Vaccination will boost outbound

With vaccinations opening for everyone above 18 from May 1, the enthusiasm for outbound travel will certainly rise in the coming months. With a pause in bookings currently, travel specialists feel that outbound travel will get a huge boost soon as they provide a sneak peak into the current trends.

Riaz Munshi, Managing Director, N Chirag Travels

Right now, there is a pause in outbound travel booking. It will take another two months to recover. Many countries will open up for Indian travellers like Israel. Sweden will start issuing visas, Turkey and Russia are also
open. Some of the countries have put a temporary hault but many more will open up in the coming months. We have not seen much cancellations in booking, just about 5-10 per cent, because people are still travelling as it depends upon how they think.

Himanshu Patil, Director, Kesari Tours

People are travelling to different destinations apart from just Maldives. Russia has opened up, Greece and Turkey have opened borders for travellers. But again, these destinations are popular but a lot of restrictions and guidelines are changing every day. So it is difficult to say that many destinations are open today. Right now, it is tough to talk about trends. Domestic tourism is booming and people are travellling to neighbouring countries like Nepal also.

Manish Kriplani, Managing Director, Baywatch Travels

Frankly, we have been only getting travel queries for Dubai and Maldives. People are going to Andamans. There are some prick inquries which come for other destinations, but when it comes to booking, none of the lead is getting booked. But inquiries are there for destinations. Yes, we have also seen cancellations since last one week due to rising COVID cases right now. Beginning of the month, we were busy booking and now we have seen rapid cancellations.

SMA Sheeraz, Managing Director, Sheeraz Tours

Russia has started issuing visas and we have also been getting some queries for travel and services. Like always, Dubai is popular and has been the preferred destination from North India and UP market. There are some other destinations also that are yet to open borders for Indians but we are getting queries for them. There are a lot of weddings planned in May, so traffic is expected to increase. We have also received a few queries for Ukraine and Seychelles.

Neeraj Gupta, Director, Peekay Holidays

The trend is the people are curious to travel but due to the current second wave of COVID infections, people are little hesitant to book ahead. They just want to take their time out before they process any booking. But the queries are coming through, people are keen and eager but just the confidence is not great to take the next step. Seychelles being a good competition to Maldives is getting popular, its a good change.

Inputs by Manas Dwivedi