Category Archives: Associations

The Association of Domestic Tour Operators (ADTOI) is set to conduct its elections on August 11, 2018 at the Metropolitan Hotel, New Delhi. The Returning Officer (RO) for the election would be Harbans Singh, Retd Secretary, Election Commission. This was announced at the General House meeting of the association recently. The current team will be completing its two-year term on August 16, 2018.  

In a bid to attract investors across the industry, a number of state tourism boards presented their ideas and prospect on tourism in their respective states during the 4th Tourism Investors Meet held at FICCI, Federation House, New Delhi. The tourism boards of West Bengal, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Manipur gave detailed presentations on how their state provides lucrative opportunities to investors. Each presentation counted on their USP and explained about the incentives and concessions provided by the respective state governments. The first presentation was given by the meet’s Theme State West Bengal Tourism which stressed on developing the state as an ‘ecotourism hub’. This was followed by a presentation by Partner State Rajasthan Tourism which focused on promoting heritage location and properties in the state. It also talked about opportunity of growth for adventure sports and MiCE in the state. Feature State Gujarat Tourism stressed on providing attractive incentives to investors with last mile connectivity for travellers in the state. The final presentation was given by Feature State Manipur Tourism. Highlighting the state’s rich culture and resources, the presentation talked about the prospect of developing Manipur as a ‘tourism hub’. The main focus was on Loktak lake, the largest fresh water lake in the Northeast.

Highlighting the foremost areas of developing a robust tourism infrastructure and the current scenario of tourism in India, FICCI in association with Yes Bank has released a knowledge report titled ‘Tourism Infrastructure Investments: Leveraging Partnerships for Exponential Growth’, during the Tourism Investors Meet 2018 held in New Delhi. The It also features facts and figures pertaining to the tourism sector and suggests recommendations to establish India as a global tourism hotspot. Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India, unveiled the report during the meet along with Bhupesh Rathore, President & Head – Strategic Government Advisory, Yes Bank; Dr Jyotsana Suri, Past President, FICCI & Chairperson, FICCI Tourism Committee; Dipak Deva, Co-chairman, FICCI Tourism Committee and Rahul Chakravarty, Consultant – Tourism, FICCI. Rathore also gave a presentation focusing on the potential and development of tourism across various sectors of the industry.

Travel and tourism investment is expected to rise by 6.7 per cent per annum over the next 10 years to Rs 5,546.3 billion in 2028, according to FICCI-Yes Bank Knowledge Paper titled ‘Tourism Infrastructure Investments- Leveraging Partnerships for Exponential Growth’. Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, said that the tourism and civil aviation ministries are engaging continuously to identify solutions and implement them for the growth of both the sectors. “The way forward is a focused approach for evolving tourist places under the aviation connectivity scheme and expanding existing routes under UDAN scheme including helicopter routes in hilly and north-eastern regions. This will provide good infrastructural support to the tourism sector,” said Padhee. She also added that the Ministry of Civil Aviation is working to remove bottlenecks in remote and regional areas by providing proper navigation means, technology, better security and safety. Dr Jyotsna Suri, Past President, FICCI & Chair, FICCI Tourism Committee and CMD, Lalit Suri Hospitality Group, in her address said that increasing connectivity will boost tourism, adding that ‘one flight per day to Khajuraho will build the demand eventually’. Dipak Deva, Co-Chair, FICCI Tourism Committee and MD, SITA, TCI & Distant Frontiers also presented his views on the growth of tourism in the country at the 4th Tourism Investors Meet held in Delhi.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) will inaugurate the fourth edition of its Tourism Investors Meet (TIM) today. During the interactive conclave, exhibiting destinations will showcase their policy and facilities to soliciting investment in tourism infrastructure. This is done through pre-scheduled structured face-to-face business meetings between the state governments and prominent investors. Last year, TIM witnessed participation from several state governments and over 150 investors from various parts of the country. The two-day event saw presentations made by the states, followed by more than 200 structured face-to-face business meetings between the states and the investors.

