|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thursday, 14 February, 2019, 12 : 47 PM [IST]
|
Iitt’s sixth edition brings all segments of tourism industry under one roof
|
|
Ambarin Chougle & Bhumi Gupta
|
|
|
|
|
Inauguration ceremony of Iitt 2019
The sixth edition of India International Travel & Tourism (Iitt
Exhibition organised from January 10 to 12, 2019 in Mumbai
was a three day affair divided into two-days of B2B networking
and one-day B2C event held at MMRDA Grounds, BKC.
Iitt exhibition, organised by ABEC Exhibitions & Conferences Pvt.
Ltd, is a networking and marketing platform for the travel and tourism
industry where under one roof, exhibitors ranging from international and
national tourism boards, tour operators, hotel chains, airlines, cruising
lines, DMCs, etc., showcased their offerings.
Manish Gandhi, COO & Executive Director, ABEC welcomed Hon
John Amaratunga, Minister, Tourism of Sri Lanka, and said, “Today, we
see some extremely important steps that have been introduced by our
government to increase international business. Introduction of e-visa for
163 countries and launch of incredible India 2.0 campaign will make
an improvement in marketing which is something to look out for in the
future.”
L-R: Archana Trasy, Director, Work That Works; Karan Anand, Head- Relationships & Supplier
Management, Cox & Kings; Rajiv Duggal, Deputy Counsel, Global Tourism Council; Jilesh Babla,
Director, Zanzibar Tourism Promotion Centre (India); Natarajan Ramji, Chairman, Travel Masters India
Knowledge Sessions
TravelBiz Monitor as Conference Partner to Iitt 2019 organised four
panel discussions at the exhibition where senior delegates deliberated
on issues concerning the travel and tourism industry worldwide.
Developing new destinations through film tourism
The first session, moderated by Rajiv Duggal, Deputy Counsel, Global
Tourism Council, shed light on the increase in the percentage of outbound
tourists as a result of film tourism. The panellists for the discussion
were Karan Anand, Head- Relationships & Supplier Management, Cox
& Kings; Jilesh Babla, Director, Zanzibar Tourism Promotion Centre
(India); Archana Trasy, Director, Work That Works; Natarajan Ramji,
Chairman, Travel Masters India.
Taking examples from the films already made in foreign countries,
Babla exclaimed that the destinations have always benefitted by
shooting an Indian movie. He said, “It’s not necessary that the first
film you shoot there is going to create the hype for you but over the
time, with couple of hit movies, the destination starts picking up”. With
respect to the budget scenario, he expressed that it is very expensive to make an Indian movie and private sector along with the government can contribute to shoot at a foreign destination.
Trasy commented on the same by saying that the budget depends on the script and today anything can be shot anywhere, she said, “With OTT platforms, there are so many things being shot across the world. Even a single episode from a series has a million dollar budget. Sets can be put up anywhere in the world. So, today the world is the canvas for the film industry. Basically, content is King”.
Being an experienced professional in the industry, with over 1000 films made under his banner, Ramji shared his opinion on the logistics of making a film from the travel trade point of view and the role of travel agents in partnering the production. He said, “We are marginal players as travel agents. I rode away from the basic travel agent platform of the hotel, food and transport to permits, applying for incentives, getting tax rebates, mounting up action sequences, staging mega dances, etc., rest of the basic things would be only 5% of my job with respect to the films.“
Opposing the idea of travel agents partnering with producers, Anand says, “I don’t think a travel company should get into films, it is not our expertise. The only way a tour operator can integrate a successful movie
is with a joint promotion and marketing exercise, nationally, regionally or at a city level. It can only be successful when movies coordinate with the countries.”
Adapting to Change in Outbound MICE trends
The first panel of the second day focused on the changes in the MICE trends. The panellists for this session were Anil Sontakke, Sr Manager- Sales & Marketing, South East Asia, Naprod Group; Ravindra Goriparty, Director, Smart Travels, Naveen Kundu, CEO & MD, Mercury- A Luxury Initiative of EBix Cash; Manoj Gursahani, President, Visit USA Committee; Paramjit Bawa, Regional Manager - India, Destination New South Wales; Sriram Rajmohan, CEO & MD, Club7 Holidays; Dr Rajesh Shukla, Head of Personal Accident & Travel Home, TATA AIG
Gursahani, moderator for the session, opened the session with a corporate angle. He put forth his question to Sontakke, based on their earlier conversations, asking what factors are considered while choosing a destination and a tour operator, Sontakke said that “As a corporate, we expect the travel agent or tour operator, to make arrangements for a doctor in the hotel, should be knowledgeable about the destination we are visiting, flawless visa procedures, and the hotel to be a business hotel so it is well-equipped with a corporate’s basic amenities.”
Goriparty, when asked his observation about the changes in the MICE trends, stated that “Regarding the MICE movement, it’s a combination of corporate and the travel operators. Whenever there is a MICE destination, we try to educate them on how to grow the MICE industry from the Indian point of view, worldwide. We try to promote ease of travel, destination/ product knowledge, insurance, specialised people to take around, all of this will elevate the growing number of the Indian market which has been escalating each year.”
