by NR INDRAN / INT

The 100th edition of TTF, India’s oldest and biggest Travel show, opened today at Nehru Centre in Worli, with the objective of catering to the Diwali and Winter holiday travel.

The February edition, called the OneWorld Travel Mart, is well established as India’s biggest and most popular international travel trade show for over a decade and a half. Like last year, the feedback from the industry resulted in the need for another event to tap the strong Diwali/Winter vacation season.

The September edition is a one-stop shop for Mumbaikars to make their travel plans for the upcoming Diwali and Winter vacations.

It’s a full-house show with over 150 exhibitors, including representation from 21 Indian states and 6 countries. Among the states present in a big way is Rajasthan as Partner State, while Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Lakshadweep and Kerala are participating as Feature States. They have come all the way to showcase their tourist attractions of their states and offer attractive packages and options for the upcoming holiday seasons.

In addition to the above, is the big presence of Host State Maharashtra, and representation from other states like Assam, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.

Leading the international presence is Britain, the feature country. The other overseas destinations represented are Bhutan, China, Dubai, Japan and Maldives.

Lavasa, India’s planned hill station, is participating as the Destination Partner, while Travel News Digest (TND) is the Official Publication. Bright Outdoors is the Outdoor Partner.

Besides State and National Tourism Organizations, there are a large number of hotels, resorts, travel agents, tour-operators, car-rentals, cruise-lines, railways, coach-operators etc.

TTF is an ideal forum for tourism organizations to aggressively launch their travel-trade and consumer marketing campaigns for the upcoming Diwali and Winter holidays. The participants are making an aggressive pitch for the Indian tourists with attractive displays and eye-catching exhibits showcasing their attractions and offers. Culture, nature, adventure, cuisine, history, antiquities, shopping, events etc. are all showcased at Worli’s Nehru Centre, giving the tourists an opportunity to evaluate various options available and decide on standard or customized packages suiting their budget and individual needs and interests.

Among the activities planned are interesting presentations for the travel trade and general visitors. VisitBritain will be conducting workshops to brief travel agents about the attractions of Great Britain, and what facilitation and information they can provide for agents selling Great Britain.

Ansoo Gupta will deliver a Travel Talk for prospective tourists on Sunday 9th September at 4 pm on how to find time, money and inspiration to plan long, international trips.

The opening day, 7th September, is reserved for travel trade visitors from 12 noon to 7 pm. The fair is open to all on the 2nd and 3rd day i.e. 8th and 9th September, from 11 am to 7 pm. There is a nominal entry fee of Rs 10/‐. Every visiting family gets a surprise gift. So even if you have not made up your mind about your next vacation travel, it will be worthwhile to visit the TTF this weekend!

Over the last fortnight TTF was organized in Ahmedabad and Surat, and before that in July in Hyderabad and Kolkata. TTF Pune will debut this year from 14th- 16th, completing the TTF series for 2012.

Next year it moves to Chennai and Bangalore in January, and then will come back to Mumbai and New Delhi in February. TTF & OTM is India’s only travel mart focusing exclusively on the Indian Tourist and is supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, as well as travel trade bodies like Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI), Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) and Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO). Travel News Digest is the official trade publication.

For over 20 years now TTF has been providing a countrywide networking and marketing platform to the global travel and tourism industry to reach out to its target audience in India.

Fairfest Media Limited pioneered TTF as India’s exclusive Travel Mart way back in 1989. Today it is the oldest and the biggest travel show network, representing the maximum number of locations, participants and visitors. Over the years it has introduced an exclusive International Section, branded as OTM – Outbound Travel Mart, to address the growing numbers of international participants. Apart from the TTF & OTM, Fairfest Media has to its credit a number of other trade shows, viz Municipalika – India’s leading exhibition on municipal services and sustainable urban development.

Fairfest Media is organizing the Inaugural OneWorld Travel Mart, OTM, later this month (September 27 – 30, 2012) in San Francisco. The OneWorld Travel Mart (OTM) will bring international and domestic destination sellers together for four days with U.S. buyers and consumers for an unprecedented global travel marketplace.

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