Category Archives: Exhibitions

Rakesh Kumar Verma, Joint Secretary, MOT, will be travelling for ITB Berlin 2020 with a delegation of around 49 exhibitors, which will be led by Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/C), Tourism and Culture. The format has been changed this time for ITB Berlin, as there will not be a presentation and press conference, but a panel discussion instead. “We will be having a breakfast meeting with the German FTOs in Berlin. We have a panel discussion on the first day, which will focus on global trends in tourism focusing on Incredible India and will be moderated by a CNN journalist. It will have around 5 panelists including German tour operators who will be talking about India and their experience. While there will not be a specific campaign for ITB Berlin, we will project the efforts we are taking and the whole range of offerings we have been developing at MOT. Apart from that we have small group engagements and one-to-one engagements at the VIP lounge at India Pavilion of ITB. We are trying to project India as an experiential and transformational destination for the travellers, which is one of the key messages that we are putting across,” he shares. “The Ministerial delegation would consist of 49 co-exhibitors, including state governments, tour operators, hotels, wellness centres, as well as Ayurveda society. We’ve taken a huge space of 705 sq. m. CMD, ITDC, will also be there. It will be a combined marketing effort by the Government and the stakeholders,” reveals Verma.

The fifth edition of the Bengal Travel Mart, aimed at showcasing tourism destinations in the state, commenced on 22nd February, 2020 and will be concluded today in Siliguri. The three-day event, being organised by the Eastern Himalaya Travel and Tour Operators Association, is being held at Montana Vista, Siliguri. Around Representatives of tourism departments in different states and prominent travel houses and delegates from Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh attended the mart in big numbers. Sandipan Ghosh, General Secretary of the association, said, “We have been organising the travel mart for promotion of tourism in Bengal and Northeast. We are hosting 80 to 90 Domestic and 40 to 50 International buyers from Nepal, Bhutan & Bangladesh. Around 113 sellers displayed their products at the Mart. We had two segments of the mart – B2B and B2C. What is encouraging is that for the first time, we have participation in big numbers from Nepal and Bangladesh. This would further give a boost to cross-border tourism promotion.” He added, “The mart allowed the stakeholders of the tourism industry in the region an opportunity to interact with those associated with travel trade in different states. The tour operators from outside the region were also informed about new tourism products, destinations, hotels and other infrastructure.” Major Hotel Chains like Marriott, Mayfair, Sterling Holidays, Summit Hotels, Waxpol, Golden Hotels, Pride Hotels, Jagjeet Hotels & Resorts, Yangthang Group of Hotels, Pine Tree Group, Anand Palace, were present at the event. Bengal, Gujarat, Tripura, Madhya Pradesh & Odisha, Sikkim were the state participants. Nepal Tourism Board, Pokhara Tourism Council, TOAB were the International partners. IATO, ADTOI, ETAA, JTWA were the association partners of the event. The mart focused …

Arabian Travel Market 2020 (ATM) has appointed Nijhawan Group to assist with the process of identifying premium quality hosted buyers from India and the Middle East region. With over 40 years’ experience in India as a leading travel conglomerate, Nijhawan Group has been sourcing hosted buyers since 2017. Commenting on the partnership, Danielle Curtis, Exhibition Direct ME, Arabian Travel Market, said: “With extensive experience of the Indian and Middle Eastern travel markets, Nijhawan Group is the perfect representative to assist with this year’s hosted buyer programme and to help ensure the recruitment of key, quality players from top source markets such as India. Ankush Nijhawan, Managing Director, Nijhawan Group, added: “We are delighted to partner with ATM for the upcoming travel showcase in Dubai. Over the coming months we are committed to ensuring a high standard of quality buyers who will benefit from meeting with sellers in a focused and organised environment.” ATM 2020 will also work with Nijhawan Group to create content on the outbound travel trends emerging from the Indian market ahead of the launch of a new series of buyer forums and networking events at this year’s showcase which will focus on India, as well as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and UAE.