Kundu, sharing his perspective on the changes, expressed that MICE is for the perceiver and not the procurer. He said,“MICE needs to change. We have to bring a revolution. The element of creativity and art has to be put into MICE because it is not just a combination component of travel, its an experience.”
Speaking about the changing trends from a destination perspective, Bawa said that there are a few noticeable changes in the past few years. Agreeing to Kundu to improve MICE scenarios he said that “ A lot of companies now look at many factors when they decide the destination.
Responding to how does one give an experience with demands for
credit and price competition, Rajmohan stated that most of the corporates
collect multiple quotes for the travel but there are few mistakes that they
make while budgeting. “Corporates make budgets without deciding
the destination, so we, instead of telling them that it is an impractical
budget, have to make all this available to them at that same cost. Due to
this, there is a loss of experience and no room for innovations”, he said.
Putting forward the question to Sontakke,
Gursahani asked about the parameters considered
for corporate group tours. Sontakke informed that
creditability is the first factor for tour operator
followed by the other general considerations.
Goriparty gave a perspective from the Tier II
and Tier III cities, when questioned about the
cultural nuances during a large group tour. He
said, “Earlier people lacked discipline when they
were on such tours, not because they are rude
but because it is not in the culture. We have
been educating the Tier II and Tier III cities and
fortunately the scenarios have changed over a
period of time.”
After stating the balance needed between
the quality and experience of a traveller, Kundu
highlighted the reality of future shifting from a
regular incentive to creating an event or product
based experience. He also stated that there is a
need to set a norm. “Until and unless the larger
brands come together and set a norm, we are
killing jobs. Tourism is the largest employer
but it will hamper the entire travel system by
cutting down man power”, he expressed.
Shukla suggested that the company should
get an insurance for every travel to benefit
from the value added services while on a travel
or in case of emergency.
Concluding the session, Gursahani ended
with a message to the people to adapt the best
aspects that one learns while dealing with the
corporates and the travel agents in their dayto-
day life.
L-R: Paramjit Bawa, Regional Manager - India, Destination New South Wales; Naveen Kundu, CEO & MD, Mercury- A Luxury
Initiative of EBix Cash; Sriram Rajmohan, CEO & MD, Club7 Holidays; Dr Rajesh Shukla, Head of Personal Accident & Travel
Home, TATA AIG; Manoj Gursahani, President, Visit USA Committee; Anil Sontakke, Sr Manager- Sales & Marketing, South East
Asia, Naprod Group; Ravindra Goriparty, Director, Smart Travels; Natarajan Ramji, Chairman, Travel Masters India.
Cruising – Bridging the gap between
Infrastructure & Customer Demand
The second panel session of the day two was
focused on Cruising industry in India and the
infrastructure for taking it forward, moderated
by Sheldon Santwan, Editor & COO, TravelBiz
Monitor. The panellists in this session, namely
Jurgen Bailom, President & CEO, Zen Cruises,
Nishith Saxena, Founder & Director, Cruise
Professionals, Nalini Gupta, Managing
Director, Lotus Destinations, Representative of
Costa Cruises in India and Cdr Nevil Malao,
VSM (Retd.) Asst. Vice President, Operations – All Ports, JM Baxi & Co.,
shared disparate views on the potential of cruise tourism in India, they
elaborated on the industry having come in focus recently and stated that
it is the fastest growing sector in India, outbound and domestic both.
Santwan started the discussion by shedding light on the launch of
domestic cruise lines and how the companies have returned. Commenting
on the same, Gupta recalled that Star Cruises initiated cruise tourism in
India and how the response from the Indian market was impressive.
She said, “We saw an opportunity and we grabbed it. We needed the
consumer who is ready but we also needed the infrastructure. It was
a challenge but it kept getting better and better. Government didn’t
understand this but associations like INCLA helped.”
L-R: Jurgen Bailom, President & CEO, Zen Cruises; Dr E. Ramesh Kumar IAS, Chairman, Mormugao Port Trust; Nalini Gupta,
Managing Director, Lotus Destinations, Representative of Costa Cruises in India; Sheldon Santwan, Editor & COO, TravelBiz
Monitor; Nishith Saxena, Founder & Director, Cruise Professionals, and Cdr Nevil Malao, VSM (Retd.) Asst. Vice President,
Operations – All Ports, JM Baxi & Co..
Expressing his views on the subject of infrastructure, Bailom added,
“Key experience of being in domestic market is to have an official
transport vehicle and to be on the right side. India is ready to start
cruising. We have natural fit for cruising with expansive
coast line. To provide for the crowd, we need more
ships. Cruise ship is an international destination for the
Indians. We plan to double the market of our premium
cruise line and cater to the masses and explore the very
beautiful India.”
On being asked about the ports in India being cruise
friendly, Malao answered, “The cruise ships are only
getting bigger. We are now graduating to larger picture.
