Chiku Advani - Airline Expert & Travel Consultant 

OT interviewed the industry stalwart CHIKU ADVANI first in September 1983. When we introduced him 21 years ago as “Travel Man” Chiku, he had already spent more than 2 decades and had lots of laurels up his sleeve. So first we present the first interview full of valuable information. The Second part covers the further 21 years i.e totally 4 decades. In the second part we enlighten readers about contemporary developments in the ever expanding field of airline, travel and tourism. So go ahead and enjoy the rich and exciting information from life of one who is still going strong- the evergreen airline man CHIKU.

Chiku Advani spent more than 2 decades in airlines and travel field even before he entered his forties. At this young age what he has achieved should inspire many. His latest trophy is the coveted post of Regional Manager, Western India, BAP TRAVELS P. LTD, GSA FOR TWA TRANSWORLD AIRLINES.To know his success story one must begin from the very start of his career in the travel industry which OT during their interview with him were able to review in depth.

What is your present role in your job?
Presently my position entails general administration, public relations, advertising and above all marketing in the interest of Trans World Airline in the Western India Sector keeping in mind the productivity and image of the organisation at the same time imparting my experience to better the industry locally and abroad.

What is your future programme?
To consolidate on my present assignment and obtain maximum footage where the image and productivity is concerned. To find steps to propogate the ethics and service which underline the very basis of our industry.

Tell us something about your personal side. How far your early life and family background helped you to make a break?
I was born in Karachi in 1941, I am the eldest in the family. I had my early education in St. Joseph's in Karachi. After partition in 1947 when I came to 
Bombay, I joined St Xavier's High School, Bombay. Graduated in 1961 from Jai Hind College Bombay as Bachelor of Arts. Married in 1971. My two boys Amit and Ajay are 8 and 11 years respectively. My wife Ratan works for A.F. Ferguson - a chartered Accountant's firm. I have one brother Audy who is captain with Merchant Marine based in Hong Kong and two sisters Glorshi and Anita, the latter is settled in U.S.A. My father is retired and has agricultural property in South India, which he is presently involved with. My mother expired 12 years ago. She was always my guide and teacher in many ways.I did not enter into business though my family was so well connected, instead switched to a career which had nothing to do with my family background.

What are your plans for your children?
Presently they are schooling at Campion School in the III and IV standards respectively. They have travelled extensively since they were two years old. The elder boy wishes to join the Merchant Navy whilst the other wants to pursue his dad's career.

What are your favourite things besides airlines?
My favourite things besides airlines are to travel, meet people and eat good and exotic food especially seafood. I also love to swim and sail. I enjoy all types of Western music and only Indian classical music especially sitar and jal-tarang. I love nature and look forward to owning a bunglow to do my own gardening.

What is the future of group tour business?
Presently the movement is very regional as the tours are more shopping oriented rather than sightseeing oriented. There is much scope for such market however depending on the very ethics of the matter as tours are not being conducted in the true sense of the word as passengers are being misled by many non-recognised agents. This would entail the Governmental authorities to take a second look to check this segment which has shown a silver lining.

What sort of training do you recommend for entering this field?
Training or education in any industry is a must and more so with a competitive market one must know the product. Hence basic theoretical knowledge is very essential for the aspirants to enable to understand and grasp the systems more effectively. Today time has come not only to study book wise but also learn to handle costly computer systems efficiently and effectively to cater to the growing needs of the passenger and cargo. The aspirants must have effective product knowledge and this would lead to having up-to-date institutions which are able to impart such training with the help of professionals in the industry as the travel agent or the airlines are now looking for professionalism in the industry and it is only this way the travel industry can look to a better future.

What is your advice to new entrants?
Since the industry is “Service” oriented, know the product, be cool headed and work hard to achieve your goal keeping in mind honesty, humility and imparting correct data to your passenger or client. Finally a tip for all - “Keep Smiling”.

What is your opinion about the future of this industry?
You will be surprised to note that next to the Oil industry, the travel industry ranks second with the earning world wide totalling to billions of U.S. $. Yet last year India's share was 0.055% with 400,000 tourists. The Government has taken steps on a war footing and by 1984 - 85 we want to achieve over 2 million tourists. On the industry side as a whole everyday is very progressive, there was a time when travel abroad was considered a luxury and travel by air was only meant for the affluent class and today travel has quadrupled and has reached such heights that it is no longer a luxury but a necessity and within the reach of the man in the street. This I would not say only for passengers traffic but also cargo which has doubled.

Governments and airlines have invested not only in passenger terminal/flights but also cargo centers and flights with cargo facilities. This would definitely evoke that the industry is on the upward trend though the ensuring 1981-82 have been trying due to upheaval of the fuel hikes causing much inflation throughout the world. Time is once again the essence - The sun is not setting for the industry instead it is rising to greater heights.

