Category Archives: Associations

Julia Simpson, president and CEO, WTTC, at its Global Summit highlighted that the pandemic rewrote the rule book on how we live and how we travel. She said that WTTC is announcing its latest Economic Impact Research which shows that over the next 10 years to 2032 Travel & Tourism is poised to have an average annual growth rate of 5.8%. “By the end of 2022 we will have recovered to $8.35 trillion,” she added.

Sharing details of this session, Ajay Prakash, President, TAFI, says, “The focus is to explain the nuances of TCS, FEMA and a few other laws and regulations which perhaps not all our members are familiar with. So sometimes they make an error which can have grievance consequences. So we are getting very senior experts from Jayantilal Thakkar & Co in the field to come and talk to our members and educate them and make them aware of what they need to be careful about when conducting business.”

The travel agent fraternity of Andhra Pradesh welcomed RK Roja Garu, the new Tourism Minister for Andhra Pradesh. K. Vijay Mohan, President of Tours & Travels Association of Andhra (TTAA), as well as ADTOI Chairman for Andhra & Telangana, said, “We look forward to working closely with the new minister for promoting tourism sector in the state.”

The Federation of Hotels & Restaurants Association of India (FHRAI) FHRAI recently sent a representation to Santosh Sarangi, Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), to extend the Export Obligation (EO) period under the EPCG Scheme for another 6 to 8 years for the past EPCG licenses where the EO period ended in February 2020 onwards. The association states that it should allow all hotels time to recover and generate foreign exchange to meet their export obligations.

The Travel & Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) team led by President Nilesh Shah met the new Tourism Minister of Goa Rohan Khaunte, to request him for his support to the tourism industry. Shah said, “He is a dynamic leaders and has experience in the hospitality industry. We want a tourism minister to execute the vision outlined in the tourism masterplan. We hope under his leadership our industry benefits.”

In the presidential address at the 25th Annual General Meeting, Puneet Chhatwal, President, HAI, emphasised the need to forge closer ties and collaborate with other industry bodies for a stronger and a more unified voice. He said “International travel has gone back 30 years globally and the ripple effect of tourism is affecting the economy of countries. Indian hospitality sector has rebounded due to various components of domestic travel and a vigorous internal demand.” 

Based on the latest available data, international tourism continued its recovery in January 2022, with much better results than in early 2021.  International tourist arrivals more than doubled (+130%) compared to January 2021, growing by 18 million. This increase in number of arrivals is the same as in the whole of 2021 over 2020. Despite the robust results, the pace of recovery was impacted by the Omicron variant and the reintroduction of travel restrictions across several destinations.

Hotel Association of India (HAI), the national apex body of the hotel industry and an integrated hospitality industry platform held its 25th Annual General Meeting on the 16th of March in New Delhi. In his presidential address at the meeting, Puneet Chhatwal emphasised the need to forge closer ties and collaborate with other industry bodies for a stronger and a more unified voice. While highlighting the pandemic related challenges confronting the Industry, Chhatwal commended the tremendous resilience and enormous innovation shown by the sector. While the industry is firmly on the road to recovery, supply chain disruptions, subdued employment growth, rising inflation, food insecurity, the setback to human capital accumulation, supply-demand mismatches, and climate change will continue to pose difficulties and would be  some of the key issues of concern going forward. He said, “International travel has gone back 30 years globally and the ripple effect of tourism is affecting the economy of countries. Indian hospitality sector has rebounded due to various components of domestic travel and a vigorous internal demand.”

Travel has completely transformed post pandemic. It is important to focus on innovation and developing new sustainable products. The true focus lays on creating innovative products and experiences for travellers and consumers. So, 63% of travel and trade professional are keeping an eye on building product and services which are fundamental for businesses, says Caroline Bremner, Head of Travel and Tourism Research at Euromonitor International.

Valmiki Hari Kishan, Chairman- Tourism Committee, Federation of Telangana Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FTCCI), has said that Telangana State still hasn’t released its tourism policy, which we have been pushing for the past few years. However, he says that news has come that it will be released soon. “I am happy to share that the policy is ready within the Secretary of the Tourism committee and they will be rolling it out very shortly,” he said.