In its June flight schedule, Lufthansa Group has announced services to 106 destinations across the world. In India, Mumbai will be the first destination served by the German carrier and will connect Frankfurt with the business capital of India. George Ettiyil, Senior Director Sales, South Asia, Lufthansa Group, says, “I am quite proud of our decision to have Mumbai as one of the first destinations for increasing our long-haul services. It reflects the robust demand for flights to and from India, even in these unprecedented times. While we fully understand and respect the Indian Government’s final call as to when this can take place, resuming flights to Mumbai, underlines our confidence in how the Indian Government is handling the pandemic crisis. With Germany and Switzerland also leading the way by flattening the “curve” in Europe, reopening this route will increase economic cooperation between our countries again.”

The Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH) has decided that making a fund to help the ailing tourism industry would be part of their future course of action, after the tourism industry was snubbed by the Government and no stimulus package was announced by the Finance Minister for the same. Subhash Goyal, Secretary General, FAITH, said “We have a board meeting today at 9’o clock, and our next course of action will be decided there. We are making a final appeal to the Tourism Minister and the Prime Minister, and then we’ll see what action we shall take. Ultimately, we’ll have to create our own fund, on which we are working, and we will decide what name we’d give it today.”

In a webinar organised by MOT and IATO to address queries related to filling Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) by tourism industry stakeholders, Suman Sharma, ADG, Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), said that she and her team are trying to devise an industry-wise standard list of documents, which can help firms while filing SEIS claims. “The work on the document is almost complete from my end. I will submit the same to DGFT for their approval. It will probably help all the industries including tourism and will help them know what additional documents DGFT needs while they file SEIS and reduce the time of processing their application. Currently, DGFT doesn’t have FAQs specific to SEIS filing and claim procedure. Hence, a lot of travel industry professionals are facing issues with the same.” During the webinar, Rupinder Brar, ADG, MOT inquired about the FAQs looking at the number of queries from the trade and Suman Sharma agreed to do the same to help travel trade. Sharma is also the nodal officer to deal with SEIS claims and issues on tour and travel cases.

Zurab Pololikashvili, Secretary-General, UNWTO has said that Tourism faces the biggest challenge of a generation amidst the current COVID-19 crisis. He said, “Tourism faces the biggest challenge of a generation. But events like Healing Solutions for Tourism’ Challenge’ has shown, tourism can deliver solutions for all. We now have an opportunity to rethink tourism and do things better. Virtual reality, artificial intelligence and big data will all have a part to play in our joint response to COVID-19, and in building resilience for the future. As such, I thank all those who took part in the Healing Solutions initiative and look forward to the winning ideas being scaled up to make a real difference in the challenging times ahead.” Tourism has been among the hardest hit of all major economic sectors. To rebuild confidence in travelling and to enhance tourism’s contribution to wider societal recovery, UNWTO called on innovators to share their ideas for positive change. Entrepreneurs pitched in three categories: Healing for People, Healing for Prosperity and Healing for Destinations. Over 1,100 applications were received and from the 30 shortlisted projects, nine were selected by a panel of sector leaders including Pololikashvili.

According to the new analysis by International Air Transport Association (IATA), in 2021 it is expected that global passenger demand (measured in revenue passenger kilometres, RPKs) will be 24% below 2019 levels and 32% lower than IATA’s October 2019 Air Passenger forecast for 2021. This forecast is modelled on the baseline scenario of domestic markets opening in Q3, with a much slower phased opening of international markets. This would limit the air travel recovery, despite most forecasts pointing toward a strong economic rebound late this year and during 2021.

In a bid to assess the extent of losses, current needs, and proactive measures to be taken in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Goa Tourism in association with KPMG Advisory Services is conducting a state-wide survey among tourism stakeholders including hotels, activity operators, tour and travel services, event organisers, taxi drivers, tourist guides, photographers, and others. The survey will also factor in expectations the sector has of the government. In a statement, the tourism authority said that the hospitality industry in the state has been hit the most due to the pandemic. All the stakeholders can access the survey at http://goa-tourism.com/covid19survey. The data, as per the statement, will remain fully confidential. For the sake of data security, you will be required to use an OTP. Goa Tourism said that the opinions of stakeholders would be helpful in developing a suitable strategy to revive tourism in the state and collectively come out stronger from this crisis.

The third edition of TravTalk Digital Conclave will commence today at 10am and will go on till 1:30pm. With a total of three sessions of one hour each, the online event would see experts mulling over issues plaguing the travel and tourism industry during COVID-19 crisis. To register, email jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or call +9650196532. The panelists for first session, titled ‘The Reality of NO tourism!’ will be Rajiv Mehra from IATO, Bharat Atree from Caper Travel Company, and Debjit Dutta from Impression Tourism Services. Second session, titled ‘Hotels in the age of social distancing. Where are the robots?’ will have Mandeep Lamba from HVS ANAROCK, Dilip Puri from Indian School of Hospitality and Jatin Khanna from Marriot Hotels. For the third session, titled ‘Big ticket business! When do we start looking at weddings, corporate and M!CE travel?’, the panelists include Rajeev Jain from Rashi Entertainment, Rajdev Bhattacharya from Wipro Limited, and Rajeev Kale from Thomas Cook India.