As knowledge partners for this year’s OTM Forum, we are back with a round-up of exciting panels and discussion. OTM Forum is a knowledge-sharing initiative that brings together India and Asia’s most influential travel leaders on one stage.

We are curating a panel on Conversational AI and Chatbots in Travel: Benefits & Best Practices featuring Aakrit Vaish, Co-Founder at Haptik and Chetan Kumar, Strategic Partnership, WhatsApp.

Another panel, we’re hosting is Holidays and Experiences: The next great untapped market in online travel? The panel includes some of the leading names in India’s Holidays, Tours & Activities segment. On the panel, we’ll have Anirudh Gupta, Co-Founder & CEO, Tripoto, Chitra Gurnani, CEO, Thrillophilia, Vaibhav Sisinty, Head of Marketing – India, Klook and Rupendra Yadav who is the Chief Business Officer – Holidays at MakeMyTrip.

The forum is being organized in Mumbai from 3rd to 5th February at Bombay Exhibition Centre.

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Thrillophilia has announced a strategic tie-up with GoPro and launched the GoPro Passport program in India.  As per Thrillophilia, this is not just a coupon code or offer partnership but a much bigger technology, marketing and content integration.

What’s GoPro Passport Program 

1. Any Gopro Hero 7 user can signup on Thrillophilia with the camera serial no.
2. Once he signs in he is taken to a completely different profile section where he can see his Goscore and leaderboards.
3. GoScore can be earned as you buy tours and activities and experience them.
4. Adding further to it as you submit picture reviews, social stories, and create video stories you get rewarded with  Goscore.
5. GoScore is further gamified where you get Thrillcash (wallet currency at Thrillophilia) too to book next activities.
6. Goscore has milestones and every milestone earns badges, total of 10 levels. Each badge gives you free trip, Thrillcash and may be a goodie bag.
7. If you are GoPro user you get discounts on activities, submitting content further gets you GoScore to unlock badges and earn free trips and rewards.
8. Taking each trip under the program, your virtual passport gets stamped.

What’s in for Thrillophilia 

Thrillophilia gets access to all GoPro customers in India as these travellers look for adventure and offbeat travel and where we expertise in. GoPro will also be deployed with many suppliers of Thrillophilia to generate high quality content.

What’s in for GoPro 

A step towards building community.  All GoPro users come under one roof, where they can see who is travelling where and also see content generated by others.  Generated content is also used by GoPro to market the purchase of camera.

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There has been a significant rise in the demand of experiential travel. Today’s millennials don’t just plan to travel anywhere but wish to explore areas that can give them unique experiences. They are adventure freaks and love to involve themselves in activities like scuba-diving, skydiving, rock climbing, para-gliding etc. There are a bunch of exciting travel startups in the experience/activity planning segment that are catering exclusively to this category of off-beat and adventurous travellers with their line-up of activities:

If you are a travel junkie and love to adventure and involve yourself in activities native to different countries, we have listed a few stunning experiences you can include in your travel plans:

#1. An escape in the modern villa by a pristine lake (Spoty.com)

Founded by Pavel and Vali, Spoty has an experience that you will cherish for a longtime. Hosted by Catalina in Tesila, Romania, an exquisite villa with an admirable contemporary architecture and a comfortable environment awaits your arrival. This boutique hotel can accommodate up to 28 guests. It is surrounded by green hills, a dense forest and a clear lake which will give the travellers an opportunity to disconnect from the city life and embrace the beautiful nature. Adventure-seekers can get an adrenaline rush by activities such as kayaking, horse-riding and boating.

Amenities offered: Food, Free Parking, Sauna, Gym, WiFi, Garden, TV, Air Conditioner, Dryer, Free bikes to enjoy the nearby landscapes, Fishing etc.

Price: US$104 (1 Guest for 2 Days)

For more details, you can visit the Spoty.com webpage.

#2. Have a 3-hour off-road adventure in the Nevada Desert (Peek.com)

Wish to drive a fully equipped jeep in the deserts all by yourself and not just be a passenger? Peek, an exciting startup providing high-quality activities with best vendors across the globe, gives such an offer to its customers. The destination – Nelux Apex – is located 20 miles away from Las Vegas. The travellers can navigate on the sand dunes and rugged roads of this region with experienced guides who will give directions and inform the people with him about the scenic routes. The travellers will get a chance to closely observe the native desert wildlife.

Price: US$432 (Per Person)

For more details, kindly visit the webpage here.

