The Italian State Tourist Board celebrated the 17th year of its presence in India by hosting the roadshow, entitled ‘Framing Italy Luxuriously’ which was held across three cities – New Delhi on February 7 at the ITC Maurya, Mumbai on February 9 at the Trident, Nariman Point, and Kolkata on February 12 at the Oberoi Grand. The welcome address was made by Salvatore Ianniello, representative, ENIT- Italian State Tourist Board who highlighted ENIT activities run in India in the last few years and also discussed the ENIT plan for 2018.
While in New Delhi, Alessandro De Masi, counsellor-head of Economic, Commercial & Cultural Department in his key note address, stressed on the importance of bilateral relations and the visa procedure plan for the coming season. Stefania Costanza, honourable consul general of Italy in Mumbai spoke about the strong connections between India and Italy and the efforts of the Consulate to promote tourism along with ENIT. In Kolkata, Damiano Francovigh, honourable consul general of Italy illustrated the plan to increase the tourist flow to Italy by introducing tourist friendly visa procedures.
The seminars in all three cities continued with adhoc presentations of various Italian Institutions such as the Italian Trade Agency and Alitalia along with Indian Travel Associations including TAAI- Travel Agents Federation of India and TAFI – Travel Agents Federation of India who threw light on the importance of the luxury segment from both the Indian and the Italian perspective.
The crowd grooved to the tunes of Bollywood as Ivano Fucci – founder, ODU Movies presented a beautiful video showcasing Italy from the eyes of Indian Cinema. The video illustrated through interviews of renowned producers talking about the beautiful locations in Italy and the role ENIT played in the past, in this specific sector.
The Italian experience in all three cities continued with an Italian buffet lunch. Following this was the B2B workshop where the Indian travel agents and tour operators had the opportunity of interacting with their Italian counterparts. All three events received an overwhelming response and were attended by close to 700 tour operators, agents and members. ENIT is more than pleased about the positive response received from the Indian travel agents/operators based in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata during the presentations and looks forward to an amazing season ahead.