March 26, 2020
Prateek Hira Speaks to The Pioneer on Impact of Coronavirus on Tourism
Comments Off on Prateek Hira Speaks to The Pioneer on Impact of Coronavirus on Tourism
March 25, 2020
Principal Schilling led La Martiniere to Military glory in 1857-58
Born in Dublin in 1827, George Schilling, the Principal of La Martiniere pursued his education at King’s College in London.
Claude Martin (Founder: La Martiniere)
La Martiniere is a renowned and a very prestigious educational institution in a large and imposing palace, located about two and a half miles from the Lucknow Residency, the epicentre of the siege in 1857. The building of La Martiniere was constructed by Major General Claude Martin (1735 – 1800) and happens to be the largest school in terms of area that it still has.
Maj Gen Claude Martin, a French solder and an adventurer who very closely associated himself with the British amassed a wealth of 28 lakhs. Martin, willed that when he dies he was to be buried in one of the rooms of this palace and that three schools be built – one in Lucknow, which was his former residence, another at Calcutta then capital and Martin’s professional turf and yet another in his native place, Lyons in France.
It was month of March of 1857, when Schilling, a family man with a daughter, was assigned to head this institution which then had two hundred and sixty eight pupils, the teaching staff and somewhere near 100 dependents.
George Schilling, Principal of La Martinière College (NOV. 1855 DEC. 1859)
When attack broke on the Europeans in Delhi and Meerut and this came to the knowledge of Schilling, he of course was concerned about the safety and security of children, staff and all dependents; above all he had to stock up ration to provide for all who were here. It was then that he stocked grains, ghee, pulses et al and drinking water too in big earthen pots.
A guard belonging to the 3rd Oudh Military Police was provided for the safety of school. Of course this was not enough and he also took several immediate and very intelligent precautions to safeguard in wake of any eventuality that may arise. As outlined in his report to the Trustees of the Martin’s Charities; “….the establishment was moved to the main building of the Constantia House; the bigger boys armed and sentries from among them were stationed at the top of the building during the daytime; while the masters were assigned with the task of keeping watch during the night. Around the same time, the bridges linking the main building with the wings of Martiniere were destroyed; the doors in front of the building were barricaded; those behind were built up with kucha walls (mud-walls), five feet high, and of course the same thickness; all stairs were built up; and all the doors leading to the central staircase, except for one, were blocked with bricks which had been bought for building a large well”.
11 June was the date when the troops of the Oudh Military Police Cavalry revolted, and very next day on 12 June the infantry of the Military Police joined the fray, but luckily the guard stationed at La Martiniere had absconded to join the revolt without harming Schilling, on whose duty he was assigned.
As some boys had already returned to their parents in and around Lucknow, number of boys in the school had reduced to 66 in number out of which 4 were resident scholars. These boys watched expectantly from the terrace of La Martiniere as apparently a rebel who intended to attack the college at night, took up a position in a mango grove within the estate on southern boundary of the park.
But with the Resident’s support, and some guns and a Lawrence’s Volunteer Cavalry unit, led by Captain Radcliffe, reached timely for action. A few grapeshots with close range dispersed the rebels who were then charged by the Volunteer Cavalry and forced out of the estate into woods.
Two divisions of the H.M.’s 32nd Regiment, led by Colonel Inglis, arrived and advanced into the woods, taking control of the Sepoys who were found in good number here.
While all this was going on at La Martiniere, Schilling, who was returning on his horse from the Residency ran into a handful of mutineers in the park, however, Shilling was a good horse-rider and thanks to his good horse too that he could gallop fast and reach safely back.
The Oudh Military Police stationed at La Martiniere was now replaced with a troop of one Sergeant and eight men from the H.M’s 32nd Regiment. Though within only a few days Henry Lawrence realised that it would be difficult to protect the College in case of an all out siege, thus on 17 June Schilling was asked to reach the Residency which Lawrence then considered safe or at least easier to defend along with all other Europeans who lived and had migrated here.
