TravTalk India Online Magazine
The recently-concluded Korea Travel Expo saw buyers from across India having B2B meetings with over 15 suppliers from South Korea, including DMCs, RTOs and attractions. While many buyers appreciated the positive attitude of exhibitors from Korea, others are planning to travel to Korea as soon as borders open.
Pradnya Naik, Head – FIT Products & Contracting, Kesari Tours
The Korea Travel Expo experience was good, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I got a chance to meet many old and new partners. It was an informative and valuable two days. The platform was easy to use and beautifully designed. I loved the interactive map of South Korea, very interesting content, as well as the quiz. We had excellent meetings with all the partners, as they provided valuable and helpful information, which will help me incorporate in our travel programmes when borders open.
Gaurish S Dharwadker, CEO, Travel Shop
The appointments were seamless. I enjoyed connecting with Korean suppliers with whom we can work once the COVID situation improves. Virtual platforms are here to stay. I am delighted that all my meetings were successful, and the suppliers sounded eager to work with Indian agents. Also, they were ready to share all required material and guide us on tourism aspects, and were happy to reply to some ‘silly’ questions. The supportive nature of Korean suppliers conveyed their eagerness for the Indian market.
Suzanne Pereira, SVP – Trade Relationships, , Communications & Service Quality, Thomas Cook (India)
Korea is a key partner for us. The destination offers significant opportunity for Indian consumers when borders reopen. The Korea Travel Expo is hence an invaluable initiative that offers us a networking platform with access across key stakeholders of the Korean travel & tourism ecosystem – across destinations and provinces, tourism boards, attractions, transportation, hospitality, etc. This is a powerful exchange platform.
Manoj Nair, National Marketing Leader, FCM
Korea Travel Expo was a great forum to meet partners from tourism boards to DMCs. I am happy I could attend this forum and catch up with key people who keep the wheels of tourism running in Korea. All my meetings were fruitful and it was great having those conversations with the partners based out of Korea, and it will materialise into something beneficial for the destination, us and the partners. Travel industry people are a very resilient lot and these meetings confirm that while we are down, we are not out.
Abin Bhattacharjee, Senior Manager, MICE – International Operations, Zenith Hospitality
My experience was overall fascinating as I have come to know about Korea in detail. The presentation, itinerary discussion, information about MICE and leisure groups is very helpful to organise events. In this pandemic, a virtual platform is the stage where people can interact more often. The interactions were fruitful. It will help to convert meetings into real business once tourism opens. We are looking forward to it.
Sumit Churiwalla, Director, Nimbus Tours & Travels
I really liked the virtual experience at Korea Travel Expo. It kept me engrossed for quite a while and I loved the games (eagerly waiting for the results) and other details it had to offer. It is one of the best platforms I have used for an expo of this level. We could experience everything by sitting in my office in Kolkata. Best part was we didn’t have to log in to different Zoom links to talk to different exhibitors. It was all in one place.
Inputs by Nisha Verma
