The World Travel & Tourism Council India Initiative (WTTCII) has urged the Union government take a series of steps to help the tourism sector tide over the massive crisis brought about by the spread of the corona virus. The COVID-19, which is now a global pandemic, has already hit the hospitality and airline industry hard, with thousands of tourists cancelling their bookings.
To start with, the council has requested the government to provide a GST (Good & Services Tax) holiday for all travel and tourism services for a period of two years. A moratorium on all interest and principal amounts related to loans taken by airlines, hospitality and travel service entities should be put in place for the next 12 months, the council said in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Tourism and hospitality sectors need to be treated as priority sectors for lending, the tourism body stated. WTTCII has said that all state governments should waive off property and excise taxes and reduce electricity tariffs for the benefit of the tourism sector.
The Prime Minister may send a video message to all tourists through the various government channels and the tourism website, requesting them to “postpone travel, but not cancel”.
The council requested that the ATF (aviation turbine fuel) be brought under the ambit of GST at 12% to provide immediate relief to the airlines with full input tax credit on all goods and services. The VAT on ATF by state governments should be rationalised with immediate effect to a maximum of 4% across all states for a period of six months. Space rentals for private airport operators, royalty, landing and parking charges, as well as route navigation and route terminal charges need to be waived off for the next six months.
WTTCII said the present crisis is a greater threat than 9/11 and the financial meltdown of 2008-09. The council said in the next three months, hotel occupancy levels are likely to reach an abysmal 5%. Airlines would be flying at 20-30% current capacity and travel packages may see nil bookings.
About 10-15 of India’s top tourism destinations have already been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. It is estimated that it would take 10-16 months for the recovery to take place.
WTTCII believes the tourism sector will see job losses to the tune of 1.1 to 1.3 crore (both direct and indirect jobs) and no new jobs will be added till August 2021 or so.
Based on rough estimates, all tourism businesses irrespective of their sizes are likely to see their revenues shrink by about 80% over the next three months, the council said, adding that the airline and hospitality industries will see revenue losses running into thousands of crores. The council said a tourism campaign that would look to address these losses by some effective messaging through the Incredible India platform may be needed.
“Lives and livelihoods are linked to these jobs at stake. We therefore request your intervention to provide relief to the aviation, hospitality and travel services in India,” WTTCII said in its representation to the Prime Minister.
