Category Archives: Associations

KJ Alphons, Minister of State (I/C), Tourism, Government of India, has launched the Indian Adventure Tourism Guidelines along with Rashmi Verma, Secretary, Tourism; Satyajeet Rajan, Director General, Tourism; Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Tourism and Swadesh Kumar, President, Adventure Tourism Association of India (ATOAI). A total of 26 activities have been covered in the guidelines including land, air and water based activities. The guidelines have been put in place to make the unorganised sector to adopt them. These guidelines will be reviewed every three months. In an effort to make adventure sports safer, the set of guidelines lists out the basic minimum standards required for adventure tourism activities in India. Adventure tourism has grown rapidly over the past few years playing a vital role in the economic growth of India as well as attracting a large number of travellers from across the globe to the country. The sole aim is to help adventure tour operators understand and execute safety guidelines in a better manner. These guidelines cover activities like mountaineering, trekking, bungee jumping, paragliding, kayaking, scuba diving, snorkelling, river rafting and many other sports.

The Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI) will host its 18th edition of its regional convention from June 27-30, 2018. Themed ‘Surfing The Wave Of Global Tourism’, the convention will focus on international tourism trends and best trade practices. Centered around hospitality, the event will integrate related business sessions and business networking opportunities for participating professionals. For recreation, post the convention HRAWI shall organise tours for delegates in Colombo and Kandy. “Annual conventions offer an excellent opportunity to network with fraternity members, professionals, consultants, vendors and many others from the industry,” says Dilip Datwani, President, HRAWI. “The registrations have been pouring in and the response has been fantastic,” he adds.

India ranked eighth in the world in 2017 in terms of absolute direct contribution of travel and tourism sector’s to its GDP, according to World Travel & Tourism Council’s (WTTC’s) Economic Impact 2018 report. It is the third largest foreign exchange earner for the country. The tourism and hospitality sector’s direct contribution to GDP in 2017 was Rs 5.94 trillion (US$ 91.27 billion). This is expected to reach Rs 12.68 trillion (US$ 194.69 billion) in 2028, implying a CAGR of 7.23 per cent during 2012-28.

According to a latest report by World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) on the economic impact of travel and tourism industry in India, leisure travel spending (inbound and domestic) generated 94.6 per cent of direct travel and tourism GDP in 2017 (Rs 13,135.2 bn) compared with 5.4 per cent for business travel spending (Rs 755.9 bn). Leisure travel spending is expected to grow by 7.6 per cent in 2018 to Rs 14,127.1 bn, and rise by 7.1 per cent pa to Rs 28,154.5 bn in 2028. Business travel spending is expected to grow by 6.7 per cent in 2018 to Rs 806.4 bn, and rise by 7.0 per cent pa to Rs 1,589.7 bn in 2028. Gloria Guevara, President & CEO, WTTC, said, “2017 was one of the strongest years of GDP growth in a decade with robust consumer spending worldwide. This global growth transferred again into travel and tourism with the sector’s direct growth of 4.6 per cent outpacing the global economy for the seventh successive year.”

PATA Annual Summit 2018 underway in Gangneung, South Korea focuses on building bridges, connecting people and how collaboration creates opportunities. This four-day event brought together international thought leaders and industry professionals. The conference looked at various connections that help in shaping the industry as the world moves towards a more exponential future, bringing together a diverse line-up of international industry shapers and senior decision makers. Ban Ki-Moon, Former Secretary-General, United Nations, delivered the keynote address and Taleb Rifai, Former Secretary-General, UNWTO, provided the closing remarks.

In a historic moment, Ajeet Bajaj from Skal International Delhi recently summitted Mt Everest and unfurled the Skal flag on the summit of the highest mountain peak in the world. His daughter Deeya reached the summit a few minutes before him. History was also created as this was the first father-daughter duo to have climbed the highest peak together. Skal Delhi and all the members joined together to send congratulation messages to this dynamic duo for their fantastic feat.

The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) has unveiled its line-up of flagship education and networking events in India for the year ahead. The GBTA Conference 2018 will be held in Bengaluru on June 15, in New Delhi on September 14, followed by Mumbai on October 12, 2018. These forums will discuss best practices across the business travel lifecycle through a mix of panel discussions and presentations. Each event will also feature a trade show highlighting the best-class solution providers within the business travel industry. “With India expected to become the sixth largest business market in the world by the end of 2019, GBTA felt it was crucial to host a series of conferences within this region,” said Gaurav Sundaram, President ProKonsul & Regional Director of India for GBTA. He added, “Each conference will be unique in its offerings of education sessions, speakers and content and will ultimately help educate the market on global best practices.” GBTA Conference 2018 Bengaluru will be held at the Sheraton Grand Bengaluru Whitefield Hotel and Convention Center. The one-day event will feature a CXO roundtable moderated by Sundaram on generating the optimal ROI from business travel. The conference will also feature sessions focused on optimizing air contracts, managing workforce mobility, optimisation opportunities within business travel, challenging the status quo as it pertains to technology and processes, and more. Source ANI

The Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) has announced that it will conduct its next annual convention in Cape Town from August 11-14, 2018. These details were shared by Mahendra Vakharia, President, OTOAI, who said, “The convention will be followed by a three-night post-convention tour for our members and we urge them to block these dates at their earliest.” Responding to the issue of the water crisis that the mainstream media had reported, he added, “There is absolutely no problem with water there. Tourism has not been affected at all and the industry is more than equipped to handle this situation. We have a local partner helping us with the logistics for this.” Vakharia added that the team will finalise the convention theme and agenda soon.

Manoj Mathew, General Manager, Vivanta by Taj has been recently elected as the new president of SKAL International Bangalore. He will lead Skal Club for the next two year years and succeeds Rajendra Singh Bhati. Mathew is an established leader in the hospitality space and brings over three decades of professional experience, all of which has been with Taj Hotels, Resorts & Palaces in overseas destinations and in various properties in India. SKAL International Bangalore is a professional organisation of tourism leaders around the world, promoting global tourism and friendship. It is the only international group uniting all branches of the travel and tourism industry. Its members, the industry’s managers and executives, meet at local, national, regional and international levels to ‘Do Business among Friends’. It has over 15,000 members in 83 countries. SKAL International Bangalore will be hosting the SKAL International Asia Congress 2019 in June 2019. Over 200 international delegates are expected to participate in this Congress. It will be a great opportunity to showcase tourism in India especially for Karnataka.

The Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI) has inaugurated its Punjab and Haryana Chapter today. Manmeet Singh, Proprietor, Sky High Tours and Travels is the new chapter chairperson, as informed by P P Khanna, President, ADTOI. In total, the chapter will comprise 20 active members and also expects another 15 to 20 members. Delhi-NCR is not going to be included in the chapter. This is exclusively for the Haryana segment. The chapter is going to get launched exclusively for the places left unexplored. It will encourage rural, village, agro based areas of the state and make people aware about unexplored places. The association will work with the government and local state tourism boards to promote these places. Khanna also plans to open the North East chapter to showcase the rural and tribal areas and promote them before the country.