TravTalk India Online Magazine
The tourist authority will be conducting its biggest-ever sales mission in India after a gap of three years with more than 46 companies, including DMCs, DMOs, and Visas & Immigration, flying down to meet the Indian travel trade.
Hazel Jain
VisitBritain has announced its two-city sales mission that it will undertake this month, after a gap of three years. This will be held in Mumbai followed by New Delhi, on January 13 and January 15, respectively. Vishal Bhatia, Country Manager – India, VisitBritain, says, “We have the biggest- ever contingent from the UK participating this time, which speaks volumes about the demand we see from India and the kind of confidence we have in the market. We are looking at around 46 companies from British organisations across DMCs, DMOs, as well as UK Visas & Immigration coming in.” The last such sales mission was conducted in 2017 in Pune, with 22 suppliers from the UK who met 90-odd hosted buyers from India.
We have suppliers from the north who are capable of holding big M!CE, like the Lancashire Cricket Club. The trade will also meet football clubs that can host big M!CE groups
The primary focus for participants will be leisure, but there will be a number of suppliers who will also focus on M!CE. Bhatia adds, “There will be a big contingent from north of England as well. Marketing Manchester has been working extremely closely with us over the years, and we have 20-odd suppliers coming from the north who are capable of holding big M!CE groups as well – like the Lancashire Cricket Club, which is where the India-Pakistan match took place in June 2019. The trade will also be able to meet some football clubs that can host big M!CE groups. We have a lot of suppliers coming in for the first time. In fact, almost 60-70 per cent are first-timers. This is possibly due to the new air connections launched recently between India and the UK. The extra load definitely helps to grow demand.”
In terms of trends, Bhatia adds that more and more Indians are travelling to attend live sporting events. A great example of this was the recent cricket World Cup that was a big catalyst in terms of show- casing the potential of the region. “The Premier League is also something that we are working very closely with. It is largely targeted at the youth or the ‘buzz seeker’ audience as we like to call it. They plan their itineraries around live football games. People are also travelling to experience the Manchester Derby,” he adds.
