Tag Archives: Gaurav Sundaram

Discussing best practices across the business travel lifecycle, Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) Conference 2018 was hosted at Hotel Pullman New Delhi Aerocity on September 14. Gaurav Sundaram, Regional Director, GBTA India said, “Compared to 2017, in 2018, India is together the seventh largest global market with $38 billion. It is the third largest APAC market with 12 per cent YOY. This is the best time for business professionals. However, these are also times of VUCA, that is, volatility, uncertainty, change and ambiguity. There is a huge disruption potential and inertia by travel business.” The event includes a CXO round-table on creating scalable global travel programmes as well as education sessions on the impact of payment solutions on business travel and duty of care within Indian companies. The forum will feature a trade show highlighting the best-class solution providers within the business travel industry. “With India expected to become the sixth largest business market in the world by the end of 2019, GBTA felt it was crucial to host a series of conferences within this region,” said Sundaram. “Each conference will be unique in its offerings of education sessions, speakers and content and will ultimately help educate the market on global best practices.”  

The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) has unveiled its line-up of flagship education and networking events in India for the year ahead. The GBTA Conference 2018 will be held in Bengaluru on June 15, in New Delhi on September 14, followed by Mumbai on October 12, 2018. These forums will discuss best practices across the business travel lifecycle through a mix of panel discussions and presentations. Each event will also feature a trade show highlighting the best-class solution providers within the business travel industry. “With India expected to become the sixth largest business market in the world by the end of 2019, GBTA felt it was crucial to host a series of conferences within this region,” said Gaurav Sundaram, President ProKonsul & Regional Director of India for GBTA. He added, “Each conference will be unique in its offerings of education sessions, speakers and content and will ultimately help educate the market on global best practices.” GBTA Conference 2018 Bengaluru will be held at the Sheraton Grand Bengaluru Whitefield Hotel and Convention Center. The one-day event will feature a CXO roundtable moderated by Sundaram on generating the optimal ROI from business travel. The conference will also feature sessions focused on optimizing air contracts, managing workforce mobility, optimisation opportunities within business travel, challenging the status quo as it pertains to technology and processes, and more. Source ANI

Double digit business travel spending growth continues for India, despite fears of fallout from the country’s demonetisation efforts, according to the latest Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) BTI™ Outlook – India report. “India continues to position itself to become a world leader in business travel for decades to come,” said Gaurav Sundaram, GBTA India’s regional director. “Despite fears surrounding the demonetisation efforts, India saw a 10.9 percent growth in year-over-year business travel spending for the second quarter of 2016 – even higher than our last report projected.” The GBTA Foundation report forecasts 11.4 percent growth in business travel spending in 2016, followed by another 11.6 percent in 2017 – both increases over our previous forecast – reaching $36.8 billion USD. India continues to climb the world rankings of business travel markets, moving up five spots during the early 2000s to become the 10th largest global business travel market at the end of 2015. Forecasts predicted India would pass Brazil last year and will likely surpass both South Korea and Italy in 2017. GBTA projects India will become the 6th largest business travel market in the world by the end of 2019. GBTA forecasts domestic business travel spending will continue to grow at consistently high rates, 11.8 percent in 2017, reaching $33.8 billion USD. India’s international outbound (IOB) business travel spending has shown subdued growth in the 5-6 percent per year range. GBTA’s IOB forecast for 2016 has been revised upward from 3.1 percent projected previously to 5.4 percent. It seems commodity prices may have finally found their footing and bottomed out, and the brightening prospects for increased trade activity, especially with the oil-rich MENA region, should help to push IOB …

Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) will hold its first educational seminar and exhibition in Delhi on September 6, 2016 at Pullman Aerocity Hotel New Delhi. Gaurav Sundaram, Regional Director – India, GBTA said that the event will address the best practices of business travel through discussions on topics like the role of technology in business travel, expense management, to name a few. “We are expecting almost 150 buyers which include travel managers, heads of business travel with leading corporate entities, finance leaders, procurement heads, among others, at the event. There will also be a trade exhibition side-by-side with the seminar,” he added.