Travel and Hospitality (TnH) - December 2021

Rs.350 / Pages 44

VFS Global

EDITOR'S NOTE

Roll with the Changes The end of the year is already upon us, and though I usually find travelling for the New Year over rated, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m dreaming of faraway adventures this year. It has a lot to do with the fact that this time last year, without a COVID-19 vaccine, a winter getaway wasn’t an option for me. And given how unpredictable things are these days, I have realised you need to seize every opportunity to travel. I mean even as you read this, travel guidelines are changing daily as a result of the newly detected Omicron variant.

Fortunately, I don’t seem to the only one afflicted with an acute case of wanderlust these days. People are growing tired of the never ending pandemic restrictions and are willing to travel again. However unlike domestic tourism and outbound tourism, the recovery of inbound tourism is still largely sluggish. In our story, ‘Reviving Inbound Tourism amid the COVID-19 Pandemic’ (page 16), we have listed some key focus-areas to revitalise the inbound sector.

Another imperative segment we have covered in this issue is visas. To bring out the latest trends in this segment, we have interviewed Vinay Malhotra, a stalwart of the global visa industry, who is the Regional Group COO at VFS Global, the lead player in the segment.

Read his insightful interview on (page 10). Other than that, this month we have covered a buffet of topics – from influencer marketing (page 32) to sustainable tourism (page 38), and I hope you enjoy our range of stories.

I would like to end by saying that I realize for many of us still recovering from the effects of 2020, 2021 won’t go down as one of the best years. For others, business is almost back to usual. But, irrespective of where you are in the here and now, we at TnH wish you a joyous holiday season and a safe, healthy and prosperous new year.

Publisher & Editor Srishti Jindal

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CONTENT 10.

The Rise and Rise of VFS Global: 20 Years of a Global Pioneer

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16.

EWD Holds a Bash for Travel and Hospitality Industry

Reviving Tourism amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

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38.

Wedding Bells Ring Good News for Travel

The Tourism Industry Needs to Look to a Greener Future

32.

Influencers: The New Generation of Marketing Gurus

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EWD Hold aabash Bashfor for EWD holds Travel and Hospitality travel and hospitality industry Industry On the occasion of the 9th Anniversary of Enjoy with Destinations (EWD), Malkit Singh Virdi and Jaishree Rawat Virdi held a bash for the Travel and Hospitality industry at Ayu Hotels, New Delhi on October 29, 2021.

The cream of Travel trade, Hoteliers, Trade Association leaders, well-wishers and friends, graced the occasion. The guest of honour on this special occasion was Mr Himmat Anand, Founder of the Tree of Life Resorts & Hotels.

The well attended event also comprised of lucky draws sponsored by Tree of Life Resorts, Ayu Hotels, Spree Hotels, Rishikesh Inn and OSR Resorts and Hospitality.

Post Covid, the Virdis announced the relaunch of their Company with increased emphasis on outbound tourism from the hitherto specialisation of domestic tourism.

The company also planned to lay a greater emphasis on curating pet friendly vacations in future.

The Virdis, founders of EWD, thanked the Travel and Hospitality fraternity, well-wishers and friends for gracing the celebrations and making it truly memorable.

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The Rise and Rise of VFS Global: 20 Years of a Global Pioneer With the easing of global travel, increasing vaccination drives and an uptick in travellers’ sentiments, TnH speaks to Vinay Malhotra, Regional Group Chief Operating Officer (South Asia, Middle East & North Africa and Americas) at VFS Global on VFS Global completing 20 years, his learnings from the pandemic, emerging trends and his outlook for the global travel sector.

Q. VFS Global turned 20 this year. What are your reflections? What do you think has been the key factor for the company’s success?

Customer orientation has been the hallmark of VFS Global’s journey over these past 20 years. We are a people business, and we have built a strong customer-focused culture. We constantly strive towards helping our client governments reduce process complexity through our customized services while they minimize costs, achieve results, and enhance customer experiences. At VFS Global, we have always kept the needs of the customer over the needs of the business and strived towards going above and beyond to create winning moments in the mind of each customer we interact with.

enabled through digital tools like IVR (interactive voice response) for our helplines and Chatbot help desks, which will support employees in completing critical application tasks more quickly, thus improving turnaround times and reducing errors.

