Hospitality industry body Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) has asked the government to provide soft loans to hotels and restaurants. FHRAI also said since the industry has seen a rather dismal response from the travelers, they made the request to the government on behalf of the “Financially distressed ‘fraternity.
The industry is said to have registered only 20-30 % of the average pre-pandemic revenues across the county and it is becoming extremely difficult for the hoteliers to sustain the business.
The association expressed its concern that inspite of the season of festival, hospitality sector has nothing much to hope for with almost no turn out of international tourists and significant low turnout of domestic travelers thanks to the rise in the covid -19 spread and fear among people.
“It is no secret that hospitality is one of the worst affected industries as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is natural that hotels and restaurants will take more time to recover as well. Our industry was the first to be locked and the last one to be reopen.. So when we ask the government for support, it is because the government asked us to not conduct business for the longest duration. Hotels and restaurants are bound to face operational losses for quite some time since there are restrictions on operations coupled with low demand due to work from home culture, no foreign travel, low guest indulgence, among other limitations. We have been knocking on all doors and will continue to do so until we receive some relief, said Surendra Kumar Jaiswal, vice president, FHRAI.
