Thomas Cook, SOTC Launch 'Travel First, Pay Later' Scheme
Thomas Cook India and SOTC are offering customers an option to pay after returning from their holidays and have introduced new safety protocols to attract customers.
The schemes address issues related to health and hygiene during travel and also of financial risk of booking trips during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Customer travel expenses will be funded by a financial institution under the 'Holiday First Pay When You Return' scheme. Thomas Cook and SOTC have tied up with an institution which will carry out quick due diligence and assess credit worthiness of a potential customer. There will be no additional charges payable to the institution apart from the tour cost.
Jun 11, 2021
Confederation of Hospitality, Technology and Tourism Industry (CHATT)
Airbnb, EaseMyTrip, OYO and Yatra have established a new industry association called "Confederation of Hospitality, Technology & Tourism Industry (CHATT)". CHATT will help small companies and travel & hospitality technology players.
It will promote domestic tourism and help in digital transformation of domestic tourism.
It will act as a thought leader to run training programmes.
Every member will have the access to CHATT resources and benefits.
It provides for participation in year-round programmes, access to travel-tech ecosystem, signature business events, inclusion of experts & regional leads among others.
CHATT association comprises of members like-
Amanpreet Bajaj who is General Manager of Airbnb – India, Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong
Nishant Pitti who is Co- Founder & CEO of EaseMyTrip.com;
Rohit Kapoor who is CEO of OYO India & Southeast Asia and
Dhruv Shringi who is Co-Founder and CEO of Yatra.com.
Hyatt Regency Mumbai has shut its Mumbai property due to the financial crunch facing its asset owner Asian Hotels (West). The five star property issued a notice informing the staff on its roll that no funds are being infused from the property owner to meet the operational expenses of the hotel including payment of salaries. The hotel, therefore, has to be closed until further notice.
Hyatt is managing the property in Mumbai on a contract basis on behalf of Asian Hotels.
Hyatt is an American hospitality brand that manages and franchises hotels.
Jun 06, 2021
RBI Creates Liquidity Window to Help Hotels, Tourism
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 2021 announced creating a special liquidity window of Rs. 15,000 crore with a tenor of 3 years at the repo rate to provide liquidity support to the contact-intensive sectors hit by Covid-19.
The special liquidity window encourages banks to provide fresh lending support to hotels, restaurants, tourism, aviation ancillary services, and other services including private bus operators, car repair services, rent-a-car service providers, event/conference organizers, spa clinics, and beauty parlours/saloons.
These sectors have seen the biggest impact due to the second wave as authorities started imposing lockdown measures to curb the spread of the virus.
These sectors will be permitted to park their surplus liquidity, equivalent to the size of the loan book created by them under this scheme, under the reverse repo window at a rate which is 25 basis points (bps) lower the repo rate, or 40 bps higher than the reverse repo rate.
Jun 03, 2021
Mumbai's Civic-run Zoo to Expand for New Animals
The civic-run Byculla Zoo in Mumbai is set to expand by 10 acres to house new enclosures for several exotic species of animals that will be brought to the facility in the next few years, officials said on Monday.
One of the city's most patronised venues, officially called the Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan, it is currently spread over 53 acres and the extra 10 acres have already been procured for a third phase of expansion, they added. A tender had been floated for the expansion work that will see the construction of 15 enclosures to house animals like the giraffe, white lion, black jaguar, chimpanzee, ostrich, ringtail lemur and cheetah etc.