SFTO planning tourism workshops in Finland and Estonia for Indian travel trade

 By Anish V Punnackattu | New DelhiIn a bid to provide direct exposure to its members and create awareness, the Society of Foreign Tour Operators (SFTO) will organise tourism workshops in Helsinki, Finland and Tallinn, Estonia in the third week of September 2012. The workshops will be of four days each and will be organised in association with Finland Tourism, Estonia Tourism, Finnair, Tallink Silja Line, Tallinn City Tourist Office & Convention Bureau and two local Destination Management Companies – Reisiekspert and Baltic ELL. This information was provided by Ajay Jaipuria (Founder – Travel Oytser), President, SFTO. The exact date of each workshop will be announced at a later time. 150 tour operators from India are expected to attend the workshops in Finland and Estonia.The main objective of the workshops is to position Finland and Estonia as tourist destinations in India and educate Indian outbound tour operators of the tourism products and destinations in these countries. Speaking about the Finland SFTO workshop, Papori Bharati, Marketing manager – India, Visit Finland, said they are expecting about 150 outbound tour operators from India for the workshops. “We appreciate this initiative by the SFTO to promote Finland as a tourist destination in India. We see huge potential in this workshop which will provide exposure of the destination to these tour operators about Finland.”Agreeing, Desmond Chacko, Sales Manager – Indian Subcontinent, Finnair, said the workshops would help tour operators in selling Finland and Estonia as a tourist destination. “The tour operators will receive direct knowledge of the destinations which will help them sell the same quickly and effectively.”Referring to the workshop which will be held in Estonia, Siim Sikkut, Director – Estonia-India Foresight, Estonian Development Fund said, “This event will boost economic relations and create business opportunities for both the countries. Tourism is one of the areas with high potential and we are looking forward to tap this burgeoning market”.SFTO is also planning to work closely with the Indian travel trade to promote new and niche global destinations. Apart from this, SFTO will also look into other issues relating to the outbound travel and tourism industry. Some of the issues that SFTO would address include delays in visa sanctions, passport issuances, etc., informed Sandeep Jain (President, Ad-Voyage Travels), Vice President, SFTO.Speaking about SFTO, Jaipuria said that the association, which currently has seventy members, was founded in 2008 with the aim of lifting the standards of professionalism in a fast growing global industry. He further informed that SFTO was registered as a society in July 2011 and it is a professional body for people working in the outbound tourism sector.SFTO also recently announced the appointment of Rajesh Sethi (Director – Carnation Travels) as Senior Vice President; Kapil Berera, Astral Travels as General Secretary; Sanjiv Nangia (Director, Saltours International) as Joint Secretary; Devroop Soni (Coronation Travels) as Treasurer and Sanjay Gupta (Simran Travels) as Senior Advisor.