Brand USA India Sales Mission 2018 Attracted Large U.S. Delegation
Brand USA’s Seventh India Sales Mission hosted the largest U.S. delegation for the event, all with one goal in mind - encouraging travel to the United States.
A delegation of 42 companies and 64 delegates joined in the mission held in Bengaluru, Mumbai and New Delhi on September 23-28 and engaged with over 836 key decision makers. The mission, designed to promote travel to the United States through increasing destination and product knowledge, business cooperation and travel bookings, brought together major stakeholders from the Indian travel trade, airline representatives, media representatives, hospitality representatives, and tour operators.
The trade outreach was expanded to include emerging cities such as Kochi and Trivandrum. Key outbound players from Ahmedabad joined the India Mission in Mumbai; while agents from Chennai, Hyderabad, Trivandrum, and Kochi were invited to join the India mission in Bengaluru.
Highlights of the mission include:
- B2B meetings were held with product and operations teams of major tour operators and travel agents in Bengaluru, Mumbai and New Delhi. And exclusive networking hour was held in Mumbai for the top travel companies headquartered in Mumbai.
- Brand USA introduced the USA Discovery Program Awards for the highest number of registrations per company. The awards were given out in Mumbai during the VIP networking dinner. The winners were: Gold Award- Veena World; Silver Award - Thomas Cook India Ltd and Bronze Award- Cox and Kings India Ltd.
- The Educhat - an initiative developed to educate the delegates on current market trends – focused on travel trends for meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) in India. Guest speakers included Rakshit Desai, managing director, Flight Centre Travel Group in India, and Navin Kundu, the CEO and managing director of Mercury Travels.
- The VIP networking dinner in New Delhi brought together key decision makers and senior management from trade, airlines and members of leading media houses. Deputy Principal Officer Jennifer Larson of the U.S. Consulate in Mumbai addressed the audience.
- A media day in New Delhi on September 28 created the opportunity for leading travel trade and consumer media to interact with the U.S. partners. There were 67 publications and 78 journalists present on media day.
- The delegates were provided Indian attire for the VIP networking dinners in Mumbai and New Delhi.
In other news, the MTV India Music Summit 2018 was held in Fairmont, Jaipur, offering music lovers over 30 carefully curated sessions and concerts with over 160 artists across musical genres.
The event, held October 12-14, was a platform that allowed 4,000 music connoisseurs to explore and discover new sounds and new artists as well as interact with them. Many of these attending came from across the country, particularly Delhi and Mumbai.
The summit welcomed Brand USA as a Country Partner to show attendees various destinations in the United States and highlight their history and music roots.
Brand USA’s music assets - videos from Hear the Music, Experience the USA, USA through Music and Music Roots - were played continuously during breaks or as fillers on different screens at the event venues. The Brand USA logo was part of all branding on-ground, digital, and on printed material. Brand USA also had an exclusive lounge in the entrance foyer, showcasing the musical cities of the USA via images/videos.
In keeping with Brand USA’s music marketing theme this year, Brand USA, invited Robin Barnes, a renowned New Orleans jazz who performed in a concert attended by nearly 1,000 music fans.
A session on America’s Music, anchored by a popular Indian musician Luke Kenny, took the audience through the evolution of American music from country, Motown, jazz, and rock. Barnes served as a member of that panel, while a popular local band played the different genres of music. The trailer of Brand USA’s giant-screen film, “America’s Musical Journey” also was showcased.