Event: IITM Travel & Tourism Exhibition

Venue: Apparel House, Gurgaon

Date: 4th September, 2015

Attendee: Faculty

This write-up will explore the various facets which were observed at the IITM Travel and Tourism Exhibition as held on September 4th. Number of exhibitors were present ranging from state boards to private organizations, tourism aggregators and individuals hotels or chains.

List of Major Exibitors

This can further be divided into categories:

·         State tourism boards

·         Private organizations

·         Service providers

·         Tour operators

·         Hotel chains

State Tourism Boards

·         West Bengal (title sponsor)

·         Andhra Pradesh

·         Madhya Pradesh

·         Karnataka

·         Maharashtra

·         Goa

·         Jharkhand

·         Chhattisgarh

·         Kerala

·         Gujarat

Private Organizations / industry Aggregators

·         Oyo Rooms

·         Woo Stays

Service Providers

·         Europe Incoming

·         Puma Software

·         Lalit Art Media

·         Kidzania

Tour Operators

·         Tibet Tours & Travels

·         Cox & Kings

·         Udaan

·         Mego Travels

Hotel Chains

·         Atithi Palace

·         The Grand

Major Talking Points

Such exhibitions are mainly held with a view to provide tourism consulting to the visitors as they seek information. Such events also help in networking between different ends of the industry spectrum. Following are some of the key points which emerged out of the exhibition:

·         

·      West Bengal was the major sponsor of the exhibition with the biggest and central stall

·     A number of states’ pavilions were designed different from other years; instead of the personnel representing the state, the arena simply provided an aggregation for different tour operators representing their individual niches.

·         Madhya Pradesh was one state which went with the conventional form where the personnel were representing the state per se; the others simply had different round tables within the stalls, and each of these round tables was anchored by individual tour operators or hoteliers.

·      The earthquake ravaged country of Nepal was represented by a tour operator and it was heartening to hear them tell about the recovery of tourism in that country.

 ·      Oyo Rooms was among the prominent private organizations represented; Woo Stays is a similar organization except that they cater to more high end properties; in this way both Oyo and Woo have developed this business innovation which has disrupted the marketplace for traditional hotel chains. 

·      Specific tourism service providers were also present; Puma software provides accounting software tailor made for the requirements of the tourism industry; Lalit art media provides design and graphics support thus generating numerous tourism jobs.