DRTelangana: Federation of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FTAPCCI), in association with Global Panorama Showcase (GPS), will organise ‘Telangana Tourism Conclave 2018’ at the Hyderabad Marriott Hotel and Convention Centre from June 28 to 30.
The conclave would highlight Telangana as a tourist destination and aims to give a push to business-to-business category in tourism. The three-day event, supported by the Department of Tourism, Telangana, is being organised under the dynamic leadership of Valmiki Hari Kishan, a veteran tourism professional.
The three-day conclave would highlight Telangana as a tourist destination and aims to give a push to business-to-business tourism
“Tourism is not about leisure or money. It is about livelihoods. Tourism in Telangana is a Rs. 50,000-crore business opportunity that has the potential to employ tens of thousands of people. The aim of the conclave is to attract tourists from all over the world. The conclave will showcase the heart of Telangana to the world in terms of culture and heritage,” said B Venkatesham IAS, Secretary, Telangana Tourism.
According to him, awareness has to be created among industry bodies, political leadership and people about being more helpful and respectful towards tourists.
“Singapore and Hong Kong are examples of cities surviving on tourism. Spain and France have more tourists coming into their country than their citizens. Tourism can vastly improve people’s lives. Our tourist footfalls are not low. But we need more out-of-state tourists as well as foreign tourists to help push the economy. We are also trying to push medical tourism, an area where Hyderabad lags behind New Delhi,” he said.
The logo and brochure of the conclave was formally launched by B Venkatesham IAS along with Gowra Srinivas, President, FTAPCCI, Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director, GPS, and Telangana Tourism Conclave Chairman Valmiki Hari Kishan.
Day one will witness presentations and workshops on a wide array of topics and business networking possibilities, travelling with ease in Europe, how to safeguard business from cyber threats to impact of Goods and Service Tax (GST) for Travel Tourism Industry. The second and third day would largely comprise B2B meetings.
MICE Market
Telangana rocks when it comes to MICE, thanks to state capital Hyderabad. Every year, at least 20 big international meets and 30-40 national level events are hosted by the city primarily because of the world-class infrastructure (HITEX Exhibition Center and HICC), salubrious climate, excellent connectivity and reasonable cost.
A common perception has been that Hyderabad is the only tourism spot in Telangana and to counter it, Telangana Tourism conducted 14 road shows in 2017 focussing on cities such as Jaipur, Lucknow, Pune and many places in the North East region, a major source market for visitors seeking education and health.
The results are showing already with Warangal emerging as a major tourism hub, without affecting tourist inflow to Hyderabad. This year, the Government is increasing the number of road shows and exploring more Tier II cities.
Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) have increased over the years. In 2014, when the new State came into being, the number stood at 64,000. Today, it is three lakh plus and the target is to cross 10 lakh FTAs by 2020. The major source markets for FTAs are the UK, USA, Germany, Bangladesh and the Middle East.
But most of the visitors travel for business to Hyderabad. Their duration of stay is short and there is hardly any time for leisure. Telangana wants to focus on DMCs to attract leisure travellers who can spend more time and money in the State. With tourism contributing 6-7 per cent to the State’s GDP, Brand Telangana is now on a tourism overdrive.
