The Confederation of Kerala Tourism Industry (CKTI) has called on the government to take immediate steps to reopen the tourism sector in the state, which has been completely closed for the past six months due to the nationwide lockdown and global travel restrictions of COVID 19, back to the path of survival and recovery.
The tourism sector, which has been in crisis since travel restrictions were imposed globally in last February, has been completely shut down with the lockdown imposed in India by March 24. More than 15 lakh people directly and 20 lakh people indirectly working in the tourism sector of the state and being the highest-earning industrial service sector in the state.
Tourism is the highest income-earning sector with more than 45000 Crores and contributing around 12% to the state GDP in 2019. Excluding expatriate investment, it is one of the most lucrative foreign exchange earning sectors in the country and more than 20000 local investors and entrepreneurs are working in this sector with the support of bank loans and other financial institutions support.
Central and State Governments should be prepared to take wartime measures to rescue the sector from the more damaging situation and intervene to restart the regular business with adequate safety and health control measure for the return of the tourism sector and lives of lakhs of people is, directly and indirectly, working travel, tourism and hospitality sector.
“At a time when the tourism industry is on the verge of literally collapsing as one of the state’s highest income earning industrial sectors and excluding NRI investment, the country is literally on the verge of collapse,” says E. M. Najeeb, President, CKTI.
“Based on Unlock 4.0 declared by central government recently, Our neighboring states Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Goa, and Maharashtra etc., have opened the Tourism sector with and without Covid protocols,” he added.
Najeeb pointed out that, the positive response from Kerala government with financial packages and reopening of bars to support and restart tourism businesses are a welcome sign and we are confident that a strong comeback of tourism in the state by December end. “Our CM on his last day press briefing, reiterated the need to ‘Live with Covid’, as people all over the world start following safety precautions and protocols.”
“Unlike other states in India, the Government of Kerala’s Chief Minister’s Tourism Consolation Fund, a financial package of Rs 455 crore, has done a great deal to retain entrepreneurs and workers working in the sector,” said Sajeev Kurup, General Secretary of CKTI.
But there are more than 4000 hotels, resorts, more than 1000 houseboats, more than 100 Ayurvedic centres, more than 1000 tour operators, and homes closed in the tourist destinations
of the state.
However, there are more than 4,000 closed hotels, resorts, 1,000 plus each houseboat, Ayurvedic centres, tour operators and homestay owners, apart from water theme parks, taxi drivers, tourists guides, and units in the adventure tourism sector are in dire financial constraints, due to the continuous lockdown of the tourist attractions in the state.
The unfortunate situation is that none of these can work because of the current restrictions. If this situation continues, the tourism industry, which earned about Rs 45,000 crore for the state exchequer last year, will have to close down permanently said CKTI President.
 has called on the government to take immediate steps to reopen the tourism sector in the state.){kind=link}