The business sessions of recently concluded Indian Association of Tour Operator’s (IATO) convention touched some of relevant issues through topics such as ‘Making India an Aviation Hub’, ‘Update on Visa rules and Group Landing Permits’ and ‘Working partnerships – The future in 2020’. The speakers through these sessions delved deep on the problems faced by the industry related to these issues and also came out with some solutions.
Session: Making India an Aviation Hub
The session was moderated by Kapil Kaul, CEO, CAPA South Asia and speakers were Nishantha Wickremasinghe, Chairman, SriLankan Airlines; Biji Eapen, IATA Agents Association of India; Iqbal Mulla, President, TAAI and Subhash Goayl, President, IATO. Kaul highlighted about the potential of Delhi International Airport becoming an aviation hub and its benefit to the Indian aviation sector. He also criticised the current aviation policy which is a hindrance in making Delhi as a hub. According to him, the positioning of Delhi makes it a perfect choice for hub; however, there is a lack of transit visa. “India needs to provide transit visas and India also needs to have a hub carrier like Emirates, Etihad and Qatar,” he added.
Wickremasinghe highlighted the similarities and business potential between India and Sri Lanka and commented the flip side of Indian aviation sector. He opined that the airport charge in India is too high, especially in Delhi, which makes the operation financially unviable. “India needs to reduce airport charges to welcome more airlines to the country, especially Delhi airport. The government should encourage foreign airlines to start operations from India. As a result, tourism will see a massive boom,” Wickremasinghe pointed out.
Mulla opined that the government should offer transit visas to foreign nationals and also think about reducing the taxes on ATF to make the country an aviation hub. Eapen, while welcoming the government’s move of visa-on-arrival, said this facility should be extended to additional countries and private airports have to reduce user development fee. He also highlighted the commission issue. Goyal added that making Delhi a hub will definitely boost the tourism.
Session: Visa rules and Group Landing Permits
Moderated by Sarabjit Singh, Senior Vice President, IATO, the session was paneled by Usha Sharma, Additional Director General, Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India; V Vumlunmang, Joint Secretary (Foreigners), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Govt. of India; and Bharat Atree, Managing Director, Caper Travels. Sharma informed that the government has introduced collective group landing permit, which can be applied for online. Vumlunmang gave a presentation on visa and said that MHA is under a process to provide 80 per cent of visas in three days. He also informed that the visa application and itinerary of group should be submitted 72 hours before landing.
Sharma said that there is a misunderstanding regarding the facility due to less awareness, so officials from the Ministry of Tourism have been meeting the Joint Secretary of MHA continuously to solve the issues. Atree talked about how tour operators can be benefitted by this scheme and urged agents/operators to understand the process completely. Singh welcomed the latest initiatives taken by the government.
Session: Working partnerships – The future in 2020
This session was moderated by Homa Mistry, CEO, Trail Blazer Tours India and the speakers were Sanjay Kumar, Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo;, Sandeep Dwivedi, Chief Commercial Officer, InterGlobe Technology Quotient; Rajeev Kohli, Vice President, IATO; Mahesh Aiyer, Vice President Operations, Lemon Tree Premier Hotels; and Nikhil Dhodapkar, Regional Director Sales & Marketing, India, Accor.
Mistry posed a question about the future as well as how all partners of the industry can work in a more cohesive manner and bring synergy among their businesses. He highlighted the future working partnerships between tour operators, hoteliers, airlines and other tourism linkages. Kohli opined that there is no danger for tour operators and they will continue to work in the same pattern, however, they will diversify their portfolio. He added that tour operators need to be specialised in their respective fields.
Dhodapkar vouched for genuine partnership among stakeholders. “The demand of the market is changing and market size is expanding. Hence, the only way is to bring more synergy among stakeholder,” said Dhodapkar. Aiyer said that there is enough business in the market and the industry needs to expand its reach to tier-II and III cities. Dwivedi stated that customers are well informed, that technology has transformed everything and specialisation is the way forward. Kumar concluded that stakeholders in the industry are working closely and the need of the hour is to further strengthen ties.