Friday Dec 13, 2024
Friday Dec 13, 2024
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New entrant to post-COVID new normal in tourism, One In A Million Ltd. (OIAM) said yesterday that, in partnership with UK-owned Restrata Group, it would embrace new health guidelines announced this week to bring the first tour group from Italy.
Health Services Director General Asela Gunawardana said: “Foreigners and foreign tourists who are not fully vaccinated will be allowed to travel to their hotels under a bio-secure bubble.”
A spokesman for OIAM said the new guidelines would enable the company to cater to the already available niche travel market segment in Europe who are non-vaccinated yet would prefer to travel within a secure bio-bubble.
The expertise of OIAM in this specialised market segment would utilise its Restrata platform which exclusively protects its tourists through its contact traceability and monitoring mechanism. “The current scenario along with the world’s first technologically-enabled bio-secure platform may attract this segment much more easily than any other country in this Asian leisure destination,” the OIAM spokesman told the Daily FT.
Presently, OIAM boasts of three European hubs – Milano, London and Zagreb – where they gather tourists who are being subjected to a PCR test at the departing airport 48 hours prior. After the negative PCR results, all tourists and charter airline crew are handed a bracelet/lanyard (FOB) that immediately activates the bio-secure bubble on the main control room at Restrata UK and OIAM Sri Lanka on a digital and real-time monitoring dashboard.
Once the bubble charter flight leaves the airport, the bubble will be in motion and subsequently be integrated at the Mattala Airport bubble, thereby creating bubble-to-bubble integration. This mechanism would be further strengthened through digitally-enabled locators that cordon off all the hotel premises connecting the FOBs worn by tourists, hotel staff and other support staff, the OIAM spokesman explained.
“The bio-secure bubble can be widened to a small village or a complete bay area or a specific mountainous atmosphere or retreat. For example, spiritual tourists from Europe being lured into Sri Lanka would minimise their movement within the identified hotel premises and the nearby scenic locations,” the spokesman said.
“These spiritual travellers prefer to engage in meditation, yoga activities, tantric practices awakening the chakras, nature-supported healing practices such as sun worshipping and Ayurveda spa treatments and hela-veda rituals,” he added.
According to OIAM, the COVID pandemic that has lasted almost 18 months has curbed the movement of approximately three million tourists in this segment who are otherwise globetrotting in myriads of panoramic destinations all over Asia.
In pursuit of this niche tourist market, OIAM plans to launch its tour program ‘Visit Taporavana 2022’ showcasing www.travelbubblelanka.com along with Restrata platform www.restrata.com . The event will be at Bvlgari Hotel Milano in compliance with COVID guidelines stipulated by Italian health authorities.
The launch will welcome Italian tourism giant Luca Patane and other distinguished stakeholders of the Italian outbound tourism industry. Patane is the owner of Uvet Viaggi Tourismo Milano. Uvet is one of the major tour companies that sends Italian tourists to Maldives.
“The significance of the Sri Lankan market will be showcased at this launch while presenting how these spiritual tourists could visit Sri Lanka despite a global pandemic. The launch ‘Visit Taporavana 2022’ is destined to achieve greater awareness at this launch where the most celebrated and respected tourism personalities will get first-hand information how OIAM and Restrata plan to cater to this exclusive market segment,” the OIAM spokesman added.
