Category Archives: Agents

The Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has launched its online bus booking services that went live for the service of the nation on January 29, 2021. IRCTC is gradually moving towards firmly positioning itself as the first government ‘One Stop Shop Travel Portal’ of the country. IRCTC is already in the business of online rail and flight tickets booking.

With the pandemic highlighting the need for greater sustainability in the travel and tourism supply chain, TOFTigers has relaunched its internationally-recognised PUG and Footprint certification programme to help accommodation providers improve their businesses, now that travel is slowly resuming. It is a globally-recognised standard, to show their operators, OTAs, agents and to clients that their business is a world-class operation that is conscious of its responsibilities to people and the planet. TOFTigers is also running tutorials on understanding sustainability and how to build better itineraries, the fourth in the series is today at 2pm led by Julian Matthews, Founder and Chairman, TOFTigers. To join, sign up at https://www.toftigers.org/toftigers-event.

In a bold initiative to try and jumpstart MICE in the country, Thomas Cook India conducted a roadshow dedicated to MICE for its corporate clients at the Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre Hotel on February 8, 2021. Madhavan Menon, Chairman and Managing Director, Thomas Cook India, addressed the gathering and said, “We have reached an inflection point where we are able to move from virtual to physical events now.” The event included a panel discussion with three key corporates, a motivational session by actor Ashish Vidyarthi, and table-top meetings. Various Marriott properties in India were part of this B2B meetings, along with Tourism New Zealand.

Sharing the aim and vision of the team Moving Forward for the upcoming IATO Elections scheduled on 6th March in Delhi, Rajiv Mehra, the current Vice President and the candidate for President for the next term said that his aim is to think big and not lure our members with small petty benefits.” We are going to work for revival of business for our esteemed membership. The need of the hour is to think lateral & logical with paramount aim focus on the revival of our businesses and ignore the petty issues. We are confident that our members are intelligent enough to choose the best team,” he said in a meet and greet event organised for travel trade media in Delhi. The short term and long-term Agenda of the team is as under:- To continue to follow up with Ministry of Finance/Commerce/DGFT regarding the release of SEIS Scrips for 2019-20. To get SEIS for the tour operators for the next 5 years by getting it included in Foreign Trade Policy 2021-25 with the easy terms and conditions suitable to our members. To remove the requirement of minimum Rs. 2 crores turnover of foreign exchange earnings in MDA Guidelines for overseas promotion so that all our members can be benefited. To get relaxation in qualification for MoT Recognition by adding diploma/certificate of Tourism & Hospitality Skill Council To request Ministry of Tourism to start marketing and promotions by organising roadshows, participation in international travel marts, organise fam trips for FTOs etc., as soon as the restriction on e-Visa is removed and international flights start operating, To get the IATO website linked with the MOT website so that members can receive queries/leads. …

The Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) is doing its bit to encourage the youth to join the industry. TAAI’s UP Chapter recently signed an MoU with the Department of Business Management, Dr. Rammanohar Lohia Avadh University in Ayodhya to offer training, placements and even internship to students of MBA in Tourism Management. The MoU has been signed for three years.

“Tourism is the face of any nation. If the services are badly delivered, it will tarnish a nation’s face before the global population. And India being one destination known for its culture, tradition and hospitality, has its positioning because of the human element that delivers in hospitality. Unfortunately, our governments forgot to take care of the most boasted 55 million tourism industry people in India during last 10 months of suffering,” says a statement released by Tourism Leaders Club, whose President & Founder is Amesh Daftary and General Manager is Prakash Visani. The release says that a “peaceful protest campaign” has been planned by the Indian tourism fraternity on February 5, maintaining all COVID protocols of social distancing, mask and sanitiser. The statement also mentions, “Many are at the edge of breakage. Many are no more in tourism. This was so unjust from the ruling governments to discard such a dedicated selfless community which served the Nation’s progress. When all other sectors revived, Tourism is still not back and the governments didn’t even bother to take an account of job losses or business losses. It’s time for us to show our protest towards the inaction of Governments. Let us unite and show our integrity towards our own livelihood industry. Please join the campaign and make it a grand success.” “As it’s a pan India protest campaign,” the release adds, “our members at different destinations of India are requested to conduct similar cultural processions with their respective regional art forms to support the move. Our slogan will be ‘Tourism Lives Matter – Save Indian Tourism’. Our Demands for survival: GST Holiday for Two years for Tourism Rehabilitate tourism employees who lost …

Mumbai-based Raja Rani Travels facilitated a FAM trip for a large delegation of film producers to Kashmir where more than produced from 22 renowned production houses from Bollywood and film industry explored Kashmir’s natural beauty and also had an engagement with the administrative authority of the region.

Indicating a deep sense of dismay, Deepak Narula, Managing Director, GRN Connect, says, “This sector is one of the last ones to start its revival process and it needed a strong thrust from the government at such a critical time. But it has chosen to ignore us yet again. It seems like they don’t care for the tourism industry anymore. We are sorely disappointed yet again.”  

Expressing his views on Budget exclusively with TravTalk, Harmandeep Singh Anand, MD, Jagsons Travels & Co-founder, GPS, says, “It is pointless to follow the Budget. In most instances it does not deliver much for the tourism industry. Somewhere down the line, the implication will be on the end consumer in the form of a cess. Why we are still expecting big things from our Union Budget. The government has clearly said be ‘Atmanirbhar’ and this time it was indeed an Atmanirbhar Budget,”

Pradeep Lulla, Acting President, Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) shared his comments on the Budget and says, “This year’s Budget is very disappointing, specially for the tourism sector. We had collectively put across many suggestions to the Ministry of Tourism. Unfortunately, not one suggestion has been looked into or considered. The fiscal deficit which is 9.5 is quite large and some sort of allocation to tourism should have been given.”