Pune: Travellers with advance bookings for accommodation, bus, rail and air tickets are keeping their fingers crossed against any further change in the commute rules and regulations following the emergence of the new Omicron variant of Covid.
The Maharashtra government on Thursday rolled back most restrictions, including the RT-PCR negative report, mandated for inter-state domestic flyers, irrespective of their vaccination status. Now, inter-state domestic flyers who are fully vaccinated will not require an RT-PCR report.
Lata Srinivas said she had booked a vacation for the family to Meghalaya and was supposed to fly from Mumbai boarding on December 17. “We had booked the vacation for eight days around August with a travel agency. Till last week, it was all good. But we are now a bit doubtful. The rules may get stringent. We are in touch with tour operator,” she said.
Solo traveller Abhishek George said, “I am going to Leh and Ladakh around the end of December for 15 days. I have made my bookings from Delhi onwards. So far things look fine. I just hope that things remain the same and my plans do not get disturbed.”
SOTC Travel has continued to see demand for Christmas and New Year from customers in Pune across segments. Daniel D’Souza, president and country head of SOTC Travel, said, “With the positive news of Singapore and Mauritius opening its borders and the onset of the honeymoon season, we are witnessing an uptick in queries from various segments, especially honeymooners. With no information available on the new variant of Covid, our customers are awaiting clarity.”
He said, “Domestic destinations such as Kerala, Goa, Andamans, Rajasthan and international destinations like the Maldives, Dubai, Sri Lanka, Egypt and Turkey continue to see an uptick during Christmas and New Year.”
City resident Manoj Vaswani, who has booked a vacation with friends to the Maldives, said, “We are nearly four couples who have booked this vacation and all of us have completed our second doses. We have to do our RT-PCR tests before we leave Pune. Apart from that, there are no major rules to be followed as far as testing and vaccine is concerned.:
Baba Shinde, president of the Maharashtra Vahan Chalak Malak Pratinidhi Sanghatna, said, “We are getting calls from travellers regarding their bookings and if there are any changes in travel rules. So far there have not been any cancellations and the bookings for the weekend are full.”
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