HONG KONG: Organised by UBM Asia's subsidiary company UBM India, the 20th edition of South Asia's leading B2B travel and tourism trade exhibition SATTE (www.satte.in), was held successfully in New Delhi and Mumbai in January. Over the years, SATTE has become a flagship show in the Indian travel industry and received considerable attention from national tourism boards, Indian state tourism boards, hotel chains, airlines and tourism products from across the globe.

SATTE 2013 welcomed 7,419 unique qualified buyers and sellers. The exhibition has provided a high-value business matching platform for 590 exhibitors from 35 overseas countries and 23 Indian states to meet, engage and interact with buyers and attendees from over 43 countries and 74 cities of India.

Tourism Boards from Abu Dhabi Argentina, Bhutan, Dubai, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fiji Islands, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, South Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Nepal, New Zealand, Oman, Spain, Thailand and Turkey were among the many others who participated at SATTE 2013.

Sajid Desai, Group Director of UBM India said:

"The 20th edition of South Asia's leading B2B travel and tourism trade exhibition SATTE achieved immense success. Captains of the industry present at SATTE 2013 were unanimous in their opinion that SATTE has been a great networking and business transaction platform for the sector."

Parvez Dewan, Union Tourism Secretary who inaugurated the event said:

"SATTE has become an institution; a well-founded one within India and its neighbouring countries. Over the last 20 years, SATTE has been promoting India's tourism and it has evolved as a truly global exhibition in this part of the world."

The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) called SATTE a "leading networking forum in south Asia".

Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General of UNWTO said in a special message:

"In the last two decades, SATTE has grown from strength to strength. With the contribution of more participants than ever before, I am confident that SATTE will maintain its reputation. I look forward to UNWTO's continued collaboration with SATTE."

This year the online meeting scheduler was first introduced with great success. There were 9,764 appointment requests made by the visitors and exhibitors. The newly launched passport scheme was also well-received, wherein buyers were requested to do 30 meetings in three days and there were incentives provided to buyers to do the same.

To further engage with the participants at the SATTE, networking dinners and cocktails were organised at The Ashok Hotel and The Kempinski Ambience Hotel on January 16 and 17 respectively.

Notes to Editors

1. About UBM Asia (www.ubmasia.com) Owned by UBM plc listed on the London Stock Exchange, UBM Asia operates in 19 market sectors with headquarters in Hong Kong and subsidiary companies across Asia, including UBM China in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Beijing. We have over 240 products including trade fairs, conferences, trade publications, B2B/B2C portals and virtual event services. As Asia's leading exhibition organiser and the biggest commercial organiser in China, India and Malaysia, we stage the leading events of their kind across the region. Our 200 events, 24 publications and 16 vertical portals serve over 1,000,000 quality exhibitors, visitors, conference delegates, advertisers and subscribers from all over the world with high value face-to-face business-matching events, quality and instant market news and industry trends, and round-the-clock online trading networks and sourcing platforms. We have over 1,100 staff in 21 major cities across Asia, stretching from Japan to Turkey.

2. About UBM plc (www.ubm.com)
UBM plc is a leading global business media company. We inform markets and bring the world's buyers and sellers together at events, online, in print and provide them with the information they need to do business successfully. Our 6,500 staff in more than 30 countries are organised into specialist teams which serve commercial and professional communities, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently.

For more information, go to www.ubm.com; follow us on Twitter at @UBM_plc to get the latest UBM news.

For press enquiries, please contact:

Jennifer Law, Director of Corporate Marketing & Communications, UBM Asia
Tel: +852-2516-1691
Fax: +852-3749-7342
Email: Jennifer.Law@ubm.com

Elsie Hui, Corporate Marketing & Communications Executive, UBM Asia
Tel: +852-2516-1679
Fax: +852-3749-7342
Email: Elsie.Hui@ubm.com