SOTA to open 15 regional chapters in India by July

New Delhi: Society of Travel Agents (SOTA), an exclusive travel trade association of International Air Transport Association (IATA) approved travel agents, will open its 15 regional chapters in India by July 31, 2010. Regional Directors and other office bearers of all the 15 regional chapters will also be selected.
Speaking exclusively with TravelBiz Monitor, Suneel Kohli, General Secretary, SOTA said, “There are around 2,700 IATA approved travel agents in the country, while only 50 per cent are members of any of the associations. We want to bring all of them into our fold. States with large number of IATA approved agents will be clubbed to form the regional chapter. The Punjab regional chapter will comprise whole of Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. Likewise, most of the North Eastern states will be part of the West Bengal regional chapter. There will be independent regional chapters for Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Orissa, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Goa. Delhi regional chapter will look after the whole of National Capital Region.”
JN Behl, President, SOTA said that priority of the Society is to improve the membership base. “Problems in each region are different and therefore we want those issues to be settled at the regional level. Disputes redressal will be of paramount importance at SOTA. Justice JD Kapoor (Retd) has consented to be the patron of the Dispute Committee of SOTA,” added Behl. Furthermore, the monthly meeting of SOTA which was held in Delhi last week witnessed the formation of different committees, like Domestic Airlines, Tourism, Visa, Membership and Disputes redressal for the Delhi regional chapter.
24/04/10 P Krishna Kumar/TravelBizMonitor

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Apr 2010