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.” |