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Tourism sector ascending with global recovery: TAAI

Be it India, the Middle East, Europe, or the Americas, with the opening up of the borders global tourism has started ascending. Various advisory and consulting firms have submitted upward trends in their reports, which are supplemented with the data shared by the airline's sector. However, the precovid level is a milestone which is still far away. Citing the deliberations of the WTTC Global Summit; Jyoti Mayal, President said that they are quite hopeful that tourism will pick up soon, fully recover, and match the statistics of the pre-covid level. With all major economies opening up their borders to welcome tourists and to once again support the tourism sector, which has always been their backbone in terms of contribution to the GDP, there will be a significant spike in the growth of the sector, she added. Mayal referred to the economies like Qatar, where the FIFA world cup is scheduled at the end of this year and said that regional tourism will be a game-changer from now on. Travellers visiting the Middle East may look at India as their favourite tourist destination to explore. Mayal said that TAAI is working tirelessly in this area wherein opportunities are being explored to encash the strength of regional tourism and promote India as the hub for travellers. Commenting on the latest developments at both Ministry of Tourism and Aviation, Mayal added that the steps taken by the Government in promoting tourism categories such as Religious – Buddhism, Ramayan Trail, Ayush, leisure, wedding and other formats are indeed playing a crucial role in projecting India as a regional tourism hub.

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India's first Amrit Sarovar prepared in UP's Rampur

With the efforts of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath-led government in Uttar Pradesh, India's first 'Amrit Sarovar' has been completed in Rampur's Gram Panchayat Patwai. Under the Amrit Sarovar initiative, 75 water bodies will be developed and rejuvenated in each district as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. A pond in Rampur has been cleaned and rejuvenated in a few weeks. Now this pond has become a big centre of tourism in the rural area. Seventy-five ponds in Rampur were selected to be developed as Amrit Sarovar. Out of the selected ponds, the work of pond of village panchayat Patwai of development block Shahbad was completed. Now the work on pond having the largest area (1.67 hectare) in Gram Panchayat Singan Kheda has also started. In the next three months, this pond, which is littered with garbage, will become an centre of rural tourism in the form of 'Amrit Sarovar'. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday in his 88th monthly radio broadcast 'Mann ki Baat' emphasised on water conservation in the country while stating that it's key to the progress of the country. PM Modi hailed the efforts made by a Panchayat in Uttar Pradesh by rejuvenating a pond that used to be filled with garbage. "I have come to know about Gram Panchayat Patwai of Rampur in UP. There was a pond on the land of the Gram Sabha, but it was full of filth and heaps of garbage. With a lot of hard work, with the help of local people, with the help of local school children, that dirty pond has been transformed in the last few weeks," he said. "Now, many arrangements have been made on the banks of that lake like retaining wall, boundary wall, food court, fountains and lighting. I congratulate the Patwai Gram Panchayat of Rampur, the people of the village, the children there for this effort," he added. "I am eager to inaugurate the Amrit Sarovar initiative which marks a special moment in the collective endeavours to rejuvenate our water bodies and conserve every drop of water. Under this initiative, 75 water bodies will be developed and rejuvenated in each district," PM Modi tweeted.

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Alaska's cruise season starts as industry hopes for revival

The first large cruise ship of the season has arrived in Alaska, marking the start of what industry and tourism officials expect will be a more robust travel year after two pandemic-stunted seasons. The Norwegian Cruise Line vessel the Norwegian Bliss arrived at a dock in an industrial area near the edge of Juneau's downtown area on Monday. Rows of buses and vans were on hand to whisk passengers away. The weather was cool and dreary, with drizzling rain. Lanie Downs, a spokesperson for Cruise Lines International Association Alaska, said the trade group is looking forward to a "full season" again, with hundreds of planned voyages. In 2019, there were 1.3 million cruise ship passengers in Alaska, she said. No large ships sailed to Alaska in 2020 because of the pandemic. Last year, there were about 116,000 passengers on large ships that carry more than 250 people, she said by email. Alexandra Pierce, tourism manager with the City and Borough of Juneau, said the city has been having a "larger and needed conversation" around management and capacity issues and "what we look like as a tourism community into the future." "That said, I'm really kind of relieved for so many of the small businesses that rely on tourism," she said, adding later: "I think it will be nice to see people downtown again. It's been very weirdly quiet the last couple years working down there." Pierce said the ships aren't expected to be full, particularly early in the season. She said officials in Juneau have estimated they will get about 1 million visitors from cruise ships this year.

