Archana Sharma – New Delhi
The recently held elections of the Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) for the term of 2015-17, declared the executive committee (EC) with Guldeep Singh Sahni of Weldon Travels being re-elected as president. According to Sahni, “Twelve applications were received for the 11 EC posts but Rajeev Sabharwal withdrew his nomination, and hence, the same were declared EC Members unopposed without the necessity of a physical election process.”
Riaz Munshi, N Chirag Travels, New Delhi was elected as vice president, Shravan Bhalla, Hi Flyers, New Delhi as general secretary, Gurdeep Gujral, Gujral Travels, New Delhi as joint secretary and Kapil Berera, Astral Travels, New Delhi as the treasurer. The rest of the EC members include, Rohit Shorey, Destination Travels, New Delhi; Ankush Nijhawan, TBO, NCR of Delhi; Amod Thatte, Kuoni, Mumbai; Himanshu Patil, Kesari Tours, Mumbai; Sujit Nair, Aquasun, Mumbai; and Chitra Bhatia, Aashman Travels, New Delhi.
Vineet Gopal, Engee Holidays, New Delhi, will be heading the Northern India; Mahendra Vakharia, Pathfinders Holidays, Ahmedabad, for Western India; Sajan Gupta, Vayuseva Travels, Kolkata, for Eastern India; and Manish Kriplani, Baywatch Travels, Chennai, for Southern India.
Rajeev Sabharwal, Gaurav Travels, New Delhi, will be heading the finance with events committee; Sid Khanna, Travel Engineers, New Delhi, for the IT Committee; Ranjana Sharma, Travel & Tours, Gurgaon, for the education committee; Ankush Nijhawan, TBO, NCR of Delhi, for the chapters committee; Chitra Bhatia, Aashman Travels, New Delhi, for the Ladies Wing; Riaz Munshi, N Chirag Travels, New Delhi, for Government & NTO’s; Ashwani Gupta, Dove Travels, Amritsar, will be again handling the environment committee. Sanjeet, Durga Das Publications, New Delhi, was once again re-inducted as the permanent advisor and Karan Anand, Cox and Kings, is part of the committee as a special invitee.
Talking about their future plans, Sahni informed that the association will be working closely with National Tourism Boards (NTO’s) and will also be increasing the chapters and quality members while focusing on issues like streamlining taxation policy.