As skies open up for domestic travel in India after 61 days, the Indian travel and tourism industry has come together to make a safety pledge to prioritize travelers’ safety, maintenance of high-hygiene standards and adherence to new travel protocols in harmony with the new normal.
The travel safety pledge, a collaboration between travel and hospitality companies of India, has been taken by eminent leaders from the airline, hospitality and other ancillary industries including Ajay Singh, CMD, SpiceJet; Vinod Kannan, Head, Vistara; Puneet Chatwal, MD & CEO, The Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL); Sunil Bhaskaran, MD & CEO, Air Asia India; Anil Chadha, COO, ITC; Vikram Oberoi, MD & CEO, The Oberoi Group; Ritesh Agarwal, CEO-OYO Hotels & Homes; Priya Paul, Chairperson, The Park Hotels; and Rajni Hasija, Director, IRCTC among others.
This pledge is a step towards reaching out to every Indian traveller to reassure and apprise them of the endeavours being made by key stakeholders in the travel and hospitality ecosystem to ensure their safety and wellbeing.
Commenting on the initiative, Deep Kalra, Founder & Group Executive Chairman of MakeMyTrip said, “Despite being battered hard by the pandemic, the travel & hospitality industry has shown immense solidarity and pro-activeness in implementing pre-emptive measures for safety and wellbeing of travellers. Through this industry initiative we want to convey to travellers that their safety is paramount to us. As travel opens up in a calibrated manner, the travel and hospitality industry is taking the lead in committing itself to a shared responsibility of keeping travellers safe at all travel touch points.”
The travel safety pledge also features other industry leaders like Anil Saini, COO, LnT Metro Rail – Hyderabad; Vijay Wanchoo, GM, The Imperial Delhi; Girish Arora, Owner, The Seashell Group; Zubin Saxena, MD & VP Operations, Carlson Hotels; Jean-Michel Casse, COO India & South Asia, Accor Hotels; Sunjae Sharma, VP Operations, Hyatt; Sudeep Jain, MD – South West Asia, IHG; Patu Keswani, MD, Lemon Tree Hotels; Ajay Bakaya, MD, Sarovar Hotels & Resorts; Deepika Rao, MD & CEO, Ginger Hotels; Chander Baljee, CMD, Royal Orchid; Suhail Kannampilly, CEO, Concept Hospitality; Navjit Ahluwalia, SVP & Country Head India, Hilton; Ramesh Ramanathan, CMD, Sterling Holiday Resorts; Arun Chittilappilly, Director, Wonder La; Col Ashutosh Kale, CEO, Imagica; Prasanna Patwardhan, President, Bus & Car Operators Confederation of India and Kumar Pushkar IFS, MD, Karnataka State Toursim Development Corporation.