According to Schilling, the school was restored to Residency on 18 June as ordered by Sir Henry Lawrence the day before at 4 am. It was then that all the ongoing preparations for the defense of La Martiniere were put an end. Principal Schilling went to the Residency himself to understand the place that would be allotted to the school that was now to be housed within the Residency Complex. Also, he had to analyse what all he could carry and place into this allotted space.
The articles permitted to be brought into Residency included provisions, a bedstead, clothes, a few tables and a chair for each person. For the boys, however, it was not possible to take in so much, as rooms allotted to them would not have given enough space that otherwise they enjoyed in the sprawling campus of La Martiniere.
As a result, only twelve beds, dining tables to serve just around thirty boys, all the provisions that was stored as a contingency plan, books adequate enough to be able to continue studying, summer clothing and a few more items were carried by the coolies, of course whatever more they could carry.
In the Residency, the school was given a house on the south of the enclosure right next to the Sikh Square and opposite the Mess Brigade. The house was owned by one, Behari Lal, a local Indian banker, however when George Schilling took over the place, it came to be called as Martiniere Post. This was also the area where Claude Martin owned a few shops so that another reason too.
Principal Schilling made it a point that the school activities functioned unhindered and studies continued without any disruption. Also he ensured that his European colleagues without fear send their children to study here.
On 20th June 1857 the native Hindu and Muslim priests within the Residency were asked to leave the compound with half remuneration for 3 months but they just never returned thereafter. Similarly, the native doctor sneaked out too when he got an opportunity. College servants who were receiving their ration supplies on a daily basis from the college and were supposed to be loyal to La Martiniere, deserted too, on coming to know that Henry Lawrence’s troops were defeated in the battle of Chinhut on 30 June 1857.
Also on that day, a flock of sheep which belonged to the College was unfortunately locked out of the Residency entrenchment area creating utter confusion and chaos and then the gates were hastily closed down to secure this flock and stop this unwarranted confusion al around the entrenchment.
The Martinière Post within the Residency was in an exposed area only about 25 feet away from the godowns belonging to Johannes House, that was already under the control of rebel forces. The boys of La Martiniere armed with weapons would go to the rooftop of their Post and shoot on the targets that they set would themselves. This area belonging to Mr. Johannes’ included a pumpkin garden which could be an additional source of food supply for the rebels holding on as their front just opposite the Martiniere Post and this was an additional cause of worry.
One day, a small boy named, Hornby went up to the rooftop and was speaking to the two elder boys who were holding on to the post. Just then with diverted attention a bullet fired by the enemy struck one of the boys, James Luffman on the shoulder. Luckily it was not fatal but another boy, Edward Hilton, son of Sergeant Instructor, rescued Luffman only to be scolded and punished by Principal Shilling and declaring the rooftop as out of bounds for the boys. Luckily till the Residency was evacuated in November, there was no casualty of any Martinian, boy or staff, though several had very narrowly escaped many times during the siege. Though later Luffman, the boy who was hit by a bullet and another boy, Smith, along with two more died of illness.
In addition to the constant danger of the Johannes’ House rebel fire, the Martiniere Post members were also exposed to two other enemy attempts, of placing mines under their position and trying to blow it up. Schilling’s friend Polehampton was killed on 21 July, and on that day itself a mine from the Johannes House was uncovered just in time and rebels were forced out before they could do any harm by using grenades.
The 2nd was when the mutineer were much more successful than their 1st try. It took the outside of the main bungalow on 10 August, when the boys were in assembly. The three doors of the partition wall, which luckily stayed intact, were blown open by a blast. Schilling: “[it] carried entirely away the outer-room of the principal bungalow on the 10th August, while the boys were at prayers. The three doors in the partition wall, which fortunately remained standing, were blown open by the explosion. Before however the dust cleared away, those were barricaded with school tables, but not so as to prevent the first fatal casualty which occurred at the post, a soldier of the H.M’s 32nd Regiment, who accompanied the Brigadier on a visit of inspection”.
The danger was looming large. Mutineers came out of the Johannes House and surrounded the godowns and rebels poured out of Johannes House and the surrounding godowns, and an indiscriminate firing began. This was an effort of the rebel forces to take control of the Martiniere Post.
