3 waves of Covid-19 left 21.5 million people in tourism industry jobless in India

New Delhi, Mar 14: Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy on Monday said that around 21.5 million people in the tourism industry lost jobs due to three waves of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Giving data about the drop in the tourists' to the country, the minister said tourist arrivals in the country were down by 93 per cent during the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak, 79 per cent in the second wave and 64 per cent during the third wave.

"We have conducted a study on the impact of the pandemic on tourism. As per the study, there were 14.5 million job losses during the first wave, 5.2 million job losses in the second wave and 1.8 million job losses in the third wave," PTI quotes him as saying during Question Hour in Lok Sabha.

Explaining further, Reddy said 38 million people were involved with the tourism industry in the country before the pandemic hit the country. The minister said the tourism economy was down significantly during the three waves of coronavirus, which hit this sector badly not only in India but across the globe.

However, he is hoping that the administration of 180 crore Covid-19 jabs would help the business in the tourism sector to improve.

To help this sector, Reddy said, an interest-free loan of Rs 10 lakh is given to travel and tourism stakeholders and up to Rs 1 lakh to tourist guides. "I appeal to all state governments to help the tourism sector in whatever way they can," he said. The minister said due to the pro-tourists initiatives of the Narendra Modi government, India's rank in global tourist destinations has gone up by about 20 positions - from 52 in 2013 to 32 in 2019.

To encourage more international tourists, the government has already decided to waive the visa fee of the first five lakh arrivals, he said. He said after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, till March 7, 2022, as many as 51,960 regular visas and 1.57 e-visas were given by India. Replying to a question by National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, who said that there should be control over air fare as travelling has become costly, affecting tourism industry, Reddy said the government has deliberated upon the issue and has been giving subsidy to the airfares under the 'Udan' scheme to the airlines flying to tourist destinations.

Speaker Om Birla said about 300 MPs have visited Jammu and Kashmir in the recent past and it should be highlighted. Abdullah also urged the minister to restart the Srinagar-Sharjah flight as early as possible.

The second part of the budget session started on Monday and will end on April 8. PTI