Biji Eapen
President, IAAI
The second wave of pandemic severely smashed travel and tourism and downed the economic growth. Natural recovery needs globally coordinated, risk-based solutions in a phased manner, where inbound and outbound tourism plays a significant role in the country’s financial health.
The economic recovery depends on the steps to build and restore our brand’s bad reputation. It is not a deficiency in services or customer dissatisfaction. The catastrophic health situation in India has shaken the image of India. Regaining customer trust and confidence isn’t easy. It is a long process, which needs a lot of homework and coordination with all industry stakeholders.
Five lakhs or million free visas will not attract or bring foreign tourists unless most Indians are vaccinated and regain and restore our tarnished image. Restoring confidence for people to begin travelling is the primary task for the government and related organisations. We need travel recovery to start from the ground level - villages, cites, and the metros. It depends on the vaccination drive and immunisation.
We must slowly focus on domestic tourism, building trust with the locals to travel within their states or beyond, non-crowded places with confidence. And for one or two years, people will not have much money to spend on luxury, households, or eatables. For a good start, Government should reduce GSTs and other taxes. Local governments and suppliers should offer special incentives to attract travellers.
The increase in diesel and petrol price bound to impact airlines, trains and automobiles. Rising fuel costs will adversely affect the revival of tourism. It will move commodities like food grains, fruits and vegetables and make hotel tariffs, staying and dining costly. Moreover, with fuel prices hiking daily, planning for vacations and trips will become crucial, as airfares and other expenses may vary.
In India, travel and tourism are represented through various trade associations based on their nature and scope, like adventure, medical, wellness tourism, etc. While appreciating Central Government’s financial assistance as a positive step, we suggest extending the benefit to all IATA Accredited Travel Agencies and Travel and Tour Agencies approved by respective State Governments in India to revive the tourism industry at large.
Survival of IATA ticketing agents and retaining their global accreditations is our priority. Since international flights, curtailed, the financial guarantee becomes a “white elephant”. Agents’ representatives in APJC-India overlooked the possibility to recommend lower financial security within the ambit of Resolution 812. As a temporary relief to the agents’ fraternity, we suggested opting for IATA GoLite accreditations to avoid BSP charges and financial securities. Agents have the flexibility to revert to ‘standard accreditation’ when the situation is back to normal.
As a re-start to air travel and tourism, we at IAAI and our new initiative ‘Air Passengers Right Forum’ plan to provide extensive training to our members and travelling public on their rights based on the Air Passenger Charter of 2019. It is a facelift for Agents to enhance knowledge, trustworthiness and accountability and restore customers’ confidence and reliability in it.
Travel and tourism are coexisting value chains, or ecosystem encompasses transportation, accommodation, food and beverage, business support services, infrastructure, and several other industries serving and catering to travellers. It highlights the value and importance of workplace and culture, meets the ability to attract skill, employ and retain customers, and innovatively and effectively address their issues.
The pandemic has indeed affected or may affect many skilled and unskilled travel and tourism workforce and many of them have left the industry during these sixteen months for their survival. However, we have confidence in a strong recovery once vaccinations and other measures reduce disease transmission. The industry will come back, and sooner or later, the skilled people will have the better choice to connect with the customers and to meet their satisfaction.