AYANAANT 2013 - A SUMMARY

A Viva Voyages Initiative

AYANAANT

‘Ayanaant’ is a Hindi word, which means ‘solstice'. By inference, it

also denotes the pinnacle of prosperity, progress and wellbeing

For us in this context, it was the longest day of the year, to

generate maximum worth from a day of work and the longest

night, to revel the harvest!

VIVA VOYAGES

Established in 2006

Prominent and well-networked travel marketing company

Provides marketing solutions for travel companies desirous of expanding their business in the Indian market

Travel Representation & Sales Promotions

Travel Consultation

Travel Sales & Marketing promotion planners

Back Office operations support

Travel e-Marketing

Destination & Travel Industry marketing

AWARDS

Most Promising Brand, Runner Up, 2013 SMEs Excellence Award 2013 Awarded by ICAI (The Institute of Cost Accountants of India), MSME (Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Govt. of India), and ASSOCHAM (The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India)

Best Travel Marketing Company of the Year, 2013 Global Business and Service Excellence Awards Awarded by Prime Time Media

Travel Marketing Company of the Year, 2013 World Travel Brands Awarded by Brands Academy and NDTV Good Times

Best Travel Marketing Company, 2012 World Travel Brands Awarded by Brands Academy and NDTV Profit

A Viva Voyages Initiative

AYANAANT 2013

THE CONCEPT

• To bring together some of the finest stalwarts of the travel

industry with the sole purpose of augmenting knowledge,

addressing issues plaguing the trade

• To present an opportunity for convergence of leaders of the

outbound travel business in India, with an intent to discuss

strengths, challenges, opportunities and threats to the

business in general and to shed light on the way forward

THE EVENT

9:30 am – 5:30 pm, 21 June 2013

India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

Anchors:

• Aashima Khanduri, Director, Viva Voyages Pvt. Ltd.

• Vishal Gupta, Chief Strategy Officer, ISSworld.com

THE EVENT

Panel Discussions

• Worldwide Cruising

• Online Initiatives

• Brochure Products

• M.I.C.E. Planning

Key Note Speakers

Felicitations & White Papers

PANEL

DISCUSSIONS

THE EVENT

L-R: Gopinath Nair, Sumit Banerji, Ratna Chadha, Sidhartha Roy, Nishith Saxena, Naresh Rawal

WORLDWIDE CRUISING PANEL

THE PANEL

Moderator: Gopinath Nair, Founder & CEO, Tourism DNA

Observer: Keki Master, Senior Vice President, J.M.Baxi & Co

Panelists:

• Naresh Rawal, Vice president, Sales, Star Cruises India and other regions

• Nishith Saxena, Director, Cruise Professionals

• Ratna Chadha, Chief Executive Officer, Tirun Travel Marketing

• Sidhartha Roy, Sr. Vice President, Business Development, AMA Waterways

• Sumit Banerji, Founder & Country Head – India & South Asia, Cruise Masters

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Commission in Cruise business (15-20%) while comparing with the airline

market (0% and retail 5-7%) is much higher but still there is a huge gap in

between the Cruise business in India (1,00,000 pax annually) and across the

world (16 million pax).

• River Cruising is the fastest growing segment in cruising.

• People in India are willing to book closer to the travel date.

• Top 3 Decision Factors:

Distance to the Home port, Price, On Board Facilities

• Top 3 sectors of growth:

Weddings on Cruises, Ethnic Groups, Honeymoon Traffic

PANEL SPEAK

Ratna Chadha:

Cruise is not a commodity, it’s not a product but it is an experience.

All cruise companies need to understand that we are not in the business of selling a product but we are in the business of allowing our passengers to experience the world differently. Cruise is an experience that can not be sold but marketed and trade is not doing fair job at marketing. We need to first educate ourselves.

There are 3 main points: 1. Education, 2. Marketing 3. Changing our mindsets

We need to form an association with all the equity stake holders as members.

Naresh Rawal:

Cruising is in a nescient stage in India. We need to promote Cruising in India.

We should start a Cruising Specialist Program.

PANEL SPEAK

Nishith Saxena:

Customers are not educated enough about cruise holiday. Trade partners have not taken the Cruising seriously. Agency owners should be educated for cruise.

