The newly appointed leadership team of Travel Agents Association of India (TAFI) organized its first National Joint Council (NJC) meeting at the Gift City Club Gandhinagar in Gujarat on September 4th, 2021.
The National Managing Committee and the Chapter Chairmen and Secretaries from all 11 Chapters were present at the event. The association had also invited the members of the Gujarat Chapter for interaction with the officials of Gujarat Tourism and the National MC on the evening of September 3rd.
Manish Sharma, Chairman, TAFI Gujarat chapter delivered the welcome address and thanked Gujarat Tourism for their ongoing support to the trade and to this get together of TAFI officials from across the country.
TAFI President, Ajay Prakash accorded a traditional welcome to Jenu Devan, MD & Commissioner of Gujarat Tourism. He shared his vision of a resurgent travel and tourism industry as vaccinations picked up the pace and the pandemic situation has ebbed. While highlighting the growing demand for domestic tourism, Prakash congratulated the Gujarat government on the addition of Dholavira to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites and spoke of the need for responsible tourism, even more so in such ecologically sensitive sites.
In his speech, Devan spoke passionately not only about the well-known sites but also about the unknown and lesser-known tourist attractions of Gujarat. He invited the NJC to visit some of the nearby attractions on this visit and extended an invitation to TAFI to hold a convention in Gujarat, promising to extend full support. The evening ended with a sumptuous dinner and bonding between the members.
The NJC meeting was held the next morning at the Gift City Club. Prakash expressed his satisfaction with the excellent turnout and the presence of all Chapters. He outlined his vision of a strong TAFI where the Chapters were empowered to make decisions for the betterment of the industry and the membership was encouraged to communicate frankly with the elected officials at the Chapter or the national level.
He reiterated the commitment of the National MC to visit every Chapter and interact personally with the members. He also spoke about the higher paradigm of tourism – which was to connect people across boundaries and promised to send over the IIPT Credo of the Peaceful Traveller, which he urged every member to adopt and display in their office.
Moiz Abbas, General Secretary of the association, thereafter proceed with the extensive agenda. A key part of the agenda was to understand the issues at the Chapter level and every Chapter Chairman was invited to report on their respective regions.
Ankit Bajaj, Secretary TAFI Gujarat with his team Ronak Shah, Dilip Masrani and Jigar Dudakiya presented a detailed chapter report and shared more than 15 points on three-dimensional growth of travel agents and TAFI.
Khushvinder Sarna, Chairman – North India chapter and Raminder Singh Narula, Chairman – Karnataka chapter supported by Shanthi Soni, Secretary – Karnataka chapter jointly suggested various activities that can lead to a better performance of the industry.
Paulose Mathew, Chairman – Kerala chapter shared a detailed list of suggestions for the better functioning of TAFI’s pan India activities. Sunil Uttam, Chairman – Pune chapter supported by Sameer Kulkarni, Secretary – Pune chapter shared their vision on the development of TAFI members in the region.
Jitul Mehta, Chairman – Western India chapter supported by Burjis Mehta, his Chapter Secretary highlighted data protection strategies for all member agencies. Anil Punjabi and Biloksha Das, Chairman and Secretary – East India chapter shared their chapter report and future vision for the membership.
Ahmed Hashmi Syed and Habib Mujtaba, Secretary and Treasurer – Andhra Pradesh chapter were extremely happy to participate in their first NJC meeting. They voiced their chapter strengths and future vision to develop AP chapter.
T.K. Jose along with Hariom Jhunjhunwala, Chairman and Secretary – Madhya Pradesh chapter were delighted to participate in their first NJC meeting and assured everyone that they would make all efforts to strengthen the MP Chapter.
Raman Jadwani along with Pankaj Bansal, Chairman and Secretary – Chhattisgarh chapter shared their vision on chapter growth under the guidance of the national team.
Arul Lazaran, Chairman – Tamil Nadu chapter actively listed their activities for the regional members and discussed future development strategies.
National Team:
Achal Rai Krishna, Managing Committee member educated all participants regarding the importance of developing social media coverage of the association. Anil Kalsi, National Joint Secretary listed his efforts of liaising with the various ministries on part of the association.
Bhaskar Subbiah, Managing Committee member shared his vision on pan India membership development strategies with support from all chapters.
Hitank Shah, National Treasurer and Lalith Jain, Joint Treasurer were optimistic to generate more revenue which will help trade betterment activities.
Rani Bachani, Managing Committee member and Head of the Tourism Boards committee requested Burjis Mehta to make a short presentation on how to approach NTOs for support.
This was a fully interactive meeting where every participant was given time to speak and was involved actively in all discussions and strategies.