ICONIC 2018 forum, held recently in New Delhi, has put the spotlight on the aviation and tourism as two important components of the increasingly globalized world economy. While the travel and tourism sector accounted for around 9.6 per cent of the country’s GDP in 2016, India is also expected to become the 3rd largest aviation market in the world by 2020. The platform seeks to act as the melting pot of ideas, deliberating on the myriad operational, technology integration, and governance-related challenges for the tourism and aviation sectors of India.
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The forum is hosted and curated by Red Hot Communications, that brings together experts from aviation and tourism sectors to discuss and debate on various issues and concerns and the way forwards for the concerned sectors. The event had two panel discussions on “Technology and Tourism: Boon or Bane” and “Aviation: Challenges for Growth or Decline”.
Jyoti Mayal, Organizer of ICONIC Forum and Honorary Secretary General, TAAI, said, “We at TAAI, as an industry association wish to work closely with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and other stakeholders to draft the guidelines for better policies and governance for the future. In terms of GST implementation, we want a proper document draft to set the right processes in place. We also request the government to give us a deemed export industry status for foreign exchange earnings from travel trade, and demand exemption of GST for outbound tour and travels services from India.”
Ashwani Lohani, Chairman, Indian Railway Board, who was present as the Guest of Honour, mentioned that the Indian Railways is investing hugely in “technology for passenger security and convenience” by introducing new-age automatic door closers, fire sensors, entertainment systems inside trains, smart card ticketing, etc. “While the ‘personal touch’ cannot be ushered by technology, it can be used as a tool for passengers to enhance their experience,” he said.
Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India said, “in India, there is probably no other sector that is getting as much impacted as the tourism sector due to proliferation of technology. It is important for government stakeholders to adapt and become sensitive towards these changes.”
Vandana Aggarwal, Economic Advisor, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Govt. of India emphasized that the Ministry is committed to make the general passenger experience smoother and robust, while constantly adding value to capacity building and profitability of airline companies. “We are making the passenger experience easier by removing regulations and/or associated costs attached with any of the regulations,” said Ms. Aggarwal.
Sanjiv Kapoor, Chief Strategy & Commercial Officer, Vistara said, “In recent times, we have a growing temptation to regulate the airline business much more than any other. I am in favour of regulation as it is a constant to safety and security of passengers. At the same time, if we need to build truly global aviation hubs and attract more domestic flyers, we must add massively to existing airport infrastructure and capabilities.”
Speakers at the forum included, Aloke Bajpai, Founder, IXIGO; Kapil Kaul, Director South Asia & Middle East, CAPA Centre For Aviation; Ashish Kumar, Managining Director, Agnitia Consulting; Dipak Deva, Managing Director, Travel Corporation India; Rakshit Desai, Managing Director, FCM Travel Solutions India; Sandeep Dwivedi, COO, ITQ, Gilbert George, VP-Sales, Jet Airways; Wolfgang Will, Director- South Asia, Lufthansa German Airlines; Suresh Nair, General Manager-India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sanjay Kumar, Former Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo.