For instance, 20 years ago, services were offered on a first-come, first-served basis, but the growing demand for convenience made us introduce an Appointment Management System along with spacious, convenient, and efficient visa application centres (VACs).

Q. How have technology-led innovations changed the visa experience for customers and governments?

We have always believed in embracing technologies that provide customers with better comfort, superior and efficient service, and collate their feedback. It was customer demand which pushed us to move into customer-centric and personalized services such as Premium Lounges, couriers, Visa At Your Doorstep (VAYD), etc. The introduction of biometrics enrolment capabilities was the real game-changer for us, which led to the evolution of new-age VAWCs. The growing demand for DIY (do it yourself) technologies led to us introducing the electronic mode of visa or e-visa services. Thus, our optional value-added services and the look, feel and format of VACs have evolved to meet the demands of the selfinformed and discerning customer of today.

For our client governments, we added additional process efficiencies, primarily from improvements

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12 Q. What has VFS Global done to adjust to the new normal?

We are very conscious of the fact that in the post-COVID world, health considerations will take precedence at every step of the visa application process, and we are focusing on providing that assurance to our visa customers and client governments, including standardized health and safety measures to be followed across all our VACs. Keeping health and safety in mind, we are also expanding our online / low-contact services like doorstep visa application options and courier services.

Q. While we continue facing challenges posed

by COVID-19, how is VFS Global future-proofing itself?

As soon as countries across the globe started closing their borders early last year, VFS Global responded swiftly and in an agile and bold manner to adjust to the new market environment. While our immediate goal was more survivalist in nature, we saw this as a big opportunity to transform our business model and make it even stronger, more efficient, and more resilient for the future. To ensure the same, we have embarked on a major transformation project, which will leverage technology to further strengthen our business model with our core processes in visa service and make it sustainable to successfully manage any volatility in the business.

Q. From your perspective, what has been the role of travel agents during the pandemic and how do you see it evolve in the recovery phase?

In the upcoming recovery period, as pillars of the travel ecosystem in India, travel agents will play an important role. We have always valued the contribution of this fraternity and going forward their contributions will be even more important to rebuild confidence among travellers in the market, as growth and demand slowly but surely recovers.

Innovation will be key for all stakeholders in this space. We will need to work together on two aspects to drive demand: constant communication with our customers regarding regularly changing government advisories and newer travel trends, and ensuring health and safety is a priority for customers in a postCOVID world.

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Q. Considering the impact of the pandemic, how do you see travel and tourism shaping up in the next five years?

The travel and tourism industry accounts for around 10% of global gross domestic product (GDP) and is directly responsible for generating one in ten of the world’s jobs. Thus, while any impact on tourism will have a snowball effect on the global economy, the industry is also in a unique spot to help put the global economy back on its feet once the pandemic has passed. As the world goes on a reset, a centered and balanced lifestyle will become the new normal, with health and hygiene considerations, even possibly wellness travel, becoming more important in the post-COVID world. People will be keen to travel as soon as they possibly can and this demand, along with a new dimension of health considerations, may be a strong driving force for the sector to rally and show a positive trend in the times to come.

Q. What according to you is the roadmap to make the travel sector more resilient and future-ready?

From an India perspective, with a growing middle class, young population, and burgeoning tier II and III cities, the country has all the ingredients to become a major player in the outbound tourism market. With just around 6% of Indians holding passports at present, there is still a huge market waiting to be tapped.

Stakeholders in this sector will have to come together and work towards the common cause of stimulation of travel. Two aspects will be vital to driving demand - constant communication with customers and ensuring their health and safety.

We may be entering a scenario where ‘touch-less’ or ‘contactless’ service is highly valued, and in this, technology can become the biggest enabler for companies to ensure an enhanced customer experience.

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Reviving Tourism amid the COVID-19 Pandemic Inbound tourism is the most important segment of the tourism sector. A key contributor to the economy, it is inbound tourism that brings high-value holidaymakers and business travellers to a destination. These overseas visitors stay longer in a destination and spend more, bringing more value for the economy and people employed in the sector. Whether they are tour operators, hotels, airlines or governments, everyone benefits more from inbound tourism.

For about two years, the inbound tourism sector globally has been facing one of the worst and longest disruptions. Obviously, the case of India’s inbound tourism sector has been no different. Pre - COVID, the month of November used to be quite a busy period for Indian tourism, particularly inbound tourism, but this November, the industry is still struggling to recover from the pandemic.

