Category Archives: Exhibitions

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.

The Ministry of Tourism has partnered with CII for the Global Travel Mart and have changed the dates of the event from January to now February 1-4, 2017, according to an engagement letter by Federation of Associations of Indian Travel and Hospitality (FAITH) sent to its members. The letter reads that FAITH was in discussion with MOT and had prepared a concept statement for the global travel mart with them. Two key highlights of that, were, if that mart were not in partnership with FAITH, then it would be competitively bid out to PCOs who have created & run world scale tourism events, so as to start off with a Big Indian Tourism Bang. The other key requisite was the hosting date of the mart, to be in the shoulder period of 10th-14th January 2017. However, as of 30th June MOT has joined hands with CII and the dates have been now shifted to February. FAITH has addressed its concerns to the ministry regarding partnering with them and its member associations, and will be discussing it again.

India’s first travel wedding show was held from July 9-10. The show welcomed agents who are wedding specialists. Punam Singh, Associate, Pacific Leisure Group, said, “we have been successful in conducting the meetings. I think over the two days we have been able to do about 1200 meetings. Both exhibitors and buyers have found value from it. We had 30 buyers in each category. Everyone has gone back with at least 50 meetings.” Sarika Bhambani Rawal, General, Manager, Travel Wedding Show, said, “The show was very successful and all the buyers and sellers were satisfied. We will soon come out with Travel Experiential Show in October. We are equally excited about it.”

Ras Al Khaimah is actively promoting the destination for weddings. Speaking at the Travel Wedding Show, Shaji Thomas, Director – Destination Tourism Development, Ras Al Khaimah, said that realising the potential of the multi-billion dollar Indian wedding industry, the country is keen to grab a piece of the pie. “We are just 45 minutes away from Dubai and is home to fantastic, luxurious hotels capable of hosting larger-than-life weddings. We encourage you to host weddings here as it caters to all sorts of client genres, thanks to the infrastructure and tourism products like beaches.”

The maiden edition of Travel Wedding Show took off in full swing at Le Meridien, Gurgaon on Saturday, July 9. A total of 26 buyers and 28 exhibitors participated in the inaugural day of the B2B event where appointments took place in round robin format. The first day held emphasis on wedding planners and event management companies while the exhibitors were representatives from different hotels and resorts, and DMCs. “There have been events focussing on either weddings or travel, but never together. Travel Wedding Show aims to bring a select group of  people together and facilitate business for the growth of the industry,” shared Sarika Bhambani Rawal, General Manager, Travel Wedding Show.