Kerala Plans Tourism Investment Promotion Board

Setting up of a Tourism Investment Promotion Board on the lines of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), plans to rope in the KSRTC and Kerala Tourism Development Corporation to organize coach tours are some of the decisions taken at the Focus Group and Trade Meet, organized by Kerala Tourism in Kochi in early January.

Kerala Tourism is observing 2015 as Year of Kerala with focus on Ayurveda and wellness and plans roadshows and campaigns to woo Sri Lankans to visit the State.

China, being an emerging market, would be given special focus in the promotional activities. Road shows and Familiarization (FAM) tours would be organized.

Making inroads into Sri Lanka to woo tourists has come as a surprise as the island nation with similar geographic features of Kerala is giving a tough competition to the State of late.

To check the mushrooming of Ayurvedic centres and to ensure that the tourists are provided with authentic treatment and therapy in the age-old medical stream, the Tourism Department will insist on strong regulation and registration norms and will approach the Health Department for the same.

Kerala Tourism said a tourist-friendly approach and cleanliness drive are other areas that will get focus. For creating better awareness among local residents, short films produced as part of the responsible tourism initiative will be screened in satellite channels.

Research scholars from outside the State will be ecnoucraged to take up tourism-related topics for their study and research.

Paris Tourist Industry Plans World Tour to Reassure Tourists

After the deadly attack which killed 17 people and shook the entire nation for three days, French authorities and representatives of the Paris tourist industry will set off on a world tour next month to reassure visitors and agents that the French capital is safe.

'We're going to the UK at the end of February, to Los Angeles in March, Italy, Spain and Germany in April, Hong Kong in May and Tokyo in June,' said Francois Navarro, managing director of the Comite Regional du Tourisme Paris Ile-de-France, a body financed by the regional government.

In the meantime the organization is telling embassies and tour operators that the city's museums, monuments, big stores and amusement parks have more police watching them, 'and at the airports, at this stage, it won't take longer to travel by plane even though security has been reinforced', he said.

Navarro said his organization had made inquiries among tour operators and travel agents around the world, and that so far there had been no impact, with no cancellations expected.

He said he was confident Paris would manage a slight increase in the number of visitors this year, with growth notably coming from the Middle East, South Korea and China.

France is the most visited country in the world. Almost 85 million foreigners a year support a 150 billion euro industry that delivers seven per cent of the nation's GDP.

In Ile-de-France, a region which includes Paris, 550,000 jobs depend on tourism, making it the country's biggest industry. The city had 47 million visitors in 2014, about half of them from abroad.

In 2013, the vast majority of visitors to France were from other European countries, but about 3.1 million came from the United States and 1.7 million from China, according to government figures.

India to Promote 'Visit India Year' In China

India will organize a series of special events across China in 2015 as part of 'Visit India Year' programme to introduce its picturesque spots to Chinese tourists.

India's Ambassador to China Ashok K Kantha said there is a deep interest about India in China, but the number of Chinese visiting the country is minuscule.

And the number of Indians travelling to China is also not up to the potential, Kantha added. "Recognizing this, we will be launching the 'Visit India Year' in China and the embassy of India in China is planning to hold a series of activities, not only in Beijing but also in different parts of China, to introduce India to our Chinese friends and promote tourism from China to India," he said.

While 2015 will be the 'Visit India Year' in China, next year will be 'Visit China Year' as part of an understanding between the two countries reached during the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to India last year.

He said Chinese companies should make use of the 'Make in India' campaign and invest there "both for our large domestic market and for exports, thus resulting in a win-win situation for both our countries."

He said India also successfully held 'Glimpses of India Festival' in 14 cities of China. India has been making dedicated efforts to attract Chinese tourists as their numbers reached close to 100 million last year and raked up revenue of $102 billion.

Officials say visa policy has been liberalized to facilitate more visits. Currently over five lakh Indians, mostly businessmen, visit China while nearly one lakh Chinese travel to India.

Google Joins Flight Bookings Business in India

Internet giant Google Inc. launched flight searches in India, intensifying competition in the online travel bookings space.

In a statement in its official blog, Google said “Now, you can search directly for flights within Google or access google.co.in/flights to quickly find, compare and book flights from your mobile device, tablet or desktop,”.

Google service redirects users to the concerned airline’s booking page, which enables consumers to avoid the commission paid to the travel agent. A flight search service such as Google usually earns revenue through clicks and lead to airline or hotel booking sites along with contextual display advertising.

The Indian online travel market will be worth some $12.6 billion by 2016, travel consultancy firm PhocusWright estimates. “It will be interesting to see how Google navigates its users across vendors’ mobile sites and apps, something which even the largest metasearch players are trying to solve,” said Chetan Kapoor, research analyst (Asia Pacific) at PhocusWright.

Despite Google’s strength in web searches, the success of flights and hotel search products is dependent on not only integration with key airlines and intermediaries in the country but, most importantly, displaying dynamic fares and supporting multiple—perhaps even complex—itineraries, which have propelled OTAs ahead of the curve when it comes to online travel bookings, Kapoor said.

In a related development, Goibibo said it has become the first Indian website to partner with Google for its flight search feature. “Goibibo.com is the first OTA in India to partner with Google for flight search. This is in line with our philosophy and core differentiation of delivering the fastest booking experience to our travellers,” said Ashish Kashyap, founder and chief executive officer of ibibo Group, which owns Goibibo.com and redBus.in, a bus ticketing service.

Cleartrip.com, Makemytrip.com, Yatra.com, ezeego1.co.in and Goibibo.com are among the top online travel agencies in India. Google’s new service also competes with ixigo.com, another popular flight search service.

