May 2020
Dear Friends, Guests, Patrons and Partners in Travel,
Namaste!
As Covid-19 takes firm ground on our planet, it brings to light Three humble truths.
Eat Pure Stay Fit: Robust immunity is the primary requisite to armor oneself with, to fight any illness. Our simple yet timeless home remedies enshrined by our ancestors in traditional ways are the key and the way forward.
Be Inclusive: A universal leveler across all dimensions of socio-economic strata – bringing home the truth that this planet is but to be shared as home to all life forms.
Gratitude, Hope and Faith are vital: Far Horizon with folded hands, bows down to the front-line professionals who despite seeing this pain as very real, yet give us Hope. With Faith we look forward to a change in the tide at the earliest for the well-being of all.
Stay Home! Stay Safe!
Yours truly,
Anjali Babbar
CEO
Luxury travel specialist - Far Horizon Tours, relaunches Adventure Wing
Times post Covid-19 will call for many industries to take a resolute walk towards health and sustainable living. In that endeavour, Far Horizons is ecstatic to announce the re-launch of its Adventure Wing. With many a feats of pioneering adventure journeys, the Adventure Wing - now a dedicated division - is geared to open a larger vista into the wilderness yet again. Sanjay Basu, at the helm of Far Horizon has been an avid veteran mountaineer who has explored and scaled seven peaks of the treacherous but mighty and humbling Himalayas across Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal, Kumaon, Garhwal and Sikkim.
The pulse of adventure was inevitably strong in Far Horizons in its launch years of the 90s, for it pioneered myriad destinations in the Himalayas and the North East and showcased many festival areas all over India. The deluxe camps facilities even then, in those remote locations included attached toilets with running hot and cold showers and multi-cuisine meals. The trekking/mountaineering expedition camps were operated with support of strong Sherpa teams from Nepal with equipment and gear par none.
Far Horizon, rebuilds upon the old foundation, now opening and adding all possible avenues that adventure offers - trekking, rafting, camping, scuba diving and exploring the wild in the wilderness. These tough times have brought together a team of professionals that are sure to make you see India’s breathtaking expanse of natural wonders.
Now be alerted if you’ve crossed paths with a COVID-19 positive person, with this Indian app
In yet another advance in the battlefield against the pandemic, the Indian government has released ‘Aarogya Setu’, the application that informs a user if they have come in contact with someone who has tested positive. The genius interface developed by the National Informatics Center, uses your device’s Bluetooth and GPS, will track and show your interaction with anyone who has tested positive. Having being made available in 11 languages, one can download this app on the Play Store on Android and the App Store on iOS.
In addition to keeping individuals wary, the app also acts as a tool to self test by way of a survey and the answers which suggest Covid symptoms are sent to the government server. To ensure this, movement data will need to be tracked regularly. The data will then help the government take timely steps and initiate the isolation procedure.
Furthermore, the app is a database of all the relevant public information about the novel Coronavirus and one can also use it as an e-pass to facilitate their urgent travel from one place to another.
The app took a mere 13 days within its launch to become the world’s highest downloaded app, with over 50 million users.
Apart from the Aarogya Setu app, the government has an official portal, MyGov.in, that also has updated essential information related to the virus. https://www.mygov.in/aarogya-setu-app/
India’s strategy to trace and quarantine contacts, along with the government’s decision to order the country’s roughly 1.3 billion inhabitants to stay at home for 40 days from late March, has helped to slow the spread of the virus in some places. As of Friday 1st May, the death toll in India stands at 1,152 with total cases tallying up to 35,365, out of which 9,065 have been blessed with recovery.
From the Jewel of the north right to the subcontinent’s Silicon Valley, Indigo announces new flight between Agra and Bangalore
The announcement of Indigo’s daily direct flight between Agra (AGR) and Bengaluru (BLR) will open easy direct access to the historical vistas of the jewels of the north and open the gateway to the spice routes and wellness of the south’s rich and traditional expanse. This lets you plan a little differently your next exciting Great Indian Tour.
The schedule of the Daily Flight is as follows :
| Flight no. | From - To | Departure | Arrival |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6E 5917 | AGR - BLR | 2:40 PM | 5:05 PM |
| 6E 5916 | BLR - AGR | 11:35 AM | 2:10 PM |
The new connection was launched under the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) and with this, Agra becomes IndiGo’s 63rd domestic and 86th overall destination, facilitating both trade and travel north to south and vice – versa .
Travel in the time of Corona - where do we go from here?
Tourism as an industry worldwide has been hit the hardest with impacts on both travel supply and demand.
This period of the lockdowns is asking us all to reflect, adapt, rethink and fine-tune not only the day to day working tools but to try and foresee what awaits the travel trade as an industry. Webinars conducted by travel pros and stalwarts of hospitality have opened a vista unbelievable and educate one in fields unimaginably vide. Silently though, they seem to be carving a niche for travel trade’s state of readiness to meet post Covid 19 influx. Work from home surely is in the making as the new work culture.
However, what are the tools that pave the way forward?
- Evaluating the customer base: The post Covid 19 traveler would primarily be from within the domestic periphery and would be looking for pristine and quiet locations of wellness and wellbeing retreats at comfortable drive away distances. Nevertheless, destinations so chosen or recommended must cater to all hygiene and safety norms and be well equipped to handle any eventuality.
- Formulating customer friendly strategies: A revisit to the cancellation and refund policies for the year 2020-21, is a must. Flexibility of rates would reassure the cautious traveler and aid the agencies to contract more business. Customer friendly policy of bridging the time span between date of payment and date of travel will be most result yielding. Time to delve into roads less travelled to carve exclusive experiences with the local players - to create a consumer base for the same, for all times to come.
- Designing Tourism using Technology: Technology has turned a crisis into an opportunity of huge magnitude with travel too joining the digital platform. This is where the industry gets creative in enhancing the consumer experience. Using process automation and testing the waters of the brand new feature - ‘virtual reality’ - can redesign the future of tourism. So much so that as you read this, about half a million are already touring the summit of Mt. Everest from their beds!
- Preparing Management and Marketing tools: With travel having come to a halt, it is the best time to reevaluate and realign management tools to optimize growth and development of the organization. This is a time to touch base with your team to brainstorm, discover, compare, and train together for a healthier work environment and an innovative future.
Today as uncertainty clouds the whole world, the one thing we do know is that travel hospitality and tourism will never be the same again. Work and recreation must be restructured, and leisure reconfigured to prioritize well-being and the long-term sustainability of all lives and livelihoods. In the meantime, let us stay put, let us stay home today and dream of travel tomorrow.
MV Mahabaahu features in UK’s Top 12 Travel Journalists’ nostalgic video on why they love cruising!
At a time when we stay home while many around the world brave a faceless enemy, the best minds of the industries come together and board a voyage of nostalgia. The cruise industry after having taken a strong battering in some of the mainstream UK media, has brought together some of the top travel journalists from the UK, telling us about what they love about cruising!
This features voyages on dream-liners and river vessels across the Marquesas islands, go-karting atop a Caribbean liner, and sailing through Vietcong tunnels to name a few.
We’re proud to share that this also features the MV Mahabaahu in Assam, India’s only luxury expedition style cruise-liner that takes one through the back of beyond - remote tribes, deserted islands in the shadows of the mighty Himalayas on the Brahmaputra river. Not to mention the chance of a lifetime to spot Tigers and Rhinoceros in the grandiose of their natural habitat in Kaziranga National Park.
Enjoy and do share it with your trade partners, friends and family! The video link is as follows: https://youtu.be/F2zTu6Ny9gw
