Category Archives: Associations

Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, Director, Pritam Hotels has been re-elected as the President of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI) at its 69th Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Mumbai. Kohli has been serving in the office as its President for the year 2018–19 and will now continue to serve in the same capacity. He is also the Vice President of the Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI). Mr. Sherry Bhatia will serve as the Sr. Vice President along with Mr. Pradeep Shetty as the Vice President. Mr. Nirav Gandhi has been appointed as the Honorary Secretary and Mr. Chetan Mehta will act as the Joint Honorary Secretary. Mr. Dilip Kothari will continue in the office as the Honorary Treasurer and Mr. Aspi Nallaseth as Secretary General. “I wish to thank the members for placing their trust in me and re-electing me to the office for a second term and also welcome the newly elected members to the committee. The last year was a challenging phase for the industry with the OTAs and the FSAs infringing on hoteliers’ and restaurateurs’ businesses. With the support of our members and the HRAWI team, we not only were successful in keeping a check on their callous activities but we also brought the entire country together for voicing out against the erring entities. We are determined about pursuing this matter to its equitable and fair conclusion. In the meanwhile, we will continue working inclusively with the Government for creating a favorable environment for the growth of hospitality and tourism in the country,” says Mr Kohli. A second generation hotelier, Mr Kohli is the owner of Dadar’s famous Pritam restaurant, …

PATA Travel Mart 2019 (PTM 2019), hosted by the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Kazakh Tourism National Company, has attracted 347 sellers from 180 organisations and 34 destinations, along with 252 buyers from 244 organisations and 48 source markets with first time buyers comprising 44% of the total. Mario Hardy, CEO, PATA, says, “This is the first time that PATA is organising an event in Central Asia, and our aim is to highlight the unexplored region of Central Asia, particularly Kazakhstan. Unexplored by many, PATA Travel Mart provides the perfect opportunity to showcase this unique destination vast landscapes and beautiful culture and heritage.”

NIMA has recently launched its Southern Region office in Vizag. K Vijay Mohan was nominated as the co-ordinator for the Southern Region. The Commissioner of Police, Vizag, Rajeev Kumar Meena graced the occasion. Former MLA Malla Vijay Prasad, Entrepreneur Pyda Krishan Prasad, Raja Babu of Sunray Resorts and Naresh Kumar were other dignitaries present during the launch.  NIMA’s National Coordinator Gajesh Girdhar, Rakesh Arora and Jagdeep Bhagat were present too. The State Chapters for Telangana with Siraj Ansari as it’s State Coordinator and Andhra Pradesh with Dheeraj Praharaju as it’s State Coordinator were also installed during the recent visit of NIMA’s National team to the region.

ADTOI is going to launch its 11th Chapter in Madhya Pradesh on September 08, 2019 at Minto Hall, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Surendra Singh Baghel, Hon’ble Tourism Minister of Madhya Pradesh has very kindly accorded his consent  to grace the occasion as Chief Guest of the function. Shri. Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, Managing Director, Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board will also be present during the chapter launch.   Names of the nominated Office Bearers of the ADTOI M.P. chapter are as follows:-ATUL SINGH OF TRAVEL CONNECTION, INDORE-  CHAPTER CHAIRMAN. PRATUL TRIVEDI OF LETZ GO MICE, INDORE-  CHAPTER SECRETARY SANDEEP PANDYA OF TOUR TRAVEL WORLD, BHOPAL-   CHAPTER TREASURER NEELAM SINGH OF TRAVEL INDIA TOURISM, BHOPAL-   CHAPTER LADY ENTREPRENEUR OFFICER (LEO) 

The Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) is soon going to launch its new website and will prove handy and useful for members in terms of new features and added benefits. Sharing more details, Sidharth Khanna, Treasurer, OTOAI said they are looking to unveil the website in next 10-15 days. He says, “We have been working on the new website and we felt the need to revamp the existing website. The new website will be more interactive for the members and will give them an opportunity to interact with each other. The key feature of the website would be that members can post a deal for the B2B, who is in the market on this new platform, which can be viewed by all the existing members. It will also give you all the updates about what the association has been doing, what is in the pipeline for the future. There is going to be a calendar of events apart from other exciting and useful features.”

