The second leg of this year’s GPS starting July 13 will bring with it another unique programme. Announcing this is Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director, GPS, says, “We have started working with international tourism boards to do an educational workshop for travel agents starting this September-October. Titled ‘GPS Educational Destination Workshop – International’ (EDWIn), it will involve interested agents signing up to travel to a particular international destination to learn about the country at a highly subsidised participation fee.” GPS has already tied up with Singapore Airlines as its international airline partner as well as Genting HK. It is also in talks with various NTOs including Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Korea, UAE, Egypt, Turkey and Greece. GPS will soon launch a similar programme for domestic destination in partnership with various state boards. Agents are requested to register for the same at GPS will shortlist about 20-25 travel agents from each city that GPS travels to. The selection will be based on their level of participation, the number of meetings they do, their level of networking and the amount of business or leads they generate during GPS shows. Anand explains further, “They also have to attend all presentations and sessions. These agents will be chosen to attend these educational workshops that we will conduct in association with the tourism boards. The visits will include hotel inspections, meeting local DMCs and travel agents from that destination and doing activities that they can include in their itineraries. It will turn out to be very cost-effective for them. This will be open only to tier II and tier III travel agents as they are the ones who don’t get enough exposure to …
Read More »600 buyers, 108 exhibitors attend GPS Nagpur
Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) was inaugurated on January 20, 2016, at Hotel Centre Point, Nagpur in the presence of Satinder S. Ahuja, Honorary Counsul, Consulate of Georgia, Marzban Antia, Vice President, TAAI, Ankush Nijhawan, MD, Nijhawan Group, and SanJeet, Vice Chairman, PATA India and MD, DDP Group, among other dignitaries. Harmandeep Singh Anand, Co-founder, GPS and MD, Jagsons Travels, informed that 108 exhibitors showcased their various products and offerings for the Tier II and Tier III markets. The event was attended by over 600 buyers. “If we see the multiplier effect, then approximately for 108 exhibitors and 1,000 buyers, 100,000 meetings can be done. This is a huge number. We have witnessed 99 per cent success in terms of exchange of e-cards.” The GPS mobile application launched for the 5th edition has been a huge success, Anand informed adding that the application is undergoing constant upgrade. He informed that to facilitate live feed and news, TravTalk will be integrated in the application. In the upcoming events, video conferencing facilities will also be made available to the attendees. “The buyers and exhibitors can maintain the database and keep in touch even after the show. All data can be found at one marketplace which will bring together the big and small service providers as well as all kinds of travel agents and tour operators in the Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Vidarbha a region” he added. He further informed that five per cent of the profit from GPS this year will be contributed to Dr. Amit Samarth, a doctor by profession but a sports and fitness promoter in India, in order to fund his endeavour to compete in race across America challenge in 2017. …
Read More »GPS 2017 begins in Nagpur with discussion on GST
The 2017 edition of Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) began in Nagpur on January 19, at Hotel Centre Point. The first day saw education seminars on pertinent issues like GST, art of guerrilla marketing, cyber security etc., where industry experts discussed and clarified various challenges being faced by the travel and hospitality industry. Over 1000 attendees from metro cities along with Tier II and Tier III cities joined the sessions at the show on the first day. The GPS App saw over 600 active users. Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director, Jagsons Travels, and co-founder, GPS, says, “We have been successful in creating probably the first ever e – exhibition. We have had over 1000 registrations for the six education sessions today. The attendees are exchanging cards and their presentations trough the app and the presentations are available in the application even after the event. GPS has become the biggest marketplace in the country.” This year the event is a six city exhibition and will also go to Ahmedabad (July 13-15), Chandigarh (July 20-22), Kolkata (July 27-29), Kochi (Aug 3-5) and conclude in Pune (Aug 10-12).
