In a bid to fast track revival of the domestic tourism market, all States (except containment zones) have to synchronise their border policies to enable Indians to travel freely, according to the Tourism Association.

The Board and the Presidents and 10 associations of Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH) held a virtual press meet to address the issues that Hospitality and Travel industry is facing owing to Covid-19 pandemic.

“The domestic tour operators are in bad shape as today people have just started only travelling short distances in their private vehicles. This situation is likely to continue until the vaccine comes,” said PP Khanna, President, Association of Domestic Tour Operators Association of India.

It was further discussed that the tourism industry has been identified as one of 26 most stressed industries by the RBI expert committee, eligible for restructuring.

“We thus need to ensure that an across the board moratorium is made immediately applicable for tourism enterprises till March 2022 or till complete recovery happens and there should be no interest on interest during that period,” said Nakul Anand, Chairman, FAITH.

Adventure tourism

The officals also said that in order to make India an adventure hub, there is a need to make air, rail, road and water connecting such destinations across the country.

“At the outset, we must have a sustainable and responsible development plan around each vertical of natural heritage tourism be it in Mountaineering, cruising, trekking, wild life and reserve forests based activities, snorkelling, para gliding, whitewater rafting, conservatories, para gliding, ballooning, desert safaris and so on,” said Swadesh Kumar, President, Adventure Tour Operators Association of India.

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