- August 19, 2020
- Posted by: Administrator
- Category: Business News
The IPL’s inaugural match between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings may be a month away, but leading Indian online travel agents are already ‘padding up’ in anticipation of a possible rush by cricket fans to travel to the UAE.
A decision on whether fans will be allowed attend the cricket tournament has yet to be made, with Emirates Cricket Board saying recently that it will “work closely with the authorities to seek approval on what protocols need to be followed, this includes fan attendance”.
In India, travel agents have been tweaking business models and launching products that they say will help alleviate customers’ Covid-related concerns around travel and accommodation.
“We have recently launched TravelSafe, a curated offering where customers can get all safety related information in one place by simply entering their source and destination airports,” Amit Taneja, chief commercial officer, Cleartrip, told Arabian Business.
“This product has all information regarding quarantine protocols and safety guidelines to be adhered to at the destination cities, besides details of cancellations and amendments,” Taneja added.
Other leading online travel aggregators, such as Yatra and MakeMyTrip, have launched similar initiatives to boost traffic on their booking sites.
“We are closely working with our airline and hotel partners for lenient customer policies on date change, cancellations and waivers,” MakeMyTrip said in a statement.
MakeMyTrip launched ‘MySafety’ programme which focuses on sanitised accommodation and training staff to follow the highest safety standards, while Yatra.com has introduced ‘Clean Pass’, an initiative to ensure that safety measures are adopted by its partner hotels, cab and bus service providers.
The flurry of activity is in the hope that fans will be able to attend the matches in the UAE, where Covid-related safety measures have drawn praise globally.
“The UAE government and aviation sector – airports, airlines – have responded emphatically with world-leading sanitisation standards and protocols ahead of opening up air travel again, which have been recognised globally as benchmarks, and will go a long way in rebuilding consumer confidence,” Aditya Agarwal, head of corporate strategy at Cleartrip, said.
“The result of these factors can already be seen. The world’s largest and most lucrative T20 cricket tournament has been moved from India to UAE, which will not only contribute directly to air travel and hospitality volumes in the country, but set the stage for other countries and events to consider UAE as a venue going forward,” Agarwal added.