#RTNext with Rupinder Brar

OutlookIndia

#RTNext is a series of conversations focusing on the immediate future of travel in India.  Joining us in our inaugural episode is Rupinder Brar, Additional Director General, Ministry of Tourism, Govt of India, who shares why she’s hopeful about the recovery of tourism in the post-vaccine world, and how technology and entrepreneurship will play a critical role in it.  #rtnext #rupinderbrar #outlookindia

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 - Welcome everyone.

00:12 And thank you so much for joining us today

00:14 for our new series of short focused conversations

00:18 on the future of travel in India called RT Next.

00:22 As the pandemic continues to sharpen the focus

00:24 of all our actions and forces us to shift our needs

00:28 from our wants, both as travelers and as hosts

00:33 who are waiting for those travelers,

00:35 we wonder what's next.

00:38 Yes, the world has stopped spinning on its axis

00:40 for a while now.

00:42 And yes, we have a long way to go before the masks come off,

00:46 but when they do, will we be ready or will it be too late?

00:50 So at Outlook Responsible Tourism Initiative,

00:54 an affiliate member of the UNWTO,

00:56 we're really optimistic about the road ahead.

00:59 And we believe even at the cost of sounding trite

01:02 that there's light at the end of the tunnel.

01:04 How do we get through this tunnel together as a community

01:08 and build something that is stronger and more resilient?

01:11 And that is exactly why we have been reaching out

01:15 to the experts and the doers, the policy makers

01:18 and the policy implementers who can hopefully help us plan

01:22 for the future better and more than anything else,

01:26 give us hope.

01:27 I'm Shweti Banerjee and I'm here with my colleague,

01:30 Shonali Chatterjee, who will now introduce us

01:34 to our very first guest for our very first episode

01:36 of RT Next.

01:38 Shonali.

01:38 Thank you so much, Shweti.

01:41 It is a great pleasure to introduce our first guest

01:44 of the RT Next series.

01:46 Many of you know her as the inspiration behind

01:49 and the face of Dekho Apna Desh,

01:52 the digital video series launched by MOT India

01:55 in April, 2020.

01:57 But she wears many, many other hats

01:59 and she wears them very well.

02:01 Please join me in welcoming Ms. Rupinder Brar,

02:04 Additional Director General Tourism,

02:06 Ministry of Tourism, Government of India.

02:09 Welcome, Ms. Brar.

02:10 How are you today?

02:11 Namaste, thank you.

02:12 Thank you so much, Shonali, for a lovely introduction.

02:15 And thank you, Shweti.

02:16 It's always a pleasure to be conversing with both of you.

02:19 Thank you so much for joining us, ma'am.

02:21 And it's actually, we're very lucky to have you

02:25 on the very first episode,

02:26 because we are really hoping that you sort of give us

02:30 direction today and tell us a little bit

02:33 about how you think the future will pan out for us in India.

02:38 Of course, the National Tourism Policy,

02:39 the draft of the National Tourism Policy

02:41 has been prioritizing sustainable and responsible tourism

02:44 as a guiding principle for the industry.

02:46 But as somebody who's had a ringside view

02:49 of the impact of the pandemic in the past year,

02:53 what do you think the future of tourism at large in India

02:56 and responsible tourism in particular

02:58 will look like in 2021 and 2022,

03:02 as well as perhaps in the mid and long-term as well?

03:05 So a lot of questions in that one question,

03:09 and a lot of thoughts need to be also therefore gleaned out.

03:13 I will try and be brief and try and touch on a few aspects.

03:17 As we all know, when the pandemic came last year,

03:21 in March, 2020, and the entire world was kind of sort of

03:25 brought to a grinding halt, including India.

03:28 And for tourism to happen and for hospitality to happen,

03:31 travel is essential.

03:33 And the moment travel itself stopped,

03:35 you could not have been doing anything

03:38 in the space of tourism in the real sense.

03:40 And therefore, one of the largest, I think,

03:44 things that came to assistance was technology

03:46 and how to use technology.

03:48 Now, what is interesting in the use of technology

03:50 is that I think the trade as well as the governments

03:54 and travelers were all happily introducing technology

03:59 into their lives because it was leading

04:01 to so much more of informational outflow.

04:04 It was allowing you to make so many better choices,

04:07 the dynamic pricing and everything.

04:09 It was helping the ecosystem of travel and tourism

04:13 to become far more brisk,

04:15 but no one knew that it's going to be an essential part

04:18 of creating an outreach in terms of a product,

04:21 a process and promotion.

04:23 All three aspects coming into the space of virtualism,

04:26 so to say.

04:28 So the way forward and in some senses,

04:31 and like they say to every cloud,

04:33 there is a silver lining.

