MUMBAI, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Tour guides in India's financial capital Mumbai are keenly looking forward to the inflow of tourists when the city is set to reopen for normal operations in a post-pandemic era.
For Shailesh Mulay, a tour guide from Mumbai for over two decades, the inbound tourism industry has seen a very tiny flicker of hope with some business travelers opting to do short sightseeing trips within Mumbai since November.
"However, the inbound leisure travelers are yet to be seen," Mulay said.
Mumbai has eased COVID-19 restrictions since February, with mask-wearing and social distancing still required. On Feb. 1, the city allowed beaches, gardens and parks to stay open as per normal timing before the advent of COVID-19 while restrictions such as night curfews were also lifted.
The city with a population of 1.8 billion now has reported just over 1,000 active patients with a recovery rate of 98 percent, with only 721 of 36,201 beds at COVID care centers being occupied, according to official data.
Back to the time when COVID-19 broke out in the country, inbound tourism got completely crippled.
Several travel agencies and tour operators had to rationalize their workforce and in extreme conditions had to also shut their business due to the long absence of workflow, Mulay said.
India's tourist season spans largely from October to March, and some full-time tour guides had two consecutive years without work.
"Some sold their work premises, vehicles and other assets. Many unpaid bills of the licensed freelancer guides still remain unpaid. Tourism became the industry with the highest percentage of financial and employment losses," Mulay said.
Though there was a slight recovery in domestic tourists in 2021 with the easing of restrictions, it was insignificant from a foreign currency perspective.
Before COVID-19 broke out, India saw 17.9 million inbound foreign tourists in 2019, generating around 28 billion U.S. dollars in foreign currency, government data showed. The figure dropped to around 7 billion dollars in 2020.
The travel pattern of inbound foreign travelers has changed amid uncertainty in the post COVID scenario.
"It has always been observed that foreign leisure travelers traveling after their retirement tend to choose longer trips and comfortable stays, as they can spare more time and money. In some cases, they choose to travel with groups for the sake of the company of co-travelers or to cut costs," Mulay said.
"For many of us, there is no other source of income and we have gone through a very long patch of jobless life. Some of us managed to do minor replacements to make the ends meet. Many of us have not yet received our previous due payments," Mulay said.
In a country where 58 percent of the foreign travelers come for tourism, Mumbai received the second largest number of overseas tourists after Delhi.
Mulay believed that the city, which ranked 14th among the world's top most visited cities with its numerous historic, architectural and natural sites and monuments, has not lived up to its tourism potential.
"Most business travelers travel to Mumbai on work and any sightseeing activity is just an option for them," Mulay said.
Since last year, the Indian government has been issuing tourist visas for those who were fully vaccinated. It had also promoted activities, deals and tempting offers with informative videos among all connected stakeholders.
However, Mulay said that until the international flight operations return to normalcy and other various COVID-related Visa restrictions for different countries are removed, leisure travel in India's financial capital will not bloom as per expectations. ■
