Indian Agents Speak

The Bangkok roadshow was attended by as many as 80 tour operators and travel houses from Thailand and about twenty from India. The Indian travel houses spoke of the increasing demand for ‘niche’ products.

Sandeep Dayal, Executive Director, ‘Le Passage to India Tours & Travels’ spoke of the increase in the wedding market segment to India. Harsh Mittal, Manager, Projects, Punjab Heritage & Tourism Promotion Board mentioned the new demand for farmstays, while Ashutosh Dogra, General Manager (Sales), Sita Travels spoke of the big interest in luxury train packages. Devendra Parekh, Managing Director, India Travel Pro was proud that the North East region, especially Assam and Sikkim, had begun to attract many tourists from SE Asia. Ajay Thakur, Exec Director, India Vision Tours & Travels informed that the increased air connections between Kolkata and Bangkok has led to a steady increase in the Great Autumn Festival of Kolkata (temple-tours). The travellers to the Buddhist circuit also had many choices from Kolkata, including trains, he added.

Speaking of the importance of the Buddhist circuit to the 300 million Buddhist travellers in the region, Raju Mansukhani of Air India informed that the airlines had started direct flights to Bodhgaya from the T3 terminal in New Delhi, which were connected to their flights from Bangkok, Tokyo and Hong Kong.