Tag: covid-19 crisis

The Australian tourism sector is expected to cop a $55 billion hit over the next financial year amid uncertainty over the reopening of state borders and the assumption that international travel bans will remain until July 2021. Tourism expenditure is forecast to fall from $138.5 billion in 2019 to $83.8 billion. The prediction comes from a report in May by the Australian Trade and Investment Commission seen by The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age. It assumes international travel bans will remain until at least July 2021 but state border restrictions will be lifted. The economic impact could be even worse if internal travel restrictions ... Read more

Air India has announced eight evacuation flights between India and Australia under the Vande Bharat Mission. The flights will be operated from July 1 to July 14. Bookings will begin on June 28 from 12 PM — only on the Air India website. The national carrier will operate four flights each to Melbourne and Sydney. Since May, Air India has carried out repatriation flights under the Vande Bharat Mission. Recently,  the US, France and the UAE governments raised objections to these flights saying that India was not allowing these countries to carry out their own repatriation flights. While India was ... Read more

The tourism sectors of India, Indonesia and the Philippines are likely to be the laggards among countries trying to revive the travel industry, a report released by ANZ Research has said. Since most countries are now past the worst of their Covid-19 outbreak, restrictions on travel are being eased and appetite for travel would gradually return, the report said. But in the three aforementioned countries, the number of active coronavirus cases continue to rise, making recovery difficult. Tourism in the region is entering the recovery phase, but the pace of this recovery [would] depend on the evolution of the pandemic ... Read more

Eighteen international repatriation flights are expected to bring 3,630 expatriates to the Kochi airport today. Air India will operate a flight from Paris via Delhi and Azur Air is scheduled to operate a direct flight from Kiev in Ukraine. Repatriation flights from Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, Kuwait, Doha, Muscat, Paris and Ukraine are also scheduled to arrive on Saturday. On Friday, 21 flights brought 3,960 passengers at the airport. Rapid antibody tests were conducted on 85 passengers who arrived till 6pm. Meanwhile IndiGo airlines cancelled its Riyadh flight while SpiceJet rescheduled its Ras Al Khaimah flight to Saturday. The ... Read more

People who planned to travel to Las Vegas are increasingly having second thoughts about their vacations as coronavirus cases have shot through the roof in Nevada. Members of the Nevada Commission on Tourism met by videoconference earlier this week to hear how hard tourism has been hurt by coronavirus and how to move forward. Steve Hill, head of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said the demand for Vegas visits was higher than expected when casinos reopened earlier this month but a drumbeat of bad news has chilled the enthusiasm. “That information has started to cause the numbers that ... Read more

American Airlines will book flights to capacity effective July 1, the company said in a press release on Friday. The airline said it will notify customers and allow them to move to more open flights if they are available at no extra price.  “As more people continue to travel, customers may notice that flights are booked to capacity starting July 1,” the airline said, adding that customers can also move to another seat if space is available once boarding is complete. American has blocked off 50% of the main cabin middle seats and has been notifying customers if their flight ... Read more

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has partnered with Wanderlust World for the launch of a new app designed to facilitate safe and seamless travel in the wake of COVID-19. The new ‘World Tourist Identification’ app is one of many solutions developed to meet the new demands of both tourists and destinations, UNWTO said. The app allows tourists to carry digital copies of key documents in one place. This will make identification of tourist arrivals easier, quicker and safer. The app is also designed to reduce the risk of fraud and identity theft. As many countries around the world begin to ... Read more

Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren on Thursday directed senior officials to initiate action to acquire ITDC’s Ranchi Ashok Bihar Hotel that had been lying idle for over three years. At a meeting held at the state secretariat at Project Bhavan, Hemant discussed the possibility of a full take-over of the property with chief secretary Sukhdev Singh, his principal secretary Rajeev Arun Ekka, finance and planning secretary Himani Pandey and tourism secretary Pooja Singhal. The hotel was established as a joint venture between Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) and Bihar Tourism and started functioning in January 1987 when Ranchi was in ... Read more

Amsterdam announced on Thursday that it would ban vacation rentals including those on the home-sharing site Airbnb in three areas that make up the central old town from July 1. In the other neighbourhoods of the Dutch capital, vacation rentals will be allowed only with a special permit, and only for up to 30 days a year, to groups of no more than four people. Critics have long complained that the rise of Airbnb-style tourist rentals has torn the soul out of the centre of Europe’s best-loved tourist cities, from Edinburgh to Barcelona. Amsterdam housing councillor Laurens Ivens said in ... Read more

Uzbekistan is initiating a unique approach to restore its tourism industry by paying tourists $3,000 if they contract COVID-19 while visiting. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed an official order regarding this. “These are additional measures for the development of tourism in strict compliance with enhanced sanitary and epidemiological security.” As part of this decree, businesses across the country were awarded additional privileges for reopening guide services and translators, who are now able to reinstate their services. The funds for the purpose will come from the “Uzbekistan. Safe Travel Guaranteed” initiative. The dollar amount is meant to be equal to the estimated cost ... Read more

The Eiffel Tower reopened to visitors Thursday morning after having been shut down for more than three months because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the Paris landmark’s longest closure since World War II. The reopening is a dramatic sign of people reclaiming public spaces in France following more than 100 days of restrictions. But the tower’s highest point is still not open – and for now, visitors will need to take the stairs. The stairs-only rule is one of several restrictions at the site, which draws millions of tourists during a normal year. Face masks are compulsory for all ... Read more

More than 30% of civilian pilots in Pakistan have fake licenses and are not qualified to fly, the country’s aviation minister has revealed. Addressing Pakistan’s National Assembly, Ghulam Sarwar Khan said 262 pilots in the country “did not take the exam themselves” and had paid someone else to sit it on their behalf. “They don’t have flying experience,” he said. Pakistan has 860 active pilots serving its domestic airlines — including the country’s Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flagship — as well as a number of foreign carriers. PIA has grounded all its pilots who hold fake licenses, effective immediately. “PIA ... Read more

Airlines for America (A4A), the industry trade organization for the leading US airlines, announced that its member carriers will voluntarily pledge to refund tickets for any passenger who is found to have an elevated temperature, during a screening process conducted by federal authorities prior to travel. Last month, A4A and its member carriers announced they are supporting the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to begin conducting temperature screenings of the traveling public and customer-facing employees as long as necessary during the COVID-19 public health crisis. As all screening processes for the traveling public are the responsibility of the US government, having temperature checks ... Read more

The Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL), which owns the Taj group of hotels, has announced the launch of its online food delivery platform, Qmin. Consumers can use the platform to order food from eight restaurants in Mumbai including Golden Dragon and Souk from Taj Mahal Palace, Thai Pavilion and Trattoria from President and Ming Yang from Taj Lands’ End to name a few. The launch will cover top ten markets in India including Delhi, Chennai and Bengaluru among others over a period of five weeks. The Qmin mobile application will be launched on July 25. Puneet Chhatwal, managing director and ... Read more

The Oberoi Group, in association with Tourism Industry Stake Holders Association (TISHA) and Shimla Hotel Restaurant Association (SHRA), conducted an awareness programme on COVID preparedness on Thursday. Aligned with the Standard Operating Procedures issued by the Government of Himachal Pradesh, the programme was conducted with the vision to educate and build confidence amongst the hoteliers and restaurateurs in the state. The purpose of this programme was to help the hoteliers of Himachal Pradesh learn the finest practices and deliberate strategies for implementing high standards of safety measures. The training programme focussed on preparing the hotels to be COVID ready in ... Read more