People from the tourism and hospitality industry travelled to Dholpur in Rajasthan from 15th to 18th September to make an appeal to the government to initiate issuance of tourist visas under the banner of “Unlocking International Tourism”.
Beginning of this month, the government announcement to extend the ban on international flights by another month put further jitters in the inbound tourism market from India.
Already hit by the pandemic, the tourism industry has been suffering for more than 18 months now leading to massive job losses in the industry and multiple tour operators and hotels shutting shop.
It is estimated that the tourism industry in India contributes to almost 10% of the GDP and more than 8 million livelihoods.
As vaccination across the globe keep increasing by the hour, more countries are opening up borders to the people, especially the double vaccinated population. Multiple countries in Europe are now accessible to fully vaccinated Indians enabling them to restart travel to foreign destinations. However, the same has not been offered to tourists wanting to come to India as e-visas remain suspended, even though the government has indicated that the same would start soon.
Around 25 people made their way to Dholpur in Rajasthan and also met 4 time Member of Parliament and a hospitality industry stalwart himself, Mr. Dushyant Singh.
Mr. Dushyant Singh assured everyone that the government is working hard to come out with the new guidelines to reopen international travel towards India.
Sanjay Razdan, Director – Razdan Holidays and Jt. Secretary IATO, was extremely pleased with the meeting. Sharing few words post the journey, he said “Our industry has been suffering for far too long and we have been waiting for that ray of light at the end of the tunnel. The ever increasing vaccination rates here in India and across the globe give us that hope. The government needs to enable the industry to start standing up once again and making India visible to the whole world again.”
Mr. Dushyant Singh was kind enough to hear us all out and gave us ample time to discuss tourism and other related concerns and we are obliged to him.”
The trip was well supported by Dholpur Palace, Narsingh Bagh and Consortium Hotels.
The following organisations participated in this appeal:
- Sanjay Razdan & Dhruv Razdan – Razdan Holidays
- Sunil Mishra – Cosmos Tours
- Jitendra Sharma – The Consortium
- Vandana Vinayak & Ajay Vinayak – Palomino Hospitality
- Deepak Sharma – Katha Tours
- Mukesh Manra – Dominion Travel
- Rajiv Tomar – Mystical Journeys
- Neelam Rai Singh – Beckon Tours
- Rishi Kapoor – Abercrombie & Kent India
- Pankaj Acharya – Mystique Mantras Holidays
- Alok Srivastav – Your Holiday Trip
- Naresh Sharma & Aditya Sharma – Inpac Tours
- Chandan Joshi – Captivating Experiences
- Bala Subramaniam – Namaste Tours
- Rakesh Singh – Joyn Travel
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