Tourism industry expects revival to be slow

VISAKHAPATNAM: With countries like Vietnam and Cambodia gradually opening its borders to tourists, stakeholders in the state’s travel and tourism industry feel that it is time to revive the market, which has been brought to a standstill by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
Vietnam has launched a communication campaign ‘Vietnam NOW - Safety and Smiling’, which is a tourism stimulus programme with preferential packages for domestic and Asian tourists.Other countries, such as Bhutan, Laos, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand, Fuji, Seychelles, Mauritius, Madagascar, Macau and Thailand, are also inching closer to resuming tourism activities.
“Tourism, both domestic and international, will be different as focus will be on safety and hygiene. Emirates Airlines is already conducting spot Covid-19 tests for passengers. Health authorities in Dubai have also introduced quick blood tests and the results are available in just 10 minutes,” said K Vijay Mohan, president of Travel and Tourism Association of Andhra (TTAA).
Members of TTAA pointed out that rapid testing would be more cost effective than flying with middle seats empty as fares for those seats will be charged to the passengers flying.
“If an airlines keeps the middle seat empty, the fares of the other two passengers will definitely increase. Assuming that the average fare is Rs 4,000, passengers will be paying an additional Rs 2,000 per seat. However, there is another challenging situation. The aisle seats are less that 1.5 feet apart and do not conform to social distancing norms. So, introducing rapid testing at airports will guarantee that no passenger is carrying the coronavirus onto the flight. If this is introduced soon, aviation and tourism industries can resume faster,” Vijay Mohan said.
Dheeraj of DC Holidays and vice-president of TTAA said, “A lot will depend on how safe the destinations are. Once a particular destination is announced as safe, people will look forward to visiting it. Hotel managements also have to conduct frequent tests of their staff to ensure safety to guests.” He added: “Singapore is already rolling out a QR-based app ‘Trace Together’ to keep a tab on tourists.”
Speaking about the safety of hotels, Vijay Mohan said, “Hotels will have to introduce mandatory mobile check-ins and check-outs using Bluetooth and RFID technology, cashless payments, protection shields in front desks, a la carte menus, and distant seating in restaurants. Hotel chains have already begun revamping their existing service protocols. Some hotels have identified over 200 standard operating procedures and touch points where they will make changes to meet the new health and safety norms.”
“We are already receiving enquiries about hotels in Gopalpur and Bhubaneswar. Initially, people may travel by road to closer destinations and once flights resume, other destinations will see tourist arrivals,” said Srinivas Kumar, TTAA secretary.