Why not tourism, asks FAITH

After not being able to get a specific stimulus package for tourism, FAITH and its member associations have reached out to parliamentarians, asking them why tourism was not  part of the government’s relief package.

Nisha Verma

Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH), along with the its member associations which include ADTOI, ATOAI, FHRAI, HAI, IATO, ICPB, IHHA, ITTA, TAAI, TAFI and Cause Partner – AIRDA, has now started reaching out to parliamentarians. The apex association has released a statement saying that despite more than 100 days of unprecedented collective requests for survival and revival relief, there has been no sector-specific stimulus package for tourism. “On the contrary, in many sub-sectors of tourism, the situation is becoming increasingly unfavourable. FAITH is requesting parliamentarians to ask the question ‘Why Not Tourism?’ rather than the tourism industry constantly justifying ‘Why Tourism’ despite tourism’s pan-India impact on job creation, GDP and forex growth,” read the statement.

In the document released by FAITH, the association has requested the parliamentarians for their support for the Indian tourism, travel & hospitality industry. “The Indian tourism industry is estimated to impact almost 10% of Indian GDP and almost 5 crores jobs directly and indirectly. India is probably one of the unique countries in the world where each constituency is blessed with either natural assets (mountains, seas, forests, rivers, deserts) or with cultural and historic assets going back up to over 5000 years. These tourism advantages of India are packaged and served by India’s frontline tourism assets – India’s travel agents, hotels, tour operators, tourist transporters, restaurants, guides and many tourism helpers. Together they have made India’s domestic tourism the third largest in the world with over 1.7 billion domestic tourism visits and have taken India’s share of international travel market to over 1%, earning over $ 29 billion in forex,” read the statement. Yet, FAITH says that unfortunately, tourism, travel and hospitality have to constantly justify ‘Why Tourism’ to get economic and policy support. “FAITH has requested parliamentarians to raise the question on behalf of their constituency ‘Why Not Tourism’. COVID-19 has threatened the very core existence of humanity, and tourism will be the very last industry to recover when people will travel for tourism purposes only when they ‘feel safe to travel’. Till then, all those tourism jobs supporting crores of families across all constituencies of India whether in rural or in urban India are being lost, which can lead to a huge economic disaster. On behalf of all those crores of families whose economic livelihood is being threatened, FAITH has requested parliamentarians to ask the question ‘Why Not Tourism’ and seek from the Central and state governments a ‘Tourism Sector Specific Relief Package’,” the statement urges.