Siddharth Roy:

Distribution Mechanism need to be altered. The commission given by Ama Water Ways River Cruise is even higher and can may go up to 30%. Trade Partners need to put the agenda of cruising higher on their selling agenda. We should start an Executive Development Program for travel community. All cruise companies should make a pool and should advertise collectively for the awareness about cruise holiday in India and to promote cruising in India.

Sumit Banerjee:

Trade needs to create its quality manpower. We need to take an initiative on developing knowledge. Stakeholders need to create a common pool for knowledge and training.

INTERACTION

Guldeep Singh Sahni, President, OTOAI:

“OTOAI will be happy to work with Association of Cruise.”

L-R: Vinay Gupta, Vikram Malhi, Ram Mohan KM, Nikhil Ganju, Meenu Sachdeva

ONLINE INITIATIVES PANEL

THE PANEL

Moderator: Rajiv Bajaj, CEO, Tourism Interface & Beyond Basix

Panelists:

• Meenu Sachdeva, Co Founder & MD, T I Infotech Pvt. Ltd.

• Nikhil Ganju, Country Manager, India, TripAdvisor

• Ram Mohan KM, Head IT, Kuoni India

• Vikram Malhi, General Manager, Expedia South Asia

• Vinay Gupta, Chairman, Via.com

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• A traditional agent should get a portal only if going online fits his target segment, is ready to invest hugely, and has enough selection of products

• While going online, agent should keep in mind right technology partner, right technology, right strategy, what services he wants to sell and right type of marketing

• Online Industry is in sync with the end user that’s the reason it is growing & taking the market share from offline. But it certainly needs improvement

• Luxury products can only be promoted and not sold online

• Social Media is very important. We need to synchronize social media with actual booking

PANEL SPEAK

Rajiv Bajaj:

Online revolution has completely changed our Travel Distribution System. It has created a new breed of travelers.

Meenu Sachdeva:

For a traditional agent to get a portal : need right technology partner, right technology, right strategy, what services you want to sell; right type of marketing. You should know market, what you want to sell, where you want to sell.

Nikhil Ganju:

Use Online for acquiring new customers; have portal that enables people to book as well.

Do you want to engage your existing customers online? Need to figure out what you want to do online. Need to understand what your ambitions are.

PANEL SPEAK

Ram Mohan:

Online complements your offline presence. Online is a channel of business. Rolling out a strategy that is relevant to the customer. Need to have the support of Expert at the sales counter to sell as selling is a challenge in online.

Social media is not a way to generate queries but it’s a way to address to the customers.

Luxury products can be better promoted online and not very well sold online.

Vikram Malhi:

If going online fits your target segment only then you should go online. Are you willing to invest hugely in online. Do you want to spend a lot of money on acquiring customers. Do you really have selection of products that you need online. Social Media is very important. We need to synchronize social media with actual booking.

All models of business including online and offline can survive but each model need to understand clear strategy & clear target & what they are really good at.

L-R: Dr. Robin Yap, Manas Sinha, Sunila Patil, Sanjay Shah

BROCHURE PRODUCTS PANEL

THE PANEL

Moderator: Ashish Kumar, CEO, Independent Travel Management consulting firm

Panelists:

• Dr. Robin Yap, President, Asia, The Travel Corporation

• Sanjay Shah, Managing Director, Flamingo Transworld Pvt. Ltd.

• Sunila Patil, Director, Veena World

• Manas Sinha, Assistant Director, Key Accounts, Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Brochure needs to be relevant, very specific, truthful and it should inspire and influence purchase

• Brochure make sense specially in tier 2 and 3 cities and with the huge customer base who are still away from fast internet connectivity

• But today printed brochure need supplement of Online or PDF brochure

• Brochure handling person must be very much convincing

• Full tour is normally costly online comparing to offline

• For a common man, without the human support of offline agent, there is no relevance of online

PANEL SPEAK

Dr. Robin Yap:

Brochure needs to be relevant & very specific. It needs to inspire and influence purchase.

Before internet, it the conversion ratio to the printed brochure was 1 to 24 and now it has reached to 1 to 6. We manage brochure according to market, depending on brands and depending on size of distribution.

Sanjay Shah:

I am the hard core believer of selling and promotion through Brochure.

Brochure should be truthful. Negative points (reality) should be mentioned first.

Brochure has a value. In Gujarat, housewives and other females take the decision on vacation and mostly they don’t know English so brochures in Regional language is very important.

Full tour is normally costly online comparing to offline. For a common man, without the human support of offline agent, there is no relevance of online.

PANEL SPEAK

Sunila Patil:

Brochure make sense specially in tier 2 and 3 cities and with the huge customer base who are still away from fast internet connectivity. But today printed brochure need supplement of Online or PDF brochure.

Veena world will print at least 5,000 brochures in the 1st year and expected conversion ration to those printed brochures is 60-70% and Veena World will print 10,000 brochures in it’s 2nd year.

Manas Sinha:

No segmentation in brochures.

Use of photoshop and other software to make the places look more attractive.

Right content to right target market should go.

Brochure handling person must be very much convincing.

L-R: Bharat Jain, Deepak Jagtiani, Naveen Rizvi, Arun Hattangadi

M.I.C.E. PLANNING PANEL

THE PANEL

Moderator: Tanuja Pandey, National Head, MICE, Network 18

Panelists:

• Arun Hattangadi, COO, TMIC

• Bharat Jain, Deputy Director, CII

• Deepak Jagtiani, Director, Corporate Events (I) Pvt. Ltd.

• Naveen Rizvi, Sr. Vice President – India & Head – TUI-

Meetings & Incentives

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Combination of various services with specialization and understanding the need of the corporate is important in MICE

• In MICE, Selling is not about discounting. Selling is about providing a kind of an experience

• E-bid is a worst practice in MICE

• In the fight of MICE companies, corporate watch a circus

• It’s not only the price factor but concept also that may help you in winning the bid

• Nowadays, corporates are taking MICE travel companies as MICE executioners and not as MICE Planners. This is a real problem for MICE companies

PANEL SPEAK

Tanuja Pandey:

Nowadays, corporates are taking MICE travel companies as MICE executioners and not as MICE Planners. This is a real problem for MICE companies.

Arun Hattangadi:

Combination of various services with specialization and understanding the need of the corporate is important in MICE.

Challenge on managing large scale incentive programs: becomes commercial for corporates as they have budgets and they want the incentive group to be happened within that budget.

E-bid is a worst practice in MICE. No company can handle more than 7-8 groups in a month. MICE companies should stand on their quote for groups and should not do it in loss for getting the business.

PANEL SPEAK

Naveen Rizvi:

MICE needs special skills and different thought process. It is a specialized field.

In MICE, selling is not about discounting. Selling is about providing a kind of an experience.

Deepak Jagtiani:

In depth detailing is compulsory for MICE as well as travel. It’s not only the price factor but concept also that may help you in winning the bid.

Bharat Jain:

CII gets maximum response from members for untapped destinations such as Argentina, Sao Paulo, Panama.

L-R: Anil Bhandari, J. B. Singh, Parvez Dewan, Stuart Lloyd, Dr. Burak Akcapar, Guldeep Singh Sahni

HONOURABLE KEY SPEAKERS

KEY SPEAKERS

• Anil Bhandari, Chairman, AB Smart Concepts

• J.B. Singh, President and CEO, InterGlobe Technology

Quotient Pvt. Ltd.

• Parvez Dewan, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism

• Stuart Lloyd, Acting Publisher, Travel Daily Media Group

• Ambassador of Turkey, His Excellency, Dr. Burak Akcapar

• Guldeep Singh Sahni, President, OTOAI

KEY NOTE : J. B. SINGH

Aviation is hugely under penetrated in India.

India will jump to 5the place in terms of domestic traffic flow by

2031.

LCC will grow about 15-20% by 2031.

Growth in travel will be with barbell effect ie in the high end and in

the economy sector.

We are navigating to a chaotic world where there will be a pattern

of No Pattern

VISION 2030 : STUART LLOYD

Window of opportunity for India will be 2015 to 2050. This will be the best time for India ever

Travel follows trade and top 5 export destinations for India in 2011 and 2030:

• 2011 :UAE, USA, China, Singapore, Hong Kong

• 2030 :UAE, China, USA, Hong Kong, Vietnam

Preferred Destinations in 2030:

• Business Travelers: Singapore, Malaysia, China

• Leisure Travelers: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand

Big new OBT Opportunities in 2030:

• Women Business Traveler: 10 million in 2030 comparing to about 1 million now

• Youth Travel (aged in between 20-39) will be 32% of total travel

• Cruising: Higher aspiration in ASPAC

• Luxury Travel: HNI travelling number will reach to 1 million in 2030 putting India on 3rd in the region

