Category Archives: Exhibitions

FITUR 2019 opens with a quest for specialisation and to promote key segments for the tourism industry. This year, the show contains a new B2B area focusing on MiCE tourism. This networking tool lays emphasis on incentives, meetings and business travel tourism and provides FITUR exhibitors the chance to establish contact with 100 highly-qualified international buyers. FITUR 2019 has become the global meeting point for tourism professionals and has once again become the leading trade fair for the incoming and outgoing markets of Latin America. The last edition brought together 251,000 participants, with over 6,800 business meetings. Madrid welcomed this international show with the launch of FITUR IS MUSIC, a new cultural event that was created within the framework of FITUR FESTIVALS.

With around 1200 registrations over two days, the 7th edition of the Global Panorama Showcase Nagpur concluded on January 22, while setting a new benchmark in Tier II and III markets. The show witnessed buyers from more than 85 cities with 100 exhibitors showcasing their products and offerings. The event was inaugurated during a glittering ceremony amid the presence of chief guest, Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Dato’ Richard C K Koh, Founder & GMD, Only World Group, Malaysia and other dignitaries including Gulshan Pal Singh Anand, Chairman, GPS; Claude Blanc, Portfolio Director, Reed Exhibition; Sunil Kumar R, President, UFTAA & TAAI; Anil Parashar, President & CEO, Interglobe Techologies; Jagat Mehta, President, Enterprising Travel Agents Association; Arun Anupam, Country Head & Senior Vice President, CVENT; Vishal Bhatia, Country Manager, Visit Britain and Manish Gadia, CA, GMJ & Company. Tweaking the format this year, GPS has created a forum called KIT (Knowledge-Inspiration-Training) Talk.

The first edition of Global Aviation Summit 2019 witnessed participation from more than 80 countries. Being organised from January 15-16, 2019 at Grand Hyatt Mumbai, the summit themed on ‘Flying for All’ is touted to be the first-of-its-kind that will cover a diverse range of topics – from domestic aviation market, drone policies, infrastructure investment, freight and cargo policies, aviation financing and much more. It has attendance from more than 100 global CEOs, 35 exhibitors and more than 1200 delegate participation. The inaugural session saw keynote speeches by Sandip Somany, President, FICCI; R N Choubey, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation; Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, President of the Council, International Civil Aviation Organization; Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Civil Aviation and Commerce & Industry; Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra; and Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation.

The sixth edition of the three-day India International Travel & Tourism Exhibition (IITT) kicks off in Mumbai’s MMRDA Grounds in BKC today. The exhibition has over 500 exhibitors from more than 25 countries showcasing their products and services. IITT 2019 will be driven by its content which includes workshops, training academy, speed networking lounge, panel discussions, and much more. IITT has also associated with Cox & Kings which has created specially-designed experiential zones for visitors. Day one will have an expert panel discussion on developing new destinations through film tourism with travel specialists such as Karan Anand, Head – Relationships & Supplier Management, Cox & Kings sharing their perspective. Day two will see many more business sessions focusing on diverse topics such as cruise tourism, outbound MiCE and data privacy. The key sponsors of the exhibition includes Powered by Partner – Cox & Kings, Partner Country – Indonesia Tourism, MICE & Wedding Destination Partner – Sri Lanka Tourism, Host State – Maharashtra, Partner State – Kerala, Platinum Sponsors – Ark Travels, Akquasun Group and Club7. Some of the featured countries include Bhutan Tourism, Malaysia Tourism & Fiji Tourism. Apart from them, the other key partners on the board are Guideline, dnata, Yatra, Urvi travels, Ottila and many more.  

The India Tourism Mart (ITM), organised by the Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH) and the Ministry of Tourism (MOT), will be tentatively held from September 29 to October 1, 2019, announced Subhash Goyal, Secretary General, FAITH. He also told that these dates are tentative, considering that any other inbound travel show like KTM as well as the National Tourism Awards would not clash with the same. This year, ITM had around 250 foreign buyers in attendance with an equal number of exhibitors. He also revealed that they are expecting around 500 buyers to come for the next year’s edition as they will have enough time to plan the event unlike this time, when they organised it within 2.5 months.

Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Government of India, has launched the official mobile application ‘GAS 2019’, for Global Aviation Summit 2019, to be held on January 15-16, 2019 at Grand Hyatt Mumbai.  The application was launched in the presence of Rajiv Nayan Choubey, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA); Dr Guruprasad Mohapatra, Chairman, Airports Authority of India (AAI); Dr Shefali Juneja, Joint Secretary, MoCA and other officials of the AAI. Available on play store and iOS, GAS 2019 provides a holistic glimpse of the summit and can be used to access latest updates about the mega event. The application enables users to interact with the co-delegates and speakers. It would be an excellent platform for networking through personal and group chats. With the who’s who of the global aviation fraternity set to grace the event, the summit is a promising platform for constructive discussions, collaborations and meeting of minds to explore the future of global aviation. The esteemed guest-list for the summit includes Transport & Civil Aviation ministers from Laos, Thailand, Bangladesh, Nepal and Jamaica, Civil Aviation authorities and Directorate Generals of Civil Aviation (DGCAs) from 22 countries. The future of aviation – drones and seaplanes, airport privatisation, digital travel and holistic development of global aviation ecosystem are the key areas to push the envelope both on regulations and on industry structure. This platform will enable the industry leaders to prepare a policy roadmap that will certainly provide a strong impetus to all players in the aviation ecosystem. The summit will entail B2G, B2B and G2G meetings.    

At a time of increasing unilateralism and protectionism, tourism is a welcome tonic – a buoyant multilateral embrace of shared experience, cultural co-operation and people-to-people bonds, said Carrie Lam, Chief Executive, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region at the Hong Kong International Tourism Convention underway from December 12. There were two plenary sessions at the convention. The first one talked about the implications of the Belt and Road Initiative on the development of international tourism, while the second one deliberated on the relationship between the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and regional and international tourism. She informed that multilateral co-operation is no less central to the Belt and Road Initiative and to tourism development. “Easing visa regulations, expanding flight connections, enhancing cultural co-operation – these and other considered measures can only help boost tourism.” She also said, “Hong Kong is an international hub for professional services, from financial and legal, to architectural, communications, transportation management and many more. We have the expertise, the experience and the institutions to provide services to other economies along the Belt and Road on tourism infrastructure developments, as well as train professionals for the tourism industry.” Talking about the Greater Bay Area, she said, “Closer to home, the Greater Bay Area has the means to rival Tokyo, San Francisco and New York – the world’s three renowned bay areas – in tourism potential. With a collective population of 70 million, the Bay Area boasts a combined GDP of some US$1.5 trillion. At the same time, the Greater Bay Area is an important source market for other economies given its high level of affluence.”

With its focus on adventure tourism by combining marketplace, meetings and networking opportunities, nearly 200 delegates took part at the first-ever ongoing ‘AdventureNEXT’ in Bhopal, also including participants from abroad. Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism; Swadesh Kumar, President, ATOAI and Akshay Kumar, Chairman, AdventureNEXT committee graced the event. The convention was witnessed by global buyers, international/national media representatives, sellers and office bearers of the Adventure Tour Operators Association, hotels, hospitality and tour operators who came to expand their knowledge spectrum and itinerary offerings. Speaking on the occasion, Hari Ranjan Rao (IAS), Principal Secretary — Tourism and Managing Director, Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board, said, “Madhya Pradesh is truly honoured and privileged for being the ever first host of AdventureNEXT in Asia. We thank ATTA and all the international buyers, felicitators, media and national delegates who came together to make this event a grand success. The AdventureNEXT not only brought together the networking sessions, but it also gave a unique definition to the hidden treasures of adventure tourism in India. With this, we focus to promote the adventure travel aspect with full pace in Madhya Pradesh as well”. Shannon Stowell, CEO, AdventureNEXT, Adventure Travel Trade Association, said, “We were honoured and proud to present the world AdventureNEXT’18 with MP tourism. The extraordinary variety of adventure travel Madhya Pradesh preserves is worth experiencing. AdventureNEXT captured India’s religious heritage, mythological, historical, wildlife and beautiful architectural spots clubbed with physical activities and journals for the attendees. This is just the beginning, ATTA also plans to introduce more tours which are adventure-driven panning across the unexplored exploratory destinations of India.”  

All set to be held in Paris from October 1 to 4, 2019, IFTM Top Resa will offer business opportunities, events, talks and meetings, with more high-calibre visitors attending the event. The show will feature 34,000 industry professionals, with 20 per cent of them being international; 250 different destinations in France and overseas; 10 themed villages and 1,700 brands. Besides, a total of seven key events —the Inaugural Lunch, the Travel Agents Cup, the Startup Contest, the Hackathon, the Junior Travel Agents Cup, the After TO Party and a new evening event for Business Travel professionals, organised in partnership with AFTM, will also take place. The event will also comprise over 150 talks, seminars, workshops and training sessions for travel agents.  

The 5th edition of Travel Business Show, an exclusive MiCE B2B show, is all set to take place on Dec 1 and 2, 2018 at the Hyderabad Marriott Hotel. The two-day event will see networking and business meetings between approximately 30 exhibitors and 60 buyers from across the country. With an expected 1700 pre-scheduled meetings within two days, the event is aimed to provide the perfect platform for service providers, destinations and hotels to connect with selected MiCE operators and agents participating in the event.