FAITH Associations start Vision 2035 for a tourism driven India!

FAITH policy federation of all the national associations representing the complete tourism, travel and hospitality industry of India (ADTOI, ATOAI, FHRAI, HAI, IATO, ICPB, IHHA, ITTA, TAAI, TAFI) has released an India tourism vision with a vision statement, goals and a tangible execution path to begin today for the country commemorating the 75th golden year of Indian independence.

Nakul Anand, Chairman FAITH shared the broad highlights of vision 2035 to make Indian Tourism preferred and loved by global & domestic tourist, to create economic and wealth, infrastructure creation opportunities for tourism entrepreneurs & employees & to be a role model sector for sustainable and inclusive growth.

It targets 75 million inbound tourists, $ 150 bn of foreign exchange earnings, 7.5 billion domestic tourism visits, 15 crore direct and indirect jobs from tourism, $ 225 bn from domestic tourism, $ 1.1 tn + GDP impact direct and indirect 75 mn outbound travellers.

He mentioned that execution of this vision will be achieved by four strategic pillars – shared national approach, market excellence, value accretive regulations and investment drivers.

The execution to the vision should start immediately with tourism in the concurrent list, identified as an export sector, with zero rating of GST on forex earnings, national Tourism Council of PM & CMs, national unique id of Tourism service providers for quality assurance and to organise the industry , tourism projects based around sustainable design principles, GST rates 10% with full set offs on hotels and restaurants and 1% on travel intermediaries and .1% on ticketing, all GST setoffs on fuel, liquor, construction, tourism transportation fees, credit for domestic travel and MICE, single window e – clearance for all projects, national seamless Tourist transportation, tourism education based on credit based national standardised skilling , 200 +Centres of tourism Excellence across States, industrial rates in all States on Utilities for tourism & hospitality, establishment of 5 Mega Tourism Zones almost 1 mn new Hospitality branded rooms on identified land banks, tourism to be declared as socio commercial infrastructure, Last Mile Connectivity to all destinations , tourism segments of excellence creating market mix of 10% MICE, 20% Adventure, 30% Heritage , 20% Medical , 10% Niche & 10% Buddhist, share of Short Haul international Tourist, a 12 month market of Indian Tourism through targeted market positioning of each season

He mentioned that these are in line with our suggestions to the MOT on 100 year vision of 100 mn inbound tourists and 10 bn domestic tourist visits.

PP Khanna, president ADTOI (Domestic Tourism) domestic tourism is already the second highest in the world with almost 2.3 billion domestic tourism visits. mentioned on Tour operators should be 1.8% with full set offs, make available an income tax exemption on travelling within India, Connectivity in each state between state capitals and tourism centres though special high speed

Tejbir Singh – Alternate Board Member to FAITH ATOAI ( adventure tourism) & vice chairman FAITH said India has one of most unique natural heritage of the world , blessed country being only one of the 17 Megadiverse countries sustainable and responsible development plan, hub & spoke, all season, inter- modal connectivity to all Adventure destinations, get a respectable marketshare of 5-10% in the $ 750 bn , global adventure market , be recognised export industry either through SEIS like instruments with 10% duty credit and a Sub brand to our Incredible India main brand , supporting visa categories, rescue centres.

Garish Oberoi, Alternate Board Member to FAITH from (FHRAI) Federation of Hotels & Restaurants Industry of India & Treasurer FAITH mentioned tourism needs to be priority sector. hotels & restaurants across each state of India need to be declared and treated as an industry, The 18% GST category for hotels above room rates of ₹ 7500 must be abolished and merged with the category of 12% gst. Gradually it should be brought down further below 10% with full set offs in line with global trends. Restaurants too have an 18% and also 5% slab but which is without setoffs. The 18% category needs to be abolished and there needs to be an option made available of Gst at 12% with full set offs. Additionally the needs to be no linkage to room tariffs above ₹ 7500 as it currently exists, E- Single window clearance at a national level must be enabled for hotels &restaurants. Liquor excise policies have to become more pragmatic in states and any state which has increased the liquor excise fees should roll it back immediately. It is critical to ensure there is level playing field in terms of compliances and entry requirements among all sub segments conventional and also alternate accommodation such as b&b guest houses, short term rentals. Tax holidays for tourism developers.

Rajiv Mehra, the president of (IATO) Indian Association of Tour Operators & honorary secretary of FAITH

In the pre- covid period India had a global share of 1.2% international travel. This is not commensurate with the size and scope of India can offer. inbound tour operators need to have an operating cash subsidy to pay salaries and operating costs, the Foreign Trade Policy which is being planned a duty credit similar to earlier SEIS rate should be made effective at 10% inbound tourism which earns foreign exchange needs to be treated at par with merchandise exports and needs to be zero rated on Gst. The Gst on Tour operators should be 1.8% with full set offs which is calculated as 18% gst on a 10% margin. Currently at 5% that too without setoffs it effectively comes to 18% on a 38% margin which is penal. The commercial flights need to resume in full to ensure affordable rate travel. Multiple entry tourist e- visa needs to be effectively issued and marketing needs to be undertaken

Randhir Vikram Singh, the president of IHHA Heritage tourism segment is to target must be minimum 10 million to 30 million heritage foreign tourists.

