4th June 2020  

Shri Ashok Gehlot 

Government of Rajasthan 

Chief Minister Office 

Secretariat 
Jaipur-302005

Hon’ble Chief Minister Sir, 

Sub: Request for full Refund of advance payment made for bookings of Wildlife Safaris in Rajasthan and cancelled due to COVID -19 

Greetings from IATO! 

May I draw your kind attention to our letter dated 11th March 2020 with regard to our request for full Refund of advance payment made for bookings of Wildlife Safaris in Rajasthan which were cancelled due to COVID -19. A huge amount has been paid by the tour operators as advance payments to Rajasthan Wildlife Department for booking of Wildlife Safaris in Ranthambore and Sariska. We have sent numbers of emails but have not received even a single acknowledgement of our email sent to Rajasthan Tourism/RTDC/Rajasthan Wildlife department.

The problem our members are facing is that so far no refund has been made by the Rajasthan Wildlife Park Authorities for bookings made and cancelled for the foreign tourists. Foreign tourists could not visit India due to cancellation of E-Visa/Visa from different countries on different dates starting with cancellation of e-visa/visa for Chinese nationals on 1st February 2020 followed by visa cancellations for different countries and finally cancellations of e-visa/visas on 13th March 2020 from all countries. Also during the period of February and March, DGCA ordered the suspension of flights from/to certain countries followed by the closure of all international and domestic flights on 25th March 2020. During this period COVID -19 was fast spreading globally due to which a lot of restrictions were made by many countries and tourist movements were stopped. All the foreign tourist visiting India were also told to leave the country immediately from the second week of March.

Due to the above reasons, all bookings made for foreign tourists by our members got cancelled including cancellations for the Jungle Safaris of Wildlife Parks in Rajasthan (Ranthambore and Sariska) and our foreign operators/ clients are asking for a refund.   

Now our foreign agents are threatening to take us to the court if full refund is not made to them under force majeure conditions. 

It is almost unlikely, that foreign tourists who have booked India tour,  would re-book the tour as we do not know whether he/she is still healthy, he has not lost the job, or business has not been closed so far.  Foreign clients presently are fighting for survival like all of us and have no intention to travel abroad in the near future. Tour operators in India are also facing acute shortage of funds due to zero billing and they are not in a position to refund unless they get back the refund from RTDC/ Forest Department.  

This is to request you to kindly intervene and issue directives to the concerned authorities in the Wildlife and Forest Department to give a full refund to the tour operators with Nil cancellations charges at the earliest enable refund the same to our foreign clients at the earliest.

We need to keep our country’s image high to secure future business and cooperate with foreign counterparts/clients in this time of global crisis. 

Looking forward to your support and cooperation.  

Thanking you and with best regards,   

Sincerely, 

Pronab Sarkar

President

(M) 9811102111

Copy to:- 

Shri Vishvendra Singh

Hon’ble Minister of Tourism 

Government of Rajasthan 

Jaipur

Shri Kuldeep Ranka

Principal Secretary
Government of Rajasthan 

Jaipur 

 

Mr. Sudhansh Pant

Principal Secretary Forests, Wildlife & Environment

Government of Rajasthan

Jaipur 

 

Mrs. Sreya Guha

Principal Secretary Tourism

Government of Rajasthan 

Jaipur  

 

Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, (HOFF),

Government of Rajasthan

Aranya Bhawan,Jhalana Institutional Area, 

Jaipur-302004,

 

Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden

Government of Rajasthan 

Aranya Bhawan, Jhalana Institutional Area 

Jaipur 302004 

 

Dr. Bhanwar Lal

Director, Tourism

Government of Rajasthan

Jaipur 

 

Mr. Bhim Singh

Chairman

IATO Rajasthan Chapter

C/o. Rajasthan Tours Pvt. Ltd.

Jaipur