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About India Outbound Magazine

India Outbound, a brand of Media India Group, is India’s only B2B travel media platform, that encompasses a print magazine, a website, an online TV channel and dynamic social media platforms, entirely dedicated to the promotion of foreign destinations and products in India. India Outbound is a niche platform not just for tourism destinations and products to promote themselves to the Indian travel industry, but also for decision makers to build/change their strategy in a context where the Indian outbound market is not only growing but changing with new dynamics. India Outbound brings to you the latest trends of the market with in depth analysis.

Tourism to take 3-5 years for global recovery: Euromonitor

Global tourism will take at least three-five years to recover from Covid-19, but players are finding innovative ways to survive the impact of coronavirus, says a report by Euromonitor International to be launched at WTM Virtual. The report, called Accelerating Travel Innovations after Coronavirus, will be launched on November 9, 2020.

Euromonitor says that, provided the pandemic is contained within a year and demand begins to rebound in 2021, it expects airlines to take a minimum of four years to recover, whilst lodging and intermediaries will take longer. The report will reveal how the travel industry is innovating in order to survive the seismic impact of coronavirus that brought global travel and tourism to an abrupt halt in 2020.

Travel is lagging behind other sectors when it comes to recovery, according to Euromonitor’s Voice of Industry survey, which showed travel is falling behind other industries, such as consumer goods, retail and packaging, when it comes to overall engagement with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that make up the United Nation’s 2030 agenda.

Covid-19 has taken an enormous toll on mental wellbeing as a result of regular routines replaced by confinement and social isolation. Post-lockdown has seen an uptick in nature-based activities such as wild camping, trekking and wild swimming. With unemployment levels expected to rise, it will be important than ever to ensure sustainable, nature-based experiences are accessible to all, including the most vulnerable groups.

Nepal reopens to adventurers to overcome economic stress

Nepal is home to eight of the 14 highest mountains in the world, including the tallest, Mount Everest. Adventurers looking to scale Nepal’s Himalayan peaks and trek its mountain trails can finally do so for the first time in seven months, as the country reopens to foreigners even as the coronavirus pandemic has left it short of hospital beds. Foreign visitors are a major source of income for Nepal and the closure has impacted the estimated 800,000 people who work in the tourism industry. The pandemic hit as Nepal was preparing to double the number of tourist arrivals with an ambitious campaign declaring 2020 as Visit Nepal year. Being closest to Nepal, it is even more interesting news for the Indian trekkers, mountaineers and the adventure seekers.

“We are not opening the country for all visitors and only mountaineers and trekkers who have taken prior permit will be allowed to come to Nepal,” says Rudra Singh Tamang, director general of Nepal's department of tourism. “We are opening to a sector of visitors who we know we can handle and manage,” he adds.

Rather than a visa on arrival, visitors now need to get prior approval, give details of their itinerary, hire a local outfitting company and have health insurance that covers Covid-19 treatment. They would also have take a coronavirus test before leaving their home country, stay for a week in quarantine at a hotel in Kathmandu and then take another coronavirus test before being allowed to go up the mountains. Local guides, porters, cooks and helpers who will be part of any mountaineering support team will be required to take coronavirus tests and prove they have been living in areas with no infections for the past two weeks.

Vistara to fly to Doha from New Delhi

As part of the air bubble arrangement between India and Qatar, Indian carrier Vistara will operate non-stop flights between New Delhi and Doha from November 19, 2020. The airline will use Airbus A320neo twice a week between the two capitals on Thursdays and Sundays. Bookings are being progressively opened on all channels, including Vistara’s website, mobile app, and through travel agents.

“We are pleased to strengthen our presence in the Middle East by adding another global city to our steadily growing network, albeit for special flights under the transport bubble. As an economic hub of the region, Doha continues to draw business travellers and is home to a large number of Indian expatriates,” says Leslie Thng, chief executive officer, Vistara.

The all-inclusive roundtrip fares in economy class have been priced at INR 15,499, while a premium economy ticket comes for INR 26,000 and business class fares are INR 52,000. Vistara will accept all eligible customers meeting the visa and entry requirements of both India and Qatar, as specified by the authorities from both the countries.

Kazakhstan taps new Borat movie to woo foreign tourists

Ridiculed once again in a film featuring fictional Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev, the ex-Soviet state of Kazakhstan has embraced the joke this time round and adopted Borat’s catch phrase in trying to attract tourists. The film, a follow-up to a 2006 film featuring the same sexist and racist character, was released on Amazon Prime recently. Like the first film, the movie has Borat on the rampage in the United States where he tries to trick U.S. politicians and others into letting their guard down and compromising themselves.

Borat’s first outing caused anger in Kazakhstan where authorities discouraged its screening and threatened legal action over what they saw as an insult to their national character.

This time round, they have taken a different approach and adopted Borat’s catchphrase ‘Very Nice!’ to try to promote tourism to the central Asian country. In a latest video released by the tourism board featuring spectacular mountains and lakes, an exotic food market, and futuristic-looking cityscapes, a series of foreign tourists use the catch phrase to signal their appreciation for what they are seeing.

Sacha Baron Cohen, the director and star of both Borat movies, said the films were comedies. “I chose Kazakhstan because it was a place that almost nobody in the U.S. knew anything about, which allowed us to create a wild, comedic, fake world. The real Kazakhstan is a beautiful country with a modern, proud society - the opposite of Borat's version,” Baron Cohen said in a statement.

In line with global tourism, Covid-19 has hit tourism in Kazakhstan very hard with all the travel restrictions and border closures like many other countries. Kairat Sadvakassov, deputy chairman of Kazakh Tourism, said that he hoped the campaign would help people see that Borat’s jokes about the country were off target when the situation improved. “We would like everyone to come experience Kazakhstan for themselves by visiting our country in 2021 and beyond, so that they can see that Borat's homeland is nicer than they may have heard,” Kairat Sadvakassov commented.

However, some Kazakh authorities remain unimpressed with the film. In a statement issued by the foreign ministry, officials said the new movie was racist and xenophobic, but that an official protest was pointless because it would only generate more publicity and profits for the film's makers.

World’s first voice-activated museum on language Planet Word opens in Washington D.C.

Planet Word, a museum dedicated to the power, beauty, and fun of language and to showing how words shape the human experience, opened its doors to the public.

Housed in Washington, D.C.’s historic Franklin School, Planet Word is the world’s first voice-activated museum, featuring immersive galleries and exhibits that will engage visitors of all ages in experiencing words and language from a wide range of perspectives. For a multi-lingual country like India, which hosts the diversity and its consequences of having various languages by all means, this museum will be a place of attraction for the tourists in the coming days.

Founded on the belief that literacy is fundamental to the health of democracy, Planet Word aims to inspire and renew a love of words, language, and reading. Appreciation for the power of language fosters empathy and encourages civil discourse. By engaging people of all ages with language, Planet Word encourages visitors to both fall in love with the joy and whims of words and understand how vital they are to the world.

“Democracy depends on literate citizens. I hope that Planet Word can provide a forum for civil discourse and a place where our community, in all its vibrant diversity, can gather to share the words that bridge differences and forge solutions,” Planet Word founder and CEO Ann Friedman says.

Planet Word is the world’s first major museum taking a high-tech approach to bringing language to life. Among the museum’s voice-activated exhibits is “Where Do Words Come From?”, a 22-foot-tall talking word wall that shares the story of the English language through a conversation with visitors and extraordinary light effects.


India Outbound is a publication of Media India Group