Event Round Up

Towards a shared vision

Despite all the talk of booming outbound segment and international travel, a nation's travel industry survives only because of its domestic travellers. ADTOI underlined the importance of having a shared vision and working together at its annual conference. By Anupama Sushil

The annual conference of the Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI) gave the necessary start to the year with its theme of having a shared vision and a focus on various segments of the tourism industry working together. Public-private partnership is a successful example of having a common goal. The hotels and airlines that are industries in themselves and share commonality with the travel fraternity also need to revise their relationship with the industry and work towards forging fresh relationships between them. The new trends that have come into practice with the rise of the online travel agents are adding to the existing challenges for the traditional players who still practice and survive because of personalised service.

The states of Madhya Pradesh and Kerala presented their views at the inaugural session. According to Ashwani Lohani, MD, Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation, crimes against tourists and the way they are presented by the media did raise a concern among the travel fraternity which complained of media showing only the negative aspect of it. Mandatory registration for operators and abolishment of interstate tax were other issues that were brought up.

Secretary tourism, ministry of tourism, Government of India, S Banerjee, stated how the ministry supports and encourages marketing initiatives of different tourism products and how ADTOI can promote different regions.

Also speaking at the conference was Muzaffar Hussain Baig, Tourism Minister, Jammu & Kashmir, who stated that tourism is a cultural and intellectual exercise. He also stressed upon the importance of awareness campaigns, importance of PPP, developing newer products for tourism like the India-Pakistan tourism circuit and rural tourism. He appealed to the travel fraternity to lay emphasis on domestic tourists.

Session I: How to augment the share of domestic tourism?

Since domestic tourism accounts for the highest numbers, it becomes important to pay attention to it and create a healthy atmosphere for its further growth. Domestically, it sometimes gets difficult to count numbers as the tourist movement is beyond one's imagination, be it interstate, intrastate, and inter-region or intra-region. It is domestic tourism that decides the worth of a destination and is important to develop in the best possible manner, said Lohani.

Adding to this, Farooque Shah, secretary tourism, Jammu & Kashmir, said that only when we develop the domestic tourism sites according to international standards will they ensure that more and more people visit them. It is important to do so as more and more travellers have begun to venture abroad, especially the younger population that needs to realise the potential of domestic tourism.

It was also felt during the convention that the potential of religious tourism in India was not getting fully exploited. It was felt that religious tourism now needs to move beyond the same old sites and go deeper into smaller areas. Hence, recognising the strength of domestic tourism to change the economics of tourism is important.

Session II: Airline-tour operator partnerships

Being an essential part of the chain, the airlines and tour operators have significantly started to cash in on the opportunities. This has been assisted by an increase in the flight frequencies and GDS support. J B Singh, director and CEO of Worldspan, said that while tourist traffic is growing 100 times over, it makes sense to create the next generation technology that would help seamless transfer of data and make the whole experience interactive. Adoption of technology that encourages change is most necessary now, he further added. Both the tour operators and the airlines have to work hand in hand to serve maximum numbers in the most efficient manner. But to sustain this it is necessary to have a reduction in rates, at least on the tourist sector flights said Kamal Hingorani, VP (Marketing & Planning), SpiceJet.

Session III: Complimenting, not competing

It has been well-recognised that media plays a very important role, especially among the trade. It was therefore important to distinguish between business media and general media. The former is an essential partner for the trade, said Sanjay Lakhera of Country Inn. Only when there is close coordination in terms of working, sharing and analysiing of issues using media can there be a chance for each player to grow in a healthy manner.