Prasenjit Chakraborty - Mumbai The Skal Club of Bombay (144) recently held its monthly meeting at ITC Grand Central, Mumbai. A good number of people participated in the meeting. During the meeting, three young members were inducted in the club. Besides this, Tourism Fiji also made a vivid presentation about the destination.
Skal Club of Bombay added a feather in its cap by becoming the second largest club in Asia in terms of membership. Speaking to TravelBiz Monitor, Sunil VA, President, Skal Club of Bombay (144) said, “This is a proud moment for us, and at the same time a huge achievement as well.” Currently, the club has 178 members out of which 11 fall in the young Skal category. Talking about the induction of young members, Sunil, said that this is a new initiative and the idea is to groom them properly which in turn will immensely benefit the tourism and hospitality industry in future. “We will soon tie up with more colleges for the same,” he said.
Another priority area for the club is to tie up with tourism boards. “After borders opened up, people are showing interest to visit Fiji as the country offers visa on arrival. Today, Tourism Fiji made a presentation which evinced interest among the members,” said Sunil.
Skal Club Bombay is also hosting a National Congress in Mumbai from September 16 to 18 this year. “In this event 16 clubs will participate from various parts of the country. We have already formed a team for this and will reveal the details soon,” Sunil said.
Sunil Menon, Country Manager, Tourism Fiji, while speaking to TravelBiz Monitor on the sidelines of the event said that travellers from India are showing keen interest to visit Fiji since the border opened in March. “The response from India is especially good from segments like honeymooners, couples and family. Solo travellers are also showing interest in the destination. In April and May we witnessed encouraging movements of travellers of such segments from India,” said Menon.
He also said a lot of training programmes are also in the pipeline for the Indian market. “We are putting things in perspective as we opened our borders just in March,” said Menon. Besides metro cities, the people from Tier-II cities like Jaipur, Lucknow, Pune, etc., are also showing tremendous interest to visit Fiji. “Even we are getting huge inquiries from high-end travellers,” he said. According to him, visa on arrival for Indian travellers is the biggest advantage. “You just have to pack your bags,” he said.
