HBI Staff | Hyderabad 
Vinay Deshpande, Senior Vice President & Head of Digital & IT, Indian Hotels Company Ltd said that every traveller has a journey, and the journey of a traveller can be divided into five stages encompassing journey of a traveller, dreaming, planning, booking and finally visiting the destination and experience sharing. Further he mentioned that Indian Hotels Company ensured that digital interventions like IoT, hyper personalisation, Robotics and AI (virtual assistance) is introduced at every stage, which is benefitting customers. He emphasised on the role of social media and marketing initiatives in transforming hidden locations into busy tourism destinations. Mr Deshpande was speaking at the session on Boosting Tourism Sector in Western Region with Technology, which was part of the CII Conference on ‘The Next Phase of Globalization for Indian Businesses’ organised at the CII Western Region Annual Meeting 2023.
Mr Vishal Kamat, Chief Executive Officer, Kamat Hotels India Ltd while speaking about various categories of tourism, such as medical tourism, CSR tourism and business tourism stressed on the need to digitize pilgrimage tourism. He also recommended that private enterprises and government must support the creation of a conducive ecosystem creation for boosting pilgrimage tourism.
Mr Ujjwal Mathur, Co-Chairman, CII WR Subcommittee on Innovation, Technology and Digitalization 2022-23 & Senior Vice President & Country Head, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd emphasised on the importance of western India in tourism and the role of disruptive technologies in attracting more domestic and international tourists.
