Category Archives: Associations

The Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) is seeking a sector-specific loan restructuring plan from the government. It says that in order to save the industry from imminent collapse, loan extensions should be given to the sector on similar lines as those given under the Prime Minister’s scheme for loans below Rs 25 crore for SMEs and MSMEs.

Sunil C Gupta, Chapter Chairman, IATO -Northern Region, has said that the construction of Agra Metro Project, inaugurated by the Prime Minister, would make many monuments like Sikandra and Rambagh accessible to tourists. “There are a lot of tourists—both domestic and international coming to Agra. The Agra Metro for the first time connects the monuments of Agra and especially monuments alike Sikandra and Rambagh, which due to traffic congestion, distance and time taken to travel to these monuments were not being visited. Now the tourists will be able to easily visit these monuments. The Metro will also ease the traffic. This metro is going to be world-class and will be better than the ones in Lucknow and Noida,” he said.

Federation of Hotels & Restaurants Association of India (FHRAI) in association with its Northern Region Chapter HRANI, organised a webinar to educate members about the MSME registration process, the various schemes and policies of the Ministry of MSME, and the means of availing them. Among the speakers were Manoj Sharma, Assistant Director of Ministry of MSME; and Dr HP Kumar, CMD of National Small Industries Corporation, who spoke on how the hospitality industry can jumpstart their businesses with the help of Ministry of MSME, which offers more than 70 schemes for this sector. The Chief Guest for the webinar was Anand Sherkhane, Addl Development Commissioner, Ministry of MSME.

The Tamil Nadu Travel Mart Society has elected a new Managing Committee after the AGM in Chennai. D Karunanidhi is the new President while Palani Murugesan and PK Gupta are new Secretary and Treasurer respectively.

FAITH has requested the Government that till the time vaccine is deployed, they should set up a targeted tourism transition fund which can make money available on a direct benefit transfer through Ministry of Finance for Indian tourism & hospitality industry. This drawdown by the tourism enterprises may be adjustable over 5 years against their GST & income tax liabilities.  

IATO and TravTalk are organising motivational session by Roshan Suhail, the renowned communication coach and keynote speaker today at 11:30am. The session titled, ‘Staying up’ would help the trade to sail through these tough times and prepare ahead. To register, mail Jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or call 9650196532.

The Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) has stated that nearly 25% of businesses will permanently shut down before the end of this financial year. “The industry anticipates poor business for at least another year. Until then, it needs working capital. If we are allowed to wind up, rebuilding it will prove to be an even bigger challenge,” says Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, its VP.  

IATO and TravTalk are organising a motivational session by Roshan Suhail, the renowned communication coach and keynote speaker on Friday 27th November, 2020 at 11:30am. The session titled, ‘Staying up’ will be fruitful in helping the trade to sail through these tough times and prepare ahead. To register, call Jaspreet 9650196532 or email: jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com.

In its pre-budget recommendations, FAITH demanded that industry status is required for hotels and tourism across all states and export status critical to double India’s share of inbound tourism.

Madan Prasad Bezbaruah, Secretary-General, Hotel Association of India (HAI), has said in a statement that Government should immediately open online applications for hotels to claim the benefits under SEIS for FY 2019-20. “We appeal to the Government of India to make the online application process available to hotels. These benefits are offered to hoteliers as a fixed percentage of their annual net foreign exchange earnings. The incentive enables hotels to subside input costs of imports and facilitates Indian hospitality to match global standards of hotels that a foreign tourist is accustomed to.  Given the hardship that hotels are going through since March, this delay may prove to be a crippling injury to an industry that is struggling with a force majeure scenario. The request to allow the hotels to avail the SEIS benefits that have already accrued to them for the year 2019-20 is fair and legitimate and should be acceded to. It is not a concession,” he said. HAI has urged the government to look into the matter urgently and has submitted a representation to Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) to this effect. They claim that the process will go a long way in providing some relief to the hospitality sector which has been heavily burdened with high fixed costs of salaries, utilities, and licenses, etc.