Atout France – France Tourism Development Agency recently organised its biannual B2B offsite showcase Explore France in Delhi at the Leela Palace from 21st to 23rd September. A delegation of 16 key stakeholders representing the diversity of France’s varied travel offering interacted with more than 35 members of the Indian travel trade fraternity over 2 days of pre-scheduled meetings. More than 500 meetings took place over these two days enabling the buyers and exhibitors to establish connections and discuss business opportunities.
The showcase commenced with a presentation for the delegation on the Indian travel landscape and the ever-evolving profile of the Indian traveller and trends prevalent in the country. The presentation included an insightful intervention by Mr Sudeep Kumar Sinha of Deloitte replete with statistics on global outbound tourism trends from India and France’s favourable positioning amongst other interesting insights. Complementing this, Ms Sheetal Munshaw Director Atout France India shared a detailed presentation on the many diverse facets of India and the best practices on working with Indian professionals and understanding India’s travel and work dynamic from a closer lens.
The presentation was followed by an exclusive sit-down Indian dinner for our partners that put the spotlight on the fragrant flavours of North Indian cuisine at the Jamavar restaurant at the Leela Palace.
In addition to the pre-scheduled business meetings held at the Leela Palace, a cocktail networking was organised at the Embassy of France in India in the presence of Ms Lisa AMON –Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of France in India. The evening included a magnificent performance by the talented artist and singer Mr Thomas Lefrancois who added a musical touch to the evening’s proceedings.
For the very first time, on 23rd September, a dedicated Media Hour was organised allowing for our partners to exchange with B2B media pan India. This workshop also saw the highest media attendance for our Explore France offsites with a total of 13 B2B publications present over 2 days.
Sharing her thoughts, Sheetal Munshaw said, “India is evolving as is our strategy for the market over the last few years. Our B2B showcase Explore France has now become a bi-annual affair with leisure travel as its focus whereas our other IP, France Excellence aims to develop deeper connects between the network of luxury stakeholders in India and France every alternate year. This is the first time that we’ve organised an offsite in Delhi and we are very pleased with the response. We are certain that our stakeholders on both sides will continue to develop their synergies to showcase France in the best manner possible to the discerning Indian traveller”.
