By Archana Sharma

Jaipur, Jul 3 (IANS): The hospitality industry in Rajasthan is seeing a silver lining with properties in Jaipur and Udaipur receiving booking queries from domestic and international travellers which had stopped under the lockdown imposed nationally in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In fact, Ram Bagh Palace has already hosted eight weddings in June and tourists from neighbouring states like Delhi are here enjoying vacations.

"We all are quite happy to see the property bursting with guests' activities after a big break. However, we are following all guidelines and are serving the guests with a smile. We are handling New Normal norms smartly because the lockdown period has been used as a learning period by us. We trained our employees to greet guests with a smile while wearing a mask, says Ashok S Rathore, General Manager of Rambagh Palace Jaipur.

"We discussed bringing in a new menu during the lockdown during our regular meetings and it has now been implemented. In fact, this immunity booster menu containing spinach, lemon etc is very much in demand in present times," he added.

"We took due care of our magicians, flute players and artisans and that is why they are now working with full vigour as we have opened up to guests," Rathore said with drums being played in the gardens and guests shaking a leg while maintaining social distancing and wearing masks.

Another property Alila Fort Bishangarh situated on the Delhi-Jaipur highway also confirmed to IANS to have been receiving regular booking queries for weddings.

"Besides weddings, the individual and group travel segment have also been calling us. Looking at the frequency, it seems we will start hosting them from October," said Binny Sebastian, General Manager, Alila Fort Bishangarh.

Besides properties in Jaipur, Udaipur properties have also started receiving booking queries which since March were lying deserted.

"It's a decent start after a tough period as guests have started calling us for bookings. Both the domestic as well as the international travellers have started showing interest in getting their bookings done which comes as a big boost to us, says Amit Kaul, GM, The Oberoi Udaivilas, Udaipur.

"We are ready again to serve our guests with a smile after a lean period, however, we hope to get international travellers back somewhere next year when the COVID-19 crisis settles a little" he added.