Tourism industry seeks immediate cash relief

In a letter to the Aayog, the federation on behalf of the tourism and hospitality industry, also sought other relief and support measures such as daily wage support, one-time grant, and income tax exemption

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The Federation of Associations of Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH) has asked for immediate cash support from the NITI Aayog to help distressed tourism employees and enterprises. In a letter to the Aayog, the federation on behalf of the tourism and hospitality industry, also sought other relief and support measures such as daily wage support, one-time grant, and income tax exemption.

FAITH mentioned in the letter that the tourism industry was going through its worst period ever. “Indian tourism, pre-pandemic, had handled the business of almost 11 million international inbound tourists, almost over 17 million international visitor arrivals, almost USD 30 billion in forex, over 2.3 billion domestic tourism visits, and almost 27 million outbound travellers.

All these businesses have been shut down since March 2020 creating severe financial distress over the past 23 months for the complete Indian tourism value chain of travel agents, hotels, tour operators, tourist transporters, restaurants, and other tourism service providers. To support tourism enterprises, we seek urgent support measures and other critical structural measures,” it said.

FAITH wants an enhanced corpus of INR 1,0000 crore created for global tourism branding considering the significant foreign exchange of more than USD 100 billion generated by tourism over the five years in the pre-pandemic era and setting up an underwriting fund for the protection of travel agents & tour operators

FAITH has also asked the NITI Aayog to create a provision for export credit similar to the earlier SEIS to be made available to the tourism industry against their foreign exchange earnings. It also wants TCS to be done away with on outbound trips immediately, creating a global bidding fund for the MICE sector, declaration of hospitality as infrastructure status, conversion of the ECLG scheme extension as a revival tool for tourism, travel & hospitality, and standardisation of all inter-state road taxes, levies, and charges and make them payable at a single point to ensure a truly a seamless tourist transportation experience across the country.

FAITH has asked the government to establish a National Tourism Council chaired by the Prime Minister and cochaired by the Union Tourism Minister composing Chief Ministers or Tourism Ministers of all states. It has urged all states to declare tourism travel & hospitality as a ‘service industry’ and vital export sector to ensure tax deduction and to ensure that their utility rates for their enterprises are charged at the lower category of tariffs slabs in line with industries.

FAITH wants an enhanced corpus of INR 1,0000 crore created for global tourism branding considering the significant foreign exchange of more than USD 100 billion generated by tourism over the five years in the pre-pandemic era and setting up an underwriting fund for the protection of travel agents & tour operators.

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