Category Archives: Associations

Secretary Tourism, Arvind Singh had called for a virtual meeting with the Associations and industry stakeholders to discuss and develop “India Vision @ 2047” for the tourism industry. Ajay Prakash, TAFI President gave his inputs and suggested that generating 100 million tourists would require a new mindset among all stakeholders – from luxury hotels and tour operators to the taxi drivers, guides and all other segments of the trade.

Asia is predicted to return to a significant level of dominance, supplying more than 64% of all IVAs into Asia Pacific in 2024, under each of the three scenarios, followed by the Americas and Europe. Overall, while the trends in these latest forecasts are positive, there are still challenges ahead, not the least of which will be containing the spread of the Delta and Omicron variants of COVID-19. As PATA CEO Liz Ortiguera notes, “International travel recovery to and within the Asia Pacific region is projected to return moderately over the next three years. Recovery will be uneven into the various sub-regions and destinations and will most likely still remain volatile over the next few years. Some individual destinations may see success but expedited recovery of the region requires a more collaborative approach.” 

Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO has thanked Puneet Chhatwal, MD & CEO and the entire team at The Indian Hotels Company Ltd. for rolling out the Taj Hotels Promo Code Special Rates for IATO Members. In a statement, he has revealed that each member has been given a Unique Agency Code and booking can be done on line without any hindrances.  Promo Code Special Rates are exclusively for inbound business only and not valid for domestic leisure and are only for FITs.

Global tourism experienced a 4% upturn in 2021, compared to 2020 (415 million versus 400 million). However, international tourist arrivals (overnight visitors) were still 72% below the pre-pandemic year of 2019, according to preliminary estimates by UNWTO. This follows on from 2020, the worst year on record for tourism, when international arrivals decreased by 73%. 

Sunil C Gupta, Chairman-Northern Region, IATO revealed that there have been two corporate charters on Maharaja Express in December, which was almost 2 years after the luxury train operated in March 2020. “It’s the best train in India on IRCTC. This opens another avenue for incentives to happen on luxury trains. It’s a great idea, which has caught on and more groups are likely to operate in May-June, once things normalise,” he said.

WTTCII, appoints executive committee members for 2022-23 with Dinesh Khanna, Executive Director,Eastern International Hotels Ltd, as Chairman and Deep Kalra, Founder and Executive Chairman, MakemyTrip as Vice Chairman. Dinesh Khanna takes over from Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, Spicejet who served as Chairman of WTTCII for 2020-21.

The IATO wrote to PM seeking respite in travel norms and financial aid to overcome the crisis that, has worsened after international flights were postponed. Rajiv Mehra, President IATO, with 1,700 members, want the 7 day quarantine to be waived for vaccinated travellers with a negative RT-PCR report and urged the Centre for financial support to small and medium tour operators, to help save lakhs of jobs.

FHRAI has written to Prime Minister seeking a special relief package for the tourism and hospitality sector due to the disruptions caused by the Covid-induced lockdowns. The association has requested that the Centre treat it as the “most distressed sector due to Covid-19. The industry has reported losses of ₹140,000 crore and around 500 lakh jobs were lost due to the pandemic. 

In the wake of Omicron, 95% of international bookings and 80% of domestic bookings have been postponed or cancelled said Sunil Gupta, Chairman Northern Region, IATO. “We have been severely impacted by the surge and Omicron, it is disheartening since we work hard on bookings and itineraries and everything suddenly cancels” he added. 

The ETAA north India committee organized a networking event at the Taj Ambassador, New Delhi on December 8, ensuring all appropriate COVID protocols. The Chairperson, Sangeeta Manocha announced the new core committee for the north India Chapter, with Punit Bhasin taking on the role of Vice Chairman, Gaurav Arora as the Joint Secretary and the addition of the new Membership Head, Deepika Khanna, along with Saurabh Tuteja as General Secretary, Dinesh Kumar – Treasurer, Praveen Ghai – Joint Secretary.