History

Immediate after the liberation of the country the owners of the Travel Agencies felt necessity to be united under one umbrella to protect their business interests as well as to secure the healthy growth of travel and tourism/aviation industry of the newly born Bangladesh. To achieve the desired goal travel agency owners of the then period assembled in December 1976 at Dhaka Club and formed an association namely “IATA Travel Agents Association (ITAA)”. Mr. M. A. Talib and Mr. A. N. B. Karim were elected as the Founder-President and Secretary General respectively of the newly formed association. Founder executive members were Mr. Md. Sarqum Ali, Mr. S. Huda, Mr. M. M. Haque, Mr. S. Rahman, Mr. A. Salam Khan and Mr. Masoodul Haque. The newly formed association was then required to be registered with government.

The first Annual General Meeting (AGM) of ITAA was arranged in Bangkok on 10th April, 1978 while the second AGM has taken place on 29th June, 1979 at Dhaka Club. The historic written constitution of the Association was adopted in the second AGM where ITAA was renamed as “ATAB (Association of Travel Agents of Bangladesh)”. Under section 3(2)C of Trade organization Ordinance, 1961 & section 26 of the Companies Act, 1943, ATAB has got registration from the Government of Bangladesh on 18 December, 1979. As per Constitution, ATAB’s Executive Committee should be formed for the period of 02 years through election.

Present ATAB office was established on 17 June, 2007 at Sattara Center, Naya Paltan, Dhaka. ATAB established its zonal Sylhet office in 2006 and at Chittagong office in 2007.

ATAB established ATAB Tourism Training Institute (ATTI) in 2007 to provide skill working hands for the travel and tourism industries. In the meantime near about 2500 trainees have certified by ATTI who are already employed at different organizations and thus ATAB is playing a vital role to create skilled personnel in the country.

Today ATAB is one of the most well-organized and well known associations of the country with about 3500 members. ATAB is considered as a most valuable part of Aviation industries and used to take advices from it by government officials to solve different issues related with air travelling, Hajj-Umrah etc. By this time ATAB has become a strong stakeholder in the aviation & tourism sector in Bangladesh and thus materialized the dreams of its founder members in reality.

First Convening Committee of the “IATA Travel Agent’s Association” were as follows:

Sl.No.	Position	Name	Agency
01.	President	Mr. M. A. Talib	Ganges Travels Service, Dhaka
02.	Vice President-1	Mr. S. Tasleem Hussain	Air Route Service Ltd., Dhaka
03.	Vice President-2	Mr. Mabaswir Ali	Air Link Int’l., Sylhet
04.	Vice President-3	M.A.S. Chaudhury	Capco Aziz Ltd. , Chittagong
05.	General Secretary	Mr. A.N. B. Karim	S.B. Agha & Co., Chittagong
06.	Treasurer	Mr. Masoodul Huq	Karnaphuli Travel Agency Ltd, Dhaka
07.	Member	Mr. Ekramul Haque	Falcon Travels Ltd., Dhaka
08.	Member	Mr. Lutful Kabir	Orion Travels Ltd., Dhaka
09.	Member	Mr. M.M. Haq	Desh Bidesh, Dhaka
10.	Member	Mr. A.R. Khan	Olympic Travels Ltd., Dhaka
11.	Member	Mr. S. Safiqul Hoque	Shamim Travels, Sylhet
12.	Member	Mr. Ajabat Ullah	Globe Express Ltd, Chittagong