India might lose ₹10 lakh cr. as tourism to stay shut

Lockdown or not, the sector expects a shutdown of at least six months before a possible soft opening of short-distance domestic travel. At a meeting of the Empowered Group-6 (EG 6), an inter-ministerial group of government of India, headed by the CEO of NITI Aayog, Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH) said the earlier guidance calculated and shared with the government in March 2020 had put tourism’s economic value at risk at over ₹5 lakh crore from the COVID-19 pandemic. “FAITH now believes this value at risk could go as high as ₹10 lakh crore given the way tourism supply chains are breaking down in India across all its key inbound, domestic and outbound markets,” the federation said. The direct and indirect economic impact of the tourism industry in India is estimated at 10% of the GDP. This roughly put the full year economic multiplier value of tourism in India at almost ₹20 lakh crore, FAITH said. FAITH, the national federation of the 10 national tourism, travel and hospitality organisations of India, said in a statement that China’s recent experiment of opening up after a minimum of six months’ lockdown saw some soft opening of tourism, and that too, with very limited, short-haul domestic travel. “We believe that if one goes by that example, a minimum of six months of direct and indirect output of tourism will be impacted, which will put almost ₹10 lakh crore economic value at risk in India,” FAITH said in its statement. Subscription Benefits Include Today's Paper Find mobile-friendly version of articles from the day's newspaper in one easy-to-read list. Personalised recommendations A select list of articles that match your interests and tastes. *Our Digital Subscription plans do not currently include the e-paper ,crossword, iPhone, iPad mobile applications and print.