‘We want to ensure our outreach is nationwide’
The Adventure Tour Operators Association of India (ATOAI) had held its Annual General Meeting and Elections early in January 2021 via Video Conferencing, thereby pioneering this initiative in the tourism industry. The Office Bearers and Executive Committee team of the association were elected unopposed and will hold office for the next two years. TTJ had an opportunity to discuss with the Office Bearers and here is what they had to say in unison. The pandemic has surely given a new vision and mission to revive the beaten-down tourism industry. How ready and prepared is the newly elected team to take on this immense challenge?
The new team at ATOAI has a wealth of experience in the outdoors and industry matters. For the first time, the Executive Committee has greater participation from outside Delhi than within - 5 of 7 EC members are from different regions of our country and thus reflect the growing diversity and reach of our membership.
Over the past couple of weeks, we have been busy trying to meet key responsible Government functionaries such as the MOT and IMF and getting clarity on our objectives to ensure a productive and forward-looking term during our tenure. We are working very closely together to bring in some quick changes in our working and certain functional policies of the Association, so it becomes easier to govern and enables us to involve more of you in the running of the organisation. Going forward, we have set ourselves the following six-month goals that we are aiming to achieve:
• Increase membership, become more relevant
• State adoption of safety guidelines
• State chapters, local leadership
• Workshops, meetings, conventions
• Trade Value adds
To repeat an oft-quoted piece of wisdom, an Association is all about its membership and its members. The ATOAI Executive Team will work
together to help each other, out of this long storm that has shaken our foundations, our business, and our way of life. The present pan India membership of ATOAI is diverse, offering a wide range of products that we can all crosssell. If we can achieve national scale on this, we can build an even stronger community of like-minded Adventurers creating joyful livelihoods around.
In your present positions, what is that you wish to achieve for the betterment of the association, members, and adventure tourism in the next 2 years?
The new Executive Committee and Office Bearers are planning to do a lot. Actions are being divided between short, medium and long term. And more importantly, we will ensure that every Office Bearer (OB) and executive Committee (EC) member has a role to play and is actively involved in the functioning of the association.
Our top priority, of course, is to help our members survive this pandemic. I wish we had a magic potion to fix everything. Even the Government has
let us all down in the recent budget. We are almost disheartened.
The whole industry has to grow. None of us can flourish when others are suffering. We have to work on increasing the size of the pie. So we have to work in teamwork.
We want our association to work around the clock on issues that make a difference. From micro issues like resolving grievances to macro issues like trekking routes, safety and more. Unlike our larger association brothers, we recognize that ATOAI is made up of small organizations. We will aim to work towards only one goal – to help make your job running our member’s companies easier. At a very fundamental level, we will continue on the paths we have already laid out by the previous EC. So many issues are already in discussion and we will take those forward, adding more from our vision.
For the members -
We propose to continue the frequent interactions we have been having online. I think that just the ability to speak to each
other and share our thoughts and opinions is most helpful. We want to ensure our outreach is nationwide. Technology has shown us the path to this.
Going forward, all member meetings will be recorded and put online for members to see at their own time. We will also continue to live-stream these meetings and to allow you to ask questions or interact from remote locations. This will help members from outside Delhi NCR and also those in Delhi who may not be able to attend a meeting.
We need to bring in a strong focus on Education and Training. We need to address the need of owners to midlevel and senior managers as well. We need to empower all our members and their employees with the skills needed in today’s world.
We also aim to encourage members to work with other members. If we increase our allied member base with more suppliers, we will have better oversight when problems happen.
At an association level, the high-level areas we wish to focus on include -
1. Enhancing our interaction and relationships with the Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Forests & Environment and our fellow trade bodies such as IMF, FAITH, IATO, ADTOI, etc. We recognise that we have to partner with like-minded bodies to achieve our common goals.
2. Increasing our membership but also becoming more relevant to existing members. We must not take you for granted.
3. We want to increase our deliverables of value to you. You must be able to quantify what the association can do for you.
4. Encourage more states to adopt our Safety Guidelines.
5. Create more events for our members to interact and for us to generate revenue for association activities.
6. Create more opportunities for education and skill development of our member-owners and employees alike.
7. We have a very long wish list, and we recognized we need to move swiftly. But we also need to move smartly.
Anything else you would like to share with us?
The new ATOAI team will continue to progress the growth of adventure travel in India by taking forward the association’s aims and shaping government policy for this sector. Apart from resolving issues impacting adventure tourism in the country, our main objectives is to bring more adventure tour operators across the country into the mainstream of Quality and Responsible Tourism Practices as a member, getting all states to adopt ATOAI’s safety guidelines, prioritizing operational risk
assessment within the membership, conducting skill development & capacity building workshops in association with state tourism departments and local associations, running educational seminars and FAM tours for members, fostering new and innovative adventure tourism products and creating a pool of trained human resources within the industry.
ATOAI also seeks to take measures to reduce environmental impact on India’s natural resources, check mass- tourism in our remote locales, and take active measures to help reduce a rising accident rate in recent times as a result of masstourism. To encourage more women entrepreneurs in the Adventure Tourism industry, ATOAI will set up a dedicated Women’s Task Force consisting of current Women Entrepreneurs within the membership. There are also plans to introduce an ATOAI Mobile App showcasing India’s adventure activities in conjunction with a revamp of the ATOAI website.