Category Archives: Exhibitions

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.”

Addressing delegates at Indaba 2019, Derek Hanekom, Minister of Tourism, Government of South Africa, informed that India will be among the top three countries e-Visa regime will be extended to, besides China and Nigeria. Talking more on this, the South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, highlighted the 10 challenges that needed to be looked over in order to boost arrivals to the country. Speaking at the third day of Africa’s largest tourism event, he said, “We must reduce the onerous and often unnecessary bureaucratic red tape that tourists who want to visit our country face. This requires us to streamline our tourist visa regimes. We are in the process of radically overhauling our visa dispensation for the rest of the world and introducing a world-class e-visa system.”

South African Tourism is hosting the annual tourism marketing event, Africa’s Travel Indaba, at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Convention Centre in Durban, South Africa, from May 2-4, 2019. The event serves as one of the largest platforms for Africa’s tourism industry to showcase the extensiveness of its products to an international market. Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, Derek Hanekom, Minister, Tourism, Government of South Africa, said, “Africa’s Travel Indaba has become synonymous with storytelling. This continent is teeming with stories and folklore which are woven into all the products and experiences that are showcased here. In 2018, Africa reached 67 million international tourist arrivals, a growth of 7% over 2017. This represents 5% of all global international arrivals, up nearly 14 mn from the low of 2015. On the African continent, we have grown at an average of 8% for three years in a row.” The Minister also shared that UNWTO predicts that 1.8 billion people will be travelling globally by 2030, and that Africa will increase its share from the current 5% to 7% of all global arrivals. While buyers at Indaba include tour operators, online booking companies and DMCs from across the world, the exhibitor profile includes provincial authorities, tour operators, game lodges, luxury products, etc., from as many as 20 African nations. The India market continues to be a significant contributor to Africa’s, particularly South Africa’s, international tourist arrival numbers, and Indaba is seen as one of the most significant events to help strengthen this relationship even further. Over 1,000 exhibitors are said to be participating in the continent’s annual tourism showcase. Last year, the event received delegates from 80 countries and participant numbers crossed the 7,000 …

GITB in its 11th year will see 291 Foreign Tour Operators from 47 countries to meet, interact and do business with 260 Indian exhibitors with around 11,236 pre-scheduled B2B meetings. The two-day event was inaugurated at The Lalit, Jaipur in the presence of the Chief Guest, DB Gupta, Chief Secretary, Government of Rajasthan, who delivered the inaugural address. The keynote address was delivered by Sreya Guha, Principal Secretary- Tourism, Arts & Culture, Government of Rajasthan. From the Ministry of Tourism, Aashima Mehrotra, Director- Tourism, Government of India addressed the gathering while Dr Jyotsana Suri, Past President of FICCI & Chairperson, FICCI, Tourism Committee delivered the welcome and the theme address. The inauguration of the Exhibition was done by Suman Billa; Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India amid the presence of other dignitaries at the Jaipur Exhibition and Convention Centre. 2020 edition to be held from April 19-21 Apart from the host state, Rajasthan, Tourism Departments of states like Gujarat, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Goa, Punjab and Chandigarh are also participating.