The IInd Part (as of Today)

Chiku Advani is currently the Managing Director of Travel Spot and Vice President of Lions Club of Bombay. Chiku as he is popularly known amongst travel organisations has received several awards such as the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, Bombay Interline Club Award, Air Cargo Club of Bombay Award and the list continues. Here Chiku shares his rich experiences of over 4 decades and shares his ideas on how India can become one of the hottest destinations in the future.

You have been a SKAL member for almost 40 years. Why is SKAL so special for you?
SKAL is one club where at times we have the elite- hotel, car, travel agents and the airline industry, which meet on a very social level and can discuss so many travel needs under one roof on an informal basis. So this is one organization that which has always been close to me. Whenever I used to travel within the country I used to go and attend several meetings because it was this one stop place where in one meeting you meet so many agents and airline people under one roof. You could approach and reach out to so many in the industry within 2-3 hours for which otherwise you will have to be spending so much time, money and energy. So I think it is the best thing to do. In a SKAL meeting in Chennai we meet 25 agents, 10 airlines and we don't have to spend days in that city. Besides this is a place where you meet the young and the old in the industry.

Tell us how the travel industry has changed over the last decade or so
Well I must say that the travel industry has changed by leaps and bounds. We had in our days constraints of foreign exchange and passengers got only 5 Dollars at the airport or just one and a half sterling to travel abroad. Today times have changed drastically. We can take as much as 5000 US Dollars per trip and 25000 US Dollars per trip in case of business travel.

How do people perceive travel in smaller towns like Pune vis- à- vis to Mumbai?
I think we have taken travel by the collar because after satellite television came in, the local people see the world through the idiot box being made aware through travel programmes. People who used to travel only upto Matheran or Khandala now want to travel to Banares or places outside India. It was this medium of TV which really revolutionized the industry. The local travel operators started taking a lot of pains to attract the locals to come for the tour who were staunch vegetarians and loved their old local cuisine. These were the aspects which made the locals from the smaller towns to visit the other areas

How has e-ticketing and Internet revolutionalized the travel business?
Tremendously! I must say that where we were fighting for fares, manual control and having so much of excess staff, computers and e-ticketing has really revolutionalized the system and I am very happy for that. 

What do you see is the future of travel agents who are only into ticketing?
I will try to be very brief on this. It is found that now the role of the travel agent will be as a consultant only in the future because basically now the 
passenger or the traveller can do everything on the internet. He can book his hotel, airline ticket, railway ticket or any confirmations and even electronic visas. This will convert a travel agent only as a consultant for the time being for visas and passports. But there after I don't think he will have much of a role to play - that's the way I look at it. 

In our last interview in 1983 your children were in III and IV standard? Tell us about their achievements in these 21 years?
My elder son Amit is now 30 years old. He finished his graduation from H.R College of Commerce and Economics and passed with flying colours. After that my brother in law who is a travel agent trained him up and then they set up a company called the Great Escape at Churchgate. So there he was as a senior sales executive because my brother in law was the manager. Then subsequently he got a break with Suraj Kalwani who had started an agency and Amit was first appointed as the General Manager and then he subsequently became one of the Directors of Krisia Travels and Holidays. They had started their business on Queens Road but now they are at Nariman Point.

My younger son Ajay is now 26 years old. He finished his BA from Jai Hind College with flying colours. He had applied for a competition in some advertising magazine and among the 36000 applicants he was selected as number 1 and taken into Trikaya Grey as a copywriter. When Trikaya Grey was to become Grey and Company he was selected by Alok Nanda as one of the directors of a new company which they formed. It is called ANC-The Alok Nanda Corporation. I am proud to say that he was trained by RBCS group for Fashion Designing and Hand writing course. I have told him to find time and come here and give lectures on copywriting and advertising at RBCS.

What role do you play as an advisor to various companies?
The role that I play here is, I set up the turn-key projects right from scratch to getting them IATA accreditation. I assisted all those companies who came to me by helping them in getting the right staff, taught them how to set up the office as per IATA norms, what should be their costing, etc. I also help them know by when would they break even and start making profits. I was doing more for the in-house agencies and they started making profit right from day one. I always kept on telling them that today you put in your 10 bucks you will get your 20 bucks tomorrow. They expected me to give them a report of how much they should be spending on travel, what is their start and so on. I was also successful with the Essar Group. I have set up 69 companies and bought under one roof. Then I helped Faber Castel to set up in Andheri, I also helped two Swedish companies to set up - one in Noida and one in Chennai.

