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Greater Noida’s India Expo Centre to host SATTE’s 27th edition from Jan 8
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Tuesday, 17 December, 2019, 16 : 00 PM [IST]
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Our Bureau, New Delhi
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The 27th edition of South Asia Travel and Tourism Exchange (SATTE), organised by Informa Markets in India (formerly UBM India), India's leading B2B (business-to-business) exhibition organiser, will take place at the India Expo Centre, Greater Noida, Delhi – NCR, between January 8 and 10, 2020.
Over 1,050 exhibitors and buyers and travel professionals from over 50 countries and 104 Indian cities, are set to visit the show, which continues to provide a comprehensive platform to the professionals from all segments of the travel, tourism and hospitality industry from across the globe.
The show equally offers platforms to players of the inbound, domestic and outbound markets.
With a focus on building new business partnerships and announcements, the three-day expo promises to deliver and discuss current trends in the industry.
Keeping up with its annual promise, the event will host an exciting line-up of conferences to enlighten the industry by addressing the challenges and opportunities that India tourism offers.
It continues to receive active support from various Indian and international travel and trade associations, wedding planners, corporate travel decision makers and investors, amongst others.
While Indonesia is the premium partner country for next year’s event, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa and Sri Lanka are partner countries. Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Goa are confirmed as partner states, and Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and a few more set to join the league.
With an exciting line-up of conferences, SATTE 2020 will host a series of sessions and workshops, presented and lead by high-profile speakers and industry stalwarts, covering topics from all aspects of the industry.
Extending their support to the event, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) representatives will present the first panel discussion on Global Economic Scenario and Tourism Trends on Day 1.
The second panel discussion, Adventure Tourism: Unlocking New Avenues, will focus on major challenges in adventure tourism. Day 2 of the SATTE 2020 Conference will again be a Corporate Travel Day, powered by the Corporate Travel Community (CTC) that is set to organise two powerful sessions on Airline Programmes + NDC Education Forum and The Accommodation Outlook and Technology Innovations Education Forum.
Apart from these, the Network of India MICE Agents (NIMA) will organise a set of five sessions and two workshops on MICE tourism.
SATTE has grown hand-in-hand with the consistent support of the Ministry of Tourism, as well as all state tourism ministries/boards and the Indian travel and tourism fraternity in totality.
The continued support of international organisations/associations and Indian travel trade associations, such as World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO), the Travel Agents’ Association of India (TAAI), the Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI), the Travel Agents’ Federation of India (TAFI), the IATA Agents’ Association of India (IAAI), the India Convention Promotion Bureau (ICPB), the Universal Federation of Travel Agents’ Association (UFTAA), the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) and the Enterprising Travel Agents’ Association (ETAA), to name a few, have helped to bolster the efforts of SATTE.
Speaking on the expectations from SATTE 2020, Yogesh Mudras, managing director, Informa Markets in India, said, “Every year, we put in our best efforts to make SATTE bigger, and this year, we aim to reach new milestones with the continued support from our exhibitors and partner countries and states.”
“Growing at a rapid pace, in 2018, the travel and tourism sector’s contribution to the GDP (gross domestic product) was Rs 16.91 lakh crore ($240 billion), and is predicted to grow at an annual rate of 6.9 per cent to Rs 32.05 lakh crore by 2028,” he added.
“The government of India has also introduced a Tax Refund for Tourists (TRT) to encourage tourists to spend more in India and boost the country’s tourism. India offers geographical diversity, and has a diverse portfolio of niche tourism products, cruise adventures, eco-tourism and rural and religious tourism bringing a multitude of foreign tourists to the country. Our domestic, inbound and outbound tourism have been recording a substantial growth in the last few years,” Mudras said.
“The government has also launched marketing and branding initiatives, while also taking the efforts to boost investment in the tourism sector. The Incredible India 2.0 campaign saw the launch of its mobile app, that would assist a traveller in India and showcase the experiences of travelling in the country,” he added.
Mudras said, “With such incredible growth in the sector, SATTE is extremely important for all those associated with the travel and tourism and hospitality industry. In fact, the trend of destination weddings has been well captured by our exhibitors this year, and thus, SATTE 2020 is a holistic expo that maps and analyses such trends, along with forecasting developments in the sectors and providing viable solutions to help business thrive in the ever-evolving industry,” stated Mudras.
Informa Markets will also be hosting the fourth edition of the SATTE Awards, powered by T3, to recognise and celebrate the excellence, triumphs and innovations of key stakeholders in the travel and tourism industry, which is based on genuine and authentic parameters, innovation and excellence in the travel and tourism industry, a philosophy well-imbibed in the values of SATTE.
Speaking about Thailand as a trending tourist spot, Isra Stapanaseth, director, Tourism Authority of Thailand, said, “Thailand received a total of 38.27 million tourists in 2018 worldwide, which is up by seven per cent, and for 2019, we are forecasting 39.8 million foreign tourists.”
“From India, we have received 1.59 million Indian tourists in 2018, and in 2019, from January to October, we received 1.63 million tourists. The trend of increasing foreign and Indian tourists is due to Thailand’s visa on arrival facilities and normal visas granted by the Royal Thai Embassy and Thai consulates in various cities,” he added.
