May 06: Many panellists in a webinar organized by the Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC) today raised the concern that the government is not listening to the hue and cry of the industry even though several representations have been made and thousands of tweets to the government is done. They felt that the industry is currently facing a tourism famine and while they revive farmers famine situation, they should also revive tourism industries form tourism famine.
Speaking to the room of over 500 attendees, Mr. Maneck Davar, Chairman SEPC, mentioned that a special package is being discussed to support MSMEs in the services space as the service industry is not looked on par with the manufacturing segment and the government is more interested in supporting the manufacturing segments. He also mentioned that while the tourism industry is the largest among the services industry, we will have to do everything to restructure this. Also, he mentioned that SEPC is planning to invest around 5 crores in the coming years to promote various service sector out of which a majority would be concentrated on the Travel and Tourism industry.
Shri Madan Prasad Bezbaruah, IAS Retd, Secretary Ministry of Tourism quoted that the Ministry of Tourism has set up a National tourism recovery task force to look into the revival of the tourism industry. However, the industry now has to work as Responsible tourism where cleanliness and engagement to be prominent. The main focus would be to immediately plan for survival with a short term goal for revival. He added “If the hotel and Aviation industry do not survive, then it will be difficult to bring foreign tourists to India”
Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC), a setup under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India conducted a webinar “Rebooting and Reinventing Travel and Tourism Business Continuity post COVID19” to discuss the problems being faced by the Travel and Toursim industry. The Panelists of the webinar were
- Mr. Maneck Davar – Chairman, SEPC
- Mr Madan Prasad Bezbaruah- IAS Retd, Secretary Ministry of Tourism
- Mr Subhash Goyal- Chairman of Indian Tourism Mart
- Mr. Pronab Sarkar-President IATO
- Mr Ranvijay Rathore – COO Umaid Hotels
- Mr Shashikant Bisht – Corporate Director IHCL
- Mr Steve Borgia- Chairman & managing director of Indeco & Ex-President Eco-Tourism
During the session, various issues were discussed to understand the
- Impact of COVID19 on the Indian tourism industry
- Time is taken to revive the Global Travel and Tourism
- Survival of MSMEs of Tourism Industry in the Pandemic
- The time required to regain the momentum
- Employment scenario in the industry
- Opportunities and Emerging business models post COVID era
