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Weekend tourism picks up in Shimla

The weekend tourism has started picking up in Shimla. On Saturday, the city witnessed over 95 per cent occupancy in hotels. The occupancy dropped to about 40 per cent on Sunday. “The Saturday rush was unprecedented as hotels in Shimla were packed to capacity but today (Sunday) is again lean with occupancy dropping to about 40 per cent,” said Shimla Hotel and Restaurant Association president Sanjay Sood, adding that they were expecting a good season in October, provided the Covid situation stayed under control. “In the past few weeks, the tourist inflow increased on Friday, occupancy was good on Saturday but dropped on Sunday as tourists from adjoining states of Haryana, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Chandigarh mostly visit Shimla only for the weekend. The tourist inflow from other states is yet to pick up,” he said. Going by the bookings, there is a drop of 70 per cent in the tourists from West Bengal and Gujarat, who used to visit Himachal on Dussehra and Diwali, respectively, in large groups, said Tourism Industry Stakeholders Association president MK Seth. “Tourists are wary of advance bookings as the situation changes with the rise in Covid cases. So, most of the tourists visiting Himachal are ‘walk-in’ tourists,” said travel agent Mohit Sharma. 1-day stay not enough Hoteliers said one-day occupancy was not enough for the tourism industry to sustain itself so they were hoping that the number of tourists from other states also increased.

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Travel news: Japan, Australia and Argentina reveal reopening plans

Japan's health ministry has agreed to loosen entry restrictions for visitors to the country who can provide evidence of being fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. Travellers will have to show proof of getting the Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca vaccines, as they are currently the only ones accepted in Japan. So it's bad news for China's Sinopharm and the United States Johnson & Johnson. Eligible travellers will no longer have to endure a 14-day quarantine -- instead, they can do 10. At the end of the 10-day period, they must take a PCR test. If that test comes back negative, the person is then able to move about freely. On October 1, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced plans to reopen the country's borders to fully vaccinated citizens and permanent residents. It's now more than 18 months since Australia closed its borders in response to the pandemic, imposing strict quotas on arrivals and a mandatory 14-day quarantine for those who were able to make the trip. The reopening -- expected to take effect in November -- is welcome news to the thousands of Australian citizens still stranded overseas. We're now entering springtime in the southern hemisphere and so it will be a peak time to visit Argentina when it reopens to international tourism on November 1. All foreign visitors will be welcome to make a quarantine-free visit, as long as they have received the approved vaccines at least two weeks beforehand and also present a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours before their arrival in the country. Argentina's Minister of Health Carla Vizzoti tweeted the news on September 21. The country's land borders have already reopened, on October 1, allowing foreign nationals from its neighbouring countries to enter.

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Arunachal cabinet decides to lift ban on issuing ILP to reopen tourism sector

In a bid to reopen the tourism sector, the Arunachal Pradesh government has decided to withdraw suspension on issuing ILP and Protected Area Permit to travellers as the COVID-19 situation in the northeastern State is "under control", a Minister said on October 1. The cabinet, in its meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pema Khandu, gave its nod to lift the suspension on issuance of Inner Line Permit (ILP) and PAP to reopen the State to tourists who have received both doses of COVID vaccines, Home Minister Bamang Felix told reporters. "As the COVID situation is currently under control, the cabinet decided to lift the ban on issuing ILP and PAP and allow tourism activities in the State,” Mr. Felix who is also the spokesperson of the State government said. The administration will come out with an advisory on COVID appropriate behaviour for travellers. Under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation Act, 1873, the ILP regime restricted entry and regulated stay of outsiders in Arunachal Pradesh. "The decision of the cabinet will benefit tour operators, hoteliers, cab operators, homestay owners and all tourism-related stakeholders as they have been facing economic hardship due to the suspension,” the Home Minister said

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International tourism may open by October 15, announcement soon: Shripad Naik

nternational tourists may be able to travel to India by October 15 and an announcement is likely to be made by the Central government soon, Union Minister of State for Tourism Shripad Naik said on Saturday. "As corona decreases, we will start national and international tourism. The announcement will be made soon and there is a possibility of it beginning after October 15," Naik told reporters on the sidelines of a Gandhi Jayanti function here. "International flights have started and we have requested for charter flights to resume by a particular date so that people can book trips to India and nowhere else," he added. International charter flights account for a bulk of the foreign tourist footfalls to Goa. Earlier this month, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had forwarded a request made by travel and tourism industry stakeholders to the Union Home Affairs Ministry urging the latter to grant permissions to international charter flights at the earliest.

