There is a revival of faith in

Not only has the member count of Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) shown an increase since July 2021 – with new as well as old members joining the association – the nine sub-committees that were formed, are beginning to reap results. The idea behind this move was to de-centralise the association work.

Hazel Jain

The good news, says Ajay Prakash, President, TAFI, is that the association has registered a number of new members who have joined since July 2021. “About 172 members paid up between August-October 2021 of which 23 were new. This is thanks to the Membership sub-committee. There were a number of members who hadn’t paid their annual fees for a year or more. They have now paid up as well and have re-joined us. So it is looking very positive for us. There is a revival of faith in TAFI as an association,” he affirms.

TAFI has also been conducting a lot of outreach for its members. Prakash shares, “We have conducted more than five chapter meetings since July where the MC or some members of the MC have attended to meet and interact with the members in person. We have done Karnataka, Delhi, Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Pune and Chennai. Our fortnightly newsletter has also been going out to our members regularly since the last few months.”

Other than this, TAFI’s Diplomatic Outreach committee has been working to establish dialogue with VFS as well as the Missions. “We recently had a meeting with VFS in Mumbai to discuss some of the pain points that our members are facing such as non-availability of slots. We also met the CG of Sri Lanka. The destination is trying to do quite a bit of outreach in Indian market. Apart from that, we want to take up some issues with IATA and the airlines. But we have not made too much progress with that so far. But we are starting a dialogue with airlines to talk about the acceptance of airline credit cards, and doing away with individual capping by airlines which is a pernicious practice which seems to be confined to this subcontinent only. This doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world so why should there be a different set of rules for a market which is the fifth or the sixth largest aviation market is really beyond reason,” Prakash highlights.

The bottom line, he says, is to make TAFI much more responsive and responsible and more proactive, both with its members and the government. “The idea of forming sub-committees is to de-centralise. The idea is to empower different people. Give responsibility and the authority to the sub-committee. This is the only way of administering a pan-India association,” he says.

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.

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 MC 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.

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. As a part of this event, TAFI’s Gujarat team was able to arrange a VIP visit to the Akshardham Temple after the meeting.