Sunday, June 26, 2011

MTOA to reach out to tour operators through workshops and FAM trips

In order to increase its membership base and reach out to tour operators in the state, Maharashtra Tour Organisers Association (MTOA) has planned to conduct a series of workshops and FAM trips. The Association will conduct a seminar on Service Tax in association with Service Tax Department, Government of Maharashtra sometime in August 2011 and is also planning to ogranise a one-day Agri-Tourism FAM tour to Baramati in Pune in the same month. Around 30 travel trade members and a few media persons will be taken on this FAM tour, which is being organised in association with Pandurang Taware, Managing Director, Marketing, Agri Tourism Development Corporation. This information was provided by Atul Mohile, President, MTOA.

Commenting on the membership drive Mohile said, “MTOA currently has 107 members and we expect to have at least 250 members by end of next year. Earlier we used to receive good response from tour operators in regions like Dhule, Nashik, Manmad and Ahmednagar. However, the numbers of new members has reduced in past few years from these regions owing to a lapse in communication. We aim to promote our Association in these regions and other areas, and expect a large number of tour operators to join us in a short span of time.” He also stressed the need to develop and promote Konkan region as a tourist destination. According to Mohile, Konkan has good potential to be developed as a year round destination but is hampered by lack of adequate infrastructure and connectivity. The latter is a major problem, especially during monsoon on account landslides in the hilly terrain disrupting rail and road traffic very often. 

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