On the first day of ITB Berlin 2015 (March 4-8), an India Forum will be organised, where a panel of eminent personalities from the tourism sector will sit for a discussion on India Outbound – India Inbound, Initiatives For Peace Through Tourism - Focus On The Woman Traveller. The discussion will be held in Hall 4.1, Room Regensburg from 3 pm-4 pm, after the presentation of a brand-new Outbound Tourism Study on India, based on surveys of tourism trade organisations across nine Indian cities.
The session will be opened by Rika Jean-François, CSR Commissioner, ITB Berlin. The introductory presentations will be made by Swarup B R, Director, Stark Communications Pvt. Ltd., India; Dr Taleb Rifai, Secretary General, UNWTO; and Dr Suman Billa, Joint Secretary - Tourism, Government of India. Sheldon Santwan, COO & Editor, TravelBiz Monitor, will moderate the session. The panellists will include Hannah R Drechsel, Director, The Blue Yonder, India; Anita Mendiratta, Founder & Managing Director, CACHET CONSULTING, Lead Consultant, CNN International’s T.A.S.K.; Ajay Prakash, Founder & President, International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT) India; Prof. Dr. Ajit Singh Sikand, Institute of Indology, Gutenberg University of Mainz, President/CEO, HBC Tourism Consulting; and Valsa Nair Singh, Secretary for Tourism, Government of Maharashtra.
The deliberations will address questions such as ‘Indian Outbound is growing, what about Indian Inbound?’, ‘What can be done to celebrate the female traveller in India?’, ‘What measures have been taken?’, Can tourism be a vehicle for a better understanding in a society?’, ‘Could Ambassadors of Peace through Tourism help to deplete conflict?’, and ‘Can tourism positively affect change?’.