New corona variant poses threat for Goa tourism revival

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

The emergence of a new and potentially more transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus has brought enough tensions amid a promising tourism season for Goa’s charter tour operators. The industry was preparing for foreign tourists for the first time after almost two years; however, fresh restrictions on international travel are likely to deter tourists from traveling.

On Wednesday, after a meeting of the state authorities, the Goa government announced that besides compulsory testing on arrival for all international passengers from 12 countries where the virus has been identified so far, two weeks institutional quarantine will also be compulsory. Other foreign arrivals will have to go through home isolation for two weeks.

Goa normally witnesses foreign tourists in the final weeks of October and beginning November with Europeans venturing to more tropical climes. However, this year, while the central government announced that from October foreigners would be allowed to visit India on tourist visas including those via charter flights from October 15 onwards, the first charter is scheduled to arrive only on December 15 from Kazakhstan. However, late announcements provided tour companies with less time to market their tour packages, which means that the season will begin later this year and not in time for Christmas and the New Year.

The first charter from the UK is expected to land on December 23.The tourism industry is optimistic that from January onwards, at least two charter flights per week will fetch more tourists.

Nilesh Shah, the president of the Travel and Tourism Association of Goasaid, “It is increasingly clear that we will have to live with the virus and while we were hopeful that the pandemic would end a few months from now. It will now take a lot longer than initially anticipated. The renewed restrictions will definitely discourage some people from travelling, but we have to focus on taking all precautions including testing on arrival.”

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