SATTE ITB 2010
Anyone who is anyone in the travel industry, will know the importance of the ITB, that is held every year in Berlin. This January, the ITB partnered SATTE, a travel event that has a 17 year history in India. With thisassociation, SATTE, which was started as a meeting ground for the inbound segment, is now set to become a namefor buying and selling Indian tourism.
This year, the 6000 square metres of exhibition area in Pragati Maidan Delhi, found a 15% increase in the number of participants. There were 282 hosted buyers from 31 countries, 230 corporate buyers from 16 countries, and 1850 trade visitors .Total visitor count should exceed 9000, along with a seller count of 650 booths comprising over 800 exhibitors, both big and small.
The exhibition was inaugurated by Union Tourism Minister Kumari Selja. The presence of Dr Martin Buck, the Director of the ITB and Ms Jean Rika Francois, who looks after the South Asian Markets for the ITB, was proof of the importance that ITB attached to the event.
Among the international participants, Abu Dhabi and Oman made their debut in an Indian travel mart for the first time, underlining the interest in the outbound trade from India.
The fact that the Asian Games is round the corner, could also explain the heightened interest in this event. Industry observers would note that with the H1N1 pandemic and the meltdown, the inflow of international tourists had declined by 3.3% to 5.11 million in 2009. However, in December 2009, about 646,000 tourists visited India, compared to 534,000 in the corresponding month in 2008. and 597,000 for the same month in 2007, signaling that
the worst was over.
The Government also announced a few initiatives that would have improved sentiment within the trade. The“Visa on Arrival” scheme introduced recently for Finland, Japan, Luxemburg, New Zealand and Singapore would have been welcomed news as also the assurance by the Tourism Secretary that a Tourist Security Organization would be set up comprising of ex-servicemen in the light of harassment of tourists that were reported from many centres.
With the Times Fair in Mumbai and the SATTE ITB in Delhi the tourism industry is seeing a brisk start to the year 2010.
Ends
Vinod Natesan
