Where does the industry truly stand?

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the course of tourism and we feel its pulse! While the world talks about the impact of the virus on industries, we delve deeper into the business of tourism in India and understand how it has impacted the very building blocks of the sector – its people!

TRAVTALK Salary Survey explores the implications that COVID- 19 has had in terms of job losses and salary deductions, while gauging how optimistic
(or not) the industry is about the future of tourism. In our endeavour to offer a more concerted look at the Indian travel trade’s situation at present and its expectations from the future, we surveyed more than 800 respondents that
included airlines, travel agencies (domestic, inbound and outbound), GSAs, marketing and representation companies, B2B agents and DMCs, online travel agencies, as well as allied sectors & services. Here, we share with you some key revelations.

We divided the survey respondents on the basis of the number of people they employed. While more than 40% employed up to 10 people, at a close second (32.32%) were companies that had more than 100 people employed. With no previously-set standards to measure against and lack of experience in having dealt with a pandemic of this scope and extent, it is not easy to predict when the industry will bounce back, when tourism will resume, or even know when a vaccine will be out. All that one can do presently in a hope to survive and fight the menacing virus’ impact is to determine where we stand today, what resources are available to us to deal with the pandemic and its financial impact (and for how long), and what else we can do to ensure our physical safety and financial security, and that of our employees as well. A key finding of the survey has been the resilience of the industry in this difficult time.

Salary Deductions
Most of the respondents, almost 30%, have said that due to the COVID-19 crisis they have had to deduct staff salaries between 30% and 50%. However, what comes as a positive sign is that close to 24% said that they had made absolutely no deductions in staff salaries and employees were being paid in full.

Leave without pay
More than half the respondents (59.07%) have said that all their employees are still working and nobody has been laid off or asked to take leave without pay. The findings, however, reveal that at least 16% have had to ask more than 75% of their employees to take leave without pay.

Employment termination
Our findings show that almost 76% of those surveyed say that all their employees are still working. While 4% have said that more than 75% of staff has been asked to leave, less than 3% have somewher between 50-75% staff whose employment has been terminated.

Expectations ahead…
More than 55% of respondents feel that it will take up to nine months for the industry to recover, a close second is expectation of recovery only after 12 months (more than 22% of respondents believe it will be so). That said, almost 27% feel that the industry will be on a path to recovery within the next six months.