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The three-day business networking trade show, SATTE 2017 was the biggest event ever with more than 850 exhibitors, from across 40 countries and 25 Indian states.
NEW DELHI – South Asia Travel and Tourism Exchange (SATTE) 2017, a B2B event in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, concluded successfully as a fully-fledged trade show and managed to increase the footfall by a historic 40 percent in its 24th year.
The three-day business networking trade show, SATTE 2017 was the biggest event ever with more than 850 exhibitors, from across 40 countries and 25 Indian states. Attending SATTE from over 40 countries, foreign buyers comprised the biggest ever contingent along with the multitudinous Indian trade buyers attending the show to shop for Indian and international tourism products.
Chief Guest, Dr Mahesh Sharma, Union Minister of State for Tourism & Culture (Independent Charge) and Civil Aviation, Govt. of India along with Mr. Vinod Zutshi, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India; Mr. Junichi Kumada, Senior Officer, Regional Programme for Asia and Pacific, UNWTO; Mr. Subash Goyal, Chairman, Stic Travel and Member, National Tourism Advisory Council; Mr. Dato Seri Mohamed Nazri, Minister of Tourism and Culture, Malaysia and Mr. Yogesh Mudras, Managing Director, UBM India inaugurated the show amidst an august industry gathering from the travel and trade fraternity.
Over the years SATTE has actively supported various industry led initiatives in the travel and tourism arena. The inaugural function also served as the platform for the UNWTO to reinforce the goal of sustainable tourism, 2017 being earmarked as the ‘International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development’. As per UNWTO, the three key priority areas for the global tourist sector, would be to promote safe, secure and seamless travel; enhance the role of technology and innovation in tourism, and embrace the sustainable agenda in tourism.
Acknowledging SATTE growing stature on the global tourism arena, Vinod Zutshi, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, said, “I am happy to note that SATTE 2017 is being represented by more exhibitors and participants than previous years. SATTE has certainly emerged as an internationally known platform for the domestic and international buyers. Ministry of Tourism has always been supportive of SATTE and SATTE 2017 is completely in sync with every initiative taken by the ministry to increase India’s share in the global tourism market. I hope SATTE will continue to highlight the diversity of Indian tourism to all its participants.”
Congratulating the 24th edition of SATTE and UBM for successfully organizing the event year after year, Mahesh Sharma, Union Minister of State for Tourism & Culture (I/C), Government of India said, “We have taken initiatives that now connect almost 160 countries through e-visa facility. It is a vision of our government to take tourism to the new heights. We are taking care of our infrastructure through Ministry of Roads and Transport. The country has 7,500 km of coastline, beautiful four weathers, 73 per cent of the Himalayas, and more, but need help from friends in the travel industry to promote the destination.”
Yogesh Mudras, Managing Director, UBM India while thanking the Ministry of Tourism (MoT), Govt. of India, Country and State Tourism Boards, airlines, DMCs, hotels and the entire gamut of travel, tourism and hospitality suppliers for their continued support and enthusiastic participation at SATTE over the years, said, “SATTE 2017 was one of the most successful trade engagements for us. SATTE has emerged as the subcontinent largest and foremost and the only international travel show that both the exhibitors and buyers from across the world participate to showcase as well as shop for the diverse global travel and tourism products and services in this part of the world. It is growing over the years and has been reaching out to a quality audience in addition to ensuring a good visitor turnout. We look forward to another fruitful year in tourism and we’re certain that SATTE has helped equip our partners address the issues and innovations that are shaping our sector.”
Speaking at the inauguration, Datuk Seri Mohammad Nazri bin Abdul Aziz, Minister of Tourism & Culture, Malaysia said, “I am pleased to see that SATTE has grown from strength to strength over the last two decades. India has long been viewed as a very important market for Malaysia. I always believe that close cultural ties between India and Malaysia with long history and cultural affinity can reach even greater heights through tourism. India is the sixth top tourist generating market for us. And this year we hope to achieve as much as one million arrivals from India. A lofty ambition, but one which is achievable with the full support of our partners here.”
Complementing UBM India, Subhash Goyal, Member, NTAC, said, “SATTE has come a long way. When SATTE was established 24 years ago, its main purpose was to bring India to the world, otherwise we were going to ITB and WTM. It brought buyers and sellers from all over the world and the small Indian tour operators who were not able to afford going to ITB and WTM can have B2B meeting within India. Today, SATTE has come of age. This is the biggest show that is taking place on the Indian subcontinent. We really need to support it. From South Asia and South East Asia, let SATTE be the biggest Asian show,” he urged the industry and stakeholders.
Growing Tourism Market and Popularity of SATTE
As a pre-cursor to the expo, UBM India hosted the SATTE Awards 2017 for the first time. The awards evening was an endeavor to recognize and celebrate the excellence, achievements and innovations of key stakeholders in the Travel and Tourism industry and was based on transparent, authentic and genuine parameters, a philosophy which is imbibed in the values of SATTE. The awards night also included networking opportunities, presentations and other features. The 19 awards covered various segments of the travel and tourism industry including airlines, cruise, tour operators, hotels, destinations, online travel portals, to name just a few. In its first edition, the awards received an overwhelming response from the travel and industry.
The expo saw participation from almost all State Tourism Boards. As far as NTOs are concerned, USA, Mexico, Czech Republic, Spain, Russia, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Israel, Thailand, Indonesia, Macau, Fiji, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, New Zealand, Reunion Island, Turkey and Egypt amongst others have confirmed their participation with Peru, Vietnam and Sharjah joining in for the first time. While Turkey, Dubai, Sri Lanka and Thailand are partner countries, Sharjah is the feature country for SATTE 2017. Similarly, in India, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka are our partner states while Odisha is the Premium Partner State and Jammu & Kashmir is the feature state for this year.
The key sessions at SATTE 2017 covered subjects that encompass new trends and insights pertaining to the sector. The panel discussions included the following topics;
- Responsible Tourism
- Make in India and Tourism
- Talk Show on GST
- Niche Tourism
- Changing trends in marketing strategy of NTOs
- Holiday Packaging
- Startups in Travel Business
SATTE 2017 has worked its way to become a catalyst for the Indian travel and tourism sector with each visitor approaching the expo with high expectancy from the event and its offerings. Visitors at the signature expo witnessed a number of innovative features including a special start-up pavilion that encouraged travel startups, power-packed knowledge forums and conferences, a B2B Scheduler that serves as a business matchmaker, Chai Adda, cultural entertainment acts and Destination Theme Nights, to name a few.
Tatiana is the news co-ordinator for TravelDailyNews Media Network (traveldailynews.gr, traveldailynews.com and traveldailynews.asia). Her role includes to monitor the hundrends of news sources of TravelDailyNews Media Network and skim the most important according to our strategy. She holds a Bachelor degree in Communication & Mass Media from Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens and she has been editor and editor-in-chief in various economic magazines and newspapers.
