Mapping trends and Building partnerships is the key focus for the 27^th edition of South Asia’s leading and celebrated travel show

Informa Markets in India (formerly UBM India), India's leading B2B exhibition organizer, is all set to bring in the 27^th edition of SATTE (South Asia Travel and Tourism Exchange) from the 8^th to 10^th of January, 2020 at the India Expo Centre, Greater Noida, Delhi – NCR. This year, over 1,050 exhibitors and buyers and travel professionals from over 50 countries and 104 Indian cities, are set to visit the show. The expo continues to provide a comprehensive platform to the professionals from all segments of travel, tourism and hospitality industry from across the globe. The show equally offer platforms to players of the inbound, domestic and  outbound markets.

With a focus on building new business partnerships and announcements, the three-day expo promises to deliver and discuss current trends in the industry.  Keeping up with their annual promise, SATTE 2020 will host an exciting line-up of conferences to enlighten the industry by addressing the challenges and opportunities that India tourism offers. SATTE 2020 continues to receive active support from various Indian and International travel and trade associations, wedding planners, corporate travel decision makers and investors amongst others. While Indonesia is the Premium Partner country for SATTE 2020, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Dubai   and Sri Lanka are Partner Countries. Mauritius is the Feature Country for SATTE 2020. Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, West Bengal and Goa are confirmed as Partner States and a few more are set to join in.  Uttar Pradesh is the host state for SATTE 2020. Besides, many other countries and states are participating in various capacities.

With an exciting line-up of conferences, SATTE 2020 will host a series of sessions and workshops, presented and lead by high profile speakers and industry stalwarts, covering topics from all aspects of the industry. The first panel discussion on ‘Global Economic Scenario and Tourism Trends’ on Day 1 will discuss about the emerging scenario in global travel and tourism industry and in India. The second panel discussion : ‘Adventure Tourism: Unlocking New Avenues’ will focus on major challenges in adventure tourism. Day 2 of SATTE 2020 Conference will once again be a Corporate Travel Day powered by the Corporate Travel Community (CTC) that are set to organise two powerful sessions on Airline Programmes + NDC Education Forum and ‘The Accommodation Outlook and Technology Innovations Education Forum’. Apart from these, the Network of India MICE Agents (NIMA) will organise a set of 5 sessions and 2 workshops on MICE tourism. 

SATTE has grown hand-in-hand with the consistent support of the Ministry of Tourism as well as all State Tourism Ministries/Boards and the Indian travel and tourism fraternity in totality. Continued support of international organizations/associations and Indian travel trade associations such as World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO), Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI), Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI), IATA Agents Association of India (IAAI), India Convention Promotion Bureau (ICPB), Universal Federation of Travel Agents Association (UFTAA), Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) and Enterprising Travel Agents Association (ETAA) to name a few have helped bolster the efforts of SATTE.

Speaking on the expectations from SATTE 2020, Mr. Yogesh Mudras, Managing Director, Informa Markets in India, said “Every year, we put in our best efforts to make SATTE bigger and this year we aim to reach new milestones with the continued support from our exhibitors and partner countries and states. Growing at a rapid pace, in 2018, the travel and tourism sectors contribution to GDP was INR 16.91lakh crore ($240 billion) and is predicted to grow at an annual rate of 6.9% to INR 32.05 lakh crore by 2028. The government of India has also introduced a Tax Refund for Tourists (TRT) to encourage tourists to spend more in India and boost the country’s tourism. India offers geographical diversity and has a diverse portfolio of niche tourism products, cruise adventures, eco-tourism and rural & religious tourism bringing a multitude of foreign tourists to the country. Our domestic, inbound and outbound tourism have been recording a substantial growth in the last few years”.

“The government has also launched marketing and branding initiatives while also taking the efforts to boost investment in the tourism sector. The Incredible India 2.0 campaign saw the launch of its mobile app that would assist a traveller in India and showcase the experiences of travelling in the country. With such incredible growth in the sector, SATTE is extremely important for all those associated with the travel & tourism and hospitality industry. In fact, the  trend of destination weddings has been well captured by our exhibitors this year and thus SATTE 2020, is a holistic expo that maps and analyses such trends along with forecasting developments in the sectors and providing viable solutions to help business thrive in the ever-evolving industry”, said Mr. Mudras.

Informa Markets will also be hosting the 4th Edition of the SATTE Awards powered by T3, to recognize and celebrate the excellence, triumphs and innovations of key stakeholders in the Travel and Tourism industry which is based on genuine and authentic parameters, innovation and excellence in the travel and tourism industry, a philosophy well imbibed in the values of SATTE. 