Inglis, clearly distraught at the death of his soldier said, “One of my brave men is gone,” and ordered the musket boys to repair the bayonets. After Martiniere Post stood bravely returning fire at the rebels, the rebels retreated from the spot of action, but a few still managed to get into the basement. Just then Capt McCabe of the 32nd came to rescue. The strategy was quite successful, where he dug holes in the floor and bombarded it with grenades. This killed 3 of them and rest fled to the Johannes’s godowns, freeing Martiniere Post.
Frankly, Johannes House had become a real threat not only for Martiniere Post but entire Residency and something concrete had to be done. Just about seven days later 50-foot British soldiers dug a mine starting from Martiniere Post till the stronghold of rebels, Johannes House. This took 3 days and was dug by men of 32nd. Precisely based on the plan on 21st British forces started huge firing from the Martiniere Post, which brought the rebels together to retaliate and fire back. Just then when all the Johannes House rebels were together the mine was exploded killing no less than 100, including the infamous sniper of his time, ‘Bob the Nailer’.
For 2 months at a stretch Schilling’s well measured ration that he brought with him from La Martiniere lasted. But after his sheep were lost the British authorities did give him a flock, on the condition that it has to be fed by the school with its own funds. Schilling could do that successfully with the stock of grain that the school part carried with it while shifting to the Residency. After these sheep finished too Schilling bought beef ration from the Residency officials that included bullock neck and head that was turned into a very nutritious and tasty soup. In his report to the trustees, Schilling mentions that he had bought all this for the school on best possible terms.
Water was in abundance and also of excellent quality which was drawn from a large well in the compound, until a bhistee (one who would carry water for supply in animal skin), who came to fill water from this well was hit by a cannon ball and fell into this well. Then the source of water shifted to another well just outside the campus near a local hospital.
The boys of La Martiniere were quite popular and were being considered as a part of entire British contingent positioned for the defence of Lucknow Residency. H.M’s 32nd Regiment called them, ‘Ragged Fusiliers’ due to the shortage of appropriate clothing which obviously was now worn-out and needed a change. Here too Schilling managed it well, his report quotes, “… the hard work that the boys had to undergo, so soon wore out what they had on, that it was with the utmost difficulty they were kept clothed, though the supply of men’s clothing purchased at the auctions of deceased officers’ effects, and from the stores of the 32nd Regiment was very liberal, and a large quantity was made up during the siege. On the approach of the cold season, the difficulty increased, but the efforts made were successful so far as to provide every boy leaving the Residency with a pair of shoes, and a complete suit of warm clothing”.
It was cold night of 19th November when Sir Colin Campbell led 2nd relief force had arrived and Residency had to be evacuated of all the non-combats.
This process for the boys was more testing and torturous than what they had seen while in action. With limited carriages and the 2 ponies purchased boys had to march forcefully, catching only limited sleep and food on the way. They slept under trees and sheds on the way without proper winter covering. If it weren’t for the food during this march, which they luckily got the extreme conditions would not have let them survive till then end.
Finally George Schilling arrived in Benares (Varanasi) on 15 March 1858, along with the pupils of La Martiniere, his family and staff. Two huge bungalows in the civil lines of Benares were rented and some a level of normalcy was restored now.
The feast of The Founder’s Day of 1857 (13 September) which was missed out was now organised and George Schilling noted in his remarks, “Though the boys have lost in actual knowledge during the months that they have been without school work, they appear to have gained in intelligence by what they have gone through, and they are also more self-reliant, and show a more kindly feeling towards each other than before”.
The leadership exhibited by Schilling had to be rewarded. He was duly granted pay for three months, and later held the position of a Talukdar, or nobleman of Oudh, with an estate in his name worth about 30,000 pounds in those days, thus ensuring a secure retirement for himself in England.
La Martiniere’s contribution was formally acknowledged in the 1858 proclamation of Her Majesty Queen Victoria. Although all the boys of the school were awarded the Mutiny Medal, it was only in 1932, the British Government honoured Martiniere’s position in 1857 by awarding it the Battle Honours, a distinction held by no other educational institution in the British Empire.
