Category Archives: Exhibitions

Addressing delegates at Indaba 2019, Derek Hanekom, Minister of Tourism, Government of South Africa, informed that India will be among the top three countries e-Visa regime will be extended to, besides China and Nigeria. Talking more on this, the South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, highlighted the 10 challenges that needed to be looked over in order to boost arrivals to the country. Speaking at the third day of Africa’s largest tourism event, he said, “We must reduce the onerous and often unnecessary bureaucratic red tape that tourists who want to visit our country face. This requires us to streamline our tourist visa regimes. We are in the process of radically overhauling our visa dispensation for the rest of the world and introducing a world-class e-visa system.”

South African Tourism is hosting the annual tourism marketing event, Africa’s Travel Indaba, at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Convention Centre in Durban, South Africa, from May 2-4, 2019. The event serves as one of the largest platforms for Africa’s tourism industry to showcase the extensiveness of its products to an international market. Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, Derek Hanekom, Minister, Tourism, Government of South Africa, said, “Africa’s Travel Indaba has become synonymous with storytelling. This continent is teeming with stories and folklore which are woven into all the products and experiences that are showcased here. In 2018, Africa reached 67 million international tourist arrivals, a growth of 7% over 2017. This represents 5% of all global international arrivals, up nearly 14 mn from the low of 2015. On the African continent, we have grown at an average of 8% for three years in a row.” The Minister also shared that UNWTO predicts that 1.8 billion people will be travelling globally by 2030, and that Africa will increase its share from the current 5% to 7% of all global arrivals. While buyers at Indaba include tour operators, online booking companies and DMCs from across the world, the exhibitor profile includes provincial authorities, tour operators, game lodges, luxury products, etc., from as many as 20 African nations. The India market continues to be a significant contributor to Africa’s, particularly South Africa’s, international tourist arrival numbers, and Indaba is seen as one of the most significant events to help strengthen this relationship even further. Over 1,000 exhibitors are said to be participating in the continent’s annual tourism showcase. Last year, the event received delegates from 80 countries and participant numbers crossed the 7,000 …

GITB in its 11th year will see 291 Foreign Tour Operators from 47 countries to meet, interact and do business with 260 Indian exhibitors with around 11,236 pre-scheduled B2B meetings. The two-day event was inaugurated at The Lalit, Jaipur in the presence of the Chief Guest, DB Gupta, Chief Secretary, Government of Rajasthan, who delivered the inaugural address. The keynote address was delivered by Sreya Guha, Principal Secretary- Tourism, Arts & Culture, Government of Rajasthan. From the Ministry of Tourism, Aashima Mehrotra, Director- Tourism, Government of India addressed the gathering while Dr Jyotsana Suri, Past President of FICCI & Chairperson, FICCI, Tourism Committee delivered the welcome and the theme address. The inauguration of the Exhibition was done by Suman Billa; Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India amid the presence of other dignitaries at the Jaipur Exhibition and Convention Centre. 2020 edition to be held from April 19-21 Apart from the host state, Rajasthan, Tourism Departments of states like Gujarat, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Goa, Punjab and Chandigarh are also participating.

The 13th edition of IT&CM China and 5th edition of CTW China kick started in Shanghai with new initiatives that will feature throughout the 3-day event from March 19-21, 2019. Aimed at enhancing delegate’s overall experience, China’s only double bill event in MiCE and corporate travel has redesigned its business, networking and education programme that continues to lead the industry in outbound, inbound and domestic demand. Setting the tone for the show, the opening keynote address, ‘Sustainability through innovation’, underscored the significance and role of innovation in the industry’s pursuit of sustainability. The address explained how organisations in China’s MiCE industry can embrace innovation to stay sustainable and relevant in the years to come.   In his welcome speech, Darren Ng, Managing Director, TTG Asia Media, organiser of the show said, “Our delegates and partners have been our constant source of inspiration in wanting to make IT&Cm China and CTW China a fulfilling annual event to set us in the right direction for the year ahead. This year’s newly introduced initiatives will enable delegates to leverage on the show’s substantive line-up to further their strategic objectives withhin the China MiCE market.”   The new elements of innovation weaved throughout various content components across the show include the Exhibition Walkabout, Meet The Corporates with speed dating format, brand showcase presentation, power innovation luncheon and MiCE Innovation hub including another new highlight, Say Hi to Everyone is making a debut to the show.  

FITUR 2019 opens with a quest for specialisation and to promote key segments for the tourism industry. This year, the show contains a new B2B area focusing on MiCE tourism. This networking tool lays emphasis on incentives, meetings and business travel tourism and provides FITUR exhibitors the chance to establish contact with 100 highly-qualified international buyers. FITUR 2019 has become the global meeting point for tourism professionals and has once again become the leading trade fair for the incoming and outgoing markets of Latin America. The last edition brought together 251,000 participants, with over 6,800 business meetings. Madrid welcomed this international show with the launch of FITUR IS MUSIC, a new cultural event that was created within the framework of FITUR FESTIVALS.

