GST: Shot in the arm of hospitality industry

According to Bjorn Noel DeN DeNiese, VPSales Sales an and Marketing, ing, Mayfa Mayfair Hotels and Resor Resorts, Sikkim showed a phenomenal enal growth this summer mer with a surge of more than 101 per cent of tourist arrivals;arr Odisha sha showedshowe encouraging aging growthgrow in the leisure ma market with new initiativesinitiat by the state gov government. “The biggest problem across the hospitality industry is GST. This has beenbee further complicated by unclear conceptions on the taxation to be applied among amongst some of the bigger OTAs, resulting in us refusing several bookings.” For DeNie DeNiese, air and rail connectivity; investment through organised and sustainable tour tourism development and cross border trade and tourism is absolutely essential for tourism growth in the East. Mayfair will soon be launching its Himalayan Hotel at Kalimpong, a property in Siliguri and another one in Raipur, he adds. Indian domestic air traffic is expected to cross 100 million passengers by FY 2017 and is expected to grow year-on-year and thus there is similar growth in eastern India as well, believes Debjit Ghosh, General Manager-Sales & Marketing (East & North East), SpiceJet. Ghosh suggests introduction of clear policy on regional aviation to promote faster growth in the East. Other suggestions include changes in policies to bring the general aviation industry on a par with scheduled airlines; privatise existing airports in Tier-II and III cities for rapid modernisation, etc. “Subsidy on ATF should also be looked into by the government, which is approximately 60 per cent of the cost to an airline company. With these expansion plans, the need to strengthen the human resource development infrastructure is immediate. Relaxation of regulations; revising the security requirements; allowing domestic codesharing; budgetary support/viability gap funding for air operations to operators for encouraging intra-region connectivity in East and North East; providing free or discounted utilities need some attention.”