Paper: Travel Agency and Tour Operations, Itinerary Preparation & Tour Package Design Module 31: Familiarization with TIM: Passport, Visa, Custom Regulation, And Health THE DEVELOPMENT TEAM Principal Investigator Prof. S. P. Bansal, Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi University, Rewari Co-Principal Investigator Dr. Prashant K. Gautam, Director, UIHTM, Panjab University, Chandigarh Paper Coordinator Prof. Mohinder Chand, Chairperson, Department of Tourism and Hotel Management Kurukshetra University, Haryana Paper Co-Coordinator Dr. Amit Mathur, Associate Professor, CT University, Ludhiana, Punjab Content Writer Dr. Amit Katoch, Assistant Professor, UIHTM, Panjab University, Chandigarh Content Reviewer Prof. Ravi Bhushan, Department of Tourism and Hotel Management Kurukshetra University, Haryana, Jhansi TERMS DESCRIPTION OF MODULE Subject Tourism & Hospitality Name Paper Name Travel Agency and Tour Operations, Itinerary Preparation & Tour Package Design Module No. 31 Module Title Familiarization with TIM: Passport, Visa, Custom Regulation, Health Objectives To know about TIM, TIMETIC and IATA Travel Centre Keywords TIM, TIMETIC and IATA Travel Centre TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Learning Outcome 2. Introduction 3. Passports 4. Visas 5. Health Information 6 Airport Tax 7 Customs and Currency 8 Timatic 9 IATA Travel Centre 10 Summary 1. Learning outcome of the module After completing this module, students will be able to learn about: 1. Travel Information Manual (TIM) 2. TIMETIC (i.e. Travel Information Manual Automatic) 3. IATA travel Centre 2. Introduction about Travel Information Manual: The Travel Information Manual (TIM) is the most reliable or trustworthy name in the air industry for travel. It has been providing excellent information since its inception i.e. from 1963 for travel. The information relates to entry conditions, health necessities, customs and currency regulations. The agency responsible for publishing the travel information manual is INDP (i.e. IATA Netherlands Data Publications). This manual booklet is published on a month basis and helpful for the travel fraternity which includes travel agents, tour operators, airlines, MNC’s involved in travel including the government agencies. It is beneficial for all stakeholders which includes travellers. The travellers are benefitted in terms of time, costs and avoid delays. Source: http://acronymsandslang.com/definition/1103529/TIM-meaning.html The Travel Information Manual is issued by IATA in form of a manual which contains practical and useful information to the air travellers with regard to entry regulations or conditions of various countries. This TIM manual is referred worldwide by thousands of travel professionals working in airlines, travel agencies, tour operations, Global Distribution Systems (GDS), corporate and government undertakings. It contains information for more than 216 nations on travel for all the travel stakeholders. This booklet is the top notch source for air travel conditions and considered as an authentic, reliable and all- inclusive data for the travel fraternity helping the people travelling worldwide. And, this publication is being given weightage throughout the world by the travel organisations, travel companies, immigration authorities and the world Health Organisations. These organisations give trustworthiness and continuity to the TIM for information related to visa, passport, health requirements, customs & immigration requirements, tax charged at airport (airport tax), currency and taxes (duty) paid. 3. Passports: Passport is a document for travel and it is issued by the government of a country which certifies the nationality or in short if we say the identity of its holder. It is basically helpful for international travel. They are customary documents which contains various information related to a citizen of a country such as his/her name (First & Surname), date of birth, place of birth, Photograph, signature etc. It helps to categorize or identify the individual. Some of the countries are also using the biometric information in a microchip embedded in the passport. These biometric passports for store information for identification purpose which may be in form of facial recognition, eye or iris recognition or fingerprint recognition. The ICAO doc 9303 also mentions the document and chip characteristics which includes biometric file formats and the protocols used for communication. The chip stores the digital image of each biometric feature. The evaluation (appraisal or comparison) of biometric data is done exterior to the chip of the passport through e-borders (i.e. electronic border control systems). The minimum space or storage memory required to store information on the contactless chip is 32 Kilobytes of electrically erasable programmable read- only memory or EEPROM and runs on an interface in agreement with the ISO/IEC 14443 in conformity with international standards. This biometric passport or digital passport or epassport (e-passport) authenticate the individuality or the identity of the passport holder and the individual data is present both in the printed form on the data page of passport as well as stored in the chip embedded in the cover (front or back). In order to authenticate the information stored in the chip electronically PKI is used. PKI is the Public Key Infrastructure used to validate the information kept electronically in the chip of the passport. It further makes it costly and challenging to counterfeit the information, after all the security procedures have been completely and appropriately employed. And, this is the reason why the majority of countries are moving towards the biometric passports. Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Indian_Passport_cover_2015.jpg/1200px- Indian_Passport_cover_2015.jpg Normally, these passports are travel documents which help the citizens to travel inside or outside their country. But, at times they may also be issued to people who are not full citizens and may have just right to abode. The passport which has been issued do not creates any rights in the country actually visited or compel the issue country in any way such as to provide assistance by the country consulate. Though there are some passports such as official or diplomat passports which make the individual eligible to certain rights or privileges such as protection (immunity) from prosecution or arrest. A large number of nations permit the admission (entry) to the passport applicants of other nations, occasionally necessitating visa to be acquired, but this process or path is not automatic. Many other conditions include financial charges or other formalities and may include that the passport holder may not be a criminal or convicted for crimes. There may also be circumstances, when one country do not recognize the other country’s passport due to dispute or any other reason. Or the case may be that the passport holder had visited another country earlier due to which his/her permission to a recent visit got cancelled. The Travel Information Manual gives information on passports. The information on passport is given regarding the various countries in the world. And, the valuable information shared with regard to various countries in alphabetical order on travel formalities such as admission and transit restrictions, regulations for minors, adults and other travellers (such as military personnel, crew of airline or ship etc.), 4. Visas: The visa is a government document or authority which allows a person or applicant to visit a foreign country in a legal way. As, the profile of applicants may vary such as an ordinary citizen, diplomat, defence personnel etc., there are a number of visas satisfying requirements for the various travellers. The work visas permit an individual to take job or business initiative in a host country. In the same way, a business visa permits its bearer to engage in some business activity or attend a business conference without connecting to the host country’s labour market. The student visa is a visa of non-immigrant type, which permits the applicant to enrol in an educational institution. If the applicant is applying for high school degree, he needs to have a visa for temporary residence. Refugee or Asylum visa permits the individuals to live in an alien country owing to any war, natural disasters or other circumstances. Similarly there are many visas such as spousal visa (permit the better half or partners to stay together, when they do not hail from the same country), working holiday visa (allows the applicant to take temporary employment in the country visiting), Spousal visa (allows partner to visit each other), transit visa (for layover in a country), evisa (electronic visa which is stored in a database and not stamped or glued, rather it would be a paper document given for travelling) and Immigrant (to let an bearer to live permanently in a country) Vs. Non-immigrant Visas (to let an bearer to live temporarily in a country). Source: http://businessplanvisa.com/ A visa is primarily an authentication that all his documents or Charta has been seen. It allows an individual or the bearer to live in a particular country for a fixed duration or even the number of permitted visits or even permit to work in a country. It may also allow an individual to enter a particular region, district or a destination. In each instance, a visa is subject to entry permission by an immigration official at the time of actual entry, and can be revoked at any time. The visa may be present on the passport in form of a stamp or a sticker or a print document or even an electronic record of authorization. There may be nations which may permit a bearer to visit a country for a longer or shorter duration. Even some countries may allow the individuals to visit their host country without visas for short visits (duration or day). Even some countries may require their citizens or even foreign guests to get an “exit visa” to leave the country. For example, the Svalbard which is a special area or territory in Norway allows citizens of certain country or Schengen area countries to visit this territory without a Visa under the conditions of the Svalbard treaty.