India received some 17 million foreign tourists in 2019; but since March 2020, there has been little inbound tourist flow into the country.

The major inhibitor has been the fact that the government suspended all tourist visas and operations of scheduled international flights to check the spread of the virus.

that charter flights can arrive in India from October 15 and other foreign tourists can enter India from November 15. According to government guidelines, all incoming tourists must get fresh visas to come to India.

In the absence of inbound tourism, the focus so far has been on the promotion of domestic tourism, through campaigns like ‘Dekho Apna Desh’ and others. For a large and diverse country like India, promoting domestic tourism is a viable option. While the immense economic potential of domestic tourism can’t be overlooked, the same cannot be a substitute for inbound tourism.

In a nutshell, what the export sector is for the whole economy, inbound tourism is for the tourism sector. The successful resumption of inbound tourism is crucial to save thousands of jobs in the country and also create new employment opportunities.

With the sharp drop in covid-19 cases in the country, and massive vaccination drives (India has already administered more than 100 crore vaccines to its citizens), now is the time to effectively restart and revive inbound tourism. The widespread vaccination drives have boosted the country’s image as a safe destination, giving overseas travellers the confidence to travel to India. The government recently made some announcements regarding restarting inbound tourism including resumption of tourist visas. The government announced

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18 The reopening of India’s borders for foreign tourists and resumption of issuing tourist visas are good steps, however, the industry, having suffered immensely due to the pandemic, faces a tough road on its way to recovery.

Therefore, the concerned authorities should consult stakeholders to identify the issues and challenges that the sector is facing today, and those challenges should be addressed on a priority basis. In our assessment, here are some of those key issues:

Visa To restart inbound tourism, it is important to streamline the visa issuing process for foreign tourists. While the Government of India had earlier announced that it would issue five lakh free visas for foreign travellers before March 2022, the detailed modalities and SOP for issuing these free visas is yet to be released. This would include issuing visas to holders of multi-year tourist visas because their visas still remain suspended. Also there will be single-entry visas valid only for 30 days. According to people in the industry, the government should immediately declare all modalities and SOPs for issuing free tourist visas to bring clarity and attract foreign tourists. They also think that these visas should have multi-point entry.

Limited flights & high fares The continued suspension of scheduled international flights is a major obstacle in revival of inbound tourism. Although India has entered into ‘travel bubble’ arrangement with many countries for overseas travel, airfares have been quite high due to the limited number of aircrafts operating under the ‘air bubble’. In the wake of the government’s decision to restart inbound tourism, the government should revoke the ban on the scheduled international flights at the earliest. Easy availability of flights and reasonable airfares are a must for reviving inbound tourism.

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Varied Covid protocols Barring the nationwide lockdowns when the severity of the pandemic was at all time highs; Covid containment measures have varied between states, as the severity and timing of the pandemic has differed from state to state. While this was helpful for pandemic management when the cases were very high, this has created problems for the tourism sector. The lack of coherent and coordinated Covid protocols among states has been a hindrance in smooth interstate tourism and will also be a bane for inbound tourism.

Then there is the issue of mandatory quarantine requirements in some states.

Most foreign travellers travel to several states and will be hesitant to travel to India due to these inconsistent mandatory quarantine requirements. India’s Ministry of Health, after consultation with the Ministry of Tourism, state governments and the tourism industry, should try and bring some uniformity or harmony in these protocols for better interstate and inbound travel.

Hygiene problem As a tourist destination, even before the pandemic, India had an image problem as far as cleanliness and hygiene are concerned. Naturally, post pandemic, travellers are more cautious about this problem due to their health and safety concerns.

as a clean and safe destination, it should be ensured that areas and facilities in and around tourist attractions are clean. The focus needs to move beyond vaccination and safety protocols, and also address the overall issue of sanitation and hygiene.

Initiatives like the Clean India Campaign need to be revamped and made more effective and comprehensive.

Marketing During the pandemic, with inbound tourism halted, there have been no tourism marketing campaigns by the government.

India’s overseas marketing campaigns have been less effective, even during prepandemic times. Now with the reopening of borders for foreign tourists, it is necessary to restart India’s overseas marketing campaigns with a new and out-of-the-box approach, emphasizing India’s readiness to welcome tourists. The old way of marketing destinations will not work in the postpandemic world. For better outcomes from new campaigns, the focus on video content and social media needs to increase and the private sector needs to be proactively involved too. Ideally, the government should allot budgets to new age creative agencies to formulate promotional campaigns, because they are adept in the new age formats, understand consumer behavior and know how to penetrate markets better.

