Silver Jubilee of SATTE 2018

It is a pleasure to attend a platform such as SATTE that brings the entire industry together. 2017 has been amazing for India from the tourism perspective, with a growth of 15.2% in terms of foreign tourist arrivals. When it comes to domestic tourism, we had 1.8 billion travels (not travelers) in the country.  In three years from now, we aim to double the amount of international tourists arrival in India, increase the contribution of the tourism industry to a GDP of 10% from the current 6.8% and double the employment contribution. Honestly, tourism is the best weapon against terrorism anywhere in the world, apart from its other obvious advantages.

Globally, we crossed the mark of 1.3 billion travellers this year. The growth rate to be expected in the upcoming years for the travel and tourism industry is around 7%. India is one of the leading countries with almost 16% contribution to the industry. I appreciate SATTE’s contribution over the years in getting the industry together, and also its campaign I-Pledge, that promotes the cause of sustainable tourism, thereby giving us the opportunity to pledge for and promote sustainable tourism and create a better world to live in.

Statistics show that more tourists visit Singapore & Malaysia but the truth is that India is a long haul destination. 97.2% people come to India by air and the average stay is 14-20 days -- one of the highest duration for travelers around the world. Therefore, India’s earnings from tourists are much greater than many of the other countries. Of course, it is up to us to make this duration extremely attractive and rich in experiences. And that’s where an exhibition like SATTE comes to the fore with its reserves of ideas and thought leadership.

 I am proud of my association with SATTE as I remember attending the first edition of the show and learning a lot from it. SATTE taught me sound strategies that helped a lot in conducting business and ensuring maximum customer satisfaction.

 

SATTE 2018 was one of the most successful trade engagements for us. It has carved a unique place as the most comprehensive industry platform in the country and has emerged as the subcontinent’s largest, foremost and the only international travel show wherein both the exhibitors and buyers from across the world participate to showcase as well as shop for diverse global travel & tourism products and services. This year we witnessed a historic growth of 37 % in our unique visitor footfall by putting in our best efforts, making the already favoured show even more promising than the last one.

 

The  recently announced Union Budget 2018 also holds out quite a lot for the proliferating T&T industry and is expected to, on the whole, boost the sector. The Budget seeks to improve what India is already gifted with. Measures such as raising the airport capacity by 5 times under the UDAN scheme, improving rail networks in Mumbai and Bengaluru, addressing the critical air pollution situation in Delhi/NCR, developing and marketing untapped tourist spots will increase India’s attractiveness to tourists within India & abroad. With this, we look forward to another fruitful year in tourism and we’re certain that SATTE has helped equip the industry with solutions and innovations that are shaping our sector.

Israel as a tourism destination has seen record-breaking growth in inbound arrival statistics with over 3.8 million visitors in 2017 marking a growth of 24% over 2016.  From India, we have seen 31.4% growth in arrivals for 2017 over 2016.  One of the major changes in the travel trends we have observed is the increase in travel for adventure tourism and female travellers – both individuals as well as groups. Participating at SATTE has helped us continue our efforts to build on existing relationships as well as create new ones by exposing the attendees to the destination of Israel on a larger scale. SATTE offers exposure to the Tourism board in the Indian market and helps the attending inbound Israeli Trade operators establish new relations with their Indian counterparts which should result in an increase in multiple travel segments from India to Israel.

SATTE has always been the most important event of the year, for the simple reason that it is The India show. The show gives us a lot of benefit, mileage and new networking opportunities with partners overseas. Additionally, it also gives us the opportunity to meet our current customers who are already transacting with us. DMC is something we were focusing on in a very big way. In addition, for the first time DTCL has come under our responsibility.

SATTE 2018 enabled us and about 30 of our Singapore travel trade stakeholders to interact with participants to exchange views and ideas to better engage the Indian audiences. Our theme for 2018 is ‘With Passion, Forging New Possibilities’. SATTE 2018 was the first major travel trade platform which showcased Singapore’s new, unified brand “Passion Made Possible”. Our pavilion showcased the new brand videos and visuals. Visitors interacted with us and our Singapore travel trade stakeholders to better understand how we are presenting Singapore through the voices of Singaporeans and residents. We are taking a bold step by putting forth Singapore’s unique attitude and mind set: a passion-driven, never-settling spirit of determination and enterprise that constantly pursues possibilities and reinvention. SATTE 2018 has helped in strengthening our relationships with the travel trade fraternity.

