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Avian flu has no impact on travel and tourism: Assocham

Staff Reporter

Call to organise food carnivals involving celebrities

KOCHI: Reviewing the situation arising out of bird flu in pockets of Maharashtra, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry in India (Assocham) committees on tourism and civil aviation have found that it has no impact on India's booming travel and tourism business.

The Assocham expert committees have stressed the need for a positive campaign in this regard. The travel and tourism sectors have been among the fastest growing industries, each showing an annual increase of around 20 per cent, according to Assocham.

Airlines are running to full capacity and there are no vacant rooms in major cities despite the summer setting in, the Assocham committee on civil aviation has said.

However, Assocham president Anil K. Agarwal has expressed concern over the damage being done by the flu to the Rs.35,000-crore poultry industry which employs three million people with an annual growth of 17 per cent. The industry along with the Government must rise to the occasion and allay unfounded fears about the safety of eating chicken and eggs outside the area.

"It will be useful if large-scale food carnivals involving celebrities are organised so that confidence is brought back among the people," he has said. "The celebrity endorsements will help a lot,'' Mr Agarwal said.

He has said it must be highlighted that the avian flu has not affected even a single human being out of the country's large population of over a billion.

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Avian flu has no impact on travel and tourism: Assocham

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