Spice route

I've come over to India on a two-week trip with several members of my sales team, our purpose being to promote our hotels to the domestic market. We're going to be holding a series of roadshows, to which we're inviting local travel agents and local press, where we'll be telling them about our properties, our various brands and our expansion plans for the country.

Today is the first day of the roadshow in Delhi and I'm pretty anxious about it, so I get up at 5.30am. My anxieties are not unfounded because I arrived in Delhi yesterday, at the Park hotel where we're holding the roadshow, to prepare everything for today and, to be honest, it was a nightmare. Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. For example, we'd ordered some banners bearing our "Hot Choice" slogan several weeks ago and I discovered they hadn't been made. There was also a mix-up with our booking, so our rooms weren't ready when we arrived at the hotel and they hadn't got a clue about how to lay out the ballroom for our event.

By the end of the day I had got things resolved, however, so I'm hoping today will go more smoothly.

I must admit I'm not feeling too well, though - I ate a large curry last night and it's made me feel rather queasy. I think I'd better skip breakfast.

I go straight to the ballroom to check that our stalls have now been organised correctly. And I also check on the room where we're holding our press conference later this morning.

I then pick up a copy of the Hindu Times to catch up on the day's news and, to my horror, I read that there was a massive fire in Delhi last night. I wonder if that will affect the number of journalists who attend our press conference. We've had 120 acceptances, but how many will show up?

At 9.30am I hold a briefing for my sales team and the Indian National Tourist Office, Jet Airways and several global distribution companies, whom we have also invited to exhibit at the roadshow. I talk through today's schedule and wish everyone good luck for the day ahead.

The press conference is due to start at 10.30am, but not a single journalist arrives by then. I now spend 45 minutes pacing up and down waiting for someone to come. Finally, by 11.15am, a handful of press arrive, so we start the press conference. But the opening ceremony, which is to be conducted by India's director-general of tourism, is to take place at 11.30am, so we're going to have to rattle through everything we want to say.

Now another disaster takes place. The director-general turns up 10 minutes early for the opening ceremony and gatecrashes my press conference. That means all the journalists direct their questions to him and we don't get a look-in.

We now proceed to the ballroom for the opening ceremony - involving the Indian tradition of lighting candles - but because we're running several minutes late, we find lots of travel agents are already wandering around the stands and the event has effectively already kicked off.

Fortunately, the next three hours go much better - a frenzy of travel agents come through the room and lots of local journalists turn up and grab me for interviews. Thank goodness, it looks like we're managing a bit of promotion after all.

At 3pm I close the show and thank the other exhibitors. I haven't eaten or drunk anything all day, so I now grab a quick plate of biryani before rushing to my room to do my packing. I then settle the bill with the banqueting department before heading to the airport - we're catching the 7pm flight to Madras.

The two-hour flight is a welcome opportunity to relax and reflect on the day's events.

When we land at Madras, we're given a warm welcome by staff at our Quality hotel there. They put a dot of red dye on our foreheads - the traditional Bindi offering - and give us some coconut milk to drink.

After a chat with the general manager, I get to my room and crash on my bed at 11pm. I need a good night's sleep because our next roadshow is the day after tomorrow. n it inte