Other than his office boy, Harjinder Singh who runs travel firm 24×7 Travels.com from a small office in South Delhi’s Kalkaji Colony has let all five of his staff go as he does not hope travel business would take off for at least a year.
He has decided to try his luck in apparel business for livelihood. Disappointed over no help coming from the government, Singh says that many of his friends in the travel business have forayed into selling of Covid related items like masks, liquid soap dispensers and sanitizers.
“People have engaged themselves in different activities. Some people have got into food business while few others into selling sanitizers. Some people have entered into manufacturing of essential items. We have got into garments business,” says Singh.
With travel and hospitality sector being the worst-affected from Coronavirus pandemic, industry estimates suggest large scale closure of businesses and mass unemployment. It is estimated that the sector employs 5.5 crore people and nearly 70% of them have been rendered jobless.
ABH Tourism which focuses on promoting destinations like Andaman, Bhutan, North East, Karnataka and Goa has not made a single booking since the nationwide lockdown was announced in March this year.
“We have not raised a single bill since lockdown was announced. We are not taking any booking even now because of localised restrictions imposed by various state governments and also there is fear of our own employees contracting infections. All our offices are closed,” said ABH Tourism Director Zia Siddiqui.
While Siddiqui expects the ongoing crisis would end in some time and normalcy would return, many of his friends have lost hopes and attempted new businesses. New businesses range from selling Covid-19 products to grinding spices.
Siddiqui estimates that it will take 3-4 years for the travel industry to return to pre-Covid level business.
Pravati Sukwal, Director of Absolute India Tours in Rajasthan’s Chittorgarh, is focussing on farming as there are no businesses in the city. Her husband who works as tour guide too does not see travel demand coming any time soon.
“We are somehow managing the financial needs. We have taken loans also. All of a sudden, everything came to a grinding halt. Let’s see when things start getting better,” her husband told over phone.
While those dealing with domestic tourists hope situations to improve in coming months, those relying on foreign tourists are a worried lot given the uncertainty around resumption of regular international flights.
“The travel and tour operators who handle Indian clients are seeing very gradual recovery but those handling foreign clients have virtually nil business. We are not even thinking of business returning to normalcy, at least for the next one year,” said Nidhish Sharma, Managing Director of Dehradun-based Garhwal Adventure Pvt Ltd.
This is unfortunate that tourism has been the worst affected area of economy, and this is a worldwide phenomenon. This may take a long time to recover even if the whole population of the world is vaccinated.