Port Blair, July 28: In response to the meeting held with tourism stakeholders on 26th July 2021, Mr. Vishal Jolly, Former State President, BJP-A & N Islands and Member Home Ministry Advisory Committee, GoI took up the matter through a letter addressed to Chief Secretary, A & N Administration and requested to reopen tourism activities in the Islands to sustain the economy and give hope to myriads of youths pertinent to this sector.
In his letter, Mr. Jolly stressed that COVID-19 pandemic has resulted existential crisis for the tourism industry. Since, the lockdown of last year March, the year 2020 saw historical lows of occupancy in hotels, resorts, homestays etc. Also the entire value chain of the travel and tourism sector has been disrupted severely impacted sectors like hospitality, aviation, online travel agents, adventure sports operations etc.
He also wrote that tourism industry of India contributed nine percent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 10 percent to its employment in the pre covid era. The sector’s contribution in 2019 stood at 6.9 percent and went down to 4.7 percent in 2020, as per the World Travel & Tourism Council, SBI Research. The report further suggests that due to the massive hit by the pandemic, the industry suffered a sharp decline of 20 percent in employment. The pandemic has impacted the Andaman & Nicobar Islands even more severely since tourism and its allied industries are the only employment generating industries and due to this crisis there has been a substantial decline in employment.
Further he added that the hospitality industry has huge economic relevance towards material growth of GDP, foreign exchange, employment creation and happiness quotient (important in these trying times). The hospitality sector is capital intensive and has been functioning on negligible income since March 2020. There it is imperative that the government intervenes to ensure that this extremely important sector survives. The revenue of the tourism industry in the rest of the India is coming is coming through domestic tourism which increased to 89% in 2020 from 82% in 2019. Also, States and Union Territories like Goa, Ladakh, Uttarakhand and Karnataka have allowed tourists after certain safety guidelines have been put in place.
He also mentioned that till date the Andaman and Nicobar Islands remains closed for tourism. At present due to the directive of the Andaman Nicobar Islands only two flights per day (non cargo) are landing at the Veer Savarkar International Airport, Port Blair compared to 22 flights a day (pre-covid). Also, after the onset of the second wave ie on 21st April, 2021 the Andaman & Nicobar administration suspended all tourism activities in the Andaman Islands. The tourism activities continue to remain suspended in the Islands till date.
Considering the reasons stated above it is imperative to revive tourism in these Islands keeping safety precautions in place and declare the Andaman and Nicobar Islands open for tourism with appropriate SOPs and safety measures in place requested in his letter.
