Category Archives: Associations

According to a survey by ASSOCHAM Social Development Foundation, bookings received by star-rated hotels in metros have registered a decline of about 5-7 per cent due to demonetisation and the consequent cash crunch. The survey informed that many hotels had not revised rates of New Year packages and had in fact, lowered the rates by about 2-3 per cent; bundled various offers, promotions, deals and discounts on services in one package at a bargain price. The ASSOCHAM Social Development Foundation had interacted with about 50 star-rated hotels in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow and Mumbai during the course of past midnight to ascertain how top hotels in metros are gearing up for annual New Year’s Eve parties. Simultaneously, the chamber representatives also interacted with about 250 youngsters to gauge how people in urban centres are planning to bid farewell to 2016 whereby most said they plan to usher in the New Year in a cost-effective way by opting to party indoors.  “New Year’s Eve is the perfect occasion especially for the youth to unwind and soak in the festivities with their friends and family, though with ever-growing per-capita incomes people do not mind indulging in some extravagance but cash crunch in wake of demonetisation seems to an impact on their plans this time,” said D.S. Rawat, Secretary General, ASSOCHAM. He further informed  that despite this being a good season for the hotel industry, many star-rated hotels seem to be reeling under the impact of demonetisation and are being forced to scale down their New Year’s Eve activities as they are not able to draw many people.

Uttarakhand Tourism Professionals Association’s (UTPA) official meet was organised in New Delhi after formal registration of the organisation as a Trust. More than 130 members joined this meet to discuss about promotion of tourism in Uttarakhand. Ravi Gosain, President, UTPA, presided over the meeting with General Secretary Sunil Bahuguna and rest of the office bearers. In the meeting all members participated enthusiastically by sharing their views and achievements in the field of tourism. Some of the members launched new camp sites, homestays and village tourism, etc. During the meet 25 more people joined UTPA & got the membership who are connected with Hospitality & Tourism. The Management committee also announced formation of five Sub Committee with different task/profiles toward the development of Tourism in Uttarakhand, promotion of its languages, its culture & festivals, the growth of villages & stop further migration, we are sure all these effort will help us to generate occupation for village people soon in near future. It was decided to sought meeting with Tourism secretary and CEO of Uttarakhand Tourism soon with a delegation to present their suggestions for promotion of Tourism and locals in Uttarakhand. UPTA also invites all tourism professionals who are associated with Uttarakhand to support and join hands with them in this mission. UTPA is recently formed to develop tourism in Uttarakhand and professionals who are working in Tourism and Hospitality sector of Uttarakhand are eligible to became members.

The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, observed that demonetisation did not have any impact on the Foreign Tourist Arrival and Foreign Exchange Earnings. In November, 2016, 8.91 lakh FTAs were recorded as compared to 8.16 lakh in November, 2015, registering a growth of 9.3 per cent. An official statement from MOT claimed, “after demonetisation, the Government has taken a number of steps to ensure that no hardship is faced by the tourists and the industry is not affected. Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) smoothly transitioned to cashless mode of payment by simplifying process of e-tickets. Government efforts have paid dividend as there has been a notable growth in the comparative figures of Foreign Tourists Arrival (FTA) Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEEs) and online sale of e-tickets after demonetisation.” It may also be noted that the number of e-tickets sold during November 09, 2016, to December 08, 2016, increase to 28,176 from 2807 during October 09, 2016, to November 08, 2016, with corresponding amount being Rs 181.49 lakh and Rs 3.10 lakh respectively. It can therefore be seen that sale of e–tickets and earnings from have increased significantly by 10 and 58 times respectively as people are buying tickets for ASI monuments online through cashless payments.

The Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) is planning to organise a day-long symposium in Mumbai in the third or fourth week of February 2017. The symposium will focus on issues like e-visas for inbound traffic, visa challenges for outbound traffic from India, GST and other topics that the Union Budget will touch upon. Sharing more details, Pradip Lulla, Vice President, TAFI, said, “We will get experts to address our members who will be not from Mumbai but also from Pune and surrounding areas. We will also invite stakeholders like airlines and consulates. Topics are yet to be firmed up.” TAFI had conducted a similar symposium in New Delhi in October 2016 where it had also launched its new logo. “We want to replicate this in other metro cities as well and discuss topics that are relevant for that particular region,” Lulla added.

PATA India Chapter’s meeting with the Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India and Air India discussed initiatives for the upcoming year and also highlighted the past year’s achievements. Vinod Zutshi, Secretary-Tourism, Govt. of India, was optimistic about tourism’s prospects for 2017 and shared, “We have been exceeding the global growth of tourism and have marked stuck to our target of 10 per cent growth on an average for this year. Not only have we seen a drastic increase in international tourist arrivals, the domestic sector is equally flourishing. From 30-40 per cent growth in 2015, we are expecting the domestic tourism growth to touch around 60-70 per cent.” Zutshi also mentioned that the 1363 helpline which was launched in mid November 2015, receives around 4000 queries per week, up from 1000 per week, and revealed that suggestions received from pre-budgetary sessions would help yield a favourable budget. Ashwani Lohani, CMD, Air India, stated that expansions and consolidation for the national carrier will go hand-in-hand, with plans to add atleast 13 new destinations afoot. “We will be launching a minimum of six new routes in 2017 and about six more in 2018. The whole idea is to add 100 new aircrafts by 2020 and to convert the existing fleet into a relatively newer one. “2017 will also focus on turning profits for Alliance Air along with the rapid expansion of Air India’s fleet and number of destinations,” he added.

