According to reports, nearly 36% to 40% of such travel and tourism companies are likely to witness a temporary shutdown, according to the report by BOTT Travel Sentiment Tracker in partnership with seven national associations like Association of Tour Operators (IATO), Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), India Convention Promotion Bureau (ICPB),Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI) , Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) , Adventure Tour Operators’ Association of India (ATOAI) and Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE).
Aviation, tourism and hospitality sectors together employ 50 million people directly or indirectly.
Reports also mention, 81% travel and tourism companies have lost their revenues upto 100%, while 15% of the companies have witnessed it slide upto 75%.
“The travel and tourism sector is going through a very bad phase. It has taken a severe beating due to the COVID-19 outbreak with lakhs of people dependent on it suffering immense losses and job cuts,” sources said.
This survey has further confirmed fear that travel companies are staring at partial and complete shutdown in addition to job cuts, adjustment of workforce in form of pay cuts, deferment of salaries and termination of contracts, according to the survey.
Meanwhile, a majority of Travel and Tourism companies said they expect the government to create tourism relief fund immediately, followed by 68.2% who wants refunds of cancellations and advance of travel agents and tour operators from airlines.