Industry shows new zeal
People have already booked their holidays till September 2022 for domestic holidays, to take advantage of early bird airfares and hotels. The warning on new virus variants is disturbing, but there have been no cancellations of domestic tourism till date. People have realised the importance of double vaccination, which is going to be a vital point for the movement of tourism in India. Once the booster dose starts, there will be enough courage and encouragement to travel. India, as a multifaceted tourist destination, can provide beach, medical, hills, adventure, river rafting, pilgrimage, and so on. I wish to concentrate on experiential tourism products, which are a niche and have huge demand in coming years.
We are core inbound operators, and we tried to get into domestic, but it was not easy. We had to give up after a certain time because the results were almost zero. We have been trying to motivate industry colleagues by claiming that this will pass and it would eventually come back to normal. Hence, we should keep afloat. While 2021 was not a fantastic year, we are always looking forward to it. We were hoping for flights to get started after the announcement of the e-visa from November 15. Hence, in December we had five to six bookings only. However, when the flights were withdrawn, all bookings were cancelled. The European bookings were cancelled owing to quarantine. We hope the New Year 2022 will bring more cheer to all of us.
In my opinion, let's stay calm and not have many expectations from the year 2022 till October. While I think something may change after Sep-Oct, but nothing much will happen before that. It’s better to stay without expectations. If anything positive happens, it’s a bonus, and if nothing happens, we should remain happy. We will move forward regardless of anything. Our industry will sustain no matter what. We Indians are very strong and can face anything. We will bounce back in 2023, but not in 2022. We must be patient. Let’s stay calm in 2022 without having high expectations. For all of us, comeback will be in 2023, and for the next 10 years, India will rock. In 2030, we will be number one in the world.
The last one year was tough for the entire tourism industry in India. However, the only redeeming factor was that slowly the market is picking up. Domestic tourism is doing well, which is a good sign. However, international business will take some more time to revive. At the UFTAA conference recently, it was mentioned that it is only in 2023 that we can even think of breaking even. All travel and tourism organisations, as well as their staff have suffered during the pandemic, but slowly it’s picking up. Just like the 36th IATO Annual Convention, we are planning to do Kerala Travel Mart as a full-fledged physical event from March 24-27, 2022. ITB will be virtual now and I hope and pray that everything becomes fine and that the new COVID-19 strain doesn’t create any more problems.
Initially, we were expecting some business in 2021, but a second lockdown happened in April-May, which proved further devastating for the industry. However, 2021 has given us a lot of time to prepare ourselves for the future. Now, we are looking at the year 2022. We have heard that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is not that effective and severe. At the same time, we know that it is spreading fast, despite not being fatal. I believe that from February 2022, we should see tourist arrivals of around 40 per cent. However, summer of 2022 should be normal, and business should be going back to pre-pandemic era, and things will be normal from September of 2022.
The pandemic was a huge setback for the industry because tourism survives only when there is peace and tranquillity around the country. The impact of the pandemic is huge because it happened two years successively and resulted in a multiplier effect. The government has shut its eyes towards a potential industry. We had to reorient ourselves to making a livelihood, and we stand because of the sheer strength and courage of our members. Hopefully, the latter part of 2022 should start travelling again, but under a new norm. There is going to be a paradigm shift in where tourism is going to be in the next 70-75 years. The focus areas are going to change, and we need to adapt ourselves, innovate, and be there.