European Tourism Association partners OTOAI at WTM

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otaiThe European Tourism Association (ETOA) has formed a new partnership with the Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) to cooperate on the promotion of the UK and Ireland’s visitor offer to the Indian market. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on ETOA’s stand at the World Travel Market held in London.

The main subject of the MOU is OTOAI’s support of ETOA’s March Marketplace (MAMA) business networking workshop, taking place on March 16-17, 2015 in London. The first day of the B2B workshops is dedicated to selling the UK and Ireland, followed by a day dedicated to selling London.

Guldeep Singh Sahni, President, OTOAI said, “ It gives me great pleasure to acknowledge the signing of an MOU between ETOA, the leading trade association for tour operators and suppliers with business in European destinations and OTOAI – a national, not for profit organisation comprising of India’s leading outbound operators, NTO’s, airlines and overseas suppliers wishing to do business in India. Our two regions have a long history of political, trade and travel links and we also have excellent flight connectivity. Europe and UK are very strongly represented in India by their various tourism boards already but signing an MOU with ETOA to promote MAMA 15 and UK with Ireland to begin with to our almost 300 active members, who collectively would influence travel business decisions globally to the tune of around 15 million USD, is an excellent initiative. We feel that mutual cooperation between ETOA and OTOAI would be immensely beneficial to the membership of both associations and MAMA 15 would showcase a multi layered destination experience in UK & Ireland to Indians who already have a fondness for and a pre-disposition to choose the UK for work, leisure and higher education. The benefits of the new transit visa regimen for UK with effect from December 2014 should also push up short term and transit traffic, which can have pleasantly surprising results on a destinations visitor economy. I congratulate ETOA on this initiative and wish your team all success in our future joint endeavour.”

“India is an origin market of enormous importance to us” said Tom Jenkins, CEO, ETOA. “More than 1.8 million visitors come from India into Europe and this is predicted to grow at a compound rate of seven percent in the near future. The affluent Indian consumer is becoming more used to travelling over here and more comfortable exploring what Europe has to offer.”

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Devender was born in the year when the Beatles Group was formed. He holds two master’s degrees in English Literature and Public Administration. He also has an Honors degree in English Literature and a post-graduate diploma in Corporate Communications and Public Relations. He ventured into business, forming his own Media House, Profiles Media Network Private Limited, a twenty-year-old company. Excelling as an editor, Marketing, PR, Anchor, and Advertising specialist, he is now expertly navigating the world of social media. A widely traveled professional internationally, Devender has a deep understanding of Travel and Tourism, Fashion and Lifestyle, Aviation, and Hospitality Industry. Connect with Devender Grover @ travelspan@gmail.com