Covid-19 has devastated many sectors. Tourism and Hospitality are the severely affected areas due to the travel restrictions.
Unlike many countries, India has closed its borders and stopped all the inbound passenger flights. These restrictions turned out to be a deathblow for the aviation sector as well as the hospitality industry.
Recently, the Indian government started bringing its citizens to India who were stranded in foreign countries.
The government is not permitting foreign nationals into India but is allowing only the Indian citizens who opt to come here on different purposes.
It is known that majority of Indians living in the USA with Indian passport have their children with American passport and an OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) card. Right now there is no entry for OCI card holders as well. So, such parents are not being able to come to India whatever the need be.
Thus India is adopting a cautious approach in allowing foreign nationals. But sooner or later India has to open its international borders.
The experts in the trade are saying that there is a huge business potential to revive hospitality sector now. It is known that travellers coming to India should be quarantined for 14 days.
There are not enough Quarantine facilities available in India to take care of international travellers now. Some star hotels have already opened bookings to get quarantined for the elite and affluent Indians.
Trade experts are saying that every star hotel, bet it five star or one star, can be transformed into temporary quarantine facility centre to accommodate these travellers. This can become a profitable business model.
Based on the customers choice and affordability they can chose a particular star hotel. Right from 7-star hotels to the 3-star hotel several star hotels are available to cater to the needs of these travellers.
As the travellers stay for a period of 14 days, the tariff will automatically get decreased because it will be treated as a package.
The occupancy of the star hotels will increase considerably and the business of hotels will be revived instantly.
Well, the international travellers will have to follow these 14 days quarantine period until Covid-19 vaccine is invented.
These hotels should take care of travellers during the 14 days of stay. The staff may be instructed to follow all the strict precautionary measures like wearing masks, gloves using sanitizers, sanitizing the rooms etc.
Apart from these things, they should make sure to check the temperatures of travellers on a daily basis and observe symptoms.
If the hotels are able to cater to the needs of the travellers, the hospitality industry will slowly recover from this slump. This strategy is beneficial in three ways.
The international travellers can visit India only after the quarantine period which is safe for the country. The second one is the hospitality sector can be revived. The government will get income from the taxes.
We have to really wait and see how far this strategy will be implemented. Because, the revival of travel and hospitality industry plays a vital role in bringing back the economy on to the track.