Tag: corona virus crisis

Foreign guests will likely stay away from India not just this year but the next as well, EIH executive chairman PRS Oberoi has said. EIH is the listed entity of The Oberoi Group that runs hotels under Oberoi and Trident brands in the country. The travel industry was among the first to be affected by the pandemic and will, in all probability, be the last to recover, Oberoi said in his address to shareholders in the latest annual report. “Due to the COVID- 19 pandemic, we expect very few foreign travellers to visit India in the current year and in the next ... Read more

Dubai-based airline Emirates has said that on-arrival polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests will be mandatory only for passengers from specific countries, starting August 1. The airline has issued a list of 29 such countries, Gulf News reports. These countries include India, Brazil, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Philippines, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and select US airports among others. The US airports included in the list are Dallas Fort Worth (DFW), Houston (IAH), Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), Fort Lauderdale (FLL) and Orlando (MCO), says the Gulf News report. All passengers arriving from these points of ... Read more

British Airways-owner International Airlines Group (IAG) has said that American Express would pay it 750 million pounds ($955 million) to renew their partnership, providing a welcome boost to the airline’s finances at a time when it is burning through cash. Since lockdowns have eased, flying has restarted, but pressure remains on airline companies like IAG because travel is still at less than half of pre-pandemic levels due to ongoing restrictions for some destinations and consumer worries, says Reuters. IAG’s finances have been strained by the pandemic, leading to media speculation that it could need to raise new equity. It said ... Read more

Imagine working under swaying palm trees, with a drink in hand, looking into the sea? Classy restaurants and golf courses can be seen at a distance, for your consideration. Water sports and massages can come in handy too, when you need some break at work. Is it for real? Yes it is. Welcome to Barbados. Like most of its Caribbean neighbours, Barbados has been good at keeping covid-19 out. Usually,  tourism brings in more than half of its foreign earnings. Now, many tourists are banned and the economy is reeling, says a report by The Economist. The tourism minister, Kerrie Symmonds, ... Read more

A consortium of Flight Simulation Technique Centre, Big Charter and Imperial Capital Investments LLC has reportedly secured $100 million that will be pumped into Jet Airways in order to revive the defunct airline. The consortium is one of the two bidders that submitted resolution plans for Jet Airways earlier this week. Lenders had shortlisted it, along with three other entities, for Jet Airways’ insolvency process back in June. Biraja Jena, Chairman of Dubai-based Imperial Capital, told Moneycontrol that they have secured $100 million from their partners. The investment banking and wealth management firm has also roped in Middle Eastern business house Taha Group as ... Read more

Germany has decided to ask all travellers to go through compulsory coronavirus testing before entering the country. “We are checking whether it is legally possible to make someone do a test, because it would be an encroachment on freedom,” Health Minister Jens Spahn told a local radio channel. Compared to the rest of the European countries, Germany has been successful in containing the  coronavirus pandemic. Germany had observed a strict lockdown for almost two months, before reopening its economy. Spahn and his counterparts from the 16 federal states of Germany have also announced that these compulsory coronavirus tests will be free ... Read more

Prahlad Singh Patel, India’s Minister of State for Tourism and Culture, will inaugurate the two-day ‘FICCI Tourism Conclave’ on July 29. The conclave is being organised with a vision to bring together global thought leaders and key policy makers from the travel & tourism industry under one virtual platform to ideate, interact and share knowledge. The virtual conclave will create an opportunity for the participants to plan, promote, market, strategise and implement the best practices to revive the business in the sector, post COVID-19, the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) stated. The FICCI Tourism Committee said it ... Read more

The Norwegian government will make an exception for Tom Cruise and his crew to shoot parts of his latest “Mission: Impossible” movie in Norway this autumn without imposing quarantine requirements, says a Reuters report. Production of the seventh and eighth instalments of Paramount Pictures’ lucrative action movie franchise was halted in February due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The seventh movie is currently scheduled for release in November 2021 and the eighth in November 2022. Cruise will reprise his role as secret agent Ethan Hunt in both movies with Christopher McQuarrie returning as director. “It (the filming) will be carried out ... Read more

In an effort to save jobs of around 50 lakh people and encourage domestic travel, the Shopping Centres Association of India (SCAI) has written to Maharashtra Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray to reopen malls which have remained shut since March due to the pandemic. Covid-19 has affected 3.47 lakh people and claimed 12,854 lives in the state till now – the highest in the country. “About 5 million jobs (50 lakh) are at stake if malls are not opened at the earliest,” the letter warned adding that retrenchment could be seen as early as August. So far, big malls in Mumbai ... Read more

Bulgaria’s new Tourism Minister, Mariana Nikolova, has said the country’s resorts, tourist attractions, rich history and natural beauty need advertising as safe and secure destinations for vacationing. Today, people working in tourism need the support of the state as is done in all European countries, she said, according to a report by Novinite. “I take on the Ministry of Tourism with the clear awareness that the most affected industry in the world from the pandemic is tourism. There is no forecast to give us a horizon when people’s travel will return to the pace and volume to which we were accustomed to earlier,” she said. ... Read more

With the panic surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic starting to subside in Europe, Switzerland has opened its doors for global tourism, but not for India. From July 20, in tune with European Union guidelines, Switzerland lifted restrictions for travellers from 21 countries apart from European nations. But India — currently ranking third on the world Corona dashboard – has been excluded, news agency IANS says. Travellers from certain regions will be quarantined for 10 days after entering Switzerland, one of the few nations in the world which has managed to control the impact of the pandemic, says the report. “We have ... Read more

New Zealanders got out in force around the country during the school holidays, with some areas enjoying a boost of more than 50% in domestic tourist numbers compared to last year, according to a report by New Zealand Herald. New data shows the number of New Zealanders outside of their home region peaked at 550,000 on July 11 – the highest since March. Kaikoura had a 56% boost in numbers and the West Coast 51% as the South Island benefited most from increased travel by Kiwis, who are now largely confined to this country for holidays as a result of ... Read more

As coronavirus fears continue to ravage Italy’s tourism industry – despite the country’s extraordinary cultural heritage – the government is subsidising some of its citizens to go on holiday in their home country, according to a report by France 24. Italy was one of the first countries to reopen its borders to European Union (EU) tourists in June. Nevertheless, tourism is still suffering, with a revenue shortfall this summer predicted at top 3 billion euros.  In this context, the government is trying to prop up its tourism industry – which represents 13% of the national GDP – by sending money to households earning less than 40,000 euros a year as ... Read more

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented unforeseen challenges to global tourism. With geography gaining significance and the importance of shorter distances becoming more pronounced, regional tourism is likely to grow. Governments must thus pivot to focus considerably more attention on regional tourism through investments in infrastructure and services, particularly digitisation to reduce human transactions, a new report by Brookings India has said. India, in particular, will have to leverage the wide range of cultural similarities with its neighbours such as the regional Buddhist trail and pilgrimage, etc, the research report noted. Such a push would also contribute locally through employment and ... Read more

As Caribbean beaches and resorts begin welcoming back international tourists, there’s one group that’s increasingly being left out: Americans. Tropical vacation spots across the region are giving US citizens the cold shoulder amid fears they might spread the coronavirus, cutting Americans off from one of the few regions that was still accessible to them, Bloomberg reports. This week, the Bahamas will begin barring commercial flights and passenger ships from the US, even as it invites Canadian and European tourists to visit. The Dutch countries of St. Maarten and Curacao have also reopened to almost everyone but US travellers. With nearly ... Read more