Organised by Red Hat Communications, the half-day conference saw leaders from cross section of the industry pondering over the challenges that industry faces and possible solutions through two panel discussions titled as ‘Technology & Tourism – Boon or Bane’ and ‘Aviation – Challenges for Growth and Decline’.
Welcoming the audience, Jyoti Mayal, Secretary General, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), and the organizer of ICONIC Forum said, “We at TAAI, as an industry association wish to work closely with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and other stakeholders to draft the guidelines for better policies and governance for the future. In terms of GST implementation, we want a proper document draft to set the right processes in place.”
Delivering the keynote address, Ashwani Lohani, Chairman, Indian Railway Board, said that Indian Railways is investing hugely in “technology for passenger security and convenience” by introducing new-age automatic door closers, fire sensors, entertainment systems inside trains, smart card ticketing, etc. “While the ‘personal touch’ cannot be ushered by technology, it can be used as a tool for passengers to enhance their experience,” Lohani said and added that technology is being put to good use by the Indian Railways to bring sweeping changes in the quality of passenger comfort and interface. He noted that technology can never replace the experience of a people-to-people interface, therefore it is merely an enabler. He shared that Indian Railways is consistently looking to incorporate technology without exactly replacing the traditional ways already in its milieu. He informed that the railways had undertaken a large-scale program to install wi-fi connections at all stations. “Currently, we have this facility at around 600 stations. In the coming two and a half year, we will cover all the railway stations and provide them with Wi-Fi connectivity,” Lohani said.
The panel on ‘Technology & Tourism – Boon or Bane’ was moderated by Ashish Kumar, Managing Partner, Agnito Consulting and panelists were Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India; Dipak Deva, MD, Travel Corporation India; Rakshit Desai, MD, FCM Travel Solutions India; Sandeep Dwivedi, Chief Operating Officer, InterGlobe Technology Quotient; Aloke Bajpai, CEO and Co-founder, ixigo and Avijit Arya, Chief Mogul, Internet Moguls. They were of the opinion that technology has changed the way of doing the business.
Billa said that technology is revolutionizing the way business is done and there is probably in India no other sector that is getting as much impacted as the tourism sector due to proliferation of technology. “It is important for government stakeholders to adapt and become sensitive towards these changes and how fast we are going to scale up to adapt the change,” Billa said. Bajpai said every cycle of disruptions will have loser and winners and as an industry we have to think which side we are sitting on. “We need to reinvent our business and win the rewards,” Bajpai said. Dwivedi said that technology is a boon only if we evolve with the pace of the technology and prepare ourselves to sustain the demand. Desai was of the opinion that it is not technology but the availability of the cheap capital infusion that has brought in disruption in the country. Arya said that industry should treat technology as an enabler to the industry. Deva was of the opinion that despite technology travelers will need personal assistance which technology cannot provide.
