It Is India’s Turn to Shine

The day we were waiting for has finally come. The Government of India has now formally announced that they would begin issuing tourist visas again. For tourists arriving by charters, this starts October 15 and for all other travellers, November 15. Specific details on vaccination and test requirements are still awaited. This is a tremendous move forward for all of us who have been waiting for months for India to welcome back its fans.

At Creative Travel, we have not been sitting idle over the past 19 months. Quite the contrary. We have worked on ourselves to become even better at what we do. Our team used the quiet time to go through intensive training on new and old destinations alike. On learning about new experiences and products across our vast and diverse destinations of India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet and the Maldives.

We learned new ways to showcase our region. We enhanced our focus on wellness and wellbeing, wildlife & the great outdoors and explored areas of our region where few go. We added smaller boutique hotels and resorts to our portfolio to allow guests a greater sense of freedom and choice.

While India was closed, we continued to operate the Maldives, where we have done exceptionally well for individuals and honeymooners, as well as for incentive travel, where we are now the global leader in knowledge and experience. Nepal and Sri Lanka have also opened, adding to our offerings. We are not an Indian DMC operating regionally. We are a local DMC in each destination that stands on our merit and experience amongst the best.

While the world turned, we held faithful to our core values of family, steadfast to being ethical in action to our partners and employees. We are proudly family-owned, but professionally operated. We’ve shied away from the coldness of our corporate-led competition. We built on our inner strengths of being independent-minded and ensuring our foundations were unshakable. We put our people before us, the ownership. We ensured we protected as many as we humanly could. We have stood stable, resilient, and defiant to the challenges before us. We have been strong.

We are ready to pick up where we left our last conversation. Our team is enthusiastic, prepared and able to show you our world with the world-class protocols of a post-pandemic era. We are ready to welcome our guests, our friends and family, our partners, old and new.

We are excited. India is opening.