In a curtain raiser event held in New Delhi, the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board has announced that it will host ‘AdventureNEXT’ in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh from December 3-5, 2018. The event is organised by Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA). The curtain raiser saw in presence Hari Ranjan Rao, MD, Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board; Gergana Nikolova, Regional Manager – Europe, ATTA; Jake Finifrock, Regional Director – Asia, ATTA; and Swadesh Kumar, President ATOAI. Rao said, “India has been a great destination in terms of adventure travel. We are grateful to ATTA that it agreed to come to India and bring so many partners from other parts of the world. I am also grateful to ATOAI who have been at the forefront to take this event forward.” Organised for the first time in Asia, AdventureNEXT is known for putting emerging adventure destinations on the world tourism map. Finifrock added, “ATTA is a member organisation that is made up of over 1300 members throughout the world. We like to provide opportunities to people to come together to learn from one another, to inspire one another, to have more opportunities to network and grow the adventure travel community. It’s not only an event for Madhya Pradesh but also for all adventure travel across India. We are expecting around 300-350 delegates to attend Adventure Next. Many of these will be international buyers who will come to see travel products available in India.”

India is one of the markets where social media is more important than emails in inspiring travel, according to PATA’s ‘The Connected Visitor Economy’ report. It is therefore critical for destinations and tourism businesses to ensure they deliver on the experience and facilitate social sharing for Indians (e.g. via free Wi-Fi). Indians are also very likely to share information whilst travelling or post reviews after their visits. These sources are increasingly influential. In using content marketing, it is important to note that India is a highly mobile dependent market. so providing content in mobile-friendly formats is vital. Although internet penetration is low, it is highly correlated with travel incidence.

The Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) has recently announced the theme for its 34th Annual Convention as ’20 Million Tourists: Challenges & Possibilities’, to be held in Visakhapatnam from September 6-9, 2018. While announcing the theme, Rajiv Mehra, Vice President, IATO said, “The theme has been finalised after consideration from the Ministry of Tourism. We will hold discussions on it and will try to look how we can achieve this target. A session will be held on hotels and airlines during the convention. The theme has been finalised by the Executive Committee.” The association has already announced the governing body for the convention. While Rajiv Mehra has been appointed as the Chairman, Rajesh Mudgil, Hony Secretary, IATO has been appointed as Co-Chairman. Amaresh Tiwari has been named as Convener for IATO Run for Responsible Tourism. The venue of the convention is Hotel Novotel Visakhapatnam Varun Beach. Talking about IATO’s activities in last one month, Mehra said, Mehra said, “We conducted a roadshow to the US with Ministry of Tourism where 25 active members of IATO participated. We also concluded IATO’s Chapter Meeting in Mumbai, attended by Hony Secretary Rajesh Mudgil.”

PATA India Chapter has announced that it will organise The Tourism PowerHouse from August 5-6, 2018 at The Park New Delhi. The announcement was made at PATA India Chapter’s 7th Update and Outlook Meeting in cooperation with the Ministry of Tourism at The Claridges, New Delhi, which saw in attendance, Rashmi Verma, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism and Chairman – PATA India Chapter; Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism and MP Mall, Chairman and Managing Director, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). The PowerHouse will be presided over by Verma and Mario Hardy, CEO, PATA. Speaking about the PowerHouse, Verma said, “We hope to draw eminent speakers from all over the world to speak on contemporary issues like responsible tourism, sustainable tourism, marketing, digital marketing, etc. Eminent speakers will be invited from various countries who will be sharing global trends, initiatives and the best practices required to emulate in our country. We are hopeful that apart from the industry, state tourism boards, other organisations and stakeholders will also be participating because it is going to be a very useful interaction for us as well as all the stakeholders who have a stake in promoting tourism to this country.”  

More than 300 foreign delegates are expected to participate in the PATA adventure travel conference, to be held in Rishikesh from February 13-15, 2019, a senior official said. PATA Adventure Travel and Responsible Tourism Conference and Mart 2019 (ATRTCM) would be hosted by the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board. “Uttarakhand won bid this time. The travel mart is a better way of showcasing the state to international clients,” said Dilip Jawalkar, Secretary, Uttarakhand Tourism. The event, that brings together public and private sector players involved in the adventure tourism, would be held from Responding to a query on whether there was any financial bidding for hosting the event, he replied in the negative. “One has to commit tourist facilities for visiting travel agents like accommodation, transportation, site seeing, etc.” he added. This year, the conference was held in Abu Dhabi.