Category Archives: Associations

IATO has elected its new team for the term 2023-25. The election for the post of Office Bearers and Executive Committee Members were at The Ashok Hotel, New Delhi. Total number of votes cast were 278 out of 378 eligible members to cast their vote. The office bearers were elected unopposed and voting took  place for  the  EC members. List of Office Bearers/EC Members who have been declared elected are: • President – Mr. Rajiv Mehra, Uday Tours & Travels Pvt. Ltd. • Sr. Vice President- Mr. Rajnish Kaistha, Paradise Holidays India Pvt. Ltd. • Vice President – Mr. Ravi Gosain, Erco Travels Pvt. Ltd. • Hony. Secretary – Mr. Sanjay Razdan, Razdan Holidays • Hony. Treasurer – Mr. Sunil Mishra, Cosmos Tours & Travels • Hony. Joint Secretary – Mr. Viney Tyagi, Uni Crystal Holidays Pvt. Ltd. • Immediate Past President – Mr. Pronab Sarkar, Swagatam Tours Pvt. Ltd. EC Members – Active (5 Posts) 1. Mr. Deepak Bhatnagar – Aamantaran Travel Company Pvt. Ltd. 2. Mr. E.M. Najeeb, Air Travel Enterprises (I) Pvt. Ltd. 3. Mr. Harish Mathur, Concord Travels & Tours 4. Mr. Manoj Kumar Matta, Oriental Vacations & Journeys Pvt. Ltd. 5. Mr. Tony Marwah, Indian Travel Promotion Company Pvt. Ltd. EC Members –Allied (3 Posts) 1.  Mr. Ashok Dhoot – Harsh Travels 2. Mr. P. Vijayasarathy – Benchmark Hotels Pvt. Ltd. 3.  Mr. Zia Siddiqui – Alliance Hotels & Resorts The Returning Officer for the elections was Homa Mistry.

Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO, has said that this year the states of Northeast will get good traffic because the road conditions and flights to some of those states has improved manifold. “Thus, I am hopeful, that this year people will focus on going to NE,” he added.

The Goa Tourism Department, in partnership with Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) India Chapter, is organising its first-ever Roadshow across Europe. The roadshow will start on 18 April from Frankfurt, 20 April Zurich, Vienna on 24 April, and will end in Paris on 26 April.

UNWTO shared global best practices for developing Tourism Investment Strategy (TIS) at the Chintan Shivir by MOT. The session highlighted the structured approach for developing a comprehensive investment strategy,

KB Kachru, Vice President, HAI and Chairman Emeritus & Principal Advisor, South Asia Radisson Hotel Group, speaking at a recent interaction chaired by Minister of Tourism and Secretary, Tourism, said, “Given the local pull factor & ability of our domestic market combined with recent government policies, we can showcase our diversity to attract foreign investment.”

Rajiv Mehra, President, Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO), has said that the Annual IATO Convention 2025 will be held in Puri. Announcing the same at the 5th Odisha Tourism Conclave in Bhubaneswar. He also said that convention/MICE Tourism promotion especially for the state of Odisha to be taken up on priority basis.

The Indian aviation sector would attract more than $275 bn in investment over the next 20 years, revealed CAPA India. Indian aviation would attract $175 bn in funding for fleets and $70–80 bn in financing for airports, it was revealed at the summit.

An IATO delegation led by Chairman Rajiv Mehra, Ravi Gosain, ATDF head Jaswant Singh and Civil Aviation Committee head Sunit Kothari met CM Eknath Shinde for a detailed discussion regarding its convention. An MoU was signed between IATO and the Ministry of Tourism at Mantralay towards this. Sambhajinagar will host the association’s national convention this September and is expected to boost tourism in Sambhajinagar.  

Speaking at the CAPA India Aviation Summit, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Minister of Civil Aviation, has said that the average daily domestic aviation passenger is set to surpass the earlier peak of 4,56,000 by October 2023. “Currently, India experiencing daily domestic aviation passengers of around 420,000 – 440,000”, he said.

Sudesh Poddar has been elected as the President of FHRAI for 2022-2023 at the association’s 66th AGM at The Lalit, New Delhi. A team of 24 Executive Members also elected: Pradeep Shetty as Vice President from HRAWI; K Nagaraju as Vice President from SIHRA; M Surendra Kumar Jaiswal as Vice President from HRANI; T.S Walia as Hony. Secretary (FHRAI); Amarvir Singh as Jt. Hony. Secretary from Northern region; Gurbaxish Singh Kohli as Jt. Hony. Secretary from Western region and D.V.S Somaraju as Hony. Treasure (FHRAI).