Amid the worldwide pandemic, the largescale vaccinations have boosted India’s image as a safe destination, but lack of adequate hygiene remains a big concern for anxious travellers, hindering India’s tourism recovery. This needs to be addressed on a priority basis. In order to showcase India

December 2021

22 Conclusion Needless to say, the country’s struggling inbound tourism deserves a much-needed fillip to bounce back. While permitting inbound tourism was necessary, inbound tourism will not make much headway unless supported by proper policy and coordination amongst stakeholders. It will require collaborative effort between the Union, state governments, associations, hotels, and other private stakeholders. In order to help the industry to restart and recover, the Government needs to invest in the sector. If supported properly, the inbound sector can recover quickly, giving impetus to the overall tourism sector including hospitality businesses. Disruption on the scale of the pandemic offers an incredible opportunity for transformation. Hopefully, India will make the most of it to evolve and harness its unparalleled tourism potential.

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Wedding Bells Ring Good News for Travel With social distancing measures easing through most of the year, wedding bells have been ringing good news in 2021. Discover why this year was so successful for tying the knot – and why it brought big opportunities for the travel industry.

Wedding scenario in the pre-Covid-19 period It is said that ‘marriages are made in heaven and solemnised on earth’. But this solemnization of marriages in our lives amid our near and dear ones is no ordinary event. Weddings have played a pivotal role in Indian culture and are often considered the single most momentous occasion in people’s lives. Given their social and cultural significance, couples and families leave nothing to chance to make wedding functions impressive and memorable.

A wedding function entails meticulous planning with attention to every detail. From booking a venue to ensuring impressive décor, from designing invitation cards to assembling a lavish food spread, one has to make elaborate arrangements to organize a ‘successful’ wedding. An Indian wedding generally takes place over a period 2-3 days and each day involves different ceremonies such as the Mehndi, Sangeet, Marriage Ceremony and Reception. Needless to say, Indian weddings are attended by hundreds of guests and require big budgets.

With changing times, the social norms have also changed. Today’s families are small, lack time and many live in towns and cities.

These changes impact the way weddings are organized. The earlier tradition of people from communities and neighborhoods coming together to make preparations and arrangements for wedding occasions has now been replaced by a new and thriving wedding industry that does everything to organize wedding events. According to KPMG, India’s wedding industry generated revenues worth $50 billion annually; the revenues were growing by 25% a year until the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

super-spreaders of the virus and big fat weddings gave way to small and intimate family affairs. The Covid protocols (that include social distancing norms) imposed by different states forced couples to either trim their guest lists drastically or postpone tying the knot in 2020 altogether. However, eventually during the last few months of 2020, the industry witnessed a resumption of weddings in many parts of the country where the pandemic was less severe, and restrictions were partially eased, but overall, weddings and the associated industries were badly hit in 2020.

Like most industries, the wedding industry too received a major jolt in 2020 on account of the pandemic. Weddings were seen as

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26 Wedding business and trends in 2021 When 2021 set in, the pandemic was largely under control in most parts of the country and weddings that resumed in the last quarter of 2020 picked up momentum in the first quarter of the new year. As the pandemic seemed a thing of the past, a large number of weddings started happening due to the pent-up demand from the last year; naturally, the wedding industry started recovering fast from the effects of the covid-19. There was buoyancy in the segment.

In the first quarter of 2021, the wedding industry saw a remarkable recovery before it was hit again in the second quarter due to the ferocious second wave of the pandemic. However as soon as the second wave subsided, the industry started resuscitating again, from June onwards.

It helped that governments eased restrictions and relaxed limits placed on hotels and venues’ capacity. Higher vaccination coverage also boosted the confidence of people to host weddings. Consequently, hotels saw a substantial increase in their wedding business.