Read More »Ankush Nijhawan is Executive Director of GPS
Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) has appointed Ankush Nijhawan, MD of Nijhawan Group, as its Executive Director with immediate effect. Talking about this development, Harmandeep Singh Anand, Co-founder, GPS, said, “We are pleased to announce the appointment of Ankush Nijhawan as Executive Director of GPS and I am sure this move will help us in making GPS one of the leading travel shows in India in Tier-II & III market space.” Anand added that his expertise will further assist in elevating GPS’ position and achieve its objective to educate and empower the travel fraternity in Tier-II and III markets. “GPS is all about innovation, involvement, engagement and excelling to reach acommon goal, which is to explore and unleash the tourism potential that lies in the Tier II & Tier III cities of India. Commenting on his appointment, Nijhawan said, “I am happy to be on board with GPS and our collaborative efforts as a team will further strengthen GPS to establish it as India’s only B2B travel show for the Secondary markets of recognition. We will offer our expertise in bringing more number of quality buyers to GPS as there is a new generation of travellers in Tier-II and III cities and educating and reaching out to travel trade in these markets become important. With our agent network, we are confident that, we will achieve in getting the right buyers to the show. Also with our international relationship and exposure, we are confident in influencing global exhibitors to participate in GPS. Anand says, “For GPS Nagpur(scheduled for January 19 to 21, 2017), the first event for the GPS 2017 calendar, nearly 70% of exhibition space has been sold with confirmations from …
Read More »GPS 2017 to be held in 6 cities
Harmandeep Singh Anand, Co-founder, Global Panorama Showcase (GPS), has announced dates for the fifth edition of the B2B travel event. It will start with Nagpur from January 19-21, 2017, and then go on to other cities starting from July and through August 2017. He said, “The fourth edition of GPS Nagpur was extremely successful and registered an increase in visitor footfalls from Central India. The event was followed by four new shows into the portfolio namely: GPS Ahmedabad, GPS Chandigarh, GPS Kolkata and GPS Coimbatore. GPS 2016 saw a combined unique travel trade visitor registration of over 3,000 people, firmly cementing GPS as a premier B2B travel event to reckon with for the Tier II and Tier III cities of India. GPS 2017 will take place in six cities namely: Nagpur (January 19-21), Ahmedabad (July 13-15), Chandigarh (July 20-22), Kolkata (July 27-29), Kochi (August 3-5) and Pune (August 10-12). One day will be dedicated to learnings and workshops, alongside the business meetings that will take place over the three days. Raju Akolkar, CEO, GPS, adds, “For the Nagpur edition, we will launch Voluntourism packages as we have identified a few NGOs in the region. This will also help travel agents put forth an interesting tour product for the region, that will include wildlife and community service together with local sightseeing. We will also get a local travel industry expert to speak and highlight the tourism products that available in the region and how to make it available to the industry and also to throw light about the regions traveller behavior in the context of domestic as well as outbound tourism.” Madhu Saliankar, Sales & Marketing Director, Entreps, adds, “Tourism is a …
Read More »GPS releases FAQ on service tax on GPS app
Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) will release a detailed FAQ on service tax for the travel industry that is available on the GPS mobile application free of cost. Keeping up the initiative of being an e-event or green event, GPS has made the service tax ready-reckoner available to the travel trade through the GPS event app. It will further continue to add a lot more information relevant to the travel and hospitality trade through this application. GPS is organised by Nagpur-based Jagsons Travels. Harmandeep Singh Anand, Founder, GPS said, “We want each and every travel agent to understand and know about service tax, how it has to be applied and implemented in the day to day travel business. To educate the travel trade we had conducted workshops on service tax at all the five shows of GPS 2016. The handbook will be online by September 10, 2016. Agents can download the GPS app available on Android and iOS platforms. Users can also send us their queries related to service tax on tax@gps-india.com, which will be addressed. The presentation that we had made on service tax to all the attendees at GPS is also uploaded on the application.”
Read More »350 buyers at GPS’ last leg in Coimbatore
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.
Read More »9000+ meetings at GPS Kolkata
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.
Read More »GPS Nagpur from Jan 19-21, 2017
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.
Read More »GPS Kolkata opens with 450+ attendees
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.
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