‘Creating travel synergies’

The association’s convention that is being held in March at the luxurious Titanic Mardan Palace in Antalya, Turkey, will focus on how to capture and cater to the segment of millennial travellers that places travel as a priority experience.

Hazel Jain

The fifth convention of the Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) that will take place in Antalya, Turkey, from March 15-18, 2020, will have a clear focus on the growing segment of millennials. Sharing more details on the theme is Himanshu Patil, Vice President, OTOAI & Convention Chairman 2020, who says, “The theme of this convention is ‘Creating Travel Synergies for the New Millennials’. As we all know, millennials are the new decision makers and are one of the fastest-growing segments for the industry. They travel a lot and we need to figure ways in which we can attract them. The discussions during the event will focus on how they are using technology to book their travel. There will also be knowledge sessions and we have invited a lot of Indian as well as international speakers to attend and deliver keynote speeches.”

The speakers from India that have been confirmed so far include Dr Ranjit Nair, CEO of Germin8, who will speak on ‘Is AI changing the face of travel industry’; Sumit Rajwade, Founder, Digital Innovation Specialist, Edawjar Consultancy Services, who will speak on ‘Millennial Travellers and their Expectations’; Naveen Kundu, Managing Director, EbixCash Travel & Holidays, who will speak on ‘Challenges of Outbound Tourism and their Solutions’; and Ankush Nijhawan, Managing Director, Nijhawan Group and Co-founder, TBO Group, who will speak on ‘Digital Technology and Tourism: Way Forward’.

There will be knowledge sessions and we have invited a lot of Indian as well as international speakers to attend and deliver keynote speeches

The pre-convention tour is from March 12-15, while the post-tour will take place from March 18-21. “We have finalised Istanbul, Izmir and Cappadocia for these tours. We are getting very good response for this. We already have 200 registrations so far. Turkish Airlines is our travel partner, and Turkey Tourism is involved with us as well,” Patil adds.

Riaz Munshi, President, OTOAI, says, “Apart from the pre and post-tours, we are also in the midst of finalising flight travel arrangements and sessions of the convention. Other than that, we are focusing on increasing our membership. We believe that without diluting our norms, we will continue to increase our numbers on a pan-India basis.”

Munshi adds, “We are also sharing information with ministries about what we do and outbound tourism. What we feel is that the ministry is not aware about what revenue outbound generates for them.”