Tag: International Student

Melbourne Welcomes International Travellers through Sydney

Post author By harshal shah
Post date 12/01/2022

If you find yourself stranded in India, unable to make your way back home to Victoria, then the information provided below is invaluable.

Read it carefully and reach out directly to us with any questions you have.

Are you hoping to find a way back home from India (anywhere in the country) to Victoria in the month of August? Or know someone who finds themselves in this situation?

It is critical to look at the various options out there – hint: there are two options of which only one option is viable for the month of August.

Flight Options in August

Option 1: You can try and book through the Australian Government’s initiative through Qantas, but they are fully sold out for the month.

Option 2: The only viable option is to book through Gaura Travel’s flights in August (full dates provided below). We still have seats available, but you need to book them as soon as possible.

The Rules – International Transit through Sydney to Victoria

The Government has provided clear instructions on how passengers will be safely allowed to transit through Sydney on to Victoria.

International travellers from India are required to undergo mandatory quarantine in Sydney, following which, they are required to immediately travel by car (or a cab) to the airport and take a flight to Melbourne.

They are not allowed a detour or a stopover anywhere in Sydney.

The key difference to note here is that ‘Hotel Quarantine in Sydney’ is considered a GREEN ZONE, as opposed to anywhere else in Sydney which continues to be a red zone.

We can also confirm from passenger reports, that the quarantine experience is the same in Sydney as you would expect in Melbourne.

Passengers will enter and exit GREEN ZONES as designated by the government without having to access any RED ZONE areas. Which means, travellers do not have to contend with the current situation in Sydney, if Melbourne is their final destination.

No Extra Cost to Travellers

As a show of our undying commitment to the community and our ambition to keep families together during these times, we will cover your costs to travel from Sydney to Melbourne. At this stage, we can confirm this initiative for the month of August, so please avail this while you can.

Direct Flights Options to Melbourne are Sold Out

After having spent months, and many over a year, stranded in India, we encourage travellers to think outside the box and avail solutions that are perfectly within the rules.

For the month of August, all flights directly to Melbourne are fully sold out. So please book your flights to Sydney and make your way to Melbourne, as explained above.

Gaura Travel Flights Scheduled in August

These flights depart from Chennai and arrive in Sydney the very next day:

August 2^nd (Sold Out)
August 9^th
August 16^th
August 23^rd
August 30^th

India gained freedom in the month of August – would it be nice for you to unite with your families once again and experience that newfound sense of ‘freedom’ too?

Don’t wait. Book now: India to Australia Flights

Travelling in 2022 with Gaura Travel

As there are no quarantine or travel restrictions required in place, plan your journey to reunite with your family & friends with Gaura Travel in this year 2022. Find all available flights options with us.

https://gauratravel.com.au/flight-deals/

Melbourne to Delhi|Qantas– Singapore Airlines (Return) — Flights from Melbourne to Delhi

Delhi India — Flights from Sydney to Delhi

Tags Australia, Hotel Quarantine, India, International Student, International Travellers, Melbourne, Sydney, Victoria

Travel Guide

Stranded children in India can now be escorted home to Australia as restrictions ease

Post author By harshal shah
Post date 12/01/2022

There are more than 209 children stuck in India today, separated from their parents due to COVID-19. It has been nothing but heartbreaking for the parents and children to stay away from each other.

Flight disruptions and Australia’s border regulations on travel to and from India have been obstacles for parents wanting to reunite with their children. For the past 18 months, they have been looking for endless ways to bring their children back.

Finally in some good news, changes to Australia’s travel restrictions comes as a ray of hope for the parents. The easing of restrictions provides more options for parents to bring their stranded children back home to Australia.

The Department of Home Affairs recently made revisions that expand travel exemptions to include people accompanying an Australian child back to Australia from India if the child’s parents are currently in Australia. This also allows people to apply for an exemption to travel from Australia to India to escort an unaccompanied minor back home.

According to an Australian Border Force official, “suitable people” could accompany Australian children back to their homes. They added, the adult should be a family member who knows the child and can take care of them “through their full duration of journey back to Australia.”

The families who have been granted an exemption to have their children brought from India to Australia expressed they are extremely relieved but wish for the procedure to be made easier for others.

Australian media has reported on a number of parents relying on people who have agreed to act as the child’s guardian during the flight. “The world is getting through this pandemic with kindness and humanity..I’m thankful to the person who got my child back”, says Harpinder who was separated from her child for 15 months.

It is a beautiful gesture of people to accompany someone else’s children during the travel. After all, “the greatness of humanity is not in being human, but in being humane.”

