‘Must keep our faith in the government’
Rikant Pittie, Co-Founder, EaseMyTrip.com, along with other OTAs, met tourism minister Prahlad Singh Patel and discussed revival measures, including safety & security at hotels and destinations, homestays and guest houses as alternative stay options, redu
Ralong with other OTAs, apprised the minister on why hotels in the country should be opened, and the need for hygiene & safety provisions for people who’d want to resume travel.
ikant Pittie,
“A lot of discussion happened. We requested that the entire industry wants hotels to be opened, because that’s one thing where tourism will really start. The minister is also quite focused on doing that and has been getting similar requests from other industry members,” Pittie informed.
The delegation discussed other issues as well and elaborating on them, Pittie said, “We deliberated on how we can actually help in getting a safe and secure atmosphere for the people who would want to get into the domestic tourism market, especially for pilgrimage or religious tourism, which was one of the major domestic travel segments even before the pandemic. We suggested that there should be certain norms that could be followed when people visited such places, including set timings, barcode system for identifying who is entering, proper sanitisation before entering the facility, and the use of mask and gloves to be made mandatory.”
He added, “We have also requested opening of government guest houses, where sanitising can be done every day, as today people would be more interested in living in a homestay facility, a small hotel or even a guest house, as they are considered secure. People can be asked to maintain social distancing at such properties, by the government as well.”
Scope for tour guides
One important issue the delegation brought up was of tour guides and the possibility of having virtual tours.
Pittie shared, “We talked about tour guides because many