‘On the brink of collapse’

Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH) has appealed to Government of India for an immediate survival package as it fears there will be massive job losses with the tourism industry coming to a standstill amidst the COVID-19 cris

local time. Representing the date 23 April 1920, flight TK1920 lasted approximately two hours and followed a route in which the crescent and star symbols in the Turkish flag were drawn. After the flight, which was followed by many through the live air traffic site Flightradar24, a crescent-star route emerged and passed into Turkish aviation history.

TT Bureau

According to a statement released by FAITH, over 95 per cent MSMEs of 53,000 travel agents; 1,15,000 tour operators (inbound, domestic, outbound); 15,000 adventure, 2700 M!CE, 19,11,000 tourist transporters; 53,000 hospitality and 5 lakh restaurants are facing the heat due to lack of cash flows owing to the outbreak. The association claims that the COVID-19 pandemic has jeopardised India’s once Rs5 lakh crore tourism industry that generated employment for an estimated 3.8 crore people.

Over the past six weeks, FAITH had been appealing to the Prime Minister, Finance Minister, Tourism Minister, Commerce Minister, Aviation Minister, Niti Aayog and the Parliamentary Committee on Tourism and Reserve Bank of India. The release claims that all the cash inflows of the industry have completely frozen and are likely to stay that way for the financial year 202021. To address the issues of cash outflows, FAITH had recommended immediate measures for survival that need to be addressed parallelly.

FAITH has also recommended that once the survival measures have been implemented, measures for revival of Indian tourism need to be enforced immediately. It further suggests that in order to stimulate tourism exports, SEIS needs to be notified at 10% value for all foreign exchange tourism companies and needs to be maintained at minimum same value for next five years and for off-season. It could go up to 15 per cent value. To ensure the revival of Indian travel agents, all refunds, advances and cancellation amounts to be immediately paid back by all airlines, railways and state wildlife parks.

Addressing the issue of TCS, FAITH’s recommendation document says, “The TCS on travel agent proposed in the finance bill 2020 to be implemented on October 1, should be completely abolished as it puts the Indian travel fraternity at a huge disadvantage of up to 15% vs their global competitors. Additionally, the service fee for credit card charges needs to below 1% and all corporate travel agent credit cards to be honoured. To ensure the survival of Indian tourist transporters, all inter-state levy