Air fares drop: Fly to Bangkok and back with just Rs 13,000

Huge fall in demand for travel to south-east Asia has pushed airline operators to reduce prices. Roundtrips to Bangkok now come at a price of Rs 13,000

Team Newsable

India, First Published Feb 19, 2020, 8:23 PM IST | Last Updated Feb 19, 2020, 8:23 PM IST

A huge fall is seen in demand for travel to south-east Asia due to Covid-19. The air fares for places like Singapore, Malaysia and Bangkok has reduced hugely this weekend and for the next several weekends.

The minimum return fare on flights from Mumbai departing to Bangkok during this week was just Rs 12,300 this week.
The reduced demand has seen Singapore Airlines reducing its flights scheduled in March for destinations such as Mumbai and Cochin.

Reports show that business from India to south-east Asia has fallen 55% when compared with the previous year. So, this is expected to hit the tourism sector as well. Cruise to the far-east is popular among Indians. But as the cruise companies have decided to withdraw their ships from Singapore and other places of south-east Asia for the next three months, Indians travelling to those places will decrease further.

People are now looking at destinations that lie to the west such as Dubai, Ukraine and central Europe, and prefer them over places like China and Thailand.

Source from the industry reportedly said that “Many travellers have cancelled their tips scheduled for March and April. Travelers in the luxury section do not even consider south-east Asia as their destination "

With regard to the issue Subash Goyal, general secretary, Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality had sent a letter to the tourism secretary saying almost 60 million tourists visit China every year, so India should develop a strategy and aggressively market the country as an alternate place for Indians to visit.