Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH) has revised upwards its loss estimation to Indian tourism. In a meeting, the association informed that it would like to revisit and double its earlier guidance. The earlier guidance which was calculated in March 2020 had put tourism’s economic value at risk at almost Rs 5 lakh crores from this pandemic. FAITH believes this value at risk could go as high as Rs 10 lakh crores given the way tourism supply chains are breaking down in India across all its key inbound, domestic & outbound markets.
The direct and indirect economic impact of the tourism industry in India is approximately estimated at ~ 10% of India’s GDP. This roughly puts the full-year economic multiplier value of tourism in India at almost ~ Rs 20 lakh crores.
This value covers the whole tourism value chain across airlines, travel agents, hotels, tour operators, tourism destinations restaurants, tourist transporters, tourist guides etc. These are across all the segments of tourism be they leisure ( inbound, outbound, domestic) corporate travel, heritage, adventure, meetings incentives, exhibitions & events, religious and spiritual tourism and in upcoming high-value niche tourism products such as sea & river cruises, camping, rafting, golf & film tourism, jungle tourism, agritourism and many more.
Tourism has one of the largest economic multipliers. FAITH based upon its industry estimates believes, that in India given its globally unique natural and cultural heritage which is spread across the Indian hinterlands, each rupee spent on tourism could have an economic multiplier of between 2.5 – 3 times. While this is India’s global competitive advantage in tourism, this can also quickly translate into a competitive disadvantage due to this pandemic, if not supported immediately as tourism jobs are spread right across the cities to remote areas pan India.