INDIA REMAINS A HUGELY IMPORTANT MARKET FOR REUNION
(Posted 31st March 2016)
The second edition of the Destination Reunion Forum was held in Chennai. The project is the brainchild of the French Consulate in Pondicherry and the event was dedicated to tourism professionals in Chennai and Tamil Nadu. While there did the Reunion Island Tourism Office (IRT) and Air Austral showcase Reunion island to tour operators and travel agencies present.
After the first edition of the Destination Forum which took place in Pondicherry on January 12th, it was the turn of Chennai to host the second such meeting of tourism professionals in the Tamil Nadu region. This event was organized in partnership with the French Consulate in Pondicherry and representatives of three French regions present in Tamil Nadu (State of South India), the island of Reunion was held on March 24th at the Hyatt Park. Alongside Ms. Anne-Laure Payet, who is responsible for promoting the island in India, were the representatives of regional airline Air Austral and of Atout France .
The Consul of France surrounded by representatives of the French regions – © Muriel Bertile
For IRT, the presence of Reunion in the Destination Forum in Chennai had the main objectives of:
- train professionals in the Indian tourism about Reunion
- better equip the Indian tourism professionals with knowledge;
- encourage them to sell the destination and expand the number of sales to the island of Reunion.
The representative of Air Austral in Chennai S. Thilaganathan and responsible for promoting India IRT Anne-Laure Payet – © Muriel Bertile
25 tour operators and travel agents attended the meetings together with their counterpart French professionals.The B2B event took place in three stages:
- the presentation of these French regions;
- the workshop with Indian professionals;
- the roundtable that allowed the French and Indian professionals to discuss specific topics.
The roundtable enabled to Indian agencies to exchange with Anne-Laure Payet on visa-related procedure.
It should be recalled that Indian agencies accredited in organizing stays of less than fifteen days in Reunion Island, their travelers do benefit from a visa waiver which was instituted in August 2014 alongside a similar deal with China. Simplification of the Visa procedure is a real sales argument for Indian travel agents who can now offer their customers traveling to Reunion, a French island, in a much shorter time as the Visa application process has been eliminated for travelers meeting the requirements.
Subsequently did the travel professionals display a strong interest for the island of Reunion which appears as a new and attractive destination in the Indian market.
After the Forum, the Director General of the #1 travel website in the Indian market ‘Make My Trip‘ hoped that his own sales team can also benefit from training about tourism attractions in Reunion. Several Indian professionals have also asked for the sales manuals and other sales collaterals from Reunion, as well as the list of incoming agencies to establish direct contact and commence doing business.
For added details on Reunion click on www.reunion.fr