George Schilling’s remarkable feat in carrying almost all of his dependents through siege was also remembered by his alma mate, The Kings College. Thus, in 1858, Schilling was given an Honorary Fellowship, by King’s, London. He Continued in India, as a Governor of the Lawrence Military Asylum until he returned to England. George Schilling passed away on 9 February 1886 in Sydenham and is buried in Elmers Green Cemetery.
References: Report of the Proceedings of the Lucknow Martine Charities for 1856-57, and 1857-58; Modern English Biography (Boase); The Times 18/2/96; A Memoir, Letters, and Diary of the Rev Henry S. Polehampton; The Martinière Boys in the Bailey Guard. By Hilton; The Mutinies in Oude by Gubbins.
Another interesting read on the subject:-
A very focused tour of La Martiniere is conducted by Tornos with special permission and arrangements. Check out, La Martiniere Decoded
Comments Off on Principal Schilling led La Martiniere to Military glory in 1857-58
March 23, 2020
COVID-19 IMPACT ON TOURISM (In Indian Context)
-By Prateek HIra
COVID-19 has come as a dampener to the otherwise dampened tourism industry. As it is, tourism, specially inbound tourism, was not passing through a good phase and coronavirus only added to the woes, putting the industry in comatose.
Personally, I am worried about its ripple effects that will only popup after this immediate situation has ended. Tourism largely stands on the foundation of a good economy and in this case the global economy is shaken to the core. Of course the industry stands with the government and is supporting each step that our government has taken or intends to take further, to come out of this threat, but at the same time, I have seen that governments in India often fail tourism industry’s expectations after such crisis have ebbed. The lock-down stage of tourism has never ever happened in the past (barring the world war). Businesses are at stand-still, jobs have dried-up and all projections for 2020-21 have failed. In such circumstances, it is imperative that our government simultaneously and seriously starts planning the revival of tourism in India, else it will be too little too late to revive tourism anytime soon. ‘Fear’ and ‘Perception’ will be the two key words that will have to be addressed immediately after this health emergency is dealt with, and a robust marketing campaign has to be in place to address the aftereffects of COVID-19 on tourism that will actually start to show up only after the virus spread has been dealt with.
As businesses we need to diversify in other related areas and ancillary services. We as tour operators need to come out from our comfort zones of working only in single genre of tourism and learn to put eggs into many baskets, to be able to counter any such eventuality in future. ‘Workforce Optimisation’ will be yet another area we need to tremendously work upon, and this will mean, not only hiring 360-degree-multi-calibre workforce but also realigning existing workforce to take up multiple roles and give optimum output even with a lean workforce in place.
This is the time to re-engineer, relearn and move forward to lead from the front, charging head-on and regaining the lost grounds.
Lets us enumerate the steps that may come-in handy to revive the industry and how industry can contribute to itself for its own betterment
All eggs in single basket is always a high risk. Almost all of the travel Industry in India, barring a few has focused business scene. They have either been in inbound tours, outbound tours, domestic tours or into corporate travel support or ticketing and ancillary service agents (Of course there is MICE etc too, but let’s for now club it the ones that have been mentioned for the purpose of research). Each domain has its own pros and cons but now is the time that tour operators spread their wings a bit and have a healthy mix of business to counter any specific downturn anytime in future. Given present times of COVID-19, I try to analyse the revival rate after the COVID-19 threat is over or minimised.
Let’s wildly assume COVID-19 threat is over or at least will diminish by 30 June 2020 and the world starts limping back then.
Business Domain : Corporate travel support or ticketing and ancillary services
Recovery Track Time After COVID-19 : 1 month (Expect road to revival by: July’20)
This business domain will pick-up first as people will immediately start travelling for business, completing all backlogs, meeting prospects and enhancing businesses that would have suffered in the wake of Corona threats when travel was barred either due to different advisories or by self restraints.
Business Domain : Domestic Tours
Recovery Track Time After COVID-19 : 3 months (Expect road to revival by: October’20) – Peak season of May/June ’20 will be lost.
