Category Archives: Associations

The Central Government has notified travel serivce providers that it has exempted service tax on religious pilgrimage for Kailash Mansarovar, Haj Yatra or pilgrimage facilitated by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, between July 1, 2012 to August 19, 2014. A notification was issued to TAAI members on September 2, 2014, specifically exempting service tax on services provided by specified organisations in respect of religious pilgrimage for Kailash Mansarovar, Haj Yatra or a religious pilgrimage facilitate by MEA, GoI, with effect from August 20, 2014. However, for the period from July 1, 2012 to August 20, 2014 service tax was applicable on the aforesaid services but due to common practice prevalent during that time, no service tax was paid on the services.

PATA India and the Ministry of Tourism’s (MOT) first leg of its five-city US roadshow begins today at San Francisco and will cover the West Coast. Imparting more details on the roadshow, Vikram Madhok, Hony. Treasurer, PATA India, said, “One of our mandates for PATA membership is to add value so we embark on roadshows across the world, primarily in the main feeder markets. Now, we are going back to the US and have more than 20 people from every segment participating. It’s going to begin from May 24 in San Francisco, May 25 in Los Angeles (Orange County), May 26 in Los Angeles (Beverly Hills), May 31 in Vancouver ending on June 1 in Seattle. Another roadshow in Europe is currently in the pipeline.”

The Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) is in dialogues with a few destinations for its annual convention that is likely to be held between August-September 2016. Sunil Kumar, President, TAAI, who was in Mumbai recently, said, “Convention is also one of the reasons why the four Office Bearers met at the TAAI Secretariat. We are having a few meetings and hopefully by May end we should have confirmed the destination and the venue. The window for our convention is between August 15 – September end. If required, we may get on to October. We already have details from a few bidders.” Lokesh Bettaiah, TAAI’s Secretary General, said, “Many destinations have shown their interest in hosting our convention and among them are Egypt, South Africa and Singapore. Four of the Office Bearers had also visited Egypt recently for a recce on the Ministry’s invitation.”

The Executive Committee of Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) has decided to waive off the Rs. 5000/- registration fee for new members from North East India till March 31, 2017. Lally Matthews, Honorary Secretary, IATO, said, “IATO is looking at adding more members now. We would like to increase membership from the North East and have thus waived off the registration fee of Rs. 5000/- for interested tour operators from the region.”

Four members of the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) Managing Committee met in Mumbai yesterday to review  applications received by the association from its members for the Joint Bank Guarantee (JBG) Scheme. Sunil Kumar, President, TAAI, said, “We have received over 130 applications from members who are keen to join the guarantee.” Among the Office Bearers present were Marzban Antia, TAAI’s Vice President; Lokesh Bettaiah, TAAI’s Secretary General; and Imtiaz Qureshi, TAAI’s MC member who looks after Legal. Bettaiah added, “We are scrutinising each and every application received from 20 regions and chapters across India and the TAAI auditors will come out with a final list by May 20. After that, we will send them to IATA who will conduct their own verifications. We do multi-level checks and follow stringent procedures, which take a lot of time. It’s a huge responsibility on us to pick the right members. We will need to submit these applications to IATA by July 1, 2016. There has been a good response for it this year. TAAI has been successful in managing this scheme earlier as well and lot of members have benefitted from this scheme monetarily as well as for smoother day-to-day business as far as capping issues are concerned. If anyone else is interested to join, they can do so the following year.”

Vikram Madhok, Managing Director, Abercrombie & Kent India, and Honorary Treasurer, PATA India Chapter, has been elected as the next Chairman of the PATA Industry Council, for the term of May 2016-May 2017. The PATA India Chapter, established in 1974, has grown to include 236 members and is one of the most dynamic Chapters in the Asia Pacific region today. With major support from the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India which is the main and largest PATA India member organization, the Chapter includes State Tourism Boards, Carriers, Hotels, Travel Agents, Tour Operators, Service Providers and other travel-related companies.

The Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) has been busy with its ongoing chapter elections and will soon be conducting its national team election along with its Annual General Meeting (AGM) by June end. Revealing this information is Pradip Lulla, National General Secretary, TAFI, who said, “A lot of our chapters like Tamil Nadu have completed their elections. We will now be sending out notification for our AGM to all our members that will be combined with our national committee elections around June end. We are still deciding on the city and venue. By July, we will be able to finally roll out our Joint Bank Guarantee Scheme.” TAFI had earlier deferred the joint bank guarantee scheme last June citing unsuitable legal terms for its members.

VinooUbhayakar, past president of Travel Agents Association of India (1975-1978) and the first Asian and Indian to be elected as the president of Universal Federation of Travel Agent’s Association (UFTAA) (1982-1984), passed away yesterday. He was 90.Ubhayakarbegan his travel industry career in 1949 with Asiatic Travel Service where he went on to become the Managing Director in 1953. He joined Trade Wings as Executive Director and in 1965 was appointed the Managing Director a position he continues to hold today. He was elected to the board of Universal Federation of Travel Agents Association for four years then as Vice President for two years and then President for two years of this World Body. During his tenure,Ubhayakarorganised the Silver Jubilee Function in Mumbai and introduced the Agastya Awards too.

OTOAI has signed an MoU with Turkish Indian Tourism Council (TITC) for bilateral tourism promotion between India and Turkey on the sidelines of the 2nd OTOAI Convention in Bali. The MoU was signed between OTOAI President Guldeep Singh Sahni and TITC Chairman Emin Cakmak. Through this MoU, OTOAI will form an Indo-Turkish Tourism Council with its members who can coordinate with members of TITC to promote tourism between the two countries. Both sides will meet regularly to discuss ways in which this an be done.

The second edition of OTOAI Convention opened in Bali at the Pan Pacific Nirwana Bali Resort, Indonesia with outbound travel agents and OTOAI national committee in full attendance. Riaz Munshi opened the Convention and spoke about the theme ‘India Outbound: the game changer’ and why they chose Bali as the venue for the convention. OTOAI President Guldeep Singh Sahni spoke about what was in store for the delegates and the topics that will be touched upon the following day, including the tax issues. With 240 delegates, including overseas participants, the three-day convention will witness dedicated meetings and business sessions, and two days will be spent on post-convention fam trips.