Covid-19: 30 lakh people lost jobs in Karnataka's tourism sector, says Minister CT Ravi

The Covid-19 pandemic has snatched away the livelihoods of 90% of those employed in the tourism sector, Karnataka Tourism minister CT Ravi said on Thursday.

Speaking on the occasion of having completed one year in office, Ravi estimated that 28-30 lakh people had lost jobs over the last five months. These include tourist operators, taxi drivers, hotels, tourist guides, those owning petty shops among others. "These are temporary job losses. Once the industry recovers, they will be able to secure their jobs back," he assured.

However, the rate of revival in the tourism sector was slow, he observed. "While Jungle Lodges have seen some improvement, KSTDC and private hotels have seen only 10 percent imrovement in their revenues. There are still not many tourists as people are living in the fear of the pandemic. We hope that the situation will improve in the coming months," he said adding that the estimated loss to Jungle Lodges was at Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 2 crore, while that of KSTDC was Rs 3 crore. He pointed out that the tourism sector mainly depended on private players, while the government's share of revenue in the sector was but a small percentage.

Further, the state government is in the process of developing a new Tourism Policy, with an ambition of increasing the number of tourists in the state by four times in the coming years. The draft of the new policy will be tabled in the next Assembly session for approval, the minister said.