The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern as the number of cases reported a rise in more countries. As many as 43 airlines have already begun pre-emptively cancelling or reducing flights to China. The reasoning for doing so is a mix of reduced demand for visitors and fear of virus spreading. European, American, and some Asian airlines largely make up the list of those reducing service or cancelling flights to mainland China outright under the virus is under control. Beijing and Shanghai are most affected including flights to Hong Kong also facing the heat. The cancellations are extended on some airlines to as far away as the end of March. WHO said that it is expected that further international exportation of cases may appear in any country. Thus, all countries should be prepared for containment, including active surveillance, early detection, isolation and case management, contact tracing and prevention of the onward spread of the virus.

The Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has announced a ban on ‘domiciled Goans’ from entering casinos (both offshore & onshore) and placing bets in the state from February 1 and said a mechanism to enforce the restriction will be framed soon. “All Goans will be banned from entering casinos for playing purposes from February 1. They can continue to work in the industry but will not be allowed to gamble. The Commercial Tax Commissioner will be appointed a Gaming Commissioner, who will enforce the ban. The authority will have the powers to check if any local Goan is gambling. The Gaming Commission will be given the powers to formulate rules and regulations for the industry,” told the CM in Panaji.  There are currently six offshore and nine onshore casinos operating in Goa.

Rakesh Verma, a 1993-Batch Punjab cadre officer has joined as the new Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism. He has succeeded Suman Billa, who has joined UNWTO as Director, Technical Cooperation & Silk Road Development. Before this appointment, Verma was serving as the Secretary, Technical Education and Industrial Training. He has been appointed for a tenure of five years or until further orders, whichever is earlier. He has also held posts like Principal Secretary, Department of Science, Technology & Environment, Government of Punjab; Secretary, Medical Education and Research; Commissioner, Municipal Corporation of Ludhiana, Managing Director of Punjab ICT Corporation (Punjab Infotech), Deputy Commissioner, Patiala and Kapurthala. He has also held the Directorial post at the Department of Technical Education and Transport Department. An alumnus of IIT Delhi, Verma has pursued B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering.  

During the month of December 2019, a total of 3,77,092 tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 3,08,430 during the month of December 2018 registering a growth of 22.3%, revealed statistics by Ministry of Tourism (MOT). During January- December 2019, a total of 29,28,303 tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 23,69,941 during January- December 2018, registering a growth of 23.6%.

Domestic air passenger traffic grew to 14.41 crore in 2019, an increase of just 3.74 per cent compared to 2018, revealed Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).  The domestic air passenger traffic grew by 18.6 per cent to 13.89 crore in 2018. The decline in growth is attributed to the collapse of Jet Airways in April 2019. The passenger load factors of all major airlines – Air India, SpiceJet, GoAir, IndiGo, AirAsia India and Vistara. The domestic air passenger traffic in December 2019 increased by 2.56 per cent to 1.30 crore compared to the same month in 2018. In comparison, the growth in domestic traffic in November 2019 was 11.18 per cent.

India will be the sixth strongest source markets for International Visitor Arrivals (IVAs) into Asia Pacific between 2019-2024, according to a forecast by Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA). India is predicted to generate IVAs of 6.825mn during this period. The top ten strongest source markets into Asia Pacific between 2019 and 2024 are forecast to include China, the Republic of Korea and Hong Kong SAR in the top three positions, generating a collective volume of more than 369 million IVAs over that period. These three source markets alone are also predicted to generate an additional volume of more than 106 million IVAs into Asia Pacific over the same period. The top group of 11 destinations by strongest IVA increase is likely to account for 77 per cent of the IVA volume into Asia Pacific in 2024. In addition, it is predicted that nine out of 10 destinations will have AAGRs (between 2019 and 2024) in excess of 10 per cent, with India touching an AAGR of 11.5 per cent.

Up to Jan 19, 2020, outbound travel bookings from China were 7.3% ahead compared to the equivalent period of last year, but a week later, they were 6.8% behind after travel restrictions were introduced owing to Coronavirus outbreak, according to ForwardKeys data. Bookings to China have declined from 4.5% ahead to 7.2% behind the previous year over the same time period. The epidemic has caused a substantial setback in flight bookings for the Chinese New Year period, 10th January – 6th February 2020.

Hospitality industry in India has stringent policies which is detrimental to the sector. Mandeep Lamba, President(South Asia), HVS Anarock, further elaborating on his recent report, states that given limited supply of suitable land parcels for hospitality projects and prohibitive costs of the same, the government must relax FSI norms in key metros to upto 5 times the size of land so as to allow a larger built up space in the designated land parcel. in countries like the US, prime business areas such as Manhattan in New York, could have up to 15 FSI allowing for adequate offset for the cost of land through larger revenue generating built up areas.

Ajay Bakaya, MD, Sarovar Hotels & Resorts says, “We are looking forward to opening around 10-15 hotels in 2020 and I hope to crack 100-hotel mark by the end of this year, which means we will be opening 800 plus rooms this year. Some of the locations where we will be opening our hotels are, Morbi, Dalhousie, Latur, Udaipur, Jalandhar, Katra, Greater Noida West etc.

Hi-AiM will be conducting its conference (9th edition), from 6-7 February, 2020 in New Delhi. Hi AiM is an opportunity to meet reputed national and international guests who are mostly hoteliers, hotel developers, hotel operators, technical heads, architects, interior designers, MEP consultants, facility planners & project management consultants. During the two days, leaders of the tourism and hospitality industry will brainstorm in the form of panel discussions and presentations to find ways and means to give a quantum fillip to responsible practices in design and construction of the hotels, resorts and related industry verticals.  In addition to knowledge sharing, various Exhibitors exhibit their products, all related to hospitality industry.