Tough times ahead for travel industry

Rajan Sehgal, Chairman – Northern Region, TAAI; Director, Arrivals Air Services, opines that post-demonetisation, the travel industry has already lost out on a lot of business with inbound and domestic tourism witnessing a decline. He says, “The times have already become tough for the industry and with the announcement of the tax on tour packages, things are only going to get worse. This is probably the only industry with no structured income and often, non-IATA agents or agents who have not been recognised by the Ministry of Tourism are earning more than the verified ones. Such decisions are discouraging more agents to get recognised by the tourism bodies since they are getting more returns without it. Here we discuss about how taxes need to be lowered to boost tourism but it looks like the opposite is happening.”