Lawyers are drawing up the final draft of the constitution of the proposed council, which will be ratified by the five bodies in a meeting to be held next month.
The organisations which have been holding parleys for the last six months on the formation of the tourism council are the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI), the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO), Indian Tourist Transporters' Association (ITTA), and the Air Taxi Operators' Association (ATOA).
Public sector undertakings like India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) and other government organisations like Airports Authority of India, and Air India and Indian Airlines will also be roped in as they are connected to activities related to tourism infrastructure.
Though I cannot give it a timeframe, the formation of the council should not take long as the differences between various parties concerned have been ironed out, director-general tourism, Ashok Pahwa, told Business Standard.
Initially when the idea of the tourism council was mooted the parties concerned differed on issues like tax exemption under the IT rules.
Tour operators and travel agents associations also wanted an arbitration clause to be inserted in the constitution of the proposed council which should be binding on everybody.
However, now we have realised the sooner we form the council, the better it will be for all concerned, including the tourists, IATO's Subhash Goyal said.
According to highly placed sources in the industry, the proposed tourism council may have a rotating chairman or a retired bureaucrat with necessary experience in the field may be roped in to head it.
Apart from presenting a united and cohesive front to the government, the proposed council will also work to resolve contentious issues between the different segments within the industry.
Till now the different organisations have often been working at cross-purposes, making presentations to the central and state governments for policy changes in their favour.
For example, the Travel Agents Association of India, the members of which derive the greater part of their revenues from leisure tourists, had suggested to the tourism ministry that the hotel industry be more regulated, their room tariffs administered, and the hotels be asked to reserve a minimum percentage of their rooms for the tourists.
On the other hand, the hotel industry would like to see the margins of the travel agents and tour operators regulated and standardised.
