Mumbai: Maharashtra and its tigers were in the limelight among the State’s diverse tourism products during the OTM 2024, which began here recently to highlight India’s thriving $50 billion travel market.
Around 1600+ exhibitors from 60 countries and 30+ Indian states highlighted their tourism products on display during the three-day extravaganza. These companies form a great mix of hoteliers, tour operators, aggregators, adventure tour companies and jungle safari companies.
Describing the OTM 2024 as an exceptional opportunity to start new trade relationships with regional and global partners. Girish Mahajan, Maharashtra Tourism Minister, stated that Jungle Safaris, adventure tours were among the State’s numerous tourism offerings offered by the participating 38 stakeholders.
Chandrashekhar Jaiswal, General Manager, Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation & Hanumant Hede – Deputy Director, Directorate of Tourism, Government of Maharashtra inaugurated the exhibition stall in the presence of prominent representatives of companies from across Maharashtra, international guests and tourism stakeholders.
Jaiswal said the Maharashtra Government is extensively participating in trade fairs to establish a dynamic platform for traders to showcase their tourism products, while also promoting Maharashtra as a prominent destination.
Meanwhile, apart from a roadshow, Karnataka with its 125-member tourism contingent also showcased here their tourism offerings including jungle lodges and resorts, historical sites like Hampi and Badami, hill stations like Coorg and Chikmagalur, among others.
Wild Planet Jungle Resort is bringing in the “Tropical Rainforests” experience through ‘eco-lodges’ amidst gurgling streams and viewing ‘elephant herds’ with other forest denizens in the Nilgiri mountain ranges bordering the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve of Tamil Nadu.
Yet another interesting participant in the OTM is one that reminds of the famed “Woodstock” music festival held in America in 1969. Today, this name is borne by “Woodstock Resorts” which is highlighting luxury resort living amidst tall deodar forests in Coorg, Karnataka.
The “Kashmir Holiday Lab” Tours and Travels is offering unique holiday packages including “Magical Kashmir Tour” with low rates as much as 40% in the off season, according to Umar Malik, Managing Director.
Sarawak, Malaysia’s largest state on the island of Borneo, is showcasing the gigantic caves in the world’s “oldest” rainforest and shooting down river rapids amidst thick jungles, that are home to wild orang-utans, comical-looking ‘proboscis’ monkeys, Oriental pied hornbills, carnivorous plants, ‘Rafflesia’ – the world’s ‘largest’ parasitic flower sized like a coffee table, waterfalls, coral reefs with scuba diving and caves with signs of human habitation dating back to 40,000 years.
Talang Satang National Park in Sarawak is the nesting ground for the ‘Green’ and ‘Hawksbill’ marine turtles,
while the ‘Wind Cave’ and ‘Fairy Cave’ Nature Reserves highlight stalagmites and stalactites formed over thousands of years, according to Dr Fency Prasadevi Sivadasan, Senior Manager, Sarawak Tourism Board.
Sarawak is also home to 670+ bird species including eight species of hornbills of which one is the unique “White-crowned Hornbill” (Berecornis comatus) and the critically-endangered “Helmeted Hornbill” (Phinoplax vigil), she said.
Another crowd-puller is the “Rainforest World Music Festival” schedule for June 28-30, 2024 at Kuching, Sarawak in Malaysia, that reverberates for three days through global musical performers with wide-ranging styles and genres setting the rhythm amidst a rainforest setting with backdrop of Mt. Santubong.
Tourism Malaysia is upscaling its tourism activities through various promotional activities in India including the “Malaysia Food and Cultural Festival from February 5 to 11, 2024, besides roadshows in Bengaluru, Chennai, Calcutta and Ahmedabad from February 11 to 19, 2024 before culminating in the South Asia Travel and Tourism Exchange (SATTE) in Delhi from February 22 to 24.
“Being Malaysia’s fifth-largest source of tourists, India is a priority market for Malaysia with robust economic ties and deep cultural connections,” Dato Dr Ammar Abd, Ghapar, Director-General of Tourism Malaysia, said, adding “The period January to September 2023 witnessed Malaysia welcoming 14.4 million tourists with 472,479 arrivals from India itself.”
Meanwhile, Egypt Tourism is also in the limelight where the “Pharoah” King of Egypt is spotted majestically moving around the lanes of the OTM venue.
The Pharoah is pitching for TBODMC — a travel boutique online and a b2b platform for flights, hotels, sightseeing, rail euro, travel insurance etc,” according to Maria Samy, Assistant Manager, TBODMC Egypt, who handles the company’s Sales and Operations.
