E.M. Najeeb, Chairman and MD, Air Travel Enterprise Group, says, “Union Budget 2016 is a welcome move and a very mature one by the Finance Minister. While the details are awaited, we are very positive and would really appreciate that the infrastructure allotment will include development in the tourism circuit. I welcome the focus on aviation industry and development of airports, which has been mentioned in the budget. The budget focused on social, agriculture, education, infrastructure and railway, and it scores seven out of ten for me.”

Commenting on the General Budget 2016-17, Jyotsna Suri, immediate past president of FICCI, said, “Nothing for tourism this year, is it something new? Overall the budget this year was on infrastructure, rural development and spending on buildings. That is what is the need of the hour. This is going to increase the economy and that will somehow affect tourism altogether. Though we didn’t have much for tourism this time like last year I think if economy grows tourism will grow.”

Expressing disatisfaction over the Budget ’16, Conrad Clifford, Regional Vice President, Asia Pacific, International Air Transport Association (IATA), said, “The budget had a minimal focus on aviation. We hope the government will do a better job with the National Civil Aviation Policy. While the NCAP is a step in the right direction, there are areas of concern, especially where it adds costs to the industry or where it deviates from well-established global standards. We hope the government will address three priority areas – retract the 2 per cent Regional Connectivity Fund levy, abandon the plan to auction traffic rights, and allow AERA to perform its functions independently by not enshrining any ‘Till’ for airport charges in the Policy document.”

Jyoti Kapur, President, ADTOI, says, “With the Finance Minister talking about old airstrips to be developed, we believe that it would result in boosting domestic and inbound tourism. With the Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat scheme, now in full swing the connectivity to remote areas will increase, and it looks like a positive approach for attracting tourists to destinations in India beyond just pilgrimage sites. Also, in the budget, the government has sanctioned a huge amount for developing infrastructure and Swacch Bharat, and we believe that this too will boost tourism within the country. Cleanliness is a huge issue in India and if that is tackled, it will do wonders for tourism. It is still to be seen how the government is going to initiate these programs. However, since nothing has been done about the taxes plaguing the industry, we are a bit disappointed. Domestic tourism in India is suffering despite the rupee being weak, owing to poor infrastructure, higher taxes and connectivity. While two of these things have been addressed, we would’ve been happier had the taxes been rationalised.

Reacting on the General Budget 2016-17, Bharat Malkani, President, FHRAI, said, “The hospitality industry has not been acknowledged in the budget. We reserve our further comments till we have evaluated the notifications of the Budget, which we understand will be out shortly.”  

Expressing disappointment over the General Budget 2016-17, Sarabjit Singh, Vice Chairman, FAITH, said, “It is disappointing to see that the Union Budget has overlooked the suggestions made by tourism and hospitality sector. The Government has looked at debt and dying sectors and it seems tourism industry will be considered only when the sector is dead. This sector  has been dying for the last one year and the Government’s negligence shows that it is not an important sector. The benefits given to the start up companies shows that we, the tour operators/travel agencies may have to wind up their businesses and set up new companies to avail benefits of the start-up sector if we need any kind of government support to grow the revenue from tourism. During the last one year, the industry has met all concerned in the Government policies and most of them have agreed that tourism needs extra flip and support like Export Sector in order to increase revenue in foreign exchange, but seems all efforts gone down the drain. Tourism export is the only segment where all State & Central Taxes are imposed.”

While presenting the General Budget 2016-17 in Lok Sabha, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that ‘Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat’ programme will be launched to link states and districts in an annual programme that connects people though exchanges in areas of language, trade, culture, travel and tourism. He added that to strengthen understanding of each other, it is proposed to create a closer engagement between states and districts in a structured manner.

Reacting to the Budget, Jayant Nadkarni, President, Business Aircraft Operators Association, said, Developing new airports is always good. But we already have many airports without much connectivity. For operations to commence, we need clarity on funding, taxation, duties, and incentives. These are yet to come together for the small aircraft sector in business aviation and in scheduled commuter flights to remote areas. The potential for growth clearly exists.

Malaysia is planning to extend e-tourist visa facility to Indian travellers in order to attract more tourists from the country. According to Dato Daljit Singh, Indian Community Relations Advisor to the Minister of Tourism and Culture, Malaysia, they are looking at drawing in 10 lakh Indian tourists this year. Last year, Malaysia recorded 7,22,141 tourists from India. He said that tourism sector contributes 12% to Malaysia’s GDP and India has always been an important market. Singh is also a member of the Tourism Malaysia Board of Directors, and said that the country is working on e-tourist visa for China and the facility may be offered to the India as well. “After we complete working with the Chinese government, as we are in the middle of the process, then we are also going to work with the Indian government on e-visa,” he said.   Source: PTI

Europamundo Vacations, owned by JTB (Japan Travel Bureau), one of the largest travel and tourism companies in the world, has introduced English guided tours from April this year to focus on Indian travellers and their requirements. In India, Europamundo will be represented by four tour operators— DPauls in Delhi, Guideline Travels in Mumbai,Travel Tours in Bangalore and Akbar Holidays. Europamundo brings in 84 different tours to Europe for the coming season with 3000 guaranteed departures.