The Hindu Business Line : World Travel India's 2nd edition next year

Representatives from over 180 exhibiting companies from India and abroad attended the event. Conference delegates heralded the event as an outstanding success.

According to WTI's project manager, Mr Richard Gayle: "The concept of a major international travel trade show blended with a high level conference, was a potent formula."

An official statement from the organisers, Kinex Log, said the hosted buyer programme at the event allowed participants to meet with the tourism boards of Goa, Maharashtra and Kerala along with Jet Airways, Air Sahara, Indian Airlines and Le Meridien hotels, Kochi and Kovalam. Twenty-five buyers from North America, Europe, Africa, Russia and South-East Asia were brought to the event courtesy of Qatar Airways.

Kinex Log International is a UK-based conference and exhibition firm that specialises in organising trade shows across the globe. The Express group is a strategic media partner for the event.

Among the exhibiting companies at the WTI were Tourism Malaysia, Gulf Air, Dubai's DTCM, Visit Britain, Switzerland Tourism, Hong Kong Tourist Board and the Kingdom of Cambodia.

According to Mr Ashish Kumar Singh, Managing Director of Maharashtra Tourism, the event underscores India's importance on the international travel market. "WTI could well go a long way towards affirming Mumbai's credentials as a MICE (meeting, incentives, conferences and exhibitions)

destination," he said.

The regional representative of the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), Dr Harish Varma, said according to its estimates, India would receive five million visitors soon, reaching nine million by 2020.