Paper Presentation at IITTM, Bhubaneswar.

Our director Mr. Ashwini Kumar Singh presented a paper on the topic, ‘Tourism in the Countryside: Present Scenario and Future Potential’ at the Conference named, "Special Interest Tourism: An Indian Imperative".

The conference was held at Hotel Kalinga Ashok, Bhubaneswar on 25th March, 2006 and was organised by IITTM (Indian Institute of Tourism & Travel Management), Bhubaneswar. (An organization of the Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India)

The dignitaries present at the conference included:
# Shri Ashok Kumar Mishra, Secretary, Department of Tourism, Govt. of India.
# Shri Ashok Kumar Tripathy, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Department of Tourism & Culture, Govt. of Orissa.
# Dr. Brian King, Professor and Head - School of Hospitality, Tourism and Marketing, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia.
# Shri J.K. Mohanty, Chairman- HRAO (Hotel and Restaurant Association of Orissa)
# Dr. Sitikantha Mishra, Professor and Administrator, IITTM, Bhubaneswar.

There were three parallel Technical sessions.

Technical Session –I
(Imperatives of SIT in India: Conceptual positions, attractions/products, potential and significance)

Chairman: Prof. Anjemya Swami (Head, Dept. of Tourism Studies, Pondicherry University)
Co-chairman: Shri S.B. Gupta
Key Note
Speaker: Shri Sutheeshna Babu S.
Presentations:
· Prof. Praful Mohanty
· Shri Dinanath Pathy
· Mr. Ramli Ibrahim
· Prof. Sadasiva Pradhan
· Shri Saroj Pattnaik

Technical Session –II
(Policy and planning: Framework for SIT development)

Chairman: Shri G.B. Mukherjee
Co-chairman: Prof. Sadasiba Pradhan
Key Note
Speaker: Prof. Brian King

Presentations:
· Shri Vivek Pattanayak
· Col A.S. Shekhawat
· Prof. L.S. Nigam
· Shri Saroj Pattnaik (Retd. CWW, Orissa)
· Shri Ashwini Kumar Singh
· Ms. Jaya Jonwal

Technical Session –III
(Managing SIT: Responsible Marketing, HRD Practices, Organizational programming, Stakeholder networking)

Chairman: Shri Vivek Pattanayak (Former Advisor to Secretary-General ICAO and former Chairman, OPSC)
Co-chairman: Prof. L.S. Nigam (Director, Institute of Tourism & Hotel Management, PRS University, Raipur, C.G.)
Key Note
Speaker: Prof. Tapan K. Panda (Professor of Marketing & Chair, FPM, IIM, Indore)
Presentations:
· Shri Saurabh Mohanty (Director, Pegasus Inst. Of Excellence, Bhubaneswar)
· Dr. Diraj Dwivedi
· Dr. Suvasis Saha (Reader in Marketing, Department of Business Management, University of Calcutta)
· Dr. Ajit Pattnaik (IFS, CEO–CDA, Bbsr.)
· Shri Abhishek Mohanty
· Ms. Jaishree Anand


The conference was sponsored by-
· The Industry-Institute Partnership (IIP) Cell of AICTE, IITTM, Gwalior.

And held in association with-
· APETIT (Asia Pacific Educational and Training Institutes in Tourism) an UN body.
· Orissa Tourism.
· Hotel & Restaurant Association of Orissa (HRAO)