Domestic Tourism is a focus area for all states as there is tremendous potential for all stakeholders from within India. SATTE 2018 proved to be a great platform for inbound Tourism due to its quality international participation. Hence, whether it is domestic tourism or inbound tourism, SATTE is a great networking platform for us. We have been attending SATTE probably right from its inception. It is a truly an international level event for India. We had a big presence this year at SATTE 2018 and we networked and interacted with new players/stakeholders both from the national and international markets. We launched some interesting and unexplored areas like Birdwatching, Golf Tourism and the exotic Little Rann of Kutch.

While destinations will continue to determine the kind of trips one wants to take, one cannot ignore that ultimately immersive experiences will take precedence over destinations. In the coming year, travellers will seek experiences that are defined by their personality, interests and style, most of which have been evolving over the years but will find a definite pattern as we move towards 2018. We believe that SATTE 2018 reflected these trends. It has always been one of the key exhibitions that Cox & Kings participates in India. We have been participating in SATTE for the last 16 years and have found it a very productive investment. We showcased our brands and introduced interesting itineraries.

There is a dramatic change on the customers’ behaviour and SATTE acts as a critical platform for us to respond to the industry with tailor products. Not only the highlights of the year were presented, at SATTE 2018, audiences also enjoyed the unique experiences that Sands Resorts Macao prepared for the market. Sands Resorts Macao, including flagship The Venetian® Macao and The Parisian Macao, introduced their latest offerings, including The Parisian Macao package and Meetings Beyond Imagination package at SATTE this year.

The global tourism market has experienced continual growth and deepening diversification making it one of the world’s fastest growing economic sectors Tourism encompasses. SATTE has always been an important trade event to build partnerships at the best avenue to promote inbound, outbound and domestic tourism for any tourism board. It is one of the biggest Travel Trade event, which helps in promoting the growth of tourism industry. Taiwan has been a part of SATTE for the last 7 years and we have leveraged it to meet our prospective clients and promote Taiwan at its best. At SATTE 2018, we highlighted our upcoming biggest festival "Taiwan Lantern Festival" which is to be celebrated from 2nd March to 11th March 2018. The Tourism Bureau has been holding this festival for years to attract visitors and raise the international profile of the cultural attractions of Taiwan.

SATTE is a very powerful marketing medium bringing together thousands of International and Domestic buyers and sellers at one place. SATTE is one platform where every professional benefits from networking with industry veterans and collect up-to-date information. Professionals are able to gain an overview of the market and industry – as SATTE brings the whole industry under one platform. Professionals get competitive information about a wide range of products and suppliers in a short space of time. JCK, being as an exhibitor for the first time at SATTE 2018, promoted hot selling products i.e. Air Tickets, Hotel Bookings, Holiday Packages – Dom/INTL, White Labels & API’s, Travel Insurance, Rail Booking, Utilities & Bill Payments, Domestic Money Remittance etc. Our main motto was to display to the industry that www.justclickkaro.com is the fastest growing aggregator in the B2B industry.

The outbound market has shown a robust growth despite setbacks like demonetization and GST. Events like SATTE have played an important role in connecting the trade from tier II and III cities to mainstream by providing them a strong platform to meet suppliers like us and with a more focussed approach towards these cities by SATTE, things will get even better. As we see attendance by Domestic Travel Agents and Tour Operators, we see SATTE as a strong platform for B2B companies like us to showcase our products, meet our prospective clients and to network and build stronger relations with our existing clients who visit us at the exhibition. We are positive for even a better year on year growth going forward.

SATTE is a unique opportunity for Melia Hotels International to meet, network, negotiate and conduct business with a good number of potential travel professionals pan India. It is one of the biggest platforms to increase visibility of our product within the travel agents circles across India. Our objective behind participating at SATTE 2018 was to increase awareness of Melia Hotels international amongst the Indian travel agents and share the attractive offers for MICE, wedding groups, leisure travellers, etc.  With the YOY increase of the number of Indian travellers to Spain (about 10% increase from 2015 to 2016) which itself proves the increasing interest of Indian travellers for exploring Spanish culture and destinations. This year, we launched a new ‘MELIA PRO platform’, which becomes the umbrella for the four b2b segments we work with: Companies, Travel Agencies, wholesalers and Meeting Planners.

