TBM Staff - Mumbai Union Tourism Minister, Prahlad Singh Patel virtually launched the website of CHATT (Confederation of Hospitality, Technology and Tourism Industry) for facilitating a better tourism experience. CHATT is the premier industry association formed by Oyo, Airbnb, EaseMyTrip and Yatra that aims to work together to represent small and medium hotels and homeowners across India. It will also facilitate the adoption of best practices, solutions, and technology to help revive the travel and hospitality industry. The launch session was graced by the presence of eminent personalities and founders of CHATT, as well as, dignitaries from the government. Some of the dignitaries who attended the event were Arvind Singh, Secretary Tourism, GOI; Rupinder Brar, Additional Director General, Ministry of Tourism; Amanpreet Bajaj, General Manager, Airbnb for India, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan; Nishant Pitti, CEO & Co-Founder, EaseMyTrip.com; Ritesh Agarwal, Founder & CEO, OYO Rooms; Rohit Kapoor, CEO, OYO, INSEA; Dhruv Shringi, Co-Founder & CEO, Yatra.com.
Mentioning that the formation of CHATT is a landmark decision to enhance the country’s domestic tourism, Patel said, “This will make a revolution in travel and hospitality sectors. CHATT’s formation is a landmark decision to boost India’s robust domestic tourism market and support small hotel partners, homeowners, agents to expand their offerings catering to the needs of tourists. The Tourism Ministry is continuously making efforts to make the data available of hotels, home-stays on the unified portal – NIDHI to benefit tourists and CHATT will play a crucial role in it. Vaccination is going to drive the tourism sector’s revival and we are working on a uniform policy and setting up protocols for travellers getting vaccinated against COVID-19. The consolidated efforts by CHATT will be highly beneficial for SME, MSMEs hotel, homeowners, partners and I welcome them to join the various government committees to represent the unified voice of the industry