FELICITATIONS &

WHITE PAPERS

THE EVENT

L-R: Rajji Rai, Prof. Manjula Chaudhary, Prof. (Dr.) Manohar Sajnani, Prof. S. C. Bagri

FELICITATIONS

FELICITATIONS

Presenter: Rajji Rai, Chairman, Swift Group of Companies

Prof. Manjula Chaudhary, Director, Indian Institute of Tourism

and Travel Management

Prof. (Dr.) Manohar Sajnani, Director, Amity Institute of Travel and

Tourism

Prof. S. C. Bagri, Vice Chancellor, Himgiri Zee University

Guldeep Singh Sahni presenting White Papers to Parvez Dewan, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism

KNOWLEDGE SHARING

KNOWLEDGE SHARING

White papers prepared by students / faculty members /

researchers presented to Tourism Secretary:

• India’s Outbound MICE

• Online Initiatives in India’s Outbound Tourism

• White Paper on Worldwide Cruising

White papers and video coverage of all sessions accessible

publicly through blog

FEEDBACK

&

QUOTES

SOUND BYTES

QUOTE

In most of the meetings, Industry is concerned to their immediate

concerns and issues but discussing something about the thoughts

to understand what are the key drivers of the industry and in

which direction we are going. It’s a unique thing. It’s very

important.

- Prof. Manjula Chaudhary, Director, Indian Institute of Tourism

QUOTE

I would like to give a new meaning to the event Ayanaant.

Ayanaant is Aaya Na Ek Naya Thought. We should congratulate

Ayanaant for bringing a new thought to this day.

- Prof. (Dr.) Manohar Sajnani, Director, Amity Institute of Travel

and Tourism

QUOTE

If Ayanaant can facilitate some students of tourism who are

getting good marks in master degree, that will be really wonderful.

- Prof. S. C. Bagri, Vice Chancellor, Himgiri Zee University

FEEDBACK

I would like to congratulate the Ayanaant team for creating the

unique outbound platform of industry veterans to come together. It

was refreshing to see a wide range of panel discussion covering

various aspects of travel & tourism. The sessions and the topics

were very relevant in the present context and were crisp so it had

the attention of the audience. I wish the Ayanaant team all the

very best so that they can provide more such forums in future.

- JB Singh, President and CEO, Interglobe Technology Quotient

FEEDBACK

It was an honour as well as a pleasure to be part of Ayanaant, and it was indeed a unique event of its kind in the industry. Thank you very much for taking the initiative in coming up with such a brilliant concept. As a first-time event, it was wonderful, and I am sure that subsequent events that you plan will factor in all the issues encountered in the first attempt, and I have no doubt whatsoever, that the next one will be even better and bigger.

Keep up the great work !

- Rajiv Bajaj, CEO, Tourism Interface & Beyond Basix

NETWORKING

&

MEDIA

INTERACTIONS

NETWORKING

A platform for networking with crème de la crème of Outbound Travel

Company literature of all panelists circulated to audience

Support and representation from Travel Associations:

• Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI)

• Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI)

• Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI)

• IATA Agents Association of India (IAAI)

• Enterprising Travel Agents Association (ETAA)

• Society of Foreign Travel Operators (SFTO)

Newswire

July Issue, Page #2

Leaders converge at

‘Ayanaant’

Link:

http://www.newswirenet.in/ema

g/july-2013.pdf

MEDIA

MEDIA

Express Travel World

26 June 2013

'Ayanaant' focuses on innovation in outbound travel sector

Viva Voyages, a travel representation and marketing company, held an outbound travel thought leadership meet at New Delhi recently to discuss the issues plaguing the outbound travel market. Appropriately named 'Ayanaant', which means solstice, the power packed meet saw a convergence of industry leaders coming up with ideas for innovation in the outbound travel industry…

Full article:

http://travel.financialexpress.com/latest-updates/1533-ayanaant-focuses-on-innovation-in-outbound-travel-sector

SOCIAL MEDIA

Ayanaant Blog

• http://ayanaant.vivavoyages.in/

Facebook

• https://www.facebook.com/ayanaant.conclave

Twitter

• https://twitter.com/ayanaant

LinkedIn

• http://in.linkedin.com/pub/ayanaant-conclave/67/539/ab7

LinkedIn Group : Advisory Council

• http://in.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4893149