The Supreme Court’s decision of banning liquor sale within 500 metres on either side of national and state highways will result in massive employment loss and irretrievable image loss to India as a tourism destination, said Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH) on Wednesday.
“Establishments approved under the tourism category exist primarily for lodging, conferencing, meetings, banqueting and dining out experiences which include liquor service as part of this overall experiences,” said the statement
“None of these establishments are licensed for, nor practice, nor promote, sale of liquor to be consumed outside.The establishments employ more than 5 crore people directly & indirectly impacting the living conditions of their almost 20 crores family members,” added the statement.
Quoting the famous Kashmir speech of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, asking the Kashmiri youths to embrace tourism or terrorism, FAITH said : “Displacing such a larger population from tourism jobs will run the risk of a nationwide unemployment roughly estimated at a million plus with the consequent risk of pushing this working population towards undesirable activities to earn their and their dependants’ livelihoods.”
India’s Tourism, Travel & hospitality is estimated to contribute to $200 billion, 9.5 per cent of Indian GDP, around 5 crore employment i.e. 9 per cent of Indian employment, $$ 30 billion+ investment at 5.5 per cent of total capital investment in India. “This capital investment is immobile and cannot be relocated or picked up and moved driven by decisions which challenge their business models on a retrospective basis,” added the statement.
“Almost 9 million tourists visit India, resulting in almost 27 million foreign visitations across Indian states. These along with 1.8 billion domestic visitations frequent a significant portion of these ‘establishments’ as guests. All of this will be put to risk if the overall food & beverage experiences is compromised at such legitimate establishments which pay direct & indirect taxes & levies to both the Central and State Governments,” said the statement.
“Tourists who bring in $20bn+ forex earnings will reduce their coming to India & a large number of Indians will increasingly prefer travelling out of India for such events leading to a major outflow of foreign exchange,” warned the statement.
Reiterating that industry will support all move to promote responsible driving, FAITH Chairman Nakul Anand was quoted saying in the statement, “The Indian tourism and hospitality industry as a people intensive industry, respects, honours and commends any judgement which upholds the safety of human lives.
“As the nodal body representing the tourism industry in the country, FAITH is reviewing the way forward with key stakeholders.,” he added.