Friday 26 / April / 2024
Muscat: Travel agents in Oman have introduced 15-day packages for people looking to fly to Oman from the Indian subcontinent, enabling many who live and work in the country to return.
Passengers who have spent at least 14 days are not allowed to fly to Oman from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, among other countries, and the 15-day package is designed to help people overcome that hurdle and enable them to return said Faiyaz Khan, general manager at Travel Point, which has introduced the new package.
Starting at about OMR290, the package includes a 15-day stay at a hotel in the Maldives, a PCR test at the hotel, transfer to and from the hotel and the airport (by speedboat if necessary), as well as breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
“The good thing about the Maldives is that you don’t have to quarantine in your hotel when you get there, you are free to move about and explore the area,” explained Khan. “This package is primarily aimed at people flying from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, but anyone is free to approach us if they want to book it for themselves.”
“For example, passengers from the Philippines cannot land here if they are coming from their home country, so this is a good opportunity for them as well,” he added.
“Compared to the costs passengers would incur a couple of months ago to return to Oman, this Maldives package is about OMR200 less.”
While the lowest package price will get passengers a hotel in Male, the Maldivian capital, it is only available for those who will be entering the island nation after the 30th, although bookings for them are open. Other options are also available for those who wish to spend their time at a resort, while they are in the archipelago.
Guests who wish to occupy a room at a resort in the Maldives for a fortnight will have to shell out about OMR700 for single occupancy, and roughly OMR460 for double occupancy.
“Since we made public this package on July 13, we have seen huge demand from a lot of corporate clients, particularly those who want to bring back their employees, who have not been able to fly back to Oman, because of the restrictions related to the pandemic,” revealed Khan.
“The moment we saw so many requests coming in, I had to request their airlines to block some seats for our customers, and contact the hotels in Maldives to reserve inventory for us, so that we have enough to meet most of the demand we’re facing,” he said.
Khan added that he had held a staff meeting to instruct his team to process booking applications, because of the sheer numbers of inquiries they were getting.
Passengers who do make use of this facility will of course need to once again quarantine at a hotel on arrival in Oman.
“We have blocked rooms in hotels in Oman, as well as seats on flights departing Male and arriving in Muscat, because we know there is going to be demand on those planes as well, once people have finished their 15-day stay in the Maldives,” Khan said.
