Opening Up of International Travel to Boost Exhibitions and Events

The Government of India’s move to allow fully vaccinated foreign tourists to visit India is a welcome step and will provide a fresh lease of life to the exhibitions and events industry as well as travel, hospitality and aviation sectors.

Worldwide, the exhibition industry is restarting their operations with exhibitions being held from Las Vegas to Barcelona, Dubai to Shanghai. The Indian Exhibition Industry which organizes around 550 events annually with revenues of about Rs.26,500 crores per annum is also opening up to organize shows once again. A few shows have been held in Delhi, NCR and Bangalore. Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) successfully hosted the India International Jewellery Show Premiere 2021 from 15th to 19th September 2021, which is one of the top 5 gems and jewellery shows of the world. The show was organised following all the safety protocols laid down by the government and was a grand success. More exhibitions are in the pipeline to be organized at BIEC.

Welcoming the government move to open up international and domestic travel, V. Anbu, Director General & CEO, BIEC and IMTMA and President, UFI said, “With the massive vaccination programme initiated by the government and around 80 crore population already being vaccinated, things are expected to normalize by end of this year. With the pace of vaccination, I presume that around 70% of the population of the country will be fully vaccinated by end of 2021. It would also be useful to consider opening up of scheduled commercial flights for fully vaccinated people from countries, which mutually agree to recognize and share vaccination data. This will encourage both tourists as well as business visitors make their travel plans ahead of the year-end tourism, exhibition and events season. Opening up of scheduled flights will provide a strong vote of confidence for India’s vaccination drive and assure visitors of safe travel within India.”