Vishwas Makhija

President, ATOAI

We expect a revival in sync with the pace of vaccinations and a unified national approach to testing, access rules, tests, and opening up of ETVs at the earliest. The recent announcement of 5 lakh free e-visas is welcome, and we hope States will now adopt an approach in sync with the reality of dropping low mortality rates and widely propagate their mitigation measures to instill confidence in travellers.

Presently, we are dealing with the lack of in-person interactions with states, government and policymakers; two years of COVID-19 impact needs much action to revive and renew industry efforts; and our primary aim is to reinstate those interactions and lead with efforts to support, align and promote operator interests. We also seek support to hold our annual conventions, which provide great learning, peer interactions and promote industry confidence.

We are lucky to have a very large base of skilled/semi-skilled personnel in the industry. All we need is for our source and destination markets to open, and support the industry, inspire confidence in travellers through a large media campaign. People must know we will be safe no matter where we travel to.