Category Archives: Associations

PP Khanna, President, ADTOI, has said that we can do roadshows, travel shows with locals, as their skilling is very important. “Such skill management can help boost tourism in the states, and we have instances of the same in Rajasthan and Kerala,” he said.

Rajiv Mehra has been re-elected as President, IATO unopposed for the year 2023-24. It will be his second term as President of the prestigious organization. As per IATO constitution, he will not be competing for the post of President after this term.

Julia Simpson, WTTC President & CEO, joined prominent tourism voices to discuss transition in travel. She said, “I see travel and tourism as the Guardians of Nature. I see us as being able to protect the environment and reduce greenhouse gasses.” The forum continues to collaborate with key industry representatives to drive sustainable action in the tourism space.  

The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is set to organise PATA Travel Mart 2023 in New Delhi, India from October 4-6. The event will be hosted by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. India is proving to be an important market in the recovery of travel and tourism within the Asia Pacific region and with its many initiatives in sustainable and inclusive tourism activities, it has the potential to become a preferred tourism destination. 

PATA research titled Asia Pacific Visitor Forecasts 2023-2025 has revealed that travels within AsiaPacific will continue to dominate in the region. International Visitor Arrivals in Asia-Pacific will return to roughly similar 2019 proportions (82.09%) by 2025 (82.38% in a medium scenario).

Jitul Mehta, Chairman, Western India Chapter, TAFI, says, “TAFI is focusing a lot on domestic and Inbound tourist, as it is a good way to generate revenue for our members. There are lot of new domestic destinations and products training sessions in the pipeline. We recently showcased the National Museum of Indian Cinema in Mumbai to our members where they took a tour and learnt about the history of cinema.”  

Julia Simpson, President & CEO WTTC said, “Putting women on centre stage of Travel & Tourism will ensure a better future for the sector. One of the major barriers to improving gender diversity is the lack of insightful and robust data in the public domain. Companies need to hold themselves accountable to guarantee progress is made over time.” 

Despite having a natural geographical advantage, Indian airports have, to date, not been able to realise the opportunity that exists, according to CAPA India. According to its research, for years India has ceded traffic to offshore hubs. In fact, over the last couple of decades, there has been a structural evolution from hubs to mega-hubs, particularly in the Middle East, supported by world class airlines with large widebody fleets. It will discuss this and more at its research briefing on ‘Prospects for airport hubs in India’ at 4pm IST today.

We are pleased to announce the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding with the St. Petersburg Convention Bureau. This is a step forward after we had a similar agreement with the Moscow City Tourism Corporation, where we agreed to promote Russia as a MICE-friendly destination for all of the movement coming from India. This is a bilateral movement because this understanding will promote MICE both within and outside of India. And Russia is looking for increased participation from Indian stakeholders because, given the current geopolitical situation in the world, India is Russia’s preferred source market. Similarly, as inbound tourists to our country, Russians have always been preferred. 

Riaz Munshi, President, OTOAI, has said that the TCS being increased to 20% will hamper our business and at the same time there is going to be a huge deficiency in government revenue as people would prefer to either book through foreign tour operators or foreign OTAs to save GST and TCS both. “At present as well, outbound tour operators and government of India is losing revenue on the same grounds,” he added.