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Greece to scrap several COVID-19 travel restrictions from May 1

In a bid to promote tourism, Greece has announced to remove all major COVID-19 restrictions from May 1. So from next month, travellers wanting to visit Greece will not need to carry their vaccination proof, COVID-19 negative test report or proof of recovery. With this move, Greece has become the latest country determined to go back to pre-pandemic life. Apparently the nation had reopened its borders to travellers back in May 2021 but there were myriad protocols such as proof of vaccination, booster shot proof, recovery proof and show negative PCR report not older than 72 hours or a rapid antigen test taken within 24 hours of their arrival. The rules were applicable to everyone older than 5 years of age. Minister of Health Thanos Plevris has also decided to do away with the mask mandate (with some exceptions) in June. The minister said, "According to the epidemiological data and the suggestions of the experts, we are announcing the roadmap for the de-escalation of the measures against the Covid-19 pandemic. All measures will be reviewed on September 1, depending on the picture of the pandemic." Greece has also stopped the passenger locator form and has joined other European nations which are relaxing all COVID-19 restrictions. Recently, the Netherlands and France also removed pre-arrival testing for vaccinated visitors and Switzerland is also all set to remove its entry restrictions from May 2.

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Karnataka makes social distancing and masks must; no penalty yet

With the possibility of a fourth wave of Covid-19, the Karnataka government on Monday made it mandatory for people to maintain social distancing and wear facemasks in crowded and indoor places, but there will be no penalties on violators of the rule for now. The state will take a call on imposing further curbs after PM Modi's meeting with the CMs of all states on Wednesday. These decisions were made at a meeting chaired by CM Basavaraj Bommai to discuss precautionary measures to be taken to combat the fourth wave of Covid. Health minister K Sudhakar, Revenue Minister R Ashoka, TAC chief and members attended the meeting. "We've instructed the authorities to enforce social distancing and ensure people wear masks in crowded places. Though there are no penalties yet, people should consider the issue seriously," Sudhakar said after the meeting. He said Covid cases in Japan, Thailand and South Korea are increasing by the day, and the Karnataka government is keeping track of people arriving from these countries at its airports. Karnataka is conducting about 10,000 daily tests, and only those who are symptomatic are being tested. According to the minister, the number of positive cases has slightly increased in Bengaluru and the positivity rate stands at 1.9 percent. The minister said the number of people who have taken the third dose is low, and added those eligible for the booster dose should get it on priority. The minister said Omicron BA.2 sub-lineages are emerging, but it is difficult to say which variant is prevalent until an official report comes from INSACOG lab. "They (lab) have collected samples for genomic sequencing and we may get a report in 2-3 days," he added. On the severity of infections, Sudhakar said the state government has gathered information on the situation in states like Delhi, where the rate of hospitalisation or those requiring ICU care is low. In a few countries, the hospitalisation rate is higher in a few places, and this could be due to a low vaccination coverage. Renowned cardiac surgeon Dr Devi Prasad Shetty said, "There is no need to fear or panic about the fourth wave. The focus should be on the number of hospitalisations, and not positivity rate. Some 1 lakh or 50,000 people turning positive does not mean anything, but the number of people getting hospitalised does."

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Wooing Indian Outbound in the Post Covid Era

