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Disneyland in Paris has finally opened its doors for travellers

Disneyland Paris is probably one of the most-frequented attractions in the world and the COVID-19 pandemic was really tough on all these places. Now, Disneyland has opened its gates for visitors after more than four months. The theme-park was shuttered in March when the Coronavirus outbreak gripped the city and world. The two theme parks, Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park along with Disney Village, and Disney’s Newport Bay Club Hotel were reopened for tourists on July 15, 2020. Things were opened with the latest Coronavirus health and safety measures, which include face masks and social distancing. On the day of reopening, the theme park saw a steady stream of visitors pouring in from across the city in the morning hours. As reported by the local media, a group was pictured by the Mickey Mouse ears. People were seen dancing with happiness as they entered their famous Disneyworld. Among the new regulations, Disneyland Paris has limited visitors capacity to ensure physical distancing. Masks and advance booking are mandatory, so guests need to register online to visit the parks on a particular date. People are asked to keep a metre away from fellow visitors. Also, hundreds of hand-washing stations and sanitizers have been placed all around the park. According to the Disneyland Paris website, character meet and greets will change to accommodate social distancing while playgrounds, makeover experiences, remain shut for now. Ticket counters remained closed along with playgrounds and make-up workshops. On Saturday, Walt Disney World reopened its famous parks in Orlando, despite the fact that the place has seen a jump in new cases. Though hugging Mickey or your favourite character won’t be possible now, it’s still good to be back inside the park. Happy images of people enjoying inside the park on social media, maintaining social distanc, are spreading positivity and making people hopeful of good days. In 2019, Disneyland Park in Paris has welcomed around 9.7 million visitors!

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TAT Organises India Luxury Virtual Connect

Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) conducted India Luxury Virtual Connect (ILVC), which was designed exclusively for leading travel partners across key metro cities in India to touch base with the Thai private sector while maintaining social distance from their respective homes. The first ever India Luxury Virtual Connect (ILVC) was conducted on July 15 -16, 2020, witnessed participation from around 28 Thai luxury sellers along with close to 130 travel agents across South West India and 130 agents from North East cities of India ILVC was conceptualized and executed by BRANDit, the official representative firm of TAT’s Mumbai office, led by Lubaina Sheerazi. The objective of ILVC was to introduce brand new products to cater to the luxury segment in India and further to share situation update in Thailand for the Indian buyers to understand the changing landscape of tourism. Basis industry predictions, TAT is presently concentrating its outreach measures on the luxury segment as the Indian elites are expected to make the first travel movements post complete unlocking of restrictions in India. ILVC followed round-robin setup wherein the buyers and sellers followed a pre-fixed meeting schedule and interacted and shared information relevant to the product. They also got a chance to download brochures, fact sheets and exchange business cards from the virtual resources centre. The daylong event ‘ILVC’ marked as the commencement of a new remarkable era in the travel trade industry through which the world of travel can be connected by only few clicks. Cholada Siddhivarn, Director, TAT Mumbai, said, “This year has been extremely challenging for all of us in the travel industry and at TAT, we are working each day to come up with creative solutions for our business requirements. We are extremely delighted to have introduced a platform like ILVC to the Indian market and help the Thai private sector and reach out to buyers across the country and discuss the future of travel in the post unlocking period. We are certain that this networking will help us drive arrivals to Thailand as soon as international travel is permitted.” Vachriachai Sirisumpan, Director, TAT New Delhi, added, “Through it is still not clear when the international tourists from India will be able to travel to Thailand but it is important for us to stay connected with our partners. TAT India Offices would like to connect our Thai hospitality and travel businesses with travel agents in India and use this platform to update the products and services as well as all safety and health measures be taken in order to ensure and boost confidence of tourists. Luxury travel segment is a very important market for Post-Covid travel period which Thailand can ensure to meet the wish list of all travellers for luxury experiences and accommodation also gastronomy, arts and crafts, nature and beaches.” Thailand was ranked second best in the world for ongoing COVID-19 recovery owing to which it has led to the resumption of the country’s daily activities, including domestic tourism. The Royal Thai Government has declared the relaxation of public places such as malls, restaurants and attractions with heightened safety measures and health regulations. Additionally, domestic flights are functional and leading hospitality brands are introducing safer precautions for the health and safety of each guest as well as employee. Owing to all of these developments, TAT is certain that soon international borders will be reopened to welcome visitors across the world and tourism will emerge again with the guidelines of ‘new normal’

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Booking For Air India Flights to these International Destination Begins Today 8 PM

International Flights: Air India has announced the details of flights to the US, Paris and Frankfurt that will begin their services from this month. Bookings will open from July 18, 8 PM Indian time. Not only on the website, but the bookings can also be done through Air India booking offices and through authorised travel agents. Delhi-Paris Beginning Date: July 23 Frequency: 3 flights every week on Wednesday, Friday Sunday Delhi-Frankfurt Beginning Date: July 25 Frequency: 4 flights every week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. India-USA Flights will operate to/from New York, Chicago, Newark, San Francisco and Washington DC and will offer connections to Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kochi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Dates: 180 flights between July 22 and August 31. America’s airline United Airlines has already opened booking for New Delhi-New York flights. The tickets are fast depleting as United Airlines ticket fare starts at Rs 57,000 — almost half of Air India’s ticket price. Customers booking tickets must confirm the entry requirements, mandated by the Indian government, United Airlines said. “Operations across the world are currently happening in a limited & controlled way. We will further ramp up operations after considering the behaviour of the pandemic, and demand from our citizens,” Air India tweeted replying to passengers asking for the date of the resumption of international flights.

