News

Bali may reopen to tourists in October

Indonesia's tropical holiday island of Bali could reopen to tourists in October, thanks to its success in controlling the coronavirus outbreak, the government says. As of Friday, Bali had reported 343 coronavirus cases and four deaths, a much lower fatality rate compared with 16,496 cases and 1076 deaths in the whole archipelago. If the infection curve continued to improve, the tourism ministry is looking to revitalise destinations and do promotional work for some parts of the country, including Bali, between June and October, Ni Wayan Giri Adnyani, secretary of the ministry, said on Friday. Partial reopening of those areas, which also include the city of Yogyakarta and Riau islands province, may begin in October, she said. Bali's economy depends largely on visitors. Its gross domestic product contracted 1.14 per cent on-year in January-March, compared with a 2.97 per cent GDP expansion nationally. Foreign tourist arrivals into Indonesia plunged more than 60 per cent in March, compared to the year-earlier month, with Chinese arrivals sliding more than 97 per cent.

Read more

Air India Opens Booking For These International Destinations Amid Report of Resumption of Domestic Flights

New Delhi: Amid the ongoing lockdown, Air India has opened bookings on select repatriation flights to be operated from India to six other countries including the USA, the UK, Australia, Frankfurt, Paris and Singapore. Also Read - 'Welcome Back, Hero': Maharashtra DGIPR Hails 29-Year-Old Corona Warrior Who Conquered COVID-19 And Resumed Duty With Mumbai Police Under the second phase of the Vande Bharat Mission, only citizens of these nations will be allowed to fly on the outbound flights. However, in some of these flights, persons holding a valid visa of a certain duration of that country are also permitted. Also Read - SC Breather For Tamil Nadu, Top Court Stays Madras HC Order Directing Closure of Liquor Shops. At the time of boarding the flight, passengers will have to undergo thermal screening as per the protocol of the Central government. Only asymptomatic travellers would be allowed to board the flight. Also Read - No IPL Will Lead to Rs 4,000 Crore Loss And May Lead to Pay Cuts, Says BCCI President Sourav Ganguly “Reservations for travel from India to select destinations in the USA, UK, Australia & to Frankfurt, Paris & Singapore will commence from 1700 hrs on 14th May 20 on Twitter.

Read more

Modi govt prepares to reopen hotels, Aarogya Setu and masks could be must for tourists

New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government is considering resumption of tourism and hospitality sectors, which have suffered a massive blow due to the Covid-19 lockdown, ThePrint has learnt. The Ministry of Tourism is currently preparing guidelines for hotels and tour operators, which they need to adhere to once they resume their businesses. “Our first priority is to maintain the safety of everyone due to the ongoing outbreak of Covid-19. Protocols and guidelines are being prepared for hotels, tour operators and taxi drivers. These guidelines are being prepared in consultation with the states. Their suggestions have also been included,” Rupinder Brar, Additional Director General of the Ministry of Tourism, told ThePrint. According to the proposed guidelines, the government could make downloading of Aarogya Setu app mandatory for tourists booking hotel rooms. This apart, all employees working in hotels will have to undergo thermal screening daily. An official from the ministry, who didn’t want to be named, said: “Right now, work is going on with special focus on some upcoming festivals. Discussions are being held with all the states. Different guidelines might be issued for different states. We will move forward only after due consultation with the tourism secretaries of the states.” He said the tourism sector has been hit hard due to the lockdown. Asked about the amount of the losses incurred by the industry, the official said as of now it will be difficult to tell the exact figure, but what will be equally difficult is recovering the losses. Social distancing, wearing masks According to the proposed guidelines, the ministry official quoted above said, tourists staying in hotels will have to provide detailed information about their previous and future visits. Their health information will also have to be filled in a self-proclaimed form. On the downloading of the Aarogya Setu app, a second ministry official said: “The Aarogya Setu app is facilitating better tracking in India. In the proposed guidelines, we are considering making it mandatory for the tourists staying in hotels.” The guidelines will also include strict adherence to social distancing. Tourists and hotel staff have to maintain a distance of more than 2 meters from one another. Hotel floors need to be marked out so that staff and tourists stand at a distance from each other, said the first ministry official quoted above. Tourists and hotel staff will also be required to wear masks, and hotels need to keep their premises clean and sanitised. Short distance tours To revive the tourism sector, which is completely shut due to the lockdown, the ministry is encouraging travel operators to focus on short distance tours now. “Due to fear of contracting coronavirus, people will hesitate to travel to far-off places. In such a situation, we are encouraging travel and tour operators to focus on short distance tours. We want more attention to be provided to the local tourist attractions around cities. The tourism department will also like to propagate the ‘Vocal for Local’ mantra,” said Brar. He said an online programme is being run by the ministry to make people aware about local tourist attractions. “On the request of Tourism and Culture Minister Prahlad Singh Patel, we are running an online programme ‘Dekho Apna Desh’ through which people are being shown places of tourist attractions in the country,” added Brar. Hotel industry massively hit According to a survey conducted by property consultant JLL India, hotel businesses in 11 big cities have been severely affected due to the lockdown. From January to March, there has been a decline of up to 29 per cent in revenue per available room in these big cities. Occupancy levels have also declined drastically. According to the survey, in cities like Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Mumbai, Pune and Kolkata, the hotel occupancy rate dropped by 5 to 17 per cent between January and March. Apart from this, the revenue of the hotels also declined by 13 to 29 per cent.

