Indian skilled workers, medical professionals and students held on to their domination in the UK’s visa tally over the past year, according to official immigration statistics released yesterday. The Office for National Statistics data collated by the UK Home Office for the year ending September 2023 shows that Indian nationals topped not only the ‘Skilled Worker’ visa route but also the ‘Health and Care’ visa route. In the students’ visa category, Indian nationals continued to represent the largest group of students granted leave to remain on the post-study Graduate visa route, representing 43 per cent of grants. “While ‘Skilled Worker’…
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IndiGo, India’s leading budget carrier, is reportedly exploring the introduction of a premium class on its flights as part of its strategic expansion plans. With a robust domestic market share exceeding 62%, the airline aims to attract more business travelers and compete on international routes, particularly targeting Air India’s market. According to sources, the proposed premium class would be featured in 35 Airbus A321 aircraft, offering enhanced services such as extra legroom, priority boarding, and complimentary in-flight meals for passengers willing to pay extra. The move comes amidst IndiGo’s impressive financial performance, with its parent company, InterGlobe Aviation, posting a…
Fortune Hotels, a member of the ITC hotel group, announced its newest signings, a brownfield resort located in the picturesque area of Uthandi, Chennai and an over 100-room conversion hotel in Hosur, just an hours drive from Bangalore. The two strategically located hotels, scheduled to open in a few months, add strength to the Fortune Hotels portfolio of 64 alliances across 54 cities of India. Commenting on this, Samir MC, Managing Director, Fortune Hotels, said, “It is good to be on the path of expansion as envisaged by us early on. Both the Hosur & Chennai properties are poised to…
TravClan, a global B2B Travel tech platform is organising a pan-India series of networking events in Tier-II and III towns for travel agents. The recent events in Kanpur and Jalandhar mark their latest stint in this nationwide endeavour. The aim is to provide travel agents in smaller towns across India with a strong digital infrastructure, promoting growth by keeping them updated on the latest trends in the travel industry. The events in Kanpur and Jalandhar attracted numerous enthusiastic travel agents. It facilitated one-on-one interactions with TravClan’s team, who shared insights into how travel agents can leverage the technology and solutions…
Vietjet has launched flights from Adelaide to Ho Chi Minh City, marking the first-ever Vietnamese carrier to operate flights between Vietnam and South Australia. This historic milestone signifies the commencement of five weekly return flights between the two cities. The new service was inaugurated following November 21’s ceremony, which welcomed Vietjet’s first non-stop flight connecting Ho Chi Minh City and Perth, featuring a similar frequency. This significant expansion into Adelaide and Perth will see Vietjet’s weekly flights to Australia surge to 58 a week, a remarkable feat achieved in less than a year since its entry into the Australian market…
Q3-2023 continued the trend from H1-2023, signalling a levelling of the rapid travel growth that started late 2021, and whilst travel demand was growing and positive, the increases have moderated for a third quarter, according to FCM Consulting’s latest Global Quarterly Trend Report. The key outtake showed that Q1-2024 is forecast to have +71.8 million (+5.3 per cent) more seats (both domestically and internationally) than in 2019, for the same period. The final 2023 seat capacity is forecast to be -2.2 per cent down in 2019. When we look at air seat growth regionally Africa leads the way with a…
Madhya Pradesh tourism sector is benefiting in a big way after the state opened its doors for shooting movies through the film tourism policy, a senior official said on Wednesday. Sheo Shekhar Shukla, Managing Director of Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board, told PTI that film-makers are increasingly exploring various locations in the central state for shootings after the MP Film Tourism Policy was passed in 2020. “We are trying to promote shootings of films in Madhya Pradesh. Since the inception of the policy, tourism in the state has gone from place to place,” said Shukla, who is attending the International Film…
Mauritius has now become an even more attractive destination for event planners from India to host their business meetings, conferences or weddings! From October 1 onwards this year, Mauritius has exempted event planners from across the world from paying 15% VAT on their hotel room charges through their stay in the country for any of these events. The Finance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2023 has introduced the MICE VAT Exemption Scheme, which replaces the MICE VAT Refund Scheme. Under the new scheme, an event organiser (local or foreign) may apply with the Economic Development Board (EDB) for exemption of VAT in…
The Responsible Tourism (RT) Mission under Kerala Tourism has made it to the Global List of Case Studies of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). The UNWTO cited that Kerala Tourism has succeeded in upholding the world body’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while promoting travel industry in the State, said a release here on Tuesday. Kerala has been cited for employing local resources and products while boosting RT destinations, thus finding resources to achieve its objectives towards realising the SDGs. The dashboard displays Kerala Tourism’s website link for details about the State’s activities. Congratulating the State RT Mission on…
India on Wednesday resumed issuing electronic visas for Canadian nationals after suspending it following a diplomatic row over Ottawa’s accusation of possible Indian government involvement in the murder of a Canadian Sikh separatist leader. The latest move is being seen as a step that could reduce tensions between the two countries. India had started issuing Entry visa, Business visa, Medical visa, and Conference visa from October 26 after halting its visa services for Canadian nationals following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations of the “potential” involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on June 18…
