Clear recovery hurdles urgently: IATO
Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) urges the Union government to resolve the issues that are creating hurdles for revival of inbound tourism in the country. The association also raises other industry problems, including refund from Jet Airways; mandatory web-check-in and self-declaration on Air Suvidha portal.
Despite borders opening and international flights restarting, inbound travel is still facing recovery issues. Highlighting the same, Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO, has urged the Union government to remove hurdles in the revival of inbound tourism to India. The association has also sought the government's help in getting refund of travel agents from Jet Airways.
Clear inbound hurdles
Mehra has written to G. Kishan Reddy, Union Tourism Minister, requesting him to push the government to withdraw requirement of submission of self-declaration form on the online Air Suvida portal for foreign nationals. Currently, foreign tourists who intend to visit India have to submit a self-declaration form and attach documents, which is cumbersome for foreign tourists, especially the elderly. Thus, a number of foreign tourists have reported to have been offloaded, which is giving negative publicity, resulting in many tourists skipping to travel to India.
“On one hand, we are looking to bring more foreign tourists to India and on other hand, we are making it difficult for tourists to consider India as a destination by creating hindrances. Now under the present situation, many countries have abolished all hurdles to attract more tourists. This is high time now that the situation is much better, we should consider removing such hurdles for foreigners. IATO has, therefore, requested that requirement of submission of self-declaration form on the online Air Suvida portal should be removed to encourage foreign travellers to visit India, so that inbound tourism to India could be revived,” he said.
Lift web check-in mandate
Mehra also wrote a letter to the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), pointing out the problems foreign travellers are facing while travelling in India due to compulsory Web Check-in forced by all the domestic airlines. He mentioned that the basic purpose of web check-in is to avoid rush at the baggage counters, which is defeated as all travellers have to stand in queue for handing over check-in baggage since there are no separate queues or counters for those who have already done the web check-in. “Also airlines are charging ` 200 per traveller, who have not done the web check-in. IATO has requested that directives should be issued to all the domestic airlines, not to make it compulsory for the travellers to do web check-in and facility of issuing boarding pass should be available from the airline check-in counters at the airport for those who have not done web check-in. It is the responsibility of the airline to issue boarding pass and baggage tag to the air travellers, hence there should not be any additional charges of ` 200 for the boarding pass,” he added.
Jet Airways’ refunds
In an another letter, IATO has also raised an issue of pending refunds of the travel agents from Jet Airways for over two years. Mehra welcomed the resumption of Jet Airways flights from the next quarter (July-September 2022) after getting the DGCA approval. However, he has written to the DGCA that a large amount of money is lying with Jet Airways for over two years towards the amount paid by the ticketing agents, which Jet Airways has not refunded in spite of repeated reminders by the agents. “In addition to this, advance deposits towards group bookings made by the travel agents for the ticketing of groups are also with Jet Airways. IATO has requested that operation of
Requirement of submission of self-declaration form on the Air Suvida portal should be removed
Jet Airways flights should be kept in abeyance till the time refunds are made to the travel agents. It should be made compulsory for all the airlines operating in India to give bank guarantee to protect the interest of travel agents.”