Aito tells India new visa rules risk members' £10M bookings

The association says more than 1,500 member bookings worth £10 million have been affected by suspension of the e-visa and courier system and the insistence travellers present themselves at one of nine visa processing centres around the UK. As a result, Aito members are no longer taking 2022 India bookings.

Aito has 60 members selling India and the country is the core destination for several of them.

In the letter, Aito head of commercial Bharat Gadhoke said: “If you extrapolate this to the numerous other travel organisers in the UK, the scale takes on frightening proportions.

“The issue with visa will have a devastating effect, both here and in India, bearing in mind that tourism is trying to recover from closure due to the pandemic. 

“Aito members will be forced to refund customers in full, which in turn will have a grievous impact on Indian suppliers and partners (many of whom are small businesses), plus support to the remote and rural economies, as well as the wildlife conservation programmes that benefit from tourism.”

Gadhoke warned of “huge” reputational damage to India’s tourism industry.  

“If Aito companies and many others are forced to invest in alternative destinations for this season this year, they may not have the capacity to return to selling India in future.”

The situation was exacerbated by the cancellation of the courier application process, Gadhoke said. He asked for this channel to be reopened for departures until the end of this year.

“We are happy to pay for these visas to be processed, but we need a way of facilitating visas for clients booked to travel within the next few weeks and months. We have over 400 people travelling this year who have not yet secured a visa, to our definite knowledge.”

Aito hopes to meet with officials to thrash out a longer-term solution.