Andaman Association of Tour Operators (AATO) along with YCCI Supported by India Tourism,Portblair has launched the AATO Hotels and Resorts Standardisation Programme. 68 Hotels from Port Blair,37 from Swaraj Dweep Islands,21 from Shaheed Dweep Islands,and one hotel each from Baratang and Diglipur islands were Standardised . The occasion was graced by Shri S.K.Singh,IAS,Secretary Tourism as Chief Guest and Ms/ Moutoshi Naskar,Assistant Director,India Tourism,Portblair was Guest of honour.

Tourism Minister Prahlad Singh Patel in a written reply to a query in Rajya Sabha said that the central government has initiated a study to quantify the quantum of loss suffered by the tourism sector due to the COVID pandemic. He also said that the record of the revenue generated through tourism was not maintained by the Ministry of Tourism.

In an event held in Mumbai yesterday, the Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI) along with its western India regional association HRAWI felicitated State Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray for making Maharashtra the first and the only state to award its hospitality sector the industry status. Also present at the occasion were Valsa Nair, Principal Secretary, Tourism & Excise, Government of Maharashtra. Thackeray also spoke about the reduction of licences and enabling ease of doing business in the state. At the function, he said quite a few reforms are being rolled out. “Post COVID Maha Govt intends to allow restaurants 24/7 operations in Mumbai,” announced the Minister. Referring to the Union Budget, he had earlier tweeted that there is nothing for tourism “Neither in the budget, nor in the ₹20 lakh crore package announced earlier”.

Ministry of Tourism has no plans to approach the GST Council for reducing GST on all hotel rooms to 12%, Tourism Minister Prahlad Singh Patel said. “MOT is aware of taxes levied on tourism products, including hotels, as the same directly impacts country’s tourism competitiveness vis-a-vis other countries but presently, MOT has no plans to approach GST council,” he said.

Kerala Tourism Minister, Kadakampally Surendran while addressing the Tourism Session of  Kerala Looks Ahead Virtual Summit said that they are exploring news strategies for marketing domestic tourism. “A special marketing plan has been developed in the context of COVID, special campaign has been launched to promote domestic tourism where safe environment and achievement in healthcare will be highlighted.”

IndiGo is now the world’s 7th biggest airline by capacity and the largest outside the US and China, according to data firm OAG. The low-cost airline has a 52% share in the domestic aviation market in 2020 compared to 47% in 2019.

Mumbai-based Raja Rani Travels facilitated a FAM trip for a large delegation of film producers to Kashmir where more than produced from 22 renowned production houses from Bollywood and film industry explored Kashmir’s natural beauty and also had an engagement with the administrative authority of the region.

While reacting on the Union Budget 2021-22,  which was announced today, Pronab Sarkar, President Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) expressed his disappointment that “We had looked forward to this year’s Budget 2021-22  with lot of expectations for the tourism sector getting due recognition with some positive announcements by the Government by way of extending some relief and benefits to the tour operators based on the foreign exchange earnings and releasing of SEIS for 2019-20, which has been kept on hold for the tourism sector. “We were hopeful that our Government will understand the problems, the tourism industry is facing due to Covid-19 since March 2020 and struggling for survival and we hoped that some relief measures would be taken by the Government to help the highly stressed tourism sector. But to our dismay, there was even  no mention of tourism in the Union Budget announcements, inspite of the fact government re-assuring Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas aur Sabka Vishwas, but this is not in the case of tourism industry,” he said. In its recommendations made to the government, IATO has requested a) release of SEIS Scrips for 2019-20,  Extension of service exports from India scheme (SEIS) for the tourism industry for the next 5 years in the new foreign trade policy 2021-25  and increase SEIS percentage from 7% -10%, b) to exempt GST on foreign exchange earnings, c) Tourism industry to be treated as a deemed exporter at par with  IT  Industry  under  export of  services, d) Removal of cascading effect of GST on Tourism Industry, e) Withdrawal of tax collection at source (TCS) for the foreign tourists, f) Removal of GST on services provided outside India to foreign tourists, …

Vishwas Makhija, President, ATOAI said that the Budget was simply disappointing and further heartbreaking for the entire tourism industry. “The industry was looking forward to immediate support to survive and short term measures for critical revival but unfortunately, none of these was taken into consideration in the Budget announcements,” he said.  

Riaz Munshi, President, OTOAI said the budget was very disappointing for the tourism industry since there was no mention of anything for the industry. “We have suffered the most and we should have got at least some relief. Otherwise, it’s a good budget for the country, I don’t know why we were left out?” he said.