#3. You might have had plenty of wine but do you know its history and how it’s made? Get to Nandi Hills for all your answers. (Thrillophilia.com)

Thrillophilia, an online website that hand-picks the best activities at every destination from local suppliers, offers to its customers wine tour in Nandi Hills, near Bengaluru. It’s one of the rare places in India where travellers can learn the art of wine-making and get the real idea of understanding a good quality of wine.The vineyard is spread over 400 acres in the sloping green hills surrounded by beautiful scenery. This will be a 3 hours activity comprising of video presentations and a tour with the complete practical explanation and demonstration of processes carried out for manufacturing wine. The travellers will be allowed to sample five different forms of wine amidst pleasant music. Lunch overlooking the vineyard will be provided to them.

Price: 840 INR (Per Person)

For more details and booking this tour, click on this webpage.

#4. Bibap Show in Seoul (Klook.com)

Hong Kong based Klook, founded in 2014, was established with an aim to provide travel-related service to English-speaking and travel enthusiasts.It offers fun and thrilling activities in 21 countries.

Do you know what’s unique about ‘Bibap Show’? Hosted in Seoul, Bibap Show quite distinctively combines cooking, break dancing, martial arts and singing. This new concept has been named by the cast as ‘Eatertainment’. It is a theatrical performance based on Korean dish performed by talented actors who display their skills in the kitchen area while interacting with the audience all the time. ‘Bibap Show’ has gained international audience very quickly. Since it is a non-verbal show with the use of memes language is not a barrier. The show has elements of both humour and surprise in it.

Price:  US$24- US$34 (Per Person)

For more details and booking tickets, click here.

#5. Walk 13-feet underwater on the ocean bed to enjoy the aquatic life (Triposo.com)

Last on the list is Triposo: a travel guide that has listed more than 15000 destinations in 200 countries. A unique experience that this website offers to its customers is ‘Underwater Sea Walking’. The travellers will get to enjoy the safe and fascinating 20-minute walk on the ocean bed (10-13 feet deep) underwater. They will get an opportunity to witness underwater plant life, corals and beautiful schools of fishes around them. These travellers don’t need to know/learn swimming. A simple training of a few minutes will allow you to be a part of this interesting activity.

Price: US$47.85 (Per Person)

For more details and booking tickets, click on this webpage.

How many of these experiential activities would you like to add to your bucket list?

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The much awaited 2-day eTailing and Travel Commerce Conference summit by IAMAI gets underway tomorrow at Hotel Lalit in New Delhi. With a cracking line-up of speakers & panel discussions on some burning topics in the travel industry, the summit holds tremendous promise for all travel marketers, analysts and media fraternity.

TravHQ is the official media supporter for the event and our team will be bringing you the latest news on both days. With less than 24 hours to go for the Conference, here are some key sessions that you should definitely watch-out:

• Our Tourism Ministry has been quite active on the digital front and had launched an Incredible India mobile app last year. Considering that the Incredible India campaign has been offline for quite sometime now, the inaugural session by Guest of Honour, Shri Suman Billa, Jt. Secretary, Ministry of Tourism should give insights into government’s latest initiatives to promote India as a tourist destination

• The morning plenary session, Impact of Travel Market Places for The Online Travel Market boasts of a fantastic line-up of panelists including Sankalp Agarwal, Chief Executive Office of Travel Triangle, Aloke Bajpai, CEO and Co-founder, ixigo, Yogendra Vasupal, Founder and CEO, Stayzilla Deepak Wadhwa, Co-founder, WeAreHolidays. The discussion would focus on building trust & customer retention in the highly challenging online travel space led by instant gratifications.
• For those who love to track emerging travel-startups, the session on Social Travel-How New Age Start-Ups Are Redefining The Travel Industry? is a must attend. The session has Gautam Shewakramani, Founder & CEO, AudioCompass, Paavan Nanda, Co-founder, Zostel & Chitra Gurnani, Co-Founder, Thrillophilia Adventure Tours and Ish Jindal, Co-founder, Padhaaro as panelists.
• We also have a session on Global Expansion In Travel And Hospitality Industry – An Appetite For Growth.
• On Day 2, the session on Social Media Driving Digital Conversations In Tourism And Hospitality Industry will capture the latest trends on how OTAs, online market places and hotels are using Social Media to attract & engage the customers.

That’s not all! Speakers from leading OTAs, Yatra & Cleartrip would be sharing the experience of their respective journeys in the competitive travel landscape. Overall, the summit is a must attend for those who want to stay updated with the latest trends in “Travel & Hospitality” industry.

If you are a Travel brand and have a story to share with us, get in touch with our team at the summit. You can give us a shout-out on our Twitter handle or write at info@travhq.com.

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