FHRAI Convention in Lucknow

The three-day FHRAI Annual Convention, held recently at Ramada Lucknow Hotel & Convention Centre, witnessed 1150 registrations, over 1400 delegates in attendance and about 65 speakers for panel discussions.

Kanchan Nath from Lucknow

The recently-held 53rd FHRAI Annual Convention brought together many influential voices and iconic thought leaders, among other participants, to deliberate on pressing issues, policies and concerns related to the industry. Elaborating more on the event, Garish Oberoi, President, FHRAI said, “This has been one of the biggest conventions so far. The event was well-attended as it recorded 1150 registrations and 1400 people in attendance. This is the second time when the convention has come to Uttar Pradesh with the earlier one being held in Agra in 2010. Further, there were about 65 speakers who participated in the panel discussions.”

Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh, 0while welcoming the delegates on the inaugural day, said, “Uttar Pradesh provides immense opportunities in the sector of spiritual and wellness tourism. We are promoting the Kumbh Mela, slated to take place at Prayag (Allahabad) from January to March 2019. The Government of Uttar Pradesh is seeking investments of `5000 crore each year for the tourism segment as stated in our tourism policy.”

On the second day of the convention, K J Alphons, Minister of State for Tourism (IC), Government of India, said, “Foreign Tourists Arrivals (FTAs) have gone up by 14 per cent and income generated through these rose by by 19.2 per cent. In the past 4.5 years, there has been an additional employment of 14.62 million people through tourism. About 84 million people are employed across India in the tourism industry.”

Surendra Kumar Jaiswal, Chairman, Convention Organising Committee, made a request to the government on GST. He said, “If we want more tourist footfalls in the country, we need to have a GST of 12 per cent across all hotels. With 28 per cent GST, guests get alarmed with the room rates and look out for options outside India.”