About India Outbound Magazine
India Outbound, a bi-monthly print magazine with dynamic web and social media presence focused on outbound travel from India, is published by Media India Group. Distributed all over India, and in all the top tourism events across the world, India Outbound caters mainly to the tourism professionals and is looking to develop new and innovative circuits and promote new destinations to the high-end travellers.
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ITB Berlin 2019 concludes with a positive note for global travel industry
ITB Berlin 2019 witnessed over 10,000 exhibitors from 181 countries and regions displayed their products and services to visitors in 26 halls. The results of the five-day exhibition on the Berlin fairgrounds, trade visitor numbers rose to 113,500, a three per cent increase compared with last year.
Uninterrupted growth at a high level: despite a slowdown in the world economy demand within the world’s travel industry remains extremely stable. “ITB Berlin is of great importance, particularly in times of widespread uncertainty. Even in a digitalised world, it is not possible for hi-tech communications to replace the confidence-building measure that face-to-face meetings and a direct exchange between business partners on issues concerning the global industry represent. That is why ITB Berlin functions”, said Dr Christian Göke, CEO of Messe Berlin.
The sustained dynamic growth in all areas of the industry in Germany is due once again to the positive situation in the employment market and a generally buoyant mood among consumers. As regards the global outlook, the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) forecasts that this year international arrivals will increase in the order of three to four per cent.
Trade visitors and exhibitors alike were extremely satisfied with ITB Berlin 2019. In a survey they gave ITB Berlin top marks for innovation. The trade show celebrated the successful launch of the Technology, Tours & Activities (TTA) segment, among others. Having already established ITB Asia in Singapore and ITB China in Shanghai, from April 15 to 17, 2020, Messe Berlin will be holding the first ITB India in Mumbai. Within the travel industry India is regarded as one of the most important source markets of the future.
This year the number of high-ranking international speakers broke records. The CityCube Berlin, its new venue, was also very well received. Topics focused on by the convention included overtourism, sustainability and climate change, the shift in customer demands particularly in the luxury travel market, and the topic of Future Mobility. Next edition of ITB Berlin will take place from Wednesday, March 4 to 8, 2020.
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Petra Archeological Park named one of the top 100 sustainable destinations for 2019
The Petra Archeological Park has been selected by the Green Destinations Foundation as one of the Top 100 Sustainable Destinations for 2019 at ITB Berlin 2019. The event, the 2019 Sustainable Top 100 Destination Awards, not only highlighted but also recognised innovation and best practices in tourism management of destinations and tour operators whose hard work and perseverance has helped lead the way towards quality, attractiveness, and sustainability in tourism.
The competition was organised by twelve leading sustainable tourism organisations and networks, and destinations were nominated upon submitting a comprehensive application that addresses 30 key criteria. From a total of 100 top-sustainable destinations from around the world, 44 sustainable tourism stories submitted their applications to this year’s award. Of these 44 stories, 10 award winners have been carefully selected by a jury represented by 12 international organisations.
Majd Shweikeh, minister of Tourism and Antiquities, said, “Petra is one of the Kingdom’s most important and most famous archaeological sites and this award underlines our ability as a sector not only to increase demand for our tourism product but to simultaneously maintain and protect our heritage in a sustainable way both for the antiquities and the local communities.” “Petra provides us with the framework to reflect everything we’ve learned onto every tourism attraction in the country and ensure that our heritage, hospitality and culture lives on for generations to come,” he added.
In addition to winning this award, the Petra Archeological Park was also chosen as the number 2 finalist in the Best of Culture & Communities category for global leadership in protecting culture and tradition, involving local communities, and avoiding over tourism. Both of these selections will help elevate Jordan as a global leader in tourism sustainability and conservation.
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Visit Finland taps the tourism potential in India
Visit Finland has re-entered into India last year in order to tap the potential of growing outbound market here. “We see a great potential in India. There has been a steady growth. 2018 was really good in terms of overnights and also the potential growth from India is really strong. Although the number of overnights is not much more but India market is emerging and developing,” said Teemu Ahola, account manager– Asia, Visit Finland. Indian arrivals to Finland grew by 15 pc in 2018.
