With an intention of educating the buyers from central India about the various travel and tourism offerings, Global Panorama Showcase, conceptualised by Jagsons Travels has come a long way. This year was the second edition of the event and third as an event organiser for the company By Kahini Chakraborty
With the theme, ‘Explore the heart of India’, this year’s Global Panorama Showcase, the brainchild initiative of Jagsons Travels, was successful in filling the gap of building awareness of the buyers from central India on various tourism destination products- inbound and outbound that could be offered to their potential traveller from the Tier II and Tier III markets. The event held at Hotel Centre Point, Ramdaspeth, Nagpur from February 8-10, 2015 was inaugurated by Jasbir Singh Anand, founder chairman, Jagsons Travels along with Gulshanpal Singh Anand, chairman, Jagsons Travels; Sunil Kumar R, CEO, TravelWorld, and president, TAAI; Dhananjay S Saliankar, regional director, Starwood Sales Organisation South Asia; Vasudha Sondhi, managing director, Outbound Marketing; Sanjay Sondhi, CEO, OM Tourism; Anil Parashar, president & CEO, InterGlobe Technology Quotient; Rajiv Duggal, senior vice president – tourism, hospitality and education, Lavassa Corporation; Harmandeep Singh Anand, managing director, Jagsons Travels and honorary secretary general, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI); and Rishiraj Singh Anand, joint managing director, Jagsons Travels.
At the opening ceremony, Harmandeep Singh Anand informed that the event received confirmed table bookings from 120 exhibitors, while more than 350 buyers were expected to attend the event. Jagsons Travels hosted close to 120 buyers from central India and the remaining from other parts of India. Tourism Malaysia was the major event partner for GPS 2015 and Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) was the state partner. About 12-14 tourism boards participated at GPS 2015 including: Malaysia, Spain, Thailand, Bulgaria, Canada, Indonesia, Mauritius, Seychelles, Oman, New Zealand, Germany, Philippines, Swiss and many more. “The main focus of GPS is to educate and empower the agents from Tier II and Tier III cities of central India and give them a larger exposure to available products and services to cater to their clientele in a much professional and organised manner. The workshops are interactive and allow participants to ask questions relating to destinations, products and visas that will help them in creating itineraries and explaining to their customers better,” he said.
Reminiscing about the conception of the event, he added, “GPS is a project that was conceptualised in the year 2007, and it took almost six years for Jagsons Travels to organise the event which became a success in 2013. It was thereafter that it got rechristened as ‘Showcase Jagsons’. Last year GPS did a total of Rs 1.5 crore business revenue and in this year’s event we are expecting the do Rs five crore business revenue.”
Unique aspect
Apart from the destinations, the event also had local and international hotel chains, airlines, DMCs, cruise liners, travel insurance, visa service providers and other ancillary service providers. The unique aspect of GPS 2015 was that the first day was open for B2C interactions, while the second and third day had B2B events. The company had tied-up with York University in Canada as their global education partner. Fansonstands.com was the sporting events partner. The technology partners included InterGlobe Technology Quotient and Travelport and global destination partners were Outbound Marketing and OM Tourism. Trawell Tag was the travel assistance partner. Madhu Saliankar of EntReps Solutions was the marketing partner for the event. The company also organised post familiarisation tours to Pench National Park and stay at Tathastu, was the post tour partner for the media and Interserve Group.
Speaking about the potential growth of the Tier II and Tier III cities, Sondhi said, “As part of our 10th year celebrations of the company we decided to target Tier II and Tier III cities. Our observation during the workshops that we held in about 30 cities, was that travel agents did not have information on certain destinations. Hence it became important to educate these agents so that they have a plan to market tourism products, expectations, etc. The travel industry could see a double digit growth and even though there are behavioural changes among travellers, luxury travel has seen a huge buying traction in the market.”
From a hotel’s perspective, entering into tertiary markets is also something that has been gaining momentum. “We are looking at bringing in our new brands in the secondary market. We have seen marginal growth in Nagpur for our brand, as there is still a need to educate the agents.” While on an optimistic note, Kumar, opined that trends will change in the the next five years. The economy class option is still more preferred than a first class option. Hence I feel that there are products still meant for the masses. Having said that there is huge potential in smaller cities and there is a need for luxurious properties. Supporting the opinion, Duggal also said that Tier II and Tier III cities have been supplying increasing number of travellers since the last 10 years.
Gaining momentum
According to Gulshanpal Singh Anand, earlier for anything or event related to the travel industry they had to depend on the bigger cities, but now the company is providing a platform through GPS 2015 for the travel fraternity to showcase the products and get educated with the latest trends and products in the market. “Our main motivation is to equip and educate the agents locally so that they are at par with their counterparts from metros and other major cities. Ever since we started organising GPS we have tried to bring all the best of suppliers in the travel fraternity under one roof. Besides this, now with the growing middle-class spending capacity and interest to visit new destination, Nagpur as a market has a lot of potential for growth,” he mentioned.
On the challenges of the travel industry, Rishiraj Singh Anand opined, “With more number of travel agents entering into the market, the environment has become quite competitive and hence for survival in the market, it is imperative that travel agents focus on upgrading their knowledge on various products and skills, as well as look at providing ancillary services while keeping a close watch on the changing dynamic trends in the market.”
Participating for the first time at GPS, Ibrahim Eraky, sales and marketing director, Lady Egypt Tours said, “Seeing the potential in the Nagpur market we are participating in the event for the first time. We are looking at attracting more local travel agents and educating them about the destination and building business relationships.” While Swati Chopra, manager, Orange Tourism Solutions opined that the industry is transforming and going online for their travel bookings. “We are wholesalers and we are giving it our best shot to tap agents from smaller cities and luckily we are seeing an increasing interest in knowing more about the destinations we handle to do business,” she added.
Giving another perspective, Anju Tandon, CEO, Ark Travels stressed that inspirational travel is growing. “For Star Cruises, agents in the metro cities are aware about the products, while here there is a need to educate the agents to enable them to sell better. We have high expectation from smaller cities,” replied Tandon.
As the name of the game is growth, with metros being saturated, smaller cities have gained prominence for the potential that it holds. Shawn Mendes, director strategic planning and new product development, Discover the World said, “We have to keep a huge gestation period when we enter smaller cities. In the last two years, even the Tier II cities have tapped the online social media platform and a lot of the bookings are through the internet. The agents here are making the effort to reach out and learn more.”