It’s a chicken and egg kind of situation where we have
large ships and few accommodating ports. Ports are
picking up in terms of infrastructure. Immigration
customs and staff need to be accommodated to do their
jobs efficiently when we speak of cruise terminals.”
Saxena spoke about the development in India for
outbound market in terms of cruising. He said that
domestic and outbound market could be similar, “We
need to look at where are we fitting in to provide
passenger, who is the king. We need to provide as per
foreign standards. A lot needs to be done in terms of
reaching out to the customer. “
Optimism in terms of acceptance could be seen in
the words of the speakers. They exclaimed that every
company is getting innovative in terms of experience
giving. Levelling up small ports would be a big step but a port is
expensive and so is cruising and the cruise coming once a week would
be difficult to sustain for the whole year. Nevertheless, the panellists
agreed that sustainable port operations could be looked at.
Data Privacy- The New Age Challenge of Technology
The last session of the conference covered the issue of data privacy with
respect to the mechanism to validate data security and the system to
mask the data from leaking. The session was moderated by Kanishka
Agiwal, Travel & Transportation Industry Leader India/South Asia, IBM.
The panellists for this session were Chetan Kapoor, Co-Founder, Videc
& Research Analyst - Asia Pacific, Phocuswright; Ankush Sabharwal,
Founder & CEO, CoRover; Ruchit Jangid, Vice President - E-Business,
E-Commerce, SOTC Travel; Tarun Bhakri, Director Commercial,
American Express GBT.
Agiwal opened the panel and directed his first question to Bhakri
asking their safeguards when it comes to maintaining the sanctity of
the day of the customers. Responding to the question, Bhakri said,
“We demonstrate a very structured approach when it comes to data
security, confidentiality & accuracy. At American Express, our capability
to manage data, demonstrate compliance and manage confidentiality is
an area which is given a lot of importance.”
Stating the challenges faced by the travel company to manage the
data, Ruchit said that data privacy is of utmost concern in the travel
industry. “There are certain guidelines globally, that we need to adopt
before working in India. We have our data encryption systems in place
that make sure the transaction and other details are not in air. Internally
too, there are fingerprint systems for customers to keep the data secure.
All our systems are GDPR compliant”
On issues of data privacy, Sabharwal stated that “We made sure that
we don’t take data that is irrelevant. We take only that is required for
the business.”
Sabharwal, when asked what will his response to monetise the data
be, he said that “We do have disclaimers in place, and as per GDPR and
data privacy policy. We need to make it very visible. For monetisation,
we need to have analytical data to display contextual ads and user has
an option to receive those ads. If the user is okay, we keep the data in
cookies.”
Agiwal touched upon invasion of privacy at some level with customer
data and asked about the line that the companies thread on to Bhakri.
Bhakri responded that, “Data privacy is extremely important on the
corporate traveller end and is managed in a structured way, I think
the approach we demonstrate of the business could be better. The
government has also taken a strong note. There are bills that have been
passed.
Interestingly, non ability to manage data may also result in criminal
liability. It is important that we as an industry create relevant awareness
to these backforce.”
L-R: Disha Shah Ghosh, Chief Sub-Editor, TravelBiz Monitor; Kanishka Agiwal, Travel & Transportation Industry
Leader India/South Asia, IBM; Tarun Bhakri, Director Commercial, American Express GBT; Ruchit Jangid, Vice
President - E-Business, E-Commerce, SOTC Travel; Ankush Sabharwal, Founder & CEO, CoRover
He also stated that “There is a need, from the data controller, to take
consent from the individual in question. It is important for you to align
with the expectation of sharing of the individual data with you. So, the
individual can and is liable to ask you the use of his data. Once this kind
of regime comes in, there will be a lot of change in the way we go in our
business.”
“We need to be aware from the users perspective.” says Kapoor,
adding to Bhakri’s statement. He also stated that the users need to be
made aware that every individual’s data is important. ”Our behaviour
can be reflected in the social media, my time spent can be used to
provoke my instincts to buy something I don’t want.” He suggests that
everyone should read the policy before checking anything.
On issues of addressing the on-ground implementation and
ecosystem problems, Bhakri suggested ground approaches saying, “It
is important for organisations, businesses and individuals to take note
of the consequences of not falling in line. I believe that the on-ground
implementation will happen quick and fast due to the liability clauses
associated with it.“
Discussing on the implementation issues, Jangid added that, “In
India, we have complicated systems. GDPR guidelines are difficult to
implement but it is important for companies to establish a trust level
to connect at a consumer level to let them know that we have invested
in the technology to protect your data and that is how customer will
start appreciating your efforts along with the other co-partners. We also
need to make sure that the partner is compliant on the same level too.
We also need to create an awareness amongst the people to read the
data privacy policy and give consent and not just tick since they are
mandatory boxes.”
The session concluded with a discussion on the need of a proper
blockchain technology in place to address the query of specific data
sharing and anonymity.
ambarin.chougle@saffronsynergies.in
bhumi.gupta@saffronsynergies.in
|
|
|
|
|