Travel industry commits to traveller safety, 29 industry leaders take pledge as domestic travel opens up

NEW DELHI: With domestic travel readying for take-off after a two month India pause in business, leaders of India’s travel and tourism industry came together on Friday to take a safety pledge – committing to prioritise travelers’ safety, maintain high-hygiene standards, and adhere to the new in travel, going forward.
The travel safety pledge, a collaboration between top travel and hospitality companies of India included 29 industry leaders from the airline, hospitality and ancillary industries including SpiceJet CMD Ajay Singh, Vistara chief Vinod Kannan, Puneet Chatwal, MD & CEO of the IHCL, Air Asia MD and CEO Sunil Bhaskaran, ITC chief operating office Anil Chadha, MD and CEO of the Oberoi group Vikram Oberoi, Chairperson Park Hotels Priya Paul, and Rajni Hasija, the director of IRCTC, among others.
Speaking to TOI, Co-founder and CEO of MakeMyTrip, Rajesh Magow, said, “As a full-stack platform, we were thinking about things we can do to figure out the new normal, and understand how customers will come back to travelling. With this in mind, when we began talking with business partners, who agreed this is a common issue to get the overall travel and tourism industry fired up. We are happy to say that the response has been overwhelming.”
Magow also told TOI that even though the movement is, initially, likely to be restricted to essential travel by people who are stranded, things are also beginning to look up for leisure travel, with ‘staycations’ to nearby places and other domestic destinations — under the government-backed ‘Dekho Apna Desh’ initiative — also garnering interest.
In a separate initiative, travel companies like Thomas Cook and SOTC, which jointly conducted a consumer sentiment survey earlier this week, found that 14% of the nearly 2500 consumers they surveyed across India’s metros and Tier 1 and 2 cities for their ‘Holiday Readiness Travel Report - Future of Travel post COVID-19’ report, said they will travel when restrictions ease. A total of 64% said they are likely to opt for a domestic holiday in 2020, while 36% for an international tour and 75% people ranked health and safety as their top concern, with 72% opting for reputed brands.
“What is encouraging is that our business travel teams have already received bookings and are getting a steady flow of enquiries for work-related travel from our corporates, seeking to travel over the next few weeks,” said Madhavan Menon, CMD, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd.
COO of Goibibo, Vipul Prakash also said that the safety pledge is an attempt to reassure customers that travel partners are taking care of their safety and well-being when they book travel again.