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Indonesia records 151.98% increase in tourist arrivals

Indonesia recorded 18,460 foreign tourist arrivals in February, an increase of 151.98 per cent compared to a year earlier and 21.91 per cent higher than in January, authorities said. According to data from the Ministry of Transportation, the main entry points include Bali's I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport, and Riau Islands In total, the number of foreign tourist arrivals from January to February 2022 reached 33,593, according to the Statistics Indonesia (BPS). "The number, indeed, has increased significantly if we compare it with last year, which means our tourism sector is getting better, but it is still far below the millions of foreign tourists we usually recorded before the Covid-19 pandemic," BPS chief Margo Yuwono told a press briefing. Tourists from China accounted for 16.13 per cent of the total in February, followed by Russia with 6.77 per cent, and South Korea with 6.35 per cent. Yuwono said that Indonesia expected more tourist arrivals in the coming months as the government has removed a number of restrictions, including lifting quarantine requirement for international travellers and granting special visa-on-arrival services for dozens of countries.

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Ahead of summer holiday season, airfares on domestic sector set to shoot up again

After the sharp rise in price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) coupled with the hike in user development fees (UDF) — a component of the airfare and aeronautical fees that airlines pay to airport — operators are set to push up airfares. But that is unlikely to dampen spirits of holidayers, who plan to travel Domestic airfares, particularly on metro sectors, that have already gone up by 30 per cent-40 per cent due to rise in fuel price, comprising more than 40 per cent of the operational cost of flights, may rise further due to an increase in charges and fees announced on Thursday. But airlines said that its impact, compared to that of increased ATF prices, on airfares would be marginal. On April 1, ATF prices were hiked by INR 2,258.5 per kilolitre or 2 per cent to INR 1,17,353.7 per kl. The increase in ATF price comes on the heels of the steepest ever hike of 18.3 per cent (INR 17,135.6 per kl) effected on March 16. ATF prices have increased every fortnight since the start of 2022. In seven hikes beginning January 1, ATF prices have been increased by INR 38,902.9 kl or almost by 50 per cent. “As demand for travel increases in summer, airfares will shoot up further. Once the cap on airfares goes after April 15, the fares could hit through the roof,” an airline executive said. That, though, is unlikely to discourage air travel feels Travel Agents’ Association of India Chairman (East) Manav Soni, who pointed out that there is no shortage of queries. “People are going on vacations. They are desperate to travel. We don’t see that changing anytime soon,” he said. India Tourism deputy director general and regional director (east) Sagnik Chowdhury said, “Airlines are commanding high fares because people are keen on travelling. The situation will continue for now. But after a few weeks, it will hit a plateau and then fares will autocorrect,” he said. Travel Agents Federation of India is, however, planning to write to airlines to keep fares in check. “We will urge airlines to reduce the fuel surcharge so that people travel in numbers and the load factor goes up,” said TAFI chairman (east) Anil Punjabi. He pointed out that while domestic air fares on metro routes have gone up from INR 5,000-7,000 to INR 7,000-9,000, fares on international sectors have gone down by 20 per cent-25 per cent.

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Guwahati airport likely to operate 27 more flights daily for summer schedule

The Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati, Assam has planned to operate 27 additional flights per day for the summer schedule which begins on the last Sunday of March and ends on the last Sunday of October. If everything goes as planned, the number of daily flights from the airport will increase from 63 to 90 during the period, an airport spokesperson on Saturday. New destinations likely to be added to the list of flights include Varanasi and Durgapur. Several routes will find additional flights, with Delhi getting two while Mumbai, Imphal and Patna will have one each in the summer schedule, she said. After the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Guwahati airport has witnessed a sharp rise in terms of air traffic movement and passengers, the spokesperson said. During the last two months, the number of passengers has gone up from 1,09,037 to 1,18,181. In a comparative study between the summer schedule of 2021 and 2022, a 10 per cent increase in flights has been observed, she said. The top three airlines with the highest weekly operations during the summer schedule last year are Indigo (187 flights), Airasia (69) and SpiceJet (63).

