| TRAVEL BUZZ |
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| By SHELDON SANTWAN |
The sun may have set on the WTTC India
Initiative as our own cover story in the following pages will
outline, but this issue marks a new sunrise for Express Travel
& Tourism. Over the last couple of years, we have set
out with an intention of changing the perception of travel
publishing within the country, while positioning ourselves
as a one-stop forum for facilitating business development,
fostering growth, promoting interaction and professionalism
in the Indian travel trade. The fact that our fortnightly
publication will now switch over to a monthly frequency from
this issue onwards, is just another manifestation of our intentions
as we continue to move ever closer to our goals. A simple
cost-cutting exercise, you may ask? Certainly not. In fact,
this couldn’t be further from the truth. The ongoing
process of research and customer feedback which we initiated
at the time of relaunch of Express Travel & Tourism (April-May
2002) has clearly indicated the industry requirement and has
been instrumental in necessitating this change of frequency.
While many felt that a fortnightly just did not give them
enough time to take things in and to do justice to the reading
material available, there was an even larger and stronger
school of thought that reckoned that there was not enough
news of consequence in this industry to warrant a quality
publication. This paucity of quality content on a fortnightly
basis is probably the root cause for travel publications indulging
in shallow news reporting and blatant PR which the Indian
travel trade seems to have finally recognised as inconsequential.
Instead of the normal news pieces and press releases that
do the rounds (which are common knowledge anyway), the industry
clamour was for in-depth and incisive researched articles
that analysed industry issues threadbare in an effort to arrive
at concrete solutions.
The New
Avataar
Express Travel & Tourism will therefore don a new `avataar’
as a monthly news analyses magazine on the Indian travel business.
No longer will we be purely news-based, but now move into
the knowledge space where research, analysis and quality industry
feedback will form the three pillars of our revamped content
structure. While news briefs and trade roundups will still
keep the industry abreast with the latest, it is the presentation
of the holistic picture that we are striving for in our effort
to take command of the knowledge space in the Indian travel
and tourism industry. I’m sure you will find that each
of our sections are more sharply focussed towards this end
and we will continue to fine-tune over the next couple of
months, based on valuable feedback from our readers.
Navigator
Series
The Navigator Series, which launched last year as Navigator
2003 at TAAI in Kochi was just our first step into the knowledge
space and the indication of things to come. The overwhelming
industry response to this Tourism Strategy Manual - the first
of its kind in the country - has prompted us to further consolidate
our presence in this segment and we are now committed to launching
several more such manuals in the near future. Navigator 2004
will of course be launched once again at TAAI, this year with
even more on offer than the last edition.
Galileo-Express
Travel & Tourism Awards
As most of you will be well aware by now, Express Travel &
Tourism has also announced the first-ever travel trade business
awards in India in partnership with Galileo India. While these
awards will be committed to recognising excellence and professionalism
in the travel and hospitality sectors, it is also an effort
on our part to bring recognition and inspire greater levels
of proficiency among travel service professionals and corporations.
In accordance with our commitment
to knowledge and business ethics, these awards will be independently
researched and audited by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, one of
the world’s premier financial services and consulting
companies today.
World Travel
India 2004
World Travel India (WTI) 2004 to be held in Mumbai, February
5-8, in the Bandra-Kurla business district is yet another
first for the Indian travel industry. While events and exhibitions
are a logical extension of trade publishing, WTI is our effort
to establish a truly global travel event in India with an
international cutting-edge conference and seminar programme.
A joint initiative of Express Travel & Tourism and Kinex
Log - a UK-based exhibition company - WTI 2004 is focussed
at once again establishing fruitful business partnerships
to catalyse tourism growth in India and create a global platform
wherein WTI can firmly put India on the travel calendar as
a landmark event in the region for the international travel
fraternity and related service providers.
Industry
Support
It is really heartening to note that right through our growth
and transition phase, Express Travel & Tourism has enjoyed
the unstinted support of all the trade and industry associations,
as well as the ministry of tourism. During our WTI 2004 launch
functions recently in New Delhi and Mumbai, we had the entire
trade, ministry at Centre and state levels and all the trade
associations coming out in vocal support of our efforts, and
this has gone a long way in boosting our confidence. An even
more significant development is that Express Travel &
Tourism has been appointed by TAAI as the ‘media partner’
for their annual convention in Malaysia this year in September
(other publications will only play supporting roles). Navigator
2004 will also be part of the official delegate kit - a true
pointer to the fact that taking command of the knowledge space
is the way to go. All these developments have certainly provided
us with the impetus to boldly venture into many more new areas
in the future as we continue to evolve into an integrated
travel communications provider.
- Editor
ehc@vsnl.com
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