KNOW YOUR CANDIDATES: A WHEREABOUTS’ INITIATIVE
It took travel and tourism industry decades of failed attempts to unify under a single voice in 2012 when ten leading travel, tourism and hospitality associations (IATO joined a few months later, although the association was part of the developments leading to the formation of FAITH) finally came together under the banner of Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH).
It was registered on September 7, 2012, a day Indian Tourist Transports Association (ITTA, one of the ten member associations of FAITH) was organizing it’s fourth Annual Convention (September 7-8, 2012). It was a hard fought victory of like-minded people cutting across associations, but the one person who stood out in talking, coaxing and convincing the associations to come together was SarabJit Singh, the then ITTA President and Sr. Vice President of IATO.
The documents of registration was delivered to him on the evening of the inauguration at ITTA convention on September 7th. The then Union Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahay and Secretary – Tourism, Government of India, RH Khwaja, attending the inaugural function of the 4th ITTA Convention, were the among the first to be apprised of the historic development. The industry had, for the first time in its history, united behind a single voice. FAITH was born.
The likes of PRS Oberoi, AjitKerkar, and many others industry veterans had tried to bring the industry together before, but without success. Ever since TAAI (formed in 1951) and FHRAI (1955) were formed there were attempts to unify the industry voice. It grew louder, both from the government that had to often deal with multiple associations for similar industry demands as well as industry itself, as the 80s and 90s saw many more associations like IATO (1982), TAFI (1984), ITTA (1987), ICPB (1988), IHHA (1990), ATOAI (1994), ADTOI and HAI (1996), and others jostling for space and voice in their respective niches.
Singh had achieved what no one could before him, rallying almost every major travel, tourism and hospitality association to unite under the banner of FAITH and give industry a united voice.
Between 2012 and 2015, the four years that he served IATO as Sr. Vice President, his another major work that immensely benefitted the tour operators community was getting tourism exports to be treated at par with goods export. His keen understanding of various government departments’ mandates, their style of functioning, policies and schemes and how to skillfully engage with the bureaucracy helped him deliver the Services Export from India Scheme (SEIS) to the tourism trade. According to reports, the total incentives/ duty drawback provided to tour operators was close to Rs. 2000 crorein 2018.
His continuous lobbying for zero-tax rating for inbound tourism and schemes like RoDTEP(Remission of Duties or Taxes on Export Products) that is now available to goods exporters, for tourism service providers also, are work in progress and Singh feels that as part of IATO he and his team will be in a much better position to deliver them for the tourism industry.
Furthermore GET-INDIA, the first successful tourism fair that FAITH organised way back in 2015, was largely his brainchild. GET-INDIA was part of Global Exhibition of Services (GES) conceived as an annual event, in 2015, as part of MoCI’s objective to showcase India’s inherent strength in services sector and ‘tourism’ was one of the six services that were included for the event.
CII was given the overall responsibility to organise GES while FAITH was given the responsibility to manage the ‘tourism’ vertical, which was branded as GET-INDIA. Around 175 foreign tour operators attended the show as buyers and more than 100 Indian exhibitors as suppliers. The event was inaugurated by none other than Prime Minister NarendraModi and was a huge success.
Today he envisions a travel show that can host a thousand buyers and hundred plus foreign media outlets that can not only help create unparalleled destination interest in India but also help achieve the new tourism target set forth in the new draft National Tourism Policy which is 33 million international tourist arrival and US $ 56 billion in tourism receipt in five years.
Singh insists on the need to take up issues and concerns that can help India drastically increase her share of tourism pie and in its wake developing not only India’s tourism economy but also the businesses like tour operators who stand to gain most out of it.
