Newstrack

'Shared Vision'-The Answer: Theme for 2nd ADTOI convention

ETW Staff - New Delhi

The national body of domestic tour operators - Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI) - is scheduled to host its second convention on April 4, 2008 in Ashok Hotel, New Delhi with the theme 'Shared Vision'-The Answer. Jyoti Kapur, past president of ADTOI, has been appointed as the convention chairman along with Rakesh Lamba as the co-chairman. "The convention will showcase the latest technologies available in the industry. A shared vision is the theme of the convention so the objective is to work on the issues and differences," Kapur says.

Mukesh Jagga, president of ADTOI, adds, "We plan to highlight the problems faced by the industry like hoteliers reaching directly to consumers and surpassing tour operators and improving businesses as majority of these companies are single small shops." Speaking about the theme of the convention, the ADTOI committee emphasised on the need of public-private partnerships and close co-operation among the players in the industry. ADTOI shall seek support of state tourism bodies, airlines, hotel chains and other industry partners to make this year's convention more purposeful with more focus on the regions which have so far not been exploited fully like the North East.

Rakesh Lamba, co-chairman of the convention, was hopeful that the convention would highlight ways to augment agent's profitability. "We want to collect more funds so that we can pump that money back into the industry. One major focus of the convention is to create unity among the various channel partners that would organise the trade," he says.

According to Rajesh Mudgill, vice president of ADTOI, the focus is on domestic tourism, which is the biggest segment in the unorganised sector. "So the biggest challenge according to me is to bring it into the organised fold," he says. Speaking on the earnings that domestic tourism can generate, Ajay S Gupta, treasurer of ADTOI says, "We want to project domestic tourism as the first scope of revenue generation for the domestic tour operators. So far we have been earning revenue through inbound tours and selling air tickets."

In conclusion, PP Khanna, its general secretary, says, "We intend to resolve industry issues like taxation. Besides these, online travel operators are killing our business and we need to resolve that issue as well. We also want to highlight the need to develop infrastructure in various states and upgrade the airports."