Natives know, native conditions the best. Religious travel, visiting friends and family, family outings, postponed honeymoons, school vacation travel; all will start picking up first than any other segment of leisure travel. May-June of 2021 will be the first vacation month to see this trend if COVID-19 is arrested by then. The traces will be visible on weekends from July and then a long weekend of Raksha Bandhan that will fall on August 3, being Monday. So technically it will be a holiday of Saturday, Sunday, and Monday for nearby travel. Similarly Christmas of 2020 will be on Friday, making it a long weekend including Friday, Saturday & Sunday. Also winter vacations in school will be on to give yet chance for people to resume holiday travel. This will also set the tone and rebuild confidence.
Business Domain : Outbound Tours
Recovery Track Time After COVID-19 : 12 months (Expect road to revival by: July’21) – Peak season of Indian outbound travel May/June will be lost.
COVID-19 after all is a foreign import. Families will be restricting themselves to travel abroad very soon. The start will be with domestic travel and gradually after gaining confidence, people will re-look at foreign shores. Outbound Tour Operators will have to entice people with great deals, low airfares and very competitive packages. Destinations will have to offer lucrative visa options etc. Here too, the doubt will be majorly on top affected countries (Specially the top ones with excessive cases of COVID-19 and unfortunately all preferred international destinations are right there – See the ‘Corona List’ on : https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ to get an idea of the effect) which in due course will figure in ‘To Do’ list of travelers. Having said that, all these countries are also known to be quite aggressive in tourism and hopefully they will very soon, recover by their own innovative tourism policies and marketing exercises.
Business Domain : Inbound Tours
Recovery Track Time After COVID-19 : 18 months (Expect road to revival by: January ’22) – Half of tourist season of 2021-22 would be over by then.
Inbound tourism sector as it is, was not doing very well in India due to numerous reasons since the beginning of September/October 2019. Some of the reasons being inconsistent marketing exercise in foreign tourist markets, damp international economy, India losing its traditional markets to neighbourhood rivals, political environment perceptions, high tax structures till recently and then there were internal political protests and demonstrations too making the matters worse. Now under given circumstances of COVID-19, inbound travel will have the slowest road to recovery. As it is, the inbound travel is the first to get affected by any slightest upheaval and last to recover from it.
India as a country has never recognised the economic potential of tourism and specially, inbound foreign tourists thus it has not had a very consistent policy in this regard. With the change of governments perception towards tourism has changed. Thus in our country, we have never had a focused marketing for inbound tourists. This only complicates the matter further and not only prolongs recovery of lost grounds but also a large chunk of market is lost to our aggressive neighbours, with consistent and attractive opportunities. India’s foreign tourist season roughly is from October to March (6 months in all, though from the second week of October, all of November till the first week of December, and again from the middle of January, all of February till the middle of March being the peak of this season thus translating virtually into only 4 months of real business).
Seeing this illustration, I am personally (I really wish, I am proven wrong) not seeing much action in the next foreign tourist season of October 2020 – March 2021, unless some miracle really happens.
This downtrend is not only COVID-19 threat but as I have said in the past, my real worry is the aftereffect of this pandemic which I enumerate as under:-
- Economic Recession (or Economic Depression) – whenever there has been an economic slowdown, trends suggest leisure travel takes a beating. People have less disposable incomes, they concentrate on saving and being at par with their financial positions that they had in pre-recession days. Pandemic of this magnitude is much more severe as this time the geographic spread is much greater and then the news spread is much faster and even the fake news is uncontrollable, making it much more worse than it actually would have been.
- Xenophobia might take a rebirth – this word, ‘xenophobia’ had for long not surfaced but it may come back to haunt all of us. Fear of foreigners, if not harming them, even distancing from foreigners will have an adverse effect on tourism. The moment the news of coronavirus surfaced, many hotels in India started denying rooms to foreigners and so did many taxi drivers resented to accepting a foreign tourist in their cars. Indian co-passengers on trains and flights were jittery on seeing foreigners. The larger worry is that if ‘xenophobia’ stages a comeback it will be very hard to revive the industry soon. After all host has to be welcomingly receptive of the guests for survival of tourism.
