Rebranded as ‘Business, MICE & Leisure Travel’ (previously Business & Luxury Travel Mart), the annual BLTM hosted a two days travel mart in the city-centre of New Delhi. It’s also the first show of the year for Fairfest Media, the organiser of BLTM, TTF and OTM travel shows.
“Our objective is to adapt our travel shows to the needs and demand of the market. Luxury is seen across all segments but there is a clear trend towards MICE and what we call “bleisure”. This year we have made sure to make our travel mart accessible to all by hosting it in the heart of the city but also with quality participation including a screening done at the entry to make sure the buyers/gathering is here with clear business objectives,” Sanjiv Agarwal, chairman and CEO, Fairfest Media Ltd, told India Outbound Magazine.
With a total of 100 exhibitors, the mart was divided into two areas for domestic and international players. Present at the show were countries like Turkey, Taiwan, Sri Lanka and Maldives. Some African and European countries were also represented through DMCs. The event was inaugurated by the minister commercial of the Sri Lanka High Commission, Uppekha Samaratunga as well as country representatives of Maldives and Taiwan.
Select audience & topics
“It’s a great event and the fact that participants were selected carefully clearly made the difference. It’s indeed very important to have genuine information shared and most importantly not to lose time. Usually trade fairs are busy and it becomes extremely difficult to meet the right person peacefully. I think we need more BLTM across the country with such approach towards B2B meetings. This time as a buyer we managed to create a few itineraries based on today’s trends in business and leisure,” Sanjeev Mehra, managing director of Aaryaan Holidays & Leisure and president, Skal International Kolkata told India Outbound.
“BLTM was very well organised and a great platform for meetings and networking with the industry. With 2020 being the year where MMPRC is going full steam ahead with marketing activities, FAMs etc. as India continues to be the top source market for Maldives; it gave us a great kickstart to the year and set the tone,” Shikha Mishra from Think Strawberries – MMPRC India office, told India Outbound.
This time, BLTM also partnered with WedWise to curate a special track on destination weddings. More than 50 top wedding planners from all over India gathered at the travel mart for B2B networking. A unique conference programme on the trends and challenges of the Indian wedding industry was also hosted.
On the MICE promotion, Sri Lanka Convention Bureau was present for the first time as an individual body on the Indian market, with a 30 member delegation including DMCs, hotels and representatives of Sri Lankan airlines.
“BLTM has been reasonably successful for us, we are glad to say that India have always been a very potential MICE market for SriLankan Airlines and for year 2020 we are also looking forward to participate in more and more networking , B2B events like BLTM”, said V. Ravindran, Regional Manager, SriLankan Airlines India & Bangladesh.
2020’s trends
The travel mart also took place at a time when the global chaos related to Coronavirus is spreading. Many Indian travel agents told India Outbound that it was indeed a chaotic time for them too, with many cancellations and/or had to change all travel itineraries at the very last minute for their inbound and outbound trip not only to China but the entire region.
Some other travel professionals also said this context could be an “opportunity” for the Indian outbound industry “More than ever, international destinations are eyeing towards the Indian market and strategizing their plans to attract more Indian tourists. We surely will see greater marketing campaigns on the Indian market in 2020 as the Indian traveller’s choices will shape the global travel trends this year. It’s not only in the tourism industry but overall as we have seen a lot of industries shifting their manufacturing base to other countries outside China and notably India”, analysed Harsh Agarwal, Executive Director at Fairfest Media Ltd.
