Category Archives: Associations

Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) hopes the government will consider its suggestions for good governance and ease of doing business for the travel trade. Sharing her expectations on Budget, Jyoti Mayal, President of TAAI, says, “We believe the Budget 2021 should be focused more on spendings to enable economic growth,  what better area to spend in than tourism to generate more cash flow and earnings to enable enhancement of infrastructure.” She adds, “We have already appealed for have a uniform GST across India whereby input tax credits can be taken for services utilised across the country. The GST for tour operators should be at 1.8% with full setoff, being 18% on an average margin of 10%. Interstate credit of GST are not available to travel agents and tour operators on IGST and the same should be considered at par which shall not only benefit the corporates but the consumers are large. The similar being with airlines on the point of departure.” We are expecting the FM to ensure LTC benefits not utilised this year due to the pandemic should be permitted to be carried forward in the coming 2 years. Further to boost the economy all expenses made for travel, tourism, MiCE, adventure, domestic and religious travel, by the tax payer should be fully exempt from income tax for the next 2 years, states Mayal. The FM should also ensure 10% SIES credit to be adjusted completely under income tax. To ensure growth in tourism and all incomes from foreign exchange earnings should be given a tax holiday for a period of 2 years. TCS too to should be rescinded as it serve no purpose of tax collect and …

IATO and TravTalk will be organising the second edition of the webinar on ‘Redesigning Itineraries: Ayurveda, Meditation and Spirituality’ today at 11:30am. The speakers will be Guru Yogi Shivan from Indimasi and Dr. Shiney Linu, Ayurveda Specialist at Kairali Ayurvedic Group. To register email: jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or call +91 9650196532.

Venkatesan D, Regional Director of Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India recently visited Indore to interact with more than 50 members of TAAI’s MP & CG Chapter led by Hemendra Singh Jadon, Chapter Chairman. The discussion was around the importance of promoting India, new products in MP, and new strategies for selling including using more and more social media to showcase experiences and destinations, as well as involving social influencers.

According to WTTC, more than 100 million jobs could return to the global tourism sector during 2021, as the world recovers from the crippling pandemic. “We are looking forward to a strong summer of travel, thanks to a combination of mask wearing, the global vaccination roll-out and testing on departure,” says Gloria Guevara, President & CEO, WTTC.

During its AGM and elections held virtually, ATOAI has elected new office-bearers and EC for 2021-23 term and form a Women Task Force. Vishwas Makhija, Managing Director, Inside India Tours is the new President while Rajesh Ojha, Managing Director, Banjara Camps is new Senior Vice President. Vaibhav Kala, Managing Director, Aquaterra Adventures India has been elected as the new Vice President. Vinayak Koul, Director, Snowlion Expeditions is back for a 2nd term as Hony. Secretary while Pradeep Murty, Director, Muddy Boots Vacations has been chosen as new Hony. Treasurer. Executive committee members are: – Commander Sam T Samuel – Kalypso Adventures. Ronny Singh Gulati – Youreka Campouts. Nirat Bhatt – Nidus Enterprises. Nadeem Sheikh – Sea & Sky Travel (India). Arvind Bhardwaj – Red Chilli Adventure Sports. Milind Bhide – Countryside Adventure Holidays. The new ATOAI team will continue to progress the growth of adventure travel in India by taking forward the association’s aims and shaping government policy for this sector. Apart from resolving issues impacting adventure tourism in the country, its main objectives would be to bring more adventure tour operators across the country into the mainstream of Quality and Responsible Tourism Practices as a member, getting all states to adopt ATOAI’s safety guidelines, prioritizing operational risk assessment within the membership, conducting skill development & capacity building workshops in association with state tourism departments and local associations, running educational seminars and FAM tours for members, fostering new and innovative adventure tourism products and creating a pool of trained human resources within the industry.  ATOAI also seeks to take measures to reduce environmental impact on India’s natural resources, check mass- tourism in our remote locales, and take active measures to help …

FHRAI has appealed to Government of India to aggressively promote domestic tourism in 2021. The association has emphasized on the need to encourage local tourism under the Ministry of Tourism’s (MoT) Dekho Apna Desh Pledge campaign. The association has also recommended incentivising domestic tourism by offering tax exemption under 80C of up to Rs 50,000.

EM Najeeb, Chairperson, Confederation of Kerala Tourism Industry and Sr VP, IATO has said that frontline tourism workers in travel and tourism should be given priority for COVID-19 vaccination. “For a state like Kerala, a healthy, robust tourism industry is critical to the overall recovery of the economy as it contributes over 10 per cent of the GDP,” he said.

ADTOI has announced that their 10th Annual Convention will be taking place from 12-14 February at Statue of Unity, with the support of Gujarat Tourism. The theme of the convention is Domestic Tourism – Hope For The Revival ‘Dekho Apna Desh’. To be held at the Convention Hall, Tent City 2, Kevadia, Gujarat. PP Khanna revealed that the convention is aimed at promoting domestic tourism and they have been in talks with Gujarat Tourism for a long time, and they will be together be promoting Kevadia as an upcoming domestic destination.

IATO, in association with TravTalk, is hosting a webinar today at 11:30 am, to educate attendees on new ideas in strategic cost cutting and its benefits. The speaker for the session will be Amol Bajaj, Head – Apprenticeship, Tourism & Hospitality Skill Council (THSC). To register, write to jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or call +91-9650196532.

India’s apex hotel association, FHRAI has appealed to Government of India to aggressively promote domestic tourism this year, and recommended that incentivising domestic tourism by offering tax exemption under Section 80C of up to Rs50,000 to Indian nationals will encourage them to travel, thus helping achieve the goal.