TAAI President, Jyoti Mayal had an interaction with Sanjay Verma, Secretary – West, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India and conveyed that the issuance of Visas to the United States, and many Schengen countries, especially Greece is a major hurdle which travel-trade fraternity is facing these days.
In a communication addressed to the Hon’ble Minister of External Affairs, TAAI sought interference of MEA through a government-to-government dialogue to resolve the issues.
While sharing the concerns of the industry with Verma, Mayal said, “We at TAAI are seeking MEA’s assistance by way of addressing the issues and challenges faced by the travel-trade fraternity of India to make it more robust. The pandemic era has been a struggle for tourism survival and there is a huge opportunity to quickly revive as people wants to restart travel with huge enthusiasm.”
Members and clients have been reaching out to TAAI that they are unable to secure an appointment for visas for travellers and then the long delays in the stamping of visas without any proper communication.
In addition, some missions keep the passports for an indefinite period resulting in uncertainty and cancellations which incur a huge cost to the traveller given that confirmed air tickets and hotel vouchers are a requirement for visa applications, which must be done away with, requested Mayal.
Further, she conveyed that the extension of the free visas to India and the duration to be of minimum 6 months with multiple entries must be resumed immediately. In line with that, E-Visa must be reinstated for all countries including UK & Canada as pre covid, to boost inbound tourism.
Highlighting the administrative bottlenecks for which TAAI has been communicating to other concerned ministries too, Mayal said that the Air Suvidha form is an encumbrance protocol and therefore the same should be immediately scrapped and supported at the home ministry.
Parallelly, mandatory health and comprehensive travel Insurance on Inbound Visa for the safety and security of travellers must be introduced.
Mayal apprised Verma that Tourism comes under a wide spectrum of ministries and therefore there is a need to work collectively to achieve progressive & effective results.
Taking this thought further, TAAI looks forward to being in continuous communication with the MEA to take more various discussed points into becoming a motivator & enhancer of tourism & bring in ease of travel to drive economic growth.
Taking note of the suggestions and issues, Verma conveyed his assurance to look into some of the matters on priority and assured that his office would remain open to many more such meetings.
