Category Archives: Exhibitions

The Global Panorama Showcase has kick-started in Ahmedabad. Revealing the schedule of its 2019 season, EDWIN will be held in four destinations, Leh, Zanzibar, Oman and Europe during the month of September and October 2019. Making the announcement during the inauguration of GPS in Ahmedabad, Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director, GPS informed that they chose the city of Ahmedabad for a very special reason. “We started GPS ‘On the go’ from here and have got tremendous response from travel trade here. EDWIN is really popular in Gujarat as we got maximum number of participants for the programme from the western state. We also have highest number of 10X members from here, which makes GPS Ahmedabad the perfect city to make this announcement,” he said. “We have received constant support from a number of travel trade associations of Gujarat in organising GPS in Ahmedabad and making it a success. Going forward , Ahmedabad will also become the first GPS city with auto-check in facility in coming future. No check-in booths will be required at the show and all the check-in will be done by kiosks. I am proud to say that GPS is the only paperless digital travel event in the world, he further said. The two day B2B show started in Ahmedabad on Wednesday with half day of knowledge sessions, termed as KIT (Knowledge, Inspiration, Training) Talk and half day of B2B meetings. The day 2 will have full day B2B meetings between, exhibitors and buyers from different regions of Gujarat.

Skål Congress 2019 kick-started in Bengaluru. The event is being held from 27-30 June at Taj MG Road, Bengaluru. The event was inaugurated by Sa Ra Mahesh, Honourable Minister for Sericulture and Tourism, Govt. of Karnataka in presence of Lavonne Wittmann, President, Skål International TK Anil Kumar, IAS, Secretary, Karnataka Tourism and Manoj Mathew, President, SKAL Bengaluru. Speaking on occasion of the inauguration, Manoj Mathew, President, Skål Bangalore said, “Bengaluru among other eloquent sobriquets is one of fastest growing cities in the world, with footprints getting stronger each day with the emergence of high – end technology and a global hub for the start-up bandwagon.   The three-day action-packed event shall see over 250 delegates from across ten countries all aligned to promote friendship and fellowship through the world of tourism. ‘Doing Business among friends’ will help you evolve and nurture relationships to facilitate business among our members. The Congress shall have several opportunities for discerning members to explore opportunities among ourselves.”   He further added “The event will add tremendous value to Karnataka and India Tourism’s marketing effort, where in industry leaders from all over Asia will get rich exposure to the India’s diverse culture and heritage”.    

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with Tamil Nadu Travel Mart Society, supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India and Department of Tourism, Government of Tamil Nadu is organising the 2nd edition of CII Tamil Nadu Travel Mart to showcase the potential of Tamil Nadu’s tourism on a global platform from 19-22 September in Chennai. The registrations for the same have been opened. The three-day exhibition will witness more than 300 exhibitors showcasing tourism business opportunities in the state along with 1000 domestic and international buyers.

Global Panorama Showcase kick-started its 2019 season from Hyderabad with a new format and approach. The two-day show will now start with half-day educative sessions and seminars followed by B2B meetings on both days. The show is looking to impart more knowledge and new products from this year along with more exposure and focus on quality business.  “With 170 hosted buyers, flown in to Hyderabad by our airline partner, IndiGo, we have buyers from more than 40 cities such as Vishakhapatnam, Amravati, Vijaywada, Triupati among others. A large number of buyers from Hyderabad have also turned up,” informed Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director, GPS. An MoU was also signed with Meeting Means Business, to showcase the value of face-to-face meetings and conventions, managed by Nitin Sachdeva and Barun Gupta in India. GPS is also looking to strengthen and promote the MiCE movement and the growth of meetings, incentives and conventions in India.  

Speaking on the launch of Visit Nepal Year 2020 campaign by NTB, Suraj Vaidya, National Coordinator, Visit Nepal 2020, says, “We will be conducting the first Nepal Tourism Investment Summit in January 2020. We are doing it as a strategy to bring Nepal back in the forefront. Also, about the Visit Nepal Year 2020- the last one was held in 2011, and since then, probably the world knows Nepal through a very negative picture. It is just not the numbers that we are looking at from India, but also the products. We want to show much more of Nepal, primarily, beyond its conventions- Mt. Everest and Lumbini.”

Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau (Public Organization) taps into secondary MICE cities in India with the herald of MICE road shows, eyeing to attract more than 13,000 visitors into Thailand to boost meetings and incentives market by which can generate over 1,000 MB of revenue. Chiruit Isarangkun Na Ayuthaya, President of Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau (Public Organization) or TCEB, disclosed that TCEB has been thinking highly of MICE markets in India, which is considered a MICE market with the second largest number of MICE travellers after China. As a market with high potentiality in terms of population and economic growth, TCEB recognised the cities and thus joined forces with Thai entrepreneurs to hold road shows that expect to promote meetings and incentives in secondary cities of India. During March to April, two road shows were held. The first show was in Hyderabad and Jayapura, as these two are big cities with the readiness of MICE travel agents. Also, these two cities are distinct with high potentiality and tendency to encourage working people to have their meetings and incentives events in Thailand. The second road show happened in Kolkata and Lucknow, which are secondary cities with a small number of MICE travellers. Interestingly, there are a good number of travel agents with high potentiality qualified to develop as MICE travel agents in the future. TCEB realises that the preparation of networking with agents at the early stage in secondary cities will help to form long-term business relationship, which is a key factor in dealing with the Indians.

