The former civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu has asked the government to allow fully vaccinated passengers to travel freely to help revive the travel and tourism industry.

In a letter to the Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, he said the aviation and consequently travel and tourism industries are adversely impacted due to current restrictions, leading to huge job losses and crippling of small businesses in the sector. “Hence it is necessary to allow fully vaccinated persons to travel freely to restore normalcy on the business front in these sectors,” Prabhu said in his letter.

According to the Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH), the estimated industry’s losses for FY21 alone is around ₹15 lakh crore due to the Covid pandemic. Aviation consultancy firm, CAPA has said the losses for the airline industry is expected to be around $8 billion.

Prabhu said the opening of the economy and the services will have to be restored in a phased and calibrated manner till totally normalcy is restored. “Our vaccination drive is progressing and, as per the declared strategy, we should see a substantial step up in the number of fully vaccinated people in the next few months,” he pointed out. Hence, “allowing only fully vaccinated people to travel should not pose any risk of spreading the pandemic further.”

Prabhu suggested that the government should look at issuing the passport for such fully vaccinated persons as has been done in other countries.

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