Come September, and the travel and tourism industry, especially in India, gets into the convention and conferencing mode. From IATO to TAAI, the industry will unite once again to discuss the best way forward for tourism growth and enhancement. Though industry conventions do try hard to make the annual meets relevant and alive, it seldom meets the purpose to achieve real time change. Discussions and debates get frozen within the air conditioned spaces of a five star set-up and are thawed and revisited once again when the industry meets again.
Having said that, I have been a witness to many such think tanks and though not much comes out of it rather immediately, the industry relentlessly voices its concerns year after year. The team at IATO has been aggressively appealing to the government to look into the concerns of India’s challenging inbound business, aiding and improving infrastructure. This time, South India is gearing up to welcome the IATO convention in Chennai. The members are hoping to showcase the state of Tamil Nadu beyond just temples and they are not banking much on the public sector to convey that. TAAI has also been appealing to its membership to change their business format and embrace the new age technology solutions. This constant persuasion, has given tourism some hope, with certain positive changes over time.
The generation next of the travel trade are doing things differently, looking at niches and newer pockets of selling holidays and experiences with a fresh outlook. The emphasis is clearly shifting towards the experiential rather than the set itineraries. They are also incorporating technology into the business and are taking the rapid change in the approach to business rather differently. From luxurious adventure to education tourism which goes beyond the structured itineraries, we do get to hear some out of the box travel plans. Let’s keep discovering and enjoy reading.
Reema Lokesh
Editor