TAFI re-elects Chugh as Prez

Praveen Chugh has been re-elected unopposed as the President of Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) for the term 2018-20.

TT Bureau

Electing its new Managing Committee for the 2018-20 term, TAFI has chosen Praveen Chugh of Business Travels as the President unopposed. Pradip Lulla from Cupid Travels & Tours is the new Vice President; Aditi Bhende of Aarohan Tours & Travel is the new National General Secretary; while Jayesh Tharani of Hopco Travels has been elected as the Treasurer. All the new office bearers and Managing Committee members have been elected unopposed. The Returning Officer for the election was Ashish Gupta, Founder, StrategyPluto & Consulting CEO, FAITH.

The Managing Committee (MC) members include A Basheer Ahmed of Chennai Metro Travels, Rajat Bagaria of Shrishti Tours & Travels, Urvashi D Mohan of Delfly Travels, Bharat Shah of Sunbeams Travels (Baroda) and Teddy M Thomas of Oasis Xpress Travel & Tours. Zakkir Ahmed of Trust Travel & Tours remains a part of the MC as Immediate Vice President. The MC further appointed Rajat Bagaria as Joint Secretary and Teddy Thomas as Joint Treasurer. It also selected four members representing different regions of the association— Abbas Moiz of Shoiz International Travel Services, Mumbai, Hitank Shah of Alka Airlink, Ahmedabad; S H Mohideen of Aero Travel Services, Chennai and Vijay Gupta of Golden Phoenix Travels, New Delhi.

When I was elected in the last term, my focus was to resolve the service tax and GST concerns and introduction of Joint Bank Guarantee (JBG) programme

Speaking about his vision for TAFI, Chugh said, “I have always envisioned about ways to bring value to our membership. When I was elected in the last term, my chief focus was to resolve the service tax and GST concerns, acceptance of credit cards of travel agents to issue tickets, introduction of Joint Bank Guarantee (JBG) programme to reduce the financial burden of travel agencies and ways to help them increase their revenue and make them more professional. Most of the matters were addressed fully. Some that were pending will continue to be taken forward by the current team.”

He further claimed that the major agenda is to strengthen JBG. “JBG is a success story we started with 135 members and increased it to 165. From July onwards, we have 192 members and today they are producing a turnover of about `400 crores on airline BSP sales of 20-day average and apart from that their own credit card sales of approximately `400 crores.”

The second agenda, according to Chugh, is, to focus on ways to increase this income, be it from commission, remuneration, transaction fee or convenience. “The challenge for travel agents lies in attracting the younger generation of the country to the industry. We are working to make the travel industry a healthy place to attract more people to join this industry.”

Agenda: Tech

• With a majority of business being controlled by e-commerce operators, TAFI is constantly making efforts to create and make use of technology platforms for its membership