Tourism fell by nearly 43% in India, 14.5 million people lost jobs: report

Tourism in India fell by nearly 43% and the country also saw an estimated 14.5 million lost jobs in the first quarter of 2020-2021.

The tourism sector employed 34.8 million people in India before the pandemic hit.

A report by the government in Parliament said that the situation has slightly improved in the second and third quarters of the 2020-21 financial year. Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy said that TDGVA plummeted by as much as 93.3% in Q1 of 2020-21 due to a significant drop in tourist arrivals, reported The News Minute.

The Tourism Minister said in Rajya Sabha that the results of the study conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) show that tourism economy or tourism direct gross value added (TDGVA) saw a fall of 42.8 % in Q1; 15.5 % in Q2 and fall of 1.1 % in Q3 due to overall economic slowdown.

Reddy informed the House that tourism picked up slightly to post a fall of 79.5% in Q2 and that of 64.3% in Q3. He noted that a significant number of people lost their jobs due to the lockdown.

"14.5 million Jobs during Q1, 5.2 million during Q2, and 1.8 million jobs during Q3 are expected to have been lost as compared to estimated 34.8 million jobs in the pre-pandemic period of 2019-20 (direct jobs)," said the minister.

Early in July, a delegation of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) had asked Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to increase SEIS duty credit scrips percentage to 10%. Levy of tax collection at source (TCS) on sale of overseas tour package was also discussed.