eyefortravel - Travel Distribution India '06

‘It is impossible to ignore online travel space in India’

Simon Carkeek Event Director Eyefortravel

Simon Carkeek, event director for Eyefortravel, has been responsible for bringing Travel Distribution India 2006 to India. He speaks to Hazel Jain about the idea behind the forthcoming event and his expectations from it

The obvious question - it's the first time you have chosen India as venue for Travel Distribution. Why India?

As an organisation, we focus on new developments in the way companies sell travel, and the way travellers buy their flights, hotels rooms and holidays. It's impossible to ignore what is happening in this space in India at the moment. The country has the world's fastest growing online travel market and once I had spoken to contacts from India, I knew that there was scope for a conference on this topic.

The phenomenon of online travel has just happened in India. How long till the market matures?

The growth of this market really depends on the growth of e-commerce and computer use in India in general. As I understand it, there is a fast-growing middle class here where families have a PC in their homes as well as disposable income to travel more. Therefore, the growth will be rapid. New online travel companies seem to be emerging almost on a weekly basis, as do new low-cost airlines. These companies rely on the internet to market and sell their products. What's more, leading international companies such as Travelocity and Expedia are also looking to move into India this year which will again push the market forward.

However, I do think that issues such as payment infrastructure and security need to be looked at. If people are unable to or uncomfortable with booking and paying for travel online, this could quickly put the brakes on growth.

What are your expectations from this event?

The event has already surpassed our expectations in terms of the seniority and number of attendees who have already signed up. The vast majority of people at the forefront of online travel developments in India will be at the event and I truly feel it will be a key forum to discuss the current market and how it will develop in the future.

I also believe that the event will provide a great networking opportunity, bringing together Indian and international companies to form distribution partnerships needed to succeed in this vast untapped market. I've no doubt that this inaugural event will be a success, and I am already planning our 2007 event in my mind!

What was the thought process behind incorporating the session on airlines?

The rise in low-cost air travel has been the catalyst for the growth in online travel in all the markets we work in. This started with Southwest Airlines in the US and was replicated by easyJet and Ryanair in Europe. India is no exception. Booking air tickets online gets consumers used to using this medium to buy all types of travel. In fact the interesting thing about India is that it wasn't the airlines, but IRCTC that pioneered this process. That is why I also invited Amitabh Pandey, its IT director, to speak at the event.

Will you make the event a mainstay in India?

We certainly hope to. Our events in the US and Europe are going into their tenth years next year so we know this topic and format has staying power.

Are you looking at dedicated events for GDS and travel retail portals separately in India in the future?

To be honest we don't really run dedicated events for specific sectors of the travel industry as this actually goes against the aim of our conferences to be forums for all sectors to come together and discuss distribution issues. What is more likely is that we run topic-based events such as revenue management and pricing or sales and marketing. This is what we have done in other regions and these events have become successful in their own right.

What kind of follow up do you plan to do after the event?

We will of course contact all stakeholders (speakers, attendees, sponsors) to get their feedback on the event. We do this for all our conferences so that we can build and improve on them in the following year. We'll also be looking for a venue for the 2007 event.