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In a first, hot air balloon service launched at Srinagar’s Zabarwan Park

Amid a huge tourist rush in Kashmir, the tourism department, for the first time, rolled out a hot air balloon service at Srinagar’s Zabarwan Park on Saturday to woo tourists and locals alike. The service is part of a series of new initiatives by the department to attract more tourists and provide them with new means of entertainment and adventure. in a first, we have launched a hot air balloon service to attract tourists and local visitors,” said Kashmir Tourism director G N Itoo. Passengers riding the hot air balloon can enjoy a breathtaking view of the Zabarwan mountains and the famous Dal Lake. “Each balloon can accommodate four passengers at a time besides its captain. There are certain safety measures which are mandatory,” Itoo said, adding that in the first week of the service’s launch, visitors would be given heavy discounts. This March has already seen a record number of tourist arrivals — the highest in the past 10 years — in Kashmir. On March 28, Srinagar airport witnessed 15,000 passengers arrivals, the highest single-day record in the airport's history. Moreover, more than two lakh visitors went to see Srinagar’s famous Tulip Garden in the first 10 days of March. Asked whether the tourism department has more such upcoming initiatives, Itoo said: “The hot air balloon at Zabarwan Park has been introduced on a trial basis. If the venture is successful, there will one such balloon at all the major tourist destinations soon.” The tourism department is also mulling introducing paragliding service at all famous tourist destinations, Itoo added.

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International tour operators and guides in Mysuru expect a big crowd this season

After a gap of two years, international tour operators are all smiles again with India starting flight operations to over three dozen countries from early this week. The ticket prices are already soaring high since the announcement. Enquiries have started to pour in and travel operators expect good business in the coming tourism season. Tourist Guide Association's Chief SJ Ashok claimed the government's announcement to give free visas for the first five lakh tourists post-Covid is a big push for tourism promotion and would likely attract more visitors in the coming months. “There are enquiries from European nations especially from France and from the UK. Bookings have started there and this season hopefully there will be more inbound visitors,” he stated. It has been two years since international tour services came to a grinding halt with the suspension of flight services. Now that cases have reduced operators are busy, and are back to normal planning tours. A small batch of tourists from Israel and Spain have visited Mysuru and the inbound tourists are likely to arrive in big numbers in August, stated Ashok. Skal Association's President, BS Prashanth, said the flight ticket prices have gone up and are likely to increase. He said international tourist traffic, especially to Dubai, has picked up with 35 per cent of international visitors travelling to the destination due to the 2020 expo. Outbound traffic to Singapore, Malaysia and Bangkok has been increasing. Now that the government has resumed flight services, the industry is likely to bustle in the coming weeks, as people are ready to travel abroad for vacations. Mahadevaswamy V of a travel agency confirmed enquiries about packages or services to international destinations are going up by the day. “Now with the government restarting flight service to more nations like in pre-Covid period, surely there would be more activity,” he said.

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Spain expects Easter bounce to lift tourism to 80% of pre-Covid levels

Spain expects international tourist arrivals to reach 80 per cent of prepandemic volumes in the second quarter as northern Europeans shrug off concerns over the Ukraine conflict and return en masse for Easter, a senior tourism official said on Friday. "Easter isn't showing any direct impact from uncertainty caused by the conflict," Secretary of State for Tourism Fernando Valdes said, adding that he was confident the industry would bounce back from the drop caused by the Omicron coronavirus variant in late 2021 and early 2022. Any future hit from the war to Spanish tourism would depend on its duration and intensity, he told a news conference. Bookings for the long Easter weekend have already reached 90 per cent of 2019 levels, according to data from market-intelligence firm ForwardKeys he showed at the news conference. Reservations from Denmark and Sweden were nearly 40 per cent higher than over the same period before the pandemic, while the number is 26 per cent higher for Germans and 13 per cent for Britons, the data showed. The number of tourists from the United States is around 26 per cent lower than in 2019. The Balearic and Canary Islands are among the fastest recovering destinations, with Ibiza and Tenerife registering more Easter bookings than before Covid, the ForwardKeys data showed.

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