Sharmila and John D souza would make it a point to fly out
of the country every year come May. It would be either England to meet family
or time to visit some of the further points not usually accessed by Indians.
Think Latin America.
Now all that has come to a standstill. Like this couple
there are thousands in Goa who are stuck at home unable to move due to the
virus. International travel is at a
standstill. Travel within the country is also largely restricted. To travel
requires jumping through various hoops. The effect on travel agencies has been
rather devastating.
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Valigno Dias from Trade Wings, one of the reputed travel
companies in Goa, which specialises in road shows amd trade promotions had some
very pithy observations to make about the state of affairs. He said “We have
been paying our taxes, we have followed all the rules but what do we have to
show when we needed help from the government, ab-solutely nothing. Business has
collapsed. It is really bad. I think
this situation will persist for some time. I have taken correc-tive measures. I
have gone back to toddy tapping and making urack. I have gone back to my roots.
We were fooled by all the bright lights and the money but even-tually we were
shown it was all hollow. The industry as a whole is in a total mess”.
Another manager in a travel agency in Panjim who was not
authorised to speak to the media said he had informed his staff that he would
be able to pay their salaries next month and after that it was all up in the
air. He said “There is no business, I slashed staff by fifty percent after the
first lockdown and even then it was tough and now this surge in cases has been
the pits. There is no business, nothing. None of my corporate clients are
spending, it is really bad. If this situation continues then this business will
be shut for the time being. That’s the only way forward.”
Aloo Gomes Pereira a veteran in the travel industry summed
up the situation in one word, difficult. He said “It was going to be tough to
survive. He said “We are working at 50 percent activity. No book-ings anymore,
no ticketing activity. It is difficult
to sustain this without any busi-ness coming in. we are trying to keep it open
because it is very easy to shut down and it is very difficult to restart. We
intend to hang in there and hope for the best.”
Nilesh Shah President TTAG and a travel agency owner said it
would get im-possible if the situation did not improve. He said “Thankfully the
vaccinations are available, so I am confident the situation will improve. We
have to follow the protocols and yes the vaccine passport if it comes through
will be a great help. We have to have faith. Things will improve.”
Ernest Dias VP of Kuoni Travel India said the situation was
very bad and it would not make sense to talk about any business coming in. He
said perhaps in a couple of months the situation would improve and then perhaps
after the mon-soon one could think about the season. He however felt it would
be prudent to not think of tourists from Western Europe because many of them
planned well in advance. If anything would come it would be from Eastern Europe
but even that remained to be seen given the very poor publicity India was now
receiving due to the mismanagement of the second wave. He said everyone would
have to hope for the best.
Similar sentiments were articulated by Bimal Singh from
Crocodile Dundee Trip who said the situation was so bad because all their tour
packages were unsold. He said “We are focused on inbound traffic especially
from Eastern Europe. We have witnessed a 90 percent drop in business. We are
expecting nothing from Russia and any of the countries in the east this year.
The overall situation is very bad”. Hotels he said were now operating at 10 to
12 percent capacity and flights to Goa were being cancelled. Earlier there
would be rush from Mumbai to Goa but now there would be barely 3000 passengers
which would be a drop in the ocean.
One can only hope the situation im-proves because tens of
thousands of jobs are dependent on this industry and the Goan economy is
dependent on tourism.