Considering the option of Joint Bank Guarantee for hotels and discussing its viability, Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, Vice President, The Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India, says, “We are open to consider Joint Bank Guarantee option but it would require a prior and complete scrutiny and understanding of the JBG terms and conditions. For instance, the JBG  should be given by either the TA or a renowned association on behalf of the agent so that there is a guarantee for payments for the hotels and the TA can enjoy extended credit.” 

Sri Lanka High Commission in New Delhi, along with Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) organised a workshop for OTOAI members on Ramayana Trail, where Jeevana Fernando, Assistant Director, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLPB) gave a presentation on the Ramayana related sites in Sri Lanka to the attendees. The event was chaired by Austin Fernando, High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to India along with Mahendra Vakharia, President, OTOAI. The idea behind the workshop was to position Sri Lanka’s rich Ramayana heritage as a popular pilgrim package and to create awareness among the OTOAI members about locations of the Sri Lanka Ramayana Trail. The OTOAI members gave a positive response towards the workshop and discussed possible itineraries with Fernando for the same.

On the concluding day of the convention, PP Khanna, President ADTOI and Convention Chairman said, “The convention is a success, we were expecting around 400 delegates, but have been impressed by over 500 registrations, including some of the local travel agents. Sessions were quite interactive, and people enjoyed the same. It’s very necessary to focus on what the different states are doing to promote domestic tourism. Subsidies the states are providing top private entrepreneurs, investment plans and success stories of PPP were deliberated upon in the sessions. Full halls themselves indicate the popularity of the sessions.” Elaborating on trends in domestic tourism he said, “An important trend is to work with the state to promote domestic tourism in the state. For developing tourism, the requirement is of better infrastructure in the state, cleanliness, safety and security, availability of amenities, among others. Essentially education and  skill development is required in the states  to promote domestic tourism. State specialists programmes are also required so that the travel agents and tour operators can be imparted more knowledge about the destination and they become specialists to promote their states. Each and every state in India has so much to offer. Travel agent need to connect with their counter parts more, as knowledge excellence goes till the last point. Gujarati tour operators can fabricate the packages for pan India tour operators.

The 9th annual convention of Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI), supported by Gujarat Tourism as host state, was inaugurated at Hyatt Regency Ahmedabad. Speaking at the ceremony, Vasan Aahir, Minister of State for Tourism, Gujarat, said, “We are very glad that ADTOI has brought their annual convention to Gujarat. Rann of Kutch is the ideal example where tourism has been a means for developing an undeveloped destination, while giving employment to many people. We are developing many destinations in a similar manner in Gujarat.” ADTOI also unveiled its new logo at the inauguration ceremony. PP Khanna, President, ADTOI, welcomed the delegates at the convention and felicitated the dignitaries, which included Pradipsinh Jadeja, Minister of State- Home, Energy, Parliamentary Affairs, Law, Justice (Minister of State), Police housing, Border security, Civil defense, Gram Rakshak Dal, Jail, Prohibition and Excise, Coordination between voluntary organization, Non Resident Gujarati Department, Protocol (all independent charge), Government of Gujarat; Aashima Mehrotra, Director, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India; S.J. Haider, Principal Secretary, Gujarat Tourism; Jenu Devan, Managing Director, Gujarat Tourism; and Ashwani Lohani; CMD, Air India.

The Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) will now start promoting outbound tourism to neighbouring countries in a bid to help its members expand their horizon of business as well as improving bilateral ties with the countries to get more tourists to India and simultaneously send tourists from India to such destinations. The association invited Dubai Tourism, TCEB and Thai Airways to discuss their plans to work together. The association is also working to promote outbound operations for its members with an intent to develop a model of cross-border tourism. In a first such interactive meeting organised for IATO members who do outbound or want to do outbound, IATO introduced its members with the idea and intent to promote outbound tourism as well. Sharing more details, Rajiv Mehra, VP, IATO & EC Liaison, Outbound Tourism Promotion Committee said that they are first looking to target the neighbouring countries like Thailand, Dubai, Vietnam and can further move on to other countries. “Let us learn things and promote India for inbound tourism to our neighbouring destinations and also for outbound tourism so that more Indian tourists travel abroad. Whatever less business is coming to India, let us get it filled up with such initiatives,” he said. The association is planning to organise such ‘Outbound Knowledge Forum’ bi-monthly now on with talks going on with at least three other NTOs.