Category Archives: Associations

The Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) will organise its fifth convention in Turkey from March 15-18, 2020, informed Riaz Munshi, President, OTOAI. He added that the pre-convention tour will be organised from March 12-15, 2020, while post-convention tours will be from March 18-21, 2020. “Preparations are going on in full swing for the convention in Turkey. Apart from the pre and post tours, we are finalising flight travel arrangements and sessions of the convention. Very soon, we will organise an event at the Turkish Embassy with the Ambassador to share more details,” he said. The last OTOAI Convention was held in South Africa in 2018.

Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) has launched its new chapter in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. The office bearers of the new chapter were unanimously elected and Jose T K from Jose Travels was named the Chairman. Hari Om Jhunjhunwala of Rashi Travels is the Secretary; Mandeep Duggal of Ondigo Travels is the Treasurer, while Shailendra Khare of Network Travels has been named as the Advisor of MP chapter. Present at the launch of the new chapter from national level were Pradeep Lulla, President, TAFI, along with Aditi Bhende, Secretary General, TAFI; Jayesh Tharani, Treasurer, TAFI and Teddy M. Thomas, Joint Treasurer, TAFI. Jose TK said that they will initiate discussion with various airlines to induct a flight to Bangkok from Indore as well as international flight operations from Bhopal & domestic sectors like Surat, Cochin, Pune & Chandigarh from Indore.

Association of Buddhist Tour Operators (ABTO) has opened its Asian office in Pattaya, Thailand. ABTO also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA) for co-operation in the field of travel and tourism, with an aim to promote Buddhist pilgrimage tourism between the two countries. The MoU was signed by Kaulesh Kumar, Secy. General, ABTO and Bang-on Janasanthia, Committee Member, ATTA.

The World Travel & Tourism Council India Initiative (WTTCII) and Hotelivate has released sixth edition of the India State Ranking Survey along with an award ceremony to felicitate the best-performing states. Goa has been awarded ‘Destination Leadership Award 2019 for the overall best performance in 2019 where the state has managed to score 121 points out of 165, followed by Tamil Nadu which scored 111 points and Delhi which managed to fetch 110 points. Rajeev Talwar, Chairman – WTTCII & CEO, DLF adds, “We are delighted to present to you the 6th Edition of WTTCII-Hotelivate State Ranking Survey 2019. Back in 2009, with the launch of the first State Ranking Survey, the basic premises behind this endeavour was to encourage the state governments to take cognizance of the Tourism industry, which can contribute significantly towards the State’s GDP, employment, infrastructure, as well as have tangible social impact. It is encouraging to see the significant progrress made by certain states as well as to have new states emerge among leaders. States such as Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Tripura have shown remarkable improvement since we started in 2009 and this is just the purpose of this report. The 6th Edition of this State Ranking Survey also notes, that the North Eastern States are taking rapid strides in Tourism. Their geographic position and infrastructural disadvantages, connectivity issues are something the Government & Industry should take cognizance of. Together, we need to inspire the North Eastern States to grow their unique tourism products for the world of travel.”

Outbound Tour Operators Association of India, OTOAI, has elected a new team. Riaz Munshi (N. Chirag) has been elected as the President; Himanshu Patil (Kesari Tours), has been elected as the Vice President; Shravan Bhalla (High Flyer) is the new General Secretary; Vineet Gopal (Engee Holidays) has been elected as the Joint Secretary and Siddharth Khanna (Khanna Enterprises) has been elected as the Treasurer. The members of the new committee members are, Mahendra Vakharia, Adl Abdul Karim, Gurdeep Singh Gujral, Ankush Nijhawan, Arshdeep Anand and Monia Kapoor.  

The second edition of PATA Tourism Powerhouse, presented by the Inder Sharma Foundation (ISF), concluded at The Park, New Delhi on December 6, 2019, with the attendance of the stalwarts of tourism industry from India and outside, who shared knowledge and forecast for tourism in India and across the world. The day-long event was inaugurated by Mario Hardy, CEO, PATA; Yogendra Tripathi, Secretary, Tourism, Government of India and Chairman, PATA India Chapter; Jatinder Taneja, Vice- Chairman, PATA India Chapter; John Koldowski, Special Advisor to CEO, PATA  and Professor, School of Tourism, Leshan Normal University, Sichuan Province, China; Priya Paul, Chairperson, Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels; Arjun Sharma, Trustee, ISF and Chairman, Select Group; Neeraj Ghei, Chairman, ISF and SanJeet, Hony. Treasurer, PATA India Chapter.

