"Today the discerning tourist supports more sustainable and low impact tourism"

Union Tourism Secretary Arvind Singh recently spoke to BW Businessworld about the phenomenal growth in domestic tourism post pandemic and how the government is introducing new measures to make this sector a big contributor to the GDP

- RUHAIL AMIN

Give us a sense of the revival seen in the tourism/ hospitality industry from the Covid slump and what are the support measures that are continuing or are in the pipeline to sustain it? 

The inevitable restrictions on international and domestic travel during the Covid-19 pandemic severely impacted the entire value chain of travel, hospitality and tourism industry. This had a cascading effect on the jobs and livelihood of people associated with the tourism sector. The consistent efforts of the Central and the state governments have helped the tourism industry to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic shock and operate at the pre-pandemic level. The Ministry of Tourism received several requests from tourism and hospitality industry stakeholders for relief in the wake of severe impact of the pandemic. The demands related to relief on account of term loans, working capital, tax relief, employee salary support, waiving of licence and permit fees etc. The Ministry was in regular touch with the industry stakeholders through several rounds of discussions regarding these demands. All such proposals were taken up with the Ministry of Finance and other concerned ministries of Government of India. Similarly, the issues pertaining to the relief measures expected from the states were taken up with the state governments.

What has been the feedback of the industry on the Draft National Tourism Policy 2022?