New business practices must emerge

Sarab Jit Singh, Managing Director, Travelite (India), says that with the growing need for tourism to make a comeback post COVID, all concerned ministries and the private sector must come together to formulate a strategy of revival. With ample time at hand in the interim, policies must be drafted so we’re not caught off-guard when tourists start pouring in.

Sarab Jit Singh believes that with inbound tourist arrivals next to nil, the industry must join hands with the government to decide how they must move forward – whether to continue the old way of doing business or adopt new ideas and a new approach to help regain lost ground and put tourism’s revival on the fast track. He insists that much can be achieved through marketing and promotion as well as developing destinations that tourists are looking forward to visiting.

Singh adds, “The government and private sector need to sit and discuss this in detail. Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Commerce & Industry (MoCI), Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and other ministries should work on things together. The speed with which the approval and certification has been done for the COVID-19 vaccine is needed for the tourism sector as well, so that we can put tourism back on the rails without losing time. Whenever tourism starts post-COVID, we should be ready.”

While private players may have a lot of issues because of the financial crunch, the government, believes Singh, will have to come up with a policy to support the marketing initiatives, and a marketing development fund must be made available to tour operators and other companies trying to promote their products in the international market.

“It is very important to have a large number of tour operators in every region across the globe to sell Indian products. This may need a lot of persuasion and financial support, and the governmentshould be looking at incentivising operators who are giving results,” he asserts.

Contribution of MoCI

Singh points out that SEIS is now the only hope for tour operators, who are looking for the incentive to come in so that they can have some financial support.

“The government has not given that incentive to us for the last year and we look forward to when it will give the same. I think, MOT and MoCI should be doing things collectively rather than individually. The need of the hour is to have a mega show once the situation improves, and invite tour operators and media representatives from around the world to make an impact,” he explains.

MDA scheme

Speaking about the MDA scheme, Singh says, “The scheme keeps out people who don’t have business of more than Rs. 2 crore and those doing business of more than Rs. 25 crore. This is incorrect because successful people are getting business over Rs. 50-100 crore. If we support them, there will be better possibility of getting more business into India than supporting new entrants. The government should support green shoots through a separate fund. Also, everybody shouldn’t have equal assistance under MDA. A person with a Rs. 5 crore business and someone with a Rs. 25 crore business cannot have the same claim of Rs. 10 lakh.”

Steps for quick revival

Equate tourism exports with merchandise exports

Tourism exports not be taxable like domestic sales

Tax refund or exemption be decided between government and private sector

Targets must be time-bound, aggressive and collective

Government to help both foreign and Indian carriers