Fully vaccinated tourists from India can fly to Canada from September 7 as long as they stop in a third country to undergo an RT-PCR test. What has come to the rescue of passengers from India is that certain destinations in Middle East opened up to Indian tourists, so they can now transit from places like Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Turkey too relaxed entry norms and did away with the 14-day mandatory quarantine for fully vaccinated passengers from India.
“In the past several months, Middle Eastern airports too were shut to Indians. So the only option before students traveling to Canada was to transit via countries like Egypt and Mexico, where they underwent an RT-PCR test. With Canada open to tourists from India as well, a holiday travel itinerary with a short stop in Dubai or Abu Dhabi could be planned,’’ said Anoop Kanuga from Bathija Travels.
Fares for travel to Canada with a transit halt in a third country were comparatively cheap too. For travel this month-end and return in midOctober, the return fare on offer on the Mumbai-Toronto route was a transit halt in, say, London was priced at Rs80,000-90,000. For a transit halt in Middle East, the economical options were available only threefour weeks down the line.