IATO relentlessly works towards maintaining conducive environment for inbound tourism...

IATO Meets Tourism Minister of Mauritius

IATO organised an interaction meeting with delegation from Mauritius headed by Minister of Tourism H.E. Michael Yuang Sik Yuen at Hotel Ashok on July 13, 2012.It was attended by EC members and there was five members delegation of Mauritius, which included HE High Commissioner of Mauritius and Dy. Director (Tourism) from Mauritius and Embassy officials. The main objective of this meeting was to discuss how best the two way traffic be increased between India and Mauritius. Subhash Goyal, President, IATO expressed about the deep interest which Indian hold about Mauritius and how Indians tour operators are keen to develop close cooperation with Mauritius travel trade industry. Possibility of bilateral trade educational tours was also discussed. Goyal also talked about having impact result oriented B to B meetings by involving Mauritius travel trade and Tourism Department and Indian travel and hospitality industry.

IATO Meets Tourism Minister & Travel Trade Delegation of Bulgaria

IATO Executive Committee organised an interactive meeting with delegation from Bulgaria headed by Minister of Tourism Delian Dobrev on 14th October, 2012 at The Ashok Hotel, New Delhi. The objective was to look into the possibilities of promoting two way tourism traffic between India and Bulgaria. IATO President, Subhash Goyal, talked about the potential of Indian market which can be nurtured with educational tours for the travel trade from both the countries.

International Buddhist Conclave in Varanasi & Bodh Gaya

International Buddhist Conclave in Varanasi and Bodhgaya was organized from 29th September to 1st October, 2012. Some 20 IATO members were given booths for B2B meeting with 130 overseas operators and media from overseas Buddhist markets. IATO also provided transport assistance to the Ministry and the same were coordinated by Arun Anand and Lajpat Rai on behalf of IATO.

IATO Successfully Pleaded to Lift Ban on Tiger Tourism

Supreme Court had imposed ban on tourism activities in tiger reserves and sanctuaries throughout the country. IATO immediately consulted the Senior advocate Mr. Anil Kher and on his advice and inputs received from the members, we filed an appeal through the Supreme Court Advocate Mr. Bhargava Desai. In our appeal we requested the Hon’ble Supreme Court to lift ban and allow tourism activities in national parks/sanctuaries. All our facts were duly considered by the NTCA in their guidelines and submitted before the Hon’ble Court for consideration. On 17th October, 2012 the Hon’ble Supreme Court has allowed tiger tourism in at least 20 per cent of core areas of tiger sanctuaries.

IATO EC Meets the New Union Minister of Tourism, Dr. K Chiranjeevi

The Executive Committee of Indian Association Tour Operators (IATO) met the newly appointed Union Minister of Tourism, Dr. K Chiranjeevi. In this meeting IATO highlighted the problems and issues being faced by the industry. IATO President Subhash Goyal, had pointed that if two things are achieved then tourism will go up by at least 50 per cent. The two issues are Visa on Arrival and the long pending demand of export industry status to tourism sector.The Minister had agreed and announced that the Ministry will immediately conduct the study to compare the impact of excessive taxes on Tourism Industry viz-a-viz Export Industry and also do a comparative analysis on the tax structure on Indian Tourism Industry with the competing neighbouring countries.