After three months of the lockdown, Maharashtra is ready to greet the tourism by allowing their hotels to reopen with the guest capacity restricted to 33%. In Maharashtra, there are over 1,50,000 hotels and 65,000 restaurants that make the hotel industry as one of a key player in generating revenue for the state, thus, extremely crucial to the economy.
The official said that ‘CM told the meeting that the chief secretary has submitted a draft notification to open the hotels and most probably, it will be approved in a day or two. If all goes well, it should not be difficult to open hotels from July 8 outside the containment zones. There will be stringent conditions in place before the government issues the final notification. As of now, there is no proposal to grant permission for the opening of shopping malls’.
The industry will continue using social distancing measures such as takeaways instead of dining, disposable napkins, and large gatherings that will be prohibited to a total of 15 people. Special attention will be paid to the sanitization of the rooms, masks, and gloves that would be mandatory for the guests as well as for the staff. Thermal screenings will be installed at the screenings and Aarogya application is mandatory for everyone who would be availing or associated with the services of the industry. The guests also have to declare their travel history at the reception as per the new rules implemented by the policymakers.
This will indeed provide a sigh of relief to the hotel industry, however, whether the business will get back on track or not is something that time will tell. Due to COVID-19, the public is extremely cautious and slightly hesitant regarding their upcoming travel ventures.
