Tourism stakeholders still unsure of charters & tourists landing this season

This
bit of news could not have come at a worse time for the state. A study
conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology Mandi revealed that travellers
from Dubai and the UK were the primary sources of Covid19 importations into
India. The study also found that infected cases from Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and
Tamil Nadu played did not play a great role in spreading the disease outside
the community. The
tourism industry is preparing for the possible inflow of international tourists
from countries as diverse as Russia and the UK. Charter companies in Goa are
presently in the process of negotiating contracts with companies in these
countries. Earnest Dias COO Sita said if the study was conducted in a
scientific manner then there should be no doubts. He, however, pointed out the
situation in the countries from where the travellers commenced their journeys
were better than the situation now in India. He said “I don’t believe in this
blame game, it is entirely up to the government. They can stop people coming
from these countries on tourist’s visas. I am not for it you have to understand
people are infected all across the country”. Sheik
Ismail the GM at an influential charter company said “Last year we brought in
48,000 passengers and even now our partners in those countries are very
confident of bringing in good numbers. They say it will be slow in November and
December and then it will pick up. We are waiting for the government to open
the borders and then we will get a clearer picture of what we can expect this
season”. Abida
Kumar VP Operations of another prominent player in the charter business said
most of her English customers had already postponed their travel to next year.
She said, “We were getting bookings from England in the early days of the
lockdown. Visas are not being issued so once that commences then perhaps we
will know how the season will pan out”. Aloo
Gomes a veteran in the business laughed and said it would be better if we as
people would focus on improving our lot because the number of cases was amongst
the highest in the world. He said, “Where are the flights anyway, let us not
waste our time speculating”. President
of the TTAG, Nilesh Shah, however, said “ The Govt of India has not come out
with guidelines for international tourists coming to the country. Once the
policy is in place then the relevant organizations will get to work. He said
the TTAG had asked for a travel bubble for incoming tourists and if all these
details were provided then the tourists could start coming in from Nov, Dec or
even January. One
can only hope for the battered tourism industry, that some good news comes
their way because tens of thousands of jobs had disappeared due to the
virus.