Read more

Turkey launches Healthy Tourism Certification programme

Istanbul: Turkey has initiated a Healthy Tourism Certification programme, which shall be applicable as of summer season of 2020. Healthy Tourism Certification, which is issued under the leadership of Ministry of Culture and Tourism and with the participation of Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in cooperation of all sector stakeholders, covers a broad range of measures which shall be taken towards transportation, accommodation, health condition of employees of the facilities and passengers. Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Minister of Culture and Tourism of Republic of Turkey, said: “Turkey has been role model for the world during Covid 19 with its well-established health system and treatment methods that has been taken. This certificate program to demonstrates that Turkey will take a pioneering role in terms of setting the direction for the normalisation of tourism." Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Minister of Culture and Tourism of Republic of Turkey, said: “Turkey has been role model for the world during Covid 19 with its well-established health system and treatment methods that has been taken. This certificate program to demonstrates that Turkey will take a pioneering role in terms of setting the direction for the normalisation of tourism." Certification program of Turkey consists of 4 main pillars which are “Health and Safety of the Passenger”, “Health and Safety of the Employee”, “Precautions taken at Facilities” and “Precautions taken in terms of “Transportation”. “Health and Safety of the Passenger”; covers the precautions which are required to be implemented in terms of passengers from the time of check-in until their check-out. It includes; not allowing passengers without mask to enter respective terminals, providing free of charge masks to passengers, application of thermal camera and body temperature measurement at the entrance of terminal buildings, preparing disinfection carpets and disinfection cabins, if required, apply the required protocols for the passengers that are diagnosed as risk group in terms of travelling. “Health and Safety of the Employee”; covers precautions with respect to ensuring physically and mentally healthy personnel at transportation, accommodation and food & beverage facilities. Procedures such as hygiene and sanitation trainings of the personnel, psychological support, providing required hygiene/health equipment, controlling of the personnel both with thermal cameras are required standards and also thermometers and planning shifts, holding meetings and regular health checks of personnel etc. comprise other articles included under this title. “Precautions taken at Facilities”, covers steps which required to be taken in order to prevent spreading of the outbreak. In case of preventing such cases, processes that needs to be implemented by the accommodation, food & beverage facilities have been defined under the scope of the certificate. Certification ensures implementation and controlling of measures such as social distance, contact, isolation which are required to control the spread of pandemic within the personnel working at such facilities. “Precautions taken in terms of Transportation vehicles”, includes certain measures and regulations for air, land and marine transportation. Training of personnel of transportation vehicles, immunity certificate of the personnel, sterilization of transportation vehicles and arrangement of passenger transportation system according to safe distance standards has been defined under the scope of the certificate. Minister Ersoy emphasized the sensitivity and importance demonstrated in this subject through making the following statement regarding certificate program and dates in terms of normalizing process subsequent to Covid-19: “We have completed pandemic protocols and certification protocols issued separately in terms of airports, domestic airlines, highways and tourism facilities as of May 4, 2020. We are also planning to start implementation of the certification process for hotels as of May. We will start listing the facilities, obtaining such certificate, as of June 1, 2020 through all channels including website of our Ministry," Ersoy said.

