As the world reopens in the new normal, air travel and holidays only seem to be getting more costly. According to ETC, around 77 per cent of Europeans have already made travel plans for the period between April and September. Such data suggest that the ongoing war in Ukraine has not affected travellers’ desire to visit another country during the summer.
Suhas Jadhav, Regional Manager – UK & Europe, Air India Ltd. exclusively told Asian Voice, “I would like to inform that after bubble agreement from summer schedule we have started operating 33 flights per week from Heathrow from 28 flights per week and one per week from Birmingham to Amritsar and Delhi. We are having direct flights apart from Mumbai 7 flights per week and Delhi eleven flights per week adding to the favourite destinations like Goa, Cochin, Amritsar, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad thrice a week. We are quite upbeat about the lifting of Covid restrictions in the UK.”
But at the same time, in the post-Brexit drama, tens of Indian nationals attempting to board flights to the UK with a transiting stop in either the Czech Republic, France, Germany or Spain have been prevented from doing so in recent days. As the UK is no longer a part of the European Union, citizens of both territories are subject to different rules.
New post-Brexit rules that have been introduced by EU authorities come as a punishment to UK authorities by insisting that non-EU citizens including Indians are now required to hold a Transit Schengen visa in order to fly to the UK on transit flights of its airlines, SchengenVisaInfo.com reported.
It is important that customers must hold a standard British citizen passport with at least 6 months validity in the same personal details before we issue them a Diplomatic or Official passport. Long queues were formed at the Eurostar terminal and at Manchester airport as 14 million cars take to the roads again to rush home before the working week began this Tuesday. While British Airways, EasyJet cancellations stretch into a second week recently, this hasn’t deterred the spirit of travellers from planning their journeys. On the brighter side, the fact that the media reported about ‘Bank holiday travel hell’ - explains that the tourism industry is all set to witness a much-needed boom.
Hospitality and tourism suffered the most
Girish Sanger of Courthouse Hotel told the newsweekly, “The last two years have been very hard on us all and in terms of business. No business has suffered more than hospitality and tourism. We are glad to see Governments reopening their borders and travel restrictions lifted allowing tourism and corporate travel to resume. Hotels have always had a high standard of cleanliness, and this is being maintained. We are seeing the longer lengths of stays from travellers at all our hotels (especially the Courthouse Hotel and The Bentley Hotel) and from those flying in from Asia and the Middle East (presumably since they are travelling after nearly 2 years).
“Corporate bookings are still not at pre-pandemic levels but are steadily growing Fortunately we have not seen an impact in business as this has been replaced by an increase in demand from leisure bookings at the Washington Hotel Mayfair. During the pandemic, we saw an increased pick up from staycations, especially from within the UK and this seems to have remained mainly due to increased flight costs. T
“The Courthouse Hotel in Shoreditch continues to thrive on staycations owing to its additional facilities such as a swimming pool, spa, bowling alley and outdoor alfresco dining options. All the Hotels and all businesses however are faced with rising costs, especially from utilities which have increased threefold - whilst we are trying to limit the impact of passing the additional costs onto our consumers it won’t be before long that we will have to increase our room rates unless the situation changes, and suppliers too are able to absorb the costs without passing them on to us.”
Lord Rami Ranger CBE told Asian Voice, “The past two years have been very challenging for the hotel industry. The travel restrictions also played a part in the financial difficulties. Most of the staff in the industry comes from Europe. Due to the lockdown, many went back to their countries and never returned. The staff shortage is yet another challenge facing the industry. We cannot get staff due to Brexit as workers cannot travel to the United Kingdom as freely as they used to before Brexit.
