INDIA-BOUND incentive movement from Canada is expected to get boost from Air Canada’s new direct service to New Delhi from November 2.

The four weekly service from Toronto will be served by Boeing 787-9 series aircraft, offering three cabin options and the airline’s next generation lie-flat seat in international business class.

Flights are timed for convenient connections both within Air Canada’s North American network and in India on its Star Alliance partner Air India to cities like Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Jennifer Glynn, managing partner of Canada based Meeting Encore, welcome the new link. She said: “At present the traffic from Canada to India is mainly corporate with little incentive travel. One of the prime reasons that has turned incentive groups away from India is the long flight. This new direct connection will reduce travelling time to about 14 hours, and we can promote India for incentive travel.”

Amaresh Tiwari, managing director, Seasons & Vacations Travels, added: “As of now not much Canadian incentive travel is happening in India, although we have been attracting conference delegates in fields like agriculture. With Air Canada’s direct flights we expect that the incentive market to flourish.”

THE 30^th SITE chapter will soon open in Jordon as part of the association’s efforts to boost global membership.

Rajeev Kohli, SITE’s president-elect, told TTGmice e-Weekly that membership in Jordon is now 30-head strong, and a president will be elected once the chapter is formed in the next few weeks.

“Jordon has been receiving incentive groups from across the world. The SITE chapter in Jordon will help us to attract even more business,” commented Ghada I Najjar, managing director of Jordon based Karma House Travel.

After the UAE, the Jordon chapter will be SITE’s second presence in the Middle East.

Kohli noted that the profile of SITE members is evolving. “We used to see half of the membership from the Americas and the rest from other parts of the world. But this is changing and SITE sees a great opportunity in reaching out to different parts of the world.”

He expressed interest in doubling SITE’s Asian membership by the end of 2016 through the establishment of chapters in markets like Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand.

“We have only 120 members in Asia, 80 per cent of which are in China and India,” he remarked.

THE softening European economies and resulting dip in incentive business from the region are forcing Indian incentive houses to turn their attention to other source markets.

Incentive specialists who spoke to TTGmice e-Weekly at last week’s SITE Global Conference 2015 revealed that average spend had also declined.

“Europe has been a major source of incentives to India for the last few years but the number of such events has gone down and the average group spend has fallen 10 to 20 per cent. So that’s why we are trying now to open new markets like the US (and Australia),” said Anup Nair, managing director of Incentive Destinations.

Several Indian DMC opined that it is important for new markets to be sought especially since the inbound incentive market for the country is relatively small, with about 40 to 50 groups annually.

“Inbound incentive volume isn’t high and the market has not grown the way we wanted,” said Amaresh Tiwari, managing director of Seasons & Vacations, adding that Latin American markets are now on his radar.

Indian incentive specialists are hopeful that New Delhi’s hosting of the SITE Global Conference 2015 will help draw global attention to India and kick-start business growth.

“The conference is going to be a big advantage for India. The US economy is improving (and US) participation at the event made up about half of the total attendance. We are looking at this conference to open up more avenues for the incentive business into India,” commented Nair.

Kadambini Mittal, regional director, global sales, India & Subcontinent of Marriott Hotels India, agrees. “Domestic market has been a major source of incentive business for us, but we expect the conference to increase our international business,” she said.

Tiwari expects India to benefit from a 20 per cent growth in inbound incentives next year as a result of global exposure through the conference.