In an effort to safeguard the interests of its members from the prevailing challenging market conditions and present them with a new revenue model, the IATA Agents Association of India (IAAI) will launch an exclusive portal that will enable each of its members to become a consolidator. Titled ‘I-TOP’ which stands for Indian Travel Agents Own Portal, the program will be launched shortly. This was announced at its Annual General Body Meeting of IAAI Maharashtra State unit held in Mumbai recently. Biji Eapen, National President, IAAI National Board, said, “It is a first portal of its kind in the history of the aviation world created solely for the agents, by the agents. It has sophisticated technology and enhanced innovative processing modules. It has been enriched with facilities for the user to work as an individual or a consolidator and operate through GDS platforms and also the internet to meet the present challenges and competitions in the Industry with B2B, B2C and B2D facilities including the new NDC process.”

As part of its mandate to further enhance India’s digital drive in the travel and tourism industry, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) launches its maiden initiative aimed at travel start-ups. ‘Travel Tech Launchpad’ will be a platform that encourages innovation and growth of travel start-ups and will be set up during the second edition of FICCI’s event titled ‘Digital Travel, Hospitality and Innovation Summit’ to be held on March 22-23, 2017 in New Delhi. The summit content has been developed to enhance the potency of travel start-ups, digital tourism and IT-based infrastructure development for the travel and hospitality sector. ‘Travel Tech Launchpad 2017’ is being organised by FICCI in association with Agnitio Consulting LLP, Nucleus Partners, and Charson Advisory. The summit will offer an opportunity for travel startups to learn from experts in the field of travel, exhibit their business ideas, and display their products & services in addition to providing a unique opportunity to connect with right set of ecosystem partners. A number of travel start-ups, hospitality and technology companies from across India and abroad will gather during the summit in addition to the participation of leading investors such as Sequoia, Inventus Capital, Kae Capital and several angel / venture capital firms.

The Outbound Tour Operators’ Association of India (OTOAI) held its member’s meet in Ahmedabad for the first time on December 21, 2016 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in the city. Attended by 90 invited guests, sponsors, and office bearers of OTOAI and the agenda for the meet was to introduce OTOAI to the tourism industry in the city,  use it as a networking event with Members of OTOAI and non members, with intention to increase the membership base in the state, informed Mahendra Vakharia, Chairman – Western Chapter, OTOAI. Apart from the networking, they had also included interesting mix of destination, product presentation and presentation by a professional GST expert, on the implications of GST in the industry. Guldeep Sahni, President, OTOAI and Riaz Munshi, Vice President, OTOAI, were also present at the meet.

Skål Asian Area has confirmed the program for its 2017 Annual Congress and General Assembly which will take place in Bahrain from May 12 to 15, 2017 at Gulf Hotel in Manama. The Chief Executive of the Bahrain Tourism and Exhibition Authority, Sheikh Khalid Bin Humood Al Khalifa, has been invited to make the opening address. Keynote addresses are also expected from local tourism industry executives representing such organisations as the Bahrain Economic Development Board, the Bahrain Airport Company, Sabre and SITA. Arun Raghavan, Asian Area Secretary, Skål International, stressed the value of the delegate packages. He said, “We have worked hard on the Congress package pricing to attract high numbers of delegates from our member clubs ensure maximum value and return. The packages are competitively priced and represent remarkable value. The 2017 Congress in Bahrain presents a fantastic opportunity to meet and network with fellow industry professionals.” Early bird discounts on the total registration package are available for a limited period. Delegates have the option of staying at the Gulf Hotel, K-Hotel and Ramada Bahrain hotels in Manama city. Bahrain’s national carrier Gulf Air has pledged to provide a 30 per cent discount on air fares for all delegates. Robert Sohn, Skål Asian Area President, said, “The Skål Club in the Kingdom of Bahrain has done an amazing job in developing at this early stage the programme for our 2017 Congress and General Assembly. I pay tribute to Skål Bahrain President Mohamed Buzizi and his committee for their fantastic achievement. I am looking forward to welcoming to Bahrain David Fisher – the newly-elected President of Skål International – and Skål members from clubs across the Asia Pacific region.”

The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA), Virginia USA, has inducted Rajeev Jalnapurkar, Chief Executive Officer, Ramoji Film City, into its Asia Pacific Government Relations Subcommittee. IAAPA represents facility, supplier, and individual members from 99 countries and Jalnapurkar would be serving the committee for the year 2017. Jalnapurkar brings with him a rich experience of 20 years in the field of theme parks and amusement industry and is also the only Indian to be selected for this prestigious position. He is the Director of IAAPI and Education Subcommittee of Education at Asia. “India offers a tremendous opportunity to increase the number of amusement destinations. Beyond the metro cities amusement parks are accessible to a much larger community. With this objective we aim to work with the national/ state governments to create much better entertainment avenues for the people. I am honored to be a part of IAAPA and hope that I will be able to contribute to its mission,” said Jalnapurkar. In 2017, the Asia Pacific Government Relations Subcommittee will world towards creating an advocacy effort that supports key global, regional and local initiatives. It will also formulate a three-year tactical plan to increase understanding and awareness of the amusement parks and attractions industry in Asia Pacific region.