- Priorities are Heath & Safely – travel of course is the last priority and once such a pandemic has struck the world, people choose their destinations very carefully and base it on medical index, capabilities and preparedness. India undoubtedly has demonstrated a great preparedness in times of this pandemic, yet people always think they are safer and more secure in the comforts of their own homes and in their own environments. This psychology will be counterproductive for international travel for the time being at least.
- Traveller Demography will change – COVID-19 has shaken the confidence of elderly as it is their immune system that is being questioned, thus there might be a substantial reduction in traveler who are 60+ and this trend will continue for quite some time till the confidence is regained. It will deplete a tourist market and 60+ is actually a good source market for India and many other places too.
- Chinese Over-dependence will be re-looked at – COVID-19 is very unfortunate and it is absolutely wrong to label it to any nationality. Still if you see, Chinese had taken over the world travel scene and somehow tourism was becoming over-dependant on Chinese travellers. This trend will change and as tourism marketer we will redirect our efforts to other markets, no matter how small that market is. Most of the countries world-over had created their tourism infrastructure eyeing the huge influx of Chinese travellers, and now that will have to be realigned even though for short term but over-dependence on any market will end. The downside of this will be, missing out on huge Chinese market that has surprised the world by its volumes and spends, and this can be a huge segment waiting in the wings but not accepted as it was in pre-coronavirus days.
- Many businesses will go bust – small and medium businesses might not sustain for long if this mayhem continues beyond expectation and economic comfort levels. Most of businesses in travel domain are small to medium and like MSMEs are the backbone of Indian Economy; these small and medium enterprises run the travel scene in India. Family owned travel companies rule the business scene in India and most of these are largely dependent on their cash-flow to operate.
- Micro Enterprises: Less than or equal to 5 Cr
- Small Enterprises: 5 Cr to 75 Cr
- Medium Enterprises: 75 Cr to 250 Cr
Above figures are based on Indian Union Cabinet’s approved the amendment to MSME act for the classification
Sudden disruption in the cash-flow would mean drastic loss of jobs in the sector, default in credit and even shutting down of many wafer-thin margin businesses. The entire travel industry could come to a stand-still for quite some time, before it is able to reassemble itself after the virus threat is dealt with and business starts pouring in.
- Exploitation of workforce – when jobs dry up, and supply of workforce outnumbers the actual requirement, there comes a situation of workforce exploitation at the hands of the industry. Unfair payments, unkind work environment, excessive work-load etc. This condition might not encourage suitable candidates to join travel trade and the travel industry might loose on good talent thereby creating a vicious circle, where an average workforce will get only average business thus making the industry suffer more and for long.
- Airlines may ignite high air-fares – airlines were in abundance world-over and that was keeping the airfares under control. I am seeing many small carriers shutting down and even if this becomes a temporary situation, it might limit seats and then fares will shoot-up. This trend was experienced when in India Jetairways was shut and seat capacity was suddenly reduced, it only increased the flying cost. If this happens, the travel cost will increase and this will adversely affect the travel budgets of people.
- Entrepreneurship in travel will not happen easily – young companies shutting down is never a good sign for an economy; this only discourages many out there waiting in the wings to start up. It is a deterrent for new age entrepreneurs intending to join the march. There might be a big question-mark on ‘Travel Start-ups’ for some time now. As it is, shutting down of Jetairways, Thomas Cook (UK) and Cox & Kings (India) has left many thinking twice before taking a plunge, and now after the expected news starts pouring in about others shutting shops, it will be a tough call for new-age entrepreneurs to enter a domain which they will believe to be shadowed with high risk from all quarters.
- Global hospitality giants in India will shake – of course it was a global decision of hospitality multi nationals that investments in hospitality will be put on hold now for some time. Many hotel chains have already announced temporary breaks on expansions, this may restrict tourism infrastructure and industry may take longer to revive in absence of adequate hotel rooms and so will be the case of newer destinations that otherwise would have come up well with international hotel chains steeping in. Even Indian hotel majors have frozen their expansions for the time being thus putting a comma on any new development.
