5^th March 2020

To All IATO Members,  

Sub: HOTEL NOT ALLOWEING TO CHECKIN FOREIGN TOURISTS IN DUE TO CORONAVIRUS

Dear Colleagues,  

We were informed by some of our members that their groups were not allowed/being allowed to check-in at the hotels for the tourists from Italy, South Korea, Iran, Japan and one German Group was also refused check-in in one of the hotels in Udaipur yesterday night.

IATO immediately took up the matter with the Ministry yesterday and again today. Copy of letter submitted personally to Secretary (Tourism) is placed below.

Subsequently IATO delegation led by the IATO President met the Secretary Tourism today morning. Secretary Tourism took the matter very seriously and called DG (Tourism), ADG (Tourism), JS (Tourism) and other concerned senior officials of the ministry for the meeting. We were given a very patient hearing and the response from the Ministry was very positive and we were assured that letter is being written to all the Principal Secretary Tourism of all the states and also to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to issue another travel advisory for the tourist who are not affected by the Coronavirus.  

Please note there is no advisory issued by Ministry of Health where foreign tourists to be refused accommodation at the hotel/guest house/lodges in any part of the country.    

Please keep us update with the latest updates an case of any difficult with the hotel.

IATO has also requested the Ministry to set up a 24x7 operational control room to assist the foreign tourists in any emergency and share with us the contact number of the officer concerned, which we can further share with the members.     

We also took up the issue of Government of Sikkim withdrawing the Inner line Permit from 5th March 2020.

We shall keep you update in the matter once we get any update from the Ministry.

Further, we have received the enclosed Guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare on prevention of transmission and disinfection of hotels/ lodging facilities where suspect/ confirmed Coronavirus ( COVID-19) cases have been housed.

Thanking you and with best regards,

Pronab Sarkar

President  

=========================

5^th March 2020

Mr. Yogendra Tripathi

Secretary (Tourism)

Ministry of Tourism

Government of India

Transport Bhawan

New Delhi

Dear Sir,

Sub: ITALIAN AND OTHER TOURISTS NOT BEING ALLOWED TO CHECK IN AT MANY HOTELS IN DELHI, AGRA, HARIDWAR, BIKANER, UDAIPUR AND OTHER PLACES

We have been informed by many of our members that foreign tourist groups who were booked to stay in hotels in Delhi, Agra, Haridwar, Bikaner, Udaipur and other places are not being allowed to check-in inspite of the fact that they are already in India and came much before the restriction of Visa for nationals of  Italy, Iran, Japan, South Korea were made.  Yesterday, there was a German group of one of our members which was supposed to check in at Hotel in Udaipur but was refused to check in and they had to travel to Delhi in Midnight, whereas there is no Visa restriction for German tourists.

Similarly there are many hotels like Vasant Continental, The Grand, Delhi, The Radisson Blue, Agra, Taj Hotel and Convention Centre, Agra, Hotel Gaj Kesari, Bikaner etc. who have refused to honour the bookings already made by the tour operators and are creating confusion and inconvenience to Italian and tourists from other nationals who have already arrived in India before the Visa restrictions were made. While checking with the hotels, we have come to know that this is being done on the directives from the DM of concerned district.

We wrote a letter to DM Agra, Shri Prabhu N Singh yesterday about the problem foreign tourists are facing in Agra and requested that tourists be allowed to stay in the hotel and if needed medical check-up can be undertaken, but our request has been refused and the following message was sent to the Tourism Guilt of Agra by the DM Agra:-  

Quote” To inform all Tourism Guilt of Agra Members to regret the Hotel bookings of tourists from Iran, China, Japan, Korea and Italy with immediately effect” Unquote.  

All this is not only creating lot of panic amongst the foreign tourists but also amongst the Indian tour operators, who made the bookings, groups have arrived before the visa restrictions and now accommodation being refused to them.

All this is creating a very bad image of our country and it will badly affect the tourism business for future also.   

Therefore, this needs your urgent attention and immediate action by sending a message to all the State Government authorities and to the hotels to honour the bookings and allow them to stay in their hotels for all foreign tourists who have been permitted to enter to India so far and are already in India and if needed their medical checkup can be done for Safety purpose.

Would be grateful for your immediate action please so that tourists who have already arrived do not suffer and there is no bad impression and negative publicity of our country and loss of future business. Coverage in local media and social media is also giving negative publicity due to all such indicents.

Also we request your good-self that in the interest of tourism a 24x7 operational control room should be set up by the Ministry of Tourism under the supervision of a senior officer in different states to assist the foreign tourists in any emergency. Contact number of the officer may be sent to IATO, which we can circulate to all our members.

Thanking you and with best regards,

Sincerely,

Pronab Sarkar

President

(M) 9811102111

Copy to :-

Mrs. Meenakshi Sharma, Director General Tourism, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India

Mrs. Rupinder Brar, Additional Director General Tourism, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India

Mr. Rakesh Kumar Verma, Joint Secretary (Tourism), Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, New Delhi

Mr. B.B. Dash, Director (H & R), Ministry of Tourism, Government of India

Mr. Anil Oraw, Regional Director, Indiatourism, North, New Delhi