The Travel and Tourism industry in India accounts for 9.2% of the country’s GDP and employs 8.1% of the population, with our total contribution to forex approximately US$ 28 billion. The significance of the industry to the Nation’s economic wellbeing cannot be emphasised as it provides employment and livelihood to very large sections of the population.
The coronavirus pandemic has given a crippling blow to the Indian travel and tourism industry. This is the one of the worst crises ever to hit the Indian tourism industry impacting all its geographical segments - inbound, outbound and domestic, almost all tourism verticals - leisure , adventure, heritage, MICE, cruise, corporate and niche segments.
The shut down and slow down which was initially expected to effect revenue streams till October have now indicated otherwise. Trends are currently indicating only 30% of occupancy in hotels till the start of next year, with hotels seeing an 80%- 85% erosion in revenue streams.
The entire value chain linked to Travel & Tourism is likely to lose around 5 lakh crore or US$ 65.57 billion, with the organized sector alone likely to lose US$ 25 billion. The figures are quite alarming and the industry needs immediate measures for survival. CII- Hotelivate research presents an analysis of the impact of COVID on Indian Tourism and Hospitality Industry.