- Lack of employment opportunities for fresh tourism & hospitality graduates – This is also that time of the year that students of tourism and hospitality graduate, and market gets infused with new talent each year during the coming months. Due to the global tourism recessionary scenario in the wake of this pandemic, it is hard for existing work-force to survive thus absorption of new work-force is totally out of question for now. This trend my render fresh graduates of tourism and hospitality jobless and they will land up in other industries reluctantly without specialisation. Losing on this new talent pool, tourism and hospitality industry will not only be unfortunate but will create a further ripple as for another few years students may shy away from joining this course of study. The real impact of this will then be evident from next year on and will continue for quite some time, till the industry is back on track and students are confident about their future after undertaking a course in tourism and hospitality.
- Cleanup of Indian economy might suffer and compromise on genuine business projects – Indian economy by and large is an economy where crony capitalism ruled and had a different set of rules for itself. Only recently Indian government started to iron out this situation through many means adopted for the purpose. With such a situation as present, this may make in-roads again and the efforts in this direction may be defeated. Banks will shy away from funding genuine business projects and fund companies based on their ‘high-powered’ names. Tourism and Hospitality will be the first victim of this and banks, financial institutions and other investors will be reluctant to lend easily even if the projects are worthy.
This time will pass too but what is the need of the hour – Words that should be understood to taken up seriously.
All difficult times have passed and this will pass too. I may be wrong, but I am not seeing it ending very soon. What I understand is that we will only learn to live with it as we have learnt to live with H1NI or Ebola etc, when the spread is controlled and infection graph plateaued.
The time frame I am seeing is 18 months to 24 months for having tourism back on track and by that calculation; it will be the financial year of 2022-23, when we can expect some action. This doesn’t mean nothing will move by then. We as humans have a miraculous way of forgetting the worst and moving on soonest possible, it’s only the quantum that will only gather as speculated in 2022-23. I am also confident, the moment the COVID-19 new case curve plateaus and the spread is controlled people will start travelling much more than they were thought to be travelling, giving a sudden upswing to tourism across all domains, so let’s all be positive.
In conclusion let me leave with some keywords/phrases that we should start understanding and practising till the time we lie-low and till our industry regains the momentum:-
- Re-engineering or Remodelling Businesses
- Realigning Manpower
- Workforce Optimisation
- Relearning
- Up-skill
- Innovating
- Differentiating
- Synergies and Collaborations
- Empathy
- New Markets
- Discovering New Avenues & Destinations
- Reducing Costs
Our priority should be to counter COVID-19 threat that looms over all of us today and to wholeheartedly support our governments in making us safe and healthy and then we will together with our government chart a revival plan and I am sure government too will be keen to revive tourism as soon as it can. Tourism after all contributes US$240 billion or 9.2% of India’s GDP and supports about 43 million jobs.
Wish all be safe & health and travel again soon.
-By Prateek Hira (Prateek Hira apart from being a renowned travel professional, heading four travel companies is a travel researcher and travel academician)
Comments Off on COVID-19 IMPACT ON TOURISM (In Indian Context)
March 17, 2020
Tornos’ Founder President & CEO, Prateek Hira delivers a message in the wake Corona Virus.
LATEST UPDATE (As on May 27, 2020)
Since 22nd of March 2020 India was in a lockdown due to COVID threat. Things are now opening up in phases and all this while, Tornos was preparing itself to reopen with new COVID safeguard measures which now are very much in place and we are now functional from 1st June 2020, ready to welcome guests.
Our new Product Manual 2020-21 too has now been launched with three new experiences this year, making our product range reach a total of 52 out-of-box experiences by Tornos.
We are all set to welcome guests under new health and safety protocols and really wish that the business starts flowing in soon and all of us are able to revive tourism much earlier than we anticipate.
We at Tornos, are quite optimistic and highly motivated and also want each one of you to be so. Let’s plan seriously for a better tomorrow and let our hopes, not our ‘hurts’ shape the future.
