Sharing his views during the 2nd TravTalk Digital Tourism Conclave, Ankur Bhatia, Executive Director, Bird Group which owns Roseate Hotels and Resorts, said, “I don’t think we will be travelling to any international destination any time soon. So the revenue will come from domestic tourists. We need to look at the localised audience rather than a globalised audience. We also need to look at the context of luxury. At this point in time, luxury is getting out of the house and meeting friends and family. The current situation is far beyond pandemic and we really don’t know when travel will resume. There is real fear in the minds of people. But when we do start to open up, we have seen globally that people will get into their cars and drive to the nearest holiday destination. We see the same thing happen in India as well. I think this is what we will see start to happen first.”  

The government has extended the deadline to submit the bid documents for Air India by two months to 30th June looking at the ongoing nationwide lockdown. This is the second time the government extended the deadline to submit bids for Air India. It had earlier extended the deadline to 30 April from 17 March. The government in January invited preliminary bids to divest its entire stake in Air India, and the airline’s subsidiary Air India Express along with its joint venture Air India SATS Airport Services Private Limited. The successful bidder for Air India will be required to absorb ₹23,286.5 crores of debt after the government transfers Rs63,113 crore of debt from Air India and subsidiary Air India Express ahead of the national carrier’s proposed divestment.

The Sikkim government has decided to close its borders for all kinds of visiting tourists until October 2020 to control the spread of COVID-19 in the state. As of date, Sikkim is the only Indian state that has not reported any COVID-19 case so far. Making the announcement, Ganga Prasad, Governor, Sikkim said that the state will be closed for all tourists activities for the next 6 months. Reportedly, Sikkim was also the first Indian state to enforce statewide lockdown on 17th March. The state borders are closed since then.

Boutique advisory and analytics firm VIDEC has launched a Global Travel Staffing Barometer, an online resource to monitor the impact of COVID-19 coronavirus on the travel, tourism and hospitality industry. The free-to-use tracker offers industry insights on the state of terminations, furloughs and pay-cuts, across industry categories and countries, collated from various sources and updated on daily basis. Virendra Jain, Cofounder and CEO, VIDEC, says, “The travel industry is crumbling before our eyes with more than half a million lay-offs in less than a month. Amid the global spread of the pandemic, companies of all shapes and sizes – from the billion-dollar valued to start-ups – are trimming costs, disbanding, and letting go off their most precious asset, the workforce. The Global Travel Staffing Barometer quantifies the discharged staff and aims to become the central hub for tracking the loss of human resources, and in time offer the first glimpses for the road to recovery for the travel industry.” According to this tracker, more than 500,000 workers in the travel, tourism and hospitality industries have been furloughed in the last three weeks.

Taking measures to mitigate COVID-19 impacts on the industry, the Rajasthan Government has extended a helping hand to hotels and tour operators registered in the State. According to an order by the state government, it has been decided to reimburse State Tax due and deposited by hotels and tour operators registered under Rajasthan Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. The order for a reimbursement of State Tax due and deposited to hotels and tour operators will come into effect from April 1 and will remain in force till June 30. ‘State Tax due and deposited’ means the amount of State Tax (SGST) paid through debit in the electronic cash ledger account maintained by the enterprise after complete utilisation of the available amount of input tax credit of the SGST and Integrated Goods & Services Tax (IGST). This order will be applicable for taxable persons registered under the category of hotels, heritage hotels, resorts and tour operators. However, it will not cover stand-alone restaurants and clubs. Beneficiaries will be entitled for reimbursement of State Tax due and deposited in the operative period in the manner as may be prescribed, provided no reimbursement under this order is available for SGST to be leviable and paid on rental or leasing services, including own or leased non-residential property.

