Ministry of Tourism’s B2B ‘boutique roadshows’ may travel to other destinations after Raipur and Goa where the shows were recently conducted. India Tourism’s Western Region office that organised the two roadshows is weighing other destination options where similar shows can be conducted. The two roadshows, conducted on December 18 and 19 in Raipur and Goa respectively, were the first physical shows since the pandemic related lockdown was enforced in late March.
According to D. Venkatesan, Regional Director (West & Central), India Tourism Mumbai, “We are kind of activating small boutique events and physical interaction. These are all B2B events.Virtually, they have been happening for the last eight months or so. Now the destinations are opening, people are travelling. Goa, as you may have heard, is often chock-a-block and
sold out.”
“After Raipur and Goa, we are looking at other cities also. Indore is one such place. It’s a big city with lots of offerings in terms of excursions options to Mandu, Maheshwar, Ujjain, Mahakaleshwar etc. Besides, there is a lot of traffic that comes from states like Gujarat and Maharashtra to Indore, so we want to do something there. Then we have Kolhapur in Western Maharashtra that attracts lots of people from Northern Karnataka. Wherever there are opportunities for driving excursions and stuffs, we are looking for those kind of destinations. Tour operators can help drive tourist traffic to these destinations.”
Commenting on the two events in Raipur and Goa that were attended and inaugurated by Union Tourism Minister Prahlad Singh Patel and ADG RupinderBrar, respectively, Venkatesan informed, “They were B2B events. The main objective was to create networking opportunity. For the Goa event we brought tour operators from Southern Maharashtra to go as buyers because maximum travel takes over roads.While driving they explored the road condition, wayside amenities and stuffs. We kept the numbers low. There were only 15 tour operators (buyers from Maharashtra) and 30 suppliers from Goa. It was kind of a controlled event in view of the prevailing situation. We wanted to create one-on-one buyer-supplier networking opportunity.”
The event was supported by Goa Tourism and Travel & Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG).
The Raipur roadshow was organisedwith the support of Chattisgarh Tourism Board and Gujarat Tourism. A total of 15 tour operators from Gujarat flew into Raipur for B2B interaction with their Chattisgarh counterpart followed by a familiarisation tour of Bastar to explore the region’s tourism offerings.
