Reviving tourism and hospitality

The domestic tourism has started to recover, but international travel should be gradually reopened to ensure a better recovery, suggest experts, adding that the success will depend on a collaborative effort from all key stakeholders, including public and private participants.

Janice Alyosius

One of the worst-hit sectors due to the pandemic is the tourism and hospitality sector. The sector, which has immense potential to lure investments, offer employment opportunities and become one of the key economy drivers, has been on the chopping block in recent years.

At the CII Northern Region Summit on Tourism & Hospitality 2022, Zubin Saxena, Co-Chair, CII Northern Regional Committee on Tourism & Hospitality and Managing Director & VP, Radisson Hotel Group, said, “India needs to stimulate its domestic demand by ways of promoting domestic tourist destinations through proper outreach by way of advertising and leveraging social media and providing safe and hygienic options that will ensure a greater tourist footfalls.”

He also spoke about promoting India’s rich and diverse destinations as it will contribute to the revival of the sector. “Because international tourists are not likely to return for quite some time (likely until 2024), the focus must be on boosting domestic travel demand,” he said.

According to Saxena, more emphasis should be given to the revival of domestic demand in tourism. Domestic tourism policy must be shaped by collaboration between all stakeholders, including the government of India’s state boards and various ministries for at least the next two to three years in order to build confidence and encourage the best of smart and digital technologies while maintaining hygiene and safety standards.

In an interview with Jaideep Dang, Managing Director, Hotels and Hospitality Group, South Asia, JLL, emphasised that steps like carefully planning policies, fiscal and liquidity measures, focusing on health protocols, and investing in innovation and digitalisation are all needed to support the sector, which will be essential in aiding the nation’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The ministry of tourism is working on a variety of initiatives to revive the sector, which include fiscal and regulatory relief measures, confidence building measures for travellers, and reviving domestic tourism, said Rakesh Kumar Verma, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Tourism.

The government had taken a number of fiscal and regulatory measures in the aftermath of first wave of COVID such as a moratorium on repayment of loans, support for PF contribution and relaxation in compliance under various laws. Moreover, the government has announced the Atmanirbhar Bharat package and the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) to support the sector, the officer said.

“Since the tourism sector has been largely informal and fragmented, so few of them have been formally registered as MSMEs,” he added.