With relaxed rules, couples eye international vacays | Travel

With international destinations opening up to fully vaccinated travellers and easing of quarantine restrictions, tour and travel operators are seeing an increase in requests from couples for foreign vacation packages.

“Search inquiries for travel to international destinations have seen an average increase of 45-50% in the first week of August 2021 as compared to the same time last month,” says Aloke Bajpai, co-founder and group CEO, ixigo.

Sharing insights on current favourites amongst travellers, he says, “With several countries easing travel restrictions, interest in leisure international travel for countries like Maldives, Switzerland, Germany, Qatar, Turkey, Nepal and France is rising.”

Travel planners say that couples are willing to spend extra bucks to make up for lost travel and for a safe experience. Mumbai-based Pritish Shah, founder and COO, A Travel Duet, that specialises in a luxury holiday experience for couples says, “We have couples telling us how they got married six to 18 months back, but couldn’t plan a trip. Many have missed out on special occasions, and now there’s this craving to travel safe and willingness to spend a little more to visit a safe destination.”

Shah also adds that he has been designing travel getaways for a few couples to Mexico with already existing U.S. visas.

Being confined to home for months due to the pandemic, newly-weds who couldn’t plan a vacation overseas due to limitations are now looking forward to a getaway. Delhi-based Kritika Mishra, an HR professional who got married in January 2021 says, “We had given up on the idea to travel internationally but ever since the vaccination drive started for 18+ in May, we were hopeful. And now that we are fully jabbed, there are quite a few destinations abroad which have now relaxed the rules and need only negative RT-PCR reports within 72 hours.”