Tag Archives: President

While this ruling will affect tour operators’ business, there is still confusion over if the increase on service tax would be 6 per cent or 9 per cent. P.P. Khanna, President, ADTOI, says, “We have called a meeting on the same. I feel that with this announcement, the government is preparing us for the GST. There is already a big load on tour operators, as we are competing with OTAs. We know that tour operators come to be a bit costlier because they are already paying service tax, which is not the case with OTAs. Now, with the new tax regime, it would be another blow to our businesses. We only survive on relationships we build up with our customers and their loyalty. However, with more price hikes, we would sure lose out on our business. On one hand, the government wants to increase the employment and revenue in tourism, on the other hand, it is heavily taxing the tour operators.”

Guldeep Singh Sahni, President, OTOAI, says “With this move, the tax for us is going to increase from 4.5 per cent to almost 9 per cent. The move will directly affect the offline tour operators within India and it will in turn be beneficial for those who take booking outside the country, as they won’t come under any such laws. Over 20 million people from India are travelling outside the country and the outbound travel industry is creating so many jobs. Taxing this sector would only affect the tour operator businesses in India and would allow anybody to operate the same business for Indians outside India. It’s an unjust tax and would kill the tourism industry in India.”

Japan will open 13 new visa application centers in India. The centers will be opened at Gurgaon, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Goa, Bengaluru, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai, Puducherry and Hyderabad. This was informed by Ryoichi Matsuyama, President, Japan National Tourist Office at the opening ceremony of the 2017 the year of Japan-India Friendly Exchanges and the Announcement of Japan-India Collaboration Film Project. “Last year Japan saw 120,000 Indian arrivals whereas 230,000 Japanese visited India. Though the number of Indians visiting Japan is steadily increasing, the current figure is yet modest despite the vast size and scale of India and more so given the long-standing relationship between the two countries,” said Matsuyama. The Japan-India Collaboration Film Project was also announced. The event was attended by Kenko Sone, Minister, Economic and Development, Embassy of Japan; Suresh Prabhu, Railway Minister, Government of India, Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Ayog, Government of India, Kenchi Takano, Executive Director- Preparation Office for New Delhi, JNTO amongst others. His Excellency Kenji Hiramatsu, Ambassador of Japan to India added that there will be a number of cultural and tourism related events are planned to be held all around India in 2017.

TrawellTag Cover-More will conduct its Travel Agents Engagement Program (TAEP) for members of the Enterprising Travel Agents Association (ETAA) of non-IATA travel agents in Kolkata and Hyderabad in February 2017. The first session will be conducted in Kolkata on February 4, 2017 followed by Hyderabad on February 10, 2017. It will be conducted by corporate trainer Aman Kaushik who has done similar sessions for the trade in the past. Jagat Mehta, President, ETAA, says, “Our insurance partner TrawellTag Cover-More has designed a program especially for our members which is focused on up-selling and cross-selling skill development. The ‘Travel  Agents  Engagement Program’ has proved to be a productive step towards achieving higher quality of travel ancillary sales, increasing penetration and improving cross-selling skills among travel agents.” ETAA is scheduled to hold its second Domestic Convention at Leonia Resorts, Hyderabad from March 3 to 5, 2017.

Uttarakhand Tourism Professionals Association’s (UTPA) official meet was organised in New Delhi after formal registration of the organisation as a Trust. More than 130 members joined this meet to discuss about promotion of tourism in Uttarakhand. Ravi Gosain, President, UTPA, presided over the meeting with General Secretary Sunil Bahuguna and rest of the office bearers. In the meeting all members participated enthusiastically by sharing their views and achievements in the field of tourism. Some of the members launched new camp sites, homestays and village tourism, etc. During the meet 25 more people joined UTPA & got the membership who are connected with Hospitality & Tourism. The Management committee also announced formation of five Sub Committee with different task/profiles toward the development of Tourism in Uttarakhand, promotion of its languages, its culture & festivals, the growth of villages & stop further migration, we are sure all these effort will help us to generate occupation for village people soon in near future. It was decided to sought meeting with Tourism secretary and CEO of Uttarakhand Tourism soon with a delegation to present their suggestions for promotion of Tourism and locals in Uttarakhand. UPTA also invites all tourism professionals who are associated with Uttarakhand to support and join hands with them in this mission. UTPA is recently formed to develop tourism in Uttarakhand and professionals who are working in Tourism and Hospitality sector of Uttarakhand are eligible to became members.

