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Good News For Tourists From Australia, Other Countries, They Will Soon Get 500,000 Free Visas to Visit India | Details Here

Here comes a piece of good news for tourists from Australia and other foreign countries as they will soon receive over 500,000 free visas to visit India. This was earlier announced by the Central government. Moreover, the Union Home Ministry earlier this month has decided to allow foreign tourists to visit India by chartered flights from October 15 and those by regular planes from November 15.Also Read - Mumbai Local Train: Good News For Passengers, Railways Plans To Convert Suburban Network To AC Trains, Ticket Fare to be Reduced Soon As the COVID-19 situation has improved in the country, the Central government decided to commence issuing tourist visas. Also Read - Kids Can Spread The Emerging Variants of COVID-19, Confirms New Study. Earlier, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had said in a statement that the first 500,000 visas would be issued free of charge for foreign tourists. Also Read - Schools Reopening: THIS State Will Reopen Schools For Classes 8, 11 From Oct 21 | Check Details And then, in the recent notification, the Home Ministry said that from November 15, tourists could travel via non-chartered flights, particularly those run as part of Vande Bharat Mission or under ‘air bubble’ arrangements with different countries. With the improvement in the COVID situation, the Centre has slowly lifted restrictions on most categories of foreign visas, such as diplomats and businesspeople. Notably, this would be a good news for many Indian-origin citizens of Australia, Canada, the US, the UK, and other countries who do not have an OCI card and rely on tourist visas to travel to India. Earlier, the Centre had said that the free visas will be issued once the government reopens borders for leisure tourists and working capital or personal loans will be provided to travel firms and registered tourist guides to discharge liabilities and restart their business. Giving further details, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that the scheme will benefit 11,000 stakeholders including 904 tour operators and 10,700 tourist guides. Loans of Rs 10 lakh and Rs one lakh with hundred percent guarantee will be provided to travel firms and guides respectively, she had said. “We feel the grant of free visas will be a big game changer for Indian tourism. Several tourists from our key markets in West Europe and the US had postponed their travel to India last year and we hope they will plan trips once we open our borders for them,” Tourism Ministry’s additional director general Rupinder Brar had said earlier.

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Australia's biggest city to end Covid-19 quarantine for international travelers

Sydney (CNN) — Sydney will end its Covid-19 quarantine for fully vaccinated international travelers from November 1, New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet said on Friday, October 15 foreshadowing the full return of overseas travel after more than 19 months. Australia closed its international borders in March 2020 in response to the pandemic, allowing entry almost exclusively to citizens and permanent residents who are required to undergo a mandatory two-week hotel quarantine at their own expense. "We want people back, we are leading the nation out of the pandemic ... we are opening Sydney and New South Wales to the world," Perrottet told reporters in Sydney, the state capital. The federal government's reopening plans unveiled in July proposed abolishing caps on returning vaccinated Australians and a gradual reopening of international travel with safe countries once full vaccination rates reach 80%. The office of Prime Minister Scott Morrison was not immediately available to comment on the New South Wales plan. New South Wales is expected to reach 80% full vaccination levels in the adult population this weekend, while the rest of the country will take at least some weeks to reach that level. The move to open borders comes as daily infections in New South Wales eased further to 399 from 406 on October 14, well down from the state's pandemic high of 1,599 in early September. Neighboring Victoria state reported 2,179 new locally acquired cases, the majority in Melbourne, down from a record 2,297 a day earlier. Australia had stayed largely virus-free for most of this year until a third wave of infections fueled by the Delta variant spread across its southeast from late June, forcing a months-long lockdown in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. The country's overall coronavirus numbers are still relatively low, with some 139,000 cases and 1,506 deaths.

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Raigad district administration gives nod to reopen Elephanta Caves for tourists

The caves were shut for tourists since April 1, when the government announced the second lockdown. Last year too, they were shut for almost eight months (from March 19 to November 6) during the first lockdown. Mahendra Kalyankar, collector of Raigad district, said, “As the scenario of Covid is better now, we have given consent to reopen the caves on the island.” Elephanta Island or Gharapuri is a popular tourist spot 10km off the city of Mumbai. The island houses three villages – Rajbunder, Shetbunder and Morabunder – and its population collectively is around 1,200. Due to lack of other sources of income on the island, its residents are heavily dependent on the tourism industry. Kailash Shinde, conservation assistant of Archeological Survey of India (ASI), said, “With the reopening of the caves, the tourists have started visiting the island, but their number is very less. Every year, a huge number of tourists from across the world visit the island during the Christmas vacation and the weeks after that. We hope this year, too, we will receive the same response.” According to the local gram panchayat officials, 7 lakh to 8 lakh tourists would visit the island every year to see its ancient caves before the pandemic. Around 30% of the tourists were foreigners. Sunil Padte, 60, a shopkeeper from the island, said, “I had no income ever since the caves were shut for tourists. So, my household was entirely dependent on my son’s income who works as a boat contractor. Others, who had no such options, went out of the island to take up jobs of security guards, salesmen among others. They have now started coming back.” Baliram Thakur, sarpanch of the island, said, “We have some farming land on the island and the residents would cultivate on them till mid-2000s. However, monkeys started spoiling our crops and hence everyone stopped doing it. The number of monkeys has increased manifold on the island over the past two decades. The monkeys cannot be relocated as it is violating the Animals Act.”

