The adage 'United we stand' may sound quite cliche, but the travel industry, which was crawling on its knees for the past couple of years, seems to have realised the essence of the saying. In what may be seen as a bid to bring the fragmented industry together, PRS Oberoi, chairman, Oberoi group, and Lalit Suri, chairman, Bharat Hotels group, have taken an initiative to form a Confederation of Indian Tourism and Travel Industry. On May 29, all travel trade associations like TAAI, IATO, ITTA, FHRAI, HAI and others along with CII, Ficci, Assocham and PHDCC will be sitting together to chalk out a plan for forming the proposed body.

The objective is to represent the industry as one whole and lobby together. "We want all travel and tourism organisations to come together to take up issues of the industry collectively. Presently, each organisation has its own agenda and lobbies for its own benefit. The end result is, while some components of the industry get some relief, others are left in the lurch. So, the total impact is not positive," enumerates Sarabjit Singh, president, ITTA.

The need for such a move became essential as in the recent Budget, hotels scooped out a large chunk of their proposed demands, while tour operators were slapped with increased service taxes and the aviation sector was ignored. Not only did it vindicate the fact that hoteliers have a stronger lobby than other industry components, but the benefit of the abolition of 10 per cent expenditure tax did not percolate to the end consumer as increased service tax is making them pay more.

What's more, the travel industry has seen frequent mushrooming of associations, which are actually seen duplicating each other's efforts. For instance, the budget proposals of FHRAI and HAI, which was formed by hotels after breaking away from FHRAI, read almost the same. Similarly, Adventure Tour Operators, instead of forming a separate association, should ideally be a part of IATO. Commenting on the issue, PRS Oberoi said, "We want these associations who are doing their own bit to come under the umbrella of the confederation. The executive committee will then decide a common programme and as to who should drive them. Thus, we will have a united approach to industry problems."