TAAI ADVOCATES COLLABORATIVE APPROACH AMONG STAKEHOLDERS

The 61st Annual Convention & Exhibition of Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), held  with TAAI Travel Awards from December 13-16 at Vivanta by Taj - Yeshwantpur, Bangalore, witnessed gathering of travel agents from all over India to discuss the current challenging environment as well as the way forward.

The Convention was inaugurated by R V Deshpande, Minister for Tourism, Govt. of Karanataka; Arvind Jadhav, Additional Chief Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of Karantaka;  Iqbal Mulla, President, TAAI; N M Sharafudden, Vice President, TAAI; Sunil Kumar, Secretary General, TAAI and N G Shankar, Treasurer, TAAI. The theme for the convention this year was ‘Connect. Cooperate. Collaborate.’ which reflects the ethos of the current environment in the travel and tourism industry.  The theme analyses newer approaches, expanding horizons, increasing market size, new players, intense competition, strengthening of alliances and other challenges and opportunities.

Welcoming the attendees, Iqbal Mulla, President, TAAI said, “TAAI is more than an association. We have been servicing travel and tourism industry since 1951. We have come a long way but we need to go far beyond and that’s why we have chosen Connect, Collaborate, Cooperate as a theme ” Mulla said and added the industry has faced  challenging times in 2013 due to the commission issue and depreciation of rupee.
Mulla also bestowed the TAAI Presidential Award upon Deshpande, and also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Karnataka Tourism for Human Resource Development that will be launched in February 2014. According to Deshpande, Karnataka has become a destination for investors in the country. “Tourism industry has a great future. We need to join hands to make this industry successful so that India ranks number one in the world tourism market. Countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Germany and France among others are well ahead of us. Hardly 9 per cent of this population is involved in tourism in this country while in other countries it is 15 per cent. It is imperative for all stakeholders to analyse where we have gone wrong and find solutions to achieve the true potential, and ensure that the industry prospers,” the Minister added. 

Business Sessions:

Altogether there were six business sessions. The first business session, ‘The Future is Now’ saw the individual presentation by Kapil Kaul, CEO, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) and Ashwini Kakkar, Executive Vice Chairman and Past President, TAAI. Kaul, while giving outlook on the Indian aviation industry, said that airlines are too busy and agents need to reach airlines to establish a mutually beneficial relation. Kakkar added that Indian travel and tourism industry has been the biggest loser over the last decade compared to other industries.

The session, ‘Principal Agency Relationship – Way Forward’ saw the speakers such as Sanjay Kumar, Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo; Shyam Sunder, Executive Director - Commercial, Air India; Sunil Kallyat, Regional Manager – Commercial, Emirates and Bhanu Mohan, General Manger, National Sales (Domestic), SpiceJet.  They were asked relevant questions regarding commission and parity in fares.  Kumar highlighted the achievements of IndiGo and also talked about the airlines relationship with agents. He also spoke about the growth potential in the aviation sector and how IndiGo is geared up to tap the market potential. Sunder thanked agents’ community for supporting Air India and urged them to continue to do so. Mohan and Kallyat also shared their opinion about the important role of agents for airline’s business.
 
Dipak Haksar, COO, ITC Hotels, was the sole speaker at a session ‘Optimising Tourism: An important add-on’. He opined that there is a huge potential in domestic market and there is a need to create a framework to cater to the domestic market.  Another session ‘Challenge of Sustainability’ saw speakers such as Sandeep Dwivedi, Chief Commercial Officer, InterGlobe Technology Quotient Pvt Ltd (ITQ); Ashish Gupta, Consulting CEO, Federation of Associations of Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH) and Founder, Strategy Pluto; and Ajit Kaikini, Director-Corporate Training, Buoyancee. All of them advocated collaboration among stakeholders in the industry to give a direction to tourism growth.

The session on ‘Evolve as we Grow - How market-relevant are we?’ was addressed by Ranjan Malik, Director, Erehwon Innovation Consulting, and Raja Natesan President and CEO, Gateway IT & Travel Solutions. Another session on ‘Service Tax: Is my House in Order?’ was conducted by Manish Gada of GMJ Associates who talked about the implications of service tax on the industry.