The second wave of COVID-19 has extracted a heavy toll on the restaurant, hospitality and travel sectors. With daily COVID-19 numbers showing a declining trend, several states are beginning to relax restrictions imposed on these sectors. However, the relaxations are still fairly restricted, especially for dine-in restaurants. In fact the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last week unveiled a Rs 15,000 crore liquidity window to support businesses that are bearing the brunt of the pandemic such as restaurants and travel agencies.

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Restrictions on mobility and the spike in cases during April and May have also taken a toll on the aviation sector. According to rating agency ICRA, domestic air passenger traffic fell over 65 percent with passenger traffic down to 1.9 million in the month of May from 5.73 million in April. That data reflects in IndiGo's fourth-quarter numbers where revenue has fallen 25 percent annually and net loss has widened significantly to over Rs 1,100 crore.

In order to help, the Finance Ministry has now made loans to the civil aviation sector eligible under the ECLGS 3.0 scheme. The earlier version of the scheme already covered hospitality and leisure.

Speaking of hospitality, luxury and five-star hotel Hyatt Regency in Mumbai has suspended operations until further notice. It has informed employees that this was a result of no funds forthcoming from its owner Asian Hotels (West).

Priya Paul, Chairperson, Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels, Rajneesh Mahajan, CEO, Inorbit Malls, Director at the Shopping Centres Association of India, Zorawar Kalra, Founder and Managing Director at Massive Restaurants and Deep Kalra, Founder and Chairman of MakeMyTrip discussed this further. Deep Kalra is also Co-Chairman of the CII National Committee on Tourism and Hospitality.

For the entire discussion, watch the accompanying video

(Edited by : Abhishek Jha)

First Published:Jun 8, 2021 6:54 PM IST