The second edition of PATA Tourism Powerhouse, presented by Inder Sharma Foundation, will present a huge line-up of speakers. The speakers include, Yogendra Tripathi, Secretary Tourism and Chairman, PATA India Chapter; Mario Hardy, CEO, PATA; John Koldowski, Professor, School of Tourism, Leshan Normal University, Sichuan Province, China; Sarah Mathews- Group Head of Destination Marketing APAC, TripAdvisor; Damian Cook, Founder and CEO of E- tourism Frontiers; Greg Klassen , Principal, Twenty31 Consulting; Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Georg Atil, Founder and CEO, COTRI; Kapil Kaul, CEO & Director of CAPA South Asia; Sam McGoun, CEO, Impact Tourism; and Parishmita Gogoi, Student, Masters in Travel and Tourism Management, Amity University. Jatinder Taneja, Vice- Chairman, PATA India Chapter, revealed, “We have flown in a lot of international speakers who will be talking to us, or educating us about the global trends going on in tourism. Mario Hardy, CEO, PATA international will also be coming. There will be Professor Wolfgang Georg Arit from China Outbound Tourism Research Institute (COTRI), who will be speaking about Indo-China tourism and how we can get a lot of tourists from China. We are also going to talk about the perspective of the new generation traveller and what all he/ she are expecting from tourism and how they want to travel. At the same time, we have Sara Mathews from TripAdvisor, who will be speaking on high impact of social media on tourism. Hence, we have got many interesting subjects, and there will be a lot of learning from all these international speakers and we expect that it will go well.”

Jyoti Mayal has been announced as the new TAAI President for the term 2019- 2021. Jay Bhatia, Tulsidas Khimji Holidays has been appointed as Vice President (Unopposed); Bettaiah Lokesh, Triway Travels has been elected as Hon. Secretary General and Shreeram Patel, Unicorn Travels has been elected as the Hon. Treasurer. Jyoti Mayal has been elected as the President of Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) for the term 2019-21. This was announced on November 28, 2019 at Hotel Sahara Star in Mumbai after TAAI’s 68th Annual General Meeting followed by the elections of the Office Bearers and members of the Managing Committee for the term 2019 – 2021. While Jay Bhatia was elected as the Vice President unopposed, Bettaiah Lokesh from Triway Travels is the Honorary Secretary General. Shreeram Patel of Unicorn Travels has been elected for the post of National Treasurer.    Jyoti Mayal, incoming President, TAAI, says, “My most important agenda is that we should have a very strong say with the government and the airlines. That can only happen when we are recognised as an industry. We need a unified procedure set by the government as to how we should operate as an industry. We will be able to achieve this only when we have the government on our side. Taxes are another thing which is very relevant like GST and TCS and we are suffering because of that. We are already in negotiations with the ministries and we are very hopeful that we will achieve our targets. There is also another thing that is very close to my heart and that is empowering women. Women are multi-taskers and we would like more women in the industry to …

The 2nd edition of the PATA India Tourism PowerHouse, presented by the Inder Sharma Foundation will be held on December 6 at The PARK, New Delhi. Participants will get the opportunity to network, learn and interact with knowledge leaders and industry stalwarts and participate in engaging discussions on aviation capacity to India, impact of tourism, digital and destination marketing, The China opportunity and more.

Suman Billa will be joining United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) as Director, Technical Cooperation and Silk Road Development and will be based at the UNWTO headquarters in Spain, Madrid starting December. He had been serving as the Joint Secretary at Ministry of Tourism (MOT) for the last five years. He has also been the Tourism Secretary for Kerala before. A 1996 batch IAS officer from the Kerala cadre, Billa would be assuming charge at UNWTO next week and will be posted there for an initial period of two years. He has joined at D1 Level.