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IRCTC to create network of travel agents for Rail Tourism
Indian Railways has made the process of seat reservation and booking of
Indian railway tickets
much simpler than ever before. Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation
Ltd. (IRCTC) in order to boost Rail Tourism in India, has launched an initiative
to create a network of travel agents who will be the official agents of
its website railtourismindia.com, which offers rail tourism packages. The
partner agent, who will sell the packages has to give a bank guarantee of
Rs 25,000 and has to be a member of any one of the following associations:
IATO, ADTOI, TAAI and TAFI. The partner agent should also have an experience
of about five years in the industry and recognition from the Ministry of
Tourism (MoT) or the state department of tourism. Indian Railways announced
Free Life Time Rail Travel for Olympic Gold Medalist Abhinav Bindra,
Free Life Time Train Travel
“Circulars have already been sent across various associations and the work of appointing agents will commence soon,” informed Shashank Shekhar, Deputy General Manager, Tourism (Domestic Marketing), IRCTC. Interestingly, IRCTC will offer ten per cent commission to the partner agent on the sale of the package, which will be cleared immediately once the customer makes the payment. “The commission for agents will be processed immediately unlike airline commissions which takes a couple of days to be processed,” stated Shekhar.for more information, read here.....
Currently, the website offers more than 90 packages across India and is targeting a total of 200 packages by the end of next year. Taking a strategic approach, the website will focus on creating packages for Religious Circuits, as Religious Tourism is a year round segment unlike leisure segment, which is highly seasonal in India. To make the website more user friendly, IRCTC will look at revamping the website in the coming months. This initiative by IRCTC to create a network of travel agents for railtourismindia.com website also opens up more avenues for travel agents to expand their business in face of the looming future of zero per cent commission regime. Indian Railways has gained lost ground considerably over the past couple of months on account of the spiraling Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) prices. IRCTC is currently witnessing ticket bookings of around 75,000 to 80,000 per day and around 80 people booking packages on their rail tourism website. The network of travel agents for this website will further boost the sale of IRCTC’s rail tourism packages. Travel Guide India