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| Annual Awards |
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2005 |
2006 | 2007 |
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SATTE-Samsung Achievements
While the Lifetime Entrepreneur Award was bestowed
on Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya; Capt
C P K Nair, chairman, Leela Group of Hotels bagged
the Lifetime Achievement Award. Besides, Subhash
Goyal, chairman of STIC Travels and Ram Kohli,
chairman of Creative Travels bagged awards as
leading tour operators for being ‘Ambassador of
Indian Tourism.’
Madhya Pradesh bagged the best performing state
award. Ashwini Lohani, managing director, MP State
Tourism Development Corporation received the
honours on behalf of the state. Madhya Pradesh has
shown a phenomenal turnaround in the fortunes of
its 44 accommodation units throughout the state.
All of them have been reinvented into good
three-star properties; they are making money and
the corporation is showing huge growth in turnover
as well as profits. MP Tourism also went for a
total rebranding during the last one year.
Given the paucity of time, as the session had over
run its alloted hour, neither Subhash Goyal nor
Ram Kohli could be asked for making their
acceptance speeches. However, Capt. Nair, in his
brief address, accepted the award in all humility.
He took the opportunity to compliment the central
government for an excellent performance at ITB.
Capt. Nair said he was delighted to receive the
award and thanked the organisers for having chosen
him.
In his usual ‘no holds barred’ style, Mallya
delivered an enlightening speech, clearly spelling
out the challenges and opportunities in the Indian
aviation business.
Accepting the award, Mallya first presented his
interpretation of entrepreneurship.
“Entrepreneurship has many manifestations. For me,
it means thinking out-of-the-box.” He credited
this strategy for helping him establish Kingfisher
Airlines as a premier airline in the country.
Elaborating on the concern of the Indian aviation
industry, he said, “We’re being charged 34 per
cent sales tax of ATF which is on a higher side.
The government must address this issue seriously.
The aviation industry is also facing an acute
shortage of manpower.” Commenting on LCCs, he
said, “All my friends are now realizing that low
cost carriers and low fares are not sustainable.
In fact, these low-cost carriers are basically
low-fare carriers.”
However, despite the glitches he was bullish on
the growth prospects of the Indian civil aviation
industry. “We’ve got a 400 million-strong middle
class which makes the aviation market very
attractive.” Responding to Aiyar’s emphasis on the
need for stronger air connectivity in the
North-East region, Mallya said that the last
couple of years have witnessed a drastic increase
in air frequency. |
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Ashwini Lohani, MD, Madhya Pradesh Tourism
receiving his award for Best Performing State |
Capt. Nair,
chairman, Leela Group receives his award from
minister Ambika Soni while minister Mani
Shankar Aiyer looks on |
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Dr. Vijay Mallya, chairman,
Kingfisher Airlines delivers his acceptance
speech |
Ram Kohli, chairman, Creative Travels
receives his award |
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Subhash Goyal, chairman, Stic
Travels is seen receiving his award |
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