Category Archives: Exhibitions

The third edition of the Bengal Travel Mart (BTM) 2018 has been scheduled to be held from February 16-18 at Baghajatin Park, Siliguri. The objective is to establish Siliguri as a market place for gateway to the Eastern Himalayas. The event is being organised by Eastern Himalaya Travel and Tour Operators Association (EHTTOA) in association with North Bengal Development Department (NBDD) and West Bengal Tourism. Buyers from India abroad are expected to participate in the event. BTM attracts exhibitors to showcase their expertise and identify the thriving business opportunities in West Bengal.

The annual hospitality event, Hotel Investment Conference-South Asia (HICSA), will be held in Mumbai from April 4-5 at the Grand Hyatt. The first 13 editions was organised by HVS but this year, the conference will be conducted by Hotelivate. Confirming this is Manav Thadani, Founder Chairman, Hotelivate, who reveals, “HICSA is being organised by the Hotelivate team and we have made a few changes to the same. The idea is to make the sessions more interesting and interactive. Firstly, there will be far fewer speakers than before as we have reduced the number of panel discussions and substituted them with more interviews, keynote addresses and master classes. So you will see a lot more interesting speakers at the conference who will talk about their experiences with hotels from their fields. Suhel Seth, Roshan Abbas and Deep Karla are just a few such names.” Thadani adds, “We believe with interest levels in hotels on the rise this year, we will have more people registering for the conference. I also believe that international participation at the event is expected to go up if we are to go by early trends in terms of who all are attending.”

Themed on ‘ASEAN-Sustainable Connectivity, Boundless Prosperity’, the ongoing 37th ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF 2018) at the Chiang Mai Exhibition and Convention Centre will conclude on January 26. Hailed as the largest travel trade event of the ASEAN region, ATF is rotated annually among the 10 ASEAN countries. Yuthasak Supasorn, Governor, Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), said, “This year, we are proud to mark the first ATF after commemorating the 50th anniversary of ASEAN in 2017. We are delighted to have participated strongly in the ‘Visit ASEAN@50’ campaign with a series of carefully selected Thai products, tour packages and offers to bring memorable travel experiences.” ATF is the only annual opportunity for both public and private sectors of the ASEAN travel and tourism industry to get together and discuss issues and trends of the ASEAN tourism industry. Thailand is hosting the event for the sixth time, but has relocated it for the first time to Chiang Mai as part of the policy to promote secondary destinations, create more jobs in the rural areas, ensure better distribution of tourism earnings and highlight Thailand’s linkages with the Greater Mekong sub-region countries.    

IFEMA kicks off the international schedule of tourism trade fairs with FITUR 2018, one of the greatest business platforms for world tourism in Madrid from January 17-21 with India as its Partner Country. Like every year, the event will allow agents from the travel and tourism industry to establish the lines of work that will set the programme for the entire year. Many business meetings are being held, and contacts and business exchanges being made. The international trade show is set to generate 260 million euros over its five days, and strengthen various sectors connected to tourism. The tourism fair has grown by 8 per cent and international participation has grown by 13 per cent this year.  

The Hyderabad edition of Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) will be conducted from June 28-30. Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director, GPS, announced the new dates at the first edition of GPS this year in Nagpur, which is going on till January 17. Hyderabad is the latest city to host GPS this year, taking the total count of the cities to eight. The event is dedicated towards Tier-II, and Tier-III cities in the country to empower agents in these cities.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is back with the 38th Thailand Tourism Festival (TTF), to be held from January 17-21, 2018 at Lumphini Park, Bangkok. H.E. Weerasak Kowsurat, Minister of Tourism and Sports will preside over the opening ceremony. The festival will showcase attractions and culture from all corners of the Kingdom of Thailand. Yuthasak Supasorn, Governor, TAT, said, “The incredible experiences and attractions on offer across Thailand are being showcased at this year’s TTF, coupled with an array of food, culture, live music, and more.” The 38th edition of the festival will be made up of ten zones, including ‘Follow in the King’s Footsteps – the Art and Science of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej’ in Zone 1. Zone 2 will have domestic travel products – introducing all that’s on offer for domestic travellers. Zone 3 would have ‘Discover Thainess in five regions – the Northern village will feature King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s ‘Sufficiency Economy Philosophy’, information about local hill tribes and Doi Tung coffee shops.

The sixth edition of Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) in Nagpur took off on January 15 at Centre Point Hotel. Around 956 registered attendees marked their presence at the event. The first day saw presentations on products like Eurail by Amigo Travels, cyber security session by Prevoyance Cyberforensic, Genting Cruise Lines, FXkart, Travcare, Singapore Airlines, Sahibji Group, Mazda Travels, Red Tours, etc. A knowledge session was also held on Goods & Services Tax (GST) for the travel industry. GPS Nagpur will host 120 exhibitors for B2B meetings over the next two days.

At the sixth edition of Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) Nagpur two new products will be launched—RainbowCTM and Trip38—informs Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director, GPS. A new membership card ‘GPS 10X Membership’ will also be launched at the show. The card will allow its holders to avail discounts on various products and services across India. “This will be a virtual card which would not be required to be carried physically but will be stored on the cardholder’s smart phones. Currently, GPS has a following of over 15,000 travel professionals across India and this would be a good opportunity for hotels, restaurants and FMCG industries to offer discounts to the GPS members. Those enrolling for GPS membership will have a full year access to the GPS App at no additional cost. All new tie-ups, offers and benefits would be available to the registered members. Exhibitors not only in India but overseas will also be able to promote their services and products to the Indian travel trade through the App and through the RainbowCTM platform. Trip38 would be a travel assistant tool for the agent’s client database,” says Anand.

Switzerland Tourism, in an effort to catalyse tourism development across India, has introduced several new attractions, experiences and activities for both popular and lesser known destinations in Switzerland. The recently conducted annual roadshow in India across cities of Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Delhi witnessed over 900 participants from the travel and tourism trade industry. A special B2B session was held in each city allowing the Indian travel agents to meet and discusses business prospects with the Swiss delegations. Claudio Zemp, Director – India, Switzerland Tourism, said, “This year has been a remarkable year for Switzerland Tourism with Ranveer Singh coming on board and promoting the destination with his charm, unmatched energy and fun personality which thoroughly matches the image Switzerland Tourism wanted to portray. In terms of growth from India, we had a fantastic year with a year to date growth of 25.1 per cent more overnights. We are thankful to our partners for their continued support and we hope that we welcome more tourists for the upcoming season.” Ritu Sharma, Deputy Director, Switzerland Tourism, India, says, “In the past few years, Switzerland tourism has upped the ante to attract more tourists from India. Apart from the key metros, we are also penetrating into Tier I & II cities by conducting training sessions in these markets to ensure that the travel trade is well equipped to answer queries relating to our offerings.” ­­­­­­

In an aim to tap more potentialities from the Indian tourism market, the Indonesian government held a two-day tourism promotion event at Ambience Mall, Delhi from December 9-10, in partnership with MakeMyTrip. “India is part of the ultimate tourism markets for Indonesia. Not only Bali, we would also promote other destinations across Indonesia for potential Indian tourists throughout the event,” said I Gde Pitana Pitana, Deputy Minister for International Marketing Development at the Ministry of Tourism, Indonesia. According to Pitana, the arrival figures of Indian tourists to Indonesia have grown significantly to 357,522 in the first nine months of this year, or 31.07 per cent higher than the figure in the same period of last year. The event was expected to help the Indonesian government to achieve its target of 456,000 Indian tourists this year, Pitana added. Source: Xinhua