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Kerala’s Tourism Minister PA Mohamed Riyas has assured stakeholders in tourism that the government will unveil various projects focusing on the revival of the sector. “Apart from completing the present projects on a time-bound manner, two new heritage projects focusing on Ponnani and Aranmula will be planned and implemented quickly,” he said, adding that more tourism circuits will also be formed.

As per a recent order of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the minimum airfare on domestic routes will get costlier from tomorrow, June 1. The Ministry has raised the base airfare between 13-15% across all sectors basis approximate duration of flight. The upper limit for airfare continues to remain the same as per the earlier order.

Tourism stakeholders of the Andaman Islands, Gujarat and Karnataka have sought urgent financial relief from their respective state governments and tourism departments, while also suggesting measures of revival. Said representations have been made by Andaman Association of Tour Operators, Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Karnataka Tourism Society, respectively.

Beginning July, on recommendation of Tourism Authority of Thailand, the government of Thailand has said that fully vaccinated international visitors to Phuket province of Thailand, or those who have tested negative upon arrival, will be allowed to enter. There will be no quarantine for international travellers who must remain in Phuket for at least 7 nights before travelling elsewhere, under the proposed Phuket Sandbox programme.  

Emirates has extended the temporary suspension of carriage of passengers from India till June 30. Furthermore, passengers who have transited through India in the last 14 days are not permitted to board from any other point to the UAE. However, UAE nationals, holders of UAE Golden Visas and members of diplomatic missions who comply with COVID-19 protocols will be exempt. Passenger carriage from Dubai to India will continue as per available flight schedule.

A high-level meeting presided by the new Kerala Tourism Minister PA Mohammed Riyas has decided to finalise projects and implement them at the earliest, for instilling confidence in travellers and woo them to a number of places across Kerala. The state is charting measures to revive its tourism sector by rolling out packages that encourage domestic travellers to visit the destinations in the state. In a month, the various approval/classification schemes under Ease of Doing Business will go online. Authorities will draft new COVID-19 protocols for tourists arriving from other states.

Tour operators from Kashmir Tourism Trade Bodies Joint Forum (KTTBJF) have demanded some measures that need to be taken by the Government for the revival of the tourism industry in J&K. They demanded that tour and travel operators have gained popularity and need to be recognised as a tourism unit and all the industrial benefits must be given to the tour operators as are given to the hoteliers. They also urged that the tourism incentive scheme should be extended for the next 15 years and travel agents and tour operators should be included, and all the pending cases should be cleared at the earliest. They also demanded a waiver on the GST and claimed that the Government should first let the tourism sector breathe first. They also pointed out that the adventure tour operators are going through many problems and for the last 3 years they have not been able to pay the bank EMIs of the loans they have taken for increasing the infrastructure for adventure tourism.

Hotel Association of India (HAI) has written to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for immediate intervention to provide relief to the hospitality industry which is on the verge of collapse, in five key areas—one-time settlement of loans and extension of loan moratoriums till September 2021, waiver of all statutory liabilities at Centre, State and Municipal levels for the pandemic period, stimulus package subsidising of salaries of hotel employees, according ‘Infrastructure Status’ and to bring Tourism & Hospitality to the concurrent list of the Constitution. In its request HAI pointed out that over 40% of hotels have shut or are on the brink of closure and 70% of overall jobs are now in danger directly or indirectly.

 The World Committee on Tourism Ethics, an independent cell of the General Assembly of the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), has said that vaccines should not form part of vaccination holiday packages and must remain a global public good. The committee believes that the COVID-19 certificates for international travel must be free and available to all without any discrimination. UNWTO adopted a few recommendations on such certificates for global travel under the Chairmanship of Pascal Lamy. They have also recommended that these certificates must be limited in time and use.

The Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) has waived off the annual membership fee for the financial year 2021 – 22. The association has reduced the fees by 50% for the financial year 2020 – 2021. Riaz Munshi, President, OTOAI said, “This is not the time to make money or fill up reserves. We understand the plight of our fellow industry colleagues and this gesture is our way of showing our solidarity to them. The outbound from India has been severely affected and it will indeed take a while before things go back to normal. The second wave has hit all businesses, especially tourism (which had started to pick a little in December / January) severely and different entry laws / requirements by different countries has made outbound travel very challenging. I would also like to urge people in the travel fraternity to get themselves vaccinated at the earliest possible so that whenever tourism opens, our customers do not hesitate reaching out to us and it will also send out a positive message to the world.”