COVID-19: Parliamentary panel seeks relaxations in tourism, culture industries

New Delhi: The chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee for Transport, Tourism and Culture, TG Venkatesh, on Thursday, said that as the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is not more serious than the Delta variant, the government should relax the restrictions in tourism and culture industries.

“Now things have cleared and that is: the Omicron will not be a serious one like earlier Delta variant. Thus, the government of India should seriously relax the restrictions. Our Tourism and culture department was also taking the step to relax as early as possible after overseeing everything,” TG Venkatesh told ANI.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) is also a part of the said Parliamentary Standing Committee and the Speaker has said that the opening up of international flight Operations has been discussed with all the stakeholders earlier, but no decision has been taken yet.

COVID-19 vaccination drive is going on at a fast pace in the country and work is going on to immunise everyone with a second dose of vaccines in the country so that all the people are saved from COVID-19 and the Centre will allow vaccinated passengers to travel without any hurdle.

“Second dose of the vaccination programme is going very fast under the Modi government which has done an extremely good job compared to the rest of the world. If people cooperate with the government in taking vaccination, then there will be definite improvement and the Government of India will shortly listen to the request,” he added.

Travel and Tourism federation professionals have requested several times to the government to provide adequate financial help and relaxation in the travel and tourism industries to grow in the COVID pandemic.

Meanwhile, Dr Subhash Goyal, President of Confederation of Tourism Professionals said, “Since this Budget 2022 and the Finance Ministry has not seriously considered the economic contribution of tourism, therefore, we have no other option but to appeal to the Tourism, Health and Home Ministry for their help to restart e-tourist visas, scheduled international flights and remove the restriction of quarantine for those passengers who have received both the vaccinations.”

“Otherwise, it will be impossible for Inbound Tour Operators, Tourist Guides, Tourist Transporters, Tourist Drivers, artisans, handicraft manufacturers, artists, musicians etc. who are all dependent on Inbound Tourism to survive,” Goyal added.