Members of the Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) chose Ajay Prakash as their new national president via electronic voting today. The results were announced at around 5:30pm. He will lead the new team with  Kamal Ramchand as the Vice-President. Other winners include Abbas Moiz as the National General Secretary, and Hitank Shah as the Treasurer. The five Managing Committee Members are Anil Kalsi, Lalith Jain, Rani Bachani, Rai Achal Krishna and Seeraj Sabharwal.

Airlink, the privately owned South African regional airline based in Johannesburg, has named AirlinePros International as its General Sales Agent for India with immediate effect. Airlink is a member of IATA and is IOSA accredited. It has more than 50 commercial jetliners operating throughout Southern Africa. In 2019 pre COVID the airline carried 2 million customers on more than 63,000 flights on 55 routes to 39 destinations in 9 African countries and St Helena Island. Airlink operates the widest network in Southern Africa to countries such as South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Madagascar, Lesotho, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Eswatini (Swaziland), as well as to the remote island of St. Helena. Airlink operates independently under its own unique 4Z flight code. Throughout 2020 Airlink has been busy activating new interline relationships and partners including British Airways, Air France, Emirates and Qatar which will offer strong opportunities for connecting traffic from India. Ramesh Marwah, Regional Managing Partner India, AirlinePros International added “India enjoys close strategic, cultural & economic ties with South Africa and neighbouring countries in Southern Africa which will be connected well to India by Airlink in cooperation with its Interline Partners. We are confident to receive necessary support of our trade partners in India to assist Airlink in not only establishing base in India but securing optimum market share of travel triggered by growing trade, anticipated surge in tourism and movement of large number of Indian origin people residing in South Africa and other nations in Southern Africa”.

Members of the Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) will be choosing between two candidates who have stood for the post of the national president for the new term. They are Rajat Bagaria and Ajay Prakash. TAFI will conduct its national elections via e-voting on July 24, 2021 along with its AGM and EOGM through an online platform. . Results are likely to be announced at around 17:00 hours on 24th July 2021 through an online platform.

Arvind Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, has shared that the goal with the MICE tourism strategy would be to increase the number of MICE events that take place in the country. We see that we have a very small percentage of the global MICE market, and that a large number of Indian groups and Indian MICE events are held abroad as people like to Southeast Asia, Middle East or Maldives to hold MICE events. Hence, the short terms strategy would be to attract some of them because of the restrictions on travel, and if they are doing any MICE events, to encourage them to hold them at many places in India, instead of going to neighbouring countries.”

Rakesh Verma, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, has said that they will be appointing international marketing representatives within 3-4 months. “We have done preliminary work before 2nd wave . We identified some of the markets, where we need to position these representatives. We are working on it, and in about 3-4 months, we would be having them in position, so that whenever international travel happens, we will have them on ground to really help us,” he added.

The second wave will further delay UDAN progress; stressed financial health of airline operators to impact existing route operations and future bidding, as per ICRA. As on May 31, 2021, only 47% of total routes and 39% of airports (unserved and underserved) have been operationalised[1] under UDAN. The number of new RCS routes which started operations increased at a healthy pace and stood at 102 and 120 routes in FY2019 and FY2020 respectively, but have declined to 77 new routes in FY2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. During FY2018 – FY2021, a total of Rs. 3,350 crores have been incurred by the Central Government towards the UDAN scheme and the budgeted outlay for FY2022 is Rs. 1,130 crores.

Nepal Tourism Board has announced the second edition of its Mt. Everest Fashion Runway scheduled to be held in the Everest region with 20 super models and 200 ‘super audience’ from September 22, 2021. The event promotes sustainable fashion and responsible consumerism addressing climate change and global warming. The fashion show will kickstart in September 2021 at an altitude of over 5,800 metres in the Mt Everest region at -30-degree Celsius and less than 50 per cent oxygen present in the atmosphere.

The Maharashtra government has approved the state’s new adventure tourism policy which covers around 25 adventure activities. The policy will cover the promotion of adventure activities as well as registration, regulation, monitoring, planning, promotion, training etc. of various adventure event organisers and adventure training organisations. Organizers will be given a temporary registration certificate from the Directorate of Tourism (DoT) and a final registration certificate after obtaining all the required equipment details and qualifications. Under this policy, the organisers of adventure activities will gain several benefits like refund of SGST, discount in stamp duty and power charges.

Tourism Fiji has announced the appointment of experienced tourism marketing senior executive, Brent Hill as Chief Executive Officer. Hill, who most recently was the Executive Director of Marketing for the South Australian Tourism Commission, brings over 16 years of experience in tourism and digital marketing, advertising, branding, communications, campaign, and executive strategy to Fiji’s National Tourism Office. He replaces former CEO Matt Stoeckel, whose tenure ended in December 2020. Commenting on Hill’s appointment, Tourism Fiji Chairman  Andre Viljoen said: “We’re delighted to welcome someone of Brent’s calibre to this critically important role not just for Fijian tourism, but for the Fijian economy. Brent shone through in the extremely rigorous recruitment process initiated and conducted by the Board with PwC’s assistance, for a CEO to lead Tourism Fiji in these unprecedented times, where international tourism activity has been zero for over a year now. His proven expertise, experience and ideas for the industry’s revival are a perfect fit for Fiji’s current requirements. Viljoen added: “When border restrictions ease and travel resumes, Fiji will need dynamism and creativity in marketing itself as an attractive, aspirational and safe destination. We are in the same situation as every other leisure tourism destination in the world. All of us are going for the same markets, which are now smaller with lower discretionary spending ability. Brent is highly regarded in the industry given his many accomplishments, and we will need his wide range of existing relationships and management skills with key global trade partners to market our destination, and his excellent communications skills to rally our industry and stakeholders to a common purpose. His immediate focus will be to work with the Board and Fiji’s extremely …

After completing a long and successful stint at the Federation of Hotels & Restaurants Association of India, Dr. Himanshu Talwar has now joined the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) as Executive Director. He thanks everyone for extending their unwavering support over the years.