Covid-19: Zostel extends a helping hand to travel & tourism business players; aims to help them tide over the pandemic

• Players that rely on tourism for sustaining their businesses are some of the worst-hit following the pandemic-led travel bans
• Seeks to extend support to café owners, adventure companies, alternative accommodation providers, property managers, and franchise owners, among others

Mumbai, 20th April’ 2020: The ongoing pandemic’s impact on travel & tourism the world over is immense. In India, industry chamber CII has called the present situation the worst crisis to ever hit the country’s tourism industry. Its estimations project both inbound and outbound tourism to sustain an 80-100% hit in the April-July period, while the travel sentiment is being expected to drop by 40-50% during the winter holiday season. In the present, disrupted scheme of things, to say that the small business players who depend on the travel machinery for their livelihoods have been dealt a bad hand would be a gross understatement.

Against this backdrop, Zostel – a community-led, experience-driven ecosystem – has taken the initiative of reaching out to the relevant industry stakeholders. These include café owners, adventure companies, alternative accommodation providers, property managers, and franchise owners, among others. By inviting them to join its ecosystem, Zostel aims to support the ground-level staff as well as business partners relying on tourism to tide over the crisis. Through this judicious intervention, the brand anticipates driving a much-needed recuperative transformation within the ecosystem. Under this campaign, the brand will also facilitate redeemable, credit-based travel packages for new-age travel-seekers at nominal prices.

Dharamveer Singh Chouhan, Co-Founder & CEO – Zostel, kick-started the initiative by addressing the travel community through his open letter. In it, he not only exhorted industry players to unite in the face of the pandemic but also demonstrated how a positive transformation can be unlocked with the willing participation of the key stakeholder community which forms the barycentre of the travel & tourism universe: travellers.

“While it is true that travel & tourism is one of the worst hit sectors by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, with businesses relying on tourism to sustain themselves having come to a standstill, all is not lost yet. If all the players in the travel ecosystem rise up to the occasion and come forward to support each other, we can ensure that all of us emerge through the incumbent crisis safe and sound,” Dharamveer said. “In light of this fact, we aim to reach out to regional players across India. Because, although people may not realize it, the travel ecosystem is highly interconnected. Therefore, we seek to enable industry stakeholders to tap into the potential of this connected ecosystem. Doing so will help not only help them to make it through the storm but also come out on the other side healthier and stronger than ever before!”

“However, in accomplishing this, the central role would be that of those who have always formed the lifeline of our beloved travel community: the travellers themselves. Now is the time that willing members come forward and channelize their passion for travel into ensuring the survival of service providers who depend on their love and affection for their livelihoods,” he added.

The subsequent legs of the initiative will see partner ventures listing their business on the Zostel platform which will enable them to sell their services to their consumers on credit. Consumers can then redeem the credits in the partner establishments that respond positively to the open letter and join hands with Zostel. With this move, Zostel has underscored its commitment to bolstering the future of the Indian travel & tourism industry by safeguarding its present in the face of the unprecedented crisis.