Leaving Footprints Behind

After serving at the Union Ministry of Tourism for over two years, especially during COVID, Tourism Secretary Arvind Singh has superannuated. V Vidyavathi, Director General, ASI has stepped into his shoes.

Nisha Verma

Calling his tenure in tourism and aviation, “interesting and challenging”, Arvind Singh, on his last day in office at the Ministry of Tourism, said he came to Airports Authority of India (AAI) as the Chairman within a few months of India after encountering COVID first wave.

“Majority of my tenure was how to battle COVID and get domestic aviation back on track, which we were able to do in 2020 itself. In January 2021, I shifted to MOT and then came delta wave of the pandemic, which had a serious impact on both aviation as well as travel and tourism with widespread job losses, loss of revenue, and loss of business opportunities. There was a period of intense crisis and distress for sometime, but luckily the tourism sector started bouncing back, especially domestic tourism.  All major destinations are reporting very large footfalls, flights are full, roads and railways network is also being utilized fully. Hotel accommodation is very difficult to get at popular tourism destinations because people are travelling in large numbers. That is a heartening situation, and because of all this, major companies and other businesses are reporting encouraging numbers and financial results every year,” he shared.

Advantage G20

He attributed the surge in numbers to India’s G20 Presidency and is hopeful that the momentum will rub off on inbound numbers too. “The G20 tailwinds are helping the sector overall and projecting India as a major center for holding international conferences. It will help to get more inbound into the country in future. Most countries are known to have benefitted from the G20 presidency and I am sure India will also reap the benefits. I am sure the G20 Presidency will help us to gain our pre-COVID levels and surpass them this year. Then it is on us to devise the strategies, marketing campaigns and promotional campaigns to capitalise on the gains,” he added.

Tenure highlights

He said during his tenure at MOT, the G20 was the major highlight in India. “Organising the three working group meetings was a great experience as one had to really plan a lot, work in close coordination with other ministries, the MEA, G20 Secretariat, and with the state governments where the meetings were organized. We got excellent responses from the government at Rann of Kutch, at Siliguri-Darjeeling, especially the last meeting at Srinagar was because there were many challenges. However, at the end, it went off successfully and we had excellent participation,” he said.

Talking about other assignments, he said, “We could streamline ongoing schemes, push work on the National Tourism Policy a little bit further to take it up for industry consultations. We took it to the stage of approval, and now it is at the final stage. I think, the proposal should see the light of the day soon. Similarly, the work on creation of National Tourism Board, the planning of a new media promotion strategy and overseas promotion strategy, was also very satisfying,” informed Singh.

Overseas promotions

With overseas tourism offices closing, India’s overseas promotion policy is set for a huge change. He said, “Once approval comes, the National Tourism Board will be coordinating the work of the overseas promotions. Till then, the ministry will be doing its work through the missions and as and when it will get the nod to appoint private agencies in some countries and the developed countries too. Right now, it will be the tourism ministry and the missions, and once the national board comes in, it will be working on the same with whatever agencies it wants to work with along with the missions.”

Addressing infra needs

Apart from the G20 push that will take India’s tourism to the next level, Singh said, “We should capitalize on G20 to showcase India as a better destination and a 365-day destination. Apart from such campaigns, investment in infrastructure is required to build up tourism infrastructure at some new locations such as new accommodations or skilling facility, because that will be required when we build tourism to the one trillion-dollar level in next 25 years.”

Travel industry

“Some are related to the Union Ministry of Tourism. We are in constant dialogue to sort out these procedural issues, or any other scheme related issues that we may have with the tourism industry. Many issues relate either to the finance or the commerce ministries. We try and facilitate the interaction of the ministry itself or we try and get the industry to get an audience at the appropriate levels. It has worked at some levels, but not in all cases. However, we try to help facilitate the presence,” Singh shared.

Message for industry Singh further said, “Good times are ahead for the sector and there are only growth prospects in the future.”