Business & Luxury Travel Mart (BLTM) at Hyatt Regency Gurgaon on 24-25 October 2016 has set a new milestone for MICE-focused travel shows in India.
BLTM was very well received as India’s first full-fledged travel mart focused on specialised Business, MICE and Luxury Travel Sellers from all over the world.
For the first-time ever in a B2B travel mart, over 150 qualified and fully Hosted Buyers from corporate companies and travel organisations from all over India were fully hosted with airfare, accommodation and all meals at the venue hotel. In addition, international Buyers were also extended similar host hospitalities from South Africa, Thailand, USA, Taiwan, France and Malaysia.
In the two-day trade show, 152 Seller delegates from 94 exhibiting companies met with over 144 Hosted Buyers and 146 Trade Invitees.
Premium hotel chains at BLTM included FRHI Hotels & Resorts showcasing Fairmont, Raffles and Swissotel, Royal Orchid Hotels, InterContinental Hotels Group and Hyatt Hotels.
Other leading hotel brands like Shanti Maurice- A Nira Resort, Royal Orchid Hotels, InterContinental Hotels Group, Hilton Hotels, Hyatt Hotels, Taj Hotels Resorts & Palaces, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Radisson Blu Hotels, Lemon Tree & Red Fox Hotels, Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts, Clark & 1589 Group of Hotels, The Ambassador Group of Hotels, The Pride Group of Hotels, DS Group of Hotels, Mahindra Hotels, The Chancery Hotels, The Tamara Coorg, Minor Group, TGB Banquets & Hotels, Vythiri Village Resort were present.
The 1:1 Hosted Buyer to Seller ratio at Global destination representations in the inaugural BLTM included Nepal, Taiwan, Korea, China, Fiji, Dubai, South Africa, Liberia, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom and Russia.
Byungsun Lee, Director of Korea Tourism Organisation- India Office, said, “The main reason for our participation was to capture the MICE business from North India. BLTM belongs to a reputed travel trade brand and as expected witnessed a good first inaugural show.”
Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Jammu & Kashmir participated at full throttle along with several private sector companies from all parts of India showcasing India at its best as a Business, MICE and Luxury destination.
organised by SITE, followed by that on MICE by NIMA. Back-to-back discussions were conducted on the emerging opportunities and destinations for weddings by WedWise. Another interesting session was dedicated to destination promotions through film shoots, curated by The Film & Television Producers Guild of India.
“BLTM filled a vacuum in the evolution of travel trade shows in India, by introducing a sustainable large-format show focused on Business Travel and MICE Buyers in a format where fully Hosted
BLTM was in line with global standards. Our post show report confirmed each Buyer and Seller managed at least 30 business meetings at the mart, resulting in a total of 4,700 appointments between Sellers and Buyers on the two days of BLTM.
In the lead-up to BLTM, there were 450 hosted buyer applications of which only 150 qualified intense screening and confirmed signifying great buyer interests and strict qualification.
The two on-site Buyer-Seller appointment sessions designed to facilitate quick face-to-face appointment requests were a huge hit.
The online meeting diary of BLTM for making appointments between the Buyers and Sellers before the show registered over 2200 confirmed appointments show. On-site 2500 additional meetings were scheduled.
Major sponsor of BLTM2016, Bengal Tourism hosted the networking lunches and dinners for the Buyers and Sellers. A great exposure was given to the branding of Beautiful Bengal throughout the exhibition halls.
Hyatt Regency Gurgaon was the Venue Partner for BLTM with several Hyatt properties on prominent display at a corporate pavilion at the BLTM.
In addition to the Hosted Buyers, there were an equal number of invitees from travel trade associations like Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE) India, Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI), Network of Indian MICE Agents (NIMA), Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO), Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI), Enterprising Travel Agent’s Association (ETAA), Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI) and members of the media.
Akbar Holidays was the official Travel Partner of BLTM and Eco Rent A Car was the Transportation Partner.
Institutional Partners included SITE, OTOAI, NIMA, IATO, TAAI, TAFI, ETAA, ADTOI, The Film & Television Producers Guild of India Ltd and WedWise.
In another first, the MICE CLUB was launched at BLTM, with an objective to facilitate focused interaction and networking among a community of Buyers and Sellers from the specialised Business Travel and MICE segments. The missions and objectives of the club include organising the Buyer and Seller commu-
nities serving the Business Travel and MICE markets in India, facilitating ongoing interaction and networking, sharing knowledge and creating standards and accreditations.
In addition to buying and selling opportunities at the show floor, there was an equally interesting line up of Panel Discussions conducted on the sidelines of the exhibition. The eminent panelists at the sessions deliberated on the latest issues related to Incentive Travel, MICE, Luxury, Destination Weddings, and destination promotion through film shoots.
The session on Incentive Travel was Buyers meet Sellers based on pre scheduled appointments,” remarked Sanjiv Agarwal, Chairman of Fairfest Media Ltd.
Based on overwhelming positive feedback from both buyers and sellers, BLTM will be expanded to three cities in 2017 – Mumbai, Hyderabad and Delhi NCR, to cater to the West, South and North India markets of business travel and MICE.
The dates for BLTM in 2017 are as follows: Mumbai (21-23 February), Hyderabad (14-15 July) and Delhi NCR
(26-27 October). The Mumbai edition of BLTM will be held side-by-side OTM – India’s largest travel trade show, with participation from more than 50 countries every year.
With India being a continent size country, this source market is potentially huge but scattered in different geographical regions. This is the reason for rolling out BLTM 2017 in three cities, to support sellers reach out to the top markets of West, South and North India.
The BLTM 2017 series has already received good initial response, with most of our 2016 exhibitors showing confirmed interest in multiple cities for next year.
BLTM is brought to you by Fairfest Media Ltd, India’s oldest and the leading travel trade show organizers since 1989.
Fairfest also organises OTM, India’s largest travel mart with more than 1000 exhibitors from 50 countries and TTF organised in 9 cities every year.
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