Hotelier Shuvendu Banerjee, General Manager of Crowne Plaza Okhla, New Delhi, said that, “Weddings have emerged as a knight in shining armour, boosting the revenues and occupancies at our hotel this year. Hotels have become the preferred choice of guests due to enhanced cleanliness protocols and safety measures, which are the primary concerns during such unprecedented times. Despite being a corporate hotel, weddings contributed 45% off our overall banqueting revenue which speaks volume about demand trends.” He added that, according to him, with a limited number of guests, owing to earlier restrictions on the number of attendees, the affordability and willingness to host weddings in a five-star hotel has seen a rise. Moreover, he also stated that, “There has been a significant preference towards outdoor spaces and open-air arrangements.”

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Pratik Rout, Director of Sales, Taj Hotel & Convention Centre Agra, reiterated how robust sales are for wedding banqueting at hotels. He said, “2021 has been quite a bullish year for us as far as wedding business is concerned. As compared to 2019, our wedding business doubled in 2021 in terms of numbers as well as revenues. Many weddings that were postponed in 2020 due to the pandemic were held this year.” Rout further observed that, “The wealthy people who otherwise go to Italy, Spain or any other country for destination weddings could not go overseas due to travel restrictions.

Therefore, they came to places like Agra to host their weddings. This helped the wedding business to grow in the city.” He also noticed that post-pandemic, the reservation window for weddings has drastically come down.

Rout said that earlier the reservation window used to be 4 to 6 months before wedding dates. Now this duration has radically come down to even one month.

Further, he explained that being a big and reputed brand also helps hotels in getting the large wedding business. “Being a part of the Taj brand is certainly a big advantage for us. Likewise, our high standards of hygiene and strict compliance with Covid protocols gives people confidence to come to us.

Also the fact that we are close to Delhi-NCR favours us in attracting wedding business,” said Pratik Rout of Taj Hotel & Convention Centre Agra.

allowed in Delhi we have been booked for all wedding dates,” added Agnihotri. According to him, people are holding weddings even on ‘non-saya’ dates. That is a new trend, which was absent in the pre-pandemic year.

Agnihotri revealed that post-Covid, the size of wedding events taking place at hotels has decreased; the number of people attending a wedding has dropped, but the number of weddings has increased. Besides pentup demand, another reason that is helping brands like Roseate to perform strongly in the wedding segment is that demand for customized and curated experiences is growing. “We have had a stellar performance in the wedding segment in 2021 for the simple reason that we curate bespoke experiences for weddings,” said Agnihotri.

Explaining this further, he said that now people are asking for bespoke experiences during a wedding at a hotel. For example, in terms of cuisine, in addition to regular Indian and continental cuisine people want inventive fusion food, etc. Having limited inventory is also an advantage for brands such as Roseate Hotels & Resorts because they can sell the entire inventory of a property for a single wedding. “These days most hotels, especially resorts, have buyout weddings in which the entire inventory is taken by the bride and groom.”

A conversation with a senior executive from Roseate Hotels & Resorts also recaps that 2021 has been a robust year for the wedding industry and the allied sector of travel and hospitality.“ Overall, 2021 has been a far better year for weddings and social events than the previous year,” said Namit Agnihotri, Area General Manager of Roseate Hotels & Resorts. “There has been an uptick in smaller destination weddings. Since weddings are

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30 The future outlook for wedding events “As the wedding season officially kicks in the last quarter, people are gradually shifting back to the quintessential big fat Indian weddings due to ease in restrictions, enhanced guest capacity and increased vaccination rates while following the necessary protocols. All the auspicious dates are already blocked in our hotel for the next 3 months,” said Banerjee, adding that with this surge in demand, “we are confident of picking up the momentum of the pre-pandemic era by early 2022. In fact, potential guests are also quite optimistic that the guest capacity will further expand early next year.”

Agnihotri too confirms that, “Upcoming months are looking quite bullish for the wedding segment. We see further upswing in wedding business. Hopefully, if we don’t have the third wave of the pandemic, there would be further growth in the wedding business. ”

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Influencers: The New Generation of Marketing Gurus No longer a new concept, influencer marketing is now a mainstream form of online marketing. It is a cost-effective way to create unique content and market a brand or product.

At a time when cost management is a big challenge for travel and hospitality brands, and their marketing budgets are facing constraints, influencer marketing has emerged as the most popular way to promote brands. This is especially true for smaller companies that do not have the kind of big budgets that are required for traditional campaigns.

So, what exactly is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is a form of online marketing that leverages social media platforms. At its core, it involves a brand collaborating with an online influencer to market itself or one of its products or services. As a part of this, influencers present the content created by them to their audience, increasing brand awareness and helping to convert their audience into the brand’s customers.

with their followers is what makes their endorsements and recommendations count.

