TAAI PARTICIPATES IN INDIA MARKET SEMINAR
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VisitBritain, UKinbound and ETOA hosted their India Market Seminar to grow tourism from one of Britain’s fastest growing markets last month at Lord’s. In January this year, European Tour Operators Association (ETOA) signed a MOU with Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) to strengthen tourism ties and to maintain a strong B2B relationship and generate even more tourism business in the years to come.
TAAI was represented in London by Jay Bhatia, Chairman - Tourism Council as a speaker and panellist who stated, “TAAI has accelerated its endeavours to promote Britain and Europe through its members, by identifying special products and addressing the gaps in service levels expected by Indian travellers. ETOA along with VB is also working with TAAI in understanding the nuances of doing business with Indian trade partners and its unique market dynamics.”
Bhatia met with Keith Beecham, acting CEO, VisitBritain and its entire team having fruitful discussions on how TAAI and VisitBritain can take this promotion forward. He also interacted with Deirdre Wells, CEO, UKinbound and other senior representatives from the industry.
The seminar at the event looked at the outbound performance of India to UK. Myths were busted as to how the Indian travel industry works, visa issues, the challenges working with India market, vis-à-vis, bureaucratic barriers, flight connects, consumer decisions etc.
Latest insights from Switzerland and its success story with the Indian market were also discussed. Keith Beecham, acting CEO, VisitBritain said, “China grabs the headlines but the Indian market is one of our most loyal and the largest in volume of all of the BRICs.”
TAAI and VisitBritain together can enhance incoming tourism from Britain, UK and Ireland, now that there is one single visa for both the countries. “I am confident that Indian travellers to Britain will increase, along with incoming tourists, and it will soon become a remarkable two way traffic between India and UK which is TAAI‘s focus,” he said.
Going forward TAAI members and Visit Britain shall work in tandem so as to increase inbound travel into UK.