Agra tourism sector sees ‘achhe din’ ahead
AGRA: The Taj City’s tourism sector is looking forward to ‘achhe din’ once again after the revival of regular international flights from March 27 following let up in the Covid pandemic.
Badly hit by restrictions imposed because of the pandemic in the last two years, a wave of optimism is clearly evident among operators of the tourism sector.
The international flight revival impact has been manifold with offices of travel agents, hotels and tour operators coming to life while guides, taxi operators and shopkeepers await ‘good times’ ahead.
“The resumption of international flights is sure to have its impact because their suspension was the last road block in the path of revival of tourism. Flights landing from other countries convey a ‘psychological’ message that Covid is on the wane and so we are open (for business),” said Sunil Gupta, chairman of Indian Association of Tour Operators (north).
“It is a chain process in tourism and flights landing in Delhi will bring smiles to taxi drivers, guides, shopkeepers, restaurant owners and, above all, to the travellers because resumption of international flights will bring down the air fare, which otherwise had risen three times during the pandemic,” Gupta said.
“Fifteen airlines resumed flights within a few days after March 27. Cumbersome processes have ended and tourists are now not required to register on ‘Air Suvidha’ portal, a mandatory requirement during pandemic. As a result, diplomats have started travelling, students from US are coming for short term semesters and as a welcome sign, groups from Europe are on their way to India,” stated the chairman of IATO (north).
Although the international flights have resumed with the onset of summer, which is otherwise a low tourism season in Agra (till September), but Gupta is optimistic that India has all sorts of destinations and that tourists are increasing in Kashmir, Ladakh and south India etc.
Despite the apprehension of a fourth wave of the Covid pandemic striking, Gupta is positive and stated that India is more prepared now having faced three waves of the pandemic.
“Our hospitals are better equipped, we have arrangements for oxygen and are well prepared,” he said.
Rajeev Saxena, Secretary of Tourism Guild of Agra, said: “It had been a nightmare for almost two years. Nearly 5 lakh people lost their jobs or had to work on compromised salaries in hotels even as emporiums and travel companies working for foreign tourism were totally shut because of Covid.”
However, he is optimistic about the tourism sector revival with resumption of international flights.
“Resumption of international flights has brought a ray of hope even as the government has announced free visas for the first 5 lakh tourists. However, some amount of uncertainty persists because of the ongoing Covid threat in other countries, the Russia-Ukraine war and rising inflation. Also, travel promotions and offers are still missing. In fact, there will be more outbound than inbound travel,” Saxena said.
Talking about the initial phase after resumption of international flights, Saxena states: “We are witnessing resumption of postponed bookings first, and new booking will take time as India is still not a favourite destination among foreign tourists to begin their tourism plans. Despite beginning of international flights, revival is long road ahead.”
Hari Sukumar, president for Tourism Guild of Agra, said the pandemic has set tourism back by at least 5 years in terms of business and revenues.
“The International traveller brings a multiplier effect to the tourism industry with work and business from the airline sector to the cab aggregators, tour guides and hotel owners. Hence, it is an important aspect of revenue for all segments of the sector,” stated Sukumar.
“We now have confirmed bookings from destination wedding planners and meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) groups in the city. With the resumption of foreign travel, groups from US, Holland, South America and Germany, and also the domestic segment, are very buoyant and are keeping the industry afloat,” he added.