Dear Friends,

The tourism industry that was just finding its footing after nearly two years of devastation wrought by the pandemic is once again rattled as countries throw up new barriers to travel in an effort to contain the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron. However, there was a quick response by several nations, which demonstrated that they would rather risk overreacting to a new threat rather than underreacting.

India too has delayed operation of scheduled international commercial passenger services till January 31, 2022, which will keep inbound travellers away for a bit longer. However, the findings are, every time there has been a variant, and as soon as it clears up a little, leisure travel snaps back very quickly and domestic travel booms. Inbound and business travel is a little more uncertain, but I presume it won’t be for long.

Since the show must go on, we at TTJ are excited about the 36th IATO Annual Convention being held in Gandhinagar from 16th 19th December 2021. It’s the most anticipated travel convention for inbound tourism and TTJ has always been an integral part of this. This issue is a pre-blast on the convention and has several pages dedicated to the association leaders, stalwarts, members and also on the apt convention theme, in the present circumstances, “Brand India: The Road to Recovery.”

The issue also features outbound travel interviews, which reflects that the stakeholders are still trying to stay relevant, and ready to accept Indian travellers when borders reopen.

Happy Reading!