Airlines, travel bodies meet today to prepare action plan

Our Corporate Bureau

New Delhi, Oct 3: Major airlines such as Air-India, Indian Airlines, British Airways, Lufthansa and Air France, as well as travel and hospitality companies and industry bodies, are meeting on Thursday to find an immediate solution to recover from the US crisis.

The meeting, called by the tourism ministry, will be represented by director general tourism, Mr VK Duggal and director general of civil aviation, Mr HS Khola.

Major industry associations including Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India (Assocham), Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Association of India, Hotel Association of India and Indian Association of Tour Operators are participating in the meeting.

The objective of the meeting is to prepare an action plan to deal with the slowdown in the sector subsequent to the terrorist attacks in the US, according to an industry source.

The idea is to turn the current crisis into opportunity and the best way is to promote domestic tourism, the source added.

The tourism ministry is likely to share data collected from its overseas offices which would give a true picture of decline in tourist
traffic and slump in the aviation sector.

The experts are likely to endorse the proposal to promote the Buddhist circuit in a big way to attract Buddhists from the South Asian countries as the area held a lot of potential.

There are about 27 million Buddhists in South East Asia and only a small fraction come to India. By successfully tapping them, India can easily get over the losses suffered due to cancellations from the US and Europe, according to an industry expert.

According to an industry estimate, over 60 per cent of tourists from the US have cancelled their bookings to India, while 40 per cent of business travellers have cancelled their air tickets.

Air carriers have to suffer an additional financial burden on account of an increase in insurance premia.