‘Must keep India agenda alive’

Rajeev Kale, President & Country Head – Holidays, MICE, Visas, Thomas Cook (India), believes that there is no better way to experience M!CE than to do it by being physically present. To engage its corporate clients and understand their requirements, Thomas Cook (India) recently conducted the second leg of The Art of Travel roadshow, in New Delhi.

Tripti Mehta

Rajeev Kale says that corporate clients have realised the importance of physical M!CE events and though theworld has warmed up to the idea of meeting virtually, he believes that physical events will never go out of fashion even if they adopt a more hybrid approach.“It is very clear that when people are connected digitally, there are technical problems. There is a need to get in front of the customers and communicate better with them. I think, physical M!CE is going to stay forever. M!CE is an art and this art needs to be experienced by travelling. Customers are ready, but there may be apprehensions that we need to deal with, so we need to communicate better that we are ready for physical M!CE. It is going to bounce back heavily and we need to be prepared. There is no alternative to a physical M!CE event,” he said. Kale was speaking on the sidelines of The Art of Travel roadshow in New Delhi. The event included a panel discussion, a motivational session by model and actor Dr Aditi Govitrikar and table-top meetings. Various Marriott properties in India were part of this along with Tourism New Zealand. This was the second city in a series, the first being Mumbai where the roadshow was conducted on similar lines.

Some amount of M!CE movement has also already begun within the country, but once international borders open, will domestic M!CE movement take a backseat? Kale believes that in order to keep domestic movement alive, some work needs to be done. “It is very important for tour operators as well as customers to realise the importance of what India can offer.  We also appeal to the tourism bodies in India to keep on making efforts in terms of promoting their own states.But, I don’t think domestic M!CE movement will die out once international borders open. We, along with our hotel and airline partners, are there to work on this with support from state and central tourism bodies. We will have to keep the India agenda alive,” he asserted. Kale also informed that the roadshow will be conducted in other cities as well, including Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad. Dates are yet to be finalised.

A balance between domestic & int’l M!CE

“The corporate clients are very excited. They are asking questions, and that’s the first step. They want to travel to the countries that are allowing travel to happen. They’ve already got their itineraries prepared and there are general queries around what they could do with events, what they could do with M!CE. Everybody is waiting for borders to open formally. In the short term, people are planning trips to Dubai and Maldives, and a lot of India is being requested as well. But, I think that in times to come, they will want to go to the West as well. We can’t predict what the numbers will look like, but I can tell you that it will be balanced – a lot of people are going to do domestic, a lot of people are going to do international. We have already done a few events which means that people are moving from fear to caution.”