ATTOI’s technology conference in Kochi from June 8-10

The Association of Tourism Trade Organizations India (ATTOI) is organising an International Conference on Tourism Technology (ICTT) at the Le Meridien Kochi from June 8 to 10 with support from Kerala Tourism. ATTOI has been pushing for more travel and hospitality industry stakeholders in India to use technology to support and grow their businesses. Anish Kumar P.K, President, ATTOI, says, “Conventional tour operators, especially in India, may think online customer reviews and ratings or being present on the internet is secondary to their business, but they need to realize the impact that digital platforms are having on the decisions Indians make on holiday travel. If your website does not show up in Google searches, if you are not on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, or responding to customer reviews on TripAdvisor and MyTourReview, you may be losing out on large volumes of business.”

ATTOI has created a platform exclusively for costumer reviews for tour operators called MyTourReview. Anish Kumar adds, “The ICTT is a chance for travel businesses to learn from the experiences of people who have benefited tremendously from taking the technology route. Your consumers are not just sitting behind computers, they are making their searches on tablets and smartphones, so you need to make your presence felt on all devices.” He said the future of travel is certainly digital, and ATTOI is maximizing its use of technology, for instance in using live streaming as a promotional campaign tool for the upcoming second edition of ICTT.

In December last year, ATTOI, as a curtain raiser to an international conference, organised a live streaming of an underwater engagement to showcase beach resorts as a unique offering of Kerala Tourism. Over 25 lakh viewers across the world watched the video that was streamed live from the beach resort of Kovalam.