TravelWorld

Business Unbounded

India's biggest business to business trade show for the travel industry, TravelWorld 2005 saw deliberations which led to new insights about the travel scene in India, writes Bhisham Mansukhani

Try picturing a circus-like shamiana, populated by colourful showcases of different parts of India and the world, all forming a potpourri under single roof. Then picture consecutive panel discussions featuring some of the tourism and aviation's heavyweights. That's TravelWorld 2005 for you. The unique business to business travel trade event (B2B), India's only and South East Asia's biggest, was spread over four days in MMRDA grounds in Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai and included exhibitors from diverse fields within the industry, including international and state tourism boards, hotel chains, standalone hotels, etc. It was hosted by Express Travel & Tourism, India's leading travel business magazine, and part of the Business Publications Division (BPD) of the Indian Express Group

Key business sessions focused on aviation and international tourism trends of which India is now an integral part. TravelWorld also integrated two of India's most promising, upcoming segments in the inbound segment with a dedicated Medical Tourism Pavilion and a concurrent business session.

Celebrating One Big Holiday

In the recent past few years, travel and tourism has convincingly shed its persistent bogey of war, disease, natural calamity and the constancy of geo-political tension and terrorism to register a consistent up-trend, especially in the last two years. But will the party continue, is India getting its share of the numbers and what are the concerns arising out of tourism's exponential growth? This was deliberated on by some of the travel industry's biggest names gathered together for the CEO's Conclave held at Travel World. The high-powered panel was moderated by Pradip Madhavji, chairman elect, SAARC Chamber Tourism Council. Madhavji fired the first salvo, expressing concern over the forecast of one billion tourists, which would raise several issues about how the social infrastructure, airports and hotels will be able to service this quantum increase. "The implications still remain in the domain of speculation. Further, there are issues of security. How early will passengers have to check in at the airports? How can tourism continue to flourish amid so many uncertain challenges," Madhavji wondered.

John Koldowski, director - strategic intelligence centre, PATA Bangkok, looked at things from a more positive perspective, saying, "The room occupancy rates in Mumbai are in fact outperforming the Asian average. It has touched a RevPAR of Rs 5,000. For India, between 2004 and 2007, we expect a 13 and 14 per cent growth per annum." He however threw in some caution to balance his opinion, saying, "India needs to consider how it is going to raise the supporting infrastructure, airline seat capacity as well as hotel rooms. India's outbound tourism is growing more than inbound tourism, so it is sitting on a gathering deficit as more Indians are spending their money overseas than foreigners spending their money in India."

Alex Kyriakidis, global managing partner - travel, hospitality and leisure, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu felt India was in real danger of losing its potential of future growth numbers to other destinations that were spending monumental amounts on infrastructure development targeted specifically towards tourism promotion. "India is facing competition from destinations like Dubai, which is spending up to US$ 40 billion on infrastructure development. Qatar has spent US$ 20 billion while China has spent US$ 15 billion on gearing up for the 2008 Olympic Games. There could be a situation wherein a lot of India's future tourism growth could be cannibalised by better placed competition."

Imtiaz Muqbil, executive editor, TravelNewsWire, Bangkok, the final speaker on the panel played the role of the "essential early warning system" in the context of potential threats and challenges that can spoil international tourism's party. "Tourism is faced with questions about its economic and environmental impact," Muqbil stated.

Indian Aviation - On The Growth Path

Aviation is witnessing a sea change in India, as is evident in the slew of policy initiatives and the blooming of the no frills segment. Travel World reigned together some of the industry's finest minds to arrive on a perspective for the uncharted future. Civil aviation minister Praful Patel's reform of domestic aviation has completely changed the picture of aviation in the country. As much as 2,400 additional flights adding up to half a million seats from December to March speaks volume of what liberalisation of the sector can do. Hence the question, what will be the role of national carriers in such a scenario?

The first session of the Aviation Summit made the picture clear - fleet expansion, network augmentation and addition of a new brand will be the answer to take on increased competition. Admitting that there had been a decline in Air-India's (A-I) premium standing, V Thulasidas, chairman cum managing director, A-I argued, "While fleets of other countries grew larger, A-I's network shrank because of aging aircraft and no new acquisitions." However, he was quick to point out that A-I has started bracing up for new challenges in its own way.

Ajay Prasad, secretary, ministry of civil aviation, government of India, said, "The government has in principle taken a decision to invest in airport infrastructure through public-private partnership. In this pattern the private consortium of strategic partners will be holding 74 per cent of the equity, government agencies will hold 26 per cent share, while the private partners will have complete operational freedom to manage and run these airports with best international practices. By August, strategic partners for modernisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports will be finalised." Ashwini Kakkar, chief executive officer and managing director, Thomas Cook India, put things in the tourism perspective, stating that frequency and seat capacity has brought down fares helping the country to save around US$ 10 billion annually.

The verdict on the birth and subsequent maturity of low cost carriers (LCC) still has its jury out. Jason Bitter, COO, Spice Jet said that the development of some of the 400 airports in the country enlisting private participation was a right step in speeding up the evolution of commercial aviation in India and he would be looking to position his airline as an absolute low cost carrier which would give it access to a larger audience - also one that so far has patronised the railways. Meanwhile John Kuruvilla, chief revenue officer, Air Deccan, dispelled any doubts about the success of low cost carriers, quoting statistics of ballooning traffic on routes in Canada and the US when the concept was first introduced there.

Medical Tourism - Health Wealth

According to McKinsey reports, India is poised to generate business worth US$ 2.2 billion by 2010, but is yet to have a standardisation system in place. Also, there is a dearth of synergies between hospitals and tour operators. These were some of the findings at the session titled, Medical Tourism: Opportunities and Challenges. The panelists for the session comprised eminent luminaries such as Anupam Verma, director administration, PD Hinduja National Hospital, Mahendra Jain, commissioner of tourism, government of Karnataka, and Joy Chakraborty, deputy administrator, Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre. All agreed that a tripartite synergy between the hospitals, tour operators and state governments was imperative to harness India's latent medical tourism potential.