Southeast Asia, one of the more popular international travel destinations for Kolkatans before Covid, has once again started drawing tourists as countries like Singapore and Thailand have eased restrictions, said officials and tour operators.
Mask mandate withdrawn, night restrictions relaxed and new tourist attractions added: all these factors are luring tourists again to Southeast Asia.
Singapore is seeing an increase in the number of tourists since April when the country started easing Covid norms, said an official.
“During Covid tourism had come to a standstill but since April, it has started picking up again. Between April 2022 and now, we have received 2.19 lakh visitors from India,” said G.B. Srithar, regional director, India, Middle East and South Asia international group of Singapore Tourism Board, during a tourism road show here.
Srithar said in 2019, Singapore had received 1.4 million visitors from India. “There is no requirement of wearing masks outdoors. Use of masks indoors is advised if there is a gathering. However, masks are not required while dining,” said Srithar.
The country has also relaxed international travel norms and someone with two doses of Covid vaccines, recognised by the World Health Organization (WHO), can enter Singapore, said Srithar.
TraceTogether, a digital system introduced by the Singapore government to facilitate contact tracing efforts, has also been withdrawn.
Now, there is no need to tap in and tap out for getting into a building, said the official.
Also, several new tourist attractions have been added including Museum of Ice Cream, the Slingshot, a new thrill ride concept opened along the Singapore river, and SkyHelix Sentosa, Singapore’s first open-air panoramic attraction that allows visitors scenic views of Sentosa and the Southern Waterfront.
Tour operators and destination management companies said the airfare to Singapore from Kolkata has gone up compared to pre-Covid times.
“Despite the hike, the demand for Singapore for tourists from Kolkata is going up. The flights are almost full and lot of bookings are in the queue for Durga Puja,” said Chiranjit Dutta, sales and marketing manager (India), of the traveler, a Singapore-based destination management company.
Not only Singapore, but demand for other destinations in Southeast Asia has also gone up in the past couple of months. “We are seeing bookings and queries not only for Singapore and Thailand but also for Malaysia and Vietnam. Weekend travels to these destinations have started picking up again,” said Anil Punjabi, chairman, east, Travel Agents Federation of India.
An official of the Tourism Authority of Thailand said since December 2021, Thailand received 3.2 lakh visitors from India.
“The demand started picking up significantly since June when the authorities started easing Covid norms in phases,” said an official of TAT.
According to the official, apart from withdrawal of mask mandate, the night restrictions have been eased too, which has helped in luring tourists.
An official of Kolkata airport said although the number of international passengers has not gone up much and the daily departure number is still below 3,000, few more flights have been added to the short international destinations like Bangkok and Dhaka.