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International Flights: Centre Likely to Resume Scheduled Flight Services From January 2022, Tourism Ministry Official Makes Big Announcement

If all goes well and the COVID third wave does not strike India, then the country might restart scheduled international flight operations from January 2022. This has been announced by the Ministry of Tourism Additional Director General Rupinder Brar.Also Read - International Flights: Airline Suspends Flights From Kabul Citing Taliban Interference. Details Here Speaking to Amar Ujala, Rupinder Brar said that the Home Ministry has already allowed foreign tourists to visit India in chartered flights. However, he added that the exact date of opening of international flights will be issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs and it will be announced soon. It is expected that from January 2022, the international flights will be started from India. Media reports claimed that the government may announce the date much before as more than half of the Indian population have received the first vaccine dose and the second phase of vaccination is in full swing. Moreover, the corona cases are drastically going down. In such a situation, there is no reason why international flights should be suspended, media reports stated. Recently, the Central government has made preparations for the travel of international tourists to India. As part of the plan, chartered flights have been allowed to come to India. At the same time, domestic flights have also been approved to start with 100% capacity. Now, the air passengers are eagerly waiting for the announcement from the Centre on the resumption of international flights. As per the report by Amar Ujala, the guidelines for international flights are being prepared by the government. Along with this, the cases of corona are also being monitored continuously by the government. What about vaccine certificate recognition? Speaking about vaccine certificate recognition, the ADG said that if some country does not allow Indian air passengers to visit their country on the basis of vaccine certificate, then the Centre will not allow them to visit India. He further added that if some country does not recognize Indian vaccine certificate, then India will also not recognize their vaccine certificate.

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Tourism is back in business, bookings in full flow

Thodupuzha: Pooja season might just be the balm to the bruised tourism season post-Covid. Munnar, Marayoor, Thekkady, Vagamon, Kumarakom are some of the favourite tourist destinations in the IdukkiKottayam stretch. Since last week, Munnar is inundated with tourists. According to DTPC Survey, 10,000 visitors are coming in daily. They are expecting the numbers to get doubled in the coming days. All the hotels in Munnar are already booked for this weekend. Tourists are already booking hotel rooms at Anachalil and Marayoor. The daily room tariffs at Munnar hotels range from 1,500 to 15k. When it comes to resorts it will be between 8k to 45k daily. Even boating at Thekkady also saw a rush of tourists. At Vagamon, 90 percent of the hotels have already been booked. Having said that there are very few tourists from abroad and outside Kerala. Traditionally there used to be a rush of North Indian tourists during the Dussehra/October season. Tour operators have also called for plans to bring back North Indian tourists to Kerala. The tourism department has also taken this into serious consideration. In Kumarakom also tourists are coming in hordes. There are around 980 rooms in this area that includes hotels, homestays, and resorts. And 60 percent of them have already been booked. They are hopeful of more bookings today and tomorrow. Daily room tariff ranges between 2k to 12k.

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Tamil Nadu: All shops, hotels can now operate till 11 pm; beaches to open on 1 Nov

The Tamil Nadu government said on Thursday that the Covid-induced lockdown restrictions will continue across the state till 31 October, but with certain relaxations. As per a new order, all shops and hotels can now stay open till 11 pm. Further, all religious organisations can operate on all Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. A maximum of 100 people are allowed in wedding functions and 50 people for funerals. The government has also decided to reopen beaches in the state from 1 November. Prior to this, extending the Covid curfew, the Tamil Nadu authorities had said that social, political, cultural gatherings, festivals, the consecration of places of worship would continue to be prohibited. However, they allowed the resumptions of physical classes for the students of classes 1 to 8 will resume from 1 November. A decision to this effect was taken considering the views expressed by the health experts, educationists, and parents that the absence of formal schooling has caused huge loss of learning as well as depression among the school children, state Chief Minister MK Stalin said. Regular classes for the students of 9 to 12 have been going on. CM Stalin has urged people to be cautious during the ensuing festival season and to avoid visiting crowded places to prevent a third wave of Covid-19. This comes as a recent serosurvey revealed a week ago that Tamil Nadu has witnessed an increase in the overall seroprevalence among the people at 70%. In the earlier state-wide serosurveys conducted by the health department in October-November 2020, the seropositivity was at 32% while in March-April 2021 it was 29%. Covid situation in state Tamil Nadu reported 1,280 new Covid-19 cases in the 24 hours ending on Thursday morning. According to the state health bulletin, the total active cases stand at 15,650 after 1,453 more people recovered from the disease. The total number of people discharged so far is 26,30,654. Further, the total number of people tested by RT-PCR stand at 1,38,228, taking the cumulative tests conducted until now to 4, 79,64,847.

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