Tourist guides find it hard to maintain their livelihood amid pandemic restrictions

Published on : Thursday, June 10, 2021

Domestic tourism started getting better slowly after the lockdown, but it hardly made any difference to the livelihood of tourist guides whose major source of income remain international visitors.

Faheem Khan, a government-registered tourist guide, used to familiarize foreign tourists to Delhi at Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)-protected monuments in the city until March last year before the nationwide lockdown in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic. Majorly guiding foreign tourists, Khan could not fully restart his work even after lockdown restrictions were normalized.

The surge in Covid-19 cases this summer worsened the situation of guides like Khan. They opine that they do not expect the situation to get better since return of foreign tourists is doubtful anytime soon. “International flights were stopped…since then, our work has halted,” rued Khan, a Persian language expert with a doctorate from Jawaharlal Nehru University.