Meenakshi Sharma, Director General, Tourism, has said that after releasing the operational advisories in line with the SOPs by MHA and MHoFW, they are now working towards a certification for service providers to create confidence in tourists about their safety and health. Speaking at the 4th TravTalk Digital Conclave, she revealed, “We are working on some kind of certification, where we are going to say that a particular destination/ service provider/ facility is safe and hygienic, in order to create confidence amongst tourists.”

A NITI Aayog working group under the chairmanship of Amitabh Kant has presented an action plan for heritage management of monuments in the country. The group in its report suggested restructuring of ASI. “Considering the extended framework and mandate of ASI, it is feasible that the nomenclature should reflect more than ‘Archaeological Survey of India’ in its name,” the report said. Suggested new names include, ASHMI (Archaeological Survey and Heritage Management of India), National Heritage Board of India, HASI (Heritage and Archaeological Survey of India). It also said that each ASI heritage site should be a profit centre by generating more revenues from ticketing, souvenir shops, food and beverage outlets.

Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/C), Tourism & Culture, has revealed that they have decided to launch a social platform along with the states where authentic and factually correct information is put up and it can then be shared with agencies, tourists, online aggregators, hotels, tour and travel companies. “It will be a platform by MOT, and the information available on this would mean that we have taken consent from states and have talked to the stakeholders of these states, and then we have allowed any traveller there. If everyone is not in agreement, then there are chances that they go to a state, airport, or destination and they must stay there, then it will be a dent in our trust. Hence to take such a precaution, we have thought about this platform, and it will be there for everyone,” he said.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has issued guidelines to reopen wildlife sanctuaries and tiger reserves around the country with certain restrictions from 8th June. Wildlife safaris and movement of tourists is now allowed with 50 per cent capacity per vehicle which can include 2 tourists, 1 guide and 1 driver. A family of four will have to hire two vehicles and it will eventually increase the cost. NTCA, the statutory body, which monitors tiger reserves in the country has also asked for vehicle tyre bath for sanitisation. Children below 10 and senior citizens above the age of 65 will not be allowed. Tiger reserves must ensure lavatory facilities at entry and exit points, as no tourist shall be allowed to disembark within the limits of the reserve. In Rajasthan, Sariska and Ranthambore, tiger reserves will reopen while Nagarhole and Bandipur reserves will open in Karnataka and Corbett and Rajaji will open in Uttarakhand. Maharashtra and MP are yet to decide on reopening of tiger reserves.

While certain states like Rajasthan have been allowed to open their hotels and restaurants, those in Mumbai and certain parts of Maharashtra have still not been permitted to open for guests. Commenting on this is Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, President, Hotel & Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI) and Vice President of Federation of the Hotels & Restaurants Associations of India (FHRAI), said, “Hotels and restaurants have been ready to serve customers for quite some time and are fully prepared. But there needs to be proper coordination between the Centre and the state governments. As of today, in Mumbai and certain parts of Maharashtra still, hotels and restaurants are not yet allowed to re-open which is strange as it is further pushing this failing industry into oblivion. Putting deadlines of shutting after 9pm and not allowing liquor to be sold are some of the other impediments which will not allow many restaurants to open even after lockdown on them is lifted.” He added that all HRAWI and FHRAI members are fully equipped in ensuring the safety of customers as well as staff and have been updated about the best practices in addition to the MHA guidelines for ensuring guest safety.

Yogendra Tripathi, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, has said that after the Government has laid out SOPs for tourism stakeholders, including hotels and restaurants, as well as changing the definition of MSMEs for this sector, the MOT will now be coming up with more detailed operational advisories for tourism stakeholders and states, to ensure that operations happen smoothly and consumers are confident of using their services. “We have been in discussions with the stakeholders and we have been taking inputs regarding what they feel is the right way of starting operations. We shared our inputs when the SOPs were being finalised by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. As the next step, to further give confidence to the state governments and industry stakeholders, we will be further be coming up with detailed operational advisories. These will be more operational advisories to help the stakeholders in ensuring that their operations happen smoothly on one side, and this would also give more confidence to the consumers that our stakeholders would be operating, not only as per SOPs, but would be following very detailed functional operational advisories. Therefore, it should help in building confidence not only among the people who are going to do the business, but also among the people who are going to use the services. We are in the final stages of doing that,” he shared.

The 4th edition of the TravTalk Digital Conclave will begin today at 10am till 1:30pm. There will be 3 sessions each of 1-hour duration, which will lay emphasis on revenge tourism, while exploring the way forward. Experts from various sectors of travel and tourism will share their views at the digital event. To register, please email to jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or call +9650196532. Panellists for the first session titled ‘Re-engineering Tourism- Reducing fears and establishing confidence’ (10am-11am), will be Riaz Munshi from OTOAI, Sunil VA from Oman Air, Ritu Sharma from Switzerland Tourism. For the second session, titled ‘What will the travel restart look like? – Managing customer experience’ (11:15am to 12:15pm), there will be Mohamed Khater from RAKTDA, Kamal Hingorani from SpiceJet and Guldeep Singh Sahni from Weldon Tours and Travels. In the third session, ‘India Tourism Board? – A practical vision for the future’ (12:30pm-1:30pm), the panellists will be Meenakshi Sharma from MOT, Arjun Sharma from Select Group and EM Najeeb from IATO.

The state government has decided not to charge any entry fee for the first 15 days after the reopening. Rajasthan has 342 protected monuments and 32 of them are ticketed. From the third week, the monuments will open daily and 50 % discount will be offered on the ticket amount till October 31. Monuments, except those falling in curfew areas, will be open on four days a week: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday for the first two weeks.

Airports Council International (ACI) World and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) have jointly issued a paper laying out a pathway for restarting the aviation industry – Safely Restarting Aviation – ACI and IATA Joint Approach. They have called on governments to ensure new measures introduced for airports and airlines in the wake of COVID-19 are consistent across the world. Any restrictions put in place should be supported by scientific evidence, they added. ACI and IATA are both central members the COVID-19 Aviation Recovery Task Force (CART) being led by the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Angela Gittens, Director General, ACI World, said during a webinar conducted by CAPA India on May 29, 2020, that, “Airports and airlines have come together with ICAO and the wider aviation industry to address the biggest challenge ever faced by commercial aviation in restarting a global industry while continuing to halt the spread of COVID-19. There is currently no single measure that could mitigate all the risks of restarting air travel but we believe a globally-consistent, outcome-based approach represents the most effective way of balancing risk mitigation with the need to unlock economies and to enable travel.” The joint approach proposes a layered approach of measures across the entire passenger journey to minimise the risk of transmission of COVID-19 at airports and onboard aircraft, and to prevent aviation becoming a meaningful source of international re-infection. Such measures should be globally consistent and subject to continued review, improvement, and removal when no longer required, to ensure an even recovery.

In order to understand the pulse of the industry amidst these unprecedented times, HVS ANAROCK conducted an anonymous online survey with Hotel General Managers (GMs) in the last week of April 2020. The survey revealed that despite expecting low occupancies, over 71% of the GMs will not discount their rates by more than 20%. Over 42% GMs believe that occupancy would be close to or higher than 50%, while 46% of the GMs believe that occupancy will remain below 40%. The survey revealed that most GMs expect demand to pick up by Q4 2020.