INDIA is seeing a surge in Russian arrivals, catalysed by the easing of visa regulations last year.

Since June 2011, the Indian Embassy in Moscow has started issuing six-month multiple-entry visas for Russian tourists instead of one-month single entry visas, and reduced the issuance period from two weeks to three days.

The Indian Embassy in Moscow issued about 150,000 visas last year, a rise of 24 per cent from 2010, and a significant increase from 54,000 Russian visitors in 2006. The trend is set to continue this year, with Russian arrivals in January/February 2012 recording a 20 per cent year-on-year growth.

Arun Varma, managing director, Allways Travel New Delhi, said: “Russia and some of the CIS countries have emerged as a major source market for Indian inbound, and because of their disposable income, the volume and receipts from these markets will continue to grow.”

Goa, which is frequented by Russians, received 133,000 Russian visitors last year. Between January 1 and April 15 this year, 520 out of 910 charter flights to Goa were from Russia, bringing 95,000 tourists.

Other destinations popular with Russian tourists include the Delhi-Agra-Jaipur route, Kerala, Kulu-Manali and Haridwar-Rishikesh in north India, Odisha in the east, and Andaman & Nicobar Islands in the south.

To augment the growing Russian inbound market, the Indian government will open a tourism marketing office in Moscow later this year.

MANDALA Airlines started daily Medan-Singapore services on April 20, marking its first international route since its relaunch earlier this month.

The Indonesian LCC kick-started domestic operations on April 5 with 12-weekly Jakarta-Medan flights. Twice-daily Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur services will begin on May 4.

“Mandala Airlines is excited to serve the Indonesian community once again. (We are) committed to providing business and leisure travellers better connectivity on both domestic and international routes at attractive fares, so look out for upcoming announcements,” said Mandala Airlines’ president director, Mike Coltman.

Tickets for the Jakarta-Medan, Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta-Singapore routes are now available for booking via Tiger Airways’ website.

THE INDIAN Railway Catering and Tourism Corp (IRCTC) is stepping up efforts to grow its online flight booking business, a move that is likely to have a significant impact on Indian OTAs.

Already one of the country’s largest e-commerce operators through its handling of Indian Railways’ catering, tourism and online ticketing operations, IRCTC is looking to boost its share of the domestic online air ticketing market by leveraging on its high website traffic.

Since launching air-ticketing services last year, IRCTC has become an IATA member and tied up with domestic airlines to sell air tickets in bulk through its portal. The company is also enhancing its booking system to accommodate the expansion.

Deepak Narula, managing director, Aman Travels New Delhi, which operates Bookajourney.com, said: “IRCTC’s move to expand its online air ticketing business is one more attempt to take away the market share of small- and medium-sized travel (consultants).”

“Nowadays everybody, whether it is airline or travel consolidator, is trying to reach the clients directly. This is a threat to travel (consultants).”

Reporting by Divya Kaul

YET another prominent industry leader has hit out against the imposing of taxes on travel to protect the environment, citing viable alternatives such as the use of positive incentives.

Malaysia’s tourism minister Ng Yen Yen called the tax approach “simplistic” when she was speaking at last weekend’s PATA Annual Conference themed Building the Business Beyond Profits.

“If they should do that in the West, the East can do that…(but) I think it would be very unhealthy competition,” she said, referring to taxes such as the European Union Emissions Trading System.

She added that Malaysia’s stand was to incentivise instead of disincentivise, which could mean, for example, an operator pays less tax for promoting cycling tours.

The country’s ecotourism policy that stipulates no more than 50 per cent of land can be developed has also helped to preserve the destination’s “pristine floating jungle”, Ng said. This has resulted in the NTO turning to other man-made products such as art and shoes (and in turn launching festivals around that) to draw tourists instead.

She listed more examples of Malaysia’s sustainable tourism initiatives such as its Plant a Tree project, which has seen over 10,000 trees planted by tourists. Organised for guests who participate in homestays, the partnership with villages for accommodation is also one way the country supports rural communities.

“Profit cannot be the answer for the future,” Ng said, urging industry stakeholders to focus instead on “sustainable tourism and social responsibility”, topics that were also given an airing during PATA’s two-day conference.

Closing session speaker Bruce Poon Tip, founder of Canada-based tour operator G Adventures, pointed out that travel business owners had the opportunity to extend a helping hand to communities in need, while this was also one way they could engage customers beyond products.

“All of you have brochures that talk about the hotels and services you supply…Customers have long gone past that. (They) want to identify with your brand and what you stand for,” he said.

His company, which has a non-profit arm called Planeterra, has hired street children in India as tour guides and restored vision to the blind in Cambodia, among other initiatives.

Said Poon Tip: “We create stories about our brand that transcend our product and (talk about) how we change people’s lives by creating happiness in the community.”

TTG ASIA’s Facebook Contest finds its lucky March winner in Valerie McKenzie, managing director of Thana Burin Asia Pacific in Bangkok.

McKenzie won a three-night stay in a one-bedroom suite at Swissôtel Resort Phuket, after ‘liking’ the TTG Asia Facebook page and subscribing to the travel trade magazine.

The prize for the final month of the contest is a four-day, three-night stay in a deluxe room at Destination Surin Resort & Spa in Phuket.

Members of the travel trade stand to win prizes every month by ‘liking’ the TTG Asia Facebook page, and increase their chances by subscribing to the magazine.

For more details, visit www.facebook.com/ttgasia

THAI Airways International (THAI) has revealed its plans for the Airbus A380 aircraft that will be deployed progressively from 3Q2012.

The planes will first be utilised on the carrier’s daily services to Hong Kong (TG600/TG601) and Singapore (TG409/TG410) during the period October 28–December 14.

Starting December 15, THAI will deploy the A380 on its daily Bangkok–Frankfurt flights (TG920/TG921). An extra A380 service to Tokyo (Narita) (TG676/TG677), operated daily, will be launched on January 16, 2013.

As the carrier takes delivery of additional A380s, the plane will be utilised for daily Bangkok–Paris (Charles de Gaulle) services, replacing the existing 10-weekly flights operated with Boeing 777-300ERs.

THAI’s A380s will offer 507 seats in a three-class configuration (12 first-class, 60 business-class and 435 economy-class). Compared to the first tranche of A380s delivered to Singapore Airlines, Thai’s A380s will offer an additional 36 seats in economy class.