With around 1200 registrations over two days, the 7th edition of the Global Panorama Showcase Nagpur concluded on January 22, while setting a new benchmark in Tier II and III markets. The show witnessed buyers from more than 85 cities with 100 exhibitors showcasing their products and offerings. The event was inaugurated during a glittering ceremony amid the presence of chief guest, Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Dato’ Richard C K Koh, Founder & GMD, Only World Group, Malaysia and other dignitaries including Gulshan Pal Singh Anand, Chairman, GPS; Claude Blanc, Portfolio Director, Reed Exhibition; Sunil Kumar R, President, UFTAA & TAAI; Anil Parashar, President & CEO, Interglobe Techologies; Jagat Mehta, President, Enterprising Travel Agents Association; Arun Anupam, Country Head & Senior Vice President, CVENT; Vishal Bhatia, Country Manager, Visit Britain and Manish Gadia, CA, GMJ & Company. Tweaking the format this year, GPS has created a forum called KIT (Knowledge-Inspiration-Training) Talk.

The first edition of Global Aviation Summit 2019 witnessed participation from more than 80 countries. Being organised from January 15-16, 2019 at Grand Hyatt Mumbai, the summit themed on ‘Flying for All’ is touted to be the first-of-its-kind that will cover a diverse range of topics – from domestic aviation market, drone policies, infrastructure investment, freight and cargo policies, aviation financing and much more. It has attendance from more than 100 global CEOs, 35 exhibitors and more than 1200 delegate participation. The inaugural session saw keynote speeches by Sandip Somany, President, FICCI; R N Choubey, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation; Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, President of the Council, International Civil Aviation Organization; Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Civil Aviation and Commerce & Industry; Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra; and Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation.

The sixth edition of the three-day India International Travel & Tourism Exhibition (IITT) kicks off in Mumbai’s MMRDA Grounds in BKC today. The exhibition has over 500 exhibitors from more than 25 countries showcasing their products and services. IITT 2019 will be driven by its content which includes workshops, training academy, speed networking lounge, panel discussions, and much more. IITT has also associated with Cox & Kings which has created specially-designed experiential zones for visitors. Day one will have an expert panel discussion on developing new destinations through film tourism with travel specialists such as Karan Anand, Head – Relationships & Supplier Management, Cox & Kings sharing their perspective. Day two will see many more business sessions focusing on diverse topics such as cruise tourism, outbound MiCE and data privacy. The key sponsors of the exhibition includes Powered by Partner – Cox & Kings, Partner Country – Indonesia Tourism, MICE & Wedding Destination Partner – Sri Lanka Tourism, Host State – Maharashtra, Partner State – Kerala, Platinum Sponsors – Ark Travels, Akquasun Group and Club7. Some of the featured countries include Bhutan Tourism, Malaysia Tourism & Fiji Tourism. Apart from them, the other key partners on the board are Guideline, dnata, Yatra, Urvi travels, Ottila and many more.  

The India Tourism Mart (ITM), organised by the Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH) and the Ministry of Tourism (MOT), will be tentatively held from September 29 to October 1, 2019, announced Subhash Goyal, Secretary General, FAITH. He also told that these dates are tentative, considering that any other inbound travel show like KTM as well as the National Tourism Awards would not clash with the same. This year, ITM had around 250 foreign buyers in attendance with an equal number of exhibitors. He also revealed that they are expecting around 500 buyers to come for the next year’s edition as they will have enough time to plan the event unlike this time, when they organised it within 2.5 months.

Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Government of India, has launched the official mobile application ‘GAS 2019’, for Global Aviation Summit 2019, to be held on January 15-16, 2019 at Grand Hyatt Mumbai.  The application was launched in the presence of Rajiv Nayan Choubey, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA); Dr Guruprasad Mohapatra, Chairman, Airports Authority of India (AAI); Dr Shefali Juneja, Joint Secretary, MoCA and other officials of the AAI. Available on play store and iOS, GAS 2019 provides a holistic glimpse of the summit and can be used to access latest updates about the mega event. The application enables users to interact with the co-delegates and speakers. It would be an excellent platform for networking through personal and group chats. With the who’s who of the global aviation fraternity set to grace the event, the summit is a promising platform for constructive discussions, collaborations and meeting of minds to explore the future of global aviation. The esteemed guest-list for the summit includes Transport & Civil Aviation ministers from Laos, Thailand, Bangladesh, Nepal and Jamaica, Civil Aviation authorities and Directorate Generals of Civil Aviation (DGCAs) from 22 countries. The future of aviation – drones and seaplanes, airport privatisation, digital travel and holistic development of global aviation ecosystem are the key areas to push the envelope both on regulations and on industry structure. This platform will enable the industry leaders to prepare a policy roadmap that will certainly provide a strong impetus to all players in the aviation ecosystem. The summit will entail B2G, B2B and G2G meetings.