66th TAAI Convention TAAI moots promoting regional travel

The recently concluded 66th Convention of TAAI had several unique elements. From being held aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise liner off Singapore to promoting regional travel in order to boost revival of the industry, not only in India, but also its neighbourhood.

- Varsha Singh

Ever since the start of this year, when the first signs of resumption of international travel emerged from around the world, Jyoti Mayal, President of Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), India's largest and oldest travel trade association, has been pitching for promoting regional travel, saying that while long-haul trips may still take some time to resume, there was enough potential in India's neighbourhood for tourism industry to restart working and growing.

With this theme in mind, TAAI, led by Mayal, has been proactively engaging with tourism authorities in countries that are short or mid-haul flight away from India.

The move was welcomed wholeheartedly by most countries in the region extending right from the Gulf Cooperation Council countries to South East Asian nations as for most of them India had emerged as one of the largest, if not the largest, market.

As a result, TAAI had initially decided to hold the convention in Sri Lanka.

However, with the outbreak of civil unrest, the convention was postponed and was organised in another place in the neighbourhood, but with a difference. It was not held in any country, but onboard the Spectrum of the Seas, a cruiseliner belonging to Royal Caribbean, off the coast of Singapore.

The convention was attended by over 300 TAAI members and keeping true to her word, Mayal had also invited representatives of tourism boards of a few neighbouring countries, notably Nepal, Sri Lanka and Penang in Malaysia which also hosted a reception for the visiting Indian travel trade partners.

Boosting regional travel