New Delhi, Feb 10 (IANS): India's travel and tourism players have welcomed the Centre's latest guidelines easing the restrictions on foreign arrivals.

The Centre has removed the clause of a seven day quarantine period for all nationals. Besides, it has removed the "at risk" countries list, a feature that placed extra restrictions on arrivals from these places.

"We would further urge for early resumption of the normal schedule of International Flight Operations as per bilateral agreements which were in force before March 2020," Indian Association of Tour Operators' President Rajiv Mehra said.

"Presently there are only limited air bubble flights that are operating to some selected countries and airfares are exorbitant. Once normal international flight operation is resumed, airfares will come down drastically, and this will boost the arrival of foreign tourists to India."

ixigo Co-founder & Group CPTO Rajnish Kumar said: "International travel has seen the slowest pace of recovery so far due to multiple waves and strict travel protocols. The new relaxation in rules will help restore international travel confidence and promote foreign tourist flows.

"This encouraging move will usher meaningful recovery in inbound tourism especially for destinations like Udaipur, Jaipur, Kerala, Agra and Goa which were popular choices for foreign tourists pre-Covid."