Short-term road map for survival

Survival doesn’t just mean the commercial health of organisations or travel agents and tour operators. We all are driven by people. To ensure companies and people survive, one needs to first take care of the mental strength of colleagues and the people, and the industry at large because a lot of people are obviously quite disheartened and disillusioned on what the future has in store for them. We may see a lot of people wanting something else from life because they’ve seen what nature can do to them, and us, in a jiffy. So, while the challenges of social distancing, a health certificate for travel, and visa and connectivity will exist, they will all sort themselves out. As soon as we find an antidote and see the curve of infection going down, we will start to see people travelling again.”

What will fuel demand?

“We do not know how many ‘W’ curves India will see. A ‘W’ curve means downfall, recovery, downfall and then again recovery. Even in the current circumstances, when the global GDP is going down, India is going to see good growth even in the short- term future, according to an IMF report. So, factors like GDP, demographic mix and working- class population work in our favour. All these factors will work in fuelling demand from an India point of view,” Dwivedi explains.

The panellists concluded the day on a positive note of India’s resilience in time of crisis. They also agreed that in the post

COVID world, new

– KD Singh

norms will be the talk of the town. Since it is a question of the overall health of all fellow travellers on an aircraft, panellists felt ‘healthy to board’ must be made a norm for all flyers.