SATTE 2015: a B2B Travel Show

Turkey participants at SATTE 2015

SATTE is a business to business (or what in the Management terminology is termed as B2B) global travel industry event that is held annually and this year it was held from 29th to 31st January 2015 at the Pragati Maidan in Delhi. This is an event where ones meets, networks and conducts business. I got an invitation to attend the event as a travel blogger and as I was curious as to what happens at such an event I decided to check it out.

The SATTE 2015 at Pragati Maidan

To avoid the hassles of driving and parking I went to the Pragati Maidan by Metro and from there it was just a walking distance to Gate 8. I did the formalities of Registration at the registration desk which was a smooth affair as they had prior information about me and printed the tag in no time. The event was held at two halls. In the bigger hall at the ground level there were mainly Indian companies led by the States stalls which were bigger compared to the individual hotel and travel companies. Largest were the Madhya Pradesh and Kerala. Gujarat and Odisha (Orissa) also had big venues as these were also the sponsoring states besides MP. This UBM India event was supported by Incredible India. 

Kerala at SATTE 2105

Among the hotels it was not as if only big hotel chains were there like Accor, Radisson, Taj etc but even stand alone hotel properties. For example I met one Sahib Singh who runs only two properties in Patel Nagar by the names of Balsons Continental and Balsons International. I queried him as to the response and he was enthusiastic about the response as he said that the visitors in this show are serious buyers and sellers.

Sahib Singh, Owner, Balsons

Another unusual thing I noticed is that even states like Chattisgarh are now trying to promote tourism in a serious way as recently they had even organised the Sirpur festival and are now participating in these trade shows. There were several adventure/wildlife/Safari players also including the Pugdundee Safaris as finally the Indians are venturing out for such holiday destinations as well.

Thailand at SATTE 2015

The floor above had on one side international participants including the Partner countries of Thailand, Malaysia, Mauritius and Turkey. Even Israel was promoting itself as a travel destination in a big way! Of course the biggest was that of Thailand and they had under their umbrella fifty hotels, travel agents and companies who had set up stalls.

The second hall was mainly hosting international countries – prominent among them were Great Britain, Turkey and Spain but there were several smaller countries also participating in the show including Bhutan, Bulgaria, Macau, Maldives among many others.

To tap the Western India audience SATTE 2015 is also being organised in Mumbai from 18th to 19th August.