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Sri Lankan Airlines resumes all day Colombo service from Kochi

Cochin International airport Ltd (CIAL) establishes itself as the third airport in the country in terms of international traffic for three consecutive months from July 2021. CIAL anticipates a fairly a fairly high growth in international traffic for the month of October as more foreign carriers schedule frequent services from Kochi; the latest one being the Sri Lankan Airlines which started daily operation to Colombo from Sunday. With this, CIAL is handling 58 international arrival/departure operations a day for the month of October. Sri Lankan Airlines resumed their daily service to Colombo on October 3. Sri Lankan flight UL 165 arrives at COK at 09:45 am and departs as UL 166 to Colombo at 10:45 am on all days except Sunday. On Sunday, the arr/dep is scheduled at 08:45 am/09:45 am. CIAL Managing Director S Suhas IAS has informed that the airport witnessed significant growth in traffic during September and schedules more international flights for October. “We are optimistic as the world has started to see a revival in all sectors. Global aviation is also responding to it. We hope that our international connectivity will rise to 70 percent of the pre-pandemic period in next month whereas the domestic aircraft movement to near normalcy in winter schedule which is expected to commence in next month. As per the instruction of Chairman and Board of Directors, CIAL has rolled out several initiatives to Increase connectivity ’’- said Suhas. The airport handled 85,395 international passengers in July, 1,57,289 in August and 1,94,900 in September. The cumulative passenger volume, comprising of international and domestic, for the month of September was 3,70,044. CIAL has initiated an aggressive campaign to reach out to foreign carriers during the last three months period. Facilities were established at the terminal to boost the confidence of both the passengers and airlines. The airport now handles an average of 106 aircraft movements a day comprising of both international and domestic operations; whereas daily average passenger footfalls stand around 14,500. The airport now facilitates flights to all the Middle East destinations, London, Male and Colombo.

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CoWIN Now Allows You To Download International Travel Certificate: How To Download

CoWin, India’s digital platform for COVID-19 vaccination now allows international travelers to download an international version of their COVID vaccine certificate that reflects their date of birth from CoWIN. The certificate will be compliant with WHOs international travel guidelines. The feature went live on CoWIN on Thursday, September 30, National Health Authority’s (NHA) CEO RS Sharma said in an announcement. “Building a world-class digital platform for vaccination, we have ensured CoWIN certification is compliant with the WHO-DDCC:VS data dictionary. Now, international travellers can download an international version of their certificate that reflects their date of birth from CoWIN," Sharma said. The certificate, the users will be able to download from a new “International Travel Certificate" option on the CoWIN portal, is in compliance with the WHO’s digital documentation of COVID-19 certificates vaccination status data dictionary. Sharma, in conversation with the Times of India, told the daily that if a country requires the vaccination certificate of Indian travelers in a certain format, CoWIN will introduce a feature to incorporate it. Users can download the international travel certificate by logging in to CoWIN with their registered mobile number. Once logged in, users will see a new “International Travel Certificate" option right next to the “Certificate" option on the portal. This is on the bottom right corner of the CoWIN page. The travel certificate will mention the date of birth, doses taken, vaccine name, type, manufacturer, number and dates of doses in the year, month and date, dose batch numbers, and will mention that the certificate is compliant with WHO-DDCC:VS data dictionary. This comes after discussions between India and the UK to get the CoWIN vaccination certification recognised in the US so fully vaccinated Indians can have a quarantine-free travel.

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