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Jordan to reopen to 'low risk' countries in August

AMMAN: Jordan will reopen its airports to commercial flights next month after a near five-month shutdown imposed to stem the spread of the coronavirus, an official said on Sunday. The move comes as the country is trying to revive its economy which has been badly hit since the outbreak of the pandemic. Civil aviation commission chief Haitham Misto told state television that flights from 22 "low risk" countries will be allowed from August 5. The countries listed by the health ministry include Austria, Canada, China, Denmark, Georgia, Germany, Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, New Zealand, Switzerland and Thailand, he said. Travellers from those countries will not need to isolate for 14 days when they reach Jordan but must be tested for the virus before arriving, Misto said, adding that the list would be updated every two weeks. Transport minister Khaled Saif however said that those travellers must show proof of having spent two weeks in one of the countries on the list before arriving in Jordan. Anyone providing false information will be fined 10,000 dinars ($14,000), he said. The desert kingdom, which has recorded 1,154 cases of the virus including 11 deaths, imposed a tough curfew enforced with drones to curb the spread of Covid-19, before easing policies in early June. Airports were closed in mid-March and international flights suspended. The curbs hit cash-trapped Jordan hard. Its economy relies heavily on international aid, tourism revenues and expatriate remittances. Before the coronavirus struck, Jordan hosted five million visitors a year and tourism accounts for 14 per cent of the country's GDP, employing about 100,000 people. Tourism earned Jordan around $5.3 billion last year. Around a quarter of a million people a year used to visit Jordan for medical treatment before the pandemic broke out, bringing in some $1.5 billion. The country was already in a precarious situation even before the new coronavirus, with unemployment at 19.3 per cent in the first quarter of this year.

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Rannotsav to be held from mid-November

Ahmedabad: Craving for a getaway in 2020? Well, the state government will soon add some silver lining to the hopes of travellers! Gujarat’s signature tourism festival, Rannotsav, which is held every year from November to February, will be held this year too. At a time when tourism industry has seen a drastic decline in bookings, the state government is all geared up to host the festival, revealed sources, from mid-November onwards till February-end. “The government will soon make an official announcement about the festival which is expected to begin in mid-November and bookings will shortly open. The tent city is being readied to welcome tourists under a new normal and we are taking all precautions to ensure social distancing and utmost hygiene is maintained. We are also reorganizing the dining space, where more people congregate and spacing it out and have deployed additional buses which will only ferry tourists at half the capacity or less,” said Nikhil Aggarwal, partner of the event management company which organizes Rannotsav. The annual festival attracted at least 50,000 tourists last season, including people from Gujarat and other parts of India, NRIs who visit their home state during the winter months and even a few foreign nationals. The organizers have slashed package prices to woo tourists. “We have reduced the package price across categories by 20% to encourage more tourists to visit the festival. We have not reduced itinerary but have worked on ensuring social distancing and safety of tourists in the wake of the pandemic,” said Aggarwal. Industry sources, however, said the footfall may take a hit by at least 30% in the wake of the pandemic and even a likely reduction in number of international travellers. Tour operators however, feel that the decision to hold the festival will help revive tourism in the state.

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Mizoram set to redefine its Tourism plans

Mizoram has come up with a strategic plan to restart the state’s revenue generation through the tourism sector. The state intends to implement a new policy and forward it to various departments of the government for detailed study and present in the next assembly session after ratification from the state cabinet. “Though the government has an existing tourism policy, we are drafting a new one known as Mizoram Responsible Tourism Policy, 2020 to meet present requirements,” Tourism Minister Robert Romawia Royte told media persons. He asserted that a reoriented tourism policy is necessary to get the green light from the Central government and other allies for funding. The new policy plans to access the up-market slot tourism, to boost local businesses and job providers, about the local culture, officials said. They also speculated to ensure that tourism development happens in developing sites after having done a complete survey. A total of 1,61,677 tourists were said to have visited Mizoram in 2019, the officials informed.

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With Ram temple in sight, Ayodhya new tourism hub