Essentially, consumers are trusting that if their influencer of choice loves the product, they will too.

Who are these influencers?

These influencers are mostly experts in their respective niches and command dedicated followers on social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter. Their social network and perceived expertise makes them influencers in various categories like travel, F&B, entertainment, beauty, lifestyle, etc. In short, influencers are opinion leaders with a social following base and influencer marketing involves them endorsing, recommending and mentioning products among their followers on their social media pages.

Why is influencer marketing effective?

Customers today have access to numerous brands and extensive data. Hence, consumers are becoming increasingly skeptical of brands and their marketing tactics, and building trust has become crucial. Advertising through influencers allows brands to promote their goods and services through someone that a targeted, niche community watches, engages with and trusts on a daily basis. The trust and goodwill that influencers command

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34 Today’s influencer marketing Influencer marketing has been evolving with time and has exploded in the past few years. Fuelled by our digital-first world there is an increase in the number of social media influencers with every passing day. Earlier confined to celebrities and select dedicated bloggers, now influencer marketing is more broad-based. The power of influencers too has extended to all areas of interest, from makeup and food to jewelry and travel- today influencer marketing is having a dramatic impact on the modern marketers’ strategy. It’s cost effectiveness in the current sluggish scenario has only made it more relevant. It places less pressure on a brand’s finances and now is a proven way to get optimum results from marketing efforts at a comparatively lesser expense. In fact, Business Insider reports that the market for influencer marketing is set to reach $15 billion by 2022.

Types of influencers Mega-influencers with more than a million followers (think celebrities) Macro-influencers with 500K to 1 million followers Mid-tier influencers with 50K to 500K followers Micro-influencers with 10K to 50K followers Nano-influencers with 1K to 10K followers

Which influencer should one work with ?

As influencer marketing emerges as a successful marketing model for companies including travel and tourism brands, travel influencers can help brands create affordable content, generate awareness and reach out to potential customers without stretching their budget.

Unlike most marketing strategies, influencer marketing requires a high level of trust between the brand and the influencer. Even though brands often give guidelines and sign contracts with influencers, the care of the brand’s reputation is linked to what the influencer puts out. Therefore, brands must make sure that the influencer’s content aligns with their overall image,

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The use of disagreeable content could have negative consequences on the brand’s reputation. This is especially important when working with newer influencers who may lack the required skill and experience.

A company should also be carefulof influencers with fake followers. By purchasing fake followers, some influencers give the impression that they have a much larger fan base than they actually do. When picking an influencer, make sure their followers are authentic, were obtained organically and are actively engaging with the influencers content. Although this can be done manually, there are specific tools designed to detect fake accounts by analyzing their engagement, spam and overall activity. There are many platforms available for checking fake followers and tracking influencer marketing. Some examples are Social Audit Pro, Traackr and HYPR.

typically share their everyday life and can humanize your brand by posting relatable content that resonates with their audience.

For many travel brands, working with this type of influencer will allow your brand to reach the right target demographic.

If you are a consumer brand with big budgets and brand awareness campaigns in which a broad reach is necessary to get your products or services in front of as many people as possible, mega influencers might be the right fit for you.

If you are a smaller brand or are new to influencer marketing, it might be wise to start by working with micro influencers.

These influencers are more useful when you shift your influencer marketing strategy from brand awareness to a more specific approach. They can help you deliver the right message to the right people- your target audience. This is because most micro influencers specialize in a particular field and often have higher engagement rates. The specialization allows your brand to benefit from access to a niche audience when you partner with them. Still working towards building their following, these influencers

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The Tourism Industry Needs to Look to a Greener Future Climate change is probably the biggest long-term challenge the world is facing today. It’s impact is already visible in many parts of the world. The change in climate due to rising levels of emissions from greenhouse gasses are wreaking havoc on the planet in terms of unpredictable weather patterns, rising temperatures, untimely and excessive rains, floods, deforestation, drought, wildfires and so on. The efforts are on to cut the emission levels, for example Cop26 was held recently in Scotland to address the issue.

The tourism sector is also not immune to the impact of climate change on the environment. Experts argue that, in the longterm, climate change is the biggest threat to the survival of the tourism sector, which in normal times contributes about 10% of the global GDP. In fact, some countries are almost solely dependent on tourism for their revenues and employment.

