NEW DELHI: In a fervent appeal to the government to give a resuscitation package to the tourism sector, the Indian Association Travel Operators (IATO) has asked the government to take immediate measures to help protect the tourism sector with its piling up fixed costs even when the prospect of tourism picking up after the lockdown appears dim.IATO has said it estimates that 3.8 crore people associated directly or indirectly with tourism industry have their jobs at stake and that the economy can lose revenue of about Rs 5 lakh crore in the next one year.President IATO, Pronab Sarkar, said, “We need both short term and long term measures. Where short term measures can help in survival, the long term ones can help in revival. However, what we need is urgency in action as jobs and livelihoods are at stake and delay is announcement of sops is only adding to the existing strain”.IATO has urged the government to raise the duty draw back benefit (SEIS-Service Export India Scheme) on gross foreign exchange earnings from 7% to 10%, and allowing use of insurance corpus of ESI to pay wages. It also sought a wage support scheme since 90% of employees in the tourism sector earn less than Rs 15,000 per month. The sector also demanded a complete GST holiday for the tourism, travel and hospitality industry one year.“We need stimulus and we need it now. There won’t be any point in flogging a dead horse. We need something for survival, if there is no survival, what will be there to revive. So we urge the government to act fast and do something that helps us survive and save job losses,” Sarkar added.In the long term, the association has sought measures like inbound tourism industry be granted status of deemed exporters based on foreign exchange earnings and placing them at par with exporters of goods and IT industry, apart from visa fee waivers or drastic reduction to make India a favourable tourist destination.