Recognized for the multitude of participants and abundant gross exhibition area, OTM 2018, one of the largest Travel Show in Asia-Pacific region, which was held at the Bombay Exhibition Centre in Mumbai witnessed over 1,000 sellers from more than 50 countries and 27 states with a footfall of 10,000 plus trade visitors.It was inaugurated by KJ Alphons, Minister of State for Tourism (I/C), Government of India, in the presence of Guest of Honour, Jaykumar Rawal, Minister of Tourism, Government of Maharashtra. While addressing the visitors, Alphons expressed his delight seeing the turnout of the global participants and the mix of international and national participants at the Travel Show floor. Rawal remarked that Mumbai was proud to host OTM 2018. He also spoke at length about the long history of OTM.
The three-day Travel Show was a venue to visitors including buyers from Delhi, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam, Kochi, Nagpur, Rajkot, Surat, Coimbatore, Indore, Lucknow, Haryana, Allahabad and Chandigarh with Delhi topping the highest buyers’ list.
Participation from India included pavilions of Tourism Departments along with private operators from Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Goa, Gujarat, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab, Andaman & Nicobar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chandigarh, Tripura, etc.
Countries being represented through private operators at OTM 2018 Travel Show were Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Dubai, Germany, Hong Kong, Iran, Kazakhstan, Laos, Latvia, Malaysia, Oman, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, United Kingdom, USA, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.Sharing his experience at OTM 2018 Travel Show, Ismail A Hamid Amer, Egyptian Tourism Counsellor in Mumbai, said, “We have started our year by participating in OTM and are looking forward to good business ahead.” Tian Xin, Director, China National Tourist Office, New Delhi termed OTM as a very effective platform. “OTM has undoubtedly helped us understand the travel needs of the Indian market as well as the requirements of the travel trade,” he said.
OTM 2018 Travel Show had a balanced mix of participants from outbound and inbound, said Neela Lad, Regional Director (West), India Tourism Mumbai Office. She added that OTM assisted in creating awareness on destinations in North East. Through OTM, the North Eastern travel destinations in India initiated a dialogue with Indian film producers.
“We are happy to play a bridge between the film fraternity and the government to identify and address the roadblocks,” said Sanjiv Agarwal, Chairman and CEO, Fairfest Media Ltd.
