India's expectations at ITB Berlin soar

Anupama Sushil - New Delhi

The upcoming ITB Berlin travel trade show, one of the most prestigious in the world, had India as its partner country last year, which helped it gain immense visibility in the European market. Speaking on the benefits that India reaped from the 'partner country' status last year, Leena Nandan, joint secretary, ministry of tourism, said that India had a very visible presence with its print campaign at all strategic locations in the city. This created a lot of potential particularly for the convention market in India. Messe Berlin is also looking at a partnership with the local private parties in order to invest in the convention business and popularise it further. This is in keeping with Messe Berlin's intention of combining leisure and business tourism.

Nandan also revealed that other companies like the KPMG and Ernst & Young were looking at making investments in tourism covering all spheres from tourism to hotels to golf courses to cruises. "We are looking at similar business opportunities once again. India is being recognised by the world and it is her turn to leave everyone enchanted," she exclaims.

However, Rohit Kohli of Creative Travel, remarked that India's status last year did not make much of a difference to the trade. According to him, it was based purely on publicity efforts and visibility, apart from which there was nothing that was really beneficial trade-wise. There were no direct benefits to the company at all, he said.

Rohit Kohli Director of operations, Creative Travel India

Gautam Kaul Senior vice president, Kuoni Destination Management

Ashwini Kakkar Executive vice chairman, Mercury Travels

On the other hand, Gautam Kaul, senior vice president of Kuoni Destination Management, said that India being the partner country last year immensely improved its status in the international market. "People now know about India," he proudly declared adding, "Last year's initiative has definitely paved the way for the future. Therefore, we have very high expectations from the trade show," he added.

Le Passage to India, also one of the significant participants at the fair, stated that the expectations from the event were very high this time. "As the partner country last year, India got a lot of exposure and this year we hope it will result in lucrative business opportunities. But owing to the rising cost of travel to India, it is becoming a little difficult to sell the destination now," said Deepak Bhatnagar, its vice president. "However, it presents a great business opportunity," he added.

Mumbai-based Mercury Travels also hopes to capitalise on the Euro-American audience at ITB Berlin. Ashwini Kakkar, its executive vice chairman, said, "We will be present at ITB Berlin this year with an independent stall to help us in marketing through brochures, CDs and other modes of information dissemination for all Indian-centric products."

Furthermore, with four international offices - New York, Frankfurt, Hamburg and the newly-opened London office - the company is expecting a strong Euro-American presence. "This event is one of the finest networking opportunities as one can meet all the buyers and sellers at one go and we are looking at tying up with more partners," informed Kakkar.