The third and a very special session of KTF SPEAK 2009, was held at The Chancery Pavilion hotel in Bangalore on 13th May 2009. This event witnessed a tremendous turn-out from the trade which was attended by over 300 people.

There was a certain eagerness and anticipation for the highlight of this session - the Panel Discussion focusing on ‘Brand Karnataka’.

The evening started punctually at 4 PM with Ms Girija Chandran, Director Hammock Holidays, officially welcoming the Government invitees, Guest Speaker - Ms Shukla Bose; the panel members, the press and the participants. The government invitees included Ms Meena Saksena – Principal Secretary, Department of Forests, Ecology & Environment; Mr KS Sabu - Tourist Officer,India Tourism Office,Bangalore; Mr Jyothiramalingam – Principal Secretary, Department of Tourism and Dr V Raju, Economic Advisor to the Chief Minister of Karnataka.

Ms Shukla Bose – Founder Parikrma Humanity Foundation was the inspirational speaker at the event. She shared her experiences on touring through life. She was once upon a time the highest paid woman executive in India when she headed RCI. She dropped the corporate life and took upon herself the role of playing a humanitarian by starting Parikrma Foundation for the slum children of Bangalore. Parikrma believes that education alone can help the children to integrate with society on at par terms.

Before commencing the panel discussion, Ms Leena Nandan – Joint Secretary, India Tourism addressed the audience over the phone and expressed that the Centre had complete belief in the potential of Karnataka State as far as tourism is concerned and was extremely supportive of the steps that KTF was taking to enhance the state’s brand appeal.

The panel discussion was moderated by Mr CB Ramkumar of Our Native Village and was titled ’Brand Karnataka – what ails it and what is the way forward’ . The panel members were luminaries from diverse fields – Mr Raghu Vishwanath – MD Vertebrand; Ms Preeti Reddy, President Mindscape; Mr Pramod Shankar – MD Pramod Shankar associates; Mr Surojit Ghosh – Indo Asia Holidays and Mr Ranjan Abraham – CEO Clipper Holidays. The panel discussed the ways and means ways for taking the brand Karnataka forward.
Thereafter the floor was thrown open for audience reactions and many interesting questions were put forth to the panelists.
The interest levels and responsiveness of the Government dignitaries was very encouraging as they went into great lengths to give in their points of view on the tourism sector. Dr Raju, Economic Advisor to the Chief Minister mentioned the enhanced focus on connectivity in the state by way of roads and trains. Mr Jyothiramalingam encouraged the role that the private stakeholders are playing in the framing the Tourism Policy in the state and welcomed the inputs.

Mr Cherian Ramapuram, Director Orange County Resorts- President KTF thanked everyone who contributed towards the event. The budget set aside for the mementoes for the invitees was thoughtfully presented as a donation to the Parikrma Humanity Foundation.

Later, a splendid high-tea was hosted by The Chancery Pavilion Hotel and a lot of interactions between the trade members took place during this fellowship time. VIA was the sponsor of the event while Chancery pavilion hosted the venue as well as the high-tea.

There was eagerness and excitement to hear Mr Bhaskar Bhat, Managing Director Titan Industries who was the main speaker for the evening. He had a wonderfully prepared presentation on tips for marketing during the times of recession. He emphasized on addressing the different components of the CCCP principle – Cash, Cost, Customers & People and shared pointers on how the focus of an enterprise should return to these main 4 components during recession. He had interesting examples from real life to share with the audience who responded brilliantly with interesting questions during the question-answer session that followed his presentation.

The Principal Secretary, Tourism, Mr K Jothiramalingam, IAS, who was present through the evening spoke at length about the ideas the Department of Tourism has, for building tourism in the state. He shared his thoughts on how he personally felt that Karnataka was a destination that had huge potential. This view was supported by people at the global trade fairs; however, there were always questions on new products that the state could offer.

In a new capsule introduced this time which is based on - Inspirational Success Stories from within the Industry, Mr. Hari Nair, CEO & founder of the holiday portal Holiday IQ spoke as the first of the inspirational speakers. He shared his journey from being a partner at the consulting firm, KPMG and leaving it all behind to pursue a call from the heart to do something related to Tourism. He shared with the audience on how he raised the money for the travel portal Holiday IQ from venture capitalists and how they saw the visitors to the website go from 50 to now about 50,000 a day!  

Titus Jacob, Secretary KTF updated all the members on the activities of KTF over the last month and he stressed on the fact that all stakeholders in the industry should definitely come together under this platform to be an effective body.

Loveleen Arun, Vice-President KTF thanked all the audience present and especially the members who had travelled from places as far as Hospet, Coorg and Mysore. She thanked the Royal Orchid Group for their unstinted support for the evening as well as Holiday IQ for their sponsorship of the event. Mr Cherian Ramapuram – President KTF gave away a memento each to Mr Bhaskar Bhat, Mr K Jothiramalingam as well as Mr Hari Nair for their contribution and time for this event.

Later, high-tea was served in the lovely lawns of the Royal Orchid Hotel. All members interacted with each other and it was very heartening to see new faces and hear exchanges about new products and properties. It was obvious that there was definitely a new hope, a new spark that has been ignited in the tourism industry!