Category Archives: Exhibitions

The recently-concluded India Travel Mission (ITM) 2016 organised by Tourism Australia every year saw a record number of new suppliers from Australia. This year, which was the 14th edition of ITM, there were at least 17 suppliers that had never participated in any sales mission to India before. This included several participants like Scoot, Visit Canberra, Tourism Barossa, Australian Wine Tour Company, Featherdale Wildlife Park, Sand Dune Adventures, Fire Truck Tours, and Wildlife  Coast Cruises, among others. Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager, India & Gulf, Tourism Australia, said, “Over the last few years, ITM has proven to be a great learning tool for us to grow and strengthen our travel trade outreach in the country. The new Australian products participating at the ITM this year signifies the growing importance of India as a key market for Australia. Tourism Australia is focusing on the Indian market with increased marketing initiatives to reach out to our target audience. The increasing tourist arrivals from India validates that we are heading in the right direction to achieve our India 2020 Strategic goals.” The destination welcomed over 241,700 Indians as of year ended June 2016. Tourism Australia also used this platform to promote the destination through its virtual reality assets, thus showcasing its latest global campaign on Aquatic and Coastal to the Indian trade attending ITM 2016.

The ninth edition of Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) is set to be the biggest and farthest-reaching yet. The biennial event will witness 57 countries besides 20 Indian states during the three-day Mart, which is being organised by the KTM Society in association with the Department of Tourism, Government of Kerala on September 27, World Tourism Day, in Kochi. Ten countries will be represented at the Mart for the first time, with Mexico, Georgia, Japan, China, Chile, Greece, Iran, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Botswana – markets as diverse as they are distant – all confirmed to participate. The 560 total international delegates registered for KTM 2016 features the biggest-ever contingents from 10 highly-prized traditional markets, including the US, Canada and Australia. Domestic participation too has seen an uptick, buoyed by aggressive marketing campaigns. Some 1,304 Indian buyers will participate this year. “The KTM has always emphasised the consistent identification of quality buyers in ever newer territories as much as retaining participation from conventional markets. With representation from 10 new nations this year, our efforts have borne fruit,” said Abraham George, President, KTM Society. “For KTM 2016, we have extended the prefixed appointment system to registered domestic buyers, which will help the business session be more effective for both the sellers and buyers. The focus is on emphasising quality of interactions,” he added.

India Travel Mart (ITM) Amritsar is back in the city with a special focus on promoting sports and adventure, pilgrimage tourism, hill tourism, beach tourism, honeymoon packages, MICE and medical tourism. The three day exhibition is scheduled for August 12 to 14, 2016 at Hotel Holiday Inn, Ranjit Avenue, Amritsar, Punjab. ITM will witness specially prepared travel and tour packages, hotels & resorts deals from tour operators, destination wedding packages and honeymoon packages. “With the kind of stressful lives that we lead, a person tends to look for refreshing holidays and unique travel destination to unwind, to simplify this need and to help people of India in choosing the best option according to their requirements, we organize ITM-Amritsar annually wherein the customers get specially designed packages and great deals with countless choices. The constant support and eager interest from Travel Industry makes it a success year after year. So if you are planning to visit a place you have never been before or if you are willing to explore fresh tourists ‘spots then visit our exhibition” says Ajay Gupta, Managing Director, ITM. Gupta added, “ITM-Amritsar caters to the needs of both B2B and B2C visitors. The basic purpose of holding this event is to boost tourism awareness worldwide. We believe that the inflow of domestic and outbound tourists will increase in the coming months and Punjab will play a vital role in the promotion of Tourism. Our main aim is to promote tourism potential in India and spread awareness among the people. “Tier II and Tier III cities are evolving day after day and we understand the need to promote these developing cities in Indian tourism sector as they have …

The last leg of Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) kicked off in Coimbatore with 50 exhibitors and 130 hosted buyers. Harmandeep Singh Anand, Co-founder, GPS, said, “We have a total of 50 exhibitors and expect 250 buyers to attend. We are hosting 130 buyers and so far the response has been very good. The informative sessions that were held yesterday received a strong response where over 130 attendees were present.” Hanneli Slabber, Country Manager-India, South Africa Tourism inaugurated the Coimbatore edition along with Anand and Madhu Saliankar, Director, GPS, at Le Meridien, Coimbatore.