Element has announced a partnership with travel technology company Zenmer to provide its latest advanced booking tool to Travel Management Companies (TMCs) and corporates across the globe. Headquartered in India, Zenmer builds innovative booking solutions for TMCs using the most advanced technologies that connect with all GDSs, NDC, direct airline connects and hotel consolidators and aggregators. This latest product has been developed for corporate travellers that want a leisure experience when using an enterprise corporate booking tool (CBT). Element, which provides cutting-edge travel technology, consultation and support to TMCs across the globe will be adding this CBT to its extensive portfolio. Gavin Smith, Director at Element, says, “We are extremely proud to bring Zenmer out of their home region and make this CBT available to our clients across the world. The team at Zenmer have developed and built a great platform that gives TMCs the CBT they have been looking for” Through its TMC clients Zenmer drives business travel for more than 200 corporates. This flexible platform allows TMCs to self-manage the commercials, suppliers, back-office, and management information while corporates are able to configure the travel policies, approvals, and reporting. Nikunj Agrawal, CEO Zenmer, explains, “There’s a huge synergy between Zenmer and Element in the thoughts, vision and strategy going forward. Gavin and Lizzie Dakin, Element’s director of technology, have the experience needed for this partnership to be successful and we are proud to be associated with their passion. This agreement provides opportunities for both parties, from sales to marketing and technology. We are looking forward to working together to develop time and cost saving technology focused products with the new traveller in mind.” Smith further explains,“Nikunj and his team …

It is famous for its tapas, flamenco, fiestas and endless beaches. But Spain is so much more. To participate, please contact Jaspreet Kaur at jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or call 9650196532. A country with four official languages, home to 15 UNESCO World Heritage cities, and diverse gastronomy and landscapes, Spain is also home to the most extraordinary architecture and a perfect wedding destination. Its cities are as diverse as the landscapes, but one thing that never changes is the Spanish lifestyle. But all this can wait. #SpainWillWait until the global crisis of COVID-19 is over. For now, the Tourism Office of Spain invites the travel trade to learn more about the destination through its webinar titled ‘The Spanish Travel Experience’ today at 1500 hrs (3 pm)

The Indian hotels sector has come to a standstill in the last one month, with most of the hotels partially or completely shut. HVS has revised previous estimates of the overall revenue loss that the industry will face in 2020. The overall revenue of the Indian hotels sector is expected to decline by approximately INR 90,000 cr in 2020, reflecting an erosion of 57% compared to last year. RevPARs in the organized segment are expected to decline by approximately 58%. Occupancy is expected to decline by 31.6 per cent. In the organised sector the loss is expected to be INR 40,309 cr; in the semi organised sector the loss is expected to be INR 8,379 cr and in the unorganised sector it is expected to be INR 41,126 cr. The source for the above data is HVS Research as on 17 April 2020. The industry has not witnessed such an unprecedented decline in RevPARs in the last 2 decades, since HVS has been recording this data. The unorganised segment, which is 10 times the size of the organized segment, is also anticipated to witness a similar quantum of decline. COVID-19 is a disruption that nobody anticipated, but it is now time to use the learnings from this disruption and plan for the new realities beyond COVD-19

The outbreak of COVID 19 has had a major impact on the tourism sector and its revival is of paramount importance, it’s the major contributor of employment as well as GDP. National Tourism Task Force constituted by MOT will meet the challenge posted by the outbreak of Covid 19 and make appropriate recommendations for the revival of the tourism sector in the country. The task force will be headed by Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State for Tourism and Culture (IC), and it will include: State Tourism Ministers; Joint Secretary level officers of the concerned central ministries; Industry associations, CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM, WTTC, etc and the heads of Tourism and Hospitality Associations. Ministry of Tourism will hold the first meeting of the National Tourism task Force shortly in all probability through video call.

Opening the second session titled ‘Where is the money? Selling domestic luxury’ in the second series of the Digital Conclave spearheaded by TravTalk, was Arjun Sharma, Chairman, Select Group, who believes that the industry will go through a deep and prominent transformation in these coming months. “It is just a matter of realising the importance of domestic tourism. Our domestic market is the biggest catchment area after the Chinese domestic market. In fact, all our neighbouring countries have survived on this – be it Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, or Dubai. They have all existed because of the Indian outbound market. I think this is the first time that the Indian travel industry can reposition itself dynamically to create the paradigm that is necessary for that domestic traveller to look at India as their next luxury holiday destination,” he says