The Industry's only neutral platform bringing together leading experts and policy makers from across the travel & tourism eco-system; The summit created an ideas-exchange to benefit travel & tourism in India.
Mumbai – Post the success of The India Travel Summit 2016, The Thomas Cook (India) Group hosted its second edition – ‘The India Travel Summit 2017 – The New Age of Travel‘ at Le Meridien, New Delhi.
The India Travel Summit 2017 provided a unique platform for an interesting exchange of ideas benefiting the travel & tourism industry. The format centred around 4 panels of engaging dialogue on highly relevant topics – Easing visa processes by consular representatives, tourism boards discussing the new-age Indian traveller, technology partners and strategists debating on the future of the travel eco-system and senior policy makers deliberating on the Indian tourism story- Incredible India 2.0.
The summit was attended by over 250 senior travel professionals from across the eco-system. The panel discussions were moderated by Mr. Mahesh Iyer, Chief Executive Officer, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd., Mr. Vishal Suri, Managing Director, SOTC Travel, Mr. Amit Madhan, President & Group Head Information Technology & E-Business, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd and Mr. Dipak Deva, Managing Director, Travel Corporation (India) Ltd. Panellists also included senior government officials, ambassadors and consular chiefs, heads of various tourism boards, hotels & airlines as well as C-Suite leaders from strong brands like Facebook, Accenture, Dentsu–Aegis Network, etc.
In his welcome address, Mr. Madhavan Menon – Chairman & Managing Director, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd., said, “The India Travel Summit was conceptualised to offer cutting-edge ideation and dialogue amongst key influencers and decision makers across the travel and tourism eco-system – focussing on both challenges and opportunities for the sector. India’s travel story is one that the world is looking forward to with excitement–a nation that is emerging rapidly as one of the critical markets for tourism – inbound, domestic and outbound.”
Mr. Menon elaborated, “The event has been organised with a strategic aim to provide a common and candid discussion platform for critical stakeholders across the Travel & Tourism industry.”
Mr. Suman Billa, IAS, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, said “For Incredible India 2.0, it’s all about how we are pitching the campaign, how we are going to portray the image of our country and create a mindset among the people that India is a great country to visit. Tourism campaigns should focus on Indian Users and connect it with – Incredible India and Make In India.“
Mr. Michael Hayes, CIU Chief, U.S. Embassy said, “In 2005, there were 400,000 Indians travelling to the US and last year there have been more than one million. Every year this number is growing and we are extremely proud of this growth. We have the interview waiver program and the 10 year multi entry visa that facilitates ease of travel to the US.”
Mr. Milan Hovorka, Ambassador Czech Republic said, “Tourism has helped so many nations share each other’s cultures and business. We have been extremely lucky to have a substantial increase in figures. 65,000 Indian people visited Czech Republic from India in the past few years.“
Mr. Chee Pey Chang, Assistant Chief Executive, International Group- Singapore Tourism Board said, “We have observed a shift in the Indian market – travellers are going beyond check list holidays, they want authentic, deeper and immersive experiences.”
Ms. Bansari Vyas, Business Head – Travel, Banking & Financial Services, Facebook said, “We are increasingly living in a connected world. There’s data to say that 41% in the last 15 years have shifted to work. That impacts travel and mobility. We consume news from international publications more often; this is because of mobile connectivity. Added to that, our shrinking attention span also impacts people’s purchasing decisions. All of this impacts travel.”
Mr. Sanjiv Kapoor, Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer, Vistara said, “For Incredible India 2.0 we need to create a safe environment where anyone can roam around freely anywhere in India, without any hesitation. I think until we fix up all these problems, it’s going to be difficult for us to leave a good impression amongst the Tourists coming to India. We need to create an environment in India where people feel safe and comfortable”.
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.
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