Port Blair, May 22: The President of Andaman Association of Tour Operators M. Vinod, on the behalf of the tour operators in the islands has written to the Secretary, Tourism department addressing a genuine grievance faced by the tour operators in the islands.

A meeting regarding the participation in travel and tourism fairs in the mainland was called by the Director, Tourism on 22nd March 2018. While the Andaman Chamber of Commerce and Industry had proposed the participation fee to be Rs 50,000 per venue, the Hotel Association on A & N Islands proposed the fee to be Rs 20,000 per venue. Andaman Association of Tour operators, on the other hand proposed to increase the refundable security amount instead of participation fee. The Director concluded the meeting by informing the Association that all the suggestions would be directed to the Secretary of Finance. He suggested that a second meeting be held regarding the Travel Fair, before taking a final decision.

Further highlighting the issue, the President went on to say that while every year the tour operators promote the islands across many tourism fairs in mainland through the stalls provided by the tourism department, the travel, accommodation and food and publicity expenses are borne by the tour operators themselves, which costs as much as 1 lakh rupees. He added that the stakeholders promote A&N islands throughout the year and if the participation fees are fixed at such high rates, most of the unemployed youth would not be able to promote their businesses.

AATO President has thus requested the Secretary to consider the Associations’ request of fixing high refundable deposit instead of charging the participation fees, which will come as a great relief to the tour operators of the island.