04:35 The silver lining is that the adaptation and adoption

04:38 of technology to the entire ecosystem has been mandated

04:43 and it is not a choice anymore.

04:45 So that's where I think we can look at it

04:48 as a positive externality of COVID,

04:51 that it made us reboot, rethink.

04:54 It literally stopped us in our tracks.

04:57 Then were we doing something not so right in our lives

05:01 and were we violating mother earth in some ways?

05:04 And therefore, when we talked about responsible,

05:07 you've mentioned responsible, sustainable

05:10 and eco-friendly and eco-tourism,

05:13 these have been words.

05:14 These have been words and in smaller quarters,

05:17 people have been working on them.

05:19 There has been narrative building within the government,

05:22 how to be responsible.

05:23 But I think, again,

05:24 that's going to be the second positive externality.

05:26 The first being the role of technology.

05:29 The second is going to be that the level of responsibility

05:33 towards responsible tourism

05:35 is going to enhance phenomenally

05:38 because that's been a big learning for everyone

05:41 that somewhere it is a violative practices

05:44 that we've all sort of organically allowed

05:47 to grow around us,

05:49 which are staring in the face.

05:51 And I think for a lot of us,

05:54 it was not that we were trying to harm the environment,

05:58 but sometimes you just mindlessly do a lot of things.

06:01 And it's given a great sort of opportunity

06:07 for all of us as citizens.

06:08 And it doesn't matter

06:09 whether you're working for the government

06:11 or whether you're working in the field of tourism

06:13 or hospitality,

06:14 it's about everybody who lives on mother earth

06:17 to be just reminded of the small little things

06:20 that why would I not carry a water bottle from home?

06:23 And why would I want to depend

06:25 on a disposable one-time use plastic bottle?

06:29 I think so that's the second major learning

06:31 that is coming from the pandemic.

06:35 The third, and that's a very important one,

06:38 particularly for a country like India,

06:41 where tourism was anyways also moving

06:44 towards what we call as experiential tourism.

06:47 It opens up a tremendous opportunity for us

06:50 where we in our cultural space have so many languages,

06:55 the food, the dance, the art forms,

06:58 the sheer choice of the flora and the fauna,

07:01 the rivers, the landscapes.

07:03 There is nothing that we don't have

07:05 starting from the cold desert,

07:06 which is unique in Lelit Nag,

07:09 to the run of kutch with the salt marshes,

07:11 to the mangrove swamps and Sundarbans,

07:14 to the so-called normal forest.

07:17 There's so much in India.

07:19 And I think for us,

07:20 it's a fantastic opportunity to open up the homestays

07:23 and the bed and breakfast units

07:25 because that's where the real India really kicks in

07:28 instead of, and nothing against the large big hotels

07:31 because they have their own space

07:34 and large events, conventions, exhibitions,

07:37 they need to continue to happen there.

07:39 But for that experiential traveler,

07:41 somebody looking forward to really looking at

07:43 how do you make your food,

07:46 your machar jhol will be different

07:48 from the machar jhol made elsewhere.

07:50 The paratha I will do will be different,

07:52 the dance form, et cetera.

07:54 So I think that's where COVID has allowed us

07:58 to delve into our own treasures far more.

08:02 And we hope that we will be working together

08:04 with the industry to take this narrative

08:07 for India forward in the weeks and months to come.

08:10 - Wonderful, thank you so much for that, Ms. Brat.

08:14 As a primary shaper of tourism policy in the country,

08:16 we of course look at the ministry's lead

08:19 in rebuilding the sector,

08:20 which has been severely affected by the pandemic.

08:22 For example, the RBI has recently opened up

08:26 a liquidity window of 15,000 crores

08:28 for tourism and allied sectors,

08:30 which at the moment are still bank dependent.

08:33 But in terms of the ministry,

08:34 what steps are you looking at taking

08:36 to ensure that funds will be made available

08:39 to micro, small and medium enterprises

08:42 in the tourism sector?

08:43 - Thanks for raising that, Shonali.

08:45 In fact, that has been an area of huge concern,

08:49 especially because not only have we dealt

08:51 with the first phase of pandemic,

08:54 but we are, I guess, in a sense,

08:56 still in the second phase.

08:58 And while some of the worst days

09:00 seem to be behind us,

09:01 but pretty much still caught in that

09:03 and travel within the country also extremely restricted

09:07 right now with all state governments

09:09 having their own protocols,

09:11 everybody insisting on RTPCRs and correctly so.

09:14 So how are we to assist an industry

09:17 which is clearly a beleaguered industry as of now?

09:21 So the government, as you rightly pointed out,

09:23 has through the RBI,

09:25 the RBI has stepped in with liquidity.

