There is no doubt that this year has been a tough one, for almost everyone, across countries, businesses, profiles – everyone has struggled in one way or the other. It is no secret that in the last eight months there has been almost NIL international travel except for repatriation travel or emergencies. As you know all countries or almost all countries across the globe shut their borders and some are not planning to welcome anyone till next year i.e. 2021. So it’s been a crisis which has no parallel in recent times or maybe 100 years.
I strongly believe that commercial flights should commence operations now. After all, people do need to work and earn money and the wheels of the economy have to move otherwise there will be a worse calamity with empty government coffer. I think it is a great practice to set up some form of testing at the airports on arrival or prior to departure. Masks are here to stay, even after the pandemic goes away. So going about ones job with all safety norms practiced will help in opening up much quicker. Having said that flights should commence with airlines and destinations controlling numbers, following strict safety norms, testing etc.
It has been heartening to see some kind of movement happening with regards to outbound from India. Some of the destinations and hotels are seeing their business return. This is the right way forward and business should return to some form of normalcy. Currently, Maldives and Dubai are seeing business grow from India. Both Dubai and Maldives are very much driven by tourism, especially Maldives. All the chains we represent in India have suffered a lot but most of the hotels are open now. The business that they are getting right now is from within their countries or staycations. As part of the chains we manage for sales, there is inventory in both the destinations mentioned that are open and they are getting business.
No one at this point can predict when things will go back to being normal though I hope it is sooner than we can imagine. However the writing on the wall is that 2019 level will take up to 2023 to return.
Concluding my view I would like to say that this is a good time for destinations and also states within India to look at their number of visitors. Very few destinations practice controlled tourism. In the recent past years we have heard about flooding in Europe, locals asking for tourists to go away, the uproar against the largest bed and breakfast portal making destinations too affordable therefore drawing in backpackers almost everywhere, the disastrous floods in the Himalayas and so on and on. All this was validated by the subsequent return of the green atmosphere during the lockdown. Thus, these are all indicators that we don’t have time anymore for discussions, it’s time to act if we need to preserve our planet for future generations. Tourism as an industry needs to lead from the front.
