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Sri Lanka reopens to tourists after 9 months

Sri Lanka has reopened to tourists after more than nine months. The Indian Ocean island nation closed to tourists in March, amid the first wave of the coronavirus. Authorities also closed the two main international airports. The government says a pilot program to attract tourists is now being implemented. The first tourists arrived on a special flight from Ukraine on Monday. The 186 tourists are expected to stay in Sri Lanka for 10 days. Under the pilot program, which will run to Jan. 24, 2,580 tourists are expected to arrive in Sri Lanka, mostly from CIS countries. Covid -19 has dealt a severe blow to tourism, a vital economic sector for Sri Lanka, accounting for about 5% of its GDP and employing 250,000 people directly and up to 2 million indirectly. Previously, the government announced that the country would reopen to tourists on August 1, but the date was pushed back after new clusters of Covid-19 patients emerged.

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Delhi-Dubai air route is currently the fifth busiest in the world

According to latest reports, the Delhi-Dubai, and Mumbai-Dubai international routes are now among the busiest in the world. The report mentions that Delhi-Dubai is the fifth busiest international air route in the world, while Mumbai-Dubai is the 10th busiest. The report has been published by OAG, or the Official Aviation Guide of the Airways, and it only deals with the month of December. These two routes have always been busiest in the country, but in the pandemic world when things are a lot different, they have now achieved international status. The report by OAG states that Dubai-London Heathrow is the busiest international route, and this is followed by Orlando-San Juan. While Dubai-London Heathrow booked 1.7 lakh seats in December, the Orlando-San Juan booked 1.6 lakh seats. In the third position is Cairo-Jeddah with 1.4 lakh seats. The Delhi-Dubai international route reported 1.1 lakh seats, and Mumbai-Dubai over a lakh seats this month. India is still running its Vande Bharat flights (for specific categories of people) in certain parts of the world, while regular international flights remain suspended for the time being. The air bubbles created with other countries have allowed numerous stranded passengers to reach home or to their state of domicile. Of course the holiday season saw a higher number of travellers. On the domestic front, Patna was the top destination spot in the months of April-June, and this was followed by Kolkata, Srinagar, Ranchi, and Bengaluru. Delhi saw a rise in tickets getting booked for Mumbai, Patna, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Kolkata in July-September.

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Goa arrivals at ‘near-normal’ ahead of New Year’s eve

Flight arrivals in Goa have touched the highest levels since the pandemic began with the once-busy airport handling 72 arrivals and departures on December 27, - highest since domestic flights resumed operation - in the strongest indication that year-end holidaying has not been dampened by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. However, this enthusiasm could be there only for the New Year celebrations which is the biggest attraction in Goa where tourism contributes to 18 per cent of the state gross domestic product (SGDP). “There has been a consistent increase in domestic operations at the Goa International Airport. We have now touched 85 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels when it comes to domestic air traffic,” Goa’s airport director Gagan Malik said. Trends across December, which has traditionally been the busiest month for the Goa Airport, have brought good cheer to Goa’s tourism industry that has felt the hardest blow of the lockdown in the summer. Arrivals have shown a marked increase in Goa across December. Towards the end of November, the airport was handling 48 arrivals and departures which increased to 54 in the first week of December and further rose to 63 just ahead of Christmas on December 23. Goa’s roads and beaches, which earlier this year witnessed only thin traffic and few footfalls as people were hesitant to step out, are now witnessing crowds and traffic jams almost similar to pre-covid times. “Tourism has picked up and some hotels, especially the starred ones are witnessing 80 per cent occupancy. Some of the small and medium hotels are yet to reopen for business but things look positive. Credit to the Goa government for keeping a consistent policy and not introducing a fresh lockdown once we had reopened,” said Nilesh Shah, president of the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa. “Goa is benefitting from being a safe destination to travel too since our Covid-19 cases have reduced significantly unlike Kerala which has seen a resurgence,” Shah added. According to the association, out of the 4,100 registered hotels in Goa, 1,300 are yet to reopen their doors indicating that the industry is still to feel the effects of the pandemic. Hotels have slashed rates by around 15-20 per cent in a bid to encourage people to travel. He added that certain sectors of the tourism industry, including mega-events, large have gatherings as well as the lack of foreign arrivals, has continued to hamper the industry. The industry is, however, keeping its fingers crossed over a possible resurgence in Covid-19 cases and is expecting a reduction in numbers across January and February. According to a report by KPMG Ltd, authored at the behest of the Goa government, Goa’s tourism industry may have suffered a loss of between Rs 2,000 to Rs 7,200 crore and job losses in the range of 35 per cent to 58 per cent on account of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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New Year celebrations: Taj Mahal tourist cap per day raised to 15,000 due to huge demand for tickets

