia and new normals, life in Thailand never went out of style. We are very well adept with our daily life to the next level of the new normal,’’ adds Cholada Siddivarn, Director - TAT (Mumbai). The five Grand Winners shared their experiences on the excitement of participating in the contest and how they see post-pandemic travel and Amazing Thailand as a preferred destination.

Rajat Kapoor from Chandigarh said, “I really miss travel & going out for shooting. It was like sunshine in this ongoing dark phase.” Madhurima Chakraborty from Bengaluru said, “I scoured through the footages from my many trips and found a beautiful Persian cat swinging on a hammock at a Thai fishing village. I want to travel all the way to that island, and shoot the cat with my grand prize!” Amit Singh from Gurugram commented, “I feel happy and honoured but more importantly I am glad that people believed in my video which depicts Thailand as the first destination to be visited post-Covid-19.” Manjulika Pramod from Faridabad said, “The competition gave us a chance to take a break from the grim news, all around." Tanayesh Talukdar from Kolkata concluded, “It was a time-machine travel while I was going through gigabytes of images and video clips stored for years and the climax was when I saw my name as one of the winners.’’

AIME 2021: One of the leading MICE events turns hybrid

Asia Pacific Incentives and Meetings Event (AIME), one of the world's leading meetings and incentives event held in Australia has announced much in advance that the 2021 show will now take place from March 15 - 17 at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre, incorporating a virtual format. In an AIME first, the show is going hybrid.

With uncertainty over international travel as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the AIME organisers have developed a show model that combines virtual and live event components, to ensure the industry can still meet, exchange knowledge and do much-needed business, wherever they are in the world.

Matt Pearce, CEO of Talk2 Media & Events said that the new hybrid AIME is being designed to quickly help kickstart industry in 2021. By moving the show to March, they are giving the industry some extra time to adjust to post-Covid conditions as well as providing them with a road to new business opportunity. The AIME hybrid model will see the exhibitors, hosted buyers and visitors attending either in person in Melbourne or virtually via the AIME online event portal.

India Outbound is a publication of Media India Group