Dharmesh Advani

National General Secretary, Enterprising Travel Agent’s Association (ETAA)

ETAA is keen to expand and strengthen its national presence

In 2022, as part of ETAA’s endeavour to encourage and keep abreast of members on the latest travel developments, physical events were organised in the various chapters of ETAA. One example was the recent event where upcoming destinations like Vietnam were showcased to members in a tie-up with Global Destinations.

Moving forward in the post-pandemic era with a strong intent to restructure, expand and strengthen its national presence, the ETAA Board Meeting was held on November 26, 2022, chaired by our Founder President and Chairman Emeritus Carl Dantas, who has decided to devote more time for ETAA in its Silver Jubilee year 2023-24. The Board Meeting called for some important appointments. They appointed two new chapter Chairman, Jeevan Hendre, for the Western region and Saurab Tuteja for the Northern regions, respectively.

Koushik Banerjee and Princy K D continue as Chairmen for Eastern and Southern regions. The board has also appointed Abhijeet Khadilkar, former National General Secretary, and Dipti Thakoor, former Joint National Secretary, as additional Directors.

In 2022, though there was a huge travel demand, government restrictions, visa delays, high airfares, and high hotel tariffs hampered the revival of travel significantly. Hence, planning in advance will be the best way forward. This will help in getting cheap airfare and hotel. Also, it will be easier to get dates for visas.

In 2023, we look forward to arranging more physical meetings to upraise members about upcoming destinations. We are also looking at one International and one domestic convention and will meet various stakeholders for the same. We will also plan to organise various knowledge sessions about upcoming destinations. We already have a few events in various Chapters in January, February, and March.

In the upcoming year, we would like to highlight to the Government the compliance with GST and TCS, which has been an issue with many members. The members have been getting notices from the Govt for GST. The same will be taken with the Government in 2023.