Approximately 2.3 billion tourists visited in India in 2019 as per industry figures and this figure fell to just 610 million in 2020 in the wake of the pandemic. Fortunately, when international travel trickled to almost nothing, domestic tourism stepped up to the plate during this time.
Tired of staying cooped up indoors during the stringent lockdown, the easing of restrictions saw Indians capitalizing every opportunity they got to travel, whether it was a short staycation or workcation.
This pent-up desire opened the beauty of domestic destinations to a whole new demography. And it also helped the struggling hospitality and travel industry recoup their losses to a great extent.
It is now time for the government to consider steps to promote local destinations from within the country and encourage travellers to explore India extensively. Sharing his ideas on how this can be achieved, Mehul Sharma, Founder and CEO, Signum Hotels & Resorts suggested that LTA should be increased to incentivise people to travel to target to achieve 15 to 18 million domestic tourist numbers.
He also added that the long pending demand for the hospitality industry to be granted an infrastructure status remains unheard. “Hospitality must be recognized as an industry that contributes strongly to the country’s economy,” he emphasised.
Sharna also sought a review of GST. “A lower GST and taxation on hospitality, food and beverage services is much needed,” he pointed out.” Also, a uniform tax structure across the board is the need of the hour. Liquidity to be made available for upcoming hospitality projects. Increased international investment in hospitality should be allowed to achieve this.”
Sharma would like to urge the government to create a pool of funds to improve infrastructure and tourism focused development. “Tokenization as a process and use of blockchain technology to raise funds should be implemented. Low credit rates on loans extended to hospitality projects must be considered to sustain development in this sector,” he summed up.
