The travel, tourism and aviation sectors might feel a bit hard done by, with few sops in the Budget. But it is still too early to intervene

Around this time last year, your columnist wrote a piece saying that the global aviation sector was about to get hit hard by an emerging pandemic. At the time, nobody — not this columnist or, frankly, any of you — could have predicted that a year later we would be sitting at such a place. Entire industries have been ripped asunder, millions across the world have seen their livelihoods disappear, both blue collar and white, and countless others are trying to just survive by the day. Few industries, however, have been as badly impacted as the travel, tourism and allied sectors, particularly aviation.

Decimation in its essence is too mild a term to describe what has happened to these industries; after all the term was born during the Roman Republic when commanders executed a tenth of a legion for cowardice. The industry, in retrospect, would have been happy to have fallen by just a tenth. India’s largest airline operator, Interglobe Aviation that owns and operates IndiGo, recently announced its third quarter results where it said they had lost a stunning `7 crore per day. And they are India’s best-run airline in business. Hotels are barely surviving. While some large chains have managed to ride out the storm, many smaller properties across the country have shut shop. With no social security net, thousands of employees find themselves in a financially precarious position.

But those in the formal sector might have had some sort of saving. At many major tourist destinations across the country, it is actually the guy way down in the tourism value chain who has been hit the hardest. Think of the masseurs in Kerala’s ayurvedic spas? Think of the tourist guides at any World Heritage Site and think of the poor people who sold everything from cheap trinkets to fancy shawls; also, the artisans behind the scenes. The collapse of the international travel business has hit hundreds of thousands of Indians, not just at the beach resorts of Kerala or the palaces in Rajasthan but also major pilgrimage sites such as Bodh Gaya and Sarnath.

There is a school of thought that argues that domestic tourism will pick up some of the slack. And indeed the rush of tourists to places like Goa is heartening even though — with COVID-19 protocols being blithely ignored and the potential of another wave of infections still looming —  some of the pictures and videos emerging from Goa are concerning, to say the least. That said, the influx of tourists into Goa has helped many thousands keep their jobs and, as yet, another outbreak has largely been prevented although there are some stories emerging of people who travelled to Goa and contracted the virus.

But, just casual observation makes it obvious that there is no raging pandemic in India. Airports are crowded and most flights are packed; while the railway services are still limited, some amount of travel has returned and, to use the words of Deep Kalra, Chief Executive Officer of India’s largest online travel agency, MakeMyTrip.com, there has been a return of “revenge travel” where families sick and tired of being cooped up inside all year are flying and driving around India.

But, to be honest, that is just a small slice, the highest end of the consuming class in India, which is just a miniscule proportion of our population. While many of these tourists earlier spent their rupees abroad — they are the class of people who have had destination weddings or were the chief executives of companies that did expensive off-sites — with the wedding and conference business being hit, although there are some green shoots now, the fact is that “revenge travel” while helping the industry is not quite enough. This is evident in MakeMyTrip’s results for the last quarter (October-December) of 2020: Air ticketing was down 62 per cent, hotel bookings 66 per cent and bus bookings 43 per cent.

The industry is looking for help but that begs the question, what can the Government do? Sure, some sops on taxation and depreciation for hotels and airlines could be given. Taxation benefits on aircraft lease, as announced in the Budget, would help bring down rentals but with the global airline industry in the doldrums as well, with the sole exception of the country that started this mess — China, lease costs have come down anyway. So, that loops back to the original question, what can the Government do? The Government cannot buy up stocks of the stone inlay workers who used to sell to foreign tourists at the Taj Mahal. It can’t provide work to the thousands of guides at India’s several World Heritage Sites, or even much of a dole for that matter, nor can it help the people who used to arrange high-end luxury trips and who had invested their savings in the business.

What it can do, and this was proved by the Budget, is that it can encourage inbound tourism. It can promote India in a way that other countries cannot. India has some of the best heritage and natural beauty. It can reduce taxes on aviation fuel to spur flying and local tourism as well. It can cut consumption taxes in hotels and India should join the list of nations that offer tax refunds to foreign shoppers. But, for that to happen, we will still have to wait until this accursed pandemic is past us and, for that to happen, we should all line up and wait for our turn to get the jab.

(The author is Managing Editor, The Pioneer. The views expressed are personal.)