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Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

A Mart A view of the Travel and Tourism Fair in New Delhi

The event, titled Travel and Tourism Fair and Outbound Travel Mart, organised by Fairfest Media Limited, saw an interesting mix of national and state tourism organisations, hotels, resorts, travel agents, tour operators, airlines, cruise liners, railways, travel portals, etc., besides participants from as many as 26 countries talking business. If countries like Bangladesh, Azerbaijan, Poland, Vietnam, Chile and Kazakhstan, not usually seen on the itineraries of travellers here otherwise, set up stalls at the fair highlighting the best places to visit, states like Bihar went the whole hog, packaging golf course facilities with historical places like Rajgir.

Among international participants, China, Turkey and Thailand participated in the fair in a big way. While China had as many as 10 stalls, Turkey bettered it with 17, even as Thailand had over 20 stalls. Keeping in mind the number of possible international travellers visiting China during the 2010 Olympics, the country was seen not just showcasing swanky cities like Shanghai but its remote Yunnan region and Tibet too, with attractive tour packages. Russia, which took part in the fair for the first time, flaunted a high level delegation, led by its Minister of Tourism.

Though most participants talked about good trade queries from domestic and international travel agents, the thin presence of general visitors was mentioned with concern. “The response from general travellers here compared to the TTFs in other cities is low,” said an official from The Backwater Resort, Kumarakom, hoping it would pick up on the last day. “Being on the circuit for the last seven years, most travel agents know about our property. We have come here mainly to tell general travellers about our resort,” said the Marketing Manager of Grand View Resort in Nahan, Himachal Pradesh.

Vikash Chopra, General Manager, The Chalets, Naldehra, though, said, “The real business enquires will start only after the fair. Though there have been some trade talks with international participants, we are right now only exchanging cards.” Unlike before, the fair ended this time on a Saturday, which many felt could have included Sunday too, to attract more general visitors to the event. “That surely is a concern but we are yet to see how that might affect the fair’s success,” said Chopra. According to an estimate of the organisers, “More than 10,000 general and 1,000 trade visitors came to the fair.”

Meanwhile, those who could make it to the event came to know about many interesting travel options within the country itself, like the Tiger Camp in Sundarbans, the Vedic Village, 28 km from Kolkata, the little known Kuakata beach in Bangladesh, places beyond Leh in Ladakh like Alchi, Hemis, Serchu and Nubra, The Elephant Court in Thekkady, to name just a fraction of the assortment. The event, with the Ministry of Tourism as a participant, was supported by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) and Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO).

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