Finland receives a lot of corporate and business travel from India due to a stronger trade ties between two nations. “For now, I think it is more leisure. As a lot of Indians are working in some of our neighbouring countries, bleisure is one of the emerging segments for us,” he said.
While talking about India strategy, he said that Finland has not done strong marketing in India yet. “This is due to the fact that we wanted to be sure that our Finnish partners are well prepared. We have few great suppliers joining the India roadshow. We are focusing on India market. Now, suppliers are supporting our aim to develop this emerging market. We also have strong promotional activities. We are certainly focused on b2b market right now. We are targeting some of the MICE companies. We are now widely seen in media. We had a couple of successful media fam trip from India,” he added. Visit Finland is also planning to introduce online agent training programme in India in future.
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‘Destination Turkey’ six-city roadshow in India concludes on a positive note
The Turkish Indian Tourism Council & Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey has successfully conducted its six city “Destination Turkey” roadshow across India. The roadshow started from Delhi, followed by Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune and Mumbai.
Top Travel agents, stake holders, policy makers, Indigo Airlines and Gateway, VFS attended the roadshow in these cities where the Turkish delegates acquainted them with other partners from Turkey and organised informative sessions with guests. The DMCs, Hotels interacted with the agents and shared insights on how to promote Turkey as a destination.
“The direct air connectivity between the countries plays an important role for enhancing mutual touristic flow. We are very happy to welcome the Indigo airline’s initiative to start flying to Istanbul from Delhi with non-stop flights. We have seen a huge number of increase in traffic to Turkey in last two years and out of which we have observed a 70 pc increase from India to Turkey in 2018 compared with 2017. In this note we are very glad that Indian citizens will now have a choice of travelling to Turkey with a low budget airline company. Turkey and India both will be benefited from the mutual growth of tourists” said H,Deniz Ersoz, Culture & Tourism counsellor, Turkish Culture and Tourism Office in India.
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MTPA organises FAM trip for key Indian golf operators to Mauritius
Soon after the India visit of Anil Kumarsingh Gayan, Minister of Tourism, Republic of Mauritius and his meeting with IGTA, Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA) organised a five day golf familiarization (FAM) trip for key Indian golf operators to Mauritius. The objective was to give them a country overview and a first-hand experience of golfing facilities in Mauritius so that they are better informed when selling Golf in Mauritius.
Arvind Bundhun, director, MTPA, further highlighted on the importance of the golf FAM, “This is one of the major components of the Mauritius promotional campaign in India. The golf FAM allowed the Indian golf operators to experience world-class golf, luxury tourism and activities on the island. The decision makers personal inputs will help to promote Mauritius golf tourism in India.”
Bundhun added, “Organising such trips will add the necessary impetus required to promote Mauritius golf tourism. These FAMs are a great way to communicate with key golf operators and it gives them first hand golfing experience of the destination. This trip will help the agents to guide their customers when planning a Mauritius golf holiday package”.
The members of the delegation expressed eagerness to take advantage of Mauritius as a year round golf destination for Indians, saying that the island is well positioned to be one of their most prominent golf destinations.
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Jet Airways leads as the single largest airline for flying travellers from India
India saw 63 million international travellers in 2018, up by 7.3 pc from 59 million in 2017. While Jet Airways remained the single largest airline for flying people out of India, its partner Etihad and Jet Airways together account for 16 million travellers, down from 11 million in 2017.
Last year has witnessed some significant changes in the top 10 list of standalone airlines for international travel. While Jet Airways, Air India and Emirates retained the top three positions in 2018 like 2017, IndiGo became the fourth largest international player in India last year. SpiceJet moved two places up from number nine in 2017 to seventh spot in 2018 by overtaking Qatar Airways and Oman Air for international travel to and from India in 2018.
Sri Lankan airlines that is following the footsteps of Gulf airlines’ model of flying people between India and rest of the world through their hubs, appeared in the top 10 list by occupying the number nine slot. Qatar Airways, which was the seventh largest international airline in terms of flying passengers to and from India in 2017 is now at number ten. Go Air secured the sixth position as an Indian carrier to fly abroad in last October.
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