Spurned by Schengen, Indians are being swayed by the lure of liberal visas
NEW DELHI : Radihika Khanijo is busy planning vacations this summer for a few uber wealthy clients to a destination that hadn’t been on her luxury travel firm’s radar ever before: South Korea. The Asian country is suddenly on the map of Indian travellers, says the founder of Welgrow Travel, and part of the reason is its easy visa process. “South Korea is seeing a big rise in travel demand from discerning travellers.
We were never catering for travel to this country till last year," said Khanijo, also explaining why the visa process is a boon for last-minute planners. “There is no appointment procedure and clients can just submit their visas (online). Their visas take just seven working days to process, with low rejection rates." Khanijo is also bundling in travel to Japan for one of her clients.
As trying to obtain Schengen visas to travel to European countries such as Greece, Italy and Switzerland became exasperating, Indians turned to more familiar destinations such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Sri Lanka that have easier processes. Thailand set the ball rolling in November, when it eliminated visa requirements for Indian travellers and permitted a 30-day stay until May this year. Last week, it extended this scheme till November this year.
Sri Lanka rolled out a similar scheme, offering visa-free access to Indians as well as nationals from six other countries till the end of May. Malaysia has declared visa-free entry for Indian and Chinese citizens till December. “Surprisingly, many European nations that are in recession are putting visa restrictions instead of easing them up.
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