OTOAI conclave in Turkey
The Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) is focusing on training its members, and for that it is taking them to Turkey on an educational tour.
OTOAI is going to organise a conclave on countries which are going to show potential this year as well in the coming years. Guldeep Singh Sahni, President, OTOAI, reveals, “We are taking a big delegation of our members to Turkey this year, most probably in September. It’s a dedicated educational tour where we will be meeting B2B sellers there and the members will be educated about the destination by various means.”
The association is also organising workshops for its members, on not just educating them about the destinations, but also visas and other things involved in outbound travel, Sahni said.
He says that OTOAI is dedicated towards training its members. “We are also educating our members on how to select their DMC. They need to look at how tour operators function and know that if something goes wrong they can’t just blame the
DMC and it’s their responsibility to look at what kind of international partners they are selecting.”
Sahni insists that the government needs to focus on outbound tourism as well. “We are in touch with the Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry to involve outbound tourism in their studies and dialogues, because it is one of the important aspects of tourism as well.” Adding further he said, “We are also looking at the taxation part. Outbound tour operators are thought of as foreign exchange spenders, and we are doubly taxed both in our country and outside. The dollars can’t be parked in the country. They need to rotate. This is the only industry, which, while rotating the dollars, is making income as well. We are planning to take out a white paper on that, but we need government support for that.”