Jyoti Mayal
President, TAAI
As the President of TAAI, I am very confident that once travel starts, it will only boom. 2022 should be a year with huge productivity and revenue generation. Vaccination, correct safety protocols will need to be kept in consideration, but I am also confident there will be easier accessible proper medication and treatment in due time. Initially, till the time international borders do not open, domestic tourism will see a huge rise in footfalls. We should build on this huge opportunity. To promote confidence in consumers, our states and countries need to work in collaboration and cooperation with each other. As mass vaccination takes place, unilateral policies will be needed both for domestic and international travel to gain momentum.
In these devastating times, where our members needed motivation and connect, we have stood with them as we are all sailing in the same boat and we all collectively need to reach the shore. Once we reach the shore and are safe, we will then surely revive and thrive.
Our biggest issue is that everyone is short on cash and it is becoming difficult for not only us to survive but also to retain our staff and take care of our statutory costs. As the President of TAAI, we are mapping a path for our member colleagues to bring correct procedures and policies by working very closely and effectively with MoT & MoCA. Both these ministries need to work in tandem with each other. We are constantly in dialogue with MOCA to bring effective regulation for the protection of our money from defaulting airlines. Airlines are struggling to survive too, but we as a community cannot survive another’s default like of Kingfisher and Jet Airways.
Refunds were a huge challenge at the beginning of the lockdown, and we had to work diligently to push the airlines to pay. We have had huge success though with a small exception and we will continue our endeavour to achieve in totality. We are in no position as agents to finance the airlines or block our funds. There should be transparent procedures, guidelines and law of the land should prevail as to not let our taxpayer’s money be taken out of the country by foreign airlines without fulfilling their obligations to the travel agents. As MOCA is the ministry for aviation, we the IATA agents should be a relevant and important part of their setup. Both airlines and we need to have a task force under the aegis of the Aviation Minister. We need a more efficient and stronger regulator with proper monitoring.
We also need to create opportunities for our members by creating new streams and avenues as revenue generators. For this, we are continuously driving knowledge sessions and connecting them with new products. Skilling and re-skilling is another very important aspect which I have always been driving and which is a very important part of our existence and growth, for both us and our staff. I am also the Chairperson of THSC (Tourism & Hospitality Skill Council) under to aegis of the Ministry of Skill Development and I have been continuously advocating re-skilling because we just cannot afford to become stagnant in gaining knowledge and forget our skills.
As the business world will slowly awaken from the pandemic, there will be a universal understanding and acceptance that things will never be the same again. Tourism is an employment-intensive sector, and it is driven by visitor experience; the people serving in the industry must be well trained. To meet the requirement of the industry and to exploit the demographic dividend, skill development initiatives will be driven by Speed, Scale and Standardisation. Destination-based skilling initiatives to meet the skill gap should be implemented apart from various other initiatives. Training large number of existing workers in soft skills and other tourism-related skills should be a priority area.
The role of Industry associations such as ours (TAAI) has become even more critical in the backdrop of a crisis such as COVID-19. The demographic of a traveller and tourism is changed. Adaption to changes will play a very important role. The most important need would be to develop resilience and agility to deal with the crisis against the constraints imposed by cash preservation. TAAI and THSC are working towards bridging the gap and will be investing more in this for our members and the travel and tourism industry.