Tag Archives: Hospitality and Innovation Summit

FICCI Digital Travel, Hospitality and Innovation Summit opened with over 125 delegates. The attendees from various verticals of the travel and hospitality industry like technology providers, travel management companies, hotels, airlines, online travel agencies, GDS, etc., attended the event. The FICCI-Avalon knowledge paper-Travel 2.0-The Next Generation of Travel, was released at the event which details suggestions on mapping the travel industry better and trends that can offer insight to grow the industry. Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, said, “Travellers are moving away from exploring routes to exploring experiences. Social media is a legitimate research source and reviews are becoming increasingly important. Bloggers as a marketing channel have become important as they turn around niche products and create interest groups. The digital space has opened avenues for not just big players but even the smaller players in the industry can position themselves through digital platforms. Going digital is imperative and we have to see how fast we can become digital and at the same time look into what different we can offer in order to stay relevant in the market. The brick and mortar agencies have to embrace the technology curve and take on the challenge.” Jyotsna Suri, Chairperson, FICCI Tourism Committee and Chairperson and MD, Lalit Suri Hospitality Group, said “Adapting and adopting technology is the need of the hour and at FICCI we are happy to take on this vertical and offer a platform for thoughtful discussions and deliberation on the future of travel.”

The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, observed that demonetisation did not have any impact on the Foreign Tourist Arrival and Foreign Exchange Earnings. In November, 2016, 8.91 lakh FTAs were recorded as compared to 8.16 lakh in November, 2015, registering a growth of 9.3 per cent. An official statement from MOT claimed, “after demonetisation, the Government has taken a number of steps to ensure that no hardship is faced by the tourists and the industry is not affected. Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) smoothly transitioned to cashless mode of payment by simplifying process of e-tickets. Government efforts have paid dividend as there has been a notable growth in the comparative figures of Foreign Tourists Arrival (FTA) Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEEs) and online sale of e-tickets after demonetisation.” It may also be noted that the number of e-tickets sold during November 09, 2016, to December 08, 2016, increase to 28,176 from 2807 during October 09, 2016, to November 08, 2016, with corresponding amount being Rs 181.49 lakh and Rs 3.10 lakh respectively. It can therefore be seen that sale of e–tickets and earnings from have increased significantly by 10 and 58 times respectively as people are buying tickets for ASI monuments online through cashless payments.

As part of its mandate to further enhance India’s digital drive in the travel and tourism industry, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) launches its maiden initiative aimed at travel start-ups. ‘Travel Tech Launchpad’ will be a platform that encourages innovation and growth of travel start-ups and will be set up during the second edition of FICCI’s event titled ‘Digital Travel, Hospitality and Innovation Summit’ to be held on March 22-23, 2017 in New Delhi. The summit content has been developed to enhance the potency of travel start-ups, digital tourism and IT-based infrastructure development for the travel and hospitality sector. ‘Travel Tech Launchpad 2017’ is being organised by FICCI in association with Agnitio Consulting LLP, Nucleus Partners, and Charson Advisory. The summit will offer an opportunity for travel startups to learn from experts in the field of travel, exhibit their business ideas, and display their products & services in addition to providing a unique opportunity to connect with right set of ecosystem partners. A number of travel start-ups, hospitality and technology companies from across India and abroad will gather during the summit in addition to the participation of leading investors such as Sequoia, Inventus Capital, Kae Capital and several angel / venture capital firms.