New Delhi: With the world still struggling to find a COVID-19 vaccine and some countries bracing up for the second wave of the virus, global tourism will continue to bleed ahead and costs are likely to go up for international travel, feel experts. However, countries are opening up domestic tourism and some like the Maldives have started welcoming international visitors this month.
With 80 per cent of its economy directly or indirectly dependent on tourism, the small island nation is assuring foreign visitors of safety and sanitation even as the substantial component of Indian tourists are missing because of closed borders. In an exclusive conversation with Senior Journalist Smita Sharma, Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Sudhir speaking from Male explained the nation’s geography is an important factor in the opening-up process of international tourism which has taken a massive hit.
“In our part of the world, Maldives is the first country which has opened up tourism. Starting 15th of July tourists have started trickling in. Of 200 resorts around 57-60 have started working. Since it is all scattered islands it is better for them to control. But at the same time capital Male is a very heavily congested city. Once there is COVID here it will be very difficult, but they have created some kind of safe passage for passengers who land at the airport. They go straight to the islands, they spend their vacation, they come back to the airport and leave,” said Sanjay Sudhir.
Last year the Maldives welcomed 1.7 million tourists compared to its small population of 500,00 with Indians now forming the second-largest group of foreign tourists. As the Maldives struggles with an economic recovery, it is hopeful of limited commercial flight operations to resume from Mumbai and Cochin by mid-August to fly Indian visitors. Sanjay Sudhir confirmed that discussions are on to work out a possible ‘air bubble’ between the two countries. "We were at number 5, then our tourists doubled and now we are at number two. But because of lack of connectivity and our own COVID situation our tourist arrival has dwindled. What we are working on these days is if we can create some kind of air bubble. For this, we are in touch with Ministry of Aviation and Air India and if all goes well we should have at least some limited number of flights operating between India and Maldives," the envoy said.
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“This is very important for both the countries because of the opening we have got. And this is a place where because of the island structure of the country it is a very safe place. Where there are infected areas that are infected areas. But other than that by and large the country is very safe,” he added.
However, gaining the confidence of people to fly internationally again is among the many challenges facing the global hospitality and aviation sectors. For popular tourist destinations like Thailand or European nations, as of now the source of revenue is through domestic tourism.
“More Germans are vacationing in the country for the first time. Most Germans who do not stay at home, go to Southern European countries to Italy, Spain, Greece which are on the positive list with a recent rise in cases in Spain. We are having discussions in Germany about those tourists who are returning from those countries. Should they be tested, quarantined? In Germany, only Thailand and Vietnam are two countries of Asia in a positive list. Theoretically China, but it will only end up if there is reciprocity. The German tourism industry has difficulties but they are not as big as was expected because more Germans are staying at home,” explained Hans Christian Winkler, Spokesperson of the German Embassy in Delhi speaking to Smita Sharma.
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However, he cautioned that with a higher cost of operations, cost of international travel is likely to rise. “Most people coming to Germany are from our neighbouring countries like France, Netherlands, UK and Spain. It is not the number of visitors coming into Germany but more to do with costs of operations. So like in India hotels and restaurants cannot take in as many number of customers, very very critical situation we have with airlines that had to saved by taxpayers - be it Air France in France or Lufthansa in Germany. So states have taken shares into these companies to save them from bankruptcy. These travel operators and airlines are in the most difficult situation. Hotels and restaurants are surviving but some renowned restaurants had to close down in Germany because the cost of operations has gone up. There is a certain ceiling of the price you can take from customers. So some of them are in a very complicated situation,” added Hans Christian cautioning that with some European countries witnessing a second wave, it is difficult to talk of a time frame for recovery.
According to a report published by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on July 1, the world tourism sector is expected to lose at least 1.2 trillion USD or 1.5 per cent of global GDP. As per the UN World, Tourism Organisation estimates, outbound visitors from India is expected to drop to 10 million in 2020 from 29 million in 2019. Whereas prior to COVID, estimates suggested that some 50 million Indians would have travelled overseas up from 23 million in 2017. Countries like Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan are among the top travel tourist destinations for Indians. Vachirachai Sirisumpan, Director of Tourism Authority of Thailand in New Delhi feels it is unlikely international tourism will revive soon.
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“Domestic tourism is back to a nearly normal situation in Thailand. So people can travel around the country freely. International tourism will take some time. I cannot say when exactly but in the current situation we need to look both at safety and the need to have an economic balance which is very challenging for every country. At the moment we are gradually opening up at this stage. We opened up for foreigners to come in mainly for those who work in Thailand or those who need medical treatment. Thai tourism has faced a big loss,” Sirisumpan told Smita Sharma in the special discussion.
Underlining winning trust and confidence of international visitors as key to the revival of global tourism, he hoped that people would choose to travel with some higher costs involved if they got ‘value for money’. “Every country, every hotel, resort have to do SOPs now. We need to balance between supplies and demands. If you need to increase prices you need to make sure your customer understands the reason why. As long as the customer feels it is value for money, they will be willing to pay for that vacation,” added the Thai tourism official.
