Indian tour operators’ offers of vaccine tourism met with caution

Some travel and tourist agencies across India were reported to offer packages for Indians to visit other countries and enroll themselves in their vaccination program. Such vaccination tourism offers have been met with skepticism and rejection by industry watchers.

In November, a Mumbai-based travel agency announced a vaccine travel program for Indians. They could travel to Europe or the US, where vaccination programs were underway then, and get vaccinated before returning to India. The package included four nights return trip along with a jab of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Following this many other travel agencies across the country offered similar trips between India and the USA, UK or Russia.

Jyoti Malal, the president of Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), speaking to news reporters, cautioned travel agencies from offering such packages unless the governments of respective countries released any guidelines. She added that travel agents could face legal trouble for such unauthorized offers. Some travel agents when contacted, said that they had received enquiries for short vaccination trips, but many had not acted upon the requests. A spokesperson for a prominent Delhi-based travel agency added that it was doubtful if governments would allow foreign nationals to hop across for the vaccine.

In India meanwhile, the vaccination has already begun. While the focus is on the high risk groups now, most hope to have access to the Indian vaccine sooner or later. With this development, and the mounting restrictions on travel due to new strains of COVID-19, vaccine tourism offers in India, it seems, will meet a speedy end.

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