Learn to promote better

PP Khanna, President, ADTOI, claims that amid the COVID-19 crisis and the subsequent lockdown, they’ve been educating their
members on destinations to help promote domestic tourism better.

While the industry talks about domestic tourism, ADTOI is taking the lead in educating its members on different destinations and hotels, claims PP Khanna. “We are making our members utilise the time during the lockdown period in learning to promote domestic tourism more effectively. Hence, we spoke to a few states, tourism boards and hotels for educating our members online, so that they could take advantage of the time at hand and learn about the potential of domestic tourism and tourist spots of Indian states. They can also learn about hotels, to promote them and learn about the steps the hotels are taking for the safety and security of their clients. Hence, we started talking to some of the state tourism boards, like Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, who came forward and gave presentations to our members. For hotels, brands like ITC, Taj and Accor have already conducted educational programmes for our members,” he shares.

They are also making sure that ADTOI members manage their finances well. “Considering the implications of GST for the travel and tourism industry during COVID-19, ADTOI organised a conclave on May 2 on GST for members where Ashu Dalmia, an FCA and GST professional, answered all the queries of our members. We have done one webinar called ADTOI Connect, which was a session on business automation and was attended by many of our members. I am sure they must have benefitted from it and learnt about digital changes in the future, which they should adopt to revive their business,” Khanna says.

Speaking of government support, he adds that they, as an industry, are awaiting a result from the ministry. “Almost five crore people are engaged in the industry, sharing 9.2 per cent in the GDP of the country. FAITH, the unified body of 10 associations, along with FICCI, CII and PHD, has taken up the requirement of a bailout package with the ministries of tourism and finance,” Khanna says.