Business recovery is not far

Ramesh Marwah, Group CEO & Director, Dex Group, shares how in the constantly changing situation it is needed that we remain optimistic and patient because business will only grow when things settle down.

Nisha Verma

When it comes to recovery, Ramesh Marwah, Group CEO & Director, Dex Group, claims that the situation is changing every hour. “The revival and recovery of the industry is dependent on reaction and response to the fear and the hysteria that has been generated by COVID-19 and its variants. Recovery in such a scenario is difficult. The panacea for the recovery of our industry is the opening of the borders and doing away with the air bubbles as it is leading to customers paying a lot. Allowing the regular scheduled airlines to operate in and out of India, is going to trigger the recovery,” he says.

Marwah adds, “We need to build up the confidence of the travellers that the airlines are following all ‘health and hygiene protocols’ for the betterment of their travel. Also, the SOPs and protocols for the arrival and departure destinations will have to be very clear because they differ from one state to the other. There needs to be a unified approach to clearly define these protocols. The agents must also be fully informed and share the same with customers.”

With airline fares on a rise owing to Omicron scare, the question arises if the low fare market would come back. Marwah says, “The surge in the fare is because of the scarcity of seats. With only air bubble flights operating instead of regular scheduled flights. It is the demand and supply equation. The moment borders open and we have more airlines flying in and out with large capacities, the fares will drop to pre-COVID levels or may even get better with demand meeting the supply of required seat capacity. Currently, there is a huge pent up demand, which needs to be cultivated for future.”

When asked for advice to agents who are trying to recover, Marwah says, “Patience is the key. The travel industry colleagues in India have been very resilient. We will surely bounce back very fast. We all will move on despite what happened in the last two years.”

With technology taking a front seat during the pandemic, the fear looms over job opportunities. Marwah claims, “Technology and innovation have definitely helped in facilitating enhanced efficiency and flow of information. There will be a minor shift from the regular way of doing business to the technology area, but in no way would it majorly impact the way of doing business in India, as people feel more confident to interact and communicate with human beings behind the machines. This need to receive information and getting queries answered was strongly felt by those who got stuck during the COVID-19. I think that once the borders open, some shift will be there and it will also help trigger the growth in our industry. However, the way things have gone during the COVID period, the way of doing business will almost remain the same.”

Speaking on reducing manpower, he says, “It is the outcome of loss of business and negligible earnings. Our industry has been hit the hardest. However, if the travel companies have to grow, need and demand for skilled and experienced manpower will be felt very soon.”

He says, “The endeavour and effort from our end is to grow our business. Having gone through difficult times, we need to recover in the shortest time. We want to bring ourselves back to the normal times and search for newer avenues to expand and grow our business to pre-COVID levels and more.”