EVENTS
TRADE PLUS FBOs In Favour Of Health Ministry’s Proposal To Revamp The Food Regulatory Structure
The 14th edition of Thailand Travel Mart Plus 2015 successfully concluded, with 3 days of business discussions, familiarisation tours and educational forums designed to raise the profile of the “2015 Discover Thainess” brand campaign, create more networking opportunities for small and medium sized enterprises, promote new provincial and regional destinations, and encouraging interest in nichemarket products. Organised by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), the country's largest B2B travel trade show, known officially as the TTM Plus Amazing Gateway to the Greater Mekong Subregion, also saw the launch of a new strategy to better position Thailand as a Muslim Friendly Destination. An Overview of the eventThe event was attended by 378 buyers from 52 countries (+10% or 35 buyers) over TTM 2014. Of these 172 (45.5%) were first-timers and 206 (54.5%) were repeaters. Most of the buyers were from
China (41), the United Kingdom (27), Australia (21) and India (17). Buyers from China showed special interest in joining the TTM Plus every year. Overall, buyers showed keen interest in the new niche-market products; such as, weddings and honeymoons and health and wellness. They also saw great opportunity for developing packages linking Thailand and its neighbours in the Greater Mekong Subregion. The number of sellers totalled 372 (-7%, or 27 sellers) over TTM+ 2014. A breakdown by category showed that 73% of the s e l l e rs we re f ro m hotels and resorts and 7% tour operators / travel agents. A total of 80 sellers were firsttime participants, and 292 repeaters. The survey showed 41% of the sellers reporting higher sales projections
this year over last year as a result of their participation in the TTM+. Fourteen exhibitors were from the GMS countries. The four pre-TTM+ tour programmes provided an opportunity for 49 buyers and media to survey new tourism products and services in Bangkok a n d t h e surrounding areas. The most popular routes were the “Experience the Slow Life of Old B a n g k o k ” , “Experience Street Food Tour” and the B a n g ko k N i g h t Ride (Biking Tour). This reflected the growing demand
Safari Plus INTALK with Mr. Amnuay Thiamkeerakul, Executive Director, ASEAN, South Asia & South Pacific Region TAT Q1) India has always been a key market for Thailand Tourism, what are your plans to attract second time visitors? And tell us more about the u n t o u c h e d destinations of Thailand? India is a key Market for us and to target second time visitors we are promoting “Discover Thainess” making country to stand out as offering unique experience to all visitors who visit Thailand. With this in mind, TAT is encouraging tourists to experience the distinct entity and
characteristic of the Thai people and the nation’s cultural assets or “Thainess” which can be characterised in seven unique aspects - 1. Thai Food; 2. Thai Arts; 3. The Thai Way of Life; 4. Thai Wellness; 5. Thai Festivals; 6. Thai Wisdom; 7. Thai Fun. We are also promoting the North East of Thailand which is still undiscovered and has many things to offer second time visitors. Q2) Big fat Indian wedding, MICE, LEISURE, FIT and GIT, NICHE market all these segments were in your top priority list to target. What next? Wellness and Medical Tourism by Natural Therapy are the main streams
we look forward to promote in India. We are introducing more luxury hotels to promote Wellness and Medicial Tourism and target the upcoming segment of India market specially tier II cities. Q3) How you market yourself as a Family Destination? And steps taken to attract single women traveller? To attract Family, we have historical sites which can be explored by bi-cycles apart from that we have numerous man-made Theme park for the family traveller. The good c o n n e c t i v i t y, o u r h o s p i t a l i t y, infrastructure are some of our USP’s to attract traveller to visit us again and again. Our brand ambassador Ms Mary Kom will be promoting Thailand as family destination and single women traveller.
for experiential tourism and was entirely in line with the theme of TTM+, “Experience with Us.” TAT Acting Governor Mrs. Juthaporn Rerngronasa said, “This year's TTM+ was carefully designed and structured to send a message of confidence in the fullscale recovery of Thai tourism after the downturn of 2014 and further energise the 2015 Discover Thainess campaign going into the second half of the year. We believe this strategy has worked well. The response from buyers, sellers and media has been more than satisfactory.” She said that the keen interest by buyers from world over will ensure that Thailand meets its quantitative visitor arrivals targets in the years to come. Hence, this will require TAT to shift its attention towards better nationwide
dispersal of tourists and growing their average length of stay and daily expenditure. Both these latter strategies are being met by the launch of new promotions focussing on the “12 Hidden Gems” and strategies directed at nichemarket segments; such as, culinary tourism, health and wellness, weddings and honeymoons, sports tourism, marine tourism, green tourism, etc. Mrs. Juthaporn said, “The sellers also indicated that the amount of time slotted for the business appointments should be longer than 15 minutes. Both buyers and sellers also mentioned the need for a free Wi-Fi Internet service. All this will certainly be taken into consideration for the TTM+ 2016.” “We would like to thank the entire Thai tourism industry as well as our airline partners and all the public and private sector organisations for their invaluable support and cooperation in helping to advance the cause of Thailand's largest foreign-exchange earning service industry,” Mrs. Juthaporn said.
