Severe restrictions on foreign travel to India continues to dog the tourism industry even as the government is in talks to allow non-essential movement of Indian to various countries including the UK, USA and Australia.
Most countries advise their citizens against non-essential travel to India, and airlines are scaling down operations in the country, which continues to report one of the highest number of new COVID-19 cases in the world even though the second wave of the pandemic has receded in most states.
India’s tourism and aviation industries have urged the government to ease the travel restrictions for foreign tourists to the country.
Foreign air travel should be opened up for at least those passengers who are fully vaccinated, global airlines’ body International Air Transport Association said last week.
EaseMyTrips’s chief executive officer and co-founder Nishant Pitti also urged the government to consider easing travel restrictions for fully vaccinated international tourists.
An official from the Travel Agents Association of India said many foreign tourists are eyeing trips to India as they look at budget travel options across the world after months of lockdowns.
“The summer season in India has historically seen a large influx of foreign tourists especially to the northern states like Jammu, Kashmir, Uttrakhand, Himachal, parts of West Bengal. Tourism in these places will see a large fall in revenues this year as around 30 percent of revenues have historically come from foreign tourists during the summer months,” an official said.
Travel agents in Delhi said that while there were enquiries from foreign tourists on travelling to India, with the ban on international travel still imposed in India they have seen a fall in revenues.
“Foreign tourists make up some of our biggest clients in terms of revenues as they usually look at luxury accommodation and plan longer vacations,” said an executive from Delhi-based Welgrow Travels.
Another official from Delhi-based Swan Travels told Moneycontrol that for years the company had managed bookings for a few tourists who regularly visit India for extended periods, but in the past two years have missed out on these bookings due to the ban on international travel.
While the government has announced that about 5 lakh tourists will be given free visas once international travel opens up, it has yet to provide a timeline or a roadmap to the opening up of international travel.
Why is the ban on foreign tourists still in place?
India has bilateral air bubble agreements with 28 countries, which include Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Canada, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Iraq, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, the Maldives, Nepal, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Ukraine, the UAE, the UK, Uzbekistan, and the US.
Despite bilateral agreements, only Indian passport holders or people of Indian origin and other foreign nationals who want to visit India for any purpose, except on a tourist visa, have been permitted to enter the country.
All international scheduled commercial passenger flights to and from India also remain suspended until July 31.
The biggest reason why India has not reopened travel for international tourists to the country is that the country is still the global center of the devastating new wave of the pandemic, and experts predict that a third wave of the pandemic, a senior government official told Moneycontrol.
“India wants to restrict the spread of COVID-19 to other countries as was the case when the pandemic broke out last year,” the official said.
He said that although the number of COVID-19 cases in the country had fallen significantly and the government is pushing its vaccination drive, a large portion of the country’s population remains unvaccinated and India is still seeing a net addition in daily cases.
Content credit : moneycontrol.com
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