09:27 There has been the ECLGS,

09:31 which has also come in handy.

09:33 But looking particularly at the micro,

09:35 small, medium enterprises,

09:37 we within the ministry have something called

09:39 the market development assistance,

09:41 which has been revised both for the domestic

09:43 as well as the overseas tour operators.

09:47 We are also looking at supporting them

09:49 in creating and creating platforms,

09:52 including the content for certain strategic sectors.

09:56 For example, we've had our meetings

09:57 with Heritage because Heritage,

09:59 both tangible and intangible,

10:01 is a huge wealth of our country.

10:03 So we would be taking on the expenses

10:05 of creating the content where they would drive

10:07 the thematic of the content,

10:09 but we actually take on the expenditure.

10:12 But more importantly,

10:13 because you know that there is a whole ministry

10:16 that looks after MSMEs,

10:18 they and we are working very closely.

10:21 In last year, they had set up the Udyam portal

10:25 and 20,000 entities registered initially.

10:29 And then that number only went on increasing

10:31 as to how to get financial support from MSME,

10:35 particularly for all our small operators,

10:38 whether they are directly tour operators

10:40 or if they were running smaller enterprises.

10:43 So that is now being expanded.

10:46 Last week, we had a meeting

10:47 with the additional secretary there.

10:49 So they are setting up with us a discussion

10:53 as to how to support in the times to come

10:56 the smaller cultural hubs.

11:00 So the idea being that if there are a set of homestays

11:03 at a particular place,

11:05 then could we have one common cultural hub

11:08 which would showcase the local cultural wealth?

11:12 It could be a dance form, it could be music,

11:14 it could be theater, it could be anything.

11:16 And how to ensure funding for those cultural hubs.

11:20 Now, through their own local offices,

11:22 they already do have some schemes,

11:25 but there is a lot of discussion happening

11:28 that could we include the eco-tourism and the homestays

11:31 as part of that funding

11:33 and also enhance the funding for the cultural hubs

11:37 so that they can be more of such hubs.

11:39 And we also look forward to integrating it

11:43 with our own IITFC program,

11:45 where you would have locals trained in capacity building

11:49 about talking of their own unique cultural spaces

11:53 and also become the tourist facilitators in that program.

11:56 So the effort is therefore to provide the funding

12:00 from the MSME,

12:01 and we in a sense would become the content partners

12:04 as to what is it that should be showcased.

12:06 So very soon, we hope that something more

12:09 will come out of that,

12:10 but through this platform,

12:11 I would want to reach out to everyone

12:14 that do please go on the MSME portal.

12:17 It helped everyone last year,

12:19 we did a whole set of workshops

12:22 because we realized that a lot of our stakeholders

12:25 were not even aware of these schemes of MSME,

12:28 and we are more than happy to collaborate with them

12:31 once again and bring to all of you

12:33 all the schemes that MSME runs.

12:35 There are quite a few

12:36 at the central government level itself,

12:38 and we must create an outreach to our industry

12:41 to benefit from those

12:43 as we sort of look at more comprehensive solutions

12:46 for our stakeholders.

12:48 - Thank you, ma'am for that.

12:49 It's lovely to see the different departments

12:51 are talking to each other

12:52 and joining forces to come up with tangible plans

12:57 going forward.

12:58 So it's really reassuring to know

13:00 that people are not working in silos

13:03 and they're sharing knowledge,

13:05 they're sharing information.

13:06 One, I know it's a question that even before I ask,

13:12 I know that predictions are hard to make,

13:15 but when post vaccine travel begins,

13:18 what is your sense, ma'am, in terms of timelines?

13:23 What is your sense?

13:26 When do you think gradually domestic tourism will pick up?

13:30 And even for inbound,

13:33 because I know a lot of people are also wondering, right?

13:37 I mean, there is a 12 month to 18 month period

13:40 that I think a lot of people are already wondering

13:44 whether the inbound tourists will come back

13:46 before end of 2022, but what is your sense?

13:49 How do you think it'll pan out?

13:51 - So if I take a cue from what happened last year,

13:56 and if we could partly at least translate

13:59 that experience into this year,

14:01 it's gonna be a slow start.

14:04 And all the local administrations would need to look

14:07 at the conditions in their own dominions

14:10 and see that how are they able to deal

14:14 with the pandemic and the pandemic itself.

14:17 And I think we look at the next couple of months

14:22 with gradual opening up

14:23 and also the confidence restoration

14:26 that will come in the traveler.

14:28 The only good thing though, this time being,

14:30 that like last year, I remember on 9th June,

14:32 we actually unveiled the guidelines

14:34 and the recommended protocols,

14:36 which were done in collaboration

14:38 with the Ministry of Health

14:40 and their guidelines were incorporated.

