TravTalk India Online Magazine
World Travel Market London, a global event, responsible for reshaping the travel industry of the world is finally here. Rashmi Verma, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Govt of India, who will be leading the Indian contingent at WTM, tells us how they are gearing up for their participation at this event from November 6-8.
Nikhil Anand
World Travel Market London, the leading global event for the travel industry is in its 37th year and remains as prominent and as opportunistic as ever for all the participating nations including India. The three-day mega event will bring together almost 5000 exhibiting destinations, technology and private sector companies to find and network with nearly 51,000 travel professionals, key industry buyers, journalists, digital influencers, students and tourism ministers. Given the event’s proportion and proposition, India has always looked to put their best foot forward to attract bigger tourist numbers into the country. This year, leading India’s delegation at the World Travel Market London will be Rashmi Verma, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, who will be accompanied by Meenakshi Sharma, Additional Director General, amongst other ministry offi- cials. The Indian delegation will also boast of a huge participation from the industry and the state governments to give a greater impetus to tourism in the country. Speaking about the focus areas for the delegation, Verma said, “This time the nucleus will be sustainable tourism and we will be showcasing niche products to our key and emerging markets. While UK and other European countries have always been an extremely important source market for us, the fact that WTM London will ensure participation from all over the world, makes it a very key activity for us.”
In recognition of the presented platform, India has always seen a strong representation of state governments and industry representatives not just under the Incredible India pavilion of the Ministry of Tourism, but also in their own might in the form of independent pavilions. Elaborating on the efforts in place to further substantiate India’s position in the global market as a destination of choice amongst international travellers, she further added “This year, we will be hosting an India evening, and this will help give a greater perspective into India to the world representations who will be present at WTM. Apart from this there is going to be a separate North East evening as well, which will focus on fulfilling the tourism potential in the region by giving it the advertisement it needs at the global level.”
The Ministry will also play host to all the key tour operators and media representatives that it has called upon to showcase some of the new initiatives of the government of India in the tourism sector and also in the North East sector. Through these direct interactions with the global travel fraternity and media, the ministry is hoping to achieve a lot of mileage and interest into India as a destination.
Post WTM London, the Ministry of Tourism will also be conducting roadshows in key markets like Europe and Canada along with emerging markets like Russia and Japan. The roadshows will commence from the end of November and will span across till March 2018.
India is partner country @ FITUR
India is the partner country at FITUR 2018, which is set to be held from January 17-21 in Madrid, Spain. Hence, we will be participating in a very big way and the campaign has also been planned for the event in and around FITUR exhibition. We have many plans for it. Since the clientele in Spain is different, we will look at the countries which are participating at FITUR and offer our niche products as per their specific markets