The Enterprising Travel Agents Association (ETAA) of non-IATA travel agents has announced its second Domestic Convention to be held at Leonia Resorts, Hyderabad from March 3 to 5, 2017. Jagat Mehta, President, ETAA, said, “With a tourism focused government, we as a leading trade association decided to do our bit in promoting our country by announcing a Domestic Convention this year specially in the newly crafted and youngest state of Telangana. We expect over 250 of our members from across the country to attend the same owing to capacity constraints. The convention will provide a perfect setting for enhancing destination and product knowledge about the state and the resort and will also present excellent networking opportunity among the members and the suppliers and exhibitors who participate at the convention during the planned B2B sessions.” The association plans to expand its footprints with an East India Chapter in the near future.

The two editions of Travel Show held on Dec 17 and 18, 2016, at Le Meridien Gurgaon recorded 1,300 meetings between around 25 exhibitors as well as 25 buyers on both days. The closed-door event which focused on MICE on the first day, and on Experiential and Luxury travel the second day, was inaugurated by Guldeep Singh Sahni, President, Outbound Tour Operators’ Association of India; Sushil Shamal Wadhwa, Founder & CEO, Platinum World Grroup and Shahnawaz Shah, Manager Marketing, SKICC. It presented an exclusive networking opportunity to a selective list of travel and hospitality professionals in a pre-scheduled one-on–one meeting format. Commenting on the show, Sarika Rawal Bhambani, General Manager, Travel Show said, “Successful meetings took place between the selected exhibitors and top-level buyers. It is an excellent platform for companies which are looking to gain a slice of demand or are looking to grow their existing shares.”

Sabre Corporation’s board of directors has appointed Sean Menke as President, CEO and a member of Sabre’s board, effective Dec 31, 2016. Menke will succeed Tom Klein, who has served as president, CEO and board member since 2013. “After an extensive search of qualified candidates, the board unanimously concluded that Sean is the right choice to lead Sabre. Since his arrival last year, Sean has demonstrated that his strong industry knowledge and expertise coupled with his decisive, results-oriented management style are an effective combination. These traits will help Sabre drive innovation as the travel industry’s technology leader and serve the needs of airlines, hotels, travel agents and travelers alike.  I look forward to working with Sean to make this happen,” said Larry Kellner, executive chairman of Sabre’s Board of Directors. Menke joined Sabre in October 2015 and currently serves as executive vice president of Sabre and president of Sabre Travel Network, Sabre’s largest line of business.  Under Menke’s leadership, Sabre Travel Network has won major new business opportunities, increased global market share and secured Sabre’s position as the leading global distribution system in three of its four major operating regions (North America, Latin America and Asia-Pacific), and successfully extended new multi-year agreements with many of its largest global travel management companies, online travel agencies and travel retailers.  In addition, he has led the innovation that enables the sale of more customized fares and ancillary products through Sabre Travel Network and strengthened the technology solutions that will be offered to travel agencies next year as part of the launch of the new Sabre Red platform.  Prior to Sabre, Menke served as CEO of Frontier Airlines and held senior executive positions at …

Oman Air, the national carrier of the Sultanate of Oman, is celebrating the country’s 46th National Day with the inauguration of its Kochi office at a new location. The new office is located in MG Road, which is the most coveted location in the city. It was the first international carrier to operate from the Kochi International Airport. The office inauguration was marked by the ribbon cutting ceremony by Kochi Mayor Soumini Jain, in the esteemed presence of Ihab Sorial, Senior Vice President – International Sales, Sunil VA, Regional Vice President – Indian Subcontinent, Bhanu Kaila, Country Manager – India, Jayakrishna Bhaskaran – District Sales Manager, Kochi and Vijay Bhatia, President, Bird Group of Companies. In 2001, Oman Air started its operations in Kochi with 3 flights in a week which was later increased to 5 flights a week. In 2005, Oman Air announced daily operations from Kochi to Muscat. To meet the ever increasing travel needs of our customers, Oman Air now operates twice daily from Kochi since December 2015.

All guides with licences issued by ASI and Additional Director General, Tourism, are valid and can enter all the Centrally Protected Monuments including Fatehpur Sikri, till fresh licences are issued under the new Policy, informs Pronab Sarkar, President, IATO quoting Supreme Courts’ order on IATO’s writ petition. IATO had sought clarification on the restricted entry of Regional Level Guides and State Level Guides at Fatehpur Sikri, where only local guides were being allowed to work. This was causing financial burden on IATO members as they had to pay guide fee to their Regional/State Level Guide and the local guide.