Travel Distribution Summit India to Take Place in Mumbai 6-7 October 2009

This year’s annual Travel Distribution Summit India will feature 35 leading presenters at the Taj President hotel Mumbai between 6-7 October 2009.

Leading proceedings on October 6th is Glenn Fogel, Executive Vice President Corporate Development for priceline.com, with an insightful and animated look into India’s online travel environment, and some predictions for what to expect next based on his many year’s experience.

Online networking through social media channels has become an extremely important means of communication to acutely targeted market segments. As more Indian consumers login to social channels, marketing potential will be unfulfilled if social networks are not receiving some dedicated attention as will be discussed by TripAdvisor and Orkut.

As always there is plenty for the revenue managers as discussion on both event days dips in and out of the analytical side of sales. Industry veterans Puneet Mahindroo (Taj Hotels) and Gautam Bhandari (Marriott) will unravel some of the issues surrounding price discounting to stimulate demand and the possible implications this may have on a brand.

The event will continue its tradition of drawing upon global perspectives to help benchmark India’s position within the market. This year sees Marnix Fruitema (Air France KLM) confront the zero commission argument, while Frank Tietjen (TUI AG) applies some of his global experiences to shed light on changing consumer ecommerce behaviour.

The list of some of the key issues and opportunities that will be up for debate include:

- Airline withdrawals, zero commissions and the impact on India's travel landscape - Speakers: priceline.com; Air France KLM; CAPA; TAAI.

- Troubled economies and the changing behavior of India's travel consumers - TUI AG; MakeMyTrip; BID2travel.com.

- Competing on price to stimulate demand - Marriott International; Air India; Taj Hotels & Palaces.

- Embracing social networks and User Generated Content as marketing and distribution platforms - TripAdvisor; Reliance ADA Group; Google.

- Driving value to the corporate segment - Egencia.

- Brand perception and fickle consumer loyalty - Preferred Hotels Group; Fortune Park Hotels; Ginger Hotels.

- Lowering distribution costs and efficiency measures - redBus; iXiGO.com; Lemon Tree Hotels.

- Consolidations & acquisitions - a changing travel landscape - Amadeus.

- The future of OTAs as a distribution channel - Starwood Hotels; Travelguru.

- The changing face of the travel sales and marketing strategy - Yatra; Travelocity; Cleartrip.

An event not to be missed, registration for the Travel Distribution Summit India, now in its 4th year, is open.

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