KOCHI: After nearly one-and-a-half years since outbound tourism came to a stop, a group of 24 tourists from Kerala started its trip to the US on Friday. The group comprising 13 men, nine women and two children are the first such group from India to go to US since the pandemic outbreak. They will be spending 15 days in the US visiting New York, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Washington DC, Niagara Falls, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
“This is not just the first from India but the first-ever group tour to the US from anywhere in the world since Covid,” M K Soman, managing director of Soman’s, an outbound tour operator, said. “Of these 24 tourists, 22 are visiting the US for the first time,” he said. According to him, tour operators have started offering packages to Europe, Russia and Middle Eastern countries.