The Agra administration has increased the daily limit on the number of visitors to the iconic Taj Mahal to 15,000. Earlier, only 10,000 visitors were allowed to visit Taj Mahal in Agra due to Covid-19 pandemic. However, the Agra administration on Monday increased the number of daily vistors allowed for Taj Mahal due to the increased demand of tickets for New Year's celebrations. Meanwhile, the number of daily visitors for Agra Fort has also been increased from 400 to 7,500. Agra District Magistrate Prabhu N Singh told IndiaToday.in that the new capping on tourists has been made effective from December 28 for Taj Mahal and Agra Fort while the limit on visitors for other monumnets will remain the same. The tickets will only be sold online and monument ticket counters will remain closed. Agra Tourist Welfare Chamber Secretary Vishal Sharma said that the Taj Mahal reopened on September 21 after remaining closed for 188 days due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The limit on tourists at that time was fixed at 5,000 for the Taj Mahal and 2,500 for Agra Fort and other monuments. On December 18, the right to fix the capping on the number of tourists was passed on to the local administration by the Archaeological Survey of India. The District Magistrate fixed it at 10,000 tourists for Taj Mahal. However, the 10,000 limit got exhausted by the afternoon and the rest of the tourists had to go back without viewing Taj Mahal. Consequently, the local administration paid heed to the demand of the tourism industry and raised this limit to 15,000 at Taj Mahal and 7,500 at the Agra Fort. Despite the increased number of tickets, all 15,000 tickets were sold by 10 am on Monday and huge crowds are expected to continue for a few more days due to the New Year celebrations. Hotel and Restaurants Association President Rakesh Chauhan told IndiaToday.in that the Taj Mahal tickets are being openly sold in the black market for as high as Rs 300 per ticket. On Sunday, although all 10,000 tickets had been sold, only 9,668 tourists actually came, while on the Agra Fort only 4,839 tourists arrived. A total of 1,460 vistors were recorded at In Fatehpur Sikri and at Rambagh it was 174, at Sikandra it was 991 and 718 tourists at Mehtab Bagh, Itmad ud Daulah saw 311 tourists turn up while Mariam's Tomb saw only 47 tourists. Agra Approved Guides Association president Shamshuddin said it is "very odd that despite the increased capping on the number of tourists, the problem of no ticket availability continues". "The benefit of the increased capping is not reaching the tourists due to the black marketing of tickets, which should be stopped," Shamshuddin said.

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Maldives to open more islands for resorts

The President of Maldives, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, has ratified the 10th amendment to the Maldives Tourism Act. With this, the President is now empowered to allocate islands for the development of tourist resorts; integrated tourism development; tourism related real-estate projects; tourist hotels and guest houses; yacht marinas; and other tourism-related projects. With most countries closing their borders or introducing stringent quarantine norms, Maldives has emerged the winner in 2020, as it turned out to be the most preferred holiday destination for travellers, who had remained cooped up inside their homes for too long. Of course, the sun-kissed pictures of Indian celebrities basking in the Maldivian sun gave ample travel goals for all of us! On December 20, Maldives recorded the highest number of tourist arrivals on a single-day with over 5,555 entries. A week later, on December 27, 2020, a new record was made with 6,037 daily tourist arrivals. Announcing this development, the Minister of Tourism for Maldives, Abdulla Mausoom, stated in a tweet, “New record of tourist arrivals on a single day since Maldives reopened borders. It's #SixThousand (6,000) plus tourists today. Thanks and congratulations to industry partners, related authorities, lovely tourists and the charming people of #Maldives. Love you ALL very much.” As Maldives continues to overcome the economic impacts of the Covid-19 crisis, the country has been witnessing a healthy number of footfalls, as it recently welcomed the 100,000th tourist since borders reopened in July 2020, as well as the 500,000th tourist for the year 2020. No doubt, with the opening and closing of borders, the destination has been witnessing a significant reduction in tourist arrivals compared to the pre-Covid period, but things have been picking up with the onset of the festive season and increased connectivity with more flight options. Ukraine’s Azur Air also commenced charter operations to Maldives with its first flight arriving at Velana International Airport on December 26, 2020. The flights will be operated every Saturday, until March 2021. With several initiatives to market the destination in Russia and the CIS region, tourist arrivals have witnessed an increase. This charter operation that expands air connectivity between the two countries will be a major boost to the Maldives’ efforts to revive the country’s tourism-dependent economy. Maldives opened borders to all nationalities from July 15. All visitors are granted a 30-day free on-arrival visa with a confirmed booking for a stay at any registered tourist facility in the country. The reopening of borders came with stringent safety measures in place to ensure the safety of both tourists and staff. Tourists are required to fill an online health declaration form within 24 hours prior to departure and also present a negative Covid-19 test, conducted 96 hours prior to their departure. Maldives has also introduced the Covid-19 travel insurance in the country, which covers medical charges, isolation facility charges, emergency medical transportation charges and interment charges following a positive diagnosis for Covid-19 during their stay in the country.

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After 10 months, Jaipur sees surge in tourist footfall

After almost 10 months, Jaipur is witnessing good footfall of domestic tourists. Though the number of tourists visiting Amber Fort, Nahargarh fort and other monuments is very less, people in the tourism industry said it was satisfactory compared to the current situation. “We are witnessing good number of tourists during the last week. Tourists from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab and other parts of India are coming to Jaipur,” said Pankaj Dharendra, superintendent of Amber fort. In December 2019, Amber fort saw nearly 2.18 lakh domestic tourists. “We can’t expect to match this number during corona. Till Monday, nearly 55,000 domestic tourists visited the fort. In all, 101 foreign tourists have also come,” he added. Authorities added that in November, the average number of tourists visiting the sites was nearly 1,500 to 2,000 per day which has now increased to nearly 5,000 daily. Saroj Chanchalni, superintendent of Hawa Mahal said, “We have received almost 32,000 tourists at Hawa Mahal. There was big increase in number of tourists last week. But, these are all domestic tourists from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.” Tour operators said the number of tourists was not fetching much business. “People from Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh are mainly coming to Jaipur on their own vehicles. As far as domestic tourists are concerned, we are only getting business from tourists from Maharashtra so far,” said Sanjay Kaushik, a Jaipur-based tour operator.

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