What is the agenda and theme for the 30th IATO Convention?
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Subhash Goyal
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My new agenda inter-allia include drawing out a comprehensive events programme which showcase the needs of our industry partners, networking sessions, business sessions and highlight the emergent issues and experts deliberating on the theme of the convention and destination presentations.
The theme for this year’s Convention is ‘New Beginnings | Fresh Ideas | Vibrant Futures’. I want all the delegates joining the IATO Convention to have lasting memories of a pleasant and fulfilling experience. To provide some insight the proposed highlights are:
- Tourism and the new government – the visions, the synergies
- New markets, new opportunities
- Strategies in direct marketing
- Using the cloud – efficiencies and security with new technologies
- Maximising presence at trade shows
- Balancing Human Resource needs and budgets
- Financial schemes for service exporters
- New attitudes towards the media
- Managing a healthy lifestyle, etc.
Again this year, IATO will conduct the ‘IATO Run for Responsible Tourism’ and the ‘IATO Silent Auction for Charity’.
Under your leadership, what are the new initiatives that you are planning?
The initiatives which are getting our priority attention includes:
Regular training programme: For IATO members, their executives and staff such training programmes are an effective way to gain knowledge expertise, learn new techniques and trends in travel management to update their skills.
IATO brand identity: Due to global economic scenario, consumers are looking for brands which can provide utmost value for their money and this makes IATO’s presence more relevant than before.
New market situation: I fully believe that 2014-15 is potentially going to be much busier compared to 2013. The initiatives that we have seen over the years are definitely encouraging and these are market driven. Everyone in the industry is awaiting the announcement on GST/ SGST as that is going to have real impact on tourism business. We need to be very competitive, otherwise we will lose business to our neighbouring countries. We need to be proactive and put emphasis on customer satisfaction.
Proper use of technology: We need to reduce the cost of delivery through technology and have to adopt sustainable practices to have sophisticated niche products to attract tourists round the year.
Exemption of tax: Legitimate business expenditure need exemption from tax. We desperately need a rule based system to remove the discretionary taxation that is not only inefficient but also impossible to administer. What we need is a simplified tax system that has reasonable rates. I would continue to plead for tax rationalisation as tax system all over the world have undergone extensive evaluation to reach a steady state condition where rates change rarely.
Look at the road ahead: India’s growth spiral has been going up in tourism. The best part has been development of infrastructure and we will ensure progress continues.
What are the primary challenges that the industry is facing? How does your association address them?
Primary challenges have remained the same and inter-allia include:
- Visa facilitation (which is the most important bottleneck in tourism scene)
- Accommodation at reasonable price all over in Tier II and Tier III cities which have become popular with low cost air-connectivity
- Safety standards, specially safety for women tourists
- Cleanliness in India specially at all tourist places
- Highway facilities enroute to many tourist places as due to automobile revolution and highways coming up (New Delhi, Mumbai corridor and others, all over India) surface tourism is dependent on enroute facilities
- Well trained language speaking guides for new markets like China, South Korea, Arab countries, Russia, etc
- Tax rationalisation in all respects related to tourism. The sector is overloaded with taxes like service tax, luxury tax, VAT, sales tax (on ATF by all states), excise duty on alcoholic drinks, toll tax, entertainment tax
- No priority to tourism sector, no proper budget for tourism (neither in the central nor state sector)
- Lack of trained manpower in all segments of tourism
- Railway stations
- Airports (expect some metro cities) need upgrading (though operation of flights have increased from those airports)
- Lack of entertainment facilities in the evening at metro cities/other tourist places
- Lack of tourist literature in foreign languages (including city maps)
- State governments not making any land bank for putting up infrastructure that means land cost becoming cost prohibitive impacting negatively on tourism development
- ASI monuments need proper maintenance, landscaping and basic facilities
- Road tax needs to be rationalised. It varies from state to state causing lot of inconvenience for tourists
- Lack of proper coordination among government ministries and each ministry puts terms of its own (neglecting the cause of tourism). Tourism is linked with ministries like civil aviation, railways, environment MEA/MHA
- Incentives to tour operators (in India and overseas) are bare minimum. There is lack of incentives for overseas tour operators to promote India
- Negative image of India in global markets with national calamities, corruption, political events, etc. The government has no crises management policy and tourists tend to avoid India when advisories are issued by their countries.
IATO is regularly doing the necessary follow-ups. We are confident we will achieve success as the government is also placing priority on tourism for National Development Plan.
