Eminent names from the hospitality industry gather at 5th BW HOTELIER’s Indian Hospitality Summit and Awards 2020

Saturday, September 5, 2020

Due to travel limitations enforced across countries globally, leading to a decline in tourists and travelers in addition to the dwindling consumer demand, tourism is the sector that has been impacted the most. Besides practical concerns, there are also concerns and questions regarding how to rebuild the sector in a way that is more sustainable whilst having a positive impact, in general. Big shots from the hospitality industry gathered at the 5th edition of BW HOTELIER’s Indian Hospitality Summit and Awards 2020, for assisting tourism businesses to safely reopen for their customers by the month of November when the season starts in India.

The event was moderated by Suman Billa, Director, the UNWTO, Madrid. The intense and power-packed session included: Dipak Deva, Managing Director, TCI/Sita; Deep Kalra, Founder & Group Executive Chairman, MakeMyTrip; Rohit Khosla, Executive Vice President – Operations, North & West India, IHCL; George Ettiyil, Senior Director Sales – South Asia, Lufthansa Group.

On restarting tourism, Suman Billa, said, “The one thing we are all clear about and every country in the world is focused on is that tourism sector needs to start desperately. The challenge we have in front of us is to see how we can start the tourism sector sometime in November. The choice we have to make is that we will have to start the tourism sector even without the luxury of a vaccine. We need to put in place a strong safety and hygiene protocol to reassure the traveller that it is okay to travel and their health will not be compromised.”

Billa further said, “If we are thinking to revive the tourism from November then we have to think about the revival package which is to induce and stimulate demand and see as to how we can kick out our way from where we are. Industry needs to have a reasonable set of suggestions with which to go to the government and request and require their support on some of the things if we have to reclaim the space that we had earlier.”

Deep Kalra, stressing on the importance of testing said, “The reality is you can’t be bold without a full plan. I believe we’ve got to start a protocol of swift testing for domestic tourists and it can be easily accommodated in airports. We’ll have to take up the cost for testing to ensure that our people are safe.”

Throwing light on the aviation sector and Europeans, George Ettiyil, expressed, “We all agree that testing is the way forward in whichever direction it is. The mechanisms are already there but it is important to convey and communicate these mechanisms and standards in order to make things happen.”

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