Category Archives: Associations

In an attempt to revive tourism and reboot the travel business in the eastern part of India, the Skål International Kolkata elected its new management team for the next season 2021 – 2023. Skål International clubs worldwide consist of travel and tourism industry company owners and decision makers, thought leaders and industry influencers at the highest level. At present India has 14 Skål International clubs which work very closely under a national leadership team with all the global tourism entities in support of their members’ good business. At its Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Kolkata on September 23, the new Skål International Kolkata committee re-elected Sk Sanjeev Mehra as the President, Sk Amin Asghar as the First Vice President, Sk Punam Arora as the Second Vice President, Sk June Mukherjee as the Secretary, Sk Jay Saraogi in Membership Development, Sk Pramod Lunawat and Sk Avanti Chattoraj as Auditors, Sk Sreemoyee Mitra in PR & Communications, Sk Avijit Sarkar in CSR and Sk Ritu Jolly in charge of Young Skål. With an ambitious objective ahead to bid for the Skål World Congress in 2024, the new team will now work towards bringing the world travel community in the city of joy. Sk Manav Soni, the past President of the club is now the Skal IPP and represents Skal at the international level. The Skål International India President Sk Carl Vaz was present in the occasion held at the Taj Bengal Hotel and expressed his confidence that the young and dynamic Skål International Kolkata team will not only take the club to a newer height but will also make a significant contribution to the overall sustainable tourism industry revival. Skål International …

The Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI) has become the first Indian hospitality association to be awarded both the ISO 9001:2015 as well as the ISO 27001:2013 certifications. Sherry Bhatia, President, HRAWI, says, “This accreditation is assurance that we have robust, clearly-defined procedures in place across all areas including handling of documents and data, strong business continuity processes, back-up plan, risk analysis and mitigation (Risk Management), communications security, office security, incident management, compliance and monitoring. To maintain the validity of the certification, HRAWI will perform regular audits to ensure compliance and identify areas of improvement.”

IndiGo recently conducted a familiarisation tour for top 10 agents of Indore to Gwalior to help the trade promote Gwalior as a new tourist destination. Also part of the group was TK Jose, TAFI Chairman (MP Chapter). They stayed at the Neemrana Heritage hotel.

Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) has submitted a representation to the Home Minister, Ministry of Home Affairs –Amit Shah requesting his urgent intervention in implementing the judgement passed by the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) for the State of Goa and Union Territories with respect to charging of electricity tariff at industrial rates for hotels in Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

In a recent webinar, Rupinder Brar, Additional Director General, Ministry of Tourism, expressed her concern on the lack of trained medical staff in tourism industry. “There is no dearth of medical personnel in India, then why are we not able to address the medical issues. That is something we need to work on immediately. More targeted and focused training by the ministry is required of the tour guides associated with the recognized tour companies” said Brar

The Adventure Tour Operators Association of India (ATOAI) is organising a webinar titled ‘The Great Indian Outdoors at the threshold’ today at 11am. Guest speakers include Dr. V Venu, Additional Chief Secretary, Tourism, Government of Kerala; Rupinder Brar, Additional Director General, Ministry of Tourism; and Brig Ashok Abbey, President, Indian Mountaineering Foundation. The webinar will focus on how the sector can keep up with the growth, and guidelines and regulations that need to be implemented to curb accident rate.

The new Team TAFI India had its first National Joint Council (NJC) meeting on 04 September at the Gift City Club Gandhinagar – Gujarat. The National Managing Committee and the Chapter Chairmen & Secretaries from all 11 Chapters were present. TAFI President Ajay Prakash rendered a traditional welcome to Shri Jenu Devan, MD & Commissioner of Gujarat Tourism. He shared his vision of a reviving travel and tourism industry as vaccinations picked up pace and the epidemic receded.

The Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) Madhya Pradesh Chapter conducted a physical meeting for its members in Pune recently over two days. It was led by Chapter Chairman TK Jose along with the National Committee team led by President Ajay Prakash. The team met in Pune in order to promote the destination along with nearby places like Lonavala and Mahabaleshwar after IndiGo started a direct Indore-Pune-Indore flight.

Pronab Sarkar, Immediate Past President of IATO has been elected as member of the SEPC Central Governing Council for 2021-23 to represent Travel & Tourism Sector. Sarkar has won the elections with a big margin. Hence, travel and tourism sector will have strong representation in SEPC and will pave way for taking up issues and raising concens, with the Ministry of Commerce and other Ministries through SEPC.

The Karnataka Chapter of TAAI, in collaboration with the MSME Development Institute, conducted a virtual workshop to educate members about various schemes of Ministry of Micro, SME. This is part of the series initiated by TAAI at pan-India level to educate its members about the benefits and reliefs extended by the Ministry of MSME. Gopinath Rao, Deputy Director, MSME Development Institute, Bengaluru shared various schemes and initiatives of MSME and explained how it can benefit businesses at large. He specifically mentioned the schemes which attendees may avail finance, both at micro and macro levels.