No COVID-19 assistance for India tourism
The India travel industry appears to have gotten used to being treated shabbily in terms of budgets, nonetheless it was surely expecting some solid mention in the massive investment plans announced previously couple of days. But that was not to occur, leaving India tourism shocked.
Weeks of memos and ideas by the leadership to the powers that be obviously had no impact, much to the regret of tourism stakeholders.
The Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH), the policy federation of all national associations representing the entire tourism, travel, and hospitality industry of India (ADTOI, ATOAI, FHRAI, HAI, IATO, ICPB, IHHA, ITTA, TAAI, TAFI) continued record to state that the India tourism industry has gone into a state of disbelief and shock over this development - or should we say non-development.
The India tourism industry was pumped up about a deep set of survival measures for tourism from the 20 lac crore package announced over five days ago, but these measures weren't addressed.
The India tourism, travel and hospitality industry is thought to impact almost 10% of GDP through its direct and indirect sources. It has recently seen over one quarter of accumulated losses which commenced from February onwards because of COVID-19.
There is absolutely no cash inflow expected for many quarters over FY 20-21 as the main element segments of the India tourism economy will be down. The international inbound tourists, inbound, and VFR - (visiting friends and relatives), and also outbound travel will remain mostly non-performing because of international flight restrictions and the tragic impact of the coronavirus in most key tourism markets of India.
Domestic travel and corporate travel within the united states may slightly ease up post lockdown but will be highly restricted because of fear of travel among elders and children, the brand new social distancing norms, corporate travel freezes, and the closure of the vacation season that will impact all leisure, adventure, heritage, spiritual, cruise, and niche tourism segments. The meetings incentives exhibitions and events segment will be severely impacted because of meeting size restrictions.
Consequently, all tourism service providers, the hotels, travel companies, tour operators, tourist transporters, restaurants, and guides will be compromised, and the tourism industry of India will be operating with extreme under-capacities making most tourism businesses unviable on a cash-operating basis.
To prevent this and ensure survival, FAITH had proposed a dedicated interest- and collateral-free long-term fund for paying salaries and operating costs and for a minimum of 12 months of complete waiver of fixed central and state statutory and banking liabilities without the penal or compounding interest. All this is not addressed.
The proposed Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) fund with its many underlying restrictions may have a very limited usage.
FAITH and its own 10 member associations (ADTOI, ATOAI, FHRAI, HAI, IATO, ICPB, IHHA, ITTA, TAAI, TAFI) have been constantly dialoguing with all factions of the federal government over the past 10 weeks - with the PMO; ministries of finance, commerce, aviation, and tourism; with RBI; with all 28 chief ministers; with Niti Aayog; and with the Empowered Group 6.
India tourism, travel, and hospitality is thought to impact 10-12 % of India’s employment which is believed to cover almost 5 crore plus direct and indirect jobs.
The industry has truly gone numb from too little any umbrella direction from the federal government and without any fiscal and monetary support.
Without visibility of cash inflows, the India tourism industry is currently looking at large-scale bankruptcies and business closures which will result in job losses across cities, towns, and hinterlands of India. This has the potential to create back the Indian tourism, travel, and hospitality industry for quite some time.
