ETW Staff – Mumbai
In an effort to promote India as a global trade destination, the ministry of commerce and industry, Department of Commerce, Government of India will be organising a Global Exhibition for Services of which tourism will be a major part and the Federation of Associations of Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH) has been given the responsibility to organise Global Exhibition on Tourism – India, (GET-India). GET-India will commerce from April 23-25, 2015 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi and will be inaugurated by prime minister Narendra Modi. Inspired by the Government of India’s flagship ‘Make in India’ programme, GET-India hopes to bring together about 250 tour operators and 175 exhibitors. State tourism boards will also be participating at GET-INDIA.
When asked about the differentiating factor of this event over other travel and tourism tradeshows in India, Sarabjit Singh, vice chairman – FAITH, and chairman – Get India Exhibitions, stated, “Tourism tradeshows are basically commercial in nature and do not address tourism related issues. But we at FAITH are positive that the three-day GET-India exhibition through its business-to-business interactions and panel discussions would address issues of this industry and position India as a premium destination again. Furthermore, this is the first time that a prime minister will be inaugurating a tourism tradeshow.”
He added, “The government’s approval of Visa on Arrival has already shown excellent results on inbound tours with tour operators encouraged to include Indian tourism packages in marketing strategies.” The three day tradeshow will witness B2B pre-scheduled meetings, panel discussions on six different topics and a gala dinner on the concluding day.
FAITH came into existence in 2013 as a collective voice for the tourism and hospitality sectors. It has met significant success in convincing the government of the benefits of promoting tourism both as a revenue-earner and in creation of wealth and employment.