PREVIOUS UPDATE (As on March 15, 2020)
All is well in spite of a questionable well-being of all in the wake of Corona virus. I recall an old saying; ‘Precaution is better than cure’ it so aptly applies here.
At Tornos and all brands and sister companies, we are taking utmost care of our guests who are already in India and touring with us.
Special training sessions have been organised for all our interacting staff and we mark all as safe and free from any infection whatsoever.
There is absolutely no need to panic, and at Tornos we have taken all necessary measures to fight the spread of any kind of viral infection.
When you are using our transport, rest-assured it has been thoroughly sanitized after each guest has disembarked. As a part of our standard services hand-sanitisers were always placed in our cars and coaches but now our guests may carry it with them as we are providing small bottles now along with masks with compliments.
Tornos, all its brands and sister companies only uses standard hotels, thus be sure, your hotel room and all public areas have been properly sanitised before you have checked in. Also we have personally ensured that rooms have been properly sanitised before check-in of our guests even if we have to wait a bit and delay the check-in of our guests.
Train travel too is being monitored for all Tornos guests and before our guests are seated in the train our representative is spraying the guest seat or berth with disinfectant, to doubly ensure safety. A travel kit containing hand sanitiser, disinfectant wipes and masks along with toilet rolls is being given as a part of standard travel kit to all our guests travelling by from one destination to another.
If you encounter our representatives, guides and drivers with masks and if our people are reluctant to shake hands with you, they are only being thoughtful of your well being and want to keep you safe on your trip to India.
The proportion of this infection in India is actually negligible but as I earlier said, ‘Prevention is better than cure’ we at Tornos care for you. Keep enjoying your trip and leave all worries to us.
With a ban on any further leisure travel into India, it’s one of the toughest situations for us in the travel trade but we stand with our government and all of us join hands to counter this threat and irradiate corona virus from India as soon as possible.
We wish you be healthy, be safe and keep travelling.
(Message by Prateek Hira – Founder, President & CEO of Tornos Destinations (I) Pvt Ltd.)
Comments Off on Tornos’ Founder President & CEO, Prateek Hira delivers a message in the wake Corona Virus.
Prateek Hira Speaks on NBT Panel Discussion on Tourism
Comments Off on Prateek Hira Speaks on NBT Panel Discussion on Tourism
Prateek Hira comments on Defence Expo Hotel Rates & dearth of rooms
Comments Off on Prateek Hira comments on Defence Expo Hotel Rates & dearth of rooms
Prateek Hira’s Comments on Coronavirus Impact on Destinations & Monuments
Comments Off on Prateek Hira’s Comments on Coronavirus Impact on Destinations & Monuments
Prateek Hira’s Comments about COVID-19 in The Pioneer
Comments Off on Prateek Hira’s Comments about COVID-19 in The Pioneer
Prateek Hira’s Comments about COVID-19 in Times of India
Comments Off on Prateek Hira’s Comments about COVID-19 in Times of India
Prateek Hira’s Comments about COVID-19 in Hindustan Times
Comments Off on Prateek Hira’s Comments about COVID-19 in Hindustan Times
March 13, 2020
River tours through Gomti to start soon
River Rhapsody, a river tour company is all set to start river tours through Gomti river in Lucknow. The company will be headquartered in Lucknow and will run river tours and river-side camping through Ganges and other rivers of state of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
Comments Off on River tours through Gomti to start soon
March 12, 2020
Temporary restriction on incoming foreign travellers into India
Due to Corona-virus scare Indian government has banned all foreigners from entering India from 13 March till 15 April 2020. This decision was taken up by the group of ministers to counter the pandemic situation that has taken the world by surprise. Government of India plans to restrict any incoming threat and eradicating internal cases already in India. A figure of detected cases of COVID-19 stands at 60 in India, though not a huge number but it is very important to harness this than to feel sorry at a later date. Tornos will be refunding all its clients in full without any retention whatsoever in an event of any tour cancellations.
Comments Off on Temporary restriction on incoming foreign travellers into India
