Sunil Kumar: Boom Time in Travel: Business gets Tougher for the Agents

It is indeed boom time, once again, for the travel agencies, in terms of business. With number of passengers on the rise and the trends clearly suggesting higher volumes in travel and tourism, this has resulted in more travel agencies that have come up and are coming up. With the size of the PIE increased, the number of agencies too are on the rise.

What is correspondingly unfriendly, is the scenario a Travel Agency is subject to. The challenges to keep the Agency sustainable and growing, is becoming tougher. Every vertical of our spend, be it staff; be it overall administration; be it investment levels or be it technology or any other demanding investment an agency has to make to sustain relevance; has gone up extensively. This makes viability more difficult than ever before. Adding to these challenges are the Tax matters and compliance’s, making it more difficult for agencies.

Associations, must take out more time, to focus on member challenges. They need hand-holding to curb the current challenges and also need “inputs and insights” on the trending scenario to turn pro-active.

Our Priorities are clear. It starts with “Members First”. There is nothing more important than to focus on member support. TAAI represents its members. We need to make our representation effectively.

During this week, I have received several calls and chats. While it is a long journey, one sure focus for us is to go all out to address their concerns. Many are most reasonable demands, particularly on IATA & Airlines.

We have our Officer Orientation Workshop on the 24th & 25th October and shall focus on “higher member engagement” at Regions & Chapters. More programs that can help update members are being drawn up.

Other priorities include:

  • Initiatives that can earn TAAI a higher visibility
  • Insights to help members turn pro-active in times like these
  • Insurance not available to members, towards their financial security must be reversed. We need to find solutions to fulfil compliances
  • Other administrative changes within TAAI, including e-voting.

During 2018-19, we had launched TAAI Connect. It was a tech-support to members with the goal – plug and sell. To empower agencies with technology support, which is even more required today than ever before, including education on AI and its abilities, is another key area for us to focus on. In this fast-evolving scenario, how can agencies not be online. We have to use our size (large number of potential online agencies) to join together and have this tool created.

TAAI worked closely with our principals – with our Partners and this will be an important focus. We have been an important industry forum, highly respected, and I do believe we need to find ways to collaborate, not just co-operate. This will soon start off.

There are more areas. And trained committee members, empowered to handle assignments effectively can make a big difference. We shall invest on our leaders and create a large second line of leadership.


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