THE NATAS Travel 2015 fair opened its doors today with a dramatic drop in exhibitor and booth numbers, following the mass exodus of major outbound travel agencies from the fair due to multiple disagreements.
NATAS Travel 2015 offers 92 exhibitors and over 330 booths, diving almost 50 per cent from its most recent instalment held last September, which featured 1,226 booths and 165 exhibitors and drew over 56,000 visitors.
However, NATAS president Devinder Ohri said: “In terms of visitorship, we expect the attendance (for this fair) to be as much as the last.”
On the sharp decline in the number of exhibitors and booths, he said: “We have far exceeded our expectations (given the negative publicity), and the number of booths we have now is way beyond what we have anticipated.”
Major exhibitors at this fair, where admission is now free, include ASA Holidays, Asia-Euro Holidays and Citystate Cruises.
ASA Holidays marketing and communications manager, Shannon Hee, said: “NATAS has been around for a very long time and they have its branding there, so that is why we still have confidence in them.”
According to Hee, the booth rental cost this time has also fallen by 35 per cent, one of the points of contention by some of the travel agencies which have since started their own outbound travel fair.
Ohri added NATAS has been conducting ongoing dialogues with various travel agencies and they remain fairly confident about the one-fair outcome.
Highlighting how both sides can learn from the experience of organising travel fairs without each other, he said: “When the dust has settled and the reconciliation begins, we will be in a better place to understand where we are all coming from.”
More than 50 brands including major outbound travel agencies Chan Brothers Travel, Dynasty Travel, CTC Travel and SA Tours will be present at the new rival travel fair, branded as Travel Revolution, which will be held at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre from March 27 to 29.
