The Jaipur Literature Festival started with the government support has a life on its own, similarly the World Music Festival (Udaipur) created a buzz with the support of the government; now has established on its own. So, ten years down the line, is it the time for the Great Indian Travel Bazaar to make a niche of it?
Founded in 2006 and produced by Teamwork Arts from 2008 the Jaipur Literature Festival is described as the ‘greatest literary show on Earth. The past decade has seen it transforming into a global literary phenomenon having hosted nearly 2000 speakers and welcoming over a million booklovers from across the globe. In 2014, the JLF spread its wings beyond the borders of India with an annual summer event in London. In 2015, it headed across the pond to Boulder, Colorado where it hosts a similar event every September.
Similarly, the World Music Festival (Also known as Udaipur World Music Festival) is an annual event, conducted every year in February. A festival of immense size and scale features diverse music from different continents and regions. Music lovers belonging to all kinds of background participate in this festival. After three editions the festival has created its own place in this segment.
On the other side, the Great Indian Travel Bazaar (popularly known as GITB), has definitely emerged as one of India’s premier event for the suppliers like hotels, destinations and DMCs among others, to showcase their products and attractiveness to some very influential travel trade buyers from important international source markets.
However, as the show now celebrated its landmark 10th edition, there are industry voices who want the show to grow in rank and profile. The number of foreign buyers have remained in the region of 250-300 for the past many years, and so has the number of exhibitors. And there are stakeholders who believe that the show needs to grow its buyers’ number.
In a recent development the FICCI and Department of Tourism (Rajasthan) have extended their MoU till 2024 after completing the 10 successful years.
So, having a large number of supporters – Hotel Chains or Individual Properties , DMC’s, Tourism Boards and Travel Companies, especially ten years down the line is it the time for GITB to create a niche of it?
While speaking at the inaugural session of 10th edition of The Great Indian Travel Bazaar (GITB), Chief Minister of the state Vasundhara Raje stated that the role of government is just to support the initiative – taken by the industry stakeholders, up to an extent, and set them free to have their own identity without government labeling.