Category: Round Up

The Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH) — the nodal federation of all the national associations representing the tourism, travel and hospitality sectors in India — has estimated a loss of Rs 10 lakh crores to the industry, as a result of the pandemic. The federation presented the revised guidance during a meeting with the Empowered Group-6 (EG-6), an inter-ministerial panel set up by the government and headed by Niti Aayog chief executive Amitabh Kant. The earlier estimate was given to the government in March, when it had pegged the loss at Rs 5 lakh crores. The ... Read more

Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd (MHRIL) has said it will first reopen resorts that are at a drivable distance from the metro cities once the coronavirus lockdown is lifted. The Mahindra Group firm has currently suspended operations at its resorts in compliance with government directives. “Once travel restrictions are relaxed and state borders open up, and people feel comfortable enough to travel again, we expect our members and their families to start travelling to our resorts in their own vehicles, since we are at drivable distances from major cities,” MHRIL MD and CEO Kavinder Singh told news agency PTI. ... Read more

Lock-down restrictions should be lifted in places relatively unaffected by the coronavirus so that India’s economy revives, ATTOI President Vinod CS said on Tuesday. “After May 3, complete shutdown may not be possible. We have to locate the hotspots and isolate those areas. Rest of the places should be allowed to function as usual,” he said, concerned about how the various industries across the country are facing a huge setback. He felt that the focus should be on preventing community transmission in affected areas. The affected and relatively unaffected areas have to be demarcated while maintaining access control. “Complete lockdown ... Read more

The Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) has written to Commerce and Industry minister Piyush Goyal and Tourism minister Prahlad Singh Patel urging the government to take various steps to protect the travel industry. In his letter IATO President Pronab Sarkar said, “We hope that the tourism industry which is the most affected sector due to Covid -19, will get considerable relief from the government both for survival and revival.” As result of the pandemic, the travel & hospitality industry in India is in dire straits today. There are nil revenues and almost all tourism businesses are running out of ... Read more

Persatuan Agensi Pelacongan Malaysia (MATA) has urged the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to waive all fees for the benefit of its members. Since the World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared COVID-19 a pandemic, travel restrictions have been imposed throughout the world. Major events have been cancelled and thousands of business are at halt. The financial impact to our members from the COVID-19 can be cushioned by waiving the following: a) IATA to waive 2021 membership fees b) IATA to waive 2020 monthly fees (January – December 2020) c) To extend 2019 audited account submission to December 2020 This move ... Read more

The Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) on Wednesday said that the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has informed all airlines to revert back within 24 hours with solutions to refund the various amounts due. MoCA said solutions have to be found to refund agents’ money in float account as advance and provide refunds as cash to agents for the benefit of their customers/passengers. MoCA has asked the airlines to cooperate or else they will have no option but to issue a directive on the same, TAAI said. The ministry will get into a call with airlines to ensure the ... Read more

The South Kerala Hoteliers’ Forum (SKHF) has written to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan urging him to request the concerned authorities to extend the moratorium on bank loans to a period of 12 months from March this year. RBI had granted moratorium for only a period of three months. Interest during the period should also be waived off, SKHF stated in the letter. These benefits should be made available to all accounts irrespective of whether the account is regular or whether instalments are overdue for payment, as of February this year. According to the directive issued by RBI, such overdue accounts ... Read more

The Russian tourists stranded in India will fly out of the country from Thiruvananthapuram on April 8. The evacuation by Ural Airlines will happen tomorrow at 1.35 pm. The Russian Embassy in Delhi, the Honorary Consul of the Russian Federation in Thiruvananthapuram, Ratheesh C Nair and others were in continuous dialogue with the concerned officials regarding repatriation of Russian citizens. Most of the stranded Russian tourists are women and youngsters who were camping in Varkala, one of Kerala’s most scenic beaches. A WhatsApp group was created to coordinate the efforts and service of a Russian psychologist was made available to ... Read more

The coronavirus crisis can result in 18-20% erosion of nationwide occupancy across the hospitality sector, Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has said. The cascading effect of the global coronavirus pandemic is crippling the country’s tourism and hospitality industry at an “astonishing pace”, the industry body noted. Hence, the ICC has recommended setting up of a ‘Travel & Tourism Stabilisation Fund’ with direct benefit transfer to each unit to prevent financial loss and consequent job loss. Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTA) has come down by about 67% annually in the January-March quarter, while for domestic tourists, the figure is lower by nearly ... Read more

Stranded Russian tourists who were scheduled to be evacuated on Saturday from Thiruvananthapuram, were not able to leave India with Russian authorities closing down the airspace. The evacuation by Ural Airlines was scheduled to happen by 2 pm. The Russian Embassy in Delhi, the Honorary Consul of the Russian Federation in Thiruvananthapuram, Ratheesh C Nair and others are in continuous dialogue with the concerned officials to pave the way for the departure. Most of the stranded Russian tourists are women and youngsters who were camping in Varkala, one of Kerala’s most scenic beaches. A WhatsApp group was created to coordinate ... Read more

The Association of Tourism Trade Organisations India (ATTOI) is inviting all the stakeholders of the entire tourism industry in Kerala to a scheduled virtual meeting on Monday. The virtual conference on April 6, to be hosted on Zoom, will start at 11.30 am IST. Kerala Tourism secretary Rani George IAS will also join the meeting. Industry stakeholders has been having meetings online, due to the rapid spread of the pandemic that has hit the tourism sector hard. For joining the online session you have to download the Zoom software from your Google Playstore. You can use your laptop/desktop/smartphone for this ... Read more

A charter flight will take off on Saturday from Cochin International Airport with French tourists, who were stranded in Kerala due to the pandemic. The flight will take off at 8 am tomorrow. All the district coordinators are requested to make arrangements to transfer them to the Novotel Kochi at Info Park, Kakkanad, and from there they will proceed to the airport. These tourists were staying in various properties in Kerala. Payment in this regard will be made by the Consulate of France in Pondicherry. The French Government has also introduced a web site to help french citizens in difficulty ... Read more

Russian tourists stranded in India will be evacuated on Saturday from Thiruvananthapuram. The evacuation by Ural Airlines will take place by 2 pm and the tourists have to register at Uday Suites, Shanghumugham at 7 am on the same day. The details have been shared to the tourists by the Honorary Consul of the Russian Federation in Thiruvananthapuram. The helpdesk contacts in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha and Ernakulam have been shared with the Russian consul. The state tourism department has been undertaking efforts to evacuate the 175 stranded Russian tourists for the last one week. They had targeted the first week ... Read more

With the corona virus onslaught getting severe by the day, the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) with the support of the World Health Organisation (WHO), has called on innovators and entrepreneurs to put forward new solutions to help the tourism sector recover from COVID-19. The “Healing Solutions” challenge has been launched to further advance the united response of the wider United Nations system to COVID-19. This global call for entrepreneurs and innovators wants them to submit ideas that can help the tourism sector mitigate the impact of the pandemic and kickstart recovery efforts. In particular, the challenge is aimed at finding ... Read more

International flights will remain banned till April 14, the government announced on Thursday amid a complete national lock-down to fight corona virus. A week long ban imposed last week has been extended, the civil aviation ministry said. The ban will not apply to cargo flights or those specially permitted by the Directorate General of Civil Aviaion. Domestic flights have been banned till March 31. Trains, metros, inter-state buses and all public transport has been banned to check the spread of the disease.