Port Blair, Jan 21: In response to the meeting held with few tourism stakeholders of Port Blair on 21st January 2022, Mr. V.K Abdul Aziz, District Congress Committee President, South Andaman wrote a letter to the Chief Secretary, A & N Administration and requested him to consider reopening tourism activities in the Islands for sustaining the Island's economy and giving hope to myriads of stakeholders working in this sector.

In his letter, Mr. Aziz stressed that COVID-19 pandemic has resulted existential crisis for the tourism industry. He said that, tourism is the backbone of our Islands and a large number of Island's residents are employed in the tourism sector.

"The restrictions imposed by A&N Administration have pushed to the wall again the tourism sector which was barely recovering after the previous lockdowns in 2020 and 2021. This has also dealt a hard blow on the stomach of tourism stakeholders as they were under heavy debts due to previous lockdowns", the DCC President added.

He also mentioned that the sudden closure of tourism sector has also demotivated the stakeholders and instilled a sense of insecurity in working for tourism sector

Considering these reasons, he urged the Chief Secretary to revive tourism in these Islands by ensuring a delicate balance between the livelihood of the tourism stakeholders and controlling the spread of COVID-19.