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| Zakkir Ahmed |
Durban, South Africa will play host to the Travel Agents Federation of India’s (TAFI) annual convention scheduled from February 24 – 27, 2013. With ‘Navigating the Future’ as the theme, the convention will bring to the fore issues and topics which the travel agents’ fraternity are facing today. These discussions are set to unfold at the International Convention Centre (ICC) Durban. This year’s convention is being led by Zakkir Ahmed, president, TAFI along with Praveen Chugh, vice-president, TAFI with the support of Aditi Bende as convention chairperson and Bharat Shah as co-chairman of the convention.
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| Aditi Bhende |
The convention theme is set against the volatile business environment the agent’s fraternity is facing that range from the general to the specific. The world economic scenario coupled with sluggish pace of global businesses have posed their set of challenges and through the business sessions, the agents hope to find solutions and alternatives to face adversities and create better business models for the future. Expressing his views, Ahmed said, “For this year’s convention, the theme – Navigating the Future – has been chosen after due deliberations. The travel trade industry has been undergoing a turbulent transition for the past several years. Coupled with the vagaries and uncertainty, no one really knows what the future will be and unfortunately agents cannot resign themselves to singing the famous line ‘Que Sera Sera’.” He added that this year’s convention has been scheduled on the eve of the proclamation of the union budget of India. Eminent speakers and panelists will therefore spell out their memorandums and wish lists to the union finance minister as to how to boost and revive the dwindling fortunes of the ailing travel trade industry. Also earlier, while all future projections were based on a five-year term, current parameters make it essential, practical and realistic to look at a two-year time frame. Being governed by current volatile market dynamics, informed gurus will conduct a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities and threats) analysis and see how challenges can be converted into paying propositions. The convention aims to address issues such as human resource and investment in human resources in the travel and tourism industry. Apart from HR, the convention also seeks to address pressing financial issues that the business faces like how to improve bottom-lines. Experts will share their views on managing credits and costs, deal with the financial slump and issues like the BSP payment cycles amongst other issues.
A B2B exhibition on February 25-26, 2013 is scheduled to bring in buyers and sellers together to exchange ideas, build business through a mutually beneficial and professional relationship for the future. The convention also aims to offer its delegates interesting pre and post convention tours offered by KwaZulu-Natal Tourism. Destination South Africa will also takes centre stage at the TAFI convention. The Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (SATSA) has also shown support to the forthcoming event. The head of SATSA feels it will be an apt platform to showcase the tourism specialities of Durban and its surroundings, and the KwaZulu-Natal region. “This is a major event in the tourism calendar in India and we are delighted to host it in South Africa for the first time,” said Michael Tatalias, CEO, SATSA. “In India, travel agents prefer to sell products of which they have had personal experience, therefore the opportunity to see and experience South Africa will give all those who participate in this convention a significant marketing edge in this growing market,” he added.
The convention will aim to bring in stronger ties between the two business units namely India and South Africa and wherein the aim is to achieve knowledge sharing and cultural exchange between the two countries. The convention holds significance to the city of Durban as it comes at a particularly important time, just before the BRICS Forum, to be held in March 2013. Durban is geographically ideally situated to become a hub in the developing trade relationships, particularly between India, Brazil and South Africa, that dates before BRICS. With both a significant port and a major new airport, as well as the developing Dube Free Trade Port area Durban has a great deal to offer in this developing relationship.