The resumption of international flight services from March 27, 2022, waning of the impact of the Covid-19 variant omicron and opening of the international borders augurs well for the Indian outbound travel and tourism industry. Destinations across the globe are beelining for the Indian tourists and have activated their multi-city marketing and promotional campaigns in the India market. Not only destinations, but international products are also aiming to woo Indian tourists. Stakeholders are tweaking their strategy to instill confidence among stakeholders. This is evident from the fact that post the announcement of the resumption of the international flights by the Govt of India, major airlines have announced their India schedule. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) of India approved 60 airlines from 40 countries to operate 1,783 weekly international flights from India during the summer schedule 2022. Airlines such as Emirates, Sri Lankan Airlines, Oman Air, Air Arabia, Qatar Airways, Gulf Air, Etihad, AirAsia Berhad, Kuwait Airways, Singapore Airlines, British Airways, Lufthansa, Malaysian Airlines, United, Air France, KLM and Lot Polish and others have already announced the resumption of India service. Most of these airlines work closely with their country’s respective tourism boards to bring international traffic. Moreover, the DGCA has also allowed Indian airlines to operate up to 1,466 weekly international departures during the summer schedule. Among Indian airlines, IndiGo, Air India, Air India Express, SpiceJet, GoFirst and Vistara will be flying on international sectors. “A total of 1,466 departures per week have been approved to 43 destinations in 27 countries (United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Qatar, Maldives, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Turkey, Malaysia, United Kingdom, France, Kenya, Germany, USA, Canada, Myanmar, Australia, Israel, Bahrain, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Russia)," DGCA said in the statement. Meanwhile, UNWTO states that global international tourist arrivals more than doubled (+130%) in January 2022 compared to 2021 - the 18 million more visitors recorded worldwide in the first month of this year equals the total increase for the whole of 2021. Encouraging response Countries have high hope from the Indian outbound market as major National Tourists Offices (NTOs) witnessed double digit growth in Indian arrivals before pandemic. The emerging global scenario also favours India as a sought-after outbound market. There is a pent-up demand for the travel and people have accepted to live with the pandemic. “The feedback we received so far from the travel trade fraternity is tremendous. Agents are already receiving lots of queries for packages as well as MICE groups movement to Malaysia. All we need to do now is to ensure that potential travelers received the pertinent information required for them to make the decision to select a destination. With our border opening beginning April 1, which was timely with the resumption of the commercial flight, I am confident Malaysia will be able to get good numbers of Indian travelers for 2022,” Sulaiman Suip, Director, Tourism Malaysia - New Delhi, informed. Suip further said that India is a mature market, and we believe outbound travel will rebound quickly. “It won’t take long for the situation to reach the pre-pandemic level once again. In fact, there is already a 400 pax group going to Malaysia on April 15,” he revealed. H. Deniz Ersoz, Culture and Tourism Counsellor, Embassy of The Republic of Turkey in India welcomes the resumption of the international flight services. “We are very happy to see that all international flights services resumed with full capacity by 27th of March. With the resumption of direct flights between our countries we are confident that touristic flow will increase in both ways. The country witnessed 52 million travellers in 2019, touching a whopping USD 34.5 billion in tourism revenue. Of these, 2.3 lakh were Indian nationals, which is the highest number of Indian travellers recorded till date, by the country. Despite the pandemic, Turkiye emerged as one of the top destinations for FIT and MICE tourists from around the world in 2021, by welcoming over 30 million international visitors. Thus, with the upliftment of travel restrictions and resumption of direct flights to Turkiye from India, we plan to host similar number of visitors in 2022 as we had in 2019 from India,” Ersoz informed. Venessa Chen, Regional Consumer Marketing Manager, Asia, Tourism New Zealand, is also quite optimistic on the India market. “We look forward to welcoming our Indian manuhiri [visitors], family and friends to New Zealand when the border opens to fully vaccinated Indian visitors from October 2022. We believe that there is pent up demand for travel to New Zealand from the Indian market. We are also very appreciative of our Indian trade partners who continue to prepare to sell New Zealand by investing in improving destination knowledge through the New Zealand Specialists Programme and training sessions, in addition to making use of trade resources such as our marketing hub and travel trade website,” Chen said. Positioning in India The pandemic has forced countries across the world to focus on sustainable, responsible, and green tourism. This resulted into NTOs adopting dispersal approach by encouraging tourists to visit lesser crowded tourism spots. Almost all countries, while keeping their main segments intact, also diversifying and introducing new products. Malaysia will continue to position itself as an eco-tourism destination with lots of exciting activities for all ages. “Consumers can again immerse themselves in Malaysia, Truly Asia experience of exhilarating highlands, vast jungles with a variety of flora and fauna, vibrant cities, beautiful beaches with crystal clear water for scuba diving or snorkeling. Malaysia also makes a great value for money shopping destination, especially for the ladies and a variety of ultra-modern Theme Parks make us a holistic family destination,” Suip said and added that another important segment is to position Malaysia as a Wedding Destination for Indian couples. “In 2019, around 25 weddings were organized in Malaysia and popular properties like Lexis Hibiscus had back-to-back wedding events at their resort. Besides the leisure and wedding segments, we will also continue to focus on the MICE segment. Highlighting the state of art facilities, easy accessibility and convenient entry formality that have made Malaysia one of the favorite destinations for the Indian MICE industry,” Suip added. Similarly, Turkiye has also adopted new approach to woo international travelllers and the result is seen in 2021 when the country received over 30 million international visitors. “India is considered as one of the most potential emerging tourism markets for our country. Hence, we will continue to conduct different marketing activities in India in 2022 and we will actively promote our country as a family, wedding and MICE destination in India, and strive for increasing the numbers of Indian tourists visiting Turkiye. In addition to FITs, in 2022 we will have different type of promotional