(No Like Yet)
Published on : Thursday, February 4, 2021
Asense of disappointment dawned on Agra’s tourism and footwear industries that found no mention in Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget speech. Defence and tourism were two of the key sectors that found no place in the Government of India’s Budget 2021-22.
The tourism industry employs over 4 lakh people in Agra alone through more than 650 hotels and over 500 restaurants, and hundreds of big and small handicraft shops. Apart from that, photographers, guides, and artisans rely on tourists for their livelihood. Insiders say the industry was already staring at loss of income owing to the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns.
President of the Agra Tourist Welfare Chamber, Prahalad Agarwal, speaking to the media, said, “Covid-19 rendered a huge number of people connected to tourism, unemployed. They needed some relief through the Budget but no such relief was offered.” The way the government has neglected the tourism industry, first in the relief measures announced during the lockdown and then in the Budget, it is feared that the tourism industry of Agra is in the worst phase of its existence, Agarwal added.
Rajiv Tiwari, President of Paryatan Mitra saidforeign tourists are not expected to arrive till the next tourist seasonand till then, thousands of people who are employed by this industry will be forced to live on fumes. “The government should have announced some relief measures for this industry in the Budget, but this Budget has been a big disappointment,” Tiwari remarked.
President of the Hotel and Restaurants Association, Rakesh Chauhan said, “Since March 17 2020, most of the hotels in Agra have been shut. Only 10 per cent of hotels are barely able to make ends meet. The budget should have brought some relief for the hotel industry but the entire tourism sector has been neglected by the government, leaving the people connected to this business in mid-stream.”
Ramesh Wadhwa, a hotel owner said the Budget has made no provisions for the people who were worst-affected by the coronavirus crisis. It seems that tourism development is not on the agenda of this government, Wadhwa alleged.
Tags: Union Budget ’21