As part of its mandate to further enhance India’s digital drive in the travel and tourism industry the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) will launch its maiden initiative aimed at travel start-ups.

“Travel Tech Launchpad” – will be a platform that encourages innovation and growth of travel startups during the second edition of FICCI’s flagship event titled “Digital Travel, Hospitality and Innovation Summit” scheduled to be held on March 22-23, 2017 in New Delhi, FICCI stated.

FICCI said the summit will offer an opportunity for travel startups to learn from experts in the field of travel, exhibit their business ideas, and display their products and services in addition to providing an opportunity to connect with right set of ecosystem partners. A number of travel startups, hospitality and technology companies from across India and abroad will gather during the summit in addition to investors such as Sequoia, Inventus Capital and Kae Capital.

Travel and tourism’s direct contribution to GDP is expected to grow by 7.2 per cent per annum during 2015–25, as per IBEF. The tourism sector has witnessed investments worth $42.9 billion in 2015 and is expected to attract $132.9 billion by 2025.

Travel Tech Launchpad 2017 will be organised by FICCI in association with Agnitio Consulting LLP, Nucleus Partners, TravHQ Media and Charson Advisory.

“FICCI is launching The Travel Tech Launch pad with an objective to encourage entrepreneurship and technology innovation in the field of travel and hospitality,” said Rahul Chakravarty, Director and Head, Tourism, FICCI.

“The next generation of startups should embrace and incubate in the existing travel eco system to not only make an impact, but also help innovate the landscape around us,” said Ashish Kumar, Managing Partner at Agnitio Consulting LLP, a travel advisory firm.

“There is an ample scope for innovation in travel space in India; on customer side (trip planning, deal discovery, ancillary services, payments), Distribution (NDC Technology, effective properties / services management), Operations (integrated internal systems, automated processes). There is a good opportunity for startups to effectively work in these areas and several others with out-of-the-box thinking, effective use of emerging technologies, and robust execution,” said Abhishek Vaish, Director, Nucleus Partners, a financial advisory firm.

Source: Economic Times