The central government has relaxed visa and travel restrictions for certain categories of foreign nationals to allow them to travel to India amid COVID-19  pandemic.  In a notification, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said that among those who are allowed to come to India are foreign businessmen on a Business visa, other than on B-3 visa for sports travelling to the country in non-scheduled commercial and chartered flights. Foreign Healthcare professionals, health researchers, engineers and technicians for technical work at Indian health sector facilities, including laboratories and factories are also allowed. This is subject to a letter of invitation from a recognized and registered healthcare facility registered pharmaceutical company or accredited University in India. The above categories of foreign nationals would have to obtain a fresh Business visa or Employment visa, as applicable, from the Indian Missions/ Posts abroad, the statement said. Foreign nationals holding a valid long term multiple entry Business visas [other than B-3 visa for sports] issued by the Indian Missions/Posts abroad would have to get the Business visa re-validated from the Indian Mission/Post concerned. Such foreign nationals would not be permitted to travel to India on the strength of any electronic visa obtained earlier.

Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA) collaborates with Yatra.com, one of India’s leading online travel agency for Vidhik Sewa App, a COVID-19 helpline, to help anyone who needs assistance and requests for basic services. This app is an initiative of the Delhi State Legal Services Authority to provide, help and aid to individuals in the city. Apart from Legal Services, the app covers crucial services such as food, shelter, clothes, medicines, sanitary napkins, and others. Yatra.com supported this initiative of Delhi State Legal Services Authority in pursuance of its Corporate Social Responsibility to ensure that in these unprecedented times, help reaches to those in need, in all possible ways. Commenting on this initiative Manish Amin, Co-Founder & Chief Information and Technology Officer, Yatra.com, said, “At this crucial time when COVID-19 poses a national challenge, we have collaborated with Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA) to develop Vidhik Sewa App. This app act as a platform to provide individuals in Delhi with crucial services like food, shelter, medicines and more during unprecedented times like these. Backed by our strong technologically innovative solutions, we aim to provide a seamless experience to the users of the app.” Speaking on the association, Kanwaljeet Arora, Member Secretary, Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA), said, “In the prevalent situation, the initiative to launch the app will help ensure that justice is not delayed and access to judicial service is unrestricted. Additionally, we will extend essential services through the app. This association with Yatra.com for the app will help in extending our services to those in need and unable to avail them physically due to restricted movement.” The app is available in Hindi and English on the …

Developing a global set of transparent hospitality standards relating to health, safety and hygiene will be key to regain the trust of travellers in a post-COVID-19 landscape, a panel of industry experts explained during ATM Virtual. During the session, ‘The Hotel Landscape in a Post-COVID-19 World’, Raki Phillips, CEO, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority said, “Our industry is very resilient and will recover and for this reason, it’s important that hotels don’t drop their room rates. Tourists will come back.” “We are already seeing this in Ras Al Khaimah where we are lucky to have large, spacious resorts with some offering private villas, making the implementation of social distancing measures much easier. Hotels need to adapt to a new normal with increased sanitisation at the forefront while being creative with their offerings and embracing innovative technologies which can help differentiate them from their competitor,” he further said.

The government of Rajasthan has decided to open all monuments, museums and forts that were closed for public on 18th March. The Department of Archaeology and Museums of the state has issues guidelines keeping in view of social distancing norms and other requirements. Instructions have been issued to authorities to take required steps. Folk programs to support artists will also be organised in association with tourism departments. The decision on opening monuments falling in the containment zones will be taken by individual district administrators and they will remain shut until further decision. For the first two weeks, entry for all tourists will be free. As far as light and sound shows are concerned, the decision will be taken later depending on the footfall. As per the department, the monuments will be opened on alternate days for the first two weeks.

After receiving overwhelming response in the first three editions of its digital conclave, TravTalk is back with its Digital Conclave 4.0, which is scheduled to take place on 9th June where attendees can learn about reducing fear and establishing confidence in the tourism landscape again. The theme of the conclave is based on re-engineering tourism and will feature speakers such as Meenakshi Sharma, DG, Tourism, Government of India, Arjun Sharma, Chairman, Select Group and other during the course of three sessions starting at 10 am. The first session is titled as ‘Building and Enabling Tourism: What will the Restart Look like? The second session is based on ‘Revenge Tourism- When do we Restart’, while the third one is named as ‘PPP based, India Tourism Board? A practical vision for the future’. These sessions include eminent speakers such as EM Najeeb, Kamal Hingorani, Guldeep Singh Sahni, Riaz Munshi, Sunil VA and Arif Patel.