 Speaking about Thailand as a trending tourist spot, Mr. Isra Stapanaseth,  Director, Tourism Authority of Thailand, said, “Thailand received a total of 38.27 million tourists in 2018 worldwide which is up by 7% and for 2019, we are forecasting 39.8 million foreign tourists. From India we have received 1.59 million Indian tourists in 2018 and in 2019 from January to October we received 1.63 million tourists. The trend of increasing foreign and Indian tourists is due to Thailand’s Visa on arrival facilities and normal visas granted by the Royal Thai Embassy and Thai Consulates in various cities. The application of free visa on arrival for Indians has resulted in a 25% growth in Indian tourists to Thailand which is a remarkable increase from 2018. As a result of simple and cost effective visa process, travelers are able to plan last minute, hassle free holidays due to VOA facility and E-Visa provided to visit Thailand.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) together with around 80 Thai exhibitors will participate as partner country in the South Asia Travel and Tourism Exchange 2020 (SATTE 2020) to be held in New Delhi. This will be the largest contingent of Thai exhibitors at SATTE, a significant increase over the total of 70 in SATTE 2019. This year marks the 12th year of Thailand's presence at SATTE. Like every year, TAT hopes to introduce more and more hotels, airlines, DMCs and attractions in Thailand to the Indian travel trade. Our campaign “Open to the New Shades” is still going strong. During SATTE 2020, TAT will be launching “Amazing Thailand Destination Plus” which is combining main cities to emerging and secondary cities. This year at SATTE we will display an umbrella painting at our booth and Thai Boxing shows”.

Speaking about industry trends, Mr Varun Chadha, CEO, Tirun Travel Marketing, said, “India has a huge population with an emerging middle class who are looking for novel vacation options apart from the traditional fly land tour packages. Today, there is growing awareness and attraction for cruising among the Indian consumers. Family-oriented and innovative cruise lines like ours can fuel and satisfy their demand for cruising, as our brand appeals to Indians who tend to travel in multigenerational family groups, corporate groups as well as wedding groups, which is an upcoming popular trend.

At SATTE 2020 we are looking at growing our network, building relationships with our existing partners, finding collaborators and gaining an overall sense of the market. Since we are also the India Representative of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd we plan to showcase our entire portfolio of cruise lines right from the contemporary brand Royal Caribbean International to the Modern luxury Celebrity Cruises to Boutique Azamara Club and ultra-luxury Silversea at SATTE 2020”.

Mr Danish Fairoz, General Manager, 24x7 Rooms.com, said, “The current global slowdown has certainly affected the Tourism industry as a whole. We noticed that travelers are still travelling however, ticket value has decreased so either duration of the stay or category of the hotel has gone down. There has been a vacuum created with the exit of key airlines mid of this year and we will need support from the Government or private organizations to step up and lift the aviation industry altogether. Being a B2B wholesaler, our concern of dominance of B2C needs to be addressed as we seek understanding and assistance from Hospitality industry to respect our business module.

Dream Cruises Mr. Naresh Rawal, Vice President – Sales & Marketing India & South Asia, Genting Cruise Lines, said, “The Indian outbound travel market is growing at an exponential rate, outbound travelers from Tier II and Tier III cities are on a rise. Though most international destinations are highly connected to all Tier I and Tier II markets in India, an increase in connectivity to other cities would help persuade aspiring outbound travelers. A growing number of Indian travelers are looking for personalized experiences, be it for leisure or MICE travel. We have also noticed that the number of Indian travelers opening up to the idea of cruise holidays has been growing year on year. These travelers are looking for experiential destinations as they aim to create memorable experiences. Personalization of experiences is undergoing a significant evolution in the industry and travel partners are customizing offerings at every stage: from research, to bookings, to itineraries.

Dream Cruises is bringing an exclusive piece of global excellence to India at SATTE 2020. This year’s big announcement is the launch of our first Global Class vessel to join the Dream Cruises fleet which has been recently christened as “Global Dream”. Global Dream is slated to be one of the most technologically advanced cruising vessels in the world. We encourage our partners to come and witness the experience at our booth during SATTE 2020. SATTE has always lived up to our expectations when it comes to networking and meeting our industry partners. We are very excited to be a part of this year’s exhibition wherein we believe we’d be meeting newer entrants and new potential partners to help us grow further in the Indian market”.