IATO offers travelling plans from IATO to RateGain
Major travel and tourism-related announcements from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday have cheered India’s travel industry and brought a ray of hope that it may be safe to travel, keeping all safety guidelines at the forefront of all travel plans.
This decision, along with a slew of other decisions taken by the Finance Ministry, has been welcomed by many including the President of IATO Rajiv Mehra, the Head of RateGain India and the Middle East Sourav Mukherjee and by theChairman & Managing Director, Jewels Group of Hotels Colonel Manbeer Choudhary. 
The IATO termed the free visa grant as ‘an excellent policy decision’ that should be extended to all tourists till March 31st 2023 and not restricted to 5 lakh tourists only.
Earlier, the Karnataka government had earlier made an announcement of a 50% reduction in property tax for resorts, hotels, restaurants. This announcement also received a positive response from many.
Notably, from a health perspective, there is appreciation on many of the announcements made by FM Nirmala Sitharaman. But not all travel stakeholders view the recent announcements as a boost for the travel industry, with Sourav Mukherjee stating that this could have been a boost only when the inbound sector already had some movement.
He goes on to say that if the government could also create confidence among the tourists, it will immediately have a positive effect on the leisure segment, with an increase in jobs, increased demand for all modes of transport; loyal customers coming back to food and restaurants business, fresh ray of hope for ancillary tourism and overall increased buzz around the tourism sector.
He also stated that working capital and personal loans for travel tourism stakeholders and registered tour guides will also help in some much-needed liquidity to ramp up their business or startups.
In 2019, about 10.93 million tourists visited India, their average daily stay for a foreign tourist clocked is 21 days and the average daily spending is pegged at $34. The recent announcements are expected to further boost the severely hit travel and tourism industry.
