Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

Expressing his views on Budget exclusively with TravTalk, Harmandeep Singh Anand, MD, Jagsons Travels & Co-founder, GPS, says, “It is pointless to follow the Budget. In most instances it does not deliver much for the tourism industry. Somewhere down the line, the implication will be on the end consumer in the form of a cess. Why we are still expecting big things from our Union Budget. The government has clearly said be ‘Atmanirbhar’ and this time it was indeed an Atmanirbhar Budget,”

Pradeep Lulla, Acting President, Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) shared his comments on the Budget and says, “This year’s Budget is very disappointing, specially for the tourism sector. We had collectively put across many suggestions to the Ministry of Tourism. Unfortunately, not one suggestion has been looked into or considered. The fiscal deficit which is 9.5 is quite large and some sort of allocation to tourism should have been given.”    

Expressing his disappointment in the Union Budget, Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, Vice President, Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI), says, “The Union Budget 2021 has disappointed the hospitality industry. The industry has been bleeding, and the FHRAI has brought it to government’s notice through several representations time and again. Our pre-Budget memorandum to the Hon’ble Finance Minister included some priority reforms to stabilise the industry such as Review of the Kamath Committee recommendations, Classifying Hospitality under the RBI Infrastructure lending norm criteria, Industry status to hotels, restaurants and resorts across the country, include hospitality and tourism in the concurrent list, MAT waiver for a period of three years, IGST billing to hotels for corporate and MICE bookings. The hospitality industry is disheartened and feels demotivated in its darkest hour. With zero foreign exchange earnings and less than 25 per cent of pre-pandemic revenues, the sector is facing an existential crisis. We stand by and come through for the Govt. in its every need, as we did during this pandemic, but we are surprised that the sector could not find even a mention in the FM’s budget. We wish our government would study what other countries have done to ensure tourism, the worst-hit sector, is kept alive. It has yet again completely and fully chosen to ignore us.”  

In response to the request by Confederation of Kerala Tourism Industry (CKTI) and FHRAI to allow reopening of spas and Ayurveda centres in the state, Kerala government has said that the same will be allowed to operate with strict compliance of COVID protocols and guidelines, to help overcome the crisis faced by the tourism industry.

Madhya Pradesh Tourism recently organised a virtual roadshow for travel agents and tour operators of Pune. “We are hoping that this roadshow will stimulate their curiosity, and they in turn will lead their guests to explore and experience MP,” said Sheo Shekhar Shukla, Principal Secretary – Tourism, Govt of MP and Managing Director, MPTB.

With the objective of expanding Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport’s current capacity of handling 2.5 crore passengers annually to 3.4 crore, a growth of approximately 36 per cent, GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL) has successfully priced an offering of $300 million bond in the international bond market.

The Fern Hotels & Resorts has further etched its imprint in the state of Gujarat by opening two new properties at Kevadia (Statue of Unity) and Junagadh. With the opening of these hotels, the group now has a presence of 19 hotels in 17 cities across the state. The two hotels will together add 355 rooms to the group’s existing inventory.

IndiGo has announced direct flights from Kurnool to Bengaluru, Visakhapatnam, and Chennai March 28 onwards, strategically enhancing regional connectivity in southern India. The LCC will begin these operations under the UDAN scheme.

Minister of Tourism & Culture, Prahlad Singh Patel inaugurated the second edition of India Dialogues Conclave, hosted at Delhi’s Shangri-La Hotel. The platform has been created with the vision of giving voice to young India on the digital surface at large. It allows Heads of state, political leaders, social media icons, youth icons, ministers, policymakers and game changers to present their views. 

Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) hopes the government will consider its suggestions for good governance and ease of doing business for the travel trade. Sharing her expectations on Budget, Jyoti Mayal, President of TAAI, says, “We believe the Budget 2021 should be focused more on spendings to enable economic growth,  what better area to spend in than tourism to generate more cash flow and earnings to enable enhancement of infrastructure.” She adds, “We have already appealed for have a uniform GST across India whereby input tax credits can be taken for services utilised across the country. The GST for tour operators should be at 1.8% with full setoff, being 18% on an average margin of 10%. Interstate credit of GST are not available to travel agents and tour operators on IGST and the same should be considered at par which shall not only benefit the corporates but the consumers are large. The similar being with airlines on the point of departure.” We are expecting the FM to ensure LTC benefits not utilised this year due to the pandemic should be permitted to be carried forward in the coming 2 years. Further to boost the economy all expenses made for travel, tourism, MiCE, adventure, domestic and religious travel, by the tax payer should be fully exempt from income tax for the next 2 years, states Mayal. The FM should also ensure 10% SIES credit to be adjusted completely under income tax. To ensure growth in tourism and all incomes from foreign exchange earnings should be given a tax holiday for a period of 2 years. TCS too to should be rescinded as it serve no purpose of tax collect and …