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The ninth edition of Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) is set to be the biggest and farthest-reaching yet. The biennial event will witness 57 countries besides 20 Indian states during the three-day Mart, which is being organised by the KTM Society in association with the Department of Tourism, Government of Kerala on September 27, World Tourism Day, in Kochi. Ten countries will be represented at the Mart for the first time, with Mexico, Georgia, Japan, China, Chile, Greece, Iran, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Botswana – markets as diverse as they are distant – all confirmed to participate. The 560 total international delegates registered for KTM 2016 features the biggest-ever contingents from 10 highly-prized traditional markets, including the US, Canada and Australia. Domestic participation too has seen an uptick, buoyed by aggressive marketing campaigns. Some 1,304 Indian buyers will participate this year. “The KTM has always emphasised the consistent identification of quality buyers in ever newer territories as much as retaining participation from conventional markets. With representation from 10 new nations this year, our efforts have borne fruit,” said Abraham George, President, KTM Society. “For KTM 2016, we have extended the prefixed appointment system to registered domestic buyers, which will help the business session be more effective for both the sellers and buyers. The focus is on emphasising quality of interactions,” he added.

Sunil Kumar, President, United Federation of Travel Agents Associations (UFTAA), revealed that UFTAA’ Golden Jubilee Congress will be held on November 21-23, 2016. “The board wants to do it on the same day as the anniversary which is on November 22 and there are no major shows happening around that time. We have also closed on the venue but we will announce it only later as we are still watching the situation there. It will be held outside India,” Kumar said. UFTAA will also be getting ready for the Passenger Agency Conference (PAConf) that will take place in September in Singapore, he added.  

The National Green Tribunal’s order to deregister diesel vehicles older than 10 years in Delhi and NCR will not have a major impact on tourism, says Krishan Dutt Yadav, President, Indian Tourist Transporters Association (ITTA). “There will be no significant impact on tourism with this ban as most of the taxis that we operate for tourists have a life of maximum nine years and are generally changed after five years. However the actual problem is the sluggish procedure for reissuance of national permits after five years. There is no clarification on the reissuance of these permits which leaves the taxis and heavy duty vehicles dysfunctional,” Dutt says. According to media reports, the NGT order to deregister diesel vehicles older than 10 years in Delhi and NCR could take away 70 per cent of the goods carriage fleet of the capital and nearly 90 per cent of its private chartered buses. Besides, around 11,500 buses would have to be deregistered. That’s 88% of the 13,000 diesel buses registered with the department. Earlier this year, the court had allowed diesel vehicle owners to get an NOC and dispose of their vehicles. However, whether this would still be applicable to the vehicles nearing 10 years or not needs to be clarified, officials said. According to figures with the transport department, there are 2.82 lakh diesel vehicles in Delhi which will be impacted by the NGT order. Of these, 1.61 lakh are private vehicles.

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.

With the British pound taking a hard hit as the UK voted to leave the European Union, the fall by over 8 per cent to Rs 91.36 within a day is expected to increase India’s outbound traffic to the UK. Guldeep Singh Sahni, President, Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI), says that it will mainly benefit Indian travellers who are immediately travelling to the nation. “The outbound surge will be momentary – outbound tourism will increase till the GDP remains low. But things are very unpredictable as of now due to the uncertain circumstances,” he said.

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.”

Announcing the debut of its convention dedicated to India’s nightlife, Riyaaz Amlani, President, National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), revealed that it will be held at St. Regis in Mumbai from July 17-18, 2016. It will be the first platform specifically designed to bring together and recognise the various stakeholders of one of India’s most vibrant and fastest-growing industry – nightlife. The event is a joint initiative of Kickstart Entertainment and NRAI. “The two-day convention will have multiple business sessions with speakers from the sector from across India. This will include three international speakers as well. We are also looking to get attendance from the government, including the Ministry of Tourism, Home and Excise because we don’t fall under any single ministry. We are also inviting someone from the Government of Maharashtra since it is happening in Mumbai. We want them to listen to our problems and see that this is a serious industry.”

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.”

Guldeep Singh Sahni, President, Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) says, “The terror attacks are a sad incident and will impact tourism in Europe temporarily. This will not be a long term effect if precautionary measures are taken and the damage is contained timely. Travellers will continue to travel despite fear and worry regarding Europe. As this is the beginning of the season and Europe is one of the most popular destinations amongst Indians, challenges may be faced by agents in terms of FIT and group movements.”

The ninth edition of Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) will be held at Samudrika and Sagara Convention Centre, Willingdon Island from September 28 to 30 and will focus on themes ‘Responsible tourism’ and ‘Muziris and Spice Route’. It is expected to attract around 1,500 buyers from around the country and abroad. Around 265 stalls of different sizes for the exhibitors within Kerala will be featured at the venue as part of the event. Abraham George, President, Kerala Travel Mart Society, says, “KTM 2016, which will coincide with ‘World Tourism Day’, will reach out to buyers from new international markets, emphasizing focus on the new arenas of tourism, including responsible tourism, and popularize the concept among the common man. To facilitate better interaction between buyers and sellers, we have initiated the process for sellers’ registration much in advance. The buyers’ registration is open till July 29. The mart will be a platform for B2B networking.”