The Hotel and Restaurant Association Western India (HRAWI) has backed the Health Ministry’s proposal to the Union Cabinet for revamping the food regulatory structure in the country. In a recent communication, the association has asked its members to be fully cooperative with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and expedite completing the process of seeking conversions and renewals for existing license or registration. The health Ministry has sent a Rs 1,700crore proposal to the Union Cabinet for a major overhaul of the food regulatory structure. The objectives of the proposal are to strengthen the states’ inspection a p p a rat u s , b o l ste r t h e FS SA I ’s manpower, give the FSSAI more powers and ensure that the authority has access to state-of-the-art technology. “The HRAWI has always been a proactive institution when it comes to adopting safety and hygiene standards in the industry. We have always worked as a partner with the government in the interest of hospitality and tourism in the country. There is a big need to reform the regulatory structure because inconsistencies in food safety and standards are serious issues and if not addressed, will negatively affect the image of tourism in the long run. We fully back the Health Ministries’ proposal and wish to assert its importance to the Union Cabinet,” says Mr. Bharat Malkani, President, HRAWI. The FSSAI has assigned August 4th, 2015 as the deadline for obtaining Food Business Operator (FBO)’s license for all food businesses, from roadside eateries to restaurants. The deadline is applicable for FBOs seeking conversions and renewals for existing license or registration under a repealed order.
IATO CONVENTION IATO announced the dates of its 31st Annual Convention from 20 - 23 August, 2015 at The Grand Bhagwati Palace, Indore, Madhya Pradesh. The theme for this year's Convention is 'Tourism -We will change the Indian Economy’. Mr. Pronab Sarkar, Hony Secretary, IATO have been appointed as Convention Chairman whereas Mr. Ravi Gosain, Joint Secretary, IATO, and Mr. Sanjeev Joshi, Executive Committee Member, IATO, have been appointed as Co-Chairmen. Giving for details of the convention Mr. Subhash Goyal, President IATO said, “Chief Minister and Tourism Minister of Madhya Pradesh have agreed to bless the convention with their presence. Also the Chief Minister has assured that he will personally invite the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for the inaugural
function on 20 August, 2015 as Chief Guest. Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Union Minister of State (IC) for Tourism and Culture and Minister of State for Civil Aviation has also assured his full support. There will be lot of activities like Travel Mart, Post Tours, Spouse Tours, IATO Run for Responsible Tourism, Silent Auction, Cultural Evenings etc. Special hotel rates are being negotiated and are in the process of finalization.” IATO Annual Convention is one of the most important events on the Indian travel calendar. It attracts delegates not only from directly involved in handling tourists, but also brings in a strong participation from the various State Governments, as well as numerous senior dignitaries from the political and administrative arms of central and state
governm ents. Accordin g to Mr. Goyal, “India has got much potential for tourism and IATO being one of the apex organisation and since a major amount of the foreign earnings are done by our members , its our responsibility to create awareness and help market the Indian states and provide a platform for better interaction between the states and the operators.” Mr. Goyal also stated “The tour operators should be a par with physical exporters in terms of exemption from service tax and therefore there will be a session about the implications of "Taxation Policies". Other sessions would focus on social media marketing & technological advancements beneficial to the tour operators.”
Promises To Be A Bigger Show With New Entrants IT&CMA 2015 will be held from 29 September to 1 October 2015 at the B a n g ko k C o nve nt i o n C e nt re at CentralWorld. Berlin Tourismus & Kongress GmbH and Dubai Business Events have taken their first foray into the Asia-Pacific MICE market with their participation at IT&CMA 2015. Ralf Ostendorf, Director Market Management of Berlin Tourismus & Ko n g re s s G m b H ex p l a i n e d t h e motivation behind exhibiting at IT&CMA 2015 for the first time, “Our first experience with IT&CM Events was at IT&CM China earlier in Shanghai this year, and it proved to be a successful show for us. We are looking forward to the same success at IT&CMA 2015, as we see a lot of potential for Berlin as a MICE destination in Asia.”
He continued, “visitBerlin has intensified marketing activities in Asia for the past years to develop new incoming markets for tourism to Berlin. The city is not just a leading tourism destination, but is also one of the leading destinations worldwide in the MICE business. We believe that IT&CMA is a well-positioned platform for us to learn more about the MICE industry in Asia-Pacific and nurture our popularity in the region.” Dubai Business Events' Senior Manager – Sales and Convention Services, Karina Lance, concurred with the value of IT&CMA, “The Asia-Pacific market represents 30% on the generated MICE leads for Dubai. This is a growing market, benefitting from the growing economics that various Asian countries have been experiencing. Exhibiting at IT&CMA enables us to engage with buyers, especially those from Asia, through the
online appointment system and dedicated targeted events.” Eager to leverage on the opportunity to exclusively engage some 150 quality attending corporate travel buyers from across Asia-Pacific, Hotel Reservation Service (HRS), Europe’s leading hotel portal for business and private travellers has come on board as a CTW Asia-Pacific 2015 silver CTW Asia-Pacific’s dedication and track record of delivering this niche buying segment cements HRS’ confidence in the event as a powerful platform that provides outreach to the corporate buying segment. Todd Arthur, Managing Director of HRS explained, “CTW Asia-Pacific offers a unique opportunity to increase our brand awareness, and the ability to directly engage 150 top corporate professionals to showcase our best-in-class hotel solutions through our sponsorship.”
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