An estimated USD 4.5 to 5 billion of funding will be required to overcome this crisis, mostly for airlines. Excluding IndiGo, the cash position of the industry as on 31-Mar-2020 was just USD 200 million (IndiGo had USD 1.36bn). The current low oil prices and excess liquidity, both globally and in India, would ordinarily have been positive for the sector. But the industry will not be able to fully benefit or raise funds due to structural issues.

Adani Airport, a subsidiary of Adani Enterprises, is set to become India’s biggest private airport operator after acquiring the entire 50.5% stake of GVK Airport. This takes its total to 74% controlling stake in Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) as well as the proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport Limited. The remaining 26% is held by AAI.

As per the order dated 31 August, 2020 by the Office of District Magistrate, North Goa, there is no requirement for COVID-19 testing for travellers coming to Goa whether by road, rail or air. This is compulsory only for international passengers. Bars have opened, however ban on casinos and river cruises will continue.

The state has issued a directive that allows all hotels and lodges to operate at 100 per cent capacity from September 2, 2020. Separate SOPs will be issued for necessary precautions to be taken while operating these establishments. Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, President, Hotel & Restaurant Association of Western India, says, “We are happy that the government has allowed 100 per cent capacity utilisation for hotels in the state. Meanwhile, since restaurants are not included in the current negative list, it is understood that restaurants are also allowed to re-open like those that have re-opened in the rest of the country. We have sought clarification on this from the government. Also, we had hoped that it would relax the limit of 50 people at social gatherings, especially for weddings. We had requested that this be based on the size of the venue.”

In September alone, Lufthansa will offer 160 flights between India and Germany, more than five per day and more than four times as many as in August. The airline will operate between Frankfurt and Munich and the key Indian cities of Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. Ten weekly flights are scheduled for Delhi-Frankfurt, Delhi-Munich, Mumbai-Frankfurt and Bengaluru-Frankfurt. Lufthansa Group has also launched a free-of-charge re-booking policy for its customers regardless of the terms and conditions of their purchased tickets.

The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) will conduct a destination presentation on Friday, September 4 at 11am that will have a special focus on the Gyeonggi region. Along with KTO, the webinar will also have representatives from Gyeonggi Tourism Organization and a DMC joining in from Korea for product updates. Young Geul Choi, Deputy Director, Korea Tourism Organization, New Delhi office, says, “Each region of South Korea has its own unique feature and characteristic. To bring a better understanding of each special region, we decided to conduct a destination presentation with a special focus on the Gyeonggi region, located close to Seoul. A trip to Seoul without a trip to the nearby Gyeonggi region would surely be incomplete. Gyeonggi province is home to landmark attractions like the DMZ, Everland theme park and Hwaseong Fortress among others. With this webinar, travel agents can add more value to their South Korea itineraries tours and recommend it as the first choice once travel between India and South Korea resumes.” To sign up, contact Jaspreet Kaur on 9650196532 or jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com.

Serafino Cota, President, Small & Medium Hotels Associations, says, “Our members don’t want to keep their hotels open right now. While the government is trying to show that it opening the state to tourism, it is not extending any help to us. Even if we get one guest with great difficulty for a few days, the government marks the hotel as ‘operational’ and then they start charging you for full electricity, water bill, etc. So people prefer to close it altogether. We have decided to open only in September 2021.”  

The Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) has made written representations to the Hon. Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman, the Hon. Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur and to the Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Shaktikanta Das, I.A.S. requesting for an extension of moratorium for additional three months. The hotel industry has made no progress in terms of bookings even after several states unlocked and where hotels resumed operations. The industry has registered average occupancy levels at 10 to 20 per cent. With rental and salary bills, statutory payments and other establishment costs, hotels are finding it unviable to carry on running businesses. FHRAI has informed the Ministry that an extension of moratorium at this time could help hotels restructure existing loans since the process of restructuring is time consuming. Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, Vice President of FHRAI and President of Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI), says, “For more than four months, hotels and restaurants have remained shut and have earned no revenue throughout the lockdown. There is no improvement in forward bookings and wherever hotels and restaurants have opened, the footfalls are negligible. In addition to the monthly outgoings and the statutory levies, we now have to spend more on employing hygiene and safety measures to follow the SOPs and guidelines issued by the Central and State governments. On account of all this, the debt restructuring plan announced by the RBI for the stressed MSMEs is not going to help the sector. Therefore we have urged that the moratorium be extended by a further three months.”

The Globus family of brands is showing its solidarity to its partners by empowering them with vital destination knowledge. Realizing that ultimately one of the concerns faced by frontline sellers is not only lack of good destination knowledge but also it being present with them as a ready reckoner of information and tips that can be used to convince clients. The Globus family of brands has therefore re-launched its destination programmes with ‘I Know South America’ and ‘I Know Europe’ certifications based on popular demand. Globus family pioneered destination specialisation in 2008 with the launch of ‘I Know Europe’. Varesh Chopra, Regional Director, Globus family of brands, says, “A vacation should be absolutely stress-free and unique for every traveler. This is where a travel agent steps in as a partner. We chose these destinations for the re-launch of our certification programs due to little knowledge on these countries and the fact that our opinion poll pointed out these regions as a top choice amongst sellers.” The programs were overwhelmingly successful with over 500 agents from India, Srilanka, Mauritius and the Middle East taking part in each session. Program attendees were put through an extensive training schedule over three days in May, June and August.    

MakeMyTrip.com has launched a new platform that will allow travel agents access to its entire inventory. Rajesh Magow, Co-Founder and Group CEO, MakeMyTrip, said, “We have built our inventory over the years especially in the hotel space. The idea behind this new product is to give access to this rich content to the travel agents. This B2B2C foray will allow agents to use our technology to service their customers. Agents will get a log-in and it will be at no fee at the moment. Any booking changes can be made on myPartner by the agents and our back-end will take care of that.”