“Measures put in place today will reshape tourism for tomorrow”

According to WTTC, the contribution of the Tourism and Travel sector to the Indian GDP was 6.8 per cent  of the total economy, and the sector supported 39.8 million jobs, almost 8 per cent of India's total employment in 2019.  The devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on global tourism has carried on into 2021 with new data showing an 87 per cent fall in international tourism arrivals in January as compared to 2020. 

Rajiv Poddar, President, IMC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, started the online interaction by stating these hard facts.

The objective of the online interaction was to bring together the Tourism and Travel Industry leaders from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Australia, and Thailand on one platform to initiate a dialogue where they would share measures taken by each nation to rebuild tourism and enhance regional coordination for a sector going through its darkest hour in recent history.

The speakers included Rupinder Brar, IRS, Additional Director General (Tourism), Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, Sigit Witjaksono, Director of Tourism Marketing - East, South, Central Asia, Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, Republic of Indonesia, Kimarli Fernando, Chairperson, Sri Lanka Tourism, Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager, India & Gulf, Tourism Australia,  Vachirachai Sirisumpan, Director, Tourism Authority of Thailand and Rohit Khosla, Executive Vice President – Operations, North & West India, the Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL). Mandeep S. Lamba, President - South Asia, HVS Anarock moderated the discussion. BW HOTELIER was the exclusive media partner for the show. 

In his introductory remarks, Farhat Jamal, Chairman - Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Committee, IMC highlighted, "South Asia itself would see loss of 50 million jobs and about 50 billion dollars loss in GDP in the South Asian Region."

Government support and measures in 2020

Despite the disappointing numbers, the South Asian countries are working hard to manage the situation at their best. Fernando substantiated Sri Lanka tourism's efforts in this regard by saying that they were prepared long before a patient was discovered. Early identification and consequent preparation helped them control their situation. "Now we're fully operational, tourists are coming in particularly from Middle East countries," she said. Sri Lanka has also devised a bio bubble which is working quite well, according to Fernando. 

On being asked what the tourism industry did last year and the support that the Indonesian government gave to the sector, Witjaksono said that the country's new Tourism minister was working to revive the sector of tourism, including the creative economy. 

"You can see based on data, now, all the Covid cases in Indonesia are getting reduced, and recoveries are increasing day by day. If the situation improves, we will open up Bali and other destinations for tourists. The Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (MoTCE) of Indonesia has also introduced the  Cleanliness, Health, Safety, and Environmental Sustainability (CHSE) protocols in Bali. We have done 5700 certification of CHSE protocol," he commented. 

On the same question, Sirisumpan stated, "For now, we need to position Thailand as the favourite and trusted destination. People have to have the confidence to travel as well. Looking back at last year, we have done quite well. We had very stringent measures- 14 days quarantine and screenings of people coming in."

He added that there is a third wave in the country right now, but the people are quite responsible, and the country is doing a very systematic internal trace and tracking. So, they hope things will start getting better in Thailand very soon.

Moving on to how the Indian government supported the travel and tourism industry, Brar said that it has been very challenging given the size of the country, the diversity, and the entire socio-economic spectrum.

"The most critical first thing was to make sure that everybody was safe. India does get a lot of foreign tourists, typically from October to March. So there were still a lot of people in India at the time when lockdowns were announced. And therefore, the first most important challenge was to make sure that everybody who was spread out all over the country needed to be kept safe and sent back to their homes if they so choose to do so. We set up something called 'Stranded in India,' which we look back upon as a success story in the sense that everybody who was out of their homes or travelling in our country found support mechanisms through that platform and went back home," she explained.

Discussing the Australian scenario, Kashikar expressed that because of the discipline and efforts of the government over the past 30 days, there have been zero cases of COVID-19 in Sydney & Melbourne. The Department of Home Affairs in Australia has waived off VISA charges for travellers travelling between March 2020 & December 2022. Moreover, for travel agents, a 130 million dollar program has been rolled out. Besides, there is a 50 million dollar exhibitor grant program for the MICE community, and a 40 million dollar fund has been created for indigenous communities. "Tourism Australia is supporting 1800 products & experiences," asserted Kashikar.

"Our first and foremost focus was on safety," said Khosla. In every crisis, there will be some opportunity. "I think the whole role that technology plays in this pandemic to connect everybody helped us with starting this new business, which is the bleisure business. We have staycations- it became another very important way in which we started regaining business because people were sick and tired of being in the houses and they wanted just to get a break, and then moved into hotels," he further said.

Trends in Travel and Tourism which are here to stay

Furthermore during the session, leaders from the tourism and hospitality industry talked about the various trends that will remain even after the pandemic situation improves. Sustainable and Responsible Tourism, Workcations, Staycations emerged as the common trends across the countries. 

Talking about the present situation in Sri Lanka, Fernando said that nowadays, people are willing to pay and have something unique like a unique AI, unique food, wildlife, etc.

As far as the future is concerned, she stated that sustainability, which was taken for granted until now, will be amongst their top requirements for the new projects.

The trends, according to Brar, which would definitely stay are the smaller hospitality units, particularly the B&B and the homestay. Another trend, in her opinion, is immersive experiences. "The need for those is also something that we are seeing a huge growth in," she added.

Expressing his views on the trends that are here to stay, Khosla stated that sustainable tourism, immersive travel, and homestays will be there. Khosla asserted, "Our AMA brand, we have seen an exponential growth, and people will like to tie up with our brand and offer their products to us." He continued, "We are seeing a huge growth of immersion experiences. One thing that has taken off well is, everybody, talks about digital, but the real thing is going to be phygital, because phygital is what is really helping us today in the MICE segment, and we have a product called acumen. It is a home delivery app in which we host digital conferences, and we also provide your own meals during the conference."

Sisiruman said that Thailand, on the other hand, is focussing on expats as they are really driving domestic tourism in the country. He believes that Green Tourism, Responsible Tourism are the trends that are here to stay.

Road to normalcy?

The road to recovery looks daunting and is riddled with many challenges. The speakers were asked about their plans for getting things back to 'normal'. One thing that all the speakers agreed on was the focus on safety protocols and vaccination drives.  

The Director of Tourism Authority of Thailand, Sirisumpan, had a clear roadmap set out for the country. Starting from the month of April, they have reduced the period of quarantine from 14 days to seven days for vaccinated tourists and 10 days for the people who have not been vaccinated yet.

He further added, "From the first of July, we plan to open Phuket island for vaccinated tourists without quarantine. We also plan to vaccinate 70 per cent of our population as well. And then the next step is October; the major destinations will be opened up without quarantine for vaccinated tourists."

On the roadmap of India, Khosla said that technology and communication would play a key role in promoting India as a destination. He said that IHCL would like to work on a PPP model with the government and promote Incredible India with diverse and immersive experiences.

Way Ahead

Elaborating on the efforts of the Australian government to revive the sector, Kashikar said, "There are three things that we're doing: To keep lights on; Keeping ourselves ready to launch as soon as borders open, and Keeping India dream alive."

"It's not the number, it's the yield we will be looking at," said Fernando. "We are ready; we are meeting challenges, we will thrive and come out of it all," she added. 

The hospitality and tourism industry needs to ensure that it is future-ready to tap all the potential growth opportunities and safeguard against all kinds of crisis situations, including national disasters and pandemics.

Only then the hoteliers' belief, as voiced by Khosla, "2023 is when international tourism will resume in India," will be realised.