The BOTT Travel Tracker, which was conducted in partnership with India’s top 7 National Associations of Tourism and Travel representing different segments, found that 81% travel and tourism companies have their revenue declined up to 100% due to COVID-19 impact.
Key Highlights
- 40% Travel & Tourism companies face the risk of complete shutdown in the next 3 to 6 months while another 35.7% may go for temporary shutdown.
- 81% travel and tourism companies have their revenue declined up to 100% due to COVID-19 impact while 15% have lost revenue up to 75%.
- 73% Travel companies have gone for adjustment of workforce including pay cuts, deferment of salaries, termination of contracts, while 67% have gone for steps like reduction of overheads.
- About 38.6% travel companies are going for job cuts and another 37.6% of the companies are considering the option.
- 80% of travel companies and professionals are not satisfied with Government’s (Centre & State) efforts to address the tourism crisis created by Covid-19.
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a complete havoc for the travel and tourism sector with as many as 40% of travel and tourism companies facing the risk of complete shutdown in the next 3 to 6 months while another 35.7% may go for a temporary shutdown. A recently concluded survey by BOTT Travel Sentiment Tracker in partnership with — 7 National Associations of the country comprising IATO, TAAI, ICPB, ADTOI, OTOAI, ATOAI and SITE — has revealed that 81% travel and tourism companies have lost their revenue up to 100% while 15% of the companies have witnessed it slide up to 75%.
According to the BOTT Travel Sentiment Tracker survey, where over 2300 travel and tourism business owners and company representatives participated over a period of 10-days, 38.6% travel companies are going for job cuts and another 37.6% of the companies are considering the option with uncertainty looming large.
Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI (Travel Agents Association of India) says, “The Travel and Tourism sector is going through a very bad phase. It has taken a severe beating due to the COVID-19 outbreak with lakhs of people dependent on it suffering immense losses and job cuts. The survey has further confirmed our fear that travel companies are staring at partial and complete shutdown in addition to job cuts, adjustment of workforce in form of pay cuts, deferment of salaries and termination of contracts. This is an unprecedented situation and the government should extend some relief for the survival of thousands of companies.”
As per the survey, 73% Travel companies have gone for adjustment of workforce including pay cuts, deferment of salaries, termination of contracts, while 67% have gone for steps like reduction of overheads. About 49% are deferring their capital expenditures and interestingly, 41.6% companies are introducing new services. This clearly shows that companies are conserving cash in hand as business growth trajectory has come to a standstill.
Stressing the need for immediate intervention by the government, Rajiv Mehra, Vice President, IATO (Indian Association of Tour Operators) says, “The pandemic has had an enormous effect on jobs and businesses in the sector and the travel industry is down totally with lots of uncertainty in the near future. It is the fight for survival for most of the travel companies. The Government should come forward to support the sector which provides employment to millions of people.”
About 78.6% of travel and tourism companies expect the Government to create a Tourism Relief Fund immediately, followed by 68.2% who want refunds of cancellations and advances of travel agents & tour operators from airlines. About 67.7% want the Government to lower the applicable GST rates by 5% and 54.2% and 49.3% of companies and professionals want a moratorium on repayment of EMIs of principal and interest for term loans for 12 months and deferment of TDS deposit for 1 year respectively.
Amaresh Tiwari, Vice-Chairman, ICPB (India Convention Promotion Bureau) adds, “The tourism sector is immensely impacted and the sector needs a little hand holding by the government during this crisis. Coordinated support from key stakeholders is the need of the hour along with support in form of access to working capital, easing compliances and funding support. We hope and pray that things get better sooner than expected.”
Concurs Subhash Goyal, Chairman ASSOCHAM Tourism Council & Hony. Secretary, FAITH, “I am seriously concerned about the small tour operators and agents and hope the Government does something fast before it is too late. We will definitely withstand the crisis because we believe that it is the darkest before dawn. Hopefully, with the starting of the domestic flights this month and international flights later in June, I see light at the end of the tunnel.”
The survey also touched upon new travel trends like rise of solitary and Do-It-Yourself travel and innovations like popularity of touch-less technology, voice-activated services and more automation in the hospitality sector.
Survey Findings: 1
A humongous 81% Travel and Tourism companies and enterprises have lost up to 100% of their business/ revenue since the Covid-19 lockdown has started. Over 15% of them have lost up to 75% of their revenue since the outbreak. This clearly shows that tourism sector has been one of the worst hit due to corona and the survival of India’s travel, tourism and hospitality industry is hanging by a thread.
Survey Findings: 2
According to the BOTT Survey, 40% travel and tourism companies and enterprises are staring at complete shutdown due to negligible revenue and depleting cash runway. Another 35.7% of them are considering for temporary shutdown till the market improves with no timeline in sight. About 24.3% of companies have geared up to withstand the crisis adopting various cost cutting strategies.
Survey Findings: 3
Out of the surveyed companies and their representatives, there were about 24.5% who have an average turnover of above INR 25 crores in the last 3 years. About 17% who have up to INR 25 crores, 31% of them have turner up to INR 5 crores and 16% and 11.5% who have turnover in the range of up to INR 1 crore and INR 50 lakhs respectively.
