BATTLE LINES DRAWN

Battle lines have already been drawn by the two contesting teams for the forthcoming election of one of the largest travel bodies in India. The members of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO), the apex body of Inbound Tour Operators in India are waiting for the D-day on March 06, 2021, as the election results will define which team guides the members and the sector out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The long-postponed elections of IATO which was supposed to be held in April 2020 will now be held on March 6, 2021, due to COVID-19. Early this month, the association revealed the final list of the contestant for the forthcoming election of Executive Committee Members for the next term to be held in New Delhi.

While Homa Mistry, Chief Executive Officer, Trail Blazer Tours has been appointed as the Returning Officer for the much-talked election, outgoing Vice President of IATO, Rajiv Mehra (Uday Tours & Travels) will take on Lally Mathews (Divine Voyages) for the post of President. Outgoing Sr. Vice President, E.M. Najeeb (Air Travel Enterprises) a big-time player from South India, who is the Senior Vice President in the present team, will be contesting against Sarab Jit Singh (Travelite India).

For the post of Vice President, Lajpat Rai (Lotus Trans Travel) and Ravi Gosain (Erco Travels) have filed their nominations. Rajesh Mudgill (Planet India Travels) will take on Rajnish Kaistha, (Paradise Holidays India) for Hony. Secretary, while Sunil Mishra (Cosmos Tours & Travels) has filed his nomination against Viney Tyagi (Uni Crystal Holidays) for the post of Hony. Treasurer, Raj Bajaj (Perfect Travels & Tours) and Sanjay Razdan (Razdan Holidays) are contesting against each other for the post of Hony. Joint Secretary. Executive committee members will also contest the election in the active and allied categories.

While IATO has been active on many fronts before and during the pandemic, it is also one of the large associations which failed to get support from the various ministries in the past one-year despite their several attempts to come out from the COVID situation. This makes it important for travel associations to work together towards getting industry status for the sector. However, now while it looks like the travel industry is gradually recovering, but the unpredictability of the pandemic is keeping the industry and travellers at bay and thus, even this year, the industry is facing the vital question of reviving the travel scene ever more and the horizon still doesn’t look very clear.

So with the team divided into two fronts as ‘Team Moving Forward’ and the second one as ‘Team for Change’, TTJ had opportunities to talk to a few contestants in each team as to what are their motivation, strength and commitments if elected? Here is what they had to say...