visakhapatnam with the travel and tourism industry under stress due to the covid19 pandemic more than 1500 travel agents from the two telugu states have urged the government for bailout packages the industry is also staring at a possible job loss of around 60 of workforce in ap and telanganaours is the only industry which starts earning from the first month of the calendar year however the outbreak of covid19 crippled our business right from midjanuary in february and march there were only cancellations and no fresh bookings as the country went into lockdown there is no hope of revival in the coming months said k vijay mohan president of tours travel operators association of apthe association has 300 members operating in ap alone besides another 300odd individual agents our members are facing at least rs 10 crore loss every month while the loss for nonmembers would be around rs 6 crore this has been the situation since january mohan added usually 75 of the business in the travel and tourism sector happens between january and august with 40 in the summer months alone we dont earn much in the first quarter but business picks up as summer approaches our profits are mainly from international travel not domestic ones said srinivasa rao a travel agent he added that a travel operator or agent can earn around rs 40 lakh during the summer months when many people travel abroad to spend their holidayshowever due to the covid threat people are unlikely to make any travel or holiday plans in the near future its normally a lean season for us from august to december how will we sustain ourselves unless the government bails us out says a tour operator adding that there would be layoffs in the coming days there has been no business for the past four months the maintenance cost of my offices in ap is rs 14 lakh every month but i earned only rs 4 lakh i cant even pay salaries to my staff forget paying for maintenance rues mohanhe added that many people would be wary of taking flights for a few months even after the situation improves if the travel time is between four to seven hours people will prefer to go by road and in their own cars instead of taking public transport he said