At the same time our young and upcoming generation must actively connect with our rich past. Thus, the target for domestic heritage tourism visits for heritage must be 1 billion to 3 billion. Between centre and state jointly target 3 heritage centres of tourism excellence, need a heritage tourism board in coordination with IHHA, at least 1 crore heritage skilled tourism travel and hospitality employees and a distinct identity through heritage tourism sub brand to the main brand of incredible India. Connectivity in each state must be ensured though special high speed vista trains from each state capital to the top 5 heritage destinations of each state PPP through us adopt heritage scheme must be fast tracked across all states and monuments, sites and soft heritage to ensure wide spread private participation in heritage tourism with both income tax incentives and gst concessions

Amaresh Tiwari, the vice chairman of India Convention Promotion Bureau – The global mice industry is estimated to be upwards of $ 800 bn and India’s share pre covid was estimated to be around 1 % and MICE sector has the strongest direct correlation to the gdp. The first objective to double our mice share to 2.5% of the world and then doubling it over medium to long term. In the global international congress associations rankings, our goal will be to take India’s rank to the top 10, aim to benchmark the mice infrastructure of our Indian cities to the top global mice cities. Pre covid we had 1 city in the top 100 rank. Our goal must be to be having 3 Indian cities in the top 100 in the medium term post covid and 6 – 10 cities in top 100 in the medium to long term.

We need to recognise mice tourism and a sub- brand to the main brand Incredible India. Target global congress, conventions and conferences, and social events we need to create a global mice bidding fund with a corpus for ₹ 500 crores. We need to Create city convention bureaus in each of our main cities which will work with ICPB. Offer a 200% weighted income tax expense benefit to Indian companies which are undertaking mice events in India. Need to enable IGST for our hotels which will complete the end to end gst chain and companies get Gst setoffs for companies undertaking mice events in states other than their state of registration.

Gst rates to move to a 12% Gst rate for all mice related events with full set offs and gradually to below 10% in the medium term with full set offs. One Special Tourism Zones should be fully integrated world class mice city.

Sharat Chandra, the treasurer of Indian tourist transportation association (ITTA)

Tourist transportation is the backbone of domestic tourism. Between centre and state, we should aim to provide a seamless, safe and standardise all inter State road taxes and payable at a single point. The renewal of All India permits, local permits, Fitness for New cars all need to become paperless and authorized dealerships of respective manufacturers may be allowed for valid Fitness. Permission must be provided to import of tourist vehicles under EPCG by tourism services exporters. Stage carriage permits for free interstate movements. Parking is a structural issue and Multi level parking for tourist buses in all our cities and key tourist destinations must be made available through corporation bus depots

It is critical to make available all costs of tourist transport for gst set offs. These include inter state taxes, tolls & parking charges, on fuel and taxes on parking, all of which exceed almost 40% of our gross cost of operations It should also be reduced on purchase of buses from 28% to 18% to encourage group tourism.

Respect to the Drivers of Buses and cars must be extended as civil citizens and not treated with a penal mindset by enforcement agencies. Special training classes for chauffeurs must be extended.

Jyoti Mayal, the president of Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) and Vice Chairman, FAITH

Whether it is outbound, domestic or inbound travel or in segments of business travel, leisure travel, weddings travel , conference travel or special activities such as medical or rural tourism travel we look forward to creating multiple opportunity for our travel agents fraternity. Enable our travel agents communities to partner and create combinations of online and offline models. Partner with multiple country tourism boards to collaborate with the Indian travel agents. India to be aviation hub. Ensure that TCS on outbound travel is not levied. Protect our fraternity from fly by night operations. Not depend upon IATA and need an indian body.

Ajay Prakash, the president of Travel Agents Fraterniity of India (TAFI)

Our primary vision for our travel agents fraternity is foremost to ensure their security and their protection while making efforts to identifying their business expansion possibilities. Travel agentspayments to principals is unsecured credit and we need to ensure that some form of mechanisms whether escrow or guarantee or underwriting based mechanisms are in place to ensure that travel agents money stays secure. India is going to be one of the biggest source market for outbound travel. We see this as the largest opportunity for our travel agents fraternity. In 2019, pre- covid 27 million Indians travelled outwards. We see this doubling in the medium term and then increasing again to almost 75+ Million travellers. We need to plan to create to increasing the number of countries opportunity for our travel agents fraternity. The applicability of TCS on puts our travel agents business models under threat as they make us expensive to book by 5 – 10%. Gst needs to be available with offset credit. ATF needs to be under the ambit of gst. A combined visa for India and neighbouring countries. We need sustainable focus on yoga and Ayurveda.