Tag Archives: Managing Committee

The Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) will finally hold its much-delayed national elections on July 24, 2021 via e-voting conducted on the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) platform. The following nine posts are open for election: President, Vice President, National General Secretary, Treasurer and five posts for Managing Committee Members.

The Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) has elected their new Managing Committee for 2018-20 term. Praveen Chugh from Business Travels has been chosen as the President unopposed. Pradip Lulla from Cupid Travels & Tours is the new Vice President, Aditi Bhende from Aarohan Tours & Travel is the new National General Secretary, while Jayesh Tharani, Hopco Travels, has been elected as the new treasurer. All the new office bearers and managing committee members have been elected unopposed. The Returning Officer for the election was Ashish Gupta – Founder, Strategy Pluto & Consulting and CEO, FAITH. The Managing Committee members include A Basheer Ahmed, Chennai Metro Travels; Rajat Bagaria, Shrishti Tours & Travels; Urvashi D Mohan, Delfly Travels; Bharat Shah, Sunbeams Travels, Baroda and TeddyM Thomas, Oasis Xpress Travel & Tours. Zakkir Ahmed, Trust Travel & Tours, remain part of the MC as immediate Vice President. The MC further appointed Rajat Bagaria as Joint Secretary and Teddy Thomas as Joint Treasurer. The MC also selected four members representing different regions of the Association— Abbas Moiz, Shoiz International Travel Services, Mumbai; Hitank Shah, Alka Airlink, Ahmedabad; S H Mohideen, Aero Travel Services, Chennai and Vijay Gupta, Golden Phoenix Travels, New Delhi.

Jyoti Mayal, Director of New Airways Travels (Delhi) who was previously a Member of the Managing Committee at TAAI, has been elected as the Honorary Secretary General of the association. Mayal says, “There are a lot of changes that need to be done at TAAI. To start with, we need to change the memorandum which has been long pending and that is the first thing that I am going to do. I was with the airline council earlier, and I need to continue that job because our main concern is how the airlines are dealing with us on GST.”

The Managing Committee of TAAI has decided Kunming as the venue for the 64th Convention & Exhibition of TAAI, to be held from August 18-20, 2017. Sunil Kumar R, President, TAAI, said, “We are excited to inform you that we are hosted by Yunnan Government, People’s Republic of China. The event is being coordinated by MFITS – Mao Fa International Travel Services, a unit of Service Bureau of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China.” The exhibition and inaugural dinner will be held at the InterContinental Hotel, Kunming. The registration forms will be soon rolled out. The registration will be open by July 5, 2017 and close by July 20, 2017. During 2016, TAAI had organised its convention at Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi.

TAAI Office bearers were recently invited to visit Kunming, Yunnan province, in China and had meetings with top Chinese government officials. “Yunnan province is an excellent location to have TAAI Convention. The Managing Committee will be meeting soon to discuss various offers available with TAAI and decide on the next convention venue soon. The Managing Committee is keen to announce the Convention destination during May/June 2017. The Visit to Kunming yielded several surprises with the outstanding location that Kunming is and with the top quality venues,” said Bettaiah Lokesh, Hon. Secretary General, TAAI, in an official statement. The TAAI Managing Committee had its 14th Managing Committee meeting on board the Royal Caribbean vessel, Mariner of the Seas. The Managing Committee reviewed the approval of TAAI’s application to Income Tax Authorities to grant Section 80G.”The Managing Committee committed will go all out to offer scholarships to meritorious students who are pursuing their education in Travel; Tourism & Hospitality Industry. TAAI’s 80G will also support CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) participation. Several Members of the Managing Committee offered their contributions to commence this most important task of offering scholarships,” Bettaiah said.

As part of its makeover plan, the Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) has announced that it will be organising at least two symposiums next year. Pradip Lulla, Vice President, TAFI, said, “We will have symposiums starting next year over and above our annual convention. One of our main objectives is to get on a digital platform where we can integrate our members. The Managing Committee is working on the details of the digital platform. We have already identified the platform but basic implementation needs to be firmed up. It will be confirmed by early next year. The symposium will discuss on how to improvise our existing Joint Bank Guarantee program. The convention details will be divulged by March 2017.” He added that TAFI is also looking at new ways of educating its members on how to do business better.

The new Managing Committee of the Travel Agents Federation of India – Western India Chapter, met for the first time in Mumbai after the new committee took charge in June this year to discuss various issues troubling their members and their plan of action for the term. The meeting was followed by a product presentation by EK Holidays, cocktails and dinner. First and foremost on the plan is to get members to attend their meetings and participate. Chapter Chairman Abbas Moiz, said, “My first and last issue is to get as many members into our meetings as possible, listen to their problems and views, to add as much value to our members as possible.” Speaking about the plan devised for this year, he added, “We want to conduct workshops with IATA and have already approached them for this. They will be changing their procedures soon and the entire reporting system will change, so we would like to give a glimpse of it to our members. Currently, the pilot run is going on in Mumbai and Delhi and they will roll it out pan-India by early 2017. IATA has standardized the reporting procedures worldwide.”

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.”

The new Managing Committee at the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) has initiated a training workshop on visas for its members along with VFS Global this month. Bhagwan Ramnani, TAAI Managing Committee Member and Chairman – Allied Services Committee, said, that the joint visa training program for TAAI members will be pan India. “This is being conducted for the first time. Member training is our priority. This will begin in the second week of January on a quarterly basis in conjunction with the Regional/Chapter meetings of TAAI. There are regular changes in visa processes and most embassies and consulates work with VFS Global. Hence TAAI had talks with them to conduct training sessions for our members across India on visa processing, which will not only enhance their knowledge but enable them to share it with their clients.” The first phase will be to interact with personnel from VFS Global and consulates and embassies. The second will be to impart knowledge and conduct training for front line staff by VFS Global in association with TAAI. The training will commence in Gujarat and Kolkata, followed by Southern and Northern India.