Third ET Travel & Tourism Conclave to deliberate future of Indian hospitality

The third edition of ET Travel & Tourism annual conclave and awards will deliberate on a slew of issues pertaining to India’s travel and tourism industry and the way forward. The annual conclave and awards is scheduled to take place tomorrow, November 26, 2024 at Crowne Plaza Gurugram.

Supported by Incredible India, ministry of tourism, government of India and all the leading trade associations in the travel and hospitality industry—IATO, ATOAI, TAFI, OTOAI and FHRAI, the event has state tourism boards like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh as supporting partner states.

The day-long conclave will see the participation of diplomats, tourism ministers, top bureaucrats and CEOs of top travel and hospitality companies in the country. At the conclave deliberations will be held on a wide range of topics including impact of IPOs on the travel and hospitality sector, the challenges on the sustainable development front, the growing trend of experiential tourism, role of advanced technology like AI, IoT, and trends in Indian hospitality and its future trends, etc. There will be a dedicated panel discussion on Maha Kumbh which will have UP Tourism presenting the preparations and arrangements going around to make the Kumbh at Prayagraj one of the most memorable ones.The conclave will begin with a keynote by Amitabh Kant, the G20 Sherpa and former CEO of Niti Aayog and Rajesh Magow, co-founder and group CEO of MakeMytrip. Senior bureaucrats like Sheo Shekhar Shukla, principal secretary-tourism, Madhya Pradesh, and Prakhar Mishra, director-ecotourism, Uttar Pradesh will make presentations at the conclave.

The key speakers who are confirmed their attendance at the conclave include Dhruv Shringi, co-founder & CEO of Yatra.com; Ankush Nijhawan, co-founder, TBO.com; Rajesh Loomba, chairman, Eco Mobility; Suresh Khadakbhawi, CEO, DigiYatra; Dipak Dewa, MD, SITA; Dev Karvat, founder and CEO, Asego; Raj Singh, founder, Antara Cruises; Ramalingam Subramanian, president, Cox & Kings. Among others. From the academic,research and consultancy side, the conclave will see experts like Ujwal Priyadarshi of InvestIndia; Jaideep Dang of JLL, Kinjal Shah of ICRA; Anshul Gupta of Accenture; Aalap Bansal, KPMG India; Prateek Hira, tourism expert and academician; Aashish Gupta of FAITH; Prof Nimit Chaudhary, Jamia Millia Islamia University; Dr PB Sharma, VC, Amity University, putting across their views and observations about the sector.

From the hotel industry, the key speakers who would talk about the hospitality trends of the tourism industry are Zubin Saxena from Hilton; Sudeep Jain of IHG Hotels; Jatin Khanna from Sarovar Hotels; Jimmy Mistry of Della Group; Kahraman Yigit from Olive by Embassy; Amanpreet Singh Bajaj of airbnb.

The conclave will conclude with awards in the evening, which will be graced by the Union culture and tourism minister, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. Nearly 50 awards will be distributed based on the decision of an eminent jury chaired by former secretary-tourism, Aravind Singh.