TAFI holds NJC meet

TAFI president reiterates his vision for a strong TAFI where all Chapters are empowered to take decisions for the betterment of the industry. He also encouraged members to communicate frankly with the elected officials at the Chapter and the national levels.

Hazel Jain

The newly-elected Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) India team conducted its first National Joint Council (NJC) meeting recently at the Gift City Club Gandhinagar in Gujarat. The National Managing Committee and the Chapter Chairmen and Secretaries from all 11 chapters were present at this event. TAFI also invited members of the Gujarat Chapter for an interaction with the officials of Gujarat Tourism and the National MC.

TAFI President Ajay Prakash shared his vision of a resurgent travel and tourism industry as vaccination drives pick up pace. “The one positive that has emerged out of the pandemic is that Indians have begun to discover India. I congratulate the Gujarat government on the addition of Dholavira to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites.This underlines the need for responsible tourism, even more so in such ecologically sensitive sites,” Prakash said.

Jenu Devan, MD and Commissioner, Gujarat Tourism, spoke passionately not only about the well-known sites in the state but also about the unknown and lesser-known tourist attractions of Gujarat. He invited the NJC to visit some of the nearby attractions on this visit and extended an invitation to TAFI to hold a physical convention in Gujarat.

During the NJC meeting, Ajay Prakash outlined his vision for a strong TAFI where the Chapters were empowered to take decisions for the betterment of the industry and the membership was encouraged to communicate frankly with the elected officials at the Chapter and the national level. He reiterated the commitment of the National Managing Commitee to visit every Chapter and interact personally with the members. He also spoke about the higher paradigm of tourism – which was to connect people across boundaries and promised to send over the IIPT Credo of the Peaceful Traveller, which he urged every member to adopt and display in their office.

Prakash also shared his vision of a rejuvenated TAFI equipped to cope with the ever changing new reality. He apprised members of the steps taken in the last month – meeting with MoS Civil Aviation, discussions at FAITH regarding the need for empirical data on the industry and the formation of various sub-committees. A key part of the NJC agenda was to understand the issues at the Chapter level and every Chapter Chairman was invited to report on their respective regions.