French Tour Operator Appoints Representative in India

French tour operator Voyages Services Plus (VSP) has appointed Raj Devas, currently Manager-Sales and Marketing, VSP, who will be moving out of the company this month end, as representative for the Indian market.

The representative office will be located in Goa and is expected to start operations by September 2010.

Through this development the company intends to ensure a point of contact for the Indian travel trade, as well as promote VSP’s services in India. While the company currently focuses on FIT and incentive travel, it plans to tap the MICE outbound segment from India. The company has been working with the Indian market for the past six months and has already become its sixth important source market globally.

Devas said, “Even though VSP will have a representative office in India, it will not work directly with clients. It will still continue to work with its Indian travel trade partners and generate Indian business through them.” VSP currently works with tour operators like Thomas Cook, Saltours, Amigo Travels and Omega Travels. VSP’s objective is also to increase its travel trade partners in India. The company plans to work with major tour operators including Kesari Tours for conducting their tours in France.

VSP will also be working with Atout France to promote the country in India. It will also be participating in trade fairs to promote its services in the Indian market. Besides Paris and Nice, the company now plans to promote the India tours all over World. It also aims to increase the average length of stay of Indians in France.

Source: travelbizmonitor.com

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100 Himalayan peaks in Kashmir opened to Foreigners

Foreigners will be allowed to climb nearly 100 high-altitude Himalayan peaks for the first time in Kashmir, an official said Friday.

The move by the government to allow foreign climbers follows a significant decline in violence by insurgent groups in the region since India and Pakistan started a peace process in 2004, said Farooq Ahmed Shah, a state tourism official.

The move is aimed at helping to boost tourism, an important source of income for Kashmiris and their saucer-shaped valley of fruit orchards, lakes and wildflowers.

Before the start of the insurgency by separatists in 1989, hundreds of thousands of tourists flocked to the region — known as the Switzerland of the east — to enjoy the glacier-fed streams flowing through the forests and grasslands or lounge on houseboats floating on Srinagar's Dal Lake.

"We are optimistic that the decision will give a big boost to tourism and attract more and more foreign tourists,'' Shah said.

Separatist violence caused the number of tourists to drop to a few thousand every year, deterred by travel warnings from Western governments and extensive media coverage of fighting between government forces and insurgents.

The government in the Indian state of Jammu-Kashmir declared 2010 a ``visit Kashmir year'' following an improvement in the security situation, Shah said.

"The decision has been taken at the highest level and nearly 100 peaks in Ladakh region are open for trekking and mountaineering,'' he said.

These peaks are situated at an altitude ranging from 9,840 feet (3,000 metres) to nearly 26,246 feet (8,000 metres).

The Indian climbers have been scaling those peaks for decades. Aijaz Ahmed, a travel operator, said the opening of the peaks to foreign tourists would help promote Kashmir.

"The tourism sector has suffered a lot during the last two decades. We're hopeful the decision will attract foreign tourists to the region,'' he said.

Ladakh is a remote part of the former princely state of Kashmir, which is at the heart of the decades-old conflict between nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan. The heavily militarized region also borders China. A part of Ladakh — an ethnically distinct region with historical ties to Tibet — has been controlled by China for decades.

More than a dozen rebel groups have been fighting for Kashmir's independence from India or its merger with neighboring Pakistan since 1989.

India accuses Pakistan of arming and training Muslim militants. Islamabad denies the charge, saying it only gives moral and diplomatic support to the rebels.

More than 68,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the uprising and the subsequent Indian crackdown.

Source: Timesofindia.com

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