Travel agencies flooded with rebooking requests

MUSCAT: Travel agents in Oman have been getting calls and visits from customers all day, as they try to rearrange bookings after the country’s ports of entry through land, air and sea were temporarily closed.

The decision, made by the Supreme Committee to deal with COVID-19, was taken to stop the spread of the disease, and is in effect for a week.

“We had so many customers at our main office that we had to put up chairs everywhere for them to wait, on both our ground and first floors,” explained Faiyaz Khan, general manager for Travel Point.

“We could only admit 50 persons into our office at a time, because of the social distancing measures, and needed to test their temperatures outside.

“We’ve received plenty of calls and messages from people who were either looking to fly into Oman or leave the country for a short while,” he added. “We have had to re-book them on flights, hoping the ruling only lasts for a week. If it is extended, though, then we’ll have to go through this all over again.”

Travel Point held an emergency meeting on Monday evening to decide how to help customers during the coming week.

“We have 200 staff and about 15 branches in the country, so we needed to coordinate on how to help passengers,” explained Khan. “We have asked our staff to be available to them, because this has affected all of their travel plans. For example, I had a call from the customer in Durban who wanted to come back to Oman, but he cannot return now for a while.

“Another customer went to India for an emergency for just a week, and was expecting to return here, but he has to wait, so we had to rebook him as well,” he said. “It is important that he returns because his wife and children are alone here. A lot of students who want to come to Oman have their parents calling us, asking to book alternate tickets for their children.

“Oman is one of the few countries in the world that had reopened to people after lockdowns were instituted globally, and we had about 200 passengers from India planning to come here for Christmas and New Year’s Eve,” Khan added. “Many of our customers have asked us for a refund and we have had to absorb some of the costs in doing so, but the ones who have planned their travels for the end of this year and January have held their bookings.”