If you’ve eagerly planned your all-India trip through a tour operator during the upcoming Lok Sabha polls slated from Friday, it’s prudent to verify in advance whether the vehicle you’ve booked has been requisitioned by the Election Commission for polling officials.
This precautionary step ensures that your travel plans remain uninterrupted amidst the electoral activities. In fact, the tour operators in the country particularly those catering inbound tourists ie foreign travelers are already in a jittery mode as polls kick off from Friday.
They feel that deployment of their vehicles such as taxis or cars by the Election Commission (EC) at the centre and the States in the last moment to ferry polling officials to the booths and for ancillary tasks for voting days and consequent shortage causes disruption in the seamless services as they have to arrange alternate vehicles.
On their behalf, the All India Tour Operators (IATO), the national body of the tourism industry has appealed to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar to exempt tourist vehicles with All India Tourism Permits for election-related deployment, emphasizing the impact on tourism services and the risk of legal repercussions.
“We have written to Rajiv Kumar, Chief Election Commissioner for exemption of All India Tourism Permit Tourist vehicles from deployment of Lok Sabha / State Elections and guidelines to be issued and other suggestions,” said Ravi Gosain, Vice President of the IATO.
During the election period, on the orders of Election Commissioner/District Collectors/District Magistrates or any other authorized Government officials, all tourist vehicles, having All India Tourist Permit are deployed for election duties across the country.
This means that our members who have committed to providing services to the tourists are not able to provide them the services as per the contract, which causes a lot of problems and tarnishes the image of our country. This also may result in legal action against the tour operators by the foreign tourists for not providing the contracted services, Gosain, who also owns ERCO Travels Pvt. Ltd, told The Pioneer.
“We understand that vehicles are required for election-related tasks but indiscriminate requisitioning of vehicles will cause inconvenience to many tourists. This does not bode well for the sector,” he added.
“Many tourists have already booked accommodations and finalised their itineraries. If a large chunk of vehicles is withdrawn for election purposes, tourists will face inconveniences,” added Rajnish Kaistha, Senior Vice President of the IATO.
As the tourism industry strives to rebound post-Covid-19, any shortage of vehicles during the peak travel season could pose significant challenges. “Many tourists are now booking and an inflow of tourists has started. If there is a shortage of vehicles for tourists during the forthcoming season, it would be another challenge for the industry. Of course the EC pays for the services,” said Kaistha, founder of the Paradise Holidays (I) Pvt. Ltd.
Tour operators commonly utilize all kinds of vehicles including SUVs and sedans to ferry travelers to various destinations for sightseeing purposes. The IATO has also appealed to the Union Tourism Ministry to ensure that ASI/State monuments remain accessible to tourists during the election period, recognizing the significance of monument visits in tourist itineraries.