What are the various awards you have achieved over the years and which of these awards were most satisfying of them all and why?
I have won so many awards. But the most satisfying was the one I received from the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation for recognizing my contribution of 25 years in the travel industry. That was something, which came unexpectedly because I was never, expecting it. I was shocked when I got a letter saying that I was cordially invited to be at New Delhi on so and so date and that I had been given this award which in my wildest dreams I had not thought of. 

To what do you attribute your success in the travel industry?
I would say that you work diligently with honesty and trust in the industry, which will take you a long way. I can say all this because the respect that I have earned from the industry till today is because of these 3 things. Apart from these, you also need good communication skills to communicate with the hotelier or travel agent to update yourself because you can't live in the 18th century when you have moved in the 21st century.

What should be the attribute necessary for a person to enter travel business?
Education and Knowledge of the industry are very important because when you ask something he should know the geography, which is very important. Second is the diligence and zeal to work because our industry is a 24 hour industry. You may get a call in the morning or in the middle of the night that his seat is not there or he may have problem or his passport is not there. So that is the time when a travel agent is very much needed, so he should have that sort of zeal to work and the knowledge to handle the situation in a very cool and calm manner. If you can't handle it forget it and there is no time for you to be in the industry. The other thing is the honesty and the trustworthiness because today people are doing nothing else but working for money that actually is a wrong attitude. You work for achievement and try and do your best and improve and help your passengers all over the world whom you are looking after in the right direction and guide them in a proper manner this will certainly take you very long. These are the attributes you must have for getting into the industry. I must say the for the Indians living in this country we are really going up, what we have from these 5 Dollars now we can have a meal at our disposal, travel without restrictions anywhere in the world but the only restriction that we have is that we must have the visa. We hope that this too may change in the future.

Your message to the readers
Put the purse in your bag and take off. Time has come for you to see the world and India has got some money to share too. So I feel that man must travel because from travel you gain knowledge which is very important and that knowledge which is inculcated into your family with whom you have travelled. With liberalisation more and more Indians are travelling and India is shining. I hope that it continues to shine thus creating an opportunity for every Indian to see the world.

About FRIENDS OF THE TREES?
FRIENDS OF THE TREES is an organisation that was brought in by J.R.D Tata and after he passed away it was carried on by Bhabha. This is an organisation that looks into prevention of felling of trees, caring for trees and the environment around you. He set this up because he found that in Bombay there was absolute killing of vegetation all over. J.R.D Tata along with Mr Godrej together set up this organisation to see that we get some law or ways to prevent the killing of trees and in turn the environment. This was the main reason for keeping the greenery of Bombay for which we started having patrons and trustees. We also started educating the school children on how to protect the trees and look after the environment. We used to have various meetings and once a year we have a Food and Vegetable Show. This must be the 60th Show, people come there with flowers, and we have trophies for the best gardens and lawns for private and for corporate and best stalls from international companies. It is inaugurated by the Agricultural Minister of the State and trophies are given on the second day after judging. The whole thing about the FRIENDS OF THE TREES is to create knowledge as to how you should protect the environment, greenery and trees in your neighbourhood and now laws have been passed that you cannot cut a tree unless you have informed the police or the local authorities in your ward otherwise you can be put behind bars.

India as one of the hottest travel destinations and how India can be promoted abroad?
India can get to No.1 but they got to have the infrastructure which till today was not available. However things are moving now although very slowly. Our foreign exchange reserves have now been quite sufficient so we can bring the infrastructure from abroad in the way of cars, planes and trains which we were not having earlier. Secondly we should also see that the infrastructure should also cope up with our national traffic before we get the international traffic because that is the structure we don't have when you can't give a seat to a man in your local area how do you expect a foreigner to come to you and have a seat. And above all, the rates that they charge to the foreigners is something ridiculous. It is 3-4 times higher which desists the traveller to come to the country though in his country the one dollar is a dollar but when you look at the whole south pacific area you can get a clean 3-5 star hotel for 100 to 150 $, so why should he come here and spend 250-500$ a day. When they started the Deccan Odyssey, who do you think is going to spend Rs 15000 a day to stay in a train? It's just a joke and the railways must do the planning well in the sense that you must see the future if you want to get the 20million tourists like China. What we are doing is trying to grab as much as we can which I think is not the right way. 

Security is another thing we must look into. Every now and then there are incidents of rape, murder of tourists which does not make the destination conducive for tourists. Another important factor is the Cleanliness and hospitality of the locals. Take any destination, be it France or Germany or Italy, there are incidents which hook the visitors but there are very miniscule. For example the taxi drivers over there greet you first, try to take you through the shortest route and then they carry your luggage to the doorstep. So until and unless we improve upon all these things I am sorry to say that the numbers will not increase. We have palaces but they are all sold out to Hotels so that market is there but we are not tapping it in the right way. I feel that we should have certain intellectuals of travel industry who must get together to help us to make the visitors come here and feel happy about their stay.

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