Sri Vijaya Puram / Port Blair | 2025-01-10
Launching a new state chapter in an island destination carries particular importance for a domestic tour-operator body. On 10 January 2025, ADTOI inaugurated its fourteenth chapter at Lemon Tree Hotels in Sri Vijaya Puram, Port Blair. President Ved Khanna was part of the mainland delegation and addressed local stakeholders about the Andaman and Nicobar Islands’ increasing appeal to domestic travellers.
What the island chapter was meant to solve
ADTOI’s own magazine lists Vice President Ashish Sehgal and managing committee members Atul Singh and Vinay Ahuja alongside Khanna. Local leaders including M. Vinod and other island travel professionals helped establish the new structure. The association’s earlier November 2024 meeting had already discussed the need for a dedicated island chapter.
An island holiday is shaped by ferry availability, weather, flight schedules, accommodation inventory, marine activity conditions and permit requirements. National sales networks benefit when island specialists have an organised channel to explain those practicalities. A chapter also gives local suppliers a forum to raise shared issues.
The formal creation of a chapter also matters for destination resilience. Island tourism is especially sensitive to weather and transport changes, which means that sellers who lack local support can unintentionally overpromise. A professional island chapter gives local voices a better chance to correct common misconceptions and communicate operational information before those misconceptions reach the traveller.
The next phase of the story is measurable through the chapter’s subsequent activity. At APTM 2026 in Visakhapatnam, an Andaman delegation was reported by the islands’ media, and its leadership acknowledged the national association’s assistance. That continuation is stronger evidence of institution-building than a one-day inauguration photograph alone.
The ADTOI president’s message to the Islands
Khanna’s contribution was presidential representation and a documented address about the destination’s growth potential. The ceremony did not itself create new airline capacity or remove seasonal constraints; it created an industry platform that could help operators manage them more effectively.
The association’s new presence helped give island operators a voice in a larger domestic trade conversation. It also put the onus on local and mainland partners to communicate conditions responsibly rather than create holiday offers that ignore seasonal or transport limits.
From ceremony to the next trade opportunity
The chapter’s later participation in the February 2026 Andhra Pradesh travel mart shows the continuing relevance of inter-state trade exchanges, one year beyond the inauguration.
Industry experience and travel enterprise
Alongside his national association responsibilities, Ved Khanna is identified in ADTOI’s member directory as Managing Director of Tourwala Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., a Delhi-based domestic travel company. His experience in selling real journeys helps explain the commercial questions raised by destination promotion: access, dependable local partners, accurate itineraries and traveller expectations. The work described above was undertaken in his ADTOI capacity; it was not a government appointment or exclusive commercial assignment for Tourwala. Read more about his travel ventures.
Original reporting and event references
The reporting behind this account can be checked against the following original publications and institutional records: