Karnataka government to set up wine park in Bijapur district

The Karnataka government has now firmed up its plans to set up a dedicated wine park at Bijapur in the northern part of the state. An area of 150 acres has been earmarked for the project. The details of investment were disclosed. “An integrated wine park will boost the grape processing efforts for the research and production of wine,” Umesh Katti, Minister for Agriculture, Govt of Karnataka, told FnB News.

“The state government has already allocated around 140 acres at Toravi village in Bijapur district and the region in the Krishna river basin is known for seedless grape cultivation. Now the project will be under the supervision of the Karnataka Wine Board (KWB),” Katti informed. He added that the park would be set up under a public-private partnership model. Tenders would be floated and applications will be called from the private sector. In addition, efforts are also on to appoint an advisor to the project. The Karnataka Wine Board, which is a state government initiative, will oversee the project development.

French hospitality chain Louvre Hotels Group has recently announced its plans to set up 50 hotels in India by the end of the 2015. VJ Singh, Managing Director South Asia, Louvre Hotels Group said, “Right now we are operating nine hotels in India and looking at adding ten more by the end of this year so at the end of 2012 we will have 20 hotels operating in the country. We plan to add 10 to 12 hotels each year from there on. So our target is 50 hotels in 2015. We have already invested USD 50 million and in the next 12 months we will invest around USD 200 million.”

The plan to establish these hotels will mostly be through management contract. The company will provide the brand and the expertise while the other partners of the company will own them.

The group currently has a portfolio of seven brands, ranging from one to five stars. Besides domestic expansion, the group is also looking forward to setting up hotels in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka all through management contract by the end of 2012, as per a report in indiamart.com.

Expedia, Yatra earmark nearly Rs 100 crore for marketing and advertising in India

Travel services portals Expedia.com and Yatra.com are loosening their purse strings with close to Rs 100 crore being earmarked to be spent on advertising and marketing campaigns in India this year. While Expedia said it will spend Rs 60 crore this year, Yatra has set aside Rs 30 crore apart from roping in ZenithOptimedia as media planning and buying agency, according to a report by PTI.

In a bid to woo Indian customers after its entry in India last year, Expedia has launched a 360 degree campaign — One word for travel. “We have a plan to spend up to Rs 60 crore on marketing on Expedia.com this year,” said Manmeet Ahluwalia, Marketing Head, Expedia India. Last year the firm had launched an outdoor campaign, ‘Big Daddy of Online travel’, to announce its official entry in India. The company had spent around Rs 25 crore on the same.

“After we announced the official launch of Expedia in India last year backed by the campaign, the total revenue increased by around 200 per cent in 2011 compared to 2010,” he said. “By the end of this year, we want to be one of the top three travel brands in terms of consumer recall,” he added.

Yatra.Com, on the other hand, said it is intensifying focus on marketing communication this year. “As a company, we are increasing our focus on marketing and communication,” said Pratik Mazumder, Head Marketing and Strategic Alliance, Yatra.com. Yatra.Com is looking at an approximate marketing budget of Rs 30 crore for the year to bring forth a strong and pervasive brand communication plan, it said.

AP Tourism to uplift heritage monuments in Hyderabad

Plans to involve corporate houses in heritage restoration activities

Buoyed by the recognition for Hyderabad, the capital city, as the best Heritage city at the recent National Tourism Awards, Andhra Pradesh Tourism will embark on a plan to restore and spruce up the heritage sites in the city of Hyderabad and rest of the state in a big way. Speaking to the media after receiving the National Award, Chandana Khan, Principal Secretary – Tourism, Andhra Pradesh said that the honour had strengthened their resolve to complete the unfinished work in the heritage tourism front in the capital city in a big way. The Tourism department will spruce up the small monuments and havelis in the city and will organise activities like cultural evenings at these sites with the participation of the local community, she added. “A concept note to involve Corporates in the upkeep of monuments is ready and will be launched soon,” she said. The corporate companies take up the responsibility of the upkeep and maintenance of a monument as part of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity.

As part of their plans to popularise the monuments, AP Tourism will commence Heritage Corridor Bus service connecting all the important monuments in the city starting from April 18 this year, which is also World Heritage Day. Week-long cultural festivals will also be organised at different venues as part of the celebrations, she added. The Principal Secretary also informed that Andhra Pradesh Tourism will join the Clean India campaign and will launch the programme by involving schools and colleges in the campaign from April this year.

In the 12th Plan, AP Tourism will give greater importance to Rural Tourism, the official informed. When asked whether they have identified new Rural Tourism sites, Khan said that they have already identified few sites for development of Rural Tourism. “We have done some work in Pochampilli. We will do more there. Similarly, Anantapur Dharmavaram Area, which is famous for silk-weaving industry, Vijayawada, popular for Kuchipudi dance, and Warangal, which is famous for Cheriyal scroll paintings will be developed under Rural Tourism,” she added.