Thailand’s most important B2B travel trade show, the Thailand Travel Mart Plus Amazing Gateway to the Greater Mekong Subregion (TTM+) 2019, kick-started on June 5. Under the theme of ‘New Shades of Emerging Destinations’, TTM+ 2019 has attracted a total of 351 buyers (including 50 Indian buyers), 371 sellers, and around 130 international and domestic media. For the second consecutive year, the event is being held at the Ocean Marina Yacht Club, Pattaya, the biggest marina in Southeast Asia. The mart that lasts for three days comes back this year in a bigger and brighter format that clearly reflects the new sense of direction in a rapidly evolving and highly competitive global environment. The overall focus of the show will be Thailand’s emerging destinations nationwide, 55 provinces with spectacular beauty, heritage, cultural and culinary attractions. Yuthasak Supasorn, TAT Governor, says, “This year’s theme reflects a strong continuation of our long-standing strategy to promote our emerging destinations with the aim of creating jobs and distributing revenue nationwide, from major cities to local communities, while creating sustainability by balancing the number of visitors to the destinations. Both international and domestic buyers will find these 55 emerging destinations perfectly suited to the needs of their clients, especially those who seek off-the-beaten-path holidays and repeaters looking for new products. In fact, we are already beginning to see results. In 2018, we recorded six million (6,223,183) trips by foreign tourists to these cities, a growth of +4.95 percent over 2017.”

The Ministry of Tourism, Oman recently conducted roadshows in Bangalore, Pune and Mumbai on 27th, 29th and 31st May 2019 respectively, in a bid to strengthen its outreach among the travel trade industry of India. Through the roadshows, the Ministry along with destination management companies, hotels, attraction operators and Oman Air, the national carrier connected with over 200 prominent travel and tour companies. The format of the roadshows was interactive, with prefixed meetings, enabling trade partners and travel agents to network and learn more about the diverse product offerings and experiences that Oman has to offer. In 2018, Oman recorded 12.37% growth in Indian tourist arrivals with 357,147 travellers visiting the country vis-à-vis 317,844 in 2017 ranking India as the second highest source market for Oman. Keeping up with this growth trajectory, Oman has already witnessed a 17% increase in the period of January to April 2019 with 130,011 Indian visitors to Oman in comparison to 111,123 during the same period in 2018. Lubaina Sheerazi, India Representative, Ministry of Tourism, Oman said, “Tourism is on the rise and inbound arrivals from India has significantly increased in the last few years. India represents a substantial and vast market for Oman, given the high percentage of travellers willing to travel abroad and experience new destinations. We have been observing a steady year-on-year increase in tourist arrivals to Oman from India and are extremely pleased with the consistent growth. While Mumbai is one of our primary source markets, Bangalore and Pune have shown immense potential as we see a rise in the number of outbound travellers from these cities. They are constantly on the lookout for unique destinations and Oman fits the bill …

International MiCE and Wedding Forum (IMWF) 2019 opens in Antalya, Turkey. The four-day event (12-16 MAY) is being held at hotel Rixos Premium Belek Hotel powered by Inventum Global and in partnership with Turkish Airlines. The world-renowned names and decision makers of the sector will meet in Antalya under the IMWF 2019. The fourth edition has increased the demand from destination weddings and MICE markets by 8 times. Necip Fuat Ersoy, MD, IMWF said, “For IMWF19, there was a record number of applications for participation. This gave us the opportunity to select the best, most effective ones from these applications. While we are at the heart of the industry, we are also conducting an international communication study for the IMWF all year round, with the inclusion of the industry phenomenon Sabbas Joseph in our international advisory board.”

The German Travel Mart (GTM) inaugurated its 45th edition in Wiesbaden, Germany. Addressing the inaugural session, Brigitte Goertz-Meissner, President, Board of Directors, German National Tourist Board, says, “More than 500 key accounts from 51 countries are participating in this year’s GTM.” Petra Hedorfer, CEO, GNTB, declaring the 45th GTM open says, “Tourism is more important than ever and it serves as the perfect basement for working together, learning from each other and to make this world a better place.” According to Thomas Bareiß, Parliamentary State Secretary, Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy and Federal Government Commissioner for Tourism, “Hesse and Wiesbaden reflect some of the typical strength of German tourism.”