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About India Outbound Magazine

India Outbound 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. These trends, India Outbound analyse and predict them.

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Air India opens bookings for evacuation flights

Air India has opened booking for special flights to Singapore, London and select destinations of the United States to facilitate the non-resident Indians and stranded citizens to return to these countries. On the return leg, the airline will fly Indians stranded in these countries. The government of India announcement clarified that the first phase of evacuation exercise comprising of 64 flights to West Asia, London, Singapore and the US has already begun.

The airline has opened booking for 10 flights to London, Singapore, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington. An economy class seat from Mumbai to London on May 8 was available for around INR 72,000 while tickets between Delhi and San Francisco on the same date were available for INR 139,000.

At the same time, the home ministry issued standard operating procedures for evacuation flights and this defines who can travel on the outbound flights. This includes citizens of destination countries, those who hold visas of those countries for one year among others. The home ministry has also made it mandatory for the pilots and cabin crew to undergo COVID-19 tests in order to operate these flights. The crew will have to undergo a test again on arrival back in India. Air India Express will also operate flights to Abu Dhabi and Dubai from Kochi and Kozhikode respectively.

Upon arrival in India, passengers will have to undergo thermal screening and those with visible COVID-19 symptoms will be isolated and transferred to a hospital. Other passengers would be screened again at a triage facility at the airport and will be asked to undergo quarantine at home or government facility based on risk factors. At the New Delhi airport, 20 medical teams will be deployed for examining the passengers.

Bangkok weekend and flea markets reopen under safety guidelines

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has announced that Bangkok’s weekend and flea markets, which are very popular among the tourists, are now open, showing signs of a return to normalcy albeit under a “new normal.”

The Royal Thai Government has allowed a relaxation of the COVID-19 containment restrictions for 10 clusters of businesses and venues, including all markets, starting from May 3.

The reopening includes Talat Liap Duan – Night Market By the Highway, Talat Huamum Night Market, Chatuchak Playground antique flea market; Chatuchak Weekend Market BMA among others. Bangkok’s two train night markets – Talat Rot Fai (Train Night Market) Ratchada and Talat Rot Fai (Train Night Market) Srinakarin – will reopen from May 15. However, the Neon Night Bazaar, located in the heart of Bangkok’s wholesale shopping district, Pratunam, would continue to stay closed until May 15 or until further notice.

TAT has made it clear that everyone has to strictly follow the health and safety guidelines at these markets. These include allowing body temperature to be checked at the market prior to entering, wearing a surgical or cloth mask at all times, washing hands regularly, and observing social distancing rules. It also clarified that although these weekend and flea markets are reopening, not all shops have resumed operations; such as manicure/pedicure shops, massage shops and tattoo shops.

Abu Dhabi Tourism launches specialist programme for 17 markets

The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) announced the launch of the ‘Abu Dhabi Specialist Programme’, an e-learning platform which will educate travel trade industry professionals with all destination-related information about the emirate through a series of online courses.

The programme will be rolled out in three phases in several languages across 17 markets, including the United Kingdom, USA, Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand, China, South Korea, Germany, France, Italy, Ireland and Russia, as well as the GCC countries. The first phase has been launched last week in six key markets including India.

Designed specifically for tour operators, travel agents and wholesalers, the Abu Dhabi Specialist Programme will equip travel trade professionals with accurate and relevant information about Abu Dhabi, supporting and encouraging them to promote the destination to consumers within their markets.

Saood Al Hosani, the acting undersecretary at DCT Abu Dhabi said, “This training and education platform ensures that all participating industry partners have easy and quick access to the latest content on Abu Dhabi, thus making the destination promotion aspect of their job much easier.”

Airbnb reduces workforce by 25 pc, stresses on home sharing

Airbnb has laid off 1,900 staff out of a global total of 7,500. The decision was made public in an open letter by the co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky. Where he acknowledged that decisions on layoffs were never “off the table” and the redundancy measure had to be taken as “Airbnb’s business has been hit hard, with revenue this year forecasted to be less than half of what we earned in 2019”.

Despite raising US$2 billion in capital and dramatically cutting costs across the company, Chesky said the uncertainty around when travel will return and how travel will be when it does return – had made it necessary for the layoffs.

“While we know Airbnb’s business will fully recover, the changes it will undergo are not temporary or short-lived. Because of this, we need to make more fundamental changes to Airbnb by reducing the size of our workforce around a more focused business strategy,” he justified.

Affected staff in the U.S. will receive 14 weeks of base pay, plus one additional week for every year at Airbnb. Tenure will be rounded to the nearest year. Outside the US, the affected employees will receive at least 14 weeks of pay, plus tenure increases consistent with their country-specific practices.

Along with the layoffs, Airbnb plans to reduce its investment in activities that do not directly support the core of its host community like in the operations on transportation and Airbnb Studios which will be suspended while investments in hotels and Lux will be scaled back.

Chesky explained that with employees across 24 countries that have their own laws and practices around employment, further information around the layoff would not be immediately available.


India Outbound is a publication of Media India Group