In a plea to the government for a calibrated resurrect of business, the hospitality industry of Rajasthan said it had lost business opportunities of INR 50,000 crore in the last one year and the plan to reopen the industry should make sure no mandatory requirement of negative RT-PCR report if the travellers are vaccinated.
Rajasthan, land of kings, is epitome of tourism in India, but weddings, conferences, exhibitions, leisure and business tourism that comprise the travel and tourism business have dried up since more than a year, it said adding that some restaurants have already collapsed and now the healthy units are staring down the barrel. “Some states are already looking at lifting the lockdown and given that the Covid cases are also coming down here as well, the government should relax the guidelines so that the tourism industry can restart slowly. In the last one year, the industry has lost businesses worth over INR 50,000 crore as weddings, conferences, and leisure tourism came to a halt,” said Kuldeep Singh Chandela, president of both Hotels Restaurants Association of Rajasthan (HRAR) and Rajasthan Association of Tourism operators (RATO).
The representatives of the industry said the mandatory requirement of negative RT-PCR report is a major deterrent to tourism and the state government should replace it with vaccination. HRAR joint secretary Ranvijay Singh Rathore said, “None of the European country or the US imposed RT-PCR for travelling. Only in India, this practice has been adopted which has spoiled business for airlines and hotels.
He said repeated RT-PCR tests are not good for health and a financial burden on family tourists. “RT-PCR negative report criteria should be waived off for people who have taken single jab of vaccine. Those who are to leave state within seven days may be exempted from RT-PCR tests on showing return journey tickets,” he added. Chandela said no industry had suffered as many job losses as the tourism sector in the state.
“People in hotels, restaurants, guides, folk artists, small handicraft makers, apparel sellers, camel owners, and many more in the tourism value chain have lost jobs because of the pandemic. So, the government has look at their plight and calibrate the restart of the tourism in a manner which also takes into account the controlling the pandemic,” added Chandela.
