Tag Archives: Praveen Chugh

EbixCash has acquired assets of Business Travels and has appointed its owner Praveen Chugh as the Chief Operating Officer of Via agency sales. The company announced that it has decided to further invest in the growth of its B2B business under Chugh, who has immediately taken over as Chief Operating Officer of Via. As a part of the hiring, Chugh’s existing travel company Business Travels Private Limited assets was also acquired by Via. Chugh has been empowered by the company to recruit as many as one hundred domain specific travel sales executives, besides opening up new travel locations across the length and breadth of the country. Robin Raina, Chairman, President and CEO, Ebix, said, “We are excited to have Mr Praveen Chugh on our side. His vast experience, success record and contacts in the world travel industry provide us with an industry veteran who can lead Via B2B Sales to new heights. He has the ability and drive to grow our Via travel division business at high double-digit rates. We believe that the strength of our vast retail network, end-to-end enterprise travel technology and functionality, coupled with strong sales leadership, positions us to grow our travel business aggressively internationally.”

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.

Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) President Praveen Chugh has been elected as the Treasurer of World Travel Agents Associations Alliance (WTAAA) of which TAFI is a member. WTAAA held its Annual General Assembly and bi-annual Board meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, recently and elected a new board. The new WTAAA Chairman is Otto de Vries (CEO of Association of Southern African Travel Agents), and Mark Meader (Vice President of Industry Affairs American Society of Travel Agents) is the new Vice Chairman. WTAAA brings together 56 countries and represents more than 80 per cent of the BSP worldwide. WTAAA is a global voice for the travel agency distribution channel and regularly engages with IATA, UNWTO, WHO, Media, GDS, European Union, DOT and other regulators and bodies around the world. The mission of the World Travel Agents Associations Alliance (WTAAA) is to act as the global travel agency voice through the exchange of ideas and information. WTAAA members include the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), Association of Canadian Travel Agencies (ACTA), Australian Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA), Association of Brazilian Travel Agents (ABAV), European Travel Agents’ and Tour Operators’ Associations (ECTAA), Association of South African Travel Agents (ASATA), Travel Agency Federation of India (TAFI) and Travel Agents’ Association of New Zealand (TAANZ) Spanish Federation of Travel Agents (CEAV), Federation of Asean Travel Agencies (FATA).

The Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) concluded its national elections on June 30 in Ahmedabad and the new team thus elected will take over office from today. The unopposed Office Bearers include Praveen Chugh as the President, Pradip Lulla as the new Vice President, Aditi Bhende as Secretary and Jayesh Tharani as Treasurer. Zakkir Ahmed is now the Immediate Past President. The seven Committee Members for whom the elections were held include: Basheer Ahmed, Darshan Shah, Rajat Bagaria, Urvashi Gupta, Bharat Shah, Teddy Thomas and Sanjay Gupta. All of them have been re-elected except for Bharat Shah who replaces Jayesh Tharani as the Managing Committee Member.

Praveen Chugh of Business Travels has been elected unopposed to the post of President of Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI). His nomination was proposed by Sheraton Travels and seconded by Golden Phoenix Travel. The last date for receiving nominations for this year’s TAFI national elections, held biennially,  was 1700 hours on June 15, 2016. He previously held the post of Vice President, TAFI. After examining the nominations that were received by the TAFI Secretariat in Mumbai, a list of names have been announced of those who have been elected unopposed and those who will be contesting the elections on June 30 at Hyatt Regency in Ahmedabad. Rajat Bagaria, previous Member of TAFI National Managing Committee, said, “Zakkir Ahmed will now be the Immediate Past President of TAFI. He has been our President for two continuous terms that is four years and will continue to be part of the MC meetings.”