Category Archives: Associations

Sri Lanka High Commission in New Delhi, along with Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) organised a workshop for OTOAI members on Ramayana Trail, where Jeevana Fernando, Assistant Director, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLPB) gave a presentation on the Ramayana related sites in Sri Lanka to the attendees. The event was chaired by Austin Fernando, High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to India along with Mahendra Vakharia, President, OTOAI. The idea behind the workshop was to position Sri Lanka’s rich Ramayana heritage as a popular pilgrim package and to create awareness among the OTOAI members about locations of the Sri Lanka Ramayana Trail. The OTOAI members gave a positive response towards the workshop and discussed possible itineraries with Fernando for the same.

On the concluding day of the convention, PP Khanna, President ADTOI and Convention Chairman said, “The convention is a success, we were expecting around 400 delegates, but have been impressed by over 500 registrations, including some of the local travel agents. Sessions were quite interactive, and people enjoyed the same. It’s very necessary to focus on what the different states are doing to promote domestic tourism. Subsidies the states are providing top private entrepreneurs, investment plans and success stories of PPP were deliberated upon in the sessions. Full halls themselves indicate the popularity of the sessions.” Elaborating on trends in domestic tourism he said, “An important trend is to work with the state to promote domestic tourism in the state. For developing tourism, the requirement is of better infrastructure in the state, cleanliness, safety and security, availability of amenities, among others. Essentially education and  skill development is required in the states  to promote domestic tourism. State specialists programmes are also required so that the travel agents and tour operators can be imparted more knowledge about the destination and they become specialists to promote their states. Each and every state in India has so much to offer. Travel agent need to connect with their counter parts more, as knowledge excellence goes till the last point. Gujarati tour operators can fabricate the packages for pan India tour operators.

The 9th annual convention of Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI), supported by Gujarat Tourism as host state, was inaugurated at Hyatt Regency Ahmedabad. Speaking at the ceremony, Vasan Aahir, Minister of State for Tourism, Gujarat, said, “We are very glad that ADTOI has brought their annual convention to Gujarat. Rann of Kutch is the ideal example where tourism has been a means for developing an undeveloped destination, while giving employment to many people. We are developing many destinations in a similar manner in Gujarat.” ADTOI also unveiled its new logo at the inauguration ceremony. PP Khanna, President, ADTOI, welcomed the delegates at the convention and felicitated the dignitaries, which included Pradipsinh Jadeja, Minister of State- Home, Energy, Parliamentary Affairs, Law, Justice (Minister of State), Police housing, Border security, Civil defense, Gram Rakshak Dal, Jail, Prohibition and Excise, Coordination between voluntary organization, Non Resident Gujarati Department, Protocol (all independent charge), Government of Gujarat; Aashima Mehrotra, Director, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India; S.J. Haider, Principal Secretary, Gujarat Tourism; Jenu Devan, Managing Director, Gujarat Tourism; and Ashwani Lohani; CMD, Air India.

The Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) will now start promoting outbound tourism to neighbouring countries in a bid to help its members expand their horizon of business as well as improving bilateral ties with the countries to get more tourists to India and simultaneously send tourists from India to such destinations. The association invited Dubai Tourism, TCEB and Thai Airways to discuss their plans to work together. The association is also working to promote outbound operations for its members with an intent to develop a model of cross-border tourism. In a first such interactive meeting organised for IATO members who do outbound or want to do outbound, IATO introduced its members with the idea and intent to promote outbound tourism as well. Sharing more details, Rajiv Mehra, VP, IATO & EC Liaison, Outbound Tourism Promotion Committee said that they are first looking to target the neighbouring countries like Thailand, Dubai, Vietnam and can further move on to other countries. “Let us learn things and promote India for inbound tourism to our neighbouring destinations and also for outbound tourism so that more Indian tourists travel abroad. Whatever less business is coming to India, let us get it filled up with such initiatives,” he said. The association is planning to organise such ‘Outbound Knowledge Forum’ bi-monthly now on with talks going on with at least three other NTOs.

Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), Chandigarh Chapter, has elected its new committee recently. Harraj Singh Sidhu has been elected has the Chairman, Puneet Arora has been constituted as the Hony. Secretary and Naveen Kumar has been elected as the Hony. Treasurer.

Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) Punjab Chapter held its Annual General Meeting on 2 August 2019 in Jalandhar. The meeting elected Gurjeet S.Sekhon of Ace Vacations & Travels, Amritsar as its Chairman, Narinder Davesar of Bharti Travel Advisor (Regd.) as its Secretary and Pankul Sharma of Sharma Travels, Jalandhar as Treasurer for a period of two years. TAAI is India’s premier, nodal, largest and oldest Travel & Tourism Association.

Ahead of its 35th annual convention in Kolkata, Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) has launched the new official logo for the event during the monthly interactive luncheon meeting in Delhi while sharing details about the theme as well. Reminiscent to the cultural importance of West Bengal, the logo and the theme of the convention is based on the most popular public festival of the state- Durga Pooja. Launching the logo and inviting all the IATO members and travel trade, Atree Bhattacharya, Principal Secretary (Tourism), Government of West Bengal said that the eastern state has lot of niche products to offer for enhancing the tourism offerings of the state. “I welcome all the members of IATO to come to Kolkata for the convention and to spend some time in going around Bengal because the state has changed a lot in the recent times. We have made a lot of progress, our government and Chief Minister are very much supportive for tourism. We understand a huge amount of goodwill that can be created from large number of tourists coming to the state during and after the convention. Sharing details about the theme and sessions during the convention, Pronab Sarkar, President, IATO said, “The theme for the convention is Durga Puja. The sessions are yet to be finalised but more likely they will be themed around the tourism potential of the state, prospering cruise tourism in West Bengal, tackling challenges from Online Tour Operators, exploring experiential and heritage tourism in Kolkata. Amid the digitisation of our working styles, we will also have a session on digital tourism apart from a usual motivational session for the IATO members. Everything is well planned and in …

Commenting on the government’s decision to scrap Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir and bifurcating the state in two union territories, PP Khanna, President, Association of Domestic Tour Operators (ADTOI) said that the Union Government’s move will definitely affect the number of tourists going to the state amidst fear and security reasons. He adds, “The tourism industry has already come to standstill in the state after the government ordered to stop the Amarnath Yatra and asked all the tourists to leave the state immediately. There is a sense of fear and security concern among visitors amid presence of military forces and possibility any riot-like situation in the valley. If the government itself doesn’t want tourists to stay in the state so how the industry will motivate the visitors to travel to the state? It has become hard for us to promote the state currently with such sensitive condition. Going forward, it will deeply impact the number of tourists.”

Rajiv Mehra, Vice President, IATO, says, “I am quite hopeful that situation should normalise soon with the change in the scenario as tourism is the main bread and butter of the people of Kashmir. Although the number of tourists has gone down recently, I think that by September, the situation should become normal and tourists will start going back to Jammu & Kashmir. Once things start settling down, we will plan a roadshow in association with our state chapter to promote the destination again among FTOs and DMCs. I think tourism will grow now with more international hotel chains coming into the region. With Ladakh being a separate union territory, the development of the area will take place and again it will become a friendly tourist destination.”

Association of Domestic Tour Operators (ADTOI) is all set to open two new chapters in Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Tamil Nadu after its convention, revealed PP Khanna, President, (ADTOI). “Once we are free from the convention, we are planning to start two more chapters, which are almost ready, which will be in MP and Tamil Nadu. By September-October, we will have new entrants in the ADTOI family,” he adds.