Hyderabad

Business, holiday travel plans of Hyderabad flyers go for a toss due to Covid

MD Nizamuddin

HYDERABAD: Travel plans of flyers have been dashed as the third wave of Covid-19 is spreading swiftly across the world. Post-Sankranti, plans of scores of travellers who wanted to fly out of their cities for business and tourism purposes are shelving their plans.

Some frequent international travellers are keeping their fingers crossed. “Since October and November, things were getting better and I had planned to travel to the US, Australia and Canada in February. All my plans are dashed now. Each year after Pongal, I leave the country on a business trip,” explained, Ravi Korukonda, technology entrepreneur.

His travel statistics show that he travelled across 7,62,090 km (11 countries) in 2019, which drastically came down to 723 km (one country) in 2020. “In 2021 I travelled 0 km. It is tough for people like us to run our business in this situation, as I prefer to do business in person. Getting new accounts is not easy,” he added.

Some of those travelling on domestic flights cancelled tickets. “I had plans to take my family to Bhubaneswar, post-Sankranti. As I don’t want my parents to get exposed to virus, I cancelled the tickets of my entire family,” said Harish Daga, senior project Manager in an IT firm in the city.

Tour operators explain that only ‘essential’ travel is being undertaken, while leisure trips are off. “Our business has come down. People who planned for holidays in countries like Maldives and Turkey have cancelled their plans. In December, domestic travel peaked and we did some roaring business in Goa. But since the beginning of January, people who fear getting stranded in an alien city are opting not to travel,” said Obaid Qureshi, CEO of Link Holidays.

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