activities especially in the field of wedding and MICE tourism in India as well,” Ersoz said. According to Ersoz, 2018 and 2019 were very successful years for Turkish Tourism in India. “We hosted more than 2.3 lakh Indian tourists in 2019 with an increase of 55% in comparison with 2018. This number was a record for us in India,” he added. Promotional activities NTOs had to keep digital marketing and promotional activities as the mainstay during the pandemic. Understanding their requirements to stay connected with the Indian travel trade fraternity, stakeholders accelerated their marketing efforts by hosting webinars, digital media interactions and bombarding relevant information through social media. “We have been conducting different digital promotional activities since Jan 2022. Now with the resumption of international flights, we plan to continue our traffic campaign communications throughout the year as we did in the first quarter of 2022. Additionally, we will keep organizing fam trips for Indian influencers and bloggers as they cater to a large number of audiences of potential tourists,” Ersoz said and added that as a classical type of promotional activities, this year we will be more active in the market by conducting different activities such as multicity roadshows, workshops and B2B and B2C fam trips. “We will be targeting to reach corporates, wedding planners and Indian families by doing different type of promotional activities,” he added. New Zealand is also dialling up their PR activities by creating inspirational content while working with new media platforms, key social influencers to build strong word of mouth and generate media interest. “We maintain a strong relationship with the Indian travel trade fraternity and are constantly building brand in our trade work by driving engagement and building New Zealand knowledge within the community,” Chen informed. As most Indians are already familiar with what Malaysia has to offer, hence Malaysia’s marketing activities will emphasize introducing the new Malaysia and the latest developments to consumers and continue to spread awareness of what they already know. “This year, we have planned to actively conduct Joint Promotion campaign activities with agents and airlines in the market. We will work together with them to promote their packages so that they will be able to sell more packages to Malaysia. These campaigns will entail lots of seminars, roadshows, products update presentations and advertisements in print and digital etc. With social media communication becoming increasingly important we plan to come up with educative, engaging and entertaining content. Apart from that, we have lined up several educational or familiarization tour trips for Key Opinion Leaders, agents and media so that they can have firsthand experience of the products available in Malaysia,” Suip revealed. Focus on sustainable tourism Tourism New Zealand is committed to taking action to operate sustainably as crown entity and supporting the sector via Qualmark to encourage sustainability. “Owned by TNZ, Qualmark helps businesses become more sustainable from a people, planet and profit perspective. Qualmark assesses and recognises businesses that are delivering a sustainable experience. Businesses are awarded a bronze, silver or gold award depending on their performance against the Sustainable Tourism Business criteria. TNZ also support the Tiaki – Care for New Zealand initiative which promotes and encourages safe and sustainable travel practices,” Chen stated. Malaysia has long adopted a sustainable tourism approach as a development strategy that has already become a dominant source of income and employment generation, and an economic contributor to the GDP. “A sound infrastructure, convenient communication, and adequate internet facilities have been important catalysts for sustainable tourism in Malaysia. In December 2020, in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic, Malaysia launched its 10-year plan focused on strengthening competitiveness, encouraging sustainable and inclusive tourism, as well as planning for future disasters. It also seeks to further its commitment to brand Malaysia as an ecotourism destination, with an outlook towards balancing the development and conservation of its natural environment and heritage,” Suip said. Turkiye signed a collaboration agreement with the world’s top environment and sustainability platform GSTC to ensure the protection of their natural assets and make tourism sustainable. “This was definitely a milestone of our Ministry as the agreement with GSTC made Turkiye the first government in the world to sign an agreement to develop a national program. Within the scope of this program, the Turkish tourism industry will be restructured gradually and begin to adopt global sustainability practices. In the first stage of the agreement, which Turkiye signed as a government with the utmost gravity towards sustainability, the national program criteria will be determined, and inspection firms will receive trainings. The program is planned to be wholly concluded by 2030. The first stage of the program will become operational in 2023; and the second stage will be carried out gradually in 2025. In 2030, all international standards will be met,” Ersoz informed. Importance of B2B B2B will continue to play an important role for the tourism industry in India as agents are still keen to meet face to face. “In fact, Tourism Malaysia after two years of border closing, has chosen India as our first destination in the world to organize our post-pandemic inaugural roadshow. Tourism Malaysia together with a 40 members delegation comprising agents, hoteliers, products owners, and state tourism boards is hosting roadshows in six cities beginning on 18 April in Delhi followed by Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and concluding in Chennai at the end of the month,” Suip revealed. For Turkiye also, the B2B side of trade has always been of great importance. “Now with travel trade market opening, we would surely want to educate them with the right product information focusing on those areas which we have missed during the travel restriction period, and we shall put our best efforts so they can obtain much more business for Turkey. Additionally, we will continue with the potential collaborations and engagements with travel organizations like Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) and Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) which will definitely enable Turkey Tourism in India to a great extent,” Ersoz said. New Zealand also has an extensive travel trade program in 2022-2023 to help make New Zealand a desirable destination to promote and to sell. These include trade training, and industry event participation such as attendance at SATTE. “We are also looking forward to launching our own event, Kiwi Link Asia later this year. The 100% Pure New Zealand Marketing Hub, launched in September 2021. Designed to empower our agents with the right kind of information and assets that can creatively engage their customers and ultimately help make their job easier and more effective in promoting and selling New Zealand,” Chen said.

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