Indigenous Giants Capture The Honours

Bhisham Mansukhani reports on the third edition of the Galileo Express Travel & Tourism Awards

The third edition of the Galileo Express Travel & Tourism Awards which unfolded at the Hilton Towers, Mumbai on December 7, 2005, saw the cream of the hospitality and travel industry converge, network and applaud the winners they chose to vote for. The Galileo Express Travel & Tourism Awards, which was held in Mumbai for the first time, was organised by the Indian Express Business Publications Division.

Even before the event kicked off, the august gathering of industry leaders was a tribute in itself. Cyrus Guzder, chairman and managing director of AFL Private Limited, Inder Sharma, chairman, Select Hotels and Bhagwan Kanuga of Bathija Travels, all industry stalwarts, exchanged notes while Tej Sahni, MD, Vista Learning Hub and Jehangir Katgara, director, TCI, took the opportunity to talk about the journey thus far. John Kuruvilla, chief revenue officer and head commercial, Air Deccan, networked vigorously with a community which has recognised the significance of the low cost domestic aviation phenomenon.

Manoharan, Director, Tourism Malaysia receives the award for the Best International Tourism Board	Manisha Sharma Shastri, Director sales - western region, Carlson Hospitality India accepts the Best Franchise Hotel Company award from Shekar Gupta
Vinod Zutshi, MD, Rajasthan Tourism accepts the award for Best Marketing and Visual Campaign from Dalip Verma, MD, Tata AIG General Insurance	Himmat Anand, COO (India & South Asia) SITA, receives the award for the Best Inbound Tour Operator

After some conjecture, the event took off with Indian Express Newspapers editor-in-chief and CEO, Shekhar Gupta delivering the keynote address in which he highlighted the aviation and hospitality boom as well as the infrastructure crisis, picking the instance of Mumbai which he felt was reaching an inflexion point. Gupta paid rich tribute to the Indian travel trade saying "nothing represents India's tourism story better than the trade, which is not fazed by incoming international competition, going on to grow successful indigenous brands".

Interglobe Enterprises MD, Rahul Bhatia, also addressed the gathering, again celebrating the promising future in store for the industry. He averred, "Indian travel and tourism is on the cusp of a major growth trajectory and the effective realisation of the opportunity needs to be shouldered by the government." P R Shrinivas, senior manager of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, explained the method behind the processes followed to arrive at the nominees and the entire polling performance. Over 200 trade members had been polled to select the winners. Shrinivas highlighted the new category introduced in hotel category, that of Heritage Properties.

Praveen Gandhi, CEO India, Carlson Wagonlit Travels receives the Best Business Travel Operator award	Sheldon Santwan, Editor - Hospitality and Travel publications, holds out the relaunched issue of the Express TravelWorld magazine
John Kuruvilla, CFO, Air Deccan collects the Editor’s Choice Award on behalf of Capt G R Gopinath	Deepa Misra Harris, VP-Marketing, Taj Hotels Resorts & Palaces collects the award for the Best Premier Hotel Brand

First on the honours list, taking the field for Best Premier Hotel brand was the Taj. On hand to receive the award was Deepa Misra Harris, vice president, marketing, The India Hotels Company Ltd. She underlined the various criteria that she felt Taj had scored over its competition such as brand equity and occupancy. Not to be outdone, The Oberoi Hotels received the award in the category of First-Class Brand for Trident. Rattan Keswani, senior VP, The Oberoi Hotels & Resorts received the award on behalf of the company, saying, "Customers are the winning force in this industry. The only way we can retain this leadership is to give value for money to our customers."

Symbolic of the international trend of hotel franchise that subsequently came home to India, a prolific international brand - Carlson Hospitality - won the award for Best Franchise Hotel company, that too for the second time in running. Manisha Sharma, director sales for western region, Carlson Hospitality India, said, "Winning the award for the second time helps us believe that the strategies we have implored for the Indian market are winning strategies. And if we continue in this manner, we will certainly engrave the standards and services that we have to offer as Carlson in the Indian market."

E K Bharat Bhushan, Principal Secretary, Kerala Tourism receives the award for Best State Tourism Board	Gaurang Shetty,VP-Marketing, Jet Airways collects the award for the Best Domestic Airline category from Interglobe Enterprises MD, Rahul Bhatia
Rattan Keswani, Senior VP, Oberoi Hotels & Resorts receives the award for the Best First-Class Hotel Brand for Trident	Inder Sharma, Chairman of Select Holiday Resorts receives the Lifetime Achievement Award

The newly instituted category of Heritage Hotels was awarded to Welcomgroup. Rakesh Mathur, president of WelcomHeritage, spoke to feBusiness Traveller on his reaction to winning the award. He said that he would like to include the others in the category as well, such as Neemrana Group of Hotels and HRH who had driven the initiative to make heritage tourism a segment in itself. "It feels great to be finally acknowledged, especially given the fact that the heritage segment was completely ignored. This recognition is an acknowledgement to all those involved. This segment has to be nurtured otherwise we are not going to get anywhere, and this award is a timely recognition of heritage and tourism," Mathur added.

Infusing some humour into his acceptance speech for winning the Best State Tourism Board award, E K Bharat Bhushan, principal secretary of Kerala Tourism said he was a little worried to admit that he was from the government, given the criticism doled out to the powers-that-be. He also paid tribute to the entrepreneurs who had driven the growth of Kerala tourism.

Other recipients included Malaysia for the best international tourism board, Jet Airways for the Best Domestic Airline, Air India for the Best WestBound Airline from India. "Through the Galileo Express Travel & Tourism Awards, the Indian Express Group is doing its part to encourage the Indian travel and tourism industry to set new benchmarks and usher heightened levels of professionalism, to truly make India an incredible destination," commented Sheldon Santwan, editor, Hospitality and Travel publications.

While SITA Incoming won the award for the Best Inbound Tour Operator for the third year in a row, Carlson Wagonlit bagged the Best Business Travel Operator and SOTC the Best Outbound Tour Operator. Cox & Kings won the Best Domestic Tour Operator award. Rajasthan Tourism Board (Best Visual Campaign) and Thomas Cook (Best Technology) were among the other winners.

Ravi Shankar, Senior Manager - Leisure Travel Department, Thomas Cook receives the award for the Best Technology Programme from Raja Natesan, CEO, Galileo India	Nadarajah Prabaharan, Regional Manager (Sri Lanka, Maldives & India), SriLankan Airlines receives the award for the Best East Bound Airline from India
Karan Anand, Director, Corporate Office, Cox & Kings India and Kavita Bhalla, VP-Marketing & Incentives, Cox & Kings receive the award for the Best Domestic Tour Operator	Zubin Karkaria, CEO & MD of Kuoni India receives the award for the Best Outbound Tour Operator
Rakesh Mathur, President, WelcomHeritage receives the award for the Best Heritage Hotel Group	S Punhani, Director - Finance, Air India accepts the award for the Best West Bound Airline from India
Sivamani and Louis Banks doing their thing

Rahul Bhatia stated, "We at Galileo feel that we have a responsibility in setting standards that the industry should aspire for." He could not have put it better as the industry reciprocated with a similar view. As Himmat Anand, COO, SITA Incoming that won the best inbound tour operator, put it, "We are proud to have won the award for the third year in succession."

Tourism Malaysia, director Manoharan, who made it two out of three for the best international tourism board award, said the award signified how the travel trade had received Malaysia and hoped to maintain the position of leadership in future. Percussionist Sivamani and keyboard whiz, Louis Banks provided entertainment to what was a memorable evening.