TAAI

AP CM to inaugurate 55th annual TAAI Convention

EH Staff - Hyderabad

Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC)

The chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy will inaugurate the 55th annual convention and exhibition of TAAI to be held from September 1-4, 2006. While the inauguration will take place at Shilpa Vedika, the convention will be held at the adjacent Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC), located in HITECH City. Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Muzzaffar Husain Baig will be the guest of honour at the convention, while L K Advani, leader of the opposition will present the valedictory note. Dr J Geetha Reddy, Tourism Minister, Andhra Pradesh will be present with her team, representing the host state at the convention, which is slated to be visited by a number of other dignitaries as well. This year the TAAI Travel Mart held along with the convention is being organised by Express TravelWorld, which has also bagged the official publication status for Navigator 2007, its annual research manual for the travel and tourism industry.

The theme for the convention this year, which has been titled as the Indian Travel Congress, is ‘The Future is Now.’ The theme reflects the ethos of the current environment in the travel and tourism industry, which is packed with newer approaches, expanding horizons, larger markets, new players, more options for customers, intense competition, strengthening of alliances and several other challenges and opportunities. The call clearly is to be prepared for the future and to do it right now. The highlight of this year's convention is that for the first time each business session will have two key note speakers and there will be a two hour open forum on September 2nd for members to discuss their issues with the managing committee.

The business sessions are spread over two days (September 2nd and 3rd) with three sessions each on both days. The first business session is titled Brick, Click and Fire - which focuses on the future of the legacy travel set-ups vis-à-vis the online travel business. The debate here will be whether both can co-exist or will one supersede the other. This first session panel will be moderated by Ashok Fenn, President and CEO of Interglobe Air Transport and is sponsored by Interglobe Technologies. The subsequent speaker session will be on Emerging Consumer Trends in the travel industry and Daniel Dell Olmo, Vice President, Cendant Corp will address the gathering.

The topic of the second business session sponsored by Thomas Cook will be Outbound Tourism. The panel moderator for this session will be Om Prakash Sehgal, director, Orbit Tours and Travels. Amitabh Kant, joint secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India will be the panel moderator for the third business session of day one. The topic for this session is Building an Incredible India. The first speaker session on September 3rd will be addressed by Captain Gopinath, Chairman & Managing Director, Air Deccan while Dr Sudhakar Krishna Murthy, will discuss the topic, “Sexual Health - The Bed Room v/s Board Room," in the second speaker session. The final speaker session of the day will be by Brian Barrow, IATA Travel Agency Commissioner, on "Living with ADM's."

Apart from the various business session the convention will also have a series of hosted functions in the evening for the delegates to network and unwind. Cocktails and dinner on the inaugural evening held at HICC will be hosted by Jet Airways while cocktails sponsored by Air Sahara and dinner by Air-India on the second evening will be held at hotel Taj Krishna. Kingfisher Airlines will host the cocktails and dinner function on the third evening.