MAM
Kerala Tourism allures tourists from Australia & NZ via road-shows
MUMBAI: Kerala Tourism has effectively conducted two road shows across Australia and has now ventured into New Zealand, attracting the travel & adventure-loving folks there to God’s own country.
Both countries are fast-rising markets for Kerala Tourism industry, with the total of tourists to the state from Australia up 60 per cent and from New Zealand rising 68 per cent in the last four years.
About 100 tour agencies participate in a road show in Sydney, whilst sixty buyers participated in a road-show in Melbourne. Close to 46 buyers attended the road-show in Auckland, the first t by Kerala Tourism in New Zealand.
“Both New Zealand and Australia represent a huge market for Kerala due to the high proportion of its inhabitants keen to tour and experience new destinations all over the globe,” said Kerala Tourism secretary Suman Billa.
Billa invited travel agencies to have a glance at the diversity provided in Kerala’s hill, watercourses as well as wildlife and genuine cookery.
India’s Deputy Consul- General Vinod Bahade was the main guest at the road show in Sydney. The lately approved visa-on-arrival facility for people of New Zealand added strong point to the promotional crusade in Auckland of Kerala Tourism.
Brands
Hemlata Sharma joins ONEOTT Broadband as chief business officer
Former Zee Media distribution head to steer growth, partnerships and strategy
MUMBAI: Hemlata Sharma has joined ONEOTT Broadband as chief business officer, bringing with her more than three decades of experience across television, telecom and media distribution.
Sharma most recently served as head distribution, research & CRM at Zee Media Corporation Limited, where she worked closely with editorial and senior management while overseeing distribution, consumer research and customer relationships for 14 news channels including Zee News, WION, Zee Hindustan and Zee Business, along with ten regional state channels.
In that role, she led nationwide distribution across platforms such as DTH, Hits, IPTV, cable networks and DD Free Dish. She also drove consumer research and strategic insights on a pan India scale, analysing content performance, anchor impact, programme slots and audience behaviour to guide editorial decisions and programming strategy.
Her portfolio also included managing one of the largest alliances with Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited and overseeing the global distribution monitoring of Wion across North America, Mena, Europe, Africa, APAC and Australia.
Earlier, Sharma briefly served as head sales and distribution at Triplecom Media Pvt Ltd, an engagement driven OTT platform bringing together content, gaming, music and advertising for the entertainment distribution ecosystem.
Her earlier career includes a senior vice president stint at Ten Sports Network, where she played a key role in relaunching the sports broadcaster as an independent bouquet comprising Ten Sports, Ten Cricket, Ten Action and Ten Golf following the Zee takeover. During this period, she moved from vp west to head strategy for cable and dth and later national head retail distribution, helping build the network’s retail distribution vertical across India and launching dedicated golf and football channels.
Before that, Sharma spent over six years at Bharti Airtel as general manager operations for Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. She initially led marketing and corporate communications before moving into sales leadership, where voice sales grew by 86 per cent and revenues by 96 per cent. She later headed business operations, expanding annual business volumes to Rs 100 crore while significantly reducing operational costs.
Sharma began her long association with the media distribution ecosystem at Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited as regional head sales and distribution for central India. During that period, she played a role in the early rollout of pay television channels including Zee Cinema, HBO, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, while also contributing to the launch of Siti Cable in key central Indian cities.
With her new role at ONEOTT Broadband, Sharma is expected to focus on strengthening business strategy, expanding partnerships and driving growth across the company’s broadband and digital distribution ecosystem.
