Banking on domestic tourism
While there was no inbound business in 2021, there was some outbound that we did for our company. However, I believe that OTAs have taken away a major chunk of the domestic market from travel agents and tour operators, especially with everyone bent towards buying everything online in the post-pandemic world. Also, for outbound travellers, Maldives turned out to be very popular, along with Dubai, which now requires five sets of RTPCR. I believe that we may not see mass tourism happening until the RTPCRs go away. I hope that in 2022 things will become normal, but at the same time, the Omicron scare is real and it may delay the recovery we are anticipating by some more time.
In terms of the tourism industry, inbound tourism business proved to be zero in 2021 since international borders were closed. However, domestic tourism has been on the rise since scheduled flights were not operating apart from air bubbles and those going for overseas holidays couldn't travel aborad. I believe that in the year 2022, domestic tourism will continue to rise. From what we can anticipate from how things stand today, I am hoping that it will only be in October 2022 that inbound will restart and we will start our bookings. For inbound to thrive, many things are needed, including regular flights and easy immigration without quarantine or RTPCR requirements. Until all this comes back, we can only hope for the best while keeping our fingers crossed.
For the last two years, inbound operators have just been sitting at home without any business. We have got a response from our partners in other countries that they are ready to travel and as soon as flights restart, they will start coming back to Kashmir. Owing to COVID and the closure of borders, thousands of domestic tourists came to Kashmir. In fact, hotels in Kashmir are already half sold out for 2022 as well. Hence, we are expecting a good number of tourists in the New Year. We also want budget tourists because 80 per cent of our accommodation is budget. A few more hotels are needed, apart from luxury transport. We are also going to Thailand for a roadshow in March-April if the flights start by that time.
In the year 2021, we could survive only because of domestic tourism, and we are sure that this business is going to bounce back in 2022-23 as well. We are expecting that in the New Year, we will have double the tourist arrivals and even domestic travel woul keep growing. I am sure we will rebound and things will come back to normal very soon for the entire industry. With e-visa already reinstated for foreign tourists and scheduled flights expected to open very soon, I believe 2022 will see inbound coming back in a big way. I am hopeful that all that, which went wrong due to the pandemic, is eventually going to be a thing of the past and our travel and tourism industry would survive in the new times to come.
CRUISES
Cordelia Cruises has received a huge response & interest, and it has been encouraging and overwhelming. We expect the same momentum to continue in 2022. Indians have given travel the utmost importance post pandemic, and it will only get bigger. Destination weddings have become huge, and at Cordelia, there has been immense demand for the same. We look forward to hosting large-scale entertainment in the New Year for families, festivals, weddings, and more destinations. We would also like to add another ship and capture many families and weddings to newer destinations.
We remain highly optimistic about the continued growth and demand for safe cruises in 2022 as we continue to explore new initiatives. We must remain vigilant in the face of a changing landscape and learn to adapt quickly in order to ensure that protocols are constantly reviewed and implemented.In addition, we are also actively in discussion with the various port authorities to create a ‘Harmonised Cruising Standard’ for the region in the hope of gradually re-opening international cruising in a controlled and safe manner with possible options to offer regional destinations in 2022. We also look forward to having more of our ships operate safe cruises in the region as we also make plans to welcome our Global Class ship in 2022.