Webinar on Tourism in the Covid-19 Pandemic Era Challenges and the Way Forward NEWSLETTER Volume V Issue 5 Dec 2020 Content 1. Message from Shri Prahlad Singh Patel, Hon’bleUnion Minister of Tourism & Culture, Government of India ................................................................ Page2 2. Message from Shri Dr. Neelkanth Tiwari, Hon’ble Minister of Tourism, Government of Uttar Pradesh ................................................................. Page3 3. Message from Webinar Conveners........................................................... Page 4 4. Tourism sector at the time of Covid-19 crisis .............................................. Page 5 5. Initiative taken by the government to enable the growth of Tourism sector in India .................................................................................................. Page 7 6. Tourism in the Covid-19 Pandemic Era: Some news highlights ....................... Page 8 7. Opening up for the Tourism in India at the times of Covid-19 Pandemic: The Current Situation ................................................................................. Page 9 8. Welcome Address by Prof. Archana Shukla, Director, IIML ............................. Page 12 9. Setting the tone: Prof. Satyabhusan Dash & Prof. Priyanka Sharma................. Page 13 10. Perspectives from Tour and Travel Operators:JyotiMayal, President, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) ........................................................... Page 14 11. Perspectives from Hotel and Restaurant Industry:Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, Vice- President,Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Association, (FHRAI) &Joint Managing Director, Pritam Group of Hotels ................................................ Page 15 12. Perspectives from Online Travel service provider:Sunil Suresh, Chief Marketing Ofcer, MakeMyTrip ................................................................................ Page 16 13. Perspective from Indian Railways:Rajni Hasija, Director - Tourism & Marketing,Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC)Ministry of Railways, Government of India ............................................................ Page 16 14. Perspectives from the Uttar Pradesh state tourism:Shri MukeshMeshram , IASPrincipal Secretary - Tourism& Culture, Government of Uttar Pradesh ........ Page 17 15. Perspectives from Tourism in India:Meenakshi Sharma, Director General - Tourism,Ministry of Tourism, Government of India ...................................... Page 18 16. Perspectives from the academia:Prof. Devashish Das Gupta, IIM Lucknow ...... Page 19 17. Perspectives from lifestyle, tourism & travel:DiviaThani, Editor, Conde Nast Traveller India ..................................................................................... Page 20 18. Feedback received from webinar participants............................................. Page 21 19. Media Coverage.................................................................................... Page 23 20. Acknowledgement................................................................................ Page 24 21. About CMEE........................................................................................ Page 24 22. Initativves by UP Tourism...................................................................... Page 25 23. Initiatives by Incredible India................................................................. Page 26 24. CMEE Flashback: Glimpses of Past Activities............................................. Page 29 25. Upcoming Workshop Announcement....................................................... Page 30 1 NEWSLETTER-JULY 2020 2 NEWSLETTER-DEC 2020 3 NEWSLETTER-DEC 2020 Message from the Webinar Conveners Dear Colleagues, Students, Alums, and well-wishers of CMEE Over the last decades, Tourism has become one of the most dynamic, fastest growing, and emerging economic sectors in the world. The importance of the tourism sector as a driver for job creation and the promotion of local economic development, culture and products is reflected in several of the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goals 8, 12 and 14, which set forth tourism-specific targets. Tourism contributes to job creation both directly and indirectly, particularly for women and young people. In 2019, the sector accounted for (directly and indirectly) some 330 million jobs worldwide, equivalent to 10.3 per cent of total global employment and one in 10 jobs globally. However, COVID-19 has dramatically changed this. The impact on tourism enterprises and workers, the majority being young women, is unprecedented. Timely, large-scale and, in particular, coordinated policy eforts both at international and national levels are needed in consultation with governments, employers’ and workers’ representatives to recover the rapid decline of growth of this sector. The immediate imperative is to assure the survival of tourism sector stakeholders through large-scale public support without which the sector will collapse before the virus does. In this regard CMEE organized a Webinar on ‘Tourism in the Covid-19 Pandemic Era: Challenges and the Way Forward’ on 19th September 2020. The webinar was an attempt to discuss concerns of diferent stakeholders on Tourism in the times of COVID-19 and to understand the challenges and opportunities of the Indian tourism sector. The discussion in the webinar highlighted the need for accurate, up-to-date and reliable information more than ever and to develop a cogent strategy involving the government and other stakeholders. Three important concerns for the tourism sector are Survival, Revival and Thrival. Survival is important as the hotel and other services involved with the tourism sector are highly labor intensive and such companies have to also take care of their staf and infrastructure in these trying times. One of the salient aspects of the webinar was call for “Public-Private partnership” and support from the government in the form of restructuring of loans and certain tax waivers for the survival of this labor-intensive sector. Besides, tourism marketing has to be done more aggressively and in a changed manner. Campaigns like ‘INCREDIBLE INDIA’ must include factors like wellness, less crowded tourism, factors of experience and learning based trips and also to boost local artwork/handicrafts of the country. It should cater to the safety and health needs of the tourists. The tour packages and programs need to redesign to instill confidence in tourists for safe travel. In this regard, government has started to focus more on faith tourism, eco-tourism and medical tourism to relieve people of the negativity and stress that has taken a heavy toll on the masses due to this pandemic. Finally, we need well-monitored standard operating procedures for each touch point of tourists and aim towards for a sustainable and responsible tourism as the way forward. We thank and congratulate all the speakers and participants for such an insightful discussion with unique and relevant points to revive tourism in the post-pandemic era and look forward to more such events in the future. We wish that you and your family are doing well and managing best you can during this COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Pray that we all emerge out of this situation strongly &with good health. Please take care, stay home, be safe! Best regards Prof. Satyabhusan Dash Prof. Priyanka Sharma 4 NEWSLETTER-DEC 2020 Tourism Sector at the time of COVID-19 crisis The significance of the travel and tourism industry can be witnessed by growth in the international tourist’s arrivals whicharrivals, which continues to outpace the economy. The year 2019 was another year of strong growth, for tenth consecutive years¹, as a result because of higher disposable incomes, technological advances, afordable travel and better work-life balance, amongst others, the travel and tourism industry has sustained its growth, emerging as one of the leading contributors to the global economy². The WTTC estimated that the tourism sector in South Asia contributed $234 billion, or 6.6% of the region’s GDP in 2019. India, a home to 38 UNESCO World Heritage sites³ and with a geographically and culturally vast landscape, attracts travellers for a multitude of reasons - from business to leisure. With an objective to increase footfall and enhance tourist experience and employment opportunities in a sustainable way, the government has introduced several schemes, such as Swadesh Darshan Scheme, Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Heritage Augmentation Drive (PRASHAD) and Adopt a Heritage. Growing at a rate higher than the global travel and Growth in domestic expenditure 450 tourism industry (3.5%), at 4.9%, India’s travel 408 400 and tourism industry contributed USD 194 billion 350 to the Indian economy in 2019 which helped it gain 300 250 10th spot globally, in terms of contribution of the to 199 200 179 186 164 the global industry GDP. The Indian travel and 140 150 150 131 tourism industry was expected to witness an 100 annual growth rate of 6.9% during 2019-2028 to 50 0 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 reach USD 460 billion, approximately 9.9% of (expected) India’s GDP in 20282. Source: Travel and Tourism- Survive, revive and thrive in times of COVID-19: A KPMG Report: June 2020 According to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), the tourism sector expects the crisis of at least USD22 billion, with the travel sector anticipated to shrink by up to 25 per cent in 2020, which will further result in a loss of