About 32% respondents feel that the industry will bounce back in six to nine months. But 78% feel that the recovery will take a year. A minuscule 5% are optimistic about a bounce back within the next three months.

Our findings show that there has been a permanent termination of 25% of staff because of the Covid-19 crises. This includes 40% staff in B2B agencies and DMCs that have been asked to go. GSAs report a 13% redundancy and airlines report a 10% permanent employee termination.

The result of the ‘TravTalk Salary Survey’ 2020 has revealed that GSAs are working with 80 per cent staff and only 20 percent of them have got salary cuts. Inbound agents have put only 33 percent of their staff on leave without pay. Furthermore, 14 percent of the outbound and domestic agents have reported putting more than 50 percent of their workforce on leave without pay. This survey was conducted anonymously to discuss some of the best employment practices in the industry.  

Dhananjay Regmi, CEO, Nepal Tourism Board, has met with the presidents of various Indian tourism associations on a digital platform to discuss the way forward amidst COVID-19 crisis. Some of the notable attendees include, Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI; PP Khanna, President, ADTOI; Swadesh Kumar, President, ATOAI; Pradeep Lulla, Acting President, TAFI and Mahendra Vakaria, Immediate Past President, OTOAI. The meeting was organised by Buzz Travel Marketing India and moderated by SanJeet, its’ CEO.

Jyoti Mayal, President, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), has said that they have had several meetings with the Ministry of Civil Aviation regarding protecting the interest of their members, in the wake of the losses they have suffered because of not getting refunds from airlines amidst the COVID-19 crisis and the eventual shutting down of airline operations. She adds, “Tourism and aviation are inter-dependent. Both airlines and travel agents depend on each other for business and hence we have requested the Ministry of Civil Aviation to look at a solution that is a win-win situation for both. We don’t want airlines to go out of business, but also want to save our businesses. While airlines across the world are seeking monetary support for their survival, they should not be holding back the agents’ or customers’ money, which is lying with them as per advance bookings. They should refund the agents and customers, instead of giving credit shells.”

Rupinder Brar, Additional Director General, Ministry of Tourism, says that the newly constituted National Tourism Task Force, will be discussing and laying out the kind of safety measures and protocols that will be followed by tourism stakeholders, including hotels, agents, tour operators, etc. This is the reason that various associations will be a part of the task force. She adds, “We want to widen the ambit of inputs because there are so many people to value add to tourism and hospitality as an industry. We would be benefitted by wider participation and inputs, as each sector would have something different to say and each sector would have its own issues. The Hon. Minister is keen that we work on this task force with different sectors.” The National Tourism Task Force is part of the ongoing initiative the MOT to continue its dialogue with different stakeholders. These are unprecedented times for everyone and the MOT wants to hear the industry’s problems and also some ideas on what can be the way forward, what can be done, and how do we take tourism forward and take care of all our stakeholders.

Asia is predicted to spearhead a return to visitor growth across Asia Pacific in 2021 according to the newly updated forecasts released last week by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA). During the expected recovery phase in 2021, Asia is expected to generate significantly improved arrival numbers, rebounding from a loss of almost 104 million visitors between 2019 and 2020 to growth of 5.6% in 2021 relative to 2019, delivering more than 18 million more arrivals over that period. Taking into account the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the volume of arrivals under a most likely scenario is now expected to return to over 610 million in 2021, barring any other unforeseen interventions. This initial recovery is expected to see growth of around three percent above 2019 levels and herald a return to the initial forecast levels shortly thereafter. This growth in international visitor arrivals (IVAs) is likely to vary by source regions, with Asia expected to rebound with the fastest growth rates relative to 2019. The Americas, which is expected to show the lowest contraction in its rate of growth in 2020, is forecast to continue with much weaker growth rates over the years to 2024. Arrivals into the Americas are expected to be relatively strong in 2021, with a net increase of 2.9 million visitors relative to the volume generated in 2019. This is expected to be driven largely by intra-regional flows (Americas-to-Americas) which, after a decline of 4.3 million arrivals between 2019 and 2020, are expected to recover rapidly and generate more than 2.5 million arrivals into the Americas relative to 2019. By the end of 2021, total IVAs into the Americas are projected to be close to three percent above …

As per HVS revised estimates, RevPARs in the organised hotels segment are expected to decline by 58% in 2020 due to COVID-19 shock. Mandeep Lamba, President- South Asia, HVS ANAROCK, says, “The industry has not witnessed such an unprecedented decline in RevPARs in the last two decades, since HVS has been recording this data. We should now use the learning from this disruption and plan for the new realities beyond COVID-19, keeping in mind that we need to better prepare ourselves for future events of a similar or even more vicious impact.”

The results of the TravTalk Salary Survey 2020 have revealed that almost 77% of the industry has to opt for pay cuts to deal with the impact of COVID-19 crisis. The survey on staff salaries indicated that 90% of B2B agents and DMCs have effected pay cuts for their staff while only 67% of GSAs have chosen to cut the salaries of their staff. Around 72% of inbound companies have also implemented deductions in salaries of their employees to deal with the adverse impacts of no business in the industry. The survey was conducted anonymously (without recording any detail of the respondents) to assess and discuss the best employment practices in the industry.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) in its latest estimation based on a scenario of severe travel restrictions lasting for three months, with a gradual lifting of restrictions in domestic markets, followed by regional and intercontinental predicted that the Indian aviation sector among the Asia Pacific countries would be the worst hit as close to 29.32 lakh jobs are likely to be at risk in the sector during 2020. The report also said that the revenue of the sector in India may fall by $11,221 million this year compared to 2019. Further, passenger demand is likely to fall by 47 per cent in the country. Conrad Clifford, IATA’s Regional Vice President for Asia-Pacific, said that airlines in the region face a liquidity crisis with a $61 billion cash burn in the second quarter of 2020.