In order to popularise the new tourism products, AP Tourism will accelerate road shows in the domestic and international markets. The Tourism Board also has plans to organise FAM trips for tour operators, travel writers, etc. in the coming months. “This year we are also planning many independent road shows in the Middle East, South Asian, and Scandinavian countries. We will draw up a plan in the month of March for these road shows,” the Principal Secretary said.

Jodhpur ~ Incredible India Directory

Jodhpur ~ Incredible India Directory

Rajasthan Trip Maker: Activists oppose bailout package for Kingfisher Ai...

Rajasthan Trip Maker: Activists oppose bailout package for Kingfisher Ai...: Days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accused foreign-funded NGOs of acting in the interest of other countries, National Advisory Counci...

Activists oppose bailout package for Kingfisher Airlines

Days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accused foreign-funded NGOs of acting in the interest of other countries, National Advisory Council members Aruna Roy and Deep Joshi, along with other activists besides economists, have asked the Prime Minister not to bail out the financially troubled Kingfisher Airlines. According to a Business Standard, the letter they sent to the Prime Minister said that public funds should not be used to pay for the “mismanagement” of a “profligate private enterprise”.

Recent statements from the Ministers of Civil Aviation and Finance, the activists said, seem to suggest that the government “is on the verge of succumbing to the scare tactics” of Vijay Mallya who owns the now cash-strapped Kingfisher. The government seems set to “persuade banks to provide him yet another bailout to fund a company that has so far raked up almost Rs 7,000 crore in losses, entirely funded by loans”, the letter added.

Since most of the money has been lent by nationalised and public sector banks, which are repeatedly capitalised by the government, it would “ultimately mean that this profligate private enterprise will be bailed out with public funds”, according to the missive, signed by Nikhil De, Sucheta Dalal, Jayati Ghosh, Praful Bidwai, Biraj Patnaik, Prashant Bhushan, Suman Sahai, Ashwini Sharma, EAS Sharma, Jagdeep Choker and Kapil Bajaj. “We, a group of concerned citizens, are writing to express our strong objection to any further bailout of the flamboyant billionaire,” they said, adding it “will only allow him to continue to mismanage the airline”.

The letter goes on to allege complicity of Indian banks in the bankruptcy of the Mumbai-based airline, as banks took no action though a report on the company’s poor financial condition was available since September 2011. The report by Veritas, an independent Canadian research firm, “clearly anticipated and documented the fate” of Kingfisher Airlines, they claimed.

The report, called ‘A Pie in the Sky’, also warns UB Holdings, the parent company of Kingfisher Airlines, to be “teetering on the verge of bankruptcy”. Kingfisher Airlines’ book equity has been wiped out, although audited financials pretend otherwise, it added. The “silence” of the banks, the letter by Roy and others said, “amounts to dereliction of duty, since Kingfisher Airlines' inability to pay endangers their own profits”.

The letter quotes Veritas as saying thus, “Unless the banking institutions have provisioned judiciously for the debt provided to Kingfisher Airlines — approximately Rs 4567 crore (USD 986 million) in loans to Kingfisher in addition to standby letters of credit, etc — it renders the disclosed capital position of the banks unreliable.”

Also, the letter said, it “is hard for us citizens to believe that the government could do nothing to protect taxpayers’ funds or prevent further haemorrhaging of Kingfisher Airlines over the past five months after this report”.

The letter goes on to urge the Prime Minister to provide no bailout to the airline without forcing Mallya to liquidate his own personal assets to pay for the “excesses of his airline”.

The letter said the airline boss must be forced to bring in at least Rs 4,000 crore to Kingfisher. “This is easily doable,” the letter said. “Unless the government demonstrates its willingness to initiate tough action, the people will be forced to explore other options to ensure justice and fair play.”

Nepal records over 42,000 international tourist arrivals by air in February 2012

Strong South Asian visitor arrivals, especially Indian visitors, pushed the overall international tourist arrivals by 13.7 per cent as compared to previous year to 42,716 by air in February 2012. The arrivals by air enjoyed a sustained positive growth in the international visitor arrivals, according to the Nepal Tourism Board.

According to the Immigration Office, Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA) data, all the regions have shown a positive growth in the second month of the year. “India has recorded a positive growth of 28.8 per cent,” it added. However, arrivals from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan have declined by 12.4 per cent, 16 per cent and 23.8 per cent, respectively, as per a Himalayan Times report .

Arrivals from Asia (other than South Asia) also recorded positive growth of 4.3 per cent in aggregate. Visitor arrivals from Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand increased by 33.2 per cent, 19.8 per cent 31.5 per cent and 7.9 per cent, respectively. However, arrivals from China and Singapore declined by 23.1 per cent and 25.3 per cent, respectively in February 2012 as compared to February 2011.

An overall positive growth of 17.5 percent was seen from European markets with arrivals from UK, France, Germany, Italy Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Russia up by 9.8 per cent, 8.8 per cent, 3.0 per cent, 31.2 per cent, 87.9 percent, 42.4 per cent, 34.3 per cent, 35 per cent and 6.8 per cent, respectively.

