Ajay Prakash, Chief Executive, Nomad Travels is contesting for the post of President in the forthcoming election of Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) scheduled to take place on July 24. Prakash, who is leading ‘Team For Change’ is no novice in the association politics. Travel Trade Insider caught up with him to know if elected what will be his priority areas.
Q. What has prompted you to contest for the post of TAFI’s President after a long hiatus?
A. It was mainly the persistence of my team that is contesting the election along with me and other members who wanted me to put forth my candidature for the important post. They started to talk to me a few months ago about the need to revive the association. I told them to find a President and I will support them.
I hung up my boots in 2012, wherein, I completed two terms as General Secretary and one term as President of the association. I have dedicated my life to TAFI for eight years. I was approached after the team was formed and I even received many calls from members across the country talking about the need to strengthen TAFI. So, finally, I agreed. I can say that our team is of people who have consistently worked for the trade.
Q. You mentioned the need to revive TAFI? What is required?
A. First is to get our membership back. A few years ago, we had around 3,500 IATA agents in our country. At that time our active membership was 1,400 strong. Today there are 5,000 IATA agents in the country and TAFI’s active membership is half of what it used to be in the past. That’s a significant drop in the membership numbers. It is a worrying sign for any association.
The fact that no travel agent has any protection against airline failure is a matter of grave concern. This is something we had tried to address 8-9 years ago too. We all have suffered whenever any airline has gone bust be it Jet Airways or Kingfisher Airlines. Travel agents have no protection and IATA puts its hands up. This is an unfair system. We have refunds pending. There are clear IATA resolutions that mandate how refunds have to be handled. IATA says it is an individual airline’s decision. Finally, the agents are left to fend for themselves.
Our taxation regime has made us uncompetitive when compared to other markets. We need to have a dialogue with the government on tourism’s significant contribution to employment generation, foreign exchange and its multiplier effect on other industries.
The government needs to look at us more sympathetically and rationally. We need some support to weather the present crisis. Overseas markets like the US. and Germany have spent billions of dollars for saving the trade. Our government has offered very little tangible support. We had created FAITH (Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality) for addressing such challenges. There are issues that the federation has taken up with some success but the voice needs to be made stronger and more unified. And only strong associations can make the federation stronger.
There are global federations like WTAAA (World Travel Agents Associations Alliance) and UFTAA (United Federation of Travel Agents Associations). Travel agent associations need to be united in these forums to strongly represent their matter of concern. Today if you look at the industry, ticketing which used to mainstay for many of our members is only one part of their business, the bigger pie is the tourism business, be it domestic, international, or inbound. So, we need to engage more constructively with the ministry of tourism too.
Q. Do you think travel trade associations have been reluctant in criticizing the government?
A. The first is as an industry you need government support. Public Private Partnership (PPP) model can only work if the public part is supportive. Considering today’s political environment, confrontations are not going to be an ideal methodology. Yes, we have to put our points strongly but we need to also explain what our issues are in a cordial manner. We need to consistently engage with the government for highlighting our expectations.
Another thing we have to work is on data that supports the fact that our sector is immensely contributing to the Indian economy. We talk about how the industry is providing employment to millions of people but this needs to be supported with hard facts. We also need to make data available in the public domain. Our industry is just not of elites but has stakeholders that have small establishments too.
Q. What future do you envisage for the tourism sector considering pandemic has ravaged the sector?
A. Travel is an intricate part of our lives. It will surely revive. But the question is how we are going to sustain the present challenging time. A lot of companies have closed their operations and many have lost their jobs. Still, there is hope as we can see domestic tourism is on a revival path. Our vaccination drive is also picking up. However, we need to adopt a responsible approach towards tourism. We have seen how our hills have been flooded with tourists. Such an approach doesn’t augur well for our sector. The future belongs to responsible and sustainable tourism.