Read more

Planes, Buses To Be Allowed In Select Areas In Lockdown 4.0, Say Sources

Explaining, an official said, "Local buses will start running with limited capacity in non-hotspot zones". Autos and taxis will also be allowed, with restrictions on the number of passengers. Most of these will be allowed to ply within the districts in non-containment zones, he said. New Delhi: The projection of "normalcy on ground" will be the focus of Lockdown 4.0, which comes into effect from May 18. A senior home ministry official told NDTV that one of the first areas where relaxation will be allowed wherever possible, is public transport -- on ground and the skies. The boundaries will be based on the states' blueprint -- sought by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week -- and how compatible it is with the situation on the ground, officials involved in drawing up the Lockdown 4.0 guidelines told NDTV. The pointer to the ground situation, they said, will be data crunched by the home ministry, a copy on which is in possession of NDTV. Officials also indicated that one of the key demands of the states -- having the power to define their hotspots -- may be granted. This was flagged by a number of states during their meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week. In his address to the nation on Tuesday, PM Modi had made it clear that Lockdown 4.0 will have a "completely different form", with new rules. Explaining, an official said, "Local buses will start running with limited capacity in non-hotspot zones". Autos and taxis will also be allowed, with restrictions on the number of passengers. Most of these will be allowed to ply within the districts in non-containment zones, he said. Interstate travel may also be opened up but only for those with travel passes. The government is also planning to open up the skies for domestic sectors from next week. Train services have already started. Permission is also likely to be given for home delivery of all kinds of goods instead of just essential items, officials said. "Most states agree that stringent steps should be taken to contain the spread of virus," the official said. "As they would be redefining the jurisdiction of their hotspots, no activity will be allowed in these zones. But in the rest, they want relaxations," he said, adding that before allowing that, "We are doing our own data crunching" The data the ministry is particularly focusing on is not just the positives, but those who are in isolation. Across various states, 11.9 lakh people are under observation. A section of them testing positive will give a huge spurt to numbers as contact tracing would become increasingly difficult. Maharashtra, which has the maximum number of cases and a proportional amount of people in quarantine, is planning to extend the lockdown. "They don't want to allow any inter district movement as of now or offices to open," said another official. A few industries, he said, might be allowed in orange and green zones. Gujarat has the second highest number of coronavirus cases. With 9,268 people testing positive and 2,08,537 people in quarantine, the state wants to resume all economic activity in all major urban centres. But almost 80 per cent of cases are clustered in the state's urban centres – Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara with 70 per cent of the cases being in Ahmedabad. Officials said some relaxations may be given in districts where no cases have been reported. States which have suggested opening up many sectors include Andhra Pradesh Kerala, Karnataka, Gujarat and Delhi. Of these Kerala, with its stellar record of containing the virus, has the brightest prospect of getting most of its wishlist. "Kerala wants resumption of metro services, local trains, domestic flights, restaurants and hotels to revive the tourism sector," an official said adding that all of it is "feasible". Of the 535 cases reported in state, a maximum number has been cured and even the numbers in isolation are not high despite many people returning from abroad. Only 494 people are in quarantine in the state. Officials said the eastern states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha want to continue with stricter lockdown as their COVID-19 cases are increasing due to the return of migrant workers.

Read more

EU Announces Plan to Reopen to Domestic Tourism

The European Union Wednesday announced its plan to help European citizens salvage their summer vacations and resurrect Europe’s damaged tourism industry after months of coronavirus lockdowns. At a Brussels news conference, EU commissioners stressed safety as they announced their gradual, careful steps to restart travel and tourism among European countries. The commissioner’s over-arching advice is that EU countries with similar rates of coronavirus infections and comparably strong health care systems should begin lifting border measures between each other. Earlier Wednesday, Germany announced, after consultations with its neighbors, the opening of its borders with France, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Austria. Tourists from outside Europe cannot enter Germany until at least June 15. The EU commissioners also announced guidelines for reimbursing consumers with vouchers for cancelled flights or other vacation plans that can be used for future travel plans. The vouchers, they said, would be preferable to cash reimbursements as they would encourage travel and not create a financial burden on cash-strapped airlines and travel companies. Even with easing restrictions, social distancing rules would still apply, and Brussels is recommending that robust disease monitoring measures are put in place – including good testing capacity and contact tracing – so that people have the confidence to return to hotels and camping sites abroad.

Read more