Tag Archives: Travel Agents Association of India

Manoj Sogani has been elected as the chairman of the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), Rajasthan Chapter. In the elections held on July 24, 2024, for the Rajasthan Chapter of India’s largest and oldest travel agents association, TAAI, Mr. Manoj Sogani won by a significant & huge margin of votes and has been re-elected as chairman for the fifth consecutive term. His new term will be from 2024 to 2026. Before this continuing period of term Mr. Manoj Sogani has also served as National Managing Committee Member, secretary and chairman in past before as well. Mr. Manoj Sogani is a travel expert and professional with nearly 40 years of extensive experience in the industry. Due to his expertise and proficiency, several organizations maintain their association with him. These include various airport advisory committees, airline committees, and visa committees. The Department of Tourism, Ministry of India also invites him for hotel classification and he is specially invited to all types of tourism seminars and fairs as special guests of honour. Mr. Dashrath Singh Rathore was elected unopposed as Secretary and Mr. Arvind Parikh as Treasurer. Both of them are also well-known in the trade and bring with them a wealth of experience.

The Gujarat chapter of Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) has tied up with Samved Hospital in Ahmedabad to facilitate COVID-19 vaccination of its accredited members as well as their spouse. The first round of the inoculation drive has already been completed successfully. With this, the Association aims to always be at the forefront for the betterment and benefit of its members.

TAAI in association with Gujarat Tourism is organising the TAAI Tourism Conclave at Statue of Unity, Kevadia from 9-12 March. The Conclave scheduled today is aimed to bring members together and brainstorm on importance of Domestic travel & new ways & opportunities for the industry. Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI said, “TAAI is constantly involved with the government to establish correct procedures & support our membership to adopt transformation & to continuously improve our ability to explore, achieve & prosper.”

Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI, has commented, “Overall, the 2021 Budget is empowering people for greater economic freedom, sound infrastructure, metro, railways, airports, and highways. However, we are very disappointed that as travel and tourism has not got anything specifically, despite being a strong GDP contributor, as well as having a huge value chain going across all levels, which is going to be affected. We might see many shops closing down and people going out of business.” She added, “We expected much more than what was announced. However, we believe the Budget 2021 has focused more on spendings to enable economic growth through infrastructure roads and financial remedies. Travel, tourism and hospitality was completely neglected. As we await the fineprint, the direct taxes are not clear. “Further Dis-investment in AirIndia is still on the rocks and is expected to be completed this year. Clarity on the same is eagerly is awaited by us, the main stakeholder partner hereto. For Rail packages over the years this shall be a advantage since the Plan is to create a ‘future ready’ Railway system by 2030. Passenger Logistics shall have advantage in the circuits and infrastructure. “In Tourism we shall be able to attract for foreign tourist and give more opportunities to travellers. For passenger convenience and safety, the following measures are proposed—We will introduce the aesthetically designed Vista Dome LHB coach on tourist routes to give a better travel experience to passengers. The safety measures undertaken in the past few years have borne results. To further strengthen this effort, high density network and highly utilized network routes of Indian railways will be provided with an indigenously developed automatic train protection system that eliminates train …

Jyoti Mayal, President, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) and Vice Chairperson, FAITH, met Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, on July 2 and discussed the concerns and challenges faced by the members. Some of the major issues discussed in the meeting were airline refunds; challenges faced to retain employees, their salaries and avoid unemployment in the sector; moratoriums and reliefs to trade due to COVID-19 lockdown and loss of business; allowing accredited travel agents to book Vande Bharat flights for Air India and also informing foreign carriers undertaking such flights to permit the same; revival challenges and long-term facilitation for the trade with airlines; protection of the agents from airline defaults and suspension of services; direction from government to airlines on remuneration for promoting the airlines; direction seeking travel agent corporate credit cards to be used for airline ticketing; reduction of credit card merchant fee by banks to below 0.75% so as to promote Digital India for aviation, travel, tourism and hospitality sectors as a whole. Seeking support from the government, Mayal requested Kant to ensure the same and assist in guiding the trade, enable creation of demand for growth, and opportunities for all travel and tourism-related activities.

Delegates at the 65th Travel Agents Association of India’s convention and exhibition were warmly welcomed in Kunming, China. The three-day convention highlighted the theme ‘Tourism Beyond Boundaries’ and hopes to further strengthen tourism ties between India and China. Located in the Yunnan province of China, Kunming is an ideal golf destination and the TAAI Convention started with a golf tournament with players participating from both the countries. Known for popularising unknown destinations, TAAI has brought Kunming on the tourism map.

The Wallonia Foreign Trade along with Wallonia Export-Investment Agency (AWEX) recently took a tourism mission to Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Delhi. The Consulate General of Belgium, AWEX and BIE in association with Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) organised the event for its members in Mumbai. Nine delegates from different tourism attractions from Brussels and Wallonia (Southern Belgium) presented its undiscovered and unique tourist attractions to the TAAI members. The delegation also visited top tour operators in the city. Peter Huyghebaert, Consul General, AWEX Team; Emmanuelle Timmermans, Trade and Investment Commissioner, and Dominique Andre from Wallonia Belgium Tourism, joined Ellona Pereira, India Director, Visit Brussels, for the roadshow. Also part of the delegation were Albert Joris from Caves of Han, Catherine Vuidar from Euro Space Center, Rodolphe Brohée from Durbuy, Malati Dasi and Martin Gurvich from Radhadesh Castle, Jérôme Aussems from Ardennes Incoming and Steven Truyman from Hey Belgium. Top tour operators from Mumbai and Pune attended this event.

The Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) is set to organise its annual convention this year in Kunming, Yunnan, China by November end. The association held its convention in Srinagar in March this year. The step comes in the wake of TAAI’s focus to bond with China, whose outbound has been the largest in recent years. Further, India’s outbound to China is also extremely significant and continues to grow. The final dates of the convention will be announced soon. TAAI and Yunnan Provincial Tourism Development Commission (YPTDC) are joining hands to deliver a great partnership that would benefit tourism between the two large and formidable nations of the world. On the invitation of Yunnan, TAAI team visited the beautiful city of Kunming and found it a great venue to organise this Convention, TAAI said.

In a recent communication to Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), Air India has agreed to TAAI’s request to give travel agents a backend incentive of 3 per cent on international sector and 8 per cent on domestic sector on Electronic Miscellaneous Document (EMD) value exclusive of taxes for issuance of EMD for preferred seat selection. This incentive will be apart from normal commission applicable on sale of Preferred Seat Selection (PSS). The communication states that the backend incentive will be payable on a quarterly basis to BSP India agents on flown revenue basis. This means that other than the normal commission, agents will also be eligible for this incentive.

The Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) unveiled its new initiative on digital empowerment called TAAI Connect. This will support member agencies to encounter the fast evolving, challenging and demanding market scenario. TAAI Connect will enable agents to have their own website, combine their website with a booking platform integrated with their GDS and ticketing, connect the website with payment gateway linked with their own bank, a corporate booking tool and a mobile application to manage bookings through smartphones and many more services. TAAI has associated with TPConnects, a Dubai based technology company for TAAI Connect which will provide all technical support and integration. Speaking at the launch in Mumbai, Sunil Kumar, President, TAAI said, “TAAI Connect is a revolutionary initiative in the area of technology offering handholding and empowering travel agencies to go digital. A lot of online companies have lost money in creating the online platform rather than running it. Here the agents do not have to invest in technology and integration that TAAI is offering. This will also be available to non-IATA travel agents and non-TAAI agents while they would have to take up membership with TAAI. We will be working with all suppliers in the industry.”