Survey Findings: 4
About 73.3% of companies and their representatives are taking steps like adjustment of workforce in form of pay cuts, deferment of salaries and termination of contracts. About 67.8% of them are reducing their overheads, 49% are deferring their capital expenditures and interestingly, 41.6% companies are introducing new services. This clearly shows that companies are conserving cash in hand as business growth trajectory has come to a standstill.
Survey Findings: 5
About 38.8% of those surveyed are considering job cuts in their companies and enterprises, followed by 37.6% who may go ahead for this measure to manage the cash flows. A good 23.6% of them have no plans to cut the jobs for the time being.
Survey Findings: 6
A huge 80% travel and tourism companies and professionals are not satisfied with the efforts of the Government (Both Centre & respective State) to address the tourism crisis created by Covid-19. A mere 14.9% of them are somewhat satisfied and a meagre 5% are completely satisfied with the actions of the government.
Survey Findings: 7
About 41.1% of the travel and tourism companies are still hopeful that the Government (Centre & State) will come out with a relief/support package for tourism industry. Around 29.7% are somewhat hopeful and a similar set of 29.2% are not hopeful at all at this stage.
Survey Findings: 8
About 78.6% of travel and tourism companies expect the Government to create a Tourism Relief Fund immediately, followed by 68.2% who want refunds of cancellations and advances of travel agents & tour operators from airlines. About 67.7% want the Government to lower the applicable GST rates by 5% and 54.2% and 49.3% of companies and professionals want moratorium on repayment of EMIs of principal and interest for term loans for 12 moths and deferment of TDS despot for 1 year respectively.
Survey Findings: 9
About 85.5% of travel & tourism companies and professionals want the Government (Centre & State) to develop, promote and support Leisure and Wellness Tourism followed by 68% who wants Eco/Nature-based tourism. About 50% want to focus on MICE & Corporate tourism, 31.5% would go for Adventure tourism, 26.5% for Beach tourism and 22% for Entertainment tourism.
Survey Findings: 10
Around 45.8% respondents feel Group Tours would be over for the next 1-2 years due to the Covid restrictions and precautions giving way to more solitary and Do-ityouself travel. While about 44.7% of them cannot say at this moment since the future is uncertain but a mere 9.5% of them think that Group Tours are not over.
Survey Findings: 11
About 82.4% of travel and tourism companies believe that hygiene will take precedence over everything and hotels and resorts will invest in touch-less technology, voice-activated services and more automation.
Survey Findings: 12
About 61.4% of respondents feel that Essential Travel will happen first once the Covid-19 lockdown is over followed by 20.3% who believe that Business Travel will pick up. About 16.3% of them said that Leisure Travel will rebound first.
Why BOTT Travel Sentiment Tracker?
The Covid-19 has cast a gloomy spell on the world that has stretched beyond geographical boundaries. The first half of 2020 would be remembered as one unique period where the spring colours were not enjoyed, the school exams and results per decided on partial performance, blanket ban on travel visas, the airplanes remained grounded and birds had the sky to themselves and an era where mankind came to a standstill – locked and confined in home with only talks of future to keep them motivated. One of the worst hit industries across the world has been travel and tourism. It’s also one of the largest industries in the world, with $5.7 trillion in revenue. It is responsible for an estimated 319 million jobs, or roughly one in 10 people working on the planet. Similarly, the Indian travel industry has already taken a huge hit due to travel restrictions and canceled trips for both business and pleasure with India being under national lockdown since March 24th, 2020. Amidst this ambiguity and uncertainty, BOTT decided to take an innovative approach to gauze the sentiments of people with respect to travel and tourism initiating the first-ever, pan-India, Travel Sentiment Tracker in the country. The core objective behind BOTT Travel Sentiment Tracker is to showcase a genuine picture of what is the ground reality in Indian Travel & Tourism sector.
BOTT Travel Sentiment Tracker — Phase I
BOTT (Business Of Travel Trade) had recently launched its BOTT Travel Sentiment Tracker with the sole purpose to gauze and analyse the travel pulse of the country — the Ground Zero scenario. The First Report of BOTT Travel Sentiment Tracker, which was to seek the mood of actual consumers/travellers (those not directly related to the travel sector) gained a lot of traction and was well received by not only the travel trade tourism professionals but the Government of India, mainstream media and policy makers also.
BOTT Travel Sentiment Tracker — Phase II
Following the success of its First Report, BOTT decided to commence Phase-II of its “Travel Sentiment Tracker’ – this time with the travel trade of India. The goal of the survey is to assess the short and long term scenario of the travel trade tourism industry as well as their demands and action plans to thrive and revive post COVID-19 pandemic. We partnered with India’s top 7 leading Travel Trade Associations representing different segments of the industry to have wider representation, more comprehensive sample and pan-India connect.
The effort paid off as we received around 2400 + responses and after cleaning the data and verification, we had a very healthy sample of data.
Respondents: 2350 Tourism & Travel Professionals Profile: Business Owners and Company
Representatives Note: Respondents are members of 7 National Associations of Tourism & Travel Trade representing different segments Survey Period: May 10 – 20, 2020
