The first session was a talk on Business Opportunities delivered by the Director of IHCTM, Mr Subhash Motwani to the students who were on the verge of finishing their Compact Travel and Tourism Course. This lecture was attended by around 60 students. This talk on Business Opportunities was to inspire the students to start their own travel agency in the near future. Subhash gave the students a brief idea on how to go about starting their own travel agency, the various terms one comes across in the industry and the pricing strategy. Later Subhash gave the students an idea of how to plan a day trip to Khandala, 3 Nights/4Days trip to Mahableshwar & so on.

After the talk by Mr Subhash Motwani, there was a very brief but informative lecture by Mr Ghate General Manager-R&D of World Trade Institute - Mumbai. He told the students about what role does WTC- Mumbai play in India's Foreign Trade. He also briefed the students on the 2 courses conducted by WTI( World Trade Institute), the educational wing of WTC- Mumbai namely, Post Graduate Diploma in Foreign Trade and Post Graduate Diploma in Forex and Risk Management. IHCTM had invited Mrs Nalini Gupta - the General Manager-India of South African Airways as the guest speaker. Mrs Nalini Gupta has played an important role in promoting good and friendly relations between South Africa and India. She has helped build bridges particularly in the area of tourism. (To know more about Nalini and her achievements refer to her Interview in this issue.) 

She gave the students an overview of what contributed to her success and what attitude they should adopt in the travel industry. She was accompanied by Tasneem, Assistant Manager Sales who gave an excellent talk on how to sell South Africa as a tourist destination which was followed by an audio visual presentation of what she spoke. The students seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed the presentation and were anxious to ask a few questions about South Africa from the South African Airways team. It is rightly said 'A picture speaks a thousand words' and the audio visual presentation on South Africa emphasized why this beautiful country is well worth a visit.

It was an excellent opportunity for students to earn and learn and to take up higher international qualifications from the money earned by them on promoting & selling holiday packages. Further, it is a great boost for those wanting to start their own travel business. Thus the Business Lecture came to an end with an interactive Question & Answer Session. The enthusiasm of the students after the Business Lecture was overwhelming.

Talk on Airline Careers for Career Aspirants

The month of May is when the students and their parents get career conscious. And like every year IHCTM organized a Career Talk for those who wanted to pursue their careers in the Airline, Tourism, Cargo Industries as well as know about International qualifications. Subhash Motwani, Director - IHCTM gave the students an overview of the industry and explained why the Tourism Industry is one of the fastest growing industries today. He briefed the students about the various courses offered by IHCTM as well as the International qualifications like IATA/UFTAA and IATA/FIATA from Montreal Canada; Fares and E-ticketing course from Virgin Atlantic U.K; CRS from VIASINC, USA for which IHCTM is an authorised training centre. 

These international qualifications are offered in Mumbai and are all part time so they can be pursued along with college studies. He spoke about the cabin crew training course offered by IHCTM for the aspiring Air Hostesses and put before them the realities in pursuing this career. He also explained the Golden Travel Plan which is like a dream plan for every tourism aspirant. This plan can be taken up by any student along with his graduation and it prepares aspirants to work at the Middle Management level. This session also came to an end with a Question and Answer session. The response was excellent in both the career talks. The talk was attended by over 150 participants.

Anyone who has missed this opportunity can register themselves for the next career talk to be held on 9th June 2004 at the World Trade Center, Mumbai. To register dial 022-22853081 or 22830133.