SATTE has always been one of our key trade events that we look forward too. We have been participating at SATTE since 2012 and it provides opportunity to showcase our destination strengths and update our partners and the travel trade on new offerings that appeal to the Indian audience. Over the last few years, we have observed that Indian travellers seek more experiential travel and offbeat activities. They have moved away from fixed itineraries and product based offers from destinations. Hong Kong as a destination has a myriad of experiences to suit every kind of traveller; looking out to immerse in local culture, dining, city nightlife, quaint neighbourhood, green outdoors and cruising. We participated at SATTE with an intent to create successful business meeting and networking opportunities for both HK stakeholders and India trade to successfully educate the Indian trade about the new offerings, experiences and services. Our focus for the next 3 years is to steadily increase the number of Indian leisure travellers coming to Hong Kong, especially young travellers aged 25-45 years. The India travel trade is an important partner for us and will help us achieve our goals.

It is our 7th year at SATTE and our presence in SATTE every year has been crucial for the growth of tourism in Bhutan and expanding arrivals from India. Today, India stands as the top market in terms of arrival for Bhutan. This platform is a good opportunity to meet the Indian buyers and also the international buyers and strengthen our existing business networks, developed new connections and introduced our new products. Apart from this, it was also a good opportunity to learn and experience new trends in the market and update ourselves with new developments in the industry. The Royal Government of Bhutan and the Government of India agreed to celebrate 50 years of diplomatic relations this year. The two countries have always shared greater bond and good harmony; we hope these new developments would bring even more outbound travellers from both the countries visiting the other country.

We were delighted to be a part of India’s largest B2B travel road show. Our team focused on addressing various travel agents at the event. It was a platform for us to showcase Thomas Cook as a tour operator, a strong promoter of the cruise business and also to increase our network of PSA and GCP network. Since we have launched our latest products for the season, we showcased our range of cruise and land holiday products. We pride ourselves with the fact that we have a bandwidth to cater to all segments of travel – from Ultra Luxury to Value Budget travellers; which we showcased at the exhibition.

SATTE is an important platform for our sellers from Thailand who look forward to interact and do business with Indian clients. We have around 50 sellers who join TAT booth every year. Apart from this, our senior officials such as Senior Board committee members of TAT, Deputy Governor for International Marketing Asia and South Pacific- Mr. Santi Chudintra and Executive Director for Asian, South Asia & South Pacific- Dr.Walailuck Noipayak also visited SATTE this year. In the past few years, we have noticed that there is an increase in travel to Thailand for weddings, thus making Thailand number one destination for Indian weddings and celebrations.

SATTE is one of the most significant travel trade show happening in India. It provides the right platform to the OTA’s, hoteliers, Agents, DMC’s to showcase and market their product to meaningful visitors coming from across the globe. We have always received a very favourable response from the travel trade and the stall remained packed with our travel partners, this year as well. There was continuous excitement on our stand for our travel partners and we lived up to the same expectations this year as well. Travel Designer Group which has different brands under its umbrella, showcased the innovative features and technological supremacy of RezLive.com to the travel trade at SATTE.

As SATTE is the largest tourism exhibition in India, promotion through this exhibition is important to give reliable and updated tourism information about Indonesia to our Indian customers. We reintroduced Bali as a favourite, value for money and safe destinations for Indians. The recent volcanic activities didn't affect major tourism activities in Bali. In addition, currently Indonesia is taking more and more aggressive initiatives to promote its 10 new destinations beyond Bali often dubbed as the 10 new Balis. Indian market itself is very important for Indonesia. Looking at recent immigration statistics in 2017, from the period of January to November we experienced huge increase of Indians coming to Indonesia of almost 30 percent in comparison to 2016's figure. This year, we launched the ‘Visit Wonderful Indonesia 2018’ campaign where we offered hot deals for tour packages in 2018. 2018 itself is a very special year for Indonesia where we will host 2018 Asian Games in the city of Jakarta and Palembang and 2018 IMF-WB Annual Meeting in Bali.

SATTE, being the foremost travel expo in India, gave MTPA and its stakeholders an opportunity to showcase the destination and the products offered by the national airline, various hotels, inbound operators and activity companies. Indian outbound tourism is growing at a very healthy rate and more tourist are looking for customised/experiential voyages rather than run off the mill packages. This includes adventure activities, sports such as golf and destination weddings. In addition, the networking opportunities at this event helped the Mauritian stakeholders to forge new alliances with the Indian tour operators, event managers and wedding planners.