Holiday planners and tourists flock to the 30th edition of TTF Kolkata
Kolkata, July 16 (IBNS): The Travel and Tourism Fair, popularly known as TTF, returned to the city of its origin, Kolkata, with the three-day annual edition.
Present at the inauguration were Toufique Hasan, Deputy High Commissioner of Bangladesh High Commission; Atri Bhattacharya, IAS, Principal Secretary, Dept Of Tourism, Govt of West Bengal; Sweeya Santipitaks , Consul-General of the Royal Thai Consulate, Viranga Bandara, Assistant Director-Marketing, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, Isra Stapanseth, Director, Tourism Authority of Thailand, and others.
Organised by Fairfest Media, TTF is probably the oldest and definitely one of the biggest travel trade show networks in India today.
Said Viranga Bandara, “I am glad to be a part of this TTF, in Kolkata. We are trying to improve the way of tourism business with the India. This fair is another opportunity for us to make a strong bonding with India’s travel and tourism culture.”
Said Isra Stapanseth, "Being a part of this trade fair is a happy event for me. We are trying to improve further the bonding between India and Thailand through travel and tourism.”
The 30th Kolkata edition was attended by 440 exhibitors, including various national tourism boards and state tourism boards.
Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal took part as Partner Countries while Thailand and Bahrain joined as Feature Countries.
Bhutan, China, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, South Africa and UAE were some of the other countries present at TTF Kolkata.
Besides India Tourism, state tourism departments from West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Jharkhand, Lakshadweep, Tripura, Nagaland, Jammu & Kashmir and Karnataka put up pavilions showcasing the major attractions of the respective states.
One of the key features of TTF Kolkata was the maiden TTF Forum, a knowledge-sharing platform.
The inaugural session was marked by a panel discussion on 'Exploring Travel & Tourism Opportunities Beyond Eastern India: How Bangladeshi Tourists Outnumbered European Travellers to India', where representatives of prominent destination management companies from Bangladesh were present.
Led by Deputy Director Daleep Singh Rathore, Rajasthan Tourism presented a lively road show at TTF Kolkata.
Sanjiv Agarwal, Chairman and CEO of Fairfest Media Ltd said, “With the increasing importance of outbound and inbound potential in the East and Southeast Asia, TTF serves as a strategically important gateway for the industry. That is the reason it is a full house show every year since the last 29 years - a legacy that we are proud of . This trade fair is one of the leading and top most B2B, B2C Travel and Tourism fair. We are trying to improve our tourism market."
TTF is supported by Incredible India, TAAI, OTOAI, ATOAI, ADTOI, IATO, IAAI, SKAL International, NEHATO and ETAA among others.
After Kolkata, West India edition of TTF will take place in Ahmedabad (August 30, 31, September 1), Surat (September 6-8), Mumbai (September 13-15) and Pune (September 20-22). In 2020, TTF Bengaluru is scheduled from January 17-19 and TTF Chennai on January 24-26.
(Reporting by Avirupa Das)
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