Someone asked me the other day if travel is really that important when people are literally scared to venture outside of their homes. The argument basically revolved around the point that key industrial sectors including manufacturing, construction, education and agriculture are awaiting impatiently for a revival of sorts so as to stabilize the economy. But the fact remains that the travel and tourism sector which has contributed substantially to the country’s GDP and job generation cannot be easily discounted. Just for the numbers, the tourism value chain contributes upwards of 9 per cent to the country’s GDP. For a $3 trillion economy, it accounts for a massive $270 billion. The numbers can be higher if we include the demand for food and beverage, fuel as well as how the manufacturing (auto and aviation) and services (construction, real estate and logistics) are impacted. A fourth of this can be stripped of if we fail to implement the right steps now. For instance, almost 12 per cent of Kerala’s GDP is through tourism revenue.  A dozen states in India depend largely on tourist cash.

I do agree that people simply don’t have the cover to spend on travel and luxury, but if you take the broader spectrum of things, the time is ripe to restart tourism, given its compound effect on the jobs, economy and people, both psychologically and socially.

If people decide to take short vacations, they can break the ominously threatening viral chains on the economy, serving as the vehicles of growth for the post COVID-19 pandemic recovery phase. If physical barriers are traversed, they can undo restrictions on the movement of labour. This can revitalize factories, considered imperative in the fight against the virus. More on this in the subsequent blog.