About 250 agents and in total 550 people attended Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) Kolkata just on Day 1, culminating in 9000+ meetings over the two days. Harmandeep Singh Anand, Co-founder, GPS, said, “We received an overwhelming response from all states around. We had agents from Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha. This region has a huge potential and is untapped till now. Through GPS our exhibitors were able to meet agents from this region whom they generally don’t get to meet.” He added that the Kolkata edition saw 700-750 attendees both the days and close to 9000 meetings happened between the buyers and exhibitors over the two days.

The Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) Nagpur edition will be held from January 19-21, 2017. This was announced by Harmandeep Singh Anand, Co-founder, GPS, during the second and final day of GPS Kolkata. Anand said, “We’ve got an overwhelming response from all the regions that GPS has covered. Next year we will start with Nagpur edition from January 19-21. We will invite close to 200 agents, i.e. approximately 50 agents from each region. We will continue to have GPS at all the other cities where we had this year.” Anand also revealed that GPS will add two more cities to its itinerary next year. “We will try to add two more cities next year which have great tourism potential. But we are yet to decide on that,” he said.

The maiden edition of Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) Kolkata opened at ITC Sonar, Kolkata with 450+ attendees on Day 1. The show was inaugurated by Harmandeep Singh Anand, Co-founder, GPS, Rajeev Duggal, CEO, Lavassa, Sunil Kumar, President, TAAI, and other TAAI Managing Committee members. The show will conclude in Coimbatore next week.

The Global Panorama Showcase (GPS), reached Chandigarh in its 4-city itinerary on July 20, recording 500+ attendees on Day 1. The first day of B2B sessions saw over 500 attendees engaging with 50 exhibitors on an activity-filled day.”We had close to 230 people attending the presentations and the response has been overwhelming,” said Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director, Jagsons Travels (organisers of GPS). The three-day B2B trade event and networking platform, began with presentations and educational sessions for agents who travelled from all parts of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh to attend the show.  Madhu Saliankar, Director, EntReps Solutions, said, “The attendance for educational sessions was unbelievable. People were participative and glued to their chairs for the whole duration. Hats off to them and us, too, because we were able to address some key issues.” The B2B platform will now travel to Kolkata from July 27-29 and the last leg will be in Coimbatore from August 3-5.

Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) kicked off in Ahmedabad with B2B sessions and partner presentations. It is the first time that GPS is being held in the city. The three-day event, being held from July 14-16, witnessed 50 exhibitors offering a diverse range of products, 500+ attendees. July 14 was a day dedicated to a total of six partner presentations throughout the day which witnessed a gathering of more than 140 tour operators and travel agents. This was revealed by Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director, Jagsons Travels (organisers of GPS).

Tourism New Zealand’s Kiwi Link India is more focused this year with only Mumbai on the agenda. The annual travel trade event, scheduled to take place from July 11-13, opened in Mumbai with the Kiwi delegation including 35 operators, four airlines, and Immigration New Zealand who met 80 pre-registered Indian buyers. Steven Dixon, Regional Manager South & South East Asia, Tourism New Zealand, who is leading the New Zealand delegation, says, “Kiwi Link is aimed at educating our trade partners about the destination and understanding their clients’ requirements. Last year, we held it in Mumbai and New Delhi but this time we will focus only on Mumbai.” Tourism New Zealand will also be hosting key buyers from around India in Mumbai for the first two days of the event. He added that the tourism board is looking to invest heavily in India. “We will invest more with our travel partners which means we will be having a lot of communication with them, educate them about New Zealand and understand the requirements of Indian travellers. This year ending May 2016, we recorded tourist arrivals of 48,000 from India, which is an increase from 45,000 Indians we received last year. But our research says that there are a lot more people in India who want to visit New Zealand,” Dixon says. He revealed that Tourism New Zealand has a total budget of USD 8 million but refused to comment on the number that has been directed to India.