“The Government tried to soften the blow with a furlough scheme, but it was not enough. The industry is struggling to get back to the pre-Covid level and it will take two to three years. The war in Ukraine has brought yet another challenge as Russia is facing travel and business sanctions. Both our hotels acted as Covid quarantines and now we are housing refugees from Ukraine. The room rate is below the normal rates. We have no choice but to accept whatever we can get to weather the storms brought by Covid and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
Despite high price, people want to travel
Lata Agrawal (name changed on request) is travelling to Crete Island in Greece in August. She and her husband are travelling with four other families for a group vacation. Each family has booked a hotel for about a week. One of the four families is travelling from Singapore to Crete Island with a stopover journey. Speaking to us, Lata said, “ Hotel prices are higher than usual. The air ticket prices are also crazy high. Hotels are asking for a 50% upfront payment and if you have Covid or if you're unable to go, you can’t cancel nearer to time without losing the deposit.
“Half board room options have additional charges for food of your choice, while the menu offered is restrictive. Something unseen before. A lot of families won't be able to bear that extra cost after paying through their nose for rooms. Yet, everything is getting filled up very fast. That means despite the challenges of high prices and spending capacity, people are still booking holidays because they're able to travel after so long.”
Personal Trainer & Wellness Coach, Lavina Mehta MBE has just returned from a family holiday to Portugal. Speaking to us, Lavina said, “Travelling in the new normal was so exhilarating, especially after the last 2 years of the pandemic and having so many travel plans cancelled or postponed. I was blessed to be able to take my parents in their 70s with us and this trip was extra special as the pandemic has affected the elderly so much in terms of loneliness and isolation. The travel process was extremely easy, in fact, I had to return to London to attend a work meeting at No 10 Downing Street and fly back within 24 hours!
“My father used to be a travel agent, so I have always had a love for travel and visiting new places. This year we have a few trips planned which I’m really looking forward to. In Summer we hope to travel to Mexico with extended family to celebrate my mum-in-law’s 75th, my middle son’s 21st and my husband’s 50th and then join friends for a road trip around the West Coast of USA. Certainly, making up for lost time with quality time!”
It’s not just the cost of tickets
Charusmita is flying to London from Delhi to receive her PhD award in her convocation. She had to book tickets at very short notice and paid a hefty £1500 per ticket for a round trip which usually never crossed over £600-£700 at max for a round trip pre-pandemic. She aims to spend about 15 nights in London during her stay and complained that even the nicer hotels are “shabby”. A 3-star hotel is costing £100 per night. She and her husband do plan to visit Cornwall and some nearby places during their visit which is “too expensive” in their assessment. They’ll be paying £200 per person just by train to reach Cornwall. So that’ll cost her another £1500 over and above the air ticket. This is when Charusmita doesn’t wish to plan a Europe trip. During her search for hotel bookings, she also felt that Zones 3 and 4 had “terrible hotels”.
A new study commissioned by Trifibre (a company that specialises in protective suitcases) has revealed that Ryanair is the airline where your suitcase is most likely to be damaged. Media reports suggest that the low-cost airline has come out as the worst for luggage damage. Data taken from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) showed that out of 823 claims for damaged luggage submitted to airlines between 2015 and 2020, over one in ten were made to Ryanair. The study also revealed that if you're unfortunate enough to have to make a claim for damaged luggage, your chances of a successful result are less than half. For those who did eventually get a successful result from a damaged luggage claim, it would take an average of 154 days to reach a settlement.
Heena Bhudia, Business Development Manager, Travelpack said, "Over the last few months Travelpack has seen significant demand for international travel. Client confidence is returning and previously cautious clients are starting to travel again, as the world begins to open and governments reduce or totally remove travel restrictions. Currently, our popular destinations are Europe, the Caribbean and the Middle East. The Middle East and European beach holidays have always been a popular favourite among families due to the safe nature of the destinations, the sunny weather, a range of activities for children and child-friendly hotels. As more countries remove restrictions this leads to a knock-on effect and demand for airlines that service those routes. We are also seeing more clients that previously booked short-haul now opting for long haul destinations, we see this trend continuing beyond this year."
If you are planning a holiday, do attend our Travel & Tourism seminar on 23rd April 2022. Turn to P4 for more details.
