Category Archives: Agents

The past year has brought about significant changes and challenges due to the global pandemic, with travel and tourism being amongst the most impacted sectors. As the travel and tourism industry adapts to the new realities of working remotely, reduced travel business and other factors, it has become more important than ever to look after mental wellness, as well as physical health. To assist the travel industry in looking after their mental wellbeing, Tourism Australia is organising a series of Wellness Workshops in India aimed at providing a toolkit of practical tips that will help build confidence in the ability to maintain and build mental wellbeing. Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager – India and Gulf, Tourism Australia said, ‘Pre-COVID our travel industry was focused on promoting the many benefits of travel to consumers, including the positive effects of travel to overall wellness and mental wellbeing. Now with travel on hold, the workshops have been planned to impart effective strategies, techniques and mechanisms for our travel industry colleagues to manage stress and maintain their general mental wellbeing in the challenging times. It is also a positive step towards supporting the resilience of our industry and our tourism partners in these challenging times.’ This first-of-a-kind initiative in the travel industry includes a curated set of sessions featuring veteran motivational speakers and mental health experts and will be open to Aussie Specialist Agents and all members of the Indian travel trade.

Members of the Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) chose Ajay Prakash as their new national president via electronic voting today. The results were announced at around 5:30pm. He will lead the new team with  Kamal Ramchand as the Vice-President. Other winners include Abbas Moiz as the National General Secretary, and Hitank Shah as the Treasurer. The five Managing Committee Members are Anil Kalsi, Lalith Jain, Rani Bachani, Rai Achal Krishna and Seeraj Sabharwal.

Parvez Dewan, Former Tourism Secretary, has said that the pandemic has hurt tourism, hence, we need to retool ourselves. “There must be innovation in everything we do – Hotel staff needs to be retrained, and just like we have First Class in aeroplanes, we should have a Quarantine Class,” he suggested.

Airlink, the privately owned South African regional airline based in Johannesburg, has named AirlinePros International as its General Sales Agent for India with immediate effect. Airlink is a member of IATA and is IOSA accredited. It has more than 50 commercial jetliners operating throughout Southern Africa. In 2019 pre COVID the airline carried 2 million customers on more than 63,000 flights on 55 routes to 39 destinations in 9 African countries and St Helena Island. Airlink operates the widest network in Southern Africa to countries such as South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Madagascar, Lesotho, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Eswatini (Swaziland), as well as to the remote island of St. Helena. Airlink operates independently under its own unique 4Z flight code. Throughout 2020 Airlink has been busy activating new interline relationships and partners including British Airways, Air France, Emirates and Qatar which will offer strong opportunities for connecting traffic from India. Ramesh Marwah, Regional Managing Partner India, AirlinePros International added “India enjoys close strategic, cultural & economic ties with South Africa and neighbouring countries in Southern Africa which will be connected well to India by Airlink in cooperation with its Interline Partners. We are confident to receive necessary support of our trade partners in India to assist Airlink in not only establishing base in India but securing optimum market share of travel triggered by growing trade, anticipated surge in tourism and movement of large number of Indian origin people residing in South Africa and other nations in Southern Africa”.

Members of the Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) will be choosing between two candidates who have stood for the post of the national president for the new term. They are Rajat Bagaria and Ajay Prakash. TAFI will conduct its national elections via e-voting on July 24, 2021 along with its AGM and EOGM through an online platform. . Results are likely to be announced at around 17:00 hours on 24th July 2021 through an online platform.

Rakesh Verma, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, has said that they will be appointing international marketing representatives within 3-4 months. “We have done preliminary work before 2nd wave . We identified some of the markets, where we need to position these representatives. We are working on it, and in about 3-4 months, we would be having them in position, so that whenever international travel happens, we will have them on ground to really help us,” he added.

Nepal Tourism Board has announced the second edition of its Mt. Everest Fashion Runway scheduled to be held in the Everest region with 20 super models and 200 ‘super audience’ from September 22, 2021. The event promotes sustainable fashion and responsible consumerism addressing climate change and global warming. The fashion show will kickstart in September 2021 at an altitude of over 5,800 metres in the Mt Everest region at -30-degree Celsius and less than 50 per cent oxygen present in the atmosphere.

The Maharashtra government has approved the state’s new adventure tourism policy which covers around 25 adventure activities. The policy will cover the promotion of adventure activities as well as registration, regulation, monitoring, planning, promotion, training etc. of various adventure event organisers and adventure training organisations. Organizers will be given a temporary registration certificate from the Directorate of Tourism (DoT) and a final registration certificate after obtaining all the required equipment details and qualifications. Under this policy, the organisers of adventure activities will gain several benefits like refund of SGST, discount in stamp duty and power charges.

After completing a long and successful stint at the Federation of Hotels & Restaurants Association of India, Dr. Himanshu Talwar has now joined the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) as Executive Director. He thanks everyone for extending their unwavering support over the years.

Subhash Goyal, President, Confederation of Tourism Professionals, has said that the Government should announce immediately E-Tourist Visa and Scheduled International flights in the month of September/October. “The Tourist season to India is from October to March. While domestic tourism is helping a few hotels but people like Govt. recognized Tourist Guides, Tourist Transport Operators, Tourist Taxi Drivers pan India and small Tour Operators and Vendors are starving. We have to fulfil our Prime Minister’s dream of making India a 5 trillion dollar economy,” he said.