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Harsh Varma to inaugurate CEO Conclave at WTI

DUBAI - Dr Harsh Varma, currently the World Tourism Organisation's (WTO) regional representative for Asia and the Pacific and Chief of the Organisation's Asia-Pacific section, will be inaugurating the CEO Conclave at the "World Travel India" (WTI) conference. WTI will be staged between February 5 and 8 and combines a major international travel exhibition along with the conference.

Richard Gayle, project manager of WTI, said, "We are delighted that Dr Varma will be addressing our conference. He has accumulated unique insights into the Indian travel market from both a domestic and international perspective as prior to joining the WTO, Dr Varma was Deputy Director-General in the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation of India."

WTO is the largest inter-governmental organisation in the field of travel and tourism. With more than 145 member countries and 400 private sector affiliate members, WTO is also a specialised agency of the United Nations on the lines of Unesco and WHO.

Dr Varma, said, "WTO has been extremely active in the Asia-Pacific as it's the fastest-growing region of the world and the major playing field for international tourism. For the first time in the history of global tourism, the Asia-Pacific region overtook the Americas to become the second-most visited region of the world after Europe with over 133 million international arrivals.

"There is no doubt that the Indian tourism market is one of the fastest growing markets in the world and the country has the potential and the ability to sustain the growth in the long term. A robust economy, the extraordinarily successful Incredible India campaign and the relative peaceful political environment in South Asia - all these factors have contributed to this growth," said Dr Varma.