Category Archives: Exhibitions

Commenting on the possibility of physical events, Dr. Mario Hardy, CEO, PATA, says, “While China has re-started full-scale domestic events and exhibitions with strict health protocols, not many other destinations have. No country has really started cross-border events due to borders still being closed and the risk of spreading the virus. I believe we will see most events being conducted virtually in 2021 with some being hybrid where local participants come together at a physical venue.”

In a webinar organised by GPS and TravTalk ‘Understanding TCS’, speakers seconded the thought that the advanced tax is part of national building exercise and get the important industry affiliation from the government. The presentation also explained the reason why TCS is the level playing field for everyone. Myths and queries regarding the tax were also deciphered.

The next edition of the International Tourism Fair, FITUR 2021, will now be held from 19 to 23 May next year, as agreed by IFEMA and the FITUR Organising Committee. This decision was taken to preserve the high international impact of this event at a time when trade fairs play a critical role in tourism recovery.  

Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) and TravTalk is set to bust all myths regarding Tax Collected at Source (TCS) with the webinar ‘Understanding TCS’, which will be held on Thursday October 22, at 11 am. The webinar would allow travel professionals to understand what TCS is, how it will impact them and if it is taking away their business. The experts will clear all such doubts. To register, contact Jaspreet Kaur at 9650196532 or Jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com.

Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) 2020, will be held virtually this year. To be held from 23rd-27th November, KTM Virtual 2020 will be an online buyer-seller event. The flagship inbound event of ‘God’s Own Country’ is usually held biennially in Kochi, Kerala.

WTM London is going to be a virtual-only event in November 2020. WTM Virtual will take place from 9-11 November, offering delegates the chance to arrange one-to-one virtual meetings to do business, attend conference sessions and roundtables, take part in speed networking and more. Simon Press, Senior Director, WTM London, said, “Sadly, this year will be the first time since we launched WTM London in 1980 that there will be no live event. We have worked tirelessly to organise a physical show, but the increasing number of travel restrictions and the uncertainty around the world means it will be impractical for many overseas visitors to attend in person. Additionally, there remains uncertainty around business events and conferences being allowed to take place in the UK. The official deadline for this decision being the 1st October. However, thousands of travel trade professionals from around the globe will still be able to meet and do business in an extensive range of virtual sessions, to help the industry recover, rebuild and innovate.”

Announcing a new movement started by a few in the wedding industry, Rajeev Jain, Director, Rashi Entertainment, said, “If there is no auspicious date for birth, or death, then why should there be an auspicious day for weddings? To revive our industry, we have started a campaign called ‘Har Din Shub Hai’ to tell clients to fix weddings on any day so they get cost benefits and hotels and planners get business throughout the year. This will be virtually launched on 29 September.”

Ebixcash Tours & Travels has become the preferred travel & forex partner of 5 IPL teams. The company will handle travel needs of players and provide end to end support including charter flights, ground transportation, foreign exchange, hotel rooms and event insurance coverage.   A fully owned subsidiary of Ebix Inc., EbixCash has announced that it is handling the travel needs for five of the eight franchises involved in an 82-day Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket sporting extravaganza in Dubai. Under the leadership of Naveen Kundu, Managing Director, EbixCash Tours & Travels, EbixCash has been able to secure this prestigious assignment. As a part of this engagement of EbixCash independently by five of the IPL Franchises, EbixCash is handling approximately 19,000 plus hotel room night bookings for four franchises, chartered flights for five franchises, ground transportation for two franchises, foreign exchange needs for the entire entourage of four of the teams and event insurance coverage for one team. Kings XI Punjab, Delhi Capitals, Rajasthan Royals, Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings are the five franchises who have engaged EbixCash Tours and Travels for varied travel needs of each of the franchises. Sharing his views on the deal, Kundu says, “We are honoured to have been chosen as the vendor of choice by the majority of the IPL franchises. Their decision was made easier with EbixCash emerging as the only end-to-end services provider who could handle their varied needs under one window. Our depth of products and services, international expanse, travel expertise and the past record was instrumental in us being selected for this prestigious engagement.” Robin Raina, Chairman of the Board, President & CEO, Ebix, said, “In COVID-19 times, …

Subhash Goyal, Secretary General, FAITH, has revealed that the Association is in discussion with Ministry of Tourism to host a hybrid ITM by the end of this year. He said, “One interaction with the government has happened; and we are still in the progress of deciding how we are going to conduct it, whether it will be entirely virtual or hybrid. However, we will have ITM by the end of this year and we hope to announce the exact dates very soon.”

Global Panorama Showcase has tied up with Airlines Technology by TWAI, to offer NDC (New Distribution Capability) by IATA to agents in India at an affordable price. Harmandeep Singh Anand, MD, GPS, says, “NDC technology is the new solution and is the new normal, and it will be very useful to more than 4,000 IATA agents.” To this, Trideep Aggarwal, Co-Founder and Director, Airlines Technology by TWAI, adds, “Last couple of years, airlines have been pushing for NDC which allows them to distribute new things which they were not being able to do earlier. At the end of last year, we were in discussion with Varun Bansal, the CEO of Airlines Technology, as we were looking for enhancing our product offerings by having NDC on our platform. At the beginning of this year, we acquired Airlines Technology, and since then we have been merging everything with our platform. We are one of the largest NDC aggregators in the world. As of now, there are about 19 airlines on our platform, and we will have around 23 by the end of this year.”