TAAI Invites West Bengal Chief Minister To Inaugurate 53rd Annual Convention

Joy Roy Choudhury - Kolkata

Sanjoy Sett

The West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, is likely to inaugurate the 53rd Annual Convention of the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) to be held in Kolkata, later this year, said Sanjoy Sett, chairman, organising committee, TAAI. The inaugural session will be held at the Science City Auditorium of the city and the adjoining ITC Hotel, Sonar Bangla Sheraton & Towers will be the venue for the convention.

"Having already invited the chief minister to inaugurate the event, we are at the moment expecting his official confirmation soon. Subsequently, Vijay Chaddha has been appointed as the chairman of the convention committee,” said Sett. Last year, the 52nd convention was held at Genting Islands, Malaysia. Sources indicate that Renuka Chowdhury, the union minister of state for tourism, is also likely to attend the convention along with senior officials of the union tourism ministry.

Regarding the theme of the 53rd Annual Convention of TAAI, Sett said: "The TAAI office-bearers are meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka in the first week of July to finalise the theme of the convention. We have received several suggestions from our different regions regarding the same, which we will discuss at length during the Colombo meet,” he said. He declined to divulge more details on the same at this juncture.

Sett further added that, "More than 1,700 delegates including leading travel agents, IATA-accredited members, professionals and invitees will be attending the four-day event." A delegation from the Travel Agents Association of Pakistan (TAAP) is likely to attend the convention. The TAAI convention is the largest gathering of Indian travel and tourism professionals, with nearly 1,700 members across the country of which 850 and more are IATA accredited members and is the oldest representative body of the Indian travel and tourism industry.

For Kolkata, this will be a hat trick of sorts, as in 2002 it successfully hosted the annual convention of Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) and in 2003 it was the venue of the annual convention of Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI).