Mr. Riaz Munshi, President, OTOAI, addressed the gathering by highlighting the crucial matter regarding postponement of elections of the Association for Executive Committee for one year keeping in view the Rules and Regulations of OTOAI and Societies Act. The decision was taken due to the Covid 19 Pandemic, which has lasted for the last 18 months and so the term of the present Executive Committee needs an extension to complete the objects for which they were elected. The decision was sanctioned by all the members present at the Meet without any objection / obligation due to the present unavoidable circumstances.
Mr. Shravan Bhalla, General Secretary, OTOAI addressing the Turkey convention matter said, “The Association was in the process of organizing a Convention in Turkey in March 2020 for its members, which got postponed due to the Covid 19 Pandemic. The Present EC is still in talks with the Tourism Board of Turkey to hold the Convention in the year 2022. The date has not been decided yet, the tourism board of Turkey wishes to deal with the present EC to propose the convention for the sake of continuity.” Adding to it, Mr. Munshi, said, “The convention will likely be held in March 2022 in Turkey only if things go well. And if that doesn’t have happen then we all need to understand that things are seriously not going well in the Industry!”
Sharing his thoughts on the tough period gone by, Mr. Himanshu Patil, Vice President, OTOAI said, “For the past several months, we all have been working from home or probably not working at all due to the pandemic situation. Moving on, we are all definitely looking for greater and brighter 2022! We all were gearing up for this year-end season and again omicron came into our lives and the travel euphoria subsided. However, I think Omicron should be the last wave and the virus will end up soon and the whole world will soon start travelling again.”
Conlcuding the Meet, Mr. Munshi shared, “Our focus as an Organisation has always been the Outbound sector and as the tourism industry continues to be not only the most affected industry but also the most neglected one (from the government’s perspective) not much has been done to improve our situation. However, we at OTOAI are in talks with the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India to bring in a licensing system, especially for travel companies, which can become the keychain where they will ask us to get the revenue and through this, the tour operators can do the business in a professional level. This will not only lead us to get noticed in the eyes of the government but will also lead to the smooth running of the travel business for which OTOAI is working.”
All the working committee members Mr. Himanshu Patil, Vice President; Mr. Shravan Bhalla, General Secretary; Mr. Vineet Gopal, Joint Secretary and Mr. Sidharth Khanna, Treasurer moderated the meet by wishing the gathering a healthy and prosperous New Year 2022.
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