Jet Airways Chairman Pledges Entire Stakes To PNB

In a significant development in India’s aviation sector, Jet Airways’ main promoter and Chairman Naresh Goyal has pledged his entire shareholding in the carrier of 51 per cent, valued at over Rs 2,600 crore, to state-run Punjab National Bank.

The airline, in a regulatory filing this evening, said Goyal has pledged his entire 57,933,665 shares constituting 51 percent holding in the airline effective January 8 to PNB with a “non-disposal undertaking”.

While the reason for pledging of shares was not disclosed, this comes at a time when the aviation sector is going through tough times. Low cost carrier SpiceJet is currently in financial troubles, while Kingfisher Airline is grounded since since October 2012.

Air fuel prices have come down in the recent past due to falling crude price, but they still remain very high and other operating costs also steep in this business.

A new player Air Vistara recently entered the sector as a full-service carrier, intensifying the competition and triggering a fresh round of possible airfare war – a frequent phenomenon in this otherwise ailing sector.

UAE based Etihad holds 24 per cent stake in Jet as a strategic partner which it bought last year, while the remaining shares are owned by institutional and retail investors.

The carrier, whose share price today soared by over 5 per cent to Rs 464.25 apiece, has a total market value of Rs 5,274 crore.

The loss-making airline is saddled with a debt of Rs 9,794 crore as of the September quarter, down 7 per cent from Rs 10,576 crore as of March 2014. This has helped it cut its interest burden 15 per cent to Rs 212.27 crore during the second quarter of the fiscal, the report said.

The airline has not stated how much money it has borrowed from PNB nor could be reached for comments. The bank also could not be reached for comments immediately.

In the September quarter the airline, which had from December 1 discontinued its low-cost brand JetLite, had reported a 96 per cent reduction in net losses on a one-time income by way of sale of JPmiles to Etihad.

A one-time income of Rs 305 crore from sale of its loyalty programme to equity partner Etihad helped Jet Airways slash losses to the tune of 95.7 per cent at Rs 43 crore in the three months to September. The airline had reported a whopping Rs 999 crore net loss in the same period a year ago.

For the first time since 2012, the Naresh Goyal-promoted airline, however, on a standalone basis flew back into profit with a net profit of Rs 69.82 crore helped by the one-time income, the airline said in a release.

Consolidated income rose 13.7 per cent to Rs 5,092 crore during the quarter as against Rs 4,480 crore a year ago. Stand-alone income jumped 16 per cent to Rs 4,772 crore from Rs 4,101 crore, the airline had said.

The Mumbai-based full service carrier has 113 planes in its fleet, of which 26 are owned by the carrier and the rest 87 are leased.

WB Says India to Catch Up With China By 2017

Buoyed by the economic reform measures taken by the Narendra Modi-led government this came to power in May last year, India would catch up with China's growth in the year 2016-17, said the World Bank.

World Bank Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President Kaushik Basu said “China’s growth will remain high, but will begin to taper very gently, reaching 6.9 per cent in 2017,"

 He was speaking on Tuesday at a conference call as the bank released the latest issue 'Global Outlook: Disappointments, Divergences, and Expectations Global Economic Prospects,' report.

The World Bank in its report also forecast a growth rate of seven per cent each in the fiscal year 2016 and 2017 as against China's 7 per cent and 6.9 per cent respectively.

This would be for the first time in recent past that India's growth rate would catch up with that of the Asian giant China.

The World Bank estimated a growth rate of 5.6 per cent in 2014 and has forecast a growth rate of 6.4 per cent in 2015, while that of China as 7.4 (estimated) in 2014 and 7.1 per cent (forecast) in 2015.

In its report the Bank said growth in South Asia rose to an estimated 5.5 per cent in 2014 from a 10-year low of 4.9 per cent in 2013.

"The upturn was driven by India, the region's largest economy, which emerged from two years of modest growth," it said.

Regional growth is projected to rise to 6.8 per cent by 2017, as reforms ease supply constraints in India, political tensions subside in Pakistan, remittances remain robust in Bangladesh and Nepal, and demand for the region's exports firms, it said.

"Past adjustments have reduced vulnerability to financial market volatility. Risks are mainly domestic and of a political nature. Sustaining the pace of reform and maintaining political stability are key to maintaining the recent growth momentum," the report said.

RBI Agrees Docomo Buyback Proposal of Tata Group

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has agreed to a Tata group proposal to buy back DoCoMo's 26.5 per cent stake in Tata Teleservices at a pre-determined price of Rs 58 a share (Rs 7,250 crore for the entire stake), despite the company's valuer, Price Waterhouse, estimating the stake at Rs 23.34 a share, 60 per cent lower.

RBI has referred the matter to the investment division of the Department of Economic Affairs under the finance ministry for views and comments.

On December 22 2014, RBI told the finance ministry the Tatas had hired Price Waterhouse to determine the fair value of the shares of Tata Teleservices, soon after DoCoMo expressed interest to exit the company in April 2014. RBI said the Tatas agreed to buy back the shares at Rs 58 a share and had sought the central bank's permission for the transaction, as the price to be paid was higher than the fair-price valuation.

It added that Price Waterhouse valued DoCoMo's stake at Rs 2,915 crore, against the Rs 7,250 crore sought by the Japanese company, according to its 2009 agreement with the Tatas. The total valuation of Tata Teleservices, according to the valuer, was only Rs 11,000 crore, against the pre-agreed valuation of Rs 27,000 crore.

The RBI letter says according to the agreement between the two companies, the exit price was Rs 58 a share. But it added according to a circular dated July 15 last year, the issue and transfer of shares were to be at a price worked out in line with an internationally agreed methodology, on an arm's-length basis. "Thus, the guiding principle will be that the non-resident investor is not guaranteed any assured price at the time of making the investment/agreement and will exit at a fair price, subject to lock-in period requirements," RBI said.