The Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) has successfully organized its 66th annual convention on board the “Spectrum of the Seas’ by the Royal Caribbean International, which started its three days cruises from Singapore on August 22, 2022 to Penang in Malaysia and back on August 25, 2022, with 312 delegates includes the members of the association, industry leaders, travel trade media and the heads of International tourism boards.
The theme of this year’s convention was to Promote Regional Tourism, Rebuilding Connect, to find out the right balance between the ever-changing technology and its human interface in the travel industry.
According to Ms. Jyoti Mayal, President of TAAI, the travel trade fraternity in India needs to come together and work closely to bring about a change in perspective and approach. I am repeating once again and giving the mantra once again to reconnect, rebuild and move forward. We need to move forward and explore all those opportunities. And believe me, there’s a market for all our fellow members. I don’t think there is any competition exists among us and there is nothing called Online Travel Agents. There’s nothing brick and mortar shops, all the stakeholders are together in it, and we all need to work together to gain our good share of the business,” she added while interacting with travel trade media during the sidelines of the convention.
“My team and I are always trying to revitalize the industry, post-pandemic, and do something out of the box to bounce back the ailing Indian tourism industry to its golden days. We conceptualised the convention on a cruise on the 1st of August 2022 and here we are in such a good number, around 300 of us after 12 days of preparation. That is the power and dedication of our TAAI team. I am thankful for all my fellow office bearers and members along with the Ambassador of India in Singapore Mr. P Kumar Naidu and Mr. Anand & Deepaji for their unstinted support to make this wonderful event, a memorable one. The 66th cruising convention has been a success in all terms, including the number of delegates attended and the power-packed knowledge sessions during these three days, M. Mayal added with a usual confident smile and energy.
The cruise convention has been noticed by the participation of key persons from various international tourism boards, Sri Lanka Tourism Board, Nepal Tourism Board, and Kazakhstan Tourism. The convention has also witnessed the meeting with key stakeholders from the Penang Tourism authority. The Penang Convention & Exhibition Bureau has welcomed the Indian travel trade with a Cocktail dinner during the stay at Penang.
Mrs. Ratna Chadha, Chairperson-Tirun Travel Marketing, who was the representative of the Royal Caribbean Cruise in India, attended the convention throughout as host and said that ‘ Cruise Tourism is a fantastic travel product for all kinds of travelers, especially the Indian middle class.
Ms. Mayal added that “India has a huge coastline in both east and west side of our country and has vast potential to develop the Cruise based tourism products for ever-growing Indian travellers. The role of the Government is very vital to move in this direction and needs to develop our major ports to enable Cruise Business, which I am sure will be a big hit in India in the near future. Any new products will create new business opportunities and more employment generation for the growth of the nation.
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National Conference of State Tourism Ministers in Dharamshala
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