The Inauguration

The recently concluded TravelWorld 2005, was in all essence a celebration of ballooning inbound and outbound segment added to an aviation sector poised on the cusp of quantum growth. In addition to this, it identified striking trends pertinent to the future of the industry, reports Bhisham Mansukhani

To draw a mental image of what TravelWorld 2005 was like, picture a circus-like shamiana, populated by colourful national and international destination showcases, consecutive panel discussions featuring stalwarts of the tourism and aviation's segments, peppered with a bevy of international corporate and leisure travel buyers. In short, a potpourri with all the right ingredients.

L-R: Sheldon Santwan, editor, Hospitality & Travel Publications, Indian Express Group, Alex Kyriakidis, global managing partner - Travel, Hospitality and Leisure, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Dr Harsh Varma, chief of technical co-operation, WTO, Dr Wilfred De Souza, former deputy chief minister and tourism minister, Goa, N P Singh, director corporate, Indian Express Group, John Koldowski, director - strategic intelligence centre, PATA Bangkok, Balbir Mayal, president, TAAI, Zakkir Ahmed, president, TAFI, Jyoti Kapur, president, ADTOI and Gour Kanjilal, regional director (West & Central India), Indiatourism, Mumbai

South East Asia's biggest and India's only businesses to business (B2B) travel trade event TravelWorld 2005 debuted in Mumbai. Spread over four days the event featured 45 exhibiting participants, including international and state tourism boards and accompanying delegates, hotel chains and standalones. Dr Wilfred De Souza, former deputy chief minister and tourism minister, Goa inaugurated it and the opening session witnessed speakers from the industry at both a national and international level. Some of their insightful presentations on global tourism trends were the highlights of the inauguration. Associations such as TAAI, TAFI, ADTOI were well presented by their respective presidents. Most speakers pointed out that albeit tourism is a fragile industry is resilient enough to bounce back in the near future. Dr Harsh Varma, chief of technical co-operation, WTO, informed "In 2003, the Asia-Pacific tourist arrivals were 130 million, which shot up to 153 million in 2004. Although SARS did affect tourism, the industry recuperated fast. 2004 also saw a staggering growth of 10 per cent in overall international tourism arrival."

Celebrating One Big Holiday

In the in the last two years, travel and tourism has convincingly shed its persistent bogey of war, disease, natural calamity and the constant geo-political tension and terrorism to register a consistent upward trend. Taken into the context of India as an emerging tourism economy, the trend has only been further reaffirmed. India's outbound traffic almost touched six million in 2004, up from 4.8 million in 2003. A growth in demand for overseas travel is expected to grow by 8.8 per cent per annum, in real terms, between 2004 and 2014. Worldwide, travel now sits alongside technology in the realm of infinite earning capacity. Worldwide, the industry generated US$ 5,490.4 billion of economic activity, accounted for 10.4 per cent of total GDP, 214,697,000 jobs or 8.1 per cent of total employment and 12.2 per cent of total exports.

The stage seems set for one long party but caution is not exactly lost on the industry's deacons who shoulder the responsibility to lead the way forward. Some of them gathered together for the CEO's Conclave on February 28, 2005 at Travel World. A high-powered panel moderated by Pradip Madhavji, chairman elect, SAARC Chamber Tourism Council, deliberated the international and Indian tourism's purple patch as well the potential threats.

Madhavji started first with expressing his concern over the forecast of one billion tourists, which would consequently raise several issues about how the social infrastructure, airports and hotels will be able to service this quantum increase. "The implications still remain in the domain of speculation. Further, there are serious issues of security. How early will passengers have to check in at the airports? How can tourism continue to flourish amid so many uncertain challenges?" Madhavji wondered.

Elaborating on the tourism potential, John Koldowski, director - strategic intelligence centre, PATA Bangkok, looked at things from a more positive perspective, mentioned that the room occupancy rates in Mumbai are in fact outperforming the Asian average. They have touched a RevPAR of Rs 5000. Between 2004 and 2007, we expect a further 13 and 14 per cent growth per annum only in India. The country definitely needs to consider how it is going to raise the supporting infrastructure, airline seat capacity as well as hotel rooms. While Alex Kyriakidis, global managing partner - Travel, Hospitality and Leisure, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu felt that India was in real danger of losing its potential of future growth numbers to upcoming destinations that were spending monumental amount of funds on infrastructural development geared specifically towards the development of tourism. On a lighter note, Imtiaz Muqbil, executive editor, TravelNewsWire, Bangkok, spoke on the 'essential early warning system' as he put it, in the context of the potential threats and challenges that can spoil international tourism's party.

After a good dose on tourism and its growth in the global scenario, the Medical Tourism seminar on India's relatively developing segment has been anointed by industry pundits as the next 'best' thing to happen to tourism. There is however plenty of challenges to be met along the roadmap towards critical mass for this segment. According to McKinsey reports, India is poised to generate business worth US$ 2.2 billion by 2010, but is yet to receive proper accreditation and a standardisation system in place. Also, there is a dearth of synergies between hospitals and tour operators to promote this sector. These were some of the findings at the session titled, 'Medical Tourism: Opportunities and Challenges'. All panellists agreed that a tripartite synergy between hospitals, tour operators and respective state governments was an imperative in order to harness.

The Aviation Summit 2005 saw the heavyweights of the Indian aviation industry converge at a three-course business session, that shed light on new age paradigms of the sector as well as outlined a SWOT analysis to cope with challenges that lay ahead. The high-power panel of the first session of the Aviation Summit made the picture clear - fleet expansion, network augmentation and addition of a new brand will be the answer to take on increased competition for the national carriers in a liberalised market place. The verdict on the birth and subsequent maturity of low cost carriers (LCC) still has its jury out on a limb in the second session. While it is quite clear that for air travel in this country to become as commonplace a culture as is the case in the US, LCCs have to thrive and consolidate, their roadmap appears fraught with a disparing ignorance from the government in so much as creating a parrallel cost regime which recognises the minimal framework these airlines operate within. And the last but interesting session, The session on distribution costs - an international perspective turned out to be a commission cut debate. The key question pondered was whether distribution costs could potentially redefine the role of a travel agent? And the verdict? Airlines need travel agents because still, at least in India, 95 per cent of the business is generated from travel agents.

All in all, the TravelWorld 2005 paved the way for travel and tourism both in the Indian and global scenario.

ExpressWorld 2005 - The perfect host	Medical Tourism: Bridging the gap	CEO Conclave: Creating mutually beneficial synergies for tourism

Ajay Prasad, Secretary Civil Aviation, Government of India opens the Avition Summit 2005	Dr Wilfred De Souza, former deputy chief minister and tourism minister, Goa lights the inaugural lamp at Kerala Tourism stall	Low Cost Carriers Ready For Take-Off in Session 2 of the Aviation Summit 2005

(With inputs from Anindita Chattopadhyay, Jyoti Koul & Neeti Chopra, New Delhi and Joy Roy Choudhury, Kolkata)