Arrivals from Netherlands and Norway declined by 20.1 per cent and 6.7 per cent, respectively. Arrivals from Australia and USA increased by 18.5 per cent and 10.4 per cent, respectively, whereas arrivals from Canada and New Zealand saw negative growth of 5.2 per cent and 34.2 per cent, respectively. In January-February period of 2012, international tourist arrivals to Nepal have risen by 20.2 per cent to 84,747.

Rajasthan Trip Maker: Kingfisher Airlines technician boycott work at Del...

Rajasthan Trip Maker: Kingfisher Airlines technician boycott work at Del...: A section of financially-battered Kingfisher Airlines staff on March 1, 2012 boycotted work at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in N...

Kingfisher Airlines technician boycott work at Delhi international airport

A section of financially-battered Kingfisher Airlines staff on March 1, 2012 boycotted work at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi in order to protest the alleged non-payment of salaries since November 2011, but flights were not affected. The employees, mainly technicians, began boycotting work late last night alleging they had not been paid salaries for the past four months, as the airline's Aircraft Maintenance Engineers took over the entire operations which ensured maintenance of its flight schedules, airport sources said.

Confirming that some of the technicians had boycotted work, an airline official said, "The matter has been sorted out and they have returned to work from 12 noon today and no flights have been affected due to this."

According to a PTI report, The Vijay Mallya-owned airline has a total debt of about Rs 7,057 crore and accumulated losses of about Rs 6,000 crore. The airline has not paid salary to its employees since November 2011 and Sanjay Aggarwal, CEO, Kingfisher Airlines had promised the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) that the due salaries of November 2011 and December 2011 would be paid by end-February 2012 and all dues would be cleared by end-March 2011.

The technicians perform routine and scheduled maintenance on aircraft engines, air conditioning systems, brakes, cockpit instruments, valves and other components. Apart from replacing worn-out or defective parts and rebuilding engines, they also maintain service records and perform aircraft inspections.

Kingfisher Airlines is reportedly in talks with two foreign carriers including International Airlines Group (IAG), the owner of British Airways and Iberia, for a potential rescue package. State Bank of India (SBI), the lead lender to Kingfisher Airlines, said it would not consider any fresh loans for the debt-laden carrier until it raises new equity itself.

Rajasthan Trip Maker: President Pratibha Patil urges multi-pronged appro...

Rajasthan Trip Maker: President Pratibha Patil urges multi-pronged appro...: In order to achieve further growth in tourism, the President of India Pratibha Patil, has urged for a multi-pronged approach to be adopted ...

President Pratibha Patil urges multi-pronged approach to achieve growth in tourism

In order to achieve further growth in tourism, the President of India Pratibha Patil, has urged for a multi-pronged approach to be adopted to make visitors’ experience pleasant and hassle-free. “India has exquisite destinations, diverse culture, colourful festivals, long heritage and vast landscape to attract tourists,” the President said. She added that tourism was the main driver of economic prosperity and development for many countries of the world and the tourism industry’s capacity to generate employment and uplift the livelihood standards of unskilled and semi-skilled labour is well known. Patil cited the examples of countries like France, Spain, etc., where tourist arrivals are more than the population. The President was speaking at the National Tourism Awards function organised by Ministry of Tourism, Government of India at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi recently.

Appreciating the steps taken by the government in recent years to promote tourism by including niche segments like cruise, adventure, wellness tourism, etc., the President said that there has been growing interest in Ayurvedic medicines and Yoga among people in foreign countries and she also said that the decision to constitute an inter-ministerial committee for tourism to build “convergence of programmes at the implementation level” was a step in the right direction.

However, the President said that proper infrastructure, connectivity, and accommodation facility affordable to all segments of travellers are key for tourism. Making a specific mention of the hospitality industry, the President said that the hotel industry must look at the requirements of all sections of travellers. She also urged the industry to imbibe new technology in order to make travel products more accessible. While working to achieve the target set, the President also cautioned the industry against deviating from the cultural traditions of the country. She urged the industry to keep up the spirit of responsible tourism.

Speaking on the occasion, Subodh Kant Sahai, Union Minister for Tourism, Govt of India said that efforts are on to achieve the target of one per cent of international inbound into India by 2016. The Minister also said that the target can be achieved only through stronger partnerships among governments at the Centre and the State and the private stakeholders of the tourism industry. Reiterating tourism’s capacity for employment generation, social integration, and wealth distribution, Sahai said, “The government intended to take the benefits of tourism to grassroots level by clustering the rural tourism projects.”

The President gave away National Tourism Awards to 78 awardees in over 50 categories. New categories were included in this year’s National Tourism Awards to recognise Heritage related products and services. The awards included were Best Heritage City, Best Heritage Walk, and Best State on Campaign Clean India were included in this year’s award.