By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, AUG 20, 2020: IN a major announcement that fulfils the demands of the Hospitality Industry in the National capital Region, the Lt. Governor of National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi has accorded permissions for opening of the Hotels & Restaurants in the hotels in Delhi. This is a big step towards revival of tourism and hospitality activities in the capital city.

Mr Prahlad Singh Patel held discussion with the Lt. Governor of NCT to request him to accede to the demands of the hospitality industry in Delhi for permission to start hotel & restaurant operations. Prior to this he had also taken up this matter with Home Ministry.

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Culture & Tourism, Mr Prahlad Singh Patel has been continuously engaging with the representatives of Tourism & Hospitality industry stakeholders to discuss solutions and way forward to reboot the tourism economy by reviving demand, especially through promotion Domestic Tourism to Start with.   He had held a series of brainstorming meetings over the previous week with different segments of the tourism industry to hear and understand their difficulties. A step towards addressing the concerns of tourism industry.

Welcoming this major announcement of opening of the Hotels & restaurants in Delhi, Mr Prahlad Singh Patel thanked the Home Minister & Lt. Governor of Delhi and said “opening of the two biggest segments of the tourism industry viz hotels & restaurants in the country's capital is positive move that will help push domestic travel and give much relief to the industry which has been reading itself with all health and safety protocols”.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has given permission to start the hotel, restaurant and hospitality services in the tourism sector from 8th June '20 in a phased manner. The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare had issued SoPs /Protocols for operation of the Hotels, Restaurants & other accommodation Units and Ministry of Tourism had subsequently come up with Operational Guidelines for Hotels, Restaurants & other accommodation units which were circulated countrywide.

Towards another major move in rebooting the tourism activities, Mr Mr Prahlad Singh Patel has requested that Home Ministry to  consider allowing the Banquets halls and Conference facilities to operate at 50 Percent of their capacity by following the existing safety protocols and social distancing norms , a move that will help kickstart the MICE Industry.

The Union Minister of State for Culture & Tourism (I/C) also held meetings with the Union Civil Aviation Minister last week to discussed the issue of refund policy on the cancellation of air tickets and some resolution is expected on that front.

Continuing its efforts in engaging with the tourism industry, the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, with the objective of providing information and guidance to the stakeholders on benefit from the various elements and schemes of MSME, is organising a webinar on 20th August 2020 (Thursday) from 1100-1200 hrs on the topic ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT – ISSUES CONFRONTING TOURISM & TRAVEL INDUSTRY.

The webinar will focus on issues related to MSME Sector & its classification, Registration Process for MSMEs, Credit/Finance Schemes of Ministry of MSME for Services sector, Public Procurement Policy etc.

The session will be chaired by Mr Devendra Kumar Singh, Additional Secretary & Development Commissioner, Ministry of MSME.