DRMumbai: TTF Ahmedabad concluded on a high note, breaking all its previous records. It saw a growth of 20 per cent over last year, with more than 665 exhibitors participating from 27 Indian states/UTs and 23 countries. The three-day show attracted unprecedented footfalls from 6,116 travel trade visitors from all over Gujarat and the Western India and over 4,525 general visitors.
TTF Ahmedabad 2018 was inaugurated in the presence of Mahendra Vakharia, President, OTOAI and MD, Pathfinders and Viranga Bandara, Director of Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau.
At the inauguration, Mahendra Vakharia said, “Gujaratis love to travel and explore new places, and TTF is one fair that organisers and tourists in Gujarat eagerly await every year. We are proud to state that out of the eight-city TTF series in India, TTF Ahmedabad received the maximum participation. It has developed into a vital platform for travel organisers to connect and network with new and old partners.”
Speaking about Indians travelling to Sri Lanka, Viranga Bandara commented, “We have lots of Indian tourists visiting Sri Lanka, the number growing year on year. In fact, we are expecting 4.50 lakh tourists from India in 2018. TTF provides a great travel trade opportunity for us apart from directly connecting us with tourists. This year, we have 18 participants from Sri Lanka showcasing their best deals in Ahmedabad. I urge Ahmedabad’s travellers to come down to Sri Lanka to enjoy our hospitality and explore the beaches, forests, wildlife, and Ramayana trail attractions.”
Excited about his visit to TTF, Jong Sool (Michael) Kwon, Director, Korea Tourism Organization, New Delhi said, “Ahmedabad is very welcoming and I am really happy to be here at TTF Ahmedabad. I urge the people of Ahmedabad to visit Korea to explore the country’s beautiful nature, festivals, and vibrant underground shopping malls that have a lot to offer.”
Among exhibitors from abroad, Nepal and Sri Lanka were the Partner Countries where Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau had the largest pavilion. Bahrain and Korea were presented as the Feature Countries with large pavilions. Other countries represented at TTF Ahmedabad included Azerbaijan, Bhutan, China, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, UAE, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Goa, Odisha, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Rajasthan were participating with large number of hotels and agents from their regions as Partner States of TTF. Other states like West Bengal, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Andaman & Nicobar and Meghalaya had set up colourful pavilions. Gujarat participated in a big way as the Host State.
The first two days of the show were reserved for the travel trade and the last day was open for general visitors. TTF Ahmedabad caters to the tourism industry in the region, at a strategically important time before the high season of Diwali.
It is a great opportunity for the travel trade for networking and business transactions between the tourism industry stakeholders and travel trade from the region. Besides Ahmedabad, the event was visited in large numbers by travel agents and tour operators from proximity markets in Gujarat like Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Valsad, Navsari, Vapi, Bharuch, Ankleshwar, Anand, etc. through the cooperation of a large number of local travel trade associations.
Cox and Kings was the Knowledge Partner at TTF Ahmedabad. They organised a workshop wherein they presented destinations – Finland, the Baltic States and Indonesia on the first day of the travel fair. Various tourist attractions and their packages were presented by Cox and Kings to the travel agents and visitors. Garuda Indonesia also presented the airline’s connectivity and rates at the workshop.
Commenting on the series of presentations being conducted at TTF Ahmedabad, Karan Anand, Head, Relationships, Cox and Kings said, “Cox & Kings believes in providing a seamless platform to educate all our travel trade partners about the latest developments. We are happy to partner with the beautiful destinations including Indonesia, Finland and the Baltic states and promote their diverse offering. The discerning travellers of India are demanding for complex travel solutions and we are here to support our fraternity and enable them through this highly engaging TTF forum.”
Apart from Cox and Kings, Kerala Tourism and Jammu & Kashmir Tourism too conducted seminars to promote tourism of their respective states.
On the second day of the show, an award ceremony was held to recognise and honour the most promising ventures in the tourism sector.
Soon after TTF Ahmedabad, TTF Surat will be held from September 14-16 at the Pandit Dindayal Upadhyay Indoor Stadium, followed by TTF Pune from September 28-30 and TTF Mumbai from October 5-7. In 2019, TTF Chennai is scheduled to commence from February 8-10 and TTF Bengaluru rom February 15-17.
In view of huge demand, TTF SUMMER has been launched in Ahmedabad (February 1-3, 2019) to help exhibitors tap into the huge summer travel markets.
With consistent support from the Ministry of Tourism of Government of India, State Tourism Boards, National Tourist Offices of several countries, thousands of private exhibitors and trade associations, TTF continues to be the widest platform providing opportunities for buyers and sellers from across the country to showcase their latest offerings and build long term business ties.
TTF is supported by Incredible India, TAAI, OTOAI, ATOAI, ADTOI, IATO, IAAI, SKAL INTERNATIONAL and ETAA.
