RITUPARNA CHATTERJEE – Mumbai
The decision of the United Kingdom of planning to issue a visa bond of £3000 for ‘high risk passengers’ starting November this year has led to several debates of its impact on the travel industry in the India market. Guldeep Singh Sahni, president, Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI), while talking about the legitimacy of such a bond stated, “The UK staff is well-equipped to handle passengers and those who will travel illegally will sign that bond. The bond can’t be to avoid the risk factor but it is to fund themselves. Very clearly the policy is to make money and not to enhance tourism. The policy is against tourism.”
There have been further speculations regarding the definition of ‘risky passengers’ and the people who will be considered under this category. Furthermore, the bond focuses only on six non-white nations, India, Bangladesh, Ghana, Nigeria, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and not on the white dominions. Commenting on this, Sahni stated, “What is the definition of high risk passengers? The criteria isn’t clear. Since people are travelling to the UK and in turn promoting their tourism, the bond is discriminatory. Sahni suggested that travellers be equipped with multi-entry visa to enhance UK’s tourism.
Elaborating on the impact of the bond on different travel segments of India, Sahni opined, “In the leisure sector, the ones to be impacted the most are the first time travellers and honeymooners who haven’t settled yet. Besides them, the middle-aged and retired travellers and the visiting friends and relatives are also going to be equally impacted along with a marginal impact on the student community who are planning to go to UK.”
While talking about the impact on the MICE segment Sahni added, “Most of these travellers are mid and small-scale industrialists who are already in their development stage and have fixed budgets. The visa bond will not only require these companies to invest more but also will also force them to take their sources out. The visa bond will only cater to the top companies and ones who earn more. Since India has 10-15 per cent of high end travellers and 85-90 per cent of middle class travellers, the impact is most likely to be on the middle-class segment.”
