Indian tourists seek luxury of Maldives, Dubai as foreign travel restarts – but not everyone’s excited

Airlines are gearing up for thousands of upper-middle class and wealthy Indians to head abroad after New Delhi restarted international travel this week

Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Dubai have emerged as the top destinations – but many remain wary about heading abroad, and opening up to foreign travellers

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An aerial view of waterfront villas at luxury resort Soneva Jani in the Maldives. Photo: Handout

Published: 2:06pm, 31 Mar 2022Updated: 8:15pm, 31 Mar 2022

When the Indian government announced it was restarting international travel on March 27 after two years of limited flights amid the pandemic, Jaideep Kelkar immediately booked a week-long holiday for his family of five to the Maldives.

“Before the pandemic, we travelled at least twice annually to foreign destinations to bond as a family,” said the 48-year-old Mumbai-based garment exporter. “But the two pandemic years ruined all such plans. So we were literally counting down the days until we could holiday again at a beautiful destination without Covid-19 hanging over our heads.”

Thousands of upper-middle class and wealthy Indian families like the Kelkars are taking to the skies to holiday in Instagrammable locations as travel bans lift and coronavirus cases in the country plummet.

For much of the past two years, India’s outbound travellers have only been able to book flights to selected countries under bilateral travel bubble arrangements after international travel came to a grinding halt during the pandemic.

International passengers arrive at Chennai airport on March 27, the day India’s regular overseas flight services resumed. Photo: EPA

Now airlines are gearing up to relieve pent-up demand, as the government has eased rules that previously required aircrew to wear full sets of protective gears on flights and prevented security personnel at airports from carrying out pat-down searches. A recent survey by travel website Agoda found that 39 per cent of Indians were expecting to travel internationally this year.