TravTalk India Online Magazine
Manmeet Singh, Chairman, ADTOI – Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh & Northern India and Chairman, IATO – Punjab & Northern India, believes that the travel agent and tour operator community would emerge stronger after the crisis, as he pegs them as a resilient lot that has already built its business from scratch.
Nisha Verma
The tourism sector, according to the travel fraternity, was snubbed by the government when allocating stimulus packages to deal with the impact of COVID-19. Manmeet Singh believes that be that as it may, the travel agent/ tour operator fraternity is very resilient.
“Most of the agents have started from scratch, worked hard and built their businesses, and if they could do it initially, they now have the experience and knowledge to revive. I have a gut feeling that a medicine to cure COVID-19 will come very soon and basically, all Indians are resilient by nature and can tackle any situation without fear. Their propensity to travel will help in growth of domestic tourism,” he says.
Singh also feels that while the world has been affected by the pandemic, fortunately, northern India has been able to control its spread to a great extent. “At a time when residents of the region returned, there was some spur in cases, but very soon, the situation started returning towards normalcy,” he shares, insisting that the most important thing is safety of life. “Once everybody starts feeling confident of safety and security measures, people will automatically start travelling. This unusual self-imprisonment-like phenomenon will lead to an urge to travel with family. However, the industry would only be benefited if people start hiring services of travel professionals and start opting for more than day tours,” he says.
At an association level…
Claiming that they have been in constant touch with their clients and FTOs, he adds, “Messages of health concerns have been our priority as a company ideology, followed by some initiatives of sharing product knowledge. Another most important thing is to sort out the financial obligations at the earliest, either way which was pending because of lockdown. Obviously, discussions with foreign partners with regard to aggressive business is not on cards, as everybody is waiting for countries to open and understand what kind of new norms will be laid down by different countries, etc.”
Apart from that they have also been in regular touch with their members on online platforms. While Singh also believes, like everyone else, that domestic tourism will be the first to revive, how much of a saviour it would be for the huge tourism and hospitality industry is still undetermined. “If a medicine is brought out, you will see that Indians will start availing holidays in large numbers,” he shares, adding that initially, Indians would prefer to
travel to destinations that can be reached by their own vehicles.