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Tourism circuit involving beaches, lions, temples to be developed in Saurashtra

The Gujarat government has announced that Saurashtra will soon have a tourism circuit involving beaches, pilgrim places and lions. Vijay Rupani, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, launched projects worth INR 126.96 crore on Thursday for the same. The CM said, “The Gujarat government is mulling developing a tourist circuit involving pilgrim places, beaches in Saurashtra and the pride of Gujarat, lions of Gir forest and chalk out a circuit surrounding all these places. Pilgrim places like Jyotirling Somnath and Girnar hill, historical places like Uparkot, the beaches of Somnath and lion sighting in Gir Lion Sanctuary in Saurashtra.” He further said that the government is firm on the decision to make Gujarat a world-class tourist destination and that they’ll be developing several tourist centres for the same. As of now, the latest major tourist attraction in Gujarat is the ropeway in Girnar that is all set to start shortly. On the other hand, the Somnath Temple in Veraval has already had development work costing around INR 45 crore. Prahlad Singh Patel, Union Minister of state for tourism, was also present at the time of launch. During the online launch, the CM also informed that the state government is working continuously on developing world-class facilities for tourists. These facilities include a community kitchen, spacious parking area, information center for tourists, and Somnath Museum at the temple, among others. Emphasizing on economic growth, the CM added, “Gujarat is emerging as a new force in economic growth by providing more jobs in service sectors like tourism.” Given the current pandemic situation, when things are gradually unlocking amid Coronavirus outbreak, people are little apprehensive about travelling or getting out of their houses. Gujarat, as of now, has recorded 45481 COVID-19 positive cases and 2089 deaths.

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Russia begins negotiations to reopen for tourism

Russia will officially begin negotiations to reopen its borders for international tourism according to a new government decree. Russia will no longer require foreigners to self-isolate for 14 days once the country reopens to international tourism. Those arriving in Russia will need to present English or Russian-language proof that they have tested negative for the coronavirus in the past 72 hours to be allowed entry. Foreigners that arrive without test results will be required to submit a PCR test for Covid-19 within 72 hours of arrival, the decree states. If the test comes back positive, visitors will be required to self-isolate for 14 days. Last Friday, deputy prime minister Tatiana Golikova said authorities will begin negotiations with other countries to restart international flights from July 15. Reopening of flight routes would be based on the principle of reciprocity — meaning Russia will need to strike an agreement with each government to resume air travel, Golikova said. According to the Deputy Prime Minister, Tatyana Golikova, air travel will first resume to countries where the incidence of COVID-19 is no greater than 40 cases per hundred thousand people. The average daily increase in the number of people infected and the rate of spread of the disease in such states should not exceed one percent. Russia grounded most international flights on March 27, with only a handful of special repatriation flights and other government-approved flights bringing passengers to and from Russia over the past three months. Foreign citizens have also been barred from entering the country since late March. The European Union, which reopened its borders on July 1 to visitors from 15 countries, is still officially closed to Russians. Russia has recorded over 738,787 confirmed cases of covid-19 resulting in 11,597 deaths according to John Hopkins University.

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Railways rolls out specially designed train coaches for post-Covid travel

In continuation with its efforts to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the Indian Railways has now rolled out specially designed coaches for post-Covid travel. The train coach manufacturing factory of Indian Railways, Rail Coach Factory (RCF), Kapurthala, is launching post Covid-19 coaches, the release stated. “Sustaining the ruthless fight against Covid-19, Indian Railways’ production unit, Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala, has developed a Post Covid Coach to fight Covid 19. This post Covid coach has design improvements in the coach like hands-free amenities, copper-coated handrails & latches, plasma air purification and titanium di-oxide coating for Covid free passenger journey,” the Indian Railways said in a press release on Tuesday. On the salient features of the post-Covid coach, the Indian Railways said, “The post-Covid coach has hands-free amenities like foot operated water tap & soap dispenser, foot operated lavatory door (outside), foot operated flush valve, foot operated latches in lavatory door, outside washbasin with foot operated water tap and soap dispenser and forearm operated handle on compartment door.” The coaches will be equipped with copper-coated handrails and latches. “Copper has anti microbial properties. When virus lands on copper, Ion blasts pathogen and destroy the DNA and RNA inside the virus,” the Indian Railways said. The post-Covid coach has a provision of plasma air equipment in AC duct. “This plasma air equipment will sterilise the air and surfaces inside the AC coach using ionised air to make the coach Covid-19 and particulate matter resistant, the railways said. The coach has having titanium di-oxide coating in the coach. “This is aeco-friendly water-based coating that kills viruses, bacteria, mould, and fungal growth and most importantly enhances indoor air quality. This coating applied on washbasins, lavatory, seats & berths, snack table, glass window, floor, virtually every surface that comes in human contact. Effective life of this coating is 12 months.”

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