Former Deputy Director General, Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India
Despite a favorable instinct in tour operators that tourist travel spends specially business travel will be increasing from Sept 2022. So far as I see the spend will not be that optimistic till another two years say till 2024, so as to reach pre pandemic levels – it may start picking up end 2023. Covid variants – the way it is showing up in various avtars will be a big setback for the rapid recovery of tourism. Already Delta and Omicron had caused a big push back as informed by travel expert.
Travel restrictions and employee unwillingness to travel also are there along with increased travel prices. There is just beginning of the operations and restricting to nearby areas and regions around workplace flexibility is visible but not yet very convincing. Companies have continued work from home and corporate travel are also very restrictive and may not be operative till end 2022 at least. Just flexible working arrangements for two days trip to head quarter that is only less frequent travels for tourism which have been visible in travel scene.
Short term rentals are not the choice of business travelers. Only families are going out in Easter holidays or school holidays. Non-traditional lodging are not yet poplar with business travelers and many big corporate offices do not accept their officers stay in such non hotel accommodation, mainly on safety reason covid etc. Even chosen destination or hotel they check should have reduce carbon emissions by them. Even how the employees travel is looked into corporate world. Sustainability aspect is more important now looking into how best there could be reduced carbon foot print. Now the travel managers in the tourism business must prioritize supplies that put more emphasis in sustainability aspects, so that crux is to identify in advance destinations where overtoursim is not visible. This appears to be risk areas. Overcrowding and damage to ecosystems, use of greater greener transport even choice of airlines with greener choices that emit less CO2. Experiential tourism at places with locals as guides, porters etc in trekking areas, wildlife camps, local ethnic food mostly organic local entertainments will be the choice tourist for a destination. India has to prepare accordingly to attract foreign tourists. We have plenty of areas like Andaman, Ladakh, Himachal, Uttarakhand Orissa etc. So, travel specialists have to be very knowledgeable to guide vacationers. They must explore updated information about comprehension of carbon measurement. This will help the travelers to get transparent information about impact of their travel two way destination. Climate change, global warming, cool earth experiential tourism suitability are the buzz words are now for choosing travel destinations for holidays.
