The emergence of a new and potentially more transmissible Omicron variant of the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus has put a damper on what was shaping up to be a promising tourism season for Goa’s charter tour operators. The industry was gearing up for foreign tourists for the first time in nearly two years but fresh restrictions on international travel are likely to dissuade tourists from travelling.
On Wednesday, after a meeting of the state authorities, the Goa government announced that in addition to 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 mandated. Other foreign arrivals will have to undergo home isolation for two weeks.
Goa usually welcomes its first foreign tourists in the final weeks of October and beginning November as Europeans head out to more tropical climes as winter begins to set in in much of the northern hemisphere. However, this year, while the central government announced that beginning October foreigners would be allowed to enter India on tourist visas including via charter flights from October 15 onwards, the first charter is scheduled to arrive only on December 15 from Kazakhstan. A delayed announcement gave tour companies less time to market their tour packages which means the season will begin later this year and possibly not in time for Christmas and the New Year.
{{/usCountry}}Goa usually welcomes its first foreign tourists in the final weeks of October and beginning November as Europeans head out to more tropical climes as winter begins to set in in much of the northern hemisphere. However, this year, while the central government announced that beginning October foreigners would be allowed to enter India on tourist visas including via charter flights from October 15 onwards, the first charter is scheduled to arrive only on December 15 from Kazakhstan. A delayed announcement gave tour companies less time to market their tour packages which means the season will begin later this year and possibly not in time for Christmas and the New Year.
{{/usCountry}}The first charter from the UK is expected on December 23 while the tourism industry is hopeful that from January onwards at least two charter flights per week will bring in more tourists.
“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,” Nilesh Shah, the president of the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa, the state’s hospitality industry lobby, said.
“With nearly 100% of the state’s population vaccinated with both doses we should be in a good position to ensure continuity of tourism whilst living along with Covid,” Shah said.
He said that initial reports indicated that while the virus was more transmissible it didn’t cause more severe symptoms or increased hospitalization rates and that after the initial hype the situation would normalise.
According to the association, tourism is one of the most adversely affected sectors for the Covid pandemic. The tourism sector employs over 40 million skilled and trained manpower and generates approximately US $29 billion foreign exchange per annum.
“With the full closure of international flights and visas since March 2020, many operators and stakeholders have shut shop and are facing severe financial constraints,” the TTAG had said.
However, despite the industry’s optimism, several problems remain. The now mandatory RT-PCR negative test for foreign arrivals in addition to vaccination is expected to serve as a damper along with policy uncertainty as countries around the world have begun to update travel advisories including banning of flights from certain African countries for now, with uncertainty over how the virus will play out. A decision not to reallow visas on arrival for travellers also suggests there’s a long way to go before ‘normalcy’ can be restored, tour operators said.
The Goa government has said that it will ensure that all mandates are followed to keep the population safe.
Goa’s tourism season usually begins with the receding monsoon and as winter sets in across the northern hemisphere, those seeking to escape the often-biting cold climes choose to spend time in warmer parts of the world and Goa is among the preferred destinations for those seeking to travel.
The UK, Germany, Poland, Russia and Ukraine are the primary sources of foreign tourists to Goa.
Goa’s tourism sector is a big source of revenue for the state with the industry directly contributing 16.43% towards the state Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and also providing employment to nearly 35% of the state’s population that is dependent on the sector, according to official estimates.