Category Archives: Agents

EBIXCASH World Money was invited by the Government of Uttar Pradesh to present a paper as part of the second ground-breaking ceremony and Investor Summit on July 27th-28th, 2019 in Lucknow. The event also conducted a business session with panelists that included Venkataramani Prakash, Head (Retail Business), EBIXCASH World Money; Ashwani Lohani, Chairman and MD of Air India; Prasoon Joshi, Chairman Central Board of Film Certification; Subhash Ghai, Film Director and Producer; Steve Borgia, President Ecotourism Society of India & CMD Indeco Leisure Hotels Pvt. Ltd; Satish Kaushik, Producer, Director and Actor; Boney Kapoor, Film Producer; and Raju Srivastava, Chairman Film Development Council of Uttar Pradesh. Speaking about the event, Prakash says, “As a key member of the tourism eco-system, our views on the augmentation of travel, tourism, and film shoots in Uttar Pradesh were sought. Our paper, detailing our views was presented during a panel discussion on tourism and film shoot. During the session we apprised the audience of the scale and size of EBIXCASH World Money and the travel companies within our portfolio. We also took time to meet the CM and the Chief Secretary and apprise them of our business. The chief secretary asked us to meet us to explore synergy between the government and business. We also met key members of the Ministry of Tourism, Government of Uttar Pradesh.” Also present at the event were Amit Shah, Hon Home Minister of India, Yogi Adityanath Hon Chief Minister, Government of Uttar Pradesh, and top industrialists including Gautam Adani, Chairman and Managing Director Adani group, N Chandrasekharan, Chairman Tata Sons, and Shiv Nadar, Chairman HCL.

The upcoming Tamil Nadu Travel Mart (TTM), scheduled from September 19-22, at Chennai Trade Centre will showcase their products and have business meetings with 1000 plus buyers. The registrations for the same have been opened. The three-day exhibition will witness more than 300 exhibitors showcasing tourism business opportunities in the state along with 1000 domestic and international buyers.

The Maharashtra Tour Organisers Association (MTOA) has a new team at its helm. The association held its AGM on Sunday, July 28, 2019 in Mumbai. The new committee members have been elected for a term of three years from 2019 to 2022. The new MTOA President is Prabhu Joshi of Heena Tours, and the elected Vice President is Vishwajit Patil of Raja Rani Travels. Chetan Dunakhe of Madhuchanda Travels is the new General Secretary of MTOA and the Treasurer is Rajan Parekh of Arihant Travels. The two Joint Secretarys are Amol Hendre of Eventures and Dhiraj Nishar of Choice Tours.   Speaking about the focus areas for the new team, Joshi said, “MTOA has completed 50 years and to celebrate this milestone we plan to celebrate on a grand scale. The new as well as the old committee will jointly take efforts to organise the 50th year celebration event which will be announced soon. Both our past presidents Sudhir Patil (Veena World) and Atul Mohile (Contour) have taken great efforts to take MTOA to greater heights and their contribution for the association is invaluable.”  

Association of Domestic Tour Operators (ADTOI) is all set to open two new chapters in Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Tamil Nadu after its convention, revealed PP Khanna, President, (ADTOI). “Once we are free from the convention, we are planning to start two more chapters, which are almost ready, which will be in MP and Tamil Nadu. By September-October, we will have new entrants in the ADTOI family,” he adds.

The Global Panorama Showcase(GPS) has kick-started in Lucknow. Elaborating on the 2 days B2B travel trade, outbound  event focussed on Tier-II Tier-III cities, Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director, GPS informed that ,”This is our second year in Lucknow, we had a very good response last year. The market has accepted that this is an E-event and have downloaded the app and pre registered. Through Lucknow we hope to reach the travel fraternity in UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand. This is a very promising market, and we hope to empower through knowledge, networking and face to face business interactions.’

Neeraj Malhotra, Co-founder and CEO, Ganpati Travels has been re-elected as the Chairman, Northern Region, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI). Gaurav Dogra, Founder, Plan Your Holiday was re-elected as the Hony. Secretary uncontested. Manish Saxena, Executive Director, Century Travels is the new Hony. Treasurer. The election was conducted at Shangri-La’s Eros Hotel, New Delhi. On being declared the Chairman, Malhotra said, “I am thankful for the members in the region to come in big numbers and vote for me. I am truly overwhelmed and I will be continuing my pursuit to educate the members of the region, and bring technology to them to boost their businesses.”  

After the conclusion of the travel season, EBIXCASH World Money has now launched an exclusive campaign for the ongoing season aimed at aspiring students planning to study abroad for the fall. Titled ‘Ready to Study Forex Fest’ the campaign will allow them to pay/remit their university fees using EBIXCASH. The company also has exciting prizes for lucky winners. The campaign will last from July 18, 2019 to September 30, 2019. It is aimed at students aspiring to study overseas this season and it will be eligible for university fee remittance/card purchase  with EBIXCASH World Money. Offers include free ISIC Cards, assured prize on every remittance/payment, daily prize of travel accessories worth INR 10,000, weekly prize of L-care smart watches, monthly prize of American Tourister luggage bags and a mega prize of five laptops which will be given to lucky students.

The Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) has launched its online marketplace for members—TAFI Connect. Ashwani Sharma, Chapter Chairman, TAFI-North, said “TAFI Connect would be the online tool for members to conduct their business online with a huge inventory of hotels and packages. It would also allow them to do business with each other,” he added. Pranita Baveja, Founder & CEO, Traviate.com, showcased the features of TAFI Connect and even gave them a demo of the product. Members can now enroll themselves and be live on TAFI Connect to use its services and grow their businesses.  

EBIXCASH World Money has recently won three awards in different categories. It won the Pinnacle Award as the ‘Best Outperforming Partner – Terminal Services’ by Kempegowda International Airport Bengaluru in recognition of the outstanding services rendered for the FY 2018-19. It was also awarded an award under ‘Order of Merit’ for ‘Students University Remittance Solution’ by Skoch Group at the Skoch Awards 2019 in the Fintech category. EBIXCASH World Money also received the VISA Award for being one of the largest issuer of Visa travel cards in India with card loads of US$500 Million in 2018.  

Ebix will be acquiring Yatra Online via merger, as part of a definitive agreement signed between the two travel giants. Following the completion of the transaction, Yatra will become part of Ebix’s EbixCash travel portfolio alongside Via and Mercury and will continue to serve customers under the Yatra brand. The transaction will create India’s largest and most profitable travel services company, and a leading online travel platform poised to capture significant international growth opportunities. Ebix Chairman, President and CEO Robin Raina, commented, “The acquisition of Yatra would lend itself to significant synergies and the emergence of EbixCash as India’s largest and most profitable travel services company, besides being the largest enterprise financial exchange in the country. Over the last few months, we have evolved a detailed synergistic plan, that once fully executed can provide between 40 to 75 cents of accretion to the Ebix non-GAAP EPS. We are excited by the cross-selling opportunities that this combination provides us, while further strengthening our future EbixCash IPO offering.” Dhruv Shringi, Co-founder and CEO of Yatra Online. “We are pleased to announce this agreement with Ebix, which provides our shareholders with the opportunity to participate in the significant upside potential of one of the fastest growing multinational On-Demand software and E-commerce services companies in the world. Over the last several years, we have built Yatra into one of India’s most well- recognized e-commerce brands, growing into the leading corporate travel services provider and one of the largest consumer travel companies. Becoming a part of Ebix’s EbixCash travel portfolio will enable us to continue on that path. As part of a larger diversified organization with the necessary scale and resources to be a leader …