Tag Archives: FAITH

Subhash Goyal, Hony. General Secretary, FAITH has suggested that India Tourism Mart (ITM) will be held by the end of November 2020. “This will help in promoting India to the tour operators all over the world.  Last two years, we had 250 buyers, this year in the virtual mart we hope to interact with more than 500 leading travel agents and tour operators from all over the world,” he said. Goyal also thanked the  Tourism Minister for agreeing to organise a joint meeting of the Indian travel agents and tour operators with the Minister of Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri to sort out the pending issues of the tourism industry with Civil Aviation. FAITH also suggested for better coordination an Inter-Ministerial Task Force be formed chaired by the Tourism Minister consisting of mainly with Tourism, Civil Aviation, Commerce, Home, External Affairs & Railways along with the members of the tourism industry. An Inter-State Task Force should also be formed which should include all State Tourism Secretaries.  

Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality and cause partner AIRDA has further revised upwards it’s value at risk to Indian tourism to rupees 15 lakh crores. FAITH’s first guidance which was calculated and was shared with the Government in March 2020 had put tourism’s economic value at risk at rupees five lakh crores from this pandemic. FAITH revised this further during the quarter as the situation deteriorated and the value at risk was put at rupees 10 lakh crores. This has been revised again to touch a value at risk of up to rupees 15 lakh crores in terms of the economic output of tourism in India The direct and indirect economic impact of Tourism industry in India is approximately estimated at ~ 10 per cent of India’s GDP.  This roughly puts the full-year economic multiplier value of tourism in India at ~ rupees 20 lakh crores. Minimum three quarters of tourism will be fully impacted. This value covers the whole tourism value chain from airlines, travel agents, hotels, tour operators, tourism destinations restaurants, tourist transportation, tourist guides. Each of these segments of tourism is non-performing or under performing and will stay that way for many months of this year.

Jyoti Mayal, President, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) and Vice Chairperson, FAITH, met Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, on July 2 and discussed the concerns and challenges faced by the members. Some of the major issues discussed in the meeting were airline refunds; challenges faced to retain employees, their salaries and avoid unemployment in the sector; moratoriums and reliefs to trade due to COVID-19 lockdown and loss of business; allowing accredited travel agents to book Vande Bharat flights for Air India and also informing foreign carriers undertaking such flights to permit the same; revival challenges and long-term facilitation for the trade with airlines; protection of the agents from airline defaults and suspension of services; direction from government to airlines on remuneration for promoting the airlines; direction seeking travel agent corporate credit cards to be used for airline ticketing; reduction of credit card merchant fee by banks to below 0.75% so as to promote Digital India for aviation, travel, tourism and hospitality sectors as a whole. Seeking support from the government, Mayal requested Kant to ensure the same and assist in guiding the trade, enable creation of demand for growth, and opportunities for all travel and tourism-related activities.

The Ministry of Tourism (MOT) met with major travel trade associations including, FAITH, IATO, ICPB, & ADTOI, where they gave suggestions on the way forward for the promotion of tourism, revealed Subhash Goyal, Secretary General, FAITH. The associations discussed plans for international promotions and marketing, wherein they suggested to target countries with fewer number of COVID cases and also focus on traditional markets like US and UK through various mediums.

The Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH) has proposed a Tourism Aid & Restructuring (TARP) Package to the Tourism Minister to seek specific measures for Indian Tourism from the Prime Minister and from the Finance Minister. In a document released by FAITH, the association shares that TARP is a comprehensive six steps plan, which addresses both supply and demand measures. The association released the six-step guideline after the tourism industry did not find any mention in the stimulus package announced by the Government. The six steps, in brief, are: Tourism Fund, Option of a Drawdown against Income Tax & GST, Tourism Tax & Statutory Holiday for FY 2020-21, RBI Support, Specific stimulus to different segments of Indian tourism, Agenda for National Tourism Task Force

The Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH) has decided that making a fund to help the ailing tourism industry would be part of their future course of action, after the tourism industry was snubbed by the Government and no stimulus package was announced by the Finance Minister for the same. Subhash Goyal, Secretary General, FAITH, said “We have a board meeting today at 9’o clock, and our next course of action will be decided there. We are making a final appeal to the Tourism Minister and the Prime Minister, and then we’ll see what action we shall take. Ultimately, we’ll have to create our own fund, on which we are working, and we will decide what name we’d give it today.”

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.

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 …

Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog has said that tourism as a product is likely to undergo radical changes and the revival of domestic tourism, with necessary safety protocols, will be key in driving demand for future. Kant made this statement during the Empowered Group 6 meeting with representatives from tourism and travel industry to discuss the immediate challenges posed by the pandemic and way forward for the sector post COVID-19. Along with FAITH, its 10-member association representatives attended the meeting along with WTTC.

Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH) has appealed to the Chief Ministers of each state for coming up with a state specific package. FAITH has shared with each state their share of domestic and foreign tourists and how most of those total tourist footfalls will now not be available for 2020-21. A statement released by the association mentioned that almost all of India’s top performing foreign source markets for tourism (USA, Canada, UK, Germany, China, Japan, Singapore, Russia, Italy, Spain), are severely impacted and are not likely to travel before FY 2021 – 22. Owing to this, tourism business has come to a standstill in FY 2020-21. “The interstate domestic season which happens almost 60%+ in the April – July period has collapsed for the year FY 2020 – 21 and will be negligent for the rest of year with stringent travel restrictions and reduced connectivity across Indian states. FAITH has been repeatedly saying to all key Government bodies that the Tourism industry of India first needs to SURVIVE, then needs to REVIVE and then only can it THRIVE,” read the statement. FAITH has appealed to the Chief Ministers of each state for coming up with a state specific package. A complete waiver of all fixed electricity and other utility charges for FY 2020-21 without any penalties. A complete waiver of all excise duties for FY 2020-21 without any penalties. A renewal of all licenses, permits, permissions which were expiring in FY 2020-21 without any financial charges or penalties. A refund of the FY 2019-20 of SGST collected from all travel agents, tourist transporters, hotels, tour operators, restaurants and any other tourism, travel & hospitality enterprises in …