- ‘Swift Visa Approval, More Direct Flights Key To Boost Indo-US Tourism’- Mr. Suman Billa, Additional Secretary, Union Ministry of Tourism
- – Need of Short-Term US Visas for Tourists- Mr. Rajesh Magow, Co-Founder & Group CEO, MakeMyTrip
TSNN – New Delhi, August 23, 2024: India and the US have a lot of unexploited potential in the tourism and hospitality space. More direct flights between the two countries and a swifter visa application process are the need of the hour to boost the segment, said sector experts and officials at the 1st Indo-US Tourism & Hospitality Summit, organized by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) at New Delhi.
Industry participants and officials noted that although India and the US have robust bilateral relations, and many people from both countries visit the other country, there is enough scope, primarily regarding aviation experience.
Addressing the event, the Attorney General of India, Mr. R. Venkataramani stressed the need for responsible tourism. He emphasized that India would continue to play a role in building a cohesive and peaceful world, wherein tourism would be a key factor.
“India is beginning to build a world of togetherness. So, how do we therefore build a world of togetherness in which all of us have equal regard. Each country, each community, and each faith have equal regard for every one of us. And from that equal regard what we get is equal reward for our relationships. It can be an equal reward in terms of market, in terms of commerce, and industry. So I think India stands for equal regard and equal reward principle and I think tourism is probably one umbrella where we can talk more and more about it. And to project India’s position in it.”
“I think it is important for us to spread this message of goodwill and togetherness. What else can be a better package than a tourism package? I think all of us can build into it, weave into it and be part of India’s global journey towards a higher level of togetherness at the global level.”
Speaking at the programme, Dr. Lalit Bhasin, Immediate Past National President of IACC outlined his association with the tourism and hospitality space. “My association with tourism, and hospitality was nearly 6 decades, when I started practicing law,” he said.
In the panel discussion on “Outbound Tourism, India to USA”, Mr. Suman Billa, Additional Secretary, Union Ministry of Tourism highlighted the strong bilateral partnership and the growth in travel between the two countries, there is significant headroom for progress in this space.
Mr. Billa added that although a US visa is valid for 10 years, and not requiring any frequent updates by a visa holder, the process of getting the visa for the world’s largest economy is cumbersome and tiresome and to boost Indo-US Tourism we need swifter visa approval and more direct flights between India and the US to boost Indo- US Tourism at IACC event.
“The most important thing that we need to understand is that the bulk, the lion’s share of the market, is going through third countries. So, the Middle Eastern market or the European market is benefiting. It’s those airlines that are carrying Indians into the US. What it does is that if you are able to have direct flights, not only will we make it more cost-competitive for people to travel both ways but we will also, add to the convenience, the easiest convenience of traveling into the US. And I think that for some reason, is not happening”
“I think the best thing about getting a U.S visa is that once you have it, it’s valid for 10 years. So there’s not a lot of repeat visitation that happens. But you have to walk through fire to get that Visa in the first place because there are long waiting times now and, you know, so there’s a whole lot of disincentive for people wanting to travel.”
Mr. Jonathan M. Heimer, Minister Counsellor for Commercial Affairs, India U.S. Commercial Service, however, noted that over the past year, the pace of visa application processing has gained momentum leading to record visa issuances. “On the backend for the application processing, we’ve been able to process something like 60% more visas with more or less the same resources. And also we have issued more than 1.1 million visas in the last year, which for us, is a record and that’s just going to continue to go up that number,” Mr Heimer added.
In his response to the issue of the visa application process, Mr. Rajesh Magow, Co-Founder & Group CEO, MakeMyTrip Limited suggested the introduction of short-term visas for tourists.
“There are many other countries which have done it, maybe short-term tourist visas can be quick, maybe that could be one potential innovation that can happen as well,” he said. speaking in favour of boosting international tourism he said that international travel is not growing at the cost of domestic travel.
Talking on the revival of air travel from the Covid-induced slowdown, Mr. Harvinder Singh, Director of India & Middle East, United Airlines noted that all three key segments of air travel — business, students, and leisure — have picked up and gained momentum.
“What we see in terms of the segmentation is business, there is the student along with the leisure part and what we have observed is all these segments are going,” he said. Mr Singh also stressed the need for better customer experience with the help of newer technologies and other resources.
