No foreign tourists expected this winter – Times of India

MUMBAI: Every year, international inbound tourism peaks between October and March, but this year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is no visible business happening, said Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH), the policy federation representing the tourism, travel and hospitality industry of India on Wednesday.
“In year 2018-18, international inbound tourism contributed almost 2.85 billion USD, with a total of 17.42 million international tourist arrivals into India.. It is estimated that international inbound tourists will start travelling and returning only in FY 21-22,” said FAITH in a request it raised this week before the RBI Expert Committee, set up by the government for sectors impacted by the pandemic.
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Among the aid it sought is, a 24 month extension of moratorium for tourism and access to special liquidity facility on funds closer to repo rate on a direct benefit transfer from Ministry of Finance.
“Almost 70% of the inbound business to India is concentrated within top 13 countries, that is, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, China, Germany, Russian Fed, France, Japan , Singapore, Thailand, all of which are battling the pandemic and have stringent and varying travel restrictions..The US is the largest long-haul source market for India with almost 14% share but it is also currently the number one country affected by the pandemic,” it said, making a case for the negligible inbound tourist arrivals that this year would see.
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“Even 26.3 million outbound travelling Indians which are serviced by Indian travel agents and tour operators will be non-performing in the current financial year FY 20-21 due to restricted international travel and resurgence of virus in many destination countries,” it added.