TravTalk India Online Magazine
For India Travel Award Winner — EM Najeeb, MD, Air Travel Enterprises India, India inbound is on a growth path despite small setbacks, but he’s optimistic that these hindrances will not remain for long.
Nisha Verma
Talking about growth in tourism in the country, EM Najeeb said, “Tourism in India is on a growth path despite setbacks owing to policy changes. People will travel despite these issues. They can, at the most, postpone trips to other places, but they will not cease to travel. The major changes in the last couple of years like GST and demonetisation will not bring about long-term changes. However, we need to find out a way to tackle these issues.”
Claiming that his outbound travel company, AT&E India, has recorded 10-15 per cent growth for both top line and bottom line, he said, “A similar trend is seen in our inbound travel company Great India Tour Company. We have been very active in the field of medical tourism for the last 10-15 years and have a chain of hospitals which cater to people from different countries, including Maldives, Middle East and West Africa. In terms of hospitality, we have one hotel each in Trivandrum and Munnar in Kerala. We will soon be opening a new property in Bekal.”
Inbound concerns
According to Najeeb, while GST is an old issue, it has created a negative impact for India tourism. “Owing to this, India has become an expensive destination as compared to its competitors. We have taken the issues to all higher authorities, state governments, as well as the Ministry of Tourism, but we are yet to see a positive change come about in the policy. All the associations have been pushing for a change. The solution to this problem is to move away from the GST regime and the government roll back the tax regime. I hope they do it soon because the foreign tourist arrivals would increase only if the packages to India would be made more affordable,” said Najeeb.
“There is an urgent need for partnerships and consultation between the state governments and the central government. Even associations need to strengthen their relationship with various industry leaders.”
Najeeb believes that the increased allocation of funds for tourism both by the state and the centre reflects the importance of tourism today. “States have not just sanctioned a huge amount of funds for promotion and development of tourism but have also devised tourism-friendly policies to encourage tourism infrastructure. We have a very dynamic minister at the centre who has significant knowledge and wants to work in favour of the industry,” he added.
Najeeb further shares that with GST, the tourist transport business between states has also suffered a lot. “We were promised that with the implementation of GST, travelling between the states would be made easy. However, post-GST what is seen is that tourist transport vehicles and commercial carriages are treated under one category, and this is increasing the cost of packages of travel agents. Agents should work with hotels and transport operators to bring down the cost of packages,” he added.
Need for partnerships
“There is an urgent need for partnerships and consultation between the state governments and central government. Even associations need to strengthen their relationship with various industry leaders,” said Najeeb. He insisted that tourism products around the country, be it monuments, temples, mosques and tourist attractions, need to be on a par with international standards. “The information facilities at the destinations should be of world-class level and have to be made completely hassle-free. There is a lot of improvement in this regard, but a lot of work still needs to be done to present it before international tourists,” he claimed.
Najeeb believes that domestic tourism has great potential for growth. “Owing to the government’s recent UDAN scheme and looking at the growth in the aviation sector, there will definitely be growth in domestic tourism. The aviation infrastructure improvements have supported the increase of domestic tourism.”
