DRMumbai: The newly elected president of the Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI), Riaz Munshi (President, N Chirag Travels) shares his plans and priorities with Destination Reporter.
The industry body has plans to grow the membership base and conduct events with various tourism boards to educate trade partners on destinations, attractions and experiences
What are your top three priorities?
As the industry body representing outbound travel from India, we have three major priorities. Our foremost priority is to strengthen our relationship with the Union Ministry of Tourism (MoT), embassies, tourism boards and stakeholders. We will work with the MoT and other central government ministries like civil aviation, home affairs and finance to facilitate ease of foreign travel and create a level playing field for tour operators. We want to have a strong brand presence for OTOAI in India and abroad. Tour operators abroad should know about OTOAI and work with its members to promote outbound travel from India.
Another priority is to focus on growing our membership base. Today, we have over 550 tour operators across India as members and want to aggressively grow this to 1500 in the next two years. We are increasing our presence through events and roadshows in tier II and III cities. We are strong in North and Western India. Our focus will be to grow our presence in South and Eastern India as well.
The third priority will be in the area of education and skill development. We have lined up a few programs and more are getting added as we speak. We are receiving a very good response from the members too. Together with Destination Canada we have conducted Product Training Workshops in New Delhi and Ahmedabad in January. We will conduct similar events with the tourism boards of Germany and Korea who have worked with us in the past. We want many more such events with various tourism boards to educate trade partners on destinations, attractions and experiences. Such activities help front line sales personnel to effectively sell to customers.
Can you tell us about the theme of the next Annual Convention?
As you are aware, we have just announced the 5th annual convention of OTOAI. From March 15-18, 2020, it will be held at Antalya in Turkey. Turkish Culture & Tourism Office and Turkish Airlines are our partners this time and there will be pre and post FAM trips for members and media to Istanbul, Cappadocia, Izmir and Pamukkale. The theme of the convention is to explore means to enhance faith and confidence of customers in outbound tour operators as well as strategize on ways to grow our business in these challenging times.
Have you been in touch with MoT for tabling recommendations for consideration in the Union Budget?
OTOAI has tabled a draft letter in front of the MoT for consideration in the Union Budget. One of the major concerns is around GST on outbound travel. We are of the considered view that it amounts to double taxation. Outbound travelers pay GST for our services and then the local tax in the foreign destination because of which many Indian travelers are not buying packages and services in India. Our agents are losing business to foreign players because of this. Another pain point is in the area of ensuring parity in GST for companies in India vis-a-vis companies operating in India but not liable for GST as they are not registered in India. There has to be a level playing field where no one has an undue advantage.
How do you view digital transformation in the travel industry?
While there has been talk of tech-enabled business models overshadowing offline travel businesses, I believe, in India both will continue to co-exist and grow simultaneously. Having said that, tour operators have to be aware of developments on the technology front as the consumer profile has changed. They are digitally savvy and mobile-first today. So agents need to know how social media works and to showcase destinations, leverage influencers and facilitate word of mouth advertising. Understanding millennial travelers and how they search and gather information for their travel needs are paramount in being business ready in the new age. However, what we see in India is that segments like luxury travel and special interest travel groups continue to engage with offline travel agents for their bookings. Online travel businesses have been so far successful in selling only point to point tickets and one-size-fits-all packages.
