‘NTOS should act as a watchdog’
National Tourism Offices (NTOS) should play the role of a facilitator for all set of agents and should also act as a regulator, if the large players tend to create monopoly of sorts.
TT BUREAU In
a competitive business environment, large players enjoy distinct advantage due to the massive volumes they drive. But regulatory mechanism and watchdogs should ensure that the market should not get dominated by only a few large players. As per, Guldeep Singh Sahni, exclusive pre-purchase arrangements with the leading airlines and hotels in this region such that their price and margin became unsustainable,” said Sahni.
“Here the role of National Tourism Boards (NTO) becomes very important. Unfortunately, the NTO of the said destination didn’t intervene to ensure holistic growth participation of all kinds of agents and were apparently happy with the growth being generated by the handful of large opera- tors. As these large operators shifted their focus on alternative destination, the destination that once was a household, has now lost its ground. Hence, NTOs should play the role of a facilitator for all sets of agents and also act as a regulator, if the large players tend to create monopoly of sorts,” he added.
The Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) has always been on the forefront to protect the interests of outbound tour operators. It had recently conducted its 2nd members meet in New Delhi, which was attended in large numbers by its members. The association is also striving to build a strong legal and political cause to address the apparent anomalies in the new service tax regime.