Suresh Prabhu, Member of Parliament, and former Union Minister of Civil Aviation has said that small businesses like that of tour operators and travel agents have to be helped, as they fuel the entire tourism sector. “We must find out how to help small businesses, because they are the lifelines of the overall ecosystem of the tourism sector. If there are no tourists, there will not be any airlines which do business of billions of dollars. However, those tourists will be brought to the airline because of the tour operators and travel agents—all those players actually make that ecosystem work and therefore we must realise that small businesses in this sector are crucial for sustaining larger businesses and even economy,” he said, while speaking at the PHD Chambers and WTTC Webinar, ‘Tourism, Hospitality & Transport Challenges’ by Bird Group.

In a bid to boost tourism post lockdown, Odisha government has decided to identify and enlist land parcels suitable for the development of tourism projects across the State. The land parcels found suitable for tourism projects will be shared with potential investors. Once the land is identified and demarcated, it can be offered for hotels, resorts, restaurants, camping infrastructure, water sports, eco-tourism, adventure projects, museums, convention centres and amusement parks. As part of the initiative, the Tourism department has floated an Expression of Interest (EoI) from potential landowners. Land­ owners (individual or entity) possessing land parcels of minimum 20,000 sq ft with a clear title and free from encumbrance can apply. With Odisha Tourism growing at a fast pace resulting in increasing tourist footfalls and investments especially by the private sector, a number of measures are being considered to tap investment including potential tie-up between investors and local partners particularly those who own land suitable for varied tourism projects. If found suitable, the private investor can directly contact the landowner for purchase of land or joint development of the project. It will be a win-win situation for both.

The Uttarakhand government is planning to resume tourism and start the Char Dham Yatra in a calibrated manner after June 8 in an effort to boost the economy. Sharing the information, Madan Kaushik, Cabinet minister and governments’ spokesperson said, “The government is planning to start the Char Dham Yatra but in a limited manner, allowing only limited people amid the pandemic. We will also gradually resume the tourism activities in the same manner as both Char Dham Yatra and tourism are basically the backbone of our economy.” In its latest guidelines, the Centre allowed religious places to open after June 8 along with free inter-state travel of people in a bid to gradually open up the country after lockdown amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

EbixCash Travel & Holidays, earlier known as Mercury Travels has launched a brief survey to gain the views of its business associates, which can help the company design future travel offerings post COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement, the company said, “While the world continues to embark this journey through the Global crisis and discover new ways to combat the situation, we would like to assure you that safety and well-being of our customers remain to be our topmost priority while reinforcing the existing protocols for addressing public health issues”. The survey is open now and can be accessed at www.surveymonkey.com/r/EbixCash    

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has launched the world’s first-ever global safety and hygiene stamp which allow travellers to recognise governments and businesses around the world which have adopted health and hygiene global standardised protocols – so consumers can experience ‘Safe Travels’. The initiative also received the backing of UNWTO. Eligible businesses such as hotels, restaurants, airlines, cruise lines, tour operators, restaurants, outdoor shopping, transportation and airports, will be able to use the stamp once the health and hygiene protocols, outlined by WTTC, have been implemented. Destinations will also help to award the stamp of approval to local suppliers. The launch of global protocols to boost the Travel & Tourism sector have been embraced by over 200 CEO’s including some of the world’s major tourism groups. Gloria Guevara, WTTC President & CEO, said: “We are delighted that UNWTO are supporting the private sector global protocols and our efforts as public-private collaboration is critical to ensure a faster recovery. We have learned from past crises that global standard protocols and consistency provide confidence for the traveller. Our new global safety stamp is designed to help rebuild consumer confidence worldwide,” she said. “Now travelers will be able to recognise the businesses and destinations worldwide which have adopted the new set of global protocols that will encourage the return of ‘Safe Travels’ around the world. It will, in turn, help the Travel & Tourism sector to reopen for business and move in a coordinated approach. “For the first time ever, the global private sector has rallied around Safe Travels protocols which will create consistency across the sector. Implementation by governments around the world will restore much-needed confidence in order to restart …