Messe Berlin, the organisers of ITB Berlin have confirmed that this year’s show scheduled from March 4-8, 2020 is on track and only two Chinese exhibitors have cancelled attendance after coronavirus outbreak. At 0.3 per cent overall, the share of exhibitors from China is very low. The percentage of visitors from China is even lower at 0.02 per cent of 160,000 visitors. For the upcoming edition of ITB Berlin, more English-speaking staff as well as additional medical specialists and first responders on the grounds, have been added. The sanitary facilities will be cleaned and disinfected at more frequent intervals. In addition to hand cleansers in the bathrooms, there will also be sanitised dispensers at the entrances. The organisers’ highlight that the safety of our visitors and exhibitor will be their utmost priority and they are taking the situation very seriously.

ATOR, the Association of Russian Tour Operators, reports that the total outbound tourist flow from Russia is 7% higher than the same period in 2018.This exceeds the global average of 4% growth over the first nine months of the year, according to the UNWTO. ATOR reports that outbound, domestic and inbound have all seen a growth in sales over the period. Over 80% of Russian tourists opted for beach destinations, with Turkey remaining in prime position and seeing a 15% rise y-o-y. The Moscow International Travel and Tourism exhibition, Russia’s leading international travel trade exhibition, is the best place to gain access to the Russian travel industry. MITT attracts over 22,200 travel industry professionals – top tour operators, travel agents and other travel industry professionals.

MITT will launch new travel technology sector in 2020. The new sector will be a key hub for travel and booking software providers looking to expand their reach into the valuable Russian market. With 4,000 visitors interested in travel technologies at last year’s show, the Travel Technology sector will be a key interest for visitors, helping to attract a highly targeted audience of travel agents and other industry professionals. With its move to Crocus Expo in 2020, MITT will offer even more space for business and networking. The expansion consolidates MITT’s position as an unmissable industry hub, bringing professionals together to network, do business, and discuss the most prevalent issues facing the travel industry.

Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) ushers in a new era in 2020 by going completely eco-friendly with its Nagpur edition. The ongoing event which began on Monday and ends on Tuesday, January 28, 2020, at Hotel Centre Point Nagpur has done away with single-use plastic. Sharing this information, Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director, GPS, said, “GPS goes digital and eco-friendly in 2020. We have removed all plastic bottles from the event and have kept water dispensers at all venues. We also have given steel water bottles to all our exhibitors plus top 250-odd buyers that we expect in these two days. All they need to do is complete certain tasks, which we have planned for them. We have also replaced all standees with 50-inch screens that suppliers can use to display all their promos. They only need to carry the promotional material in a USB drive in whatever format they want. The structure itself is made of recycled material.”

In line with Hyve’s other Moscow exhibitions, MITT this year will be moving from its previous home of Expocenter to Crocus Expo – Eastern Europe’s largest exhibition venue. According to MITT’s Event Director Artem Chernyshov, the move will bring many advantages to help improve the show experience. He believes that with the move, a more developed infrastructure would enable visitors to enter efficiently without queues. There will be extensive places to rest and relax on the 2nd floor, which is a food court with plenty of cafés and restaurants. Also, there will be 35,000 free parking spaces. Large and spacious pavilions would allow the whole exhibition to take place in one pavilion, improving navigation for visitors and providing better stand locations for exhibitors. While Crocus’ distance from the city centre may be seen by some as a disadvantage, Artem shares, “We are prepared to possibly see fewer visitors in 2020, but those who need to be there will come. Our experience with other exhibitions that have already moved to Crocus suggests that targeted visitors will always attend. Our exhibition is trade-only, and we maintain this concept.”

On March 17, Moscow will host MITT Digital- a conference about internet technologies for tourism sector that will take place at MITT, the largest tourism exhibition in Russia and CIS. MITT Digital program includes session by leading international and Russian experts about online travel sector, current trends, new opportunities for business, and future of tourism business.

The next edition of FITUR, organised by IFEMA, will take place at Feria de Madrid from 22-26 January 2020. The 2020 edition will be the 40th Anniversary of the Trade Show. Besides this, Sustainability, technology and specialisation will be the main lines of FITUR, but in addition there will be the promotion of activities aimed at growing in professionalism, representation and internationalisation and, therefore, to exceed the results from the latest edition, which brought together over 11,000 exhibitor companies from 160 countries, and 253,000 participants.