Aiming to empower the travel agents, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) recently organised a series of knowledge conclaves. The association organised these conclaves in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and Indore.
“The TAAI Conclave in Mumbai has been a huge success. We had over 175 delegates from the agencies in the Western India. It’s a huge success after New Delhi did well. The conclave is aimed at supporting travel companies, review their business models, understand their trends and update themselves with the new happenings of the travel and tourism industry. We are looking to encourage our members to evolve,” Sunil Kumar, President, TAAI said.
The conclave witnessed eminent speakers disusing various key topics which also addressed major industry challenges. “The speakers are not merely consultants, but they are from the industry and most of the speakers are ones who have successfully led large travel organisations. When they share experiences and interaction takes place, that mutual learning makes the conclave a rewarding experience,” he added.
Also, TAAI is soon set to announce its 66th Convention & Exhibition date and venue. The Association is most likely set to organise this year’s convention in Mauritius. “We are now working on the annual convention. We will soon get some responses. Hopefully, we are looking at an airline partner who can carry 500-600 delegates at a very industry price. We have a couple of destinations in mind; Mauritius is shortlisted to be one of the key destinations. But then they are ready to support us, but the other part is we arriving into Mauritius.”
The travel industry is not excited with the Annual Budget. The industry was further looking for more announcements which were missing. “The industry is not happy with the Union Budget. It clearly reflects that the Government is not considering travel as a priority. The industry must get recognised and acknowledged by the Government as an important revenue earner. It is a large and growing industry.”
Apart from the conclave, TAAI has also organised various roadshows for destinations. The association has recently signed an agreement with Destination Canada for a series of roadshow. “We have been successful in doing roadshows for destinations. We have done it for Abu Dhabi, South Africa, Destination Canada, Turkey, Malaysia, etc. The advantage of doing a roadshow with TAAI is, when we organise we get an audience who are majorly the owners or key decision makers. In the other roadshows, there is more of frontline staff.”
