Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) might have been able to push the use of old currently notes at Archeological Survey of India (ASI) monuments till December 15, 2016, but the need of the hour is to completely shift to digital economy. The recent luncheon meeting by IATO saw travel agents discussing how to move forward with payments at ASI monuments. Speaking on the occasion, Pronab Sarkar, president, IATO, informed, “The demonetisation is important for us to shift to a digital economy and therefore we will push the ministry to order card swipe machines at all ASI monuments.”
Talking about the new liberalised visa norms, he stated, “The government’s extension of e-visa facilities to eight more countries is a good step towards attracting international visitors. While we had pushed for multiple entry on conference and medical visa, it has been extended to a double entry. We had also pushed the visa facilities at four ports to promote cruise tourism in India which has been granted by the government.”
Lally Mathews, honorary secretary, IATO, also updated, “We have been able to settle the pending MDA claims of our members and have also requested the government for revival of guidelines of MDA schemes. The proposals appeal that participation of our members in members in international conferences like PATA, UFTA etc shall be covered in MDA norms.”
The association will be launching training programme for travel agents in January, 2017 which will help the agents to gain further skills. There were also talks to revive IATO’s code of conduct that shall include some additional rules. Other issue brought in by the members amidst the cash crunch is that there should be refund available of ASI monument visits, installation of swipe machines and addition of nine monuments missing from the website.
While talking about the chapter heads of the association, Rajeev Kohli, senior vice president, IATO, mentioned, “We will introduce a specific term for chapter chairmen and they shall not be permanent. After a term ends, the chapter chairman’s work will be reviewed and decided whether they will be continuing their tenure as the state head.” Also emphasising on the importance of statistical data requirement of the travel sector, he requested all IATO members to be part of year end surveys that could help in authentic collection of the data.