Stapanaseth said, “The application of free visa on arrival for Indians has resulted in a 25 per cent growth in Indian tourists to Thailand, which is a remarkable increase from 2018. As a result of the simple and cost-effective visa process, travellers are able to plan last-minute, hassle-free holidays due to VOA facility and e-visa provided to visit Thailand.”
“The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), together with around 80 Thai exhibitors, will participate as partner country in the South Asia Travel and Tourism Exchange 2020 (SATTE 2020), to be held in New Delhi,” he added.
“This will be the largest contingent of Thai exhibitors at SATTE, a significant increase over the total of 70 in SATTE 2019. This year marks the 12th year of Thailand's presence at SATTE,” stated Stapanaseth.
“Like every year, TAT hopes to introduce more and more hotels, airlines, DMCs and attractions in Thailand to the Indian travel trade. Our campaign, Open to the New Shades, is still going strong,” he added.
Stapanaseth said, “During SATTE 2020, TAT will be launching Amazing Thailand Destination Plus, which is combining main cities to emerging and secondary cities. This year at SATTE, we will display an umbrella painting at our booth and Thai boxing shows.”
Speaking about industry trends, Varun Chadha, chief executive officer, Tirun Travel Marketing, said, “India has a huge population with an emerging middle class who are looking for novel vacation options, apart from the traditional fly land tour packages.”
“Today, there is growing awareness and attraction for cruising among the Indian consumers. Family-oriented and innovative cruise lines like ours can fuel and satisfy their demand for cruising, as our brand appeals to Indians who tend to travel in multi-generational family groups, corporate groups as well as wedding groups, which is an upcoming popular trend,” he added.
“At SATTE 2020, we are looking at growing our network, building relationships with our existing partners, finding collaborators and gaining an overall sense of the market,” Chadha said.
He added, “Since we are also the India Representative of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd we plan to showcase our entire portfolio of cruise lines, right from the contemporary brand Royal Caribbean International to the modern luxury Celebrity Cruises to Boutique Azamara Club and ultra-luxury Silversea at SATTE 2020.”
Danish Fairoz, general manager, 24x7 Rooms.com, said, “The current global slowdown has certainly affected the tourism industry as a whole. We noticed that travellers are still travelling however, the ticket value has decreased, so either the duration of the stay or the category of the hotel has gone down.”
“There has been a vacuum created with the exit of key airlines mid of this year and we will need support from the government or private organisations to step up and lift the aviation industry altogether,” he added.
“Being a B2B (business-to-business) wholesaler, our concern of dominance of B2C (business-to-consumer) needs to be addressed as we seek understanding and assistance from the hospitality industry to respect our business module,” Fairoz said.
“Like all the years, we are waiting to meet all our dear partners under one roof during the three days at SATTE 2020, and we are excited to welcome prospective partners who will join hands with us after the meeting,” he added.
“SATTE has never disappointed us in terms of business expansion opportunities. We have been participating in the expo for a few years now, and one thing that has always been there with SATTE is success and an encouraging response from trade,” Fairoz said.
“This year at SATTE 2020, we will be announcing a new branch that we recently opened in December 2019 in the Congo, along with our two new DMC offices that will be established in South Africa and Tunisia through SATTE,” he added.
Naresh Rawal, vice-president, sales and marketing, India and South Asia, Genting Cruise Lines (Dream Cruises), said, “The Indian outbound travel market is growing at an exponential rate, outbound travellers from Tier-II and III cities are on a rise.”
“Though most international destinations are highly connected to all Tier-I and II markets in India, an increase in connectivity to other cities would help persuade aspiring outbound travellers,” he added.
“A growing number of Indian travellers are looking for personalised experiences, be it for leisure or MICE travel. We have also noticed that the number of Indian travellers opening up to the idea of cruise holidays has been growing year on year,” Rawal said.
“These travellers are looking for experiential destinations as they aim to create memorable experiences. Personalisation of experiences is undergoing a significant evolution in the industry and travel partners are customiaing offerings at every stage: from research, to bookings, to itineraries,” he added.
“Dream Cruises is bringing an exclusive piece of global excellence to India at SATTE 2020. This year’s big announcement is the launch of our first Global Class vessel to join the Dream Cruises fleet which has been recently christened as Global Dream,” Rawal said.
He added, “Global Dream is slated to be one of the most technologically-advanced cruising vessels in the world. We encourage our partners to come and witness the experience at our booth during SATTE 2020.”
“SATTE has always lived up to our expectations when it comes to networking and meeting our industry partners. We are very excited to be a part of this year’s exhibition, wherein we believe we will be meeting newer entrants and new potential partners to help us grow further in the Indian market,” Rawal said.
Kandarp Amin, head, sales and marketing, Marasa Africa Kenya, said, “Marasa Africa has been closely associated with SATTE for over nine years and we are proud of this partnership.”
He added, “As hoteliers, we look forward to the 2020 edition to meet quality and potential buyers, converse with attendees at the exhibition, through which we receive direct enquiries which is an impressive result. We are certain that SATTE will continue to grow, especially over the next three years and sustain their position as the No. 1 hospitality trade show in India.”
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