KOCHI:
In a novel initiative, close to 200 delegates at a global meet on travel took a 30-minute breather from the proceedings this forenoon to line up under the sun for a human formation that read ‘World Tourism Day’, bringing into sharp focus the significance of September 27.
Wearing caps in saffron, white and green in the order of India’s tricolor, 185 participants from various parts of the globe at the International Conference on Tourism Technology (ICTT) here symbolically blurred man-made boundaries of countries, hailing the spirit of universal oneness.
Once the delegates and officials at the meadow stood in the intended formation facing the backwaters against the backdrop of the ICTT venue of Le Meridien Hotel in a quiet pocket of suburban Kundannur, the organisers let the drone camera move up and capture the prized occasion that lasted a couple of minutes under the azure sky.
“This is not just about forming three words in English. It is basically about the increasing importance of World Tourism Day,” said Anish Kumar P K, convener of the September 26-27 ICTT being organised by the Association of Tourism Trade Organisations, India (ATTOI) in association with the Kerala government’s Department of Tourism. “The message the sight lends is steeped in the idea of universal brotherhood which has a great role in global tourism of our times.”
The delegates, too, enjoyed the experience. “The weather was sunny and warm. That is how it ought to be anyway,” smiled a homestay owner from upstate Malabar.
The two-day conclave, inaugurated by Kerala’s Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran, has experts from across the world discussing newest trends in the application of cutting-edge technologies on tourism and intelligent use of apps that are giving the industry fresh new energy. The inaugural ICTT was held in 2013, followed by a second edition in 2017 — all with the idea of meeting the demand and supply of changing business situations even as the tourism community is comprehensively reliant on expertise and modernisation.
The conference enables the travel and tourism industrialists in India and neighbouring countries to acclimatise to the varying technologies, obtaining skills in surviving/winning over competitors, comprehending the significance of web marketing and the use of the resources accessible online to run business.
