Hospitality sector: Regarding the improvement in tourism, ICRA believes that it will have to wait till the financial year 2023-24 to reach the pre-covid level. The agency described the new wave as more dangerous.
Hospitality sector: Due to the new wave of Corona, the improvement that was coming in the hospitality sector got stuck again. Recently, under the relief package, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaran has made many important announcements for this sector. Despite this, rating agency ICRA believes that it will have to wait till the financial year 2023-24 to reach the pre-Covid level.
Icra said in a statement that the industry has been affected by the lockdown or other restrictions implemented by various states since mid-April and there has been increased vigilance regarding travel due to the possibility of infection. According to the statement, due to this, the deadline to reach the pre-Covid level has been pushed forward by 6-8 months from the previous estimates. The income of the industry is now expected to reach the pre-covid level only by the financial year 2023-24.
The new wave of Kovid is more dangerous than ever
The rating agency said that the industry was affected in the first quarter of the current financial year after improving in the third and fourth quarters of the last financial year. Vinuta S, Region Head and Assistant Vice President, ICRA, said that the intensity of ‘Covid 2.0’ is more than ever before and it has put a temporary halt on the recovery of the industry.
Loan up to 1 lakh to registered guide
In this relief package, many announcements have been made for tourism. To handle the tourism sector, a new scheme has been announced for 11,000 registered tourist guides. Under this scheme, the registered agency will get a guaranteed loan of up to 10 lakhs. Registered guide can get 100% guaranteed loan up to 1 lakh. No collateral will be needed for this.
5 lakh free tourist visa
Another announcement has been made to help tourism. First 5 lakh foreign tourists will get the benefit of free tourist visa. A total of 10.93 million foreign tourists visited India in 2019. Together these people spent 30 billion dollars. Their average stay in India is 21 days. A tourist will get the benefit of free visa only once. This scheme will remain till 31 March 2022. This will increase the burden of 100 crores on the government exchequer.
5 crore people are associated with tourism
It is believed that about 5 crore people get employment in the country directly and indirectly from the tourism industry. About 25 million foreign tourists visit India every year, but this number has gone down a lot during the Corona period. According to a government figure, about 80 million foreign tourists came to India in April 2019, which was reduced to just 470 in April 2020.
