March 16, 2017 TnH Global 0

UBM India’s SATTE entered its 24th year in the Capital with difference

India’s Flagship Travel & Tourism Expo launched its first ever SATTE Awards from this year as its prelude. The 24th year of SATTE was quite different and impressive for the participants as well as the visitors.

The 24th edition of SATTE, South Asia’s leading travel trade show began with a great difference this year. Every year it is inaugurated at Pragati Maidan but this year, the inauguration was held at the Le Meridien, New Delhi followed by the launch of SATTE Awards 2017. This year, SATTE was represented by over 870 exhibitors and participants from over 40 countries and 28 Indian states and was held from 15th – 17th February 2017 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.

The Chief Guest, Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Union Minister of State for Tourism & Culture (Independent Charge) and Civil Aviation, Govt. of India along with Vinod Zutshi, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, Subash Goyal, Chairman, Stic Travel and Member, National Tourism Advisory Council, Dato Seri Mohamed Nazri, Minister of Tourism and Culture, Malaysia and Yogesh Mudras, MD, UBM India inaugurated the show amidst an industry august gathering from the travel and trade fraternity as well as media.

SATTE provides a comprehensive platform to domestic and international buyers and professionals from across the travel, tourism and hospitality industry along with National and State Tourism Boards (NTOs and STOs) to congregate and conduct business, arrive at solution-driven innovations to counteract economic uncertainties, and promote inbound, outbound and domestic tourism in India. This most favoured industry platform is also well-supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India and ‘Make in India’ initiative of the Govt. of India.

Spread over 3 days, SATTE 2017 witnessed several exciting partnerships and announcements which promised new trends in the industry. Visitors at the signature expo witnessed a number of features including a special start-up pavilion that will encourage travel start ups and their innovative ideas, power packed knowledge forums and conferences, innovative features such as B2B Scheduler which is a business matchmaker, Chai Adda, cultural entertainment acts, Destination Theme Nights etc.

The expo saw participation from almost every State Tourism Boards. As far as NTOs are concerned, USA, Mexico, Czech Republic, Spain, Russia, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Israel,Thailand, Indonesia, Macau, Fiji, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, New Zealand, Reunion Island, Turkey and Egypt were there with Peru, Vietnam and Sharjah joined for the first time ever. While Turkey, Dubai, Sri Lanka and Thailand are partner countries, Sharjah was the feature country for SATTE 2017. Similarly, in India, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka were partner states whereas Odisha was the Premium Partner State and Jammu & Kashmir is the feature state for this year.

SATTE 2017 also saw an active participation from hospitality players such as, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, ITDC, Sterling Resorts, Dubai Parks & Resorts, Movenpick Hotel & Resorts, Minor Hotels, Melia Hotels International, ONYX Hospitality Group, Ramee Group of Hotels, Shangri –La Hotels and Resorts, Venetian Cotai amongst others. Apart from NTOs and State Tourism Boards, travel & hospitality companies, airlines, cruise liners, DMCs, OTAs and tourism products also joined the event. SATTE worked closely with renowned travel associations, organisations and media houses, keeping visitors and buyers at the show well-informed on trends and updates of the industry.

As a pre-cursor to the expo, UBM India hosted the SATTE Awards 2017 for the first time. The awards was an endeavour to recognize and celebrate the excellence, achievements and innovations of key stakeholders in the Travel and Tourism industry and were based on transparent, authentic and genuine parameters, a philosophy which is imbibed in the values of SATTE. The awards night also includes networking opportunities, presentations along with other features. The 19 award covered various segments of the travel and tourism industry including airlines, cruise, tour operators, hotels, destinations, online travel portals, to name just a few. In its first edition, the Awards has received an overwhelming response from the travel and industry.

This year, SATTE continued to receive support of international organisations and Indian travel trade associations such as World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), Indian Convention Promotion Bureau (ICPB),Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE), SKAL International, United Federation of Travel Agents Associations (UFTAA), Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO), Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI), Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI), Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI), Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) and IATA Agents Association of India (IAAI), to name a few.

Most importantly, in an extremely significant tie up, SKAL, a professional organization of international tourism leaders, announced its association with UBM India to host the 78th edition of the SKAL World Congress, for the first time in India, at Hyderabad from October 5-8, 2017.

South Asia’s largest and most reputed tourism show witnessed a ribbon cutting ceremony at the venue to begin the proceedings formally with Chief Guest Kapil Mishra — Minister for Water, Tourism, Culture, Arts and Language doing the honors along with Michael Duck, Executive Vice President, UBM Asia, and Yogesh Mudras, MD, UBM India, in the presence of a number of key dignitaries.

On the occasion, Ankush Nijhawan, CEO of Travel Boutique Online said that SATTE is a flagship travel and tourism exhibition in India and we have one of the biggest exhibitors here with many of our brands exhibiting here. On the other hand, Isra Stapanaseth, Director of Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), New Delhi said that SATTE 2017 like every year promises to be a great platform for us and our private sector from Thailand representing the travel trade and hospitality sectors to meet and interact with the travel trade from across India. We conduct business and interact with a large number of visitors, including International buyers & trade visitors over 3 days under one roof.

While, Prakash Bang, Founder & Executive Chairman of Rooms XML Solutions Limited commented that since we are a 100% B2B Company, SATTE surely gives us an opportunity to meet with new travel agents and also connect with our existing customers from the region. 2017 will be another path-breaking year for us. We will be introducing next generation API with cutting edge features. Two of them are: Under 1-second response and multiple hotel searches in single request. Jaal Shah, Group Managing Director, RezLive.com by Travel Designer Group said SATTE is an Inspiring event that creates new opportunities and brings to reality the scope and future growth of the travel market. It provides the right platform to the OTA’s, hoteliers, Agents, DMC’s to showcase & market their product to meaningful visitors coming from across the globe. Travel Designer Group which has different brands under its umbrella, will be majorly showcasing the Innovative features and technological supremacy of RezLive.com to the travel trade during SATTE, as this year will all together will be a special year for us as RezLive.com is celebrating 10 years of Online Presence.

During the three days event various sessions and panel discussions were held at the conference room regarding ‘Responsible Tourism’, ‘Make in India and Tourism’, ‘Destination Presentation by Vietnam’ and ‘Niche Tourism’. The stalls were very beautiful and destinations were attracting buyers with different