Tourism New Zealand’s annual travel trade event, Kiwi Link India, is scheduled to take place from July 13- 16, 2015 in Mumbai and Delhi. The event serves as a platform for New Zealand operators to interact with Indian tourism product managers, planners and owners through full day workshops and frontline training. Kiwi Link India 2015 will be seeing participation from 36 operators from New Zealand as well as four airlines and 80 Indian delegates. Following a new format this year, Tourism New Zealand will also be hosting key buyers from around India in Mumbai for the first three days of the event.
Kevin Bowler, chief executive, Tourism New Zealand said, “Kiwi Link India is one of Tourism New Zealand’s biggest trade shows and is very important to us as India continues to be one of our priority emerging markets. The trade event serves as an ideal platform for us to strengthen relations with our stakeholders in the Indian travel trade industry. Under the Tourism Industry Partnership, Tourism New Zealand signed an agreement in November 2014 with Immigration New Zealand (INZ), and six key travel agents from India. The MoU aimed to attract business events visitors through faster processing times and reduced paperwork to the destination. This agreement has given New Zealand a competitive edge and we have increased our focus on the Business Events segment in India seeing the positive response.”
New tourism operators attending this year’s event include XperieNZ, Wai-O-Tapu, NTB TRAVEL, Hassle-free Tours, Vyom Journeys, the Rees Hotel Queenstown, JUCY Cruise, and familiar faces include Hobbiton Movie Set, NZONE Skydive (Queenstown), the Helicopter Line and AJ Hackett Bungy, who consider India as one of their key markets.
Through Kiwi Link India 2015, Tourism New Zealand aims to highlight the destination’s unique range of offerings to all the various segments of Indian travellers. The event also serves as an opportunity for operators from New Zealand to educate their travel and trade partners in India about the new products and services that are available at the destination.
Steven Dixon, Tourism New Zealand’s regional manager – South and South East Asia said, “We have seen a great response from the Indian market in the past financial year. With the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 and our initiatives in India around the event, we have seen a huge increase in Indian travellers visiting New Zealand. We hope to continue this momentum through more activities in the market and will be making some exciting announcements soon.”