DRKochi: The opening of GPS Kochi, the fifth event of the Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) travel marketplace in 2019, held on August 6 and 7 at Hotel Crowne Plaza Kochi was quite extraordinary. It began with three videos – one promoting rainwater harvesting, the other on hotel etiquette for travellers and the third one promoting the message ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ and campaigning against the use of plastics. “All these three videos are available on the GPS App, which delegates can download and share with their customers in a bid to educate them,” said Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director & Founder of GPS, in his opening address.
GPS Kochi, held on August 6 and 7 at Hotel Crowne Plaza Kochi, saw screening of educational videos, various presentations and educational seminars
“Ever since its inception, the clear purpose of GPS has been to educate and empower the travel fraternity. The aim is to handhold a generation which has missed these kinds of information due to various reasons, by feeding them with something new during each edition of GPS,” he explained later in a brief chat with Destination Reporter.
Adding further, Harmandeep said beyond business development, travel professionals should show real commitment to the nature by following and promoting sustainable tourism practices. “We want travel agents associating with GPS events to educate their clients not to consider any tourist destination as a place to waste water or use plastics indiscriminately. For instance, take Cape Town, which faced acute water crisis. This year, there was acute shortage of water in many places of Maharashtra. If we don’t conserve water today, then there could be a grave situation in the years to come. If travel professionals can actively spread these messages among their customers, the impact would be really huge,” he said.
Harmandeep also cited the recent videos that went viral in social media exposing some Indian travellers who indulged in wrongdoings at hotels. “It is unfortunate that Indian tourists have been depicted in a wrong manner. But the fact is that any tourists can commit errors if he or she is not educated. I think, instead of spoiling our nation’s name, we should take corrective action to educate the clients on dos and don’ts in hotels and tourist destinations and that’s exactly we are doing as part of our social responsibility,” he added.
From the year 2016 onwards, GPS has been tagged as a paperless event. “On an average, 100 exhibitors attending GPS bring almost 1.5 tonnes of paper. That was equivalent to four truck-loads of paper. Neither the exhibitors nor the visitors were keen to collect it. And it’s a sheer waste of money, effort, courier charges and transportation. Every exhibitor carries at least 100 business cards. With Rs. 5 per card, the cost would come around Rs. 500 for an individual per event. Multiply this with 100 visitors per event and again with the number of events per year. Now, we are able to save this!” he informed.
GPS KOCHI
Dev Karvat, Founder & CEO, India & Emerging Markets, TrawellTag Cover-More, inaugurated GPS Kochi 2019 B2B session by lighting the traditional lamp in the presence of Shuvendu Banerjee, General Manager, Crowne Plaza Kochi; Ross Masood, Chairman, Kerala Chapter, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI); Rishiraj Singh Anand, Joint Managing Director, GPS; Raju Akolkar, CEO, GPS and Madhu Saliankar, Director, Sales and Marketing, GPS.
After the screening of educational videos, the first-day witnessed various presentations and educational seminars. These included ‘discover more about the power of online travel solutions’ by Inter-globe Technology Quotient, ‘Next wave of revolution – 20 years of customer-centric innovations’ by TrawellTag Cover-More, presentation of Jalesh Cruises, India’s first luxury cruise liner Karnika, Oman Weekend Destination campaign by Oman Air, Miraculous Europe by Red Tours and ‘Two years of GST and way forward for travel and tourism industry’ by tax expert Manish Gadia of GMJ & Co. Chartered Accountants.
“In all the five cities that GPS has been to with over 60 exhibitors and around 150-plus services and products, it has been well-received by each and every market. We have tweaked the format and the new one is getting great response from the delegates,” said Rishiraj Singh Anand in Kochi. With 170 hosted buyers, GPS Hyderabad had strong participation of travel agents from both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, especially from places such as Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Rajahmundry, Tirupati, Warangal and Kakkinada. GPS Ahmedabad witnessed close to 1500 pre-registrations with great response from tourism boards and travel associations. The travel fraternity came from Surat, Vadodara, Gandhi Nagar, Himmat Nagar and Surendra Nagar. With 150-plus hosted buyers, GPS Chandigarh had participation from places like Ambala, Karnal, Ludhiana and Ferozepur. Meanwhile, at GPS Lucknow, there were 100-plus hosted buyers from Kanpur, Varanasi, Meerut, Moradabad, Gorakhpur and Allahabad.
Jilesh Babla
MD, Zanzibar Tourism Promotion Centre, India
We have been participating in GPS for the last three years. It has been a wonderful partnership. This year we have announced GPS EDWIN to Zanzibar. We are planning to take about 1000 Indian travel agents to Zanzibar within a year. That’s about 80 to 100 travel agents every month. This would be a great opportunity for Indian travel agents to experience Zanzibar and Tanzania, as a tourist destination in East Africa, one of the best places in the world to see wildlife. I request all travel agents to make use of this opportunity.
Dev Karvat
Founder & CEO, India & Emerging Markets, TrawellTag Cover-More
We have been associating with GPS ever since its inception and it has been a great partnership. I think the excellent use of technology is what differentiates GPS with other travel events.
Tanushka Kaur Anand
ED, Global Panorama Showcase
Taking B2B networking to another level, GPS App has reinstated the importance of paperless technology. The dynamic travel industry has now entered an exciting future where the opportunities to connect and grow with each other are endless. How soon we harness these possibilities will determine the success of the global travel sector now!
