Tag Archives: Jyoti Mayal

Empowering for economy, but disappointing for tourism

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 …

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TAAI requests issuance of certificate for vaccinated travellers

TAAI has appealed to Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Civil Aviation and PS Patel, Minister of Tourism, to set up urgent protocols for travellers who are getting vaccinated against COVID-19. “This shall enable vaccinated travellers to resume their activities to pre-COVID times and live towards a better future,” says Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI.

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TAAI concludes AGM, discusses future course of action

TAAI has recently concluded its AGM virtually, which saw its national team, heads and ECs state and region chapters, as well as members in presence, revealed Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI. “We completed first year of our 2019-21 tenure. Our team was appreciated for its hard work. Now, we are working on our way forward. We had also invited Aashish Gupta, Consulting CEO, FAITH and we had a detailed dialogue with the office bearers and the Management Committee, and regional chapter teams, who gave their inputs on how they want TAAI to be a futuristic organisation,” she said.

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TAAI urges MoCA & MOT to open air bubbles, visas for foreign tourists

Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) has written to Minister of Civil Aviation and Minister of Tourism to request them to open tourist visas for foreigners to visit India; to make RTPCR tests mandatory for all arriving passengers with no quarantine; to absorb the costs of RTPCR test and waive it for travellers; should offer mandatory travel insurance for all incoming tourists, and allow travel to countries with which they don’t have air bubble agreement via flights through countries with which These agreements  are in place. Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI, had commented recently, “This would allow airlines to offer connecting flights to countries that are allowing Indians to visit. Many countries, which are not connected directly, like South Africa, South America, etc., but people want to travel there. Hence, there is a need to open beyond air bubbles. This would allow footfall on both sides.”

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Awaiting acceptance of credit cards by airlines: Jyoti Mayal

Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI, has said that they have been in discussion with Ministry of Civil Aviation for many of their issues, one of which is the acceptance of credit cards by airlines. “It has been cleared by the PAPJC and IATA, but we are still knocking every airline’s door. There should be a directive from the government for the same. There should be neutral capping of fares. Also, we are looking at remuneration in a big way. As travel consultants, we should have a right to charge our fee. Else, our services can be treated as MRP product so that we are protected. We should be allowed to charge 10% fee on it like the hotel industry is charging service fee,” she said.

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TAAI urges PS Patel to initiate meeting with Aviation Minister

Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI, has said that they had met Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of Tourism & Culture, along with the other association heads, where they have requested him to initiate a meeting with Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Civil Aviation, so that they can discuss their issues with him, especially regarding restructuring tourism business, refunds, money stuck with airlines, and also about Air India and the service fee that the agents charge for booking VBM flights.

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Agents can now book Vande Bharat flights; TAAI thanks authorities

Efforts put in by TAAI have finally borne fruit as the government has now permitted travel agents to book Vande Bharat flights. “We appreciate Air India, MoCA and NITI Aayog for supporting our initiatives, and look forward to more compliances to support the struggling industry,” says Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI. As of now, flights to USA, Germany (FRA) and France (CDG) have been announced in the coming phase.

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MoCA to help travel agents book international repatriation flights

Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI, has met with Pradeep Singh Kharola, Secretary, Civil Aviation, in which they discussed industry issues and repatriation flights were in focus. Sharing the highlights of the meeting, Mayal said, “After our continuous communications MOCA has assured us that they have started requesting all international airlines to allow agents to book on the repatriation flights. We discussed many more crucial issues relating to the survival & revival of the aviation industry for the agents, not only for now but for the future too.”

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TAAI holds meeting with NITI Aayog; lays focus on protection of agents

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.

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On TAAI’s initiative, MoCA to call meeting with international airlines

Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI, has said that they are having constant conversations with Pradeep Kharola, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), discussing the issues of the industry and TAAI members. She also revealed that there is a need to make the travel agent business healthier and regular interaction with airlines to start restructuring the processes. “The Secretary (MoCA) has said he would get a meeting done very soon with international airlines and TAAI. That’s what we are waiting for,” she revealed.

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