The 32nd Annual Convention of IATO will be held in Chennai from September 18-21, 2016, at ITC Grand Chola Chennai. While announcing the decision of the executive committee, Pronab Sarkar president, Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) said, “We were planning to have our convention in Chennai for last couple of years as IATO never had its annual convention in Tamil Nadu earlier. However, this year, it is going to become a dream come true. From the very beginning, we focused to have our convention in Chennai only. The stupendous success of the pervious convention has raised the expectations of the members and sponsors. More than 1200 delegates are expected for three day event and the IATO convention is eagerly awaited by all. Members look for an enchanting destination. Here Chennai fits in very well as this will be first IATO Convention in Chennai.”
Rajeev Kohli, senior vice president, and chairman of the convention, mentioned that industry is going through a bad time. He said, “Our main focus would be to have deliberations as to how we can change this scenario and bring back tourism on track for which interesting business sessions are being planned.”
Rajiv Mehra, vice president and co-chairman of the convention indicated that Tamil Nadu offers A to Z of tourism be it beaches, pilgrimage, hill station, wildlife, shopping, ayurvenda and medical tourism. He stated, “These are our main consideration to have our convention in Tamil Nadu and see the products. Even as per our policy we always try to have convention in different state and try to boost tourism to the state basing our venue of the convention.
“Concurrently with our convention, there will be Indian Travel Mart. It is an opportunity for exhibitors to showcase exciting and diverse range of destinations, conference and incentive venues. This will facilitate discerning buyers from the travel trade and corporate world to reinforce their choice for business travel, incentives etc,” said Lally Mathews, honorary secretary, IATO.
