NEW DELHI: The Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India has written to all chief ministers and chief secretaries asking them to support the survival and revival of the hospitality sector, badly hit by the surge in coronavirus and the resultant restrictions on travel.
In a letter to all chief ministers and heads of bureaucracy in the states, FHRAI asked for the abolition of the policy of imposing blanket ban or selective restrictions on Hospitability establishments. Instead, the representative body said establishments should be given relaxations or waiver of statutory payments such as electricity charges, property taxes and excise license fees, among others. It also demanded that of hospitality industry workers be treated as frontline corona warriors and be given priority vaccination, and that invitation cards for wedding be permitted instead of curfew passes, for people attending weddings.
“The impact of Covid-19 on the Hospitality industry has been extremely disruptive.…As of today, 30% hotels and restaurants in the country have shut down permanently due to financial losses and over 20% hotels and restaurants haven’t reopened fully. The remaining 50% continue to run in losses and revenues are below 50% of the pre-Covid levels,” said Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, FHRAI vice president.
The representative body of hotels and restaurants in the country also said the hospitality sector has been a “soft target” of local restrictions despite establishments having maintained high quality and hygiene benchmarks. They also said while hospitality establishments are singled and placed under restriction, manufacturing industries employing several thousands are being allowed to function.
Hospitality industry is one of the major contributors to the nation’s GDP and its earnings were hugely impacted due to Covid-19. Tourism and Hospitality accounted for around 10% of the GDP, supported around 90 million jobs and generated Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEE) to the tune of Rs.1.94 lakh crore (US$ 29.96 billion) in 2019.