Cairo, Belgrade and Mexico City are among the new cities vying to replace Indian travellers’ all-time favourite Dubai as the new transit hubs for flying to destinations in Western countries, travel industry executives said.
Many travel services companies in India are offering attractive packages, which cover air tickets from India to their final destination cities, a 14-day stay and leisure package in the hub city, visa and Covid test costs.
Travel from India directly to several countries, including the US, the UK, Canada and Europe is not allowed currently, except for the passport holders of the respective countries.
Even the UAE, which is set to resume flight operations from India from Wednesday after a two-month ban, allow Indian passengers with UAE residency visas only to enter the country.
“The new red, orange and yellow category countries for air travel have seen travel services companies quickly coming up with alternate route options and innovative packages to help needy passengers from India to fly to destinations in countries such as the US, Canada, the UK and Europe,” Amit Udani, executive director of Fly Aerolink Travel Trade, a Mumbai-based travel services provider, told Arabian Business.
“Among them, travel via Mexico City, Cairo and Belgrade are emerging as the most popular ones because of their relatively easy procedures and tourist attractions,” Udani added.
Indian passengers who travel to these countries require only a negative RT-PCR test result done 72 hours prior to flight departure, and are allowed to enter their final destination countries after spending 14 days in the transit country.
Mexico City, Cairo and Belgrade emerge as the new favourite transit hubs for Indian travellers to the West
Travel industry sources said Moscow and Tashkent are also offered as alternate route options to Indian passengers who are desperate to travel to countries in the West or the Gulf for job or business purposes.
Interestingly there are packages offered to travel to Dubai and Saudi Arabia also, mainly via Tashkent. These packages, however, are offered on chartered flights.
While the costs for transit travel packages via Moscow and Belgrade range from $2,260 – $2,420 per passenger, depending on the final destination country, Dubai is offered for about $1,550 per passenger.
Mumbai-based Akbar Travels and Riya Travels are the major Indian travel service providers who are offering the alternate travelling packages.
“Considering the current pandemic situation, we are helping people who are stuck in India and want to travel to other countries,” Bhushan Kamble, sales manager – western region at Akbar Travels, told Arabian Business.
“Since Mexico, Cairo, Belgrade and Tashkent are allowing Indian passengers to enter, we are preparing packages accordingly,” he added.
Kamble said the agency has been getting a great response to these packages in the last several weeks and that mostly the passengers include those who work in those countries, or who travel for business purposes and family members who want to join their families.
“Because of the growing popularity of our packages, many travel services companies across India are also buying these packages from us and then offering them to customers,” Kamble.
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