Many forms of tourism are highly dependent on the prevalent weather at destinations. As climate change adversely affects weather at different destinations, a change in weather is bound to affect tourism activities at the destinations sooner or later, consequently affecting their economies. Climate change is very likely to result in reduced and depleted snow cover, increased heat waves, damage to tourism assets like flora and fauna, coral reefs, glaciers and changes in patterns of rainfalls. It is also likely to raise water levels in seas causing disappearance of beaches.

Evidently, these changes will affect the natural beauty of destinations and what they offer as attractions. For example, the Himalayan terrains and similar landscapes will lose their charm due to thinning of snow cover. Activities like scuba diving, riverrafting, camping etc. may be adversely affected due to climate change. The changes in weather patterns will massively hit tourism in a diverse country like India. The accessibility to destinations may also be affected due to floods or landslides caused by extreme weather conditions.

causes climate change. Emissions of carbon from aviation form a considerable chunk (2.4%) of overall CO2 emissions. Together with other gasses and substances, aviation is responsible for around 5% of global warming. It is estimated that commercial airlines carried around 4.5 billion passengers in 2018, globally. With 2020 and 2021 being an exception due to covid-induced travel restrictions, the global number of airpassengers is bound to increase significantly in coming years, consequently the contribution of the sector to GHG. Emissions from planes increased 32% between 2013 and 2018. According to a report released by UNWTO in December 2019, CO2 emissions from tourism will increase by 25% by 2030 from 2016 levels.

Travel as contributor to GHG While itself being vulnerable to climate change, travel & tourism is also a big contributor to Green House Gases or GHG, one of the causes of climate change and global warming. Recent decades have seen an exponential increase in air travel, which is one of key contributors to GHG which

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Sustainable tourism As nations reopen their borders for tourists following many months of Covid-19 induced restrictions, in the post-Covid world, it has become more imperative and urgent to assess the adverse impact of tourism on destinations and communities. Emissions of CO2 decreased considerably during the pandemic, mainly due to restrictions on travel and transportation. Now with reopening of borders and resumption of travel & tourism, the sector needs to scale up climate action as emissions are likely to rebound rapidly in the near future. The tourism industry while stepping up its recovery efforts should also ensure that CO2 emissions do not rise to the pre-covid level and tourism in the future is more sustainable.

For the tourism sector, it is important to mitigate the adverse impact of climate change on destinations so that they can retain their appeal among tourists and remain accessible. While the tourism sector alone cannot prevent climate change and associated disasters, the sector needs to play its role in combating climate change for its own survival. Adopting sustainable tourism practices can help the sector mitigate the negative effect of climate change.

One of the things that can contribute to sustainable tourism practices is the type of transportation we use. When traveling, try your best to use bicycles, public transportation, or just walk. Governments too should encourage and incentivise travel by less polluting modes of transport such as railway. Tourists need to be encouraged to travel by trains and other modes of surface transport instead of flights. For a large country like India, high speed trains can be a more eco-friendly mode of transport to travel inside the country. Since traveling

by train takes longer, this will also promote slow travel, meaning people will go to fewer places and spend more time in each place.

Furthermore, mass tourism which is responsible for creating a massive carbon footprint at destinations needs to be curtailed. Since it causes overcrowding at destinations, it affects the ecosystem of many popular but ecologically fragile destinations. For this, the tourism sector needs to find alternatives to mass tourism for the sustainability of such destinations.

The promotion of ecotourism and responsible tourism is the way forward.

Hotels and resorts, especially at sensitive destinations, need to progressively adopt more sustainable practices along with relevant green technologies in order to minimize generation of a carbon footprint.

It is heartening to notice that many tourists are now environmentally and socially conscious. An increasing number of them expect service providers such as hotels to follow high standards of sustainability.

Many have also broadened their purpose of travel, such as staying at a destination while volunteering for a cause. Ecotourism is increasingly becoming popular, but still needs to be highlighted more. It is time that the travel & tourism industry prioritize sustainable tourism and contribute to the preservation of the overall environment.

December 2021

DL-SW-01/4211/20-22 | DATE OF POSTING: 5-6 OF MONTH | RNI NO. DELENG/2010/33723 | DATE OF PUBLISHING: 4th OF THE MONTH