It seems so if India can enhance its value proposition and both government and private players can come together to aggressively push its untapped potential and foster an enabling environment.
BOTT Council
Fathom this:
— According to World Health Organisation (WHO), as on February 27, 2020, the confirmed corona virus cases reported are 82,294 with China alone having 78,630 cases.
— The leisure and business travel contributed $884 billion to gross domestic product in 2017 in Asia according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. The projections for 2018 is around $1 trillion.
— As per one estimate, the airlines alone are expected to lose about 29 billion dollars in revenue this year, and for tourism revenue losses in principle, are expected to reach 3 billion USD worldwide.
— Bain & Company estimated that a growth in international arrivals into India of 20 million people would lead to $19.9 billion in incremental tourism receipts from international travellers and the creation of approximately 1 million additional jobs
The impact of Coronavirus outbreak also known as Covid-19 is being severely felt across the global tourism industry. Presently, it is anyone’s guess about what would be the long-term effect or for how long and how much but the economic disruption from Covid-19 outbreak is humongous and may ripple well into 2021-22.
From the tourism perspective, China, Japan and South Asian Countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand are suffering huge losses with as high as 60-80% cancellations. With the rising confirmed cases of Covid-19 every day, travel agents, operators, and hoteliers are bracing for one of the worst tourism periods in recent memory. Unfortunately, the focus of the coronavirus outbreak is shifting – from China to the rest of the world, particularly Europe. The rise in Italy, the main focus of infection in Europe, represents a 25% surge in recently. Several European countries announced new cases traced to Italy.
However, not everything is gloomy from Indian perspective because the virus has largely affected China and South Asian countries. As the numbers of cases rise in these regions as well as in countries like Italy, India has done exceedingly well with just 3 confirmed cases so far. One among them is free of the virus and the other two are recovering well as per the media reports. Government’s timely actions in putting up process at airports, adequate quarantine and medical facilities have reduced the risk to almost negligible. It further helps that Indian doctors and healthcare professionals are said to be the best in the world. Given these circumstances, can and should India rise up to the occasion to project herself as viable, safe, world-class tourism destination in Asia?
“Yes. With China and South Asia affected, it is but logical that India should project itself as a viable alternate. The most important step is to launch focused campaigns positioning India’s tourism destinations as alternate to the South Asian destinations. Indian carriers can also reduce their frequencies to South Asian markets and deploy this capacity elsewhere to attract more tourists. The Ministry of Tourism can play a very vital role in this positioning of India’s tourist destinations”, says Ashwani Lohani, former Chairman & Managing Director, Air India.
A recent report from Hopper, the flight and hotel booking app showed a roughly 20 percent drop in demand to Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. The company said it was seeing a shift in Americans searching for new locales. The recent successful visit of President of the United States of America, Donald Trump along with his family to — two of India’s most popular tourist destinations — Taj Mahal, Agra and Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad — couldn’t have come at a more strategic time. It sent a clear message that India is not only safe but has much to offer for all kinds of tourists.
Adds Amaresh Tiwari, Vice-Chairman, ICPB (India Convention Promotion Bureau), “The Indian tourism and travel trade industry should come together to promote India to a wider world population who are keen to visit Asia. India has much untapped potential here, especially when you compare it to a city like Barcelona, which received 32 million tourists, or a country like France, which benefited from 84 million international arrivals in 2015. With rich heritage & culture, historic monuments to snow-clad mountains, exquisite beaches and varied options of eco-tourism, adventure tourism, wildlife and cruise tourism, we can create unique experiences for travellers along with unmatched hospitality. It is also an opportune time to aggressively and collectively push India to become one of the fastest growing destinations for conventions and meetings of all shapes and sizes.”
Avers Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI (Travel Agents Association of India), “Just like every dark cloud has a silver lining, this is time to turn the adverse situation in our favour. India has much to offer. We all have to analyse and figure out the opportunities that would give Incredible India an edge over other tourism destinations. We need to channelise the mechanism for the flow of traffic towards India. As an association, we have escalated the matter to depute more aircraft for the smooth traffic movement and we as an association are also ensuring that the fares don’t surge high.”
Though it is also true that India is facing some brunt with the loss of the Chinese tourists. While countries that have relied heavily on Chinese tourism, including Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore, are each expected to lose at least $3 billion in tourism-related revenues, India is affected but not to a large extent. Cautions E.M. Najeeb, Senior Vice President, IATO (Indian Association of Tour Operators), “Chinese tourists were a big potential segment to many South Asian countries including India. For now India has put up precautionary restrictions to travellers from China. But all such negative situations would subside taking its time and Tourism would emerge again with strength. I personally feel that this is not the time for India to project ourselves as an alternative destination in a hurry, during this time of anxiety. We should stay patient for some more time for this to pass. But at the same time we should continue with our regular promotions, and tourism development activities and setting up infrastructure and our policies right.” He further adds, “India should surely convey to the world that we are safe from this epidemic. We should keep continuing with our promotions in the tourism generating markets and empower the Government of India regional tourist offices to promote Destination India with new targets.”
There is little doubt that the global travel boom has come to a screeching halt since late January. The knock-on effects are being felt around the globe. The latest being the cancellation of ITB Berlin 2020, one of the largest travel and tourism shows of the world. However, going by the experiences of previous major viral epidemics, it is pertinent to have strategic and robust recovery plan for India to make up for lost ground, lap up the pent-up demand and lure people who are itching to travel.
Avers Rajeev Kohli, Joint Managing Director, Creative Travel, “At this point the situation is no longer a local one and its globalised. So travel is slowing down across the world. Having said that, this will go away and when it does we must be prepared as a destination to come back with a vengeance. There is no doubt that our competition will go to market with amazing prices, proposals and offers. Destinations like Singapore, Thailand and others are already preparing recovery plans. So If India does not have its act together, we are going to be left looking at the party from the outside. We need to have a marketing strategy in place, a price discussion and a pitch on why India should be the first point of call when travel comes back.”
The travel & trade Industry and experts believe Ministry of Tourism can play a vital role at this juncture being a facilitator and primary funder of this process. Like giving the “Industry an immediate tax or financial break, creating an industry-wide task force of people who actually understand the business, hire a world class agency to create a new India brand that will capture the imagination and be more communicative to the world”, adds Kohli.
Mayal also concurs, India needs to indulge in vigorous marketing to promote its attractions. In addition, she says, “There should be more focus on spurring up the domestic demand for the ensuing holiday season. A lot of Indians who travel abroad can be tapped and what better way to help balance the decreasing tourism numbers by looking inwards and boosting the morale of travel agents and tour operators in this time.”
Trust, if only, Incredible India, with 29 states, each the size of a small country, a rich history and remarkable diversity of culture, can enhance its value proposition and foster an enabling environment.
With inputs from Priyanka Saxena Ray and Arushi Bajaj