14:42 And all the entities, whether they be the airlines,

14:45 whether they be hospitality units,

14:48 whether they be restaurants,

14:49 they already have their systems in place.

14:52 And therefore this time around,

14:54 we are not gonna lose time on setting up those systems.

14:57 So it's more a question of studying the ground level numbers

15:01 actually going down and the plateauing being witnessed

15:04 for a considerable number of days,

15:06 which of course we would have to leave the specialists

15:08 to decide as to the stabilization needs to be seen

15:11 for seven days or 14 days or 21 days.

15:14 But once that happens,

15:16 then the restart of travel would be immediate.

15:20 Because if you remember last year also,

15:23 the jump in domestic tourism was quite amazing.

15:28 And if we started looking at figures of December itself

15:32 and also to the sanctuaries and nature parks,

15:35 the numbers were extremely, extremely encouraging.

15:39 Jammu Kashmir itself witnessed so much growth

15:42 in numbers in January that we were getting inputs

15:45 from the various hospitality units

15:47 that they were booked to the T till the end of April

15:51 while we were talking in January.

15:53 So domestic tourism definitely will revive back really fast

15:57 is our belief.

15:59 And the belief is based on the fact

16:01 that the system's being in place.

16:03 All the people will need to be reassured

16:06 by the medical authorities that it's safe to move.

16:09 Of course, I'll be keeping the mask

16:11 and the social distancing,

16:12 everything else that is required in these times

16:15 to be respected, certainly would need to be respected now

16:19 as it was last year.

16:20 Inbound again, now that requires a study of both

16:25 the sending country and us as the receiving country.

16:30 We are in discussions with the Ministry of Home

16:33 and Health on that and would have to depend

16:36 on our own readiness to take in people,

16:39 but also the level of the pandemic's impact

16:44 in the dominions from where we are hoping to get people in

16:47 and their level of vaccination.

16:49 So there are, of course, thoughts being expressed

16:52 that could we be looking at opening for people

16:55 who are vaccinated with both their jabs done?

16:59 No decision yet on that, since it hasn't been adopted

17:03 as a universal regulation globally.

17:07 So every country is looking at it from their perspective

17:10 and we will wait for the Ministry of Health

17:12 to really take a call on that,

17:14 that is that good enough for us to be looking

17:17 at welcoming people?

17:19 The enabling in this case, of course,

17:20 would be done by the Ministry of Home

17:22 because they are the ones who actually decide

17:24 when to open the visas.

17:26 But yes, it'll be a collaborated decision

17:29 in terms of inputs coming from everyone.

17:32 We being the beneficiary ministry from that perspective

17:36 would obviously be hoping for an early opening,

17:39 but having said that, it cannot be in vacuum

17:42 and it will have to be in the context

17:44 of the prioritization of the health of our own citizens

17:49 and the health of anybody who's planning to come

17:52 and travel into our country.

17:54 So no timelines, honestly,

17:56 can be given at this juncture by me.

17:59 - No, absolutely.

18:00 That's, I guess, only as much,

18:03 your guess is as good as ours,

18:06 but we know that we're really hoping, like you said,

18:09 that once there is more clarity

18:11 and once there are more opportunities

18:15 that we can at least welcome a few guests by next summer,

18:19 because as we know that a lot of people are dependent

18:21 on the inbound travelers as well.

18:24 So thank you.

18:26 Thank you for that.

18:27 And I think it's that kind of time.

18:32 I feel like there is a sense of anticipation

18:37 and there is this sort of waiting for the doors to open.

18:41 There is that sense of hope suddenly

18:44 that a lot of us are feeling

18:47 just in the last few days, perhaps.

18:50 And like you said, we're really hoping sustainability

18:54 and experiential travel and technology

18:58 become the pillars on which we build

19:01 this new form of tourism

19:02 that we have the opportunity to build now going forward.

19:07 So thank you so much for that.

19:09 And I hope the momentum, as in when the doors open,

19:12 I hope we have that momentum.

19:14 I hope more people are able to bounce back faster

19:17 and we can rebuild together.

19:18 We're looking forward to your support as well, of course,

19:22 and to the support of the rest of the states as well.

19:25 So thank you so much for joining us.

19:27 And well, we'll perhaps reconnect with you

19:32 a few months down the line

19:33 and see how many of our wishes and hopes have come true.

19:37 So thank you so much once again, ma'am.

19:39 Thank you.

19:39 Thank you, Shoyati.

19:40 Thank you, Sonali.

19:41 Wonderful conversation.

19:43 And I'm sure we'll have good times ahead.

19:46 Absolutely.

19:47 (upbeat music)

19:49 (upbeat music)

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