To industry

The Ministry of Tourism has put forth the requests of the tourism and hospitality industries to the Ministry of Finance, in a bid to help stakeholders come out of the financial impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, which is at its peak in India.

season for India when occupancies are usually recorded at 70-80 per cent. After our talk with the industry, it seems that the situation is only going to get worse, and the occupancy might even come down to 10 per cent. It is worrisome for us as an industry and as a country as well.”

Since this situation came unannounced for everyone, the first thing that MOT did was to take care of the foreign tourists who were in India. Brar says, “Nobody knew the protocol and what to do even at the state government level.

The tourists had no idea either. Since the symptoms of this infection are so similar to common flu, we first started educating the tourists, state governments, tour operators and stakeholders about ensuring that the tourists are either sent back to their countries or are given medical care in India to the best of our capabilities, in line with the traditions of Atithi Devo Bhava.”

She adds that there were many challenges, especially because no one knew how to go about it. “However, with the support of everyone, including media, we were able to tackle that phase. The second challenge came when we started sending messages to all our tour operators that even domestic tourism should not be encouraged considering the chances of communitylevel penetration of the COVID-19 virus.

I am glad that everyone cooperated. People were holding themselves back, which required collective response at a societal level. Apart from that, in terms of calculating the economic impact, we are in constant dialogue with FAITH and other industry bodies, and they have been sending us inputs on what kind of evaluations should be made and the period required to stage a comeback,” Brar shares.

MOT, in its support for the tourism and hospitality players in the country, has put all the requests of the industry to the Ministry of Finance. Brar says that the tourism minister has met all association representatives.

She hopes that an interim package is announced soon. “We are fully supporting the cause,” Brar claims, adding, “Industry stakeholders need working capital and they are looking at interventions either from the banking sector through easing of norms or support through reduction in taxes.

These are the things that would leave money in the hands of the industry right now. We would be taking with us the representation of the industry and the thrust would be that the industry needs to survive so that job losses do not happen.

I would refer to the honourable PM’s speech to the nation, where he mentioned that we should make sure that we don’t stop the wages of anyone. Hence, all the efforts of the Ministry of Finance would be to ensure that no such job losses happen in both, the tourism and hospitality sectors.”