'Slump in tourism is temporary'

Rationalisation of road, luxury and hotel taxes is the need of hour

IATO President Vijay Thakur said that economy was showing signs of recovery worldover. The four southern states need to co-operate in a big way to facilitate more tourism traffic to South India.

“It needs to be assessed why Kerala was getting a huge number of tourists but not Tamil Nadu, Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh,” Thakur questioned. Rationalisation of road, luxury and hotel taxes are aspects they needed to work upon, he added.

The Association’s Chief of Emeritus, Ghulam called the ongoing slump in tourism business as “a short-lived crisis.” The country has survived two wars and the plague in Gujarat during the previous millennium, which led to a tremendous downturn. “However, the industry has recovered from it,” he added.

IATO Vice-President Arun Anand announced that 20,000 saplings would be planted by the association in the City, on Saturday, to offset the carbon emissions. “A total of 1,153 IATO members have registered for the convention,” he said.