‘Training members foremost’

The Travel Agents Association of India – Northern Region (TAAI-NR) recently had its first meeting post electing a new team. On the agenda now is training members on new destinations and solving both macro and micro issues.

Nisha Verma

The TAAI-NR team recently had its first bi-monthly meeting, attended by around 50 members, where Neeraj Malhotra, Chairman, TAAI-NR, shared that the agenda of the meet was primarily to introduce the new team for the term 2019-21. This was also the first meeting after the new team took over. “We wanted to interact with the members and introspect on what could be done to solve their problems.

We are finding new partners and associations with different countries, and introducing them to the members so that they know how to sell a particular destination. They should learn and earn- Neeraj Malhotra

We wanted to tell them that they can look up to their office bearers and share feedback and suggestions, so that we can improve things,” he said.

Gaurav Dogra, Honorary Secretary, TAAI-NR, added that apart from introducing the team, they also wanted to welcome Jyoti Mayal, the first lady president of TAAI from North India. “We also discussed both micro and macro issues. While macro issues are related to those with airlines, hotels, embassies and VFS, for micro issues, we plan to come up with a think tank within TAAI-NR, which would have seven or eight members, where we would regularly meet and discuss what all we can do for our members. Also, we are planning to do some training programmes for the frontline staff of our members’ companies, as they are the first point of sale,” he shared.

Malhotra claimed that they are doing destination training programmes and will be doing an educational trip to Bintan, Indonesia, very soon. “We have done destination training programmes with different countries and have also done roadshows with them. We are finding new partners and associations with different countries, and introducing them to the members so that they know how to sell a particular destination. They should learn and earn. We had a meeting with the tour- ism minister of Indonesia, who invited us to Bintan, a new destination that they want to sell,” he said.