Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) Uttar Pradesh Chapter organised its hybrid meeting on 9th of July in Varanasi at Hotel Clarks under the chairmanship of Mr. Prateek Hira, Chairman UP Chapter and Mr. Vikram Singh, Co-Chair of the chapter.
This meeting was supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India and was attended by about 50 members including IATO’s Regional Chairman of North India, Mr. Sunil Gupta who spoke about all the efforts that IATO has made in the past few months to ease the pain of the industry. MOT’s Regional Director – North, Mr. Anil Oraw also joined the meeting and assured the members of Ministry’s support for early revival of tourism in India.
The agenda of the meeting was to discuss the road map of tourism in Uttar Pradesh and Prof. Pravin Rana of Banaras Hindu University delivered a talk on the topic “Reinvent to Rebound”. A power point presentation by Prof. Rana set the tone of discussions and deliberations that followed.
Chairman of IATO UP Chapter, Mr. Prateek Hira said, “It is very important that as tour operators, we reinvent ourselves and look at other revenue heads than just the traditional ones, in order to rebound much earlier, when things start falling in place”.
Co-Chair of IATO UP Chapter, Mr. Vikram Singh said “We need to come out of our comfort zones and explore new areas and that is the reason that operators are touring nearby towns to expand the potential of Varanasi”.
Prateek Hira further adds “I personally believe that operators in Varanasi need to think beyond just the ghats and similarly operators of Agra need to think beyond Taj Mahal. IATO as an apex body of tour operators has not only been doing its best to help its membership keep afloat in these most difficult times but is also educating its members so as to aid a faster rebound of tourism Industry”.
IATO as a part of its outreach is conducting meetings all over India in its different chapters. The idea is to handhold all its members in these most difficult times and works towards an early revival of the battered tourism industry.
