|
‘Convention’al Times Ahead
Rabindra Seth - New Delhi
We are nearing the season for annual conventions of trade associations. While
the India Convention Promotion Bureau (ICPB) and the Indian Association for
Tour Operators (IATO) have chosen August, for Travel Agents Association of India
(TAAI) the preferred month is September and for the Federation of Hotel and
Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) it is October. Interestingly, while
the venue for ICPB is the capital Delhi, the other three are headed south, one
of them across India’s shores to Sri Lanka. IATO favours Cochin (now known
as Kochi). FHRAI’s destination is Chennai and for TAAI it is Colombo.
‘Conventions India - Meetings, Incentives, Conventions & Events Conclave’
the ICPB meet it titled will be held on August 10 and 11. “Apart from seeking
information and sharing experiences,” says executive director, R M Puri,
“The conclave will seek to strengthen the brand positioning of Incredible
India as a MICE destination.”
IATO’s Kochi dates are August 26 to 28. A commitment for the venue was
given by association president, Subhash Goyal during Kerala Travel Mart (KTM)
in the port city last year but the theme is yet to be announced. It is certain,
however, that diminishing airline commissions, room shortages and rising tariffs
will dominate the discussions.
It will be much the same story when TAAI assembles in the
Island Republic’s capital for its four-day annual event. September 24 to
27, under the umbrella of The Indian Travel Congress, attracting as it does
participation from virtually every segment of the tourism industry. Announcing
the dates at a news conference in Delhi the association president, Balbir Mayal
said TAAI had accepted Sri Lanka’s invitation to express solidarity with
the islanders who had suffered so much from tsunami.
He said the impact of lower commissions will of course be
one of the main subjects on the agenda but there will also be equal importance
given to preparing travel agents to develop both alternative and incremental
businesses in view of the new challenges emerging, thanks to the technological
advances and growth in e-business. Like IATO, he said, TAAI is also concerned
about the growing gap between demand and supply in accommodation and what he
called the tendency of hoteliers to raise tariffs.
Hopefully, the accommodation shortages and the controversial high tariffs will
occupy centre stage at the FHRAI convention in Chennai, October 15 to 17. Surprisingly,
the dates have not been announced through a press release but in the federation’s
very useful bi-monthly magazine’s May-June issue. This convention has a
special significance for FHRAI for it marks the golden jubilee of its existence.
President of FHRAI, M P Purushothaman, in a message says the golden jubilee
convention will be organised ‘with all grandeur’ to commemorate the
event. “The Union Finance Minister and the state chief minister are being
invited and added that the Malaysian minister for tourism, vice-president of
Mauritius and the president of the International Hotel Association (IHA) have
already shown their willingness to attend,” he said.
Since the three main trade bodies, FHRAI, TAAI and IATO,
have yet to draw up the agenda for their annual gatherings they might as well
include a subject that is not just crucial as the main draw card for tourism
- domestic or international - but also raises the question whether we care to
preserve our rich cultural and architectural heritage.
In a series of investigative stories on the health of our
heritage on its front pages ‘The Indian Express’ has revealed the
eye-opening and shocking neglect of and vandalism at our ancient temples and
other monuments. Following up the campaign, Express editor Shekhar Gupta, in
his weekly column (June 18) bluntly asks readers, ‘And if you are still
not shaken by the disaster that is looming, please look for the signs the next
time you happen to visit a heritage site yourself’. ‘Or’, he
says, ‘come with me to the Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple at Madurai, which
is now competing for the status of the seventh wonder of the world’. He
adds, ‘The walk in through any of the spectacular entrances and chances
are you would wonder if you have come into one of the finest temples built in
the history of mankind, or a make shift bazar.’
‘Right along the temple alleys leading to the 12 gopurams you have shops
selling everything from the usual curios and souvenirs to buckets, brooms, bags,
spices, soaps and oils, shaving brushes, Made in China flashlights, underwear
and banyans, almost anything you might need in the course of a day. What you
wonder is this supermarket doing in the bowels of a temple that now claims,
quite deservedly, to compete with the Taj Mahal and others for the title of
the seventh wonder?’
Gupta points out similar wantonness in many other temples and monuments saying
‘all round you find wonderful old houses defiled, or being broken down
to be replaced by new constructions. You can only imagine what the whole place
would look like if somebody undertook one year’s restoration and clean
up and it won’t even cost many tens of crores’.
Gupta’s column is aptly titled ‘Incredible India’s junk yards’.
It might be a good idea to mail copies of the column to industry leaders and
tourism functionaries.
(The author is a freelance columnist and can be contacted
at rabseth@yahoo.com)
|
