PRESTIGIOUS TRAVEL TRADE BODIES WILL GATHER THIS N

ETAA The Enterprising Travel Agents Association (ETAA) will be holding their First Domestic Convention on November 19-20 at Hotel Retreat, Erangal Beach, Marve (Madh Island), Mumbai. The core committee of the ETAA comprises of Karl Dantas, President, Kamlesh Amin, National General Secretary, Naveen Advani National Jt. Secretary, Jagat Mehta, Board Member, Abhijit Khadilkar, Board Member, Dhaval Jangla, Board Member and Nitin Dikshit Board Member who will spearhead the first convention of this enterprising body. The ETAA is a body that represents mainly non mainstream participants of economy of the tourism segment that goes unnoticed, however they are the unsung heroes of the larger hospitality and tourism fraternity. The ETAA is the first and only representation Pan India for retail travel aencies, ones that are buying and re-selling from consolidators. Currently, the ETAA has 175 Members from Mumbai and Pune and is growing. Owing to the composition of the agencies and the size of their economies of these businesses, they are a direct influence to sale, are in a superior position to turn around and confirm passengers owing to personal attention and having the ability to guide the consumer to their final goal. They also have a direct influence on purchase and are constantly on the lookout for niche locations, streamlined products, ready to use technology, associated products like cars, insurance and the likes, and most of all hunger to know, to learn more and grow. The first domestic convention of ETAA will see participation from over 100 delegates. The convention will also have a conference area for visiting delegates to display their products. The convention will be especially useful to hotel chains, stand alone hotels and tourism boards. Ancillary players such as insurance companies, banks and forex agencies, telephone card companies, car companies, DMC/Online Portals/ Dotcom/Wholesalers and anyone who is part of the supply chain to the travel and tour industry and are keen to partner with the best retail agents in the country. ADTOI The two-day annual convention of the Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI) will be held on November 25-26 at The Ashok New Delhi. Union Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahai is expected to inaugurate the convention. Having witnessed the resilience of the tourism industry due to incredible growth in domestic tourism during the economic crisis, the ADTOI has decided to utilise its forthcoming annual convention to deliberate on various challenges that domestic tourism has been facing. ADTO has aptly chosen the theme of the convention: ‘Domestic Tourism: Unifying Incredible India’ to devise strategy to meet the ever growing domestic tourism across the country. “We identified this theme to debate, deliberate and discuss the current status of the domestic tourism as well as the future course of action. Our objective is to make the domestic tourism industry more organised by adopting a professional approach,” Subhash Verma, President, ADTOI, said. The convention will also delve deep on issues like new policies by different state governments and their implementation, challenges faced by domestic tour operators and their solutions as well as contribution of domestic tour operators in promoting domestic tourism. The convention is expected to be rich both in form and content with four business sessions. “There will be four business session encompassing every aspects of the domestic tourism. These sessions are very relevant to domestic tourism and we expect these will be very fruitful to the participants,” Rajat Sawhney, General Secretary, ADTOI, said. The convention is expected to receive 400-500 delegates and has already received support from Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Galileo and Fortune Park Hotels among others. TAFI The Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) will be holding this year’s edition of its annual convention from November 22-25 at The Venetian Macao. TAFI is a non-political, non-commercial and not-for-profit body of travel agents, which coordinates different segments of the travel trade and guide the travel industry in India. Although 85 percent of all international air tickets and over 50 percent of all travel products are sold through the agency route, many agents face the threat of being marginalised by airlines, ignored by hotels and overwhelmed by the internet. However, they have the capacity to reposition themselves, re-brand the services they offer and re-invent the business model. The TAFI 2011 convention will explore avenues such as rebranding, reinvention of business models, new markets, new segments and new technologies. This year, the theme of the convention is ‘Addressing Change – Rebrand, Reposition, Reinvent.’ The convention will feature a keynote address followed by six to seven business sessions to be held on November 23 and November 24. Presentations, discussions and debates on various topics will be held with participation from eminent speakers from the travel community from across the globe. The convention will also host a B2B mart on held on one of the afternoons, post a business sessions. As part of the convention, many networking events will be held post the business sessions. A grand welcome inaugural dinner is also being planned at grand ballroom of The Venetian Macau.