Category Archives: Agents

The next convention of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) is likely to be held in Kolkata from September 12-15, informed Rajesh Mudgill, Hony. Secretary, IATO. He said that further details will be announced in due course of time. “The 35th convention will likely be organised in Kolkata. We had some deliberations regarding the dates but things are almost finalised now. We are looking make this convention much bigger and better,” adds Mudgill. He also said the upcoming monthly luncheon meeting of the association, scheduled on July 10 at The Oberoi, Delhi will be followed by the Executive committee meeting, where the association is expected to discuss more about the preparations for the convention. Apart from working on the new IATO website, Mudgill also informed that the association is also looking to come up with a mobile app to facilitate convenience and more information to its members.

Hyderabad’s Tourism professional SK Hari Kishan Valmikki was honoured with the Personality of the year award for 219 at the recently concluded 48th Skål Asia Area Congress in Bengaluru. Valmiki is a well-known travel professional in Indian as well as asian region of the Skål and has been chosen among 3600 members spread across in the Asian continent. He has twenty years of experience in tourism industry in India. Founder & the MD of Hyderabad-based, Valmiki Travel & Tourism Solutions, he is known for his contribution in creating a positive impact on the tourism industry through various initiatives. He was also part of the bidding committee and was instrumental in bringing 78th Skål World Congress to Hyderabad in 2017 under the leadership of the then President. After Andhra Pradesh’s bifurcation, he collaborated with FTAPCCI as a Chairman for Tourism & MiCE Committee to organise the 1st Telangana Tourism Conclave with the primary aim to promote interaction between the tourism industry and stakeholders. He has also submitted white draft to help Government of Telangana’s tourism Policy. On winning the award, an elated Valmiki said, “ The ‘Athithidevo Bhava’ social awareness campaign introduced by the Ministry of Tourism with the objective of sensitising the stakeholders and the general public about various social awareness themes must be propagated more deeply and intensely. This award will increase the responsibility as in individual to do more and better towards the development of the tourism sector and also become a responsible citizen to do something for the society.

Leading Destination Management Company and travel agent, Pacific Travels has been appointed as the India Representative for Activo Travel, a leading European destination management company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany. This new and exclusive deal enables Pacific Travels access to a wide range of high quality Activo tour and travel services within EU territory, spanning countries like Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Czech, Poland, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and other European countries. Activo Travel is a big name in four major business segments including local ground service for series travel groups, tour bus rental and schedule planning service, customized tour service and MICE service. Every year, more than a hundred thousand travelers from all over the world, benefit from the high quality services offered by Activo Travel. The company is also highly popular in China and brings a good number of Chinese tourists to Europe.

A recent report by India Brand Equity Foundation on tourism and hospitality revealed that the share of revenues from leisure travel to the total tourism revenue stood around 94.8 per cent in 2018. According to statistics shared in the report, leisure travel spending reached US$ 234.16 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach US$432.3 billion by 2028. On the other hand, business travel revenues were US$ 12.84 billion in 2018 and are projected to increase to US$ 24.4 billion by 2028.

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with Tamil Nadu Travel Mart Society, supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India and Department of Tourism, Government of Tamil Nadu is organising the 2nd edition of CII Tamil Nadu Travel Mart to showcase the potential of Tamil Nadu’s tourism on a global platform from 19-22 September in Chennai. The registrations for the same have been opened. The three-day exhibition will witness more than 300 exhibitors showcasing tourism business opportunities in the state along with 1000 domestic and international buyers.

M. Vinod, President, Andaman Association of Tour Operators (AATO), recently met Prahlad Singh Patel, the Tourism Minister, Govt. of India at his office in Delhi and discussed various tourism related issues affecting the industry.  Some of the major grievances raised during the meeting were- Closure of swimming in a majority of the beaches since last six months along with suspension of sports like sea walk, scuba diving and snorkeling.   One of the major issues raised was also the lack of co-ordination between the stakeholders and Andaman administration where AATO says the Administration closes all the activities during peak season without any intimation affecting the industry.    

With an intent to focus on supporting its members and foresee the trend and updates of the tourism industry, the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), organised its first of the series ‘Knowledge Conclave’ in Delhi. The conclaves are meant to support TAAI members with a vision for the future and upgrade them with executive education. Sunil Kumar R, President, TAAI, “The objective of these Knowledge Conclaves is to help our members unlearn, update and upgrade their knowledge. Over the two-day conclave, we will have five different sessions on executive education including sessions aviation trend, technology and optimising business opportunities. With 120 members attending the conclave in Delhi, TAAI members can attend Conclave in other cities as well, if they miss out.” After Delhi, the Knowledge Conclave will take place in four other locations across India during June-July 2019. In Mumbai, the conclave is scheduled on 19-20 July. These five conclaves are based on geographical location and members of respective TAAI regions and chapters are invited to attend the conclaves.

Multizebra is another trend-setting product from the Multilink stable, which is touted to be the future of a modern travel industry. Multizebra is a market place for DMCs and travel agents across the globe. While the DMCs may upload their static packages and component rates, the travel agents can log on to the portal and create a quotation for any destination in a few clicks. Sharing this news is Nikhil Shah, Co-founder, Multilink. He says, “Traditionally, the travel agent sends a query to a DMC and wait for two to three days for them to revert with the quotation. Then the travel agent has to make some changes and send it again to the DMC for revised quotation which again takes about two to three days. This entire process takes about a week and sometimes more. Meanwhile, the end-traveller either closes with another travel agent or in a few cases even cancels the tour. This results in loss of precious manpower, time and loss of revenue.” What does Multizebra is cuts off all the unnecessary time consumption and waste of manpower and provides the convenience of quoting a query in a few clicks which takes about five to 10 minutes. “As of now we have already on-boarded more than 40,000 agents across the globe mainly from the Indian subcontinent, Indonesia and the UAE,” Shah reveals.

Atlas Travels Online and OYO have come together to provide the hotel brand’s worldwide inventory on the Atlas Travels Online platform. Together, they will offer 10 per cent cash back on booking any OYO hotel on Atlas Travel Online portal This offer is valid for 30-days starting from June 25, 2019. The offer is extended only to Atlas Travel Online’s network of 20,000 travel partners. The two companies will conduct joint roadshows across the country to showcase the benefits of this promotion to the travel partners. Hussain Patel Director, Atlas Travels Online, says, “We have predominantly been known for our Air deals and offers, however in the past year we have experienced great momentum in our hotel booking segment. Almost 40 per cent of our business comes from hotel bookings and we have direct relationships with our suppliers. OYO is undoubtedly the largest and the fastest growing hotel chain and we are excited with our partnership as our travel partners have a great deal to benefit from.” With regards to the partnership, Gaurav Ajmera, COO, India and South Asia, OYO Hotels & Homes comments, “Our single-minded focus is to make standardised and trusted quality accommodation at affordable prices accessible to travelers across the globe. We are pleased to partner with Atlas Travel Online, a renowned travel portal, to extend our offering to the portal’s customers and together provide guests across geographies memorable travel experiences. We strongly believe that this partnership will be extremely beneficial for the modern day traveller.”

Royal Air Maroc, Morocco’s national carrier, is offering 5 per cent commission to agents on Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP) India. Earlier the IATA commission that the airline was offering was only 3 per cent. The airline is represented in India by APG India, and does not have a any direct connection from India as of now.