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Even though there’s no direct generation of business from ITB Berlin, the Indian trade feels that the forum helps them establish contacts with their client base whilst providing a good networking platform.
I had a couple of interesting meetings and successfully renewed my contracts with old people. With the new business, I don’t think any of the exhibitions are important for getting business. ITB Berlin is essentially a platform to meet your old partners whilst creating awareness for our brand, and most importantly to keep in touch with our old contacts. It is a very powerful networking tool.
We recently started our inbound division and are happy to say that we are getting good response from overseas partners. Without appointments, these exhibitions cannot give any results. We need to improve on space allocation too. The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, needs to strategise in the future about participation at such events. ITB is important for us but before visiting, the ministry should do some more publicity, both online and
ITB surprisingly has been consistent through the years. This year too has been a good show. It’s also not only about talking about your products but also getting familiarised about the updates. It’s when you come here and meet a particular operation that you get to know that they have been selling X or Y property or they have changed their business. Meeting new operators is also key here. The exhibition gives us access to the European market. It’s also a place where we can generate new business.
ITB is one of the most well-known travel exhibitions globally. It is a very important forum for us to showcase our property. Even if it doesn’t generate generate leads. Every year, we evaluate our presence in some of the most prestigious international exhibitions. Depending upon the response, we take a call on whether to come back next year. We had some quality meetings on picked up, it was better and busier.
We have had some fruitful meetings with existing buyers and met more buyers where we can explore the possibility of new beginnings. These solely depend on your connections and the number of appointments you get out of those. We do get a few walk-ins but mostly we come with - ings need our time and attention; so it can’t be over in just a matter of a few minutes. We need to start working on them way earlier.
ITB Berlin presented the latest products and trends of the global tourism industry. It was a great networking platform to foster stronger connections with our participating brands as well as a key relationship building opportunity with our potential clientele. The ITB Berlin Convention was also a key attraction that brought close to 400 leading speakers to discuss forward-looking trends in travel. Even in the age of digitalisation, conventions like these cannot replace the power of face-to-face conversations.