To boost India Tourism we must ”Schedule International flights and announce E-Tourist Visa immediately” says Dr. Subhash Goyal

Dr. Subhash Goyal – President, Confederation of Tourism Professionals says  “Why we need to announce immediately E-Tourist Visa and Scheduled International flights in the month of September/October.”

We have to fulfill our Prime Minister’s dream of making India a 5 trillion dollar economy. Tourism is the only industry, which is labor-intensive and has a multiplier effect on the economy.  Therefore, we need to act now before it is too late with a free fall in the economy due to pandemics.

• The Tourist season to India is from October to March and we need not lose this opportunity in the year 2021 since the year 2020 was a total washout.
• In 2019, India earned Rs.2,10,981 crores Foreign Exchange from the period January to December or 3.1 billion US dollars in the month of December 2019 (source MOT).
• India received more than 10 million tourists in 2019.
• International tourism accounts for almost 10% of India’s GDP and approximately 11% of direct & indirect taxes.
• The majority of these Tourists come between October and March, therefore, we should not miss this season.
• The hospitality & Tourism industry employs about 58 million people directly and about 75 million people indirectly in India.
• About 10 million people have either lost their jobs or are on leave without pay.
• While domestic tourism is helping a few hotels but people like Govt. recognized Tourist Guides, Tourist Transport Operators, Tourist Taxi Drivers pan India and small Tour Operators and Vendors are starving.
• Thousands of Travel Agents & Tour Operators have already become bankrupt.
• Like all other countries in the world, they have not received any financial support or bailout package.
• The only hope for survival is starting of e-Tourist visas and scheduled international flights.
• India has vaccinated over 350 million people and they should be allowed to travel internationally.
• The whole world is opening up for people who have received both the vaccination or have tested negative.  Some of the countries that are already allowing scheduled international flights are:-

• Switzerland ●UK ●Russia   ●Turkey   ●Sweden   ●Maldives   ●Mauritius    ●Armenia  ●Ukraine   ●Ethiopia   ●SouthAfrica    ●Egypt   ●Serbia    ●Kenya    ●Uzbekistan  ●Dubai   ●Pattaya (Thailand)  ●Montenegro   ●Zambia   ●Rwanda

Covid is going to stay and we have to learn to live with it.  Just like Africa allows people with yellow fever vaccine to travel, similarly, we should allow fully vaccinated international tourists to travel to India and Indians to travel abroad to the countries which are open to Indians via scheduled flights.

The sooner we do this, the better it will help our economy revive.

This will not only help to save millions of jobs but also enable India to further boost its exports and become a global leader which is a dream of our Prime Minister.