As Ayodhya is set to be a major tourist destination with the magnificent Ram temple coming up in the temple town, tour operators and travel agencies in the city are planning offices in Ayodhya and new packages to attract people. A leading tour and travel company operating in Lucknow expanded its operations in Ayodhya on Friday. Besides organising heritage walks and tours in Lucknow, it will now be organising events to promote the rich culture and history of Ayodhya. “Mokshdayani Walk’ and ‘Ram Vivah’ have been our most innovative tourism products on Ayodhya which were till now being operated and managed from Lucknow. But now with our own set up in Ayodhya, these will be operated locally which will bring down cost and make it more affordable,” managing director of the agency Prateek Hira said. “We will provide employment opportunities to locals and will come up with many more immersive travel experiences to showcase this deserving destination to the world,” he added. Hina Shiraz, a travel and tour operator in Lucknow, said she was planning to introduce a special UP itinerary of 5 days and 6 nights for inbound tourists and foreign tourists enthusiastic for visiting the temple town and Ram Mandir.“ If you look at mass tourism across the country, spiritual and pilgrimage travel is the largest segment. In Ayodhya, while the market is expected to be skewed towards domestic travellers, there would be some inbound and foreign tourist potential as well,” she said. “The development plan in Ayodhya is big. Once international airport, five-star hotels and resorts come up, the influx of tourists will automatically increase. We will introduce extensive units and packages of 2-3 days where tourists will be able to explore the town. Due to lack of hotels, we used to have tourists who liked to visit Ayodhya only for a day. They couldn’t stay in the night even if they wanted to. We expect the city to develop into a far bigger tourism destination with potential for spiritual, social events, luxury, MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions) and travel,” said Rajiv Arora, another tour operator.

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Dubai given safe tourism stamp of approval amid global pandemic

Dubai has been awarded a global safety and hygiene stamp by the World Travel & Tourism Council to show the UAE’s commitment to reopening its tourism sector as it recovers from the coronavirus outbreak. The WTTC, a council that represents private-sector travel and tourism, created the Safe Travels stamp to allow tourists to identify destinations and businesses around the world that have adopted the global standardised health and hygiene protocols. The stamp provides guidance to travel providers and travellers about the new approach to health, hygiene, deep cleansing and physical distancing, in the “new normal” of a post-Covid-19 world. The protocols were devised following the experience of WTTC members dealing with Covid-19 and based on guidelines from the World Health Organisation and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and control. The United Nations World Tourism Organisation has welcomed the WTTC Safe Travels stamp, which makes the safety and hygiene of travellers a top priority. “As we reopen Dubai’s doors to tourism and welcome our international visitors back to the city, our foremost priority is their well-being, achieved through stringent hygiene and safety protocols that have been deployed across all tourist touch points,” Helal Saeed Almarri, director general, Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) said. "The WTTC's Safe Travels stamp endorses Dubai’s strong global co-operation in combating the pandemic with comprehensive and effective measures to ensure guest health and safety. “We trust that our efforts not only provide an optimised experience for our visitors, but also secure their health and that of their families, further cementing the confidence that our guests have had thus far in Dubai, and encouraging people from every corner of the world to visit one of the safest cities in the world this summer.” The UAE has been praised for its coronavirus response. A survey by the Deep Knowledge Group, a consortium of technology companies and non-profit organisations, last month ranked the Emirates as 11th on the list in its responses to the pandemic. Costa Rica, Indonesia, Rwanda, Tobago and Tanzania are also among the latest recipients of the health and safety stamp. The growing list of endorsements has come from many major holiday and city destinations around the world, such as Sharjah as well Malaga in Spain, which joins the growing list of Spanish destinations including Alicante and Benidorm. Gloria Guevara, WTTC president and chief executive, said: “Our Safe Travels stamp is proving a great success and we are delighted to see even more popular countries and destinations adopt our global health and hygiene protocols. “The success of the WTTC Safe Travels stamp shows its importance not only to countries and destinations, but also crucially to travellers and the 330 million people around the world who work in and depend on the travel and tourism sector. “The stamp is a critical step in re-establishing consumer confidence in travel and tourism and ensuring travellers can rest easy knowing that enhanced standards of hygiene are in place and they can once again experience ‘safe travels’.”

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Char Dham Yatra 2020: Uttarakhand govt allows devotees from other states; COVID-19 report will be mandatory

The Uttarakhand government on Friday permitted devotees from other states to participate in the Char Dham Yatra, which includes four destinations namely Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath. The announcement was made by Ravinath Raman, the chief executive officer of Char Dham Devasthanam Board. Only Uttarakhand residents were earlier allowed to take part in yatra this year due to COVID-19 pandemic. Even they had to follow certain guidelines like obtaining an e-pass to undertake the yatra. Arrangements regarding online bookings for puja/path/aarti/bhog were made for those pilgrims, who hail from other states. Now, the state government has permitted people belonging to other states to undertake the yatra. However, there is a condition. The devotees will have to carry a negative RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction) result, the test of which has to be taken 72 hours before entering the state. Those devotees who have completed their quarantine period after reaching Uttarakhand can also take part in the holy yatra. It will be mandatory to register themselves on the website of Char Dham Devasthanam Board. They shall also upload their ID as well as COVID-19 negative report as part of their registration process. Pilgrims can download e-permit from the portal on their mobile phones but they shall carry the photo ID, address proof and COVID-19 negative report for validation purpose.

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