Himalayan state for Convention

Among the projects undertaken by Adventure Tour Operators Association of India (ATOAI) is the ‘Introduce Yourself’ scheme for members and finalisation of its convention for the year. It will also be the knowledge partner for Uttarakhand Adventure Summit to be held in March.

Manas Dwivedi

Sharing details on the list of activities along with updates on the association, Captain Swadesh Kumar, President, ATOAI, said, “We are working very hard on two-three projects and ATOAI is actively involved in them. One of the important projects we are working on is Uttarakhand Adventure Summit, planned by the Uttarakhand government at Corbett National Park in Ramnagar. I am very happy to inform that we have agreed to become the knowledge partners for the summit.”

Our aim is to provide more opportunity to our members for skill development, networking and growth of business

Capt Kumar also spoke about ATOAI’s next convention that is presently being planned. He said, “Initially, we wanted to organise it in Himachal Pradesh, in March, but then due to certain reasons we couldn’t take things forward. Hopefully, we’ll soon announce the schedule of our 15th annual convention that would be in one of the Himalayan states.”

The association celebrated 25 years of its existence last year and Kumar said that they are keen on doing innovative things for their members. “Our aim is to provide more opportunity to our members for skill development, networking and growth of business. One of the important things we have done in this direction is to launch a new scheme called ‘Introduce Yourself’ to members. We believe that among our- selves, we can do a lot of business. Every week, three or four members of the association are introduced to the industry and they have to explain what all they do,” he added.

The president also shared that adventure tour operators were very keen to use satellite phones for adventure tourism. “It is a huge demand of the industry that satellite phones must be allowed. Government of India did allow us to buy satellite phones, but they put a restriction on using them in Ladakh and the northeast states. The bulk of the business goes to Ladakh. So, we are working to persuade the government to resolve this issue. I am happy that the government accepted another demand to carry satellite phones on aeroplanes officially and legally,” he said.