Tag Archives: IATO

Sharing updates about IATO during its monthly meeting, Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO, said, “After the general election when the new government is formed, ‘Chalo India Roadshows’ will take place. He revealed that they will launch a social media global campaign from ATM in Dubai which will start from 6-7 May aimed at fostering growth in M!CE.

While commenting on the ‘Chalo India’ campaign launched by PM Modi, Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO, said, “Anything that is done to promote tourism we wholeheartedly welcome it. However, we need to rope in Destination Management Companies, foreign tour operators and get them to market us.”

Appreciating an increase in budget allocation to the Tourism Ministry in Interim Budget 2024, Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO, said, “Though we welcome the increase in budgetary allocation to  ₹2,000cr from last financial year’s  ₹1600cr and mention of branding in the budget speech of the FM, we must remember that unless we don’t do roadshows overseas, familiarisation trips and publicity campaigns abroad till then we would not be able to draw tourist to our country.”

Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO, said, “Tourism has become our blood stream. Led by our Hon’ble Prime Minister we the stakeholders breathe tourism. As the world opens up, India has positioned itself yet once again to be a vibrant destination with Ayodhya as the Spiritual Hub leading the pack. Ministry of Tourism synergizes our endeavour in both Domestic and International tourism, demand in diverse facets will grow in a geometric proportion, supply will rush to fill the gap catering to a sizable investment in tourism infrastructure.”

SC Kamra, Advocate & Taxation Consultant, IATO questioned regularity with which govt. reduced turnover threshold from ₹500 cr to ₹10 cr. “Industry apprehends it to be ₹5 cr, taking tour operators’ compliance cost of e-invoicing,” he added.

Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO, thanked the membership for voting his Dream team at the elections and said that their focus going forward will be to serve them in the best way possible. “We will do our best to fulfil the needs of tourism fraternity,” he said.

IATO has elected its new team for the term 2023-25. The election for the post of Office Bearers and Executive Committee Members were at The Ashok Hotel, New Delhi. Total number of votes cast were 278 out of 378 eligible members to cast their vote. The office bearers were elected unopposed and voting took  place for  the  EC members. List of Office Bearers/EC Members who have been declared elected are: • President – Mr. Rajiv Mehra, Uday Tours & Travels Pvt. Ltd. • Sr. Vice President- Mr. Rajnish Kaistha, Paradise Holidays India Pvt. Ltd. • Vice President – Mr. Ravi Gosain, Erco Travels Pvt. Ltd. • Hony. Secretary – Mr. Sanjay Razdan, Razdan Holidays • Hony. Treasurer – Mr. Sunil Mishra, Cosmos Tours & Travels • Hony. Joint Secretary – Mr. Viney Tyagi, Uni Crystal Holidays Pvt. Ltd. • Immediate Past President – Mr. Pronab Sarkar, Swagatam Tours Pvt. Ltd. EC Members – Active (5 Posts) 1. Mr. Deepak Bhatnagar – Aamantaran Travel Company Pvt. Ltd. 2. Mr. E.M. Najeeb, Air Travel Enterprises (I) Pvt. Ltd. 3. Mr. Harish Mathur, Concord Travels & Tours 4. Mr. Manoj Kumar Matta, Oriental Vacations & Journeys Pvt. Ltd. 5. Mr. Tony Marwah, Indian Travel Promotion Company Pvt. Ltd. EC Members –Allied (3 Posts) 1.  Mr. Ashok Dhoot – Harsh Travels 2. Mr. P. Vijayasarathy – Benchmark Hotels Pvt. Ltd. 3.  Mr. Zia Siddiqui – Alliance Hotels & Resorts The Returning Officer for the elections was Homa Mistry.

Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO, has said that this year the states of Northeast will get good traffic because the road conditions and flights to some of those states has improved manifold. “Thus, I am hopeful, that this year people will focus on going to NE,” he added.

Rajiv Mehra has been re-elected as President, IATO unopposed for the year 2023-24. It will be his second term as President of the prestigious organization. As per IATO constitution, he will not be competing for the post of President after this term.

Ravi Gosain, Vice President, IATO said, “Inbound tourism has a lot of scope, it’s a value product compared to the domestic. It is very important to grow inbound parallelly to domestic tourism. The government should provide financial incentive and some facilitation in policies to help tourism industry grow.”