Strategies for revival of tourism industry: Tourism is one of the largest and fastest growing sectors of the world economy. In terms of revenue generated, it is bigger than the trade volumes of oil, food products, automobiles. But the size of this key sector is not matched by the clout of the sectors of similar size. This may be because of the fact that the industry is dominated by a large number of small players. The United Nations World Tourism Organization has been celebrating World Tourism Day on September 27 for more than four decades now. This Monday, the theme of the celebration was ‘Tourism for Inclusive Growth’.
For Indian economy also, tourism is a key sector that contributes 6.8% of the country’s GDP. India’s tourism industry employs more than 4 crore people — 8% of total jobs in the country. Travel and Tourism is the largest service industry in India and it earned foreign exchange worth $30 billion in 2019, second only to the IT industry. By the turn of this decade, tourism industry is expected to account for around 10% of the Indian economy.
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Tourism is a sector considered relatively immune to economic shocks. It weathered the global economic crisis of 2008 and helped immensely in post-crisis recovery. But the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown measures taken to curb its spread brought the tourism industry down. The crisis led to economic losses worth trillions of dollars to the industry, and millions of people lost their jobs.
National webinar on tourism industry
The National institute of Water Sports is organising a national webinar on India’s tourism industry in association with Policy Circle and the Central University of Kerala on Wednesday, September 29 at 4 pm. The topic of the webinar is “Resilient Tourism for Inclusive Growth: Strategies for Domestic Tourism Sector”. The webinar will discuss the current crisis from the perspective of different stakeholders.
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The panelists are:
- Dr. Poonam Munjal, Senior Fellow, NCAER will discuss the economic impact of pandemic on tourism industry in India.
- Guruprasad Sankaranarayanan, Chief Strategy Officer, Oyo Rooms will talk on the revival strategies for micro, small and medium accommodation segments.
- Mansi Hooda, Senior Manager & Practice Lead, CAPA India will discuss the role of domestic travel segment in India’s aviation sector revival.
- Prateek Hira, Founder President and CEO of Tornos Destinations Pvt Ltd, will talk on the role of travel intermediaries in the post-Covid revival of tourism sector in India.
- Prof. Sutheeshna Babu S of NIWS-IITTM talk on the imperatives of domestic tourism industry.
Anil Nair, Founder Editor of Policy Circle, will moderate the event. Prof. Alok Sharma, director, Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management, will deliver the inaugural address, while Prof. V Balachandran, Dean, School of Business Studies and Professor and Head of Department of Management Studies , Central University of Kerala, will be the guest of honour.