CANCELLATIONS : VISAS, FLIGHTS AND EVENTS

Ever since coronavirus has been declared pandemic, there has been quite a spread of fear regarding inter and intra country traveling.
The public is panic-stricken because of travel bans and visa cancellations in many countries. Majority of them are students aspiring to go abroad for further studies, while others are tourists or businessmen.
A representative of AECC Global, which is an international student placement education consultancy informed that there has not been much decline in the applications, but are facing a lot of delays in the approval process. Maximum students are applying for May or September intake and are hoping for the virus to be contained soon. However, the embassies have also put a halt to the issuing of visas, which has added to the panic of students regarding whether they will get a visa or not. “Even the medical examination for a visa which earlier took only one-two hours now takes more than four to five hours. This has happened for the purpose of taking the utmost caution during the outbreak of COVID-19. Apart from that, students who are willing to go are also taking necessary precautions and are aware of the preventive measures being taken in other countries. The students who are currently there, have been advised to wear masks and use sanitizers”.
Many schools in India and colleges in foreign are being shut down and amidst that, few colleges are still accepting students. Despite facing pressure from their parents, students are still willing to go abroad for further studies as they don’t want to wait for a year to apply again.
The representative also mentioned, ” Two out of ten students might have canceled their tickets although the airlines are providing tickets for the next available dates.”
On the other hand, Kedar Bumiya, who runs his tours and travels company informed about a decline in bookings and is facing massive cancellations. There are currently no bookings, due to the fear of coronavirus. He also said that maximum bookings that are being canceled are for Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, and entire Europe.
He said, ” The fear is such that even the bookings that are dated 4 months from now are getting canceled. In spite of cheaper ticket prices, people are gripped by the fear of coronavirus and are not taking advantage of it”.
All the tours and business trips are getting canceled. Hong Kong and Paris were going to host a food festival and an electrical exhibition respectively. Hence, all the prior bookings that had to be done for these events have been dropped.
He added, “Airlines are trying to convince passengers to postpone the date of their travel instead of canceling and are asking the tours and travel agents to do the same. If your visa is not issued then the airlines and hotels are providing a 100% refund. But, if the visa has been issued and if the travel is canceled by the passenger then there will be no refund”. He also commented, “If a country does not declare a shut down of schools and colleges due to the spread of coronavirus, then there will be no cause for a refund. The same thing applies to refunds for flights. Unless there’s a direct order by the government there will be no refund for that too”.
People who are in the most frightening conditions are the exchange students. Very few airlines are operating and have increased their charges. Flights that have layovers in Singapore, Malaysia or Thailand have chances of being infected and even the parents are scared for their travel. This has added more distress to the stranded students.
Australia and Canada are few of those countries where they get the passengers tested and the reports arrive within 48 hours, unlike other countries. If India could also adopt a faster technology of getting the tests done, then the probability of people coming back and going back to their own country could be done faster.
Although the visa cancellation imposition will comparatively stop the spread of the virus, those who are suffering the most are the ones who are stranded in a foreign country with no idea of when they can return safely. Globally, we are a stage that a little responsibility and extra caution might help people reach their homes safely. But the decision of the government is still awaited.