Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

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 there is a great scope and need to develop tourist circuits on specific themes to attract the tourists having special interest in visiting such places. “Why is it that the circuits or packages available for the inbound tourists are not available for the Indian domestic traveller? There is a need to bring our circuits back to the forefront. Domestic tourism should not be positioned just as a weekend package. We should make it a five or six-day package, whether it is religious, wildlife, or experiential in nature. We need to mix and match, add standalone hotels in the itinerary. Trust me, we don’t have to fear the online giants. We have to work with them,” he says. In fact, the Government of India, Ministry of Tourism had launched the Swadesh Darshan Scheme for integrated development of theme based tourist circuits in the country in 2014-15.

Subhash Goyal, Secretary General, FAITH, has said that there hasn’t been much happening from the Government’s side to help the industry to revive it from the impact of COVID-19 crisis, unlike other countries. “We have asked the Governments since the beginning that either give us a bail-out package, or at least give 50% salary of employees of MOT recognised operators/agents after getting the list of their employees and respective salaries from them, which is already mentioned in the balance sheet. This needs to be done if the Government wants to save the industry,” he said.

After the overwhelming response for the first and second editions of its Digital Conclave, TravTalk is all set to bring the third edition of the online conference on May 15 from 10 am to 1:30 pm, which would discuss pertinent issues in the industry at the time of COVID-19 crisis. There will be 3 sessions of 1 hour each and will see experts from different segments of travel, deliberating on the way forward. The panelists for first session, titled ‘The Reality of NO tourism!’ will be Rajiv Mehra from IATO, Bharat Atree from Caper Travel Company, and Debjit Dutta from Impression Tourism Services. Second session, titled ‘Hotels in the age of social distancing. Where are the robots?’ will have Mandeep Lamba from HVS ANAROCK, Dilip Puri from Indian School of Hospitality and Jatin Khanna from Marriot Hotels. For the third session, titled ‘Big ticket business! When do we start looking at weddings, corporate and M!CE travel?’, the panelists include Rajeev Jain from Rashi Entertainment, Rajdev Bhattacharya from Wipro Limited, and Rajeev Kale from Thomas Cook India.

India’s hospitality industry has declined sharply in the first quarter of 2020, as the COVID-19 outbreak impacts various segments of the sector. A recent report by JLL states, “Investment action will likely get deferred as the sector rebuilds itself after containment of COVID-19, however, we estimate that more assets may fall in the ring for sale in the latter half of the year.” While 2020 started with a strong deal pipeline estimated at about US$ 1 billion worth of tradeable assets, JLL’s findings reveal that growth and development is likely to slow down in the next two years and projects under development will likely get delayed and raising development finance will also become more challenging.

According to ‘Hotel Sentiment Survey 2020 (Impact of COVID-19)’ by Horwath HTL, demand in the wedding segment is likely to recover to pre-COVID levels once the outbreak is over. The survey was conducted among the industry to understand the depth of the crisis, the mitigating measures applied to limit the fallout and the areas requiring supportive measures. The assessment reveals that while 64 per cent of the respondents had agreed to the wedding segment’s recovery to aforesaid levels, 27 per cent believe that it may be even better than pre-COVID levels. Less than 10 per cent felt that the segment was unlikely to recover to such levels.

The latest data from UNWTO shows that at least 100 million direct tourism jobs are at risk across the world even if international borders are gradually opened and travel restrictions are eased as early as July 2020. Should these closures and restrictions be extended up to early September or early December, the international tourism community faces the risk of as many as 120 million direct job losses. Prospects for the year have been downgraded several times since the outbreak and uncertainty continues to dominate. Though domestic demand is expected to recover faster than international demand, a majority of the industry feels, according to UNWTO, that signs of recovery will be visible only by Q4 2020, but mostly in 2021.

A survey conducted by International Air Transport Association (IATA) at the beginning of April reveals that as many as 47% of air passengers surveyed wished to begin travelling within a month or two (by May or June). The survey, conducted across 11 countries (including India), also revealed that at least 4 per cent still continued being sceptical and did not wish to travel for the foreseeable future. Respondents for the survey were from Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and the Unites States.

Pradip Lulla, President, Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) has revealed that the association has asked the Supreme Court to intervene in a petition concerning the refund of air tickets bought for travel during the COVID-19 lockdown period. The primary plea was moved by the NGO Pravasi Legal Cell on April 27, 2020. He says, “This was done on May 6, 2020 through NGO Pravasi Legal on behalf of TAFI. But this is for all air ticket issuing agents in India. I estimate that the total volume of refunds would come to around Rs 800-Rs 900 crore as bookings were made not just for the summer holidays but also for student travel. This is for bookings made for all airlines – Indian as well as international. While we have approached the concerned authorities in the past through FAITH, the airlines have said that they will give refunds only after three months.” crucial funds remain blocked with the airlines for travel not undergone and which, in fact, has been cancelled. Lulla adds that some airlines have divided their bookings as per zones where Zone 1 is US, Zone 2 is Europe, and Zone 3 is South East Asia and for these they are giving refunds, but not for India that comes under Zone 4. “In Zone 4, they are changing penalty for cash refunds even when flight schedules are cancelled. We hope to hear from the Supreme Court on this issue soon,” Lulla adds on a positive note.    

In order to give a boost to M!CE Tourism and attract more M!CE events to the country, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India has decided to extend the benefits to M!CE organisers in the form of certain incentives under the Champion Sector in Services Scheme (CSSS). For this purpose, a M!CE fund has been set up under CSSS. Under this initiative to encourage M!CE operators to bring more conferences/meetings/seminars to India, they will be entitled to avail certain financial incentives in the form of GST reimbursement. The incentive would be made available for a period of three years. A prior approval from MOT will be required to avail incentives under the scheme along with a NOC from the concerned travel trade association. MOT has made India Convention Promotion Bureau (ICPB) as the nodal agency for steering and promoting the scheme who in turn would motivate Indian Travel Planners / Societies / Associations towards publicising the scheme.

In its latest General Manager’s Sentiment Survey, HVS ANAROCK has reported that over 60 per cent of the General Managers (GMs) are preparing to open their hotels as soon as the lockdown is lifted this month. The survey suggested that upscale business properties are expected to open sooner than others. The anonymous online survey captured responses of 160 GMs across branded hotels PAN India. 74 per cent of the responding GMs were from the business hotels while rest 26 per cent represent leisure hotels.