What are the developments since the association was founded?
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| Guldeep Singh Sahni |
To begin with, we went on a membership drive. At present we’ve got about 127 members and 30 to 40 applications are still pending. We are probably the only association which pays such a great deal of attention to the selection criteria. We’ve rejected about 30 to 40 applicants in the last six months, this isn’t to deter people from applying, but it only shows how serious we are.
Alongside meeting diplomats of various high commissions, we have formed the Indo-Zimbabwe Commission Council to promote tourism to Zimbabwe. We met them at the OTR (Outbound Travel Roadshow) and saw their desire to put money into the India market. Zimbabwe has one of the seven wonders of the world, the Victoria Falls. There was a report that less than 1600 people travel to Zimbabwe, there is no way to confirm this, but we have tied up with them to promote the destination. We also met the high commissioner of the Philippines and the Indo-Philippine travel council idea was mooted, leading to the visa regime being relaxed. We participated at the Arabian Travel Mart (ATM) in a big way. We also had a dialogue with PATA for joint initiatives and they have allocated a special code to OTOAI members participating in PTM (PATA Travel Mart) in Manila this year and have extended buyer registration as hosted buyers by a month.
You mentioned that building your regional chapters was key.
Yes, we launched western and eastern chapters. Himanshu Patil is our chairperson in the west and Sajan Gupta in the east. We are working on the south chapter. Although we have members in this region, we want to widen our reach in Trivandrum, Bengaluru and Chennai.
What is your forecast for outbound tourism in the next quarter?
The Dollar going up has definitely impacted tourism, but it’s more about the hype that it created. Indians have disposable income, but have become very cautious. We are seeing new markets emerge, including self drives in South Africa, New Zealand and holidays to Bora Bora and South America. Apart from Tier II and Tier III cities travellers who travelled domestically now want to travel overseas. Group travellers are graduating to single travellers.
Looking at companies around, business this year has been if not less, at par with last year. People are travelling more domestically. The seat availability on airlines has not been affected, a further indicator that people are still travelling.
How are you addressing the issue of service tax?
There is a lot of confusion in the market and nobody really knows what steps to take regarding this issue. We’ve taken the approval to hire a consultant to provide some clarity on the matter.
Aren’t there too many trade associations in India? What do you bring to the table that is different?
The number of outbound travelers from India is 12.5 million. This will grow to 50 million by 2020. People need to understand that the scenario is different in India from say, Australia where one association addresses all issues. There is tremendous regional expansion happening in India and I understand that it can cause confusion in the minds of agents. There are a few pan-India associations that are doing good work and taking up agent-related issues but those that don’t do their job are sure to be thrown out in the long run. We are focused only on outbound operations and time will tell how successful we are.
