The Enterprising Travel Agents Association (ETAA) has announced its new National Committee for the term 2020-2021. Jagat Mehta will continue to be the President and Board Member, and Dharmesh Advani has been promoted to National General Secretary and Board Member of ETAA. Meghana Gautam is now Joint General Secretary while Carl Dantas remains Chairman Emeritus and Founder President of ETAA. During the lockdown, the association conducted 15 webinars for its members on various topics such as CRM, unexplored destinations, insurance, legal compliance, social media, etc. It will continue to organise webinars for its members to impart knowledge and to assist them in growing business. Jagat Mehta says, “The association is disappointed with the government as it has not considered any relief packages for the Tourism Industry even after our constant efforts to highlight the problems faced by our industry due to Covid-19. However, we are still pursuing the matter, since this effect may last for a significant period in the near future.” The various Chapter Chairpersons are Sangeeta Manocha (North India), Santosh Khawale (Western India), Koushik Banerjee (East India), Jagadeesh Hanumanthaih (South India) and Nikhil Pargaonkar (Mumbai Region). Abhijit Khadilkar has decided to move on from his post of National General Secretary for ETAA and will now concentrate on growing his business.  

Switzerland Tourism invites the trade to participate in its webinar titled ‘Unlimited Swissness in Interlaken’ to be hosted today at 3:00 pm. Interlaken is situated between the Lakes Thun and Brienz and is centrally located in Switzerland. Surrounded by the mountains Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau, it not only provides numerous excursion opportunities but is also a hub for adventure activities in Switzerland. This webinar will provide the trade with the latest information and updates about Interlaken. Travel partners who attend all their webinars stand a chance of winning a trip to Switzerland. For more information, please contact Jaspreet Kaur on 9650196532 or jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com.

The Adventure Tour Operators Association of India (ATOAI) has released a set of guidelines for post-COVID-19 handling of guests by tour operators. Sharing the information in a tweet, the association said that The ATOAI guidelines will serve as recommendations for the safe handling of guests in a post-COVID-19 world. The document features the list of steps various stakeholders should take while on a tour or at their property/hotel. The intended audience for these guidelines is tour operators and accommodation providers including hotels, resorts and homestays. This document is NOT intended to serve as the definitive mandate for these operations, nor is it intended to cover every aspect of accommodation and tour operator businesses. ATOAI has focussed on the most common guest touchpoints, collating publicly information from a variety of sources. One should also not expect that following these guidelines guarantees no infection. The full guidelines can be accessed at www.atoai.org/index.php/about-us/covid-19-guidelines.html   

Mandeep Singh Lamba, President – South Asia, HVS ANAROCK, has said that the hospitality industry would see changes in terms of design and operations after the COVID-19 crisis is over. Speaking at the third TravTalk Digital Conclave, he said, “There are going to be some permanent changes that will happen in the industry, both in terms of operations of the hotels and in terms of design. We need to understand that is perhaps not the last time we are seeing a disruption of this kind. It’s a reality, which can hit us again, and hence we need to be far better prepared the next time. This crisis has stirred the industry into making some serious changes.”

Bharat Bhushan Atree, Managing Director, Caper Travel Company during the 3rd TravTalk Digital Conclave said that with new technology in the industry, new virtual reality products should be introduced for tourism. “Sustainability is the biggest issue right now. Spending wisely should be the only smart plan B. We should look at curating innovative products to promote inbound tourism and strategize our marketing and promotional approach. There should not be a lot of expectation from the government. A lot of people will also look at consolidation in the industry,” he said.  

Cross Hotels and Resorts are holding an exclusive webinar for the Indian travel trade on 25th May, 2020 at 2:30 pm IST. For more information, please contact Harish Chhetri on 9650196521 or sales@crosshotelsandresorts.in. To attend the webinar please register on this link, https://event.webinarjam.com/register/113/1n728ak9. The key note speaker for the webinar from Thailand is Yui, Group Director of Sales, Cross hotels and resorts. The webinar will elaborate on one of the leading hotel chains in SE Asia, Cross Hotels and Resorts .

Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Civil Aviation, has said that the ministry, with all its divisions, including the Airports Authority of India and DGCA, is ready to resume domestic operations for the last one week, but they are still waiting for approval from some of the states for the same. He added that once they get approval, they will start operations in 2-3 days after that, and it could happen before the lockdown gets over. In a tweet, Puri said, “It is not up to MoCA or centre alone to decide to resume domestic flights. In the spirit of cooperative federalism, the govt of states where these flights will take off & land should be ready to allow civil aviation operations.”  

Rajiv Mehra, Vice President, IATO during the 3rd TravTalk Digital Conclave said that IATO will organise skill development programs for its members to support them with help tackle the challenges created by COVID-19 crisis for the inbound industry. “Once everything normalises, we will start organising skill development programs for our members. We are hoping some relief from the government as well. We as an association cannot give monetary benefits to our members but we are actively in touch with the government to every possible thing for the survival of members. I expect this grave situation to get a little better in 3-4 months time once lockdown is lifted. IATO will definitely go forward and promote domestic tourism,” he said.

Tourism Minister of Maharashtra, Aaditya Thackeray has said that Maharashtra government will be the first state to announce something promising for the tourism sector and deliver on it while also creating a task force with equal contribution from the travel and hospitality industry along with government and industry-specific experts for the economic revival of the state and the industries. Speaking during a webinar conducted under the FHRAI, the minister also asked the travel and tourism industry experts to prepare documents to consider short, medium and long term measures to revive the tourism and hospitality sector in the state. “We have to take the state of Maharashtra ahead, pitch it to the world. I am really keen to make Maharashtra the first to declare and deliver something for the hotel industry. We have to revive very quickly, take the sector ahead and figure out how we can work with the other sectors. A task force has been set up, we can work in sync, understand what is doable in the medium-term and long-term,” said Thackeray. The webinar was attended by Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, Vice President, FHRAI; Dilip Datwani, Former President, HRAWI and CMD of Hotel Jayshree; Jimmy Mistry, CMD & Principal Designer, Della Group; Sanjay Sethi, MD, Chalet Hotels; Param Kannampilly, Chairman of Fern Hotels; SP Jain, MD of Pride Hotels; and Vivek Nair, CEO, Leela Group. Some of the problems faced by the members of the hotel and restaurant industry were presented to the Minister including the need for liquidity and working capital.

Switzerland Tourism invites the trade to participate in its webinar titled ‘Unlimited Swissness in Interlaken’ to be hosted on Friday, May 22, 2020, at 3:00 pm. Interlaken is situated between the Lakes Thun and Brienz and is centrally located in Switzerland. Surrounded by the mountains Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau, it not only provides numerous excursion opportunities but is also a hub for adventure activities in Switzerland. This webinar will provide the trade with the latest information and updates about Interlaken. Travel partners who attend all their webinars stand a chance of winning a trip to Switzerland. For more information, please contact Jaspreet Kaur on 9650196532 or jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com.