Tag Archives: Rajan Sehgal

At the recently-concluded Round Table on Tourism on the sidelines of the Russian Indian Summit 2018, Ivan Breganov, Regional Manager of IFS (Russian Visa Center) confirmed that the number of tourist visas issued from January to September 2018 has already surpassed the total number of visas issued in 2017, pegging the YoY growth around 27 per cent. The round table was organised by Russia Expo Center, Moscow along with Russian Information Center, Mumbai (RIC) with more than 120 trade professionals from India attending along with TAAI MC Member Rajan Sehgal and EEMA Executive Vice President Sanjiv Pasricha making the keynote address along with Timur Vekilov, Chief Representative in India of Russ Expo Center. The round table moderated by Paresh Navani, Director, Russ Information Center discussed the needs and special services required by Indians and ways to address the same. In this regard, Russ Information Center announced the pre-launch of Ural Airlines set to begin operations from March 24, 2019 connecting Mumbai to Yekaterinburg and Moscow along with some tourism products to take advantage of the new airline service between the two countries, further RIC presented its ‘Indian Friendly’ programme to the Indian travel trade, the Indian friendly programme trains Russian hotels on Indian culture, cooking Indian dishes and ensure that other specific needs are provided to Indians in Russia. Another point noted by the attendees was that tourists from Russia to India has also grown over the last years by around 29 per cent, showing good recovery of arrival compared to the past few years.

Calling it an unfortunate decision, Rajan Sehgal, Member—Managing Committee, TAAI, says, “The travel agents drive bulk business for the airlines and cutting commission is like cutting the long arm of the airline. It is very unfortunate that Jet Airways has announced to slash the basic commission given to travel agents. We will be meeting representatives from Jet Airways next week to have detailed discussions on the matter. We have taken the opinion of our members and will put the issues forward.”

The biennial election for Travel Agents Association of India’s (TAAI) Northern Region will be held on July 21, 2017, at The Claridges, New Delhi. Revealing this was Rajan Sehgal, Chairman Northern Region, Travel Agents Association Of India (TAAI). “The nominations are open till July 18, post which we will come to know the final list of nominees,” he said. Neeraj Malhotra, Hon. Secretary Northern Region, TAAI,also revealed that the elections will take place after the annual general meeting of the association and the new executive committee will be announced on the same day.

Rajan Sehgal, Chairman–Northern Region, TAAI, claimed that there is not much difference in air travel apart from the taxes on economy and business class being separate. However, he said, “Since the hotels will be subjected to 28 per cent tax for over Rs 5000 room rate, this will be a huge blow to the industry. We were expecting about 18 per cent, which has been applied, but for hotels in the Rs 2500-5000 range. Our aim is to get more foreign tourists to India, and not just domestic tourists, and by hiking up the main part of travel will not benefit the industry in any way. Our price needs to be competitive in comparison to the European market or other markets in Asia where the rates for such services are much lower.”

Rajan Sehgal, Chairman, Northern Region, TAAI, says “Emirates is expanding its network fast and already has the largest number of flights, amongst all the international carries, flying to and from India. All this is because of the support of the travel agents. Agents in India have been marketing, selling, bringing customers and giving credit to them and paying the airline in time. Emirates does not understand that this could negatively impact the business. Offering 3 per cent commission on the basic fare is only peanuts for Emirates, but it is still following suit as other international airlines. Withdrawing this commission is not a good sign. However, they would soon realise that travel agents are important for the business. the Indian travel industry, unlike in other nations, is not very strong and has no support from the government. Hence, everybody is cutting the profit of the travel agent, but they will soon realise that travel agents are a major contributor to their business.”

Rajan Sehgal, Chairman, TAAI- Northern Chapter, has a stern opinion on Union Budget. “For the last so many years, there has been no mention of tourism. This time as well, tourism was mentioned only for two minutes. We cannot think of growth and promotion of tourism internationally without having our house in order. No monument in India is of international standard, and people only know of the Taj Mahal, which is the only monument we can sell, which too is not tourism friendly.” On how the Budget ignored the inbound sector, Sehgal says, “Tourism brings in foreign exchange as well as creates employment. Very cleverly, the government has seen outbound tourism where they have seen two crore people are travelling, and thus they should come in the tax bracket. But they have not emphasised on inbound, which would bring the foreign exchange. They are just trying to collect tax, but they have not understood the potential of tourism. We have to have direct interaction with the Prime Minister’s Office. Tourism needs to be a very easy industry, and the tax should be simplified in this sector. Other countries follow this and are booming.”

Rajan Sehgal, Chairman – Northern Region, TAAI; Director, Arrivals Air Services, opines that post-demonetisation, the travel industry has already lost out on a lot of business with inbound and domestic tourism witnessing a decline. He says, “The times have already become tough for the industry and with the announcement of the tax on tour packages, things are only going to get worse. This is probably the only industry with no structured income and often, non-IATA agents or agents who have not been recognised by the Ministry of Tourism are earning more than the verified ones. Such decisions are discouraging more agents to get recognised by the tourism bodies since they are getting more returns without it. Here we discuss about how taxes need to be lowered to boost tourism but it looks like the opposite is happening.”

Rajan Sehgal, Chairman, TAAI Northern Chapter, feels that for the next few months, it will be a big problem for domestic tourism as people use cash transactions for everything from staying, to eating and sight-seeing. “Foreign tourists also are facing a challenge in paying for basic needs like food as well as reports have also come from many places about people being denied entry in the monuments as they do not have the required cash. Foreign tourists who are in the middle of their journey in India and have already exchanged money, have no idea what they need to do with the cash they have as most of it is in denominations of 1000 and 500. Another big problem for us is that all the embassies and VFS centres do not take cheques or credit cards. They only take demand drafts, which is a longer process or they accept cash, which is posing as a big problem today. We are in talks with them and hoping for a positive outcome.”

Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) Northern Region members are going to Colombo, Sri Lanka from July 8-11, 2016, for their monthly meeting, reveals Rajan Sehgal, President, TAAI-NR. “We are taking a total of 60 members from the Northern Region to Colombo, Sri Lanka, for our monthly meeting. We will be meeting the hotel associations as well as the Sri Lanka Tourism Board to educate our members about the destination. This will be followed by an excursion to casinos and other attractions in the city,” he said.

Rajan Sehgal, President (Northern Region), Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), said, “There is hardly anything for the travel industry in this budget. The only positive thing in this Budget is that the Finance Minister has addressed the connectivity issue by saying that there are 160 airstrips in India which can be developed. Many small destinations are not easily accessible for tourists and this announcement would give fillip to domestic tourism. We are still waiting for more details. However, there is no direct mention of anything positive for the tourism industry.”