UFTAA Congress TAAI salvages an otherwise tame affair

The Indian attendance was thin perhaps because everyone’s September calendar would have been full what with TAAI and IATO within a few days of each other followed by UFTAA. about a hundred international agents registered at UFTAA this year. the uftaa congress would have been a relatively tame affair were it not for some valiant efforts from Rajji Rai and sanjay narula.

The inaugural ceremony witnessed the presence of a number of tourism visionaries. Present on the dais were: Praful Patel, minister for civil aviation GoI; Joe Borg Olivier, chairman of UFTAA; C V Prasad, president TAAI; Praveen Chugh, president TAFI; Biji Eapen, president, IAAI and Rajjinder Rai, chairman, Indian Managing Committee, UFTAA Congress.
In his welcome address, Prasad urged the visiting delegates to visit the famous tourist attractions of Delhi as well as the rest of India to make their visit even more memorable. The chairman’s speech remained focussed around the theme of the Congress – "UFTAA Experience – 40 Years of Dynamic Professionalism". Olivier emphasized that the convention was meant to tackle issues head-on and make decisions in following an innovative approach. Speaking on the occasion, Praful Patel, the chief guest, said that the government had committed to providing all facilities for the growth of tourism and the civil aviation sector. Welcoming UFTAA delegates on behalf of TAFI, Pravin Chugh said that it was fortunate that Delhi had been chosen for the special UFTAA Convention. Biji Eapen opined that travel agents needed to be alert and vigilant to protect their interests and should maintain a balanced relationship with the GDSs and the airlines.
The inauguration ceremony remembered UFTAA’s founding member Jimmy Guzder’s important contribution. On his behalf, his son Cyrus Guzder received a token of appreciation. Thereafter, Amitabh Kant made a presentation outlining the government’s effort to build the tourism infrastructure before the audience.
The second day of the UFTAA Congress started with a business session which dwelt at great length on ADM (Agency Debit Memo) issues. The session was addressed by Sampath Kumar, chairman of TAFI’s Karnataka chapter, Birger Backman, senior advisor of UFTAA, C V Prasad and P K Gupta, regional director of Air India. Members discussed the ADM crisis which has become a global problem. Abusive ADMs result in extra charges being placed on the consumer. In particular, some airlines seem to have adopted the idea of advertising low fares, only to slap 'penalty charges' on consumers later, via the travel agents, to make up for their reduced revenues. Backman announced that UFTAA was planning to circulate guidelines to its members, which would assist agents in recognizing when they were being issued with an illegal ADM, as well as how to effectively deal with dubious ADMs. The association will also create its own database of ADM abuses, it was announced.
The second business session underlined the need to impart training to travel agents to make them more adaptable with the rapid pace of change taking place in the global tourism sector. The session was addressed by Lars Karlberg, director of the Travel Education Centre of Sweden, William Tan, president of Singapore’s National Association of Travel Agents, Biji Eapen, President of the IATA Agents Association of India and Carol-Anne Cairns of Skills Development Solutions, South Africa.
Moderating the session, Karlberg said that there was need to initiate more programmes to train travel agents, beyond the IATA-UFTAA training courses. Tan emphasized the need to develop an integrated course module incorporating solution to various problems being faced by travel agents. Eapen pondered over the lack of specialized courses for aspiring travel agents. Cairns presented the training programmes in the South African scenario and informed the audience that tourism was the one sector targeted for growth in South Africa.