Travelling in 2022 with Gaura Travel

https://gauratravel.com.au/flight-deals/

Tags Australia, Children, covid-19, Double Doses, Home Affairs, India, International Student, travel exemptions, travel restrictions, Vaccine

Travel Guide

Pilot Plan to Welcome International Students in NSW, Will Start in the Second Half of 2021

Post author By harshal shah
Post date 12/01/2022

NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet affirmed today that NSW Health and NSW Police had been approved a Pilot Plan to allow International Students to come back to Australia. The plan will start on the second half of 2021, and it will intend to receive 250 International Students fortnightly.

The first students would arrive in August 2021 in Charter Flights, and they would not take seats off from the commercial flights for Australians returning to the country. The students would have the same quarantine requirements as any other returning traveller, but they will stay in a special accommodation with 600 beds and Universities will cover all the costs.

The NSW authorities will aim to increase at the end of the year, the number of students arriving every 2 weeks from 250 to 500 students. The idea is to rescue the $14 billion that the students bring to the state every year.

“Typically, we have more than 250,000 international students studying in NSW each year and they directly supported over 95,000 local jobs prior to the pandemic. If we don’t act fast, students will turn to other overseas destinations, and it could take the sector decades to recover.” said Mr. Perrottet.

“This program has carefully considered the personal, social and academic aspects of our students to ensure they successfully resume their studies and rejoin NSW’s vibrant multicultural community as soon as possible.” said Professor Barney Glover, NSW Vice-Chancellors’ Committee.

Travelling in 2022 with Gaura Travel

https://gauratravel.com.au/flight-deals/

Tags 2021, Australia, India, International Student, International Students, Lockdown, Melbourne, Multicultural Community, NSW, Quarantine, Students

Events

REAL HEROES DON’T WEAR CAPES, THEY WEAR SCRUBS | INTERNATIONAL NURSES DAY

Post author By harshal shah
Post date 12/01/2022

As the world still struggles to fight the battle with COVID-19, millions of healthcare workers continue to resiliently put up their lives on the line to protect us. The pandemic has erupted all sides of humanity into sharp focus, yet most of it has shown the undying bravery of our healthcare workers.

In a year defined by what will likely be the biggest health care crisis of our lifetimes, our brave nurses and caregivers have demonstrated exemplary endurance, compassion, and selflessness unlike anything we have seen.

While many of us stayed at home, our real heroes were on the frontline working tirelessly to take care if us. At times when they were exhausted and desired to be home with their loved ones, they donned their PPE kits and went in to support all of us.

“Thank you” does not begin to convey the gratitude we feel for our nurses. We thank them for every extra shift they did. Every dinner they missed with their kids. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank them not only for the sacrifice they continue to make for us all, but the sacrifices their families and loved ones are making in kind. We thank them for showing up every day and night, all in service of saving lives and helping others.

This International Nurses day, give them a shout-out, cheer them on, and do them a favour by washing your hands!

Travelling in 2022 with Gaura Travel

https://gauratravel.com.au/flight-deals/

Tags covid-19, Healthcare, International Nurse Day, International Student, Pandemic

Travel Guide

International Students likely to be allowed to enter Victoria next month

Post author By harshal shah
Post date 12/01/2022

Victoria is expected to welcome back more than 120 international students and workers 24 May onwards, under a state government plan to support its COVID-19 economic recovery.

Acting Premier James Merlino wrote a letter to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, addressing that the program would function on an “industry/user-pays model”. Relevant industries such as tertiary institutions, stage and screen productions and major event organisers, will provide funding for the operational costs.

“We’ve always said that we would work to welcome back international students when it is safe and reasonable to do so,” Mr Merlino said.

Where will the returned students quarantine?

The students would be staying in a separate hotel quarantine facility to returned Australians, with the arrangements identical to those made for the Australian Open.

The cost of the quarantine programme will be “in addition to” the $3000 fee charged by returning Australians for one adult. After consulting with related industries, a final fee will be determined. Victoria’s international passenger limit of 1000 arrivals per week will be unaffected by the international students.

Mr Merlino added, studens would arrive “where possible” on commercial passenger flights, subject to “operational guidelines to be developed in consultation with COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria”.

What health measures will be taken?

The program would be subject to the same health and safety measures as the system for returned Australian arrivals. The staff will wear Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to the same standards as those in the health and complex care hotels. Workplace App would also be used for tracing purposes.

What do others have to say?

The Victorian opposition’s Higher Education spokesman Matt Bach appreciated the program proposal, but said it had come six months’ late.

“The government can hastily put together a plan to get international tennis stars into the state, some of whom were actually COVID positive, but when it comes to our most important export industry that’s worth $14 billion a year and supports 80,000 Victorian jobs, it’s taken six months,” he said.

Mr Merlino has requested the Commonwealth Government to continue to expedite and issue visas and exemptions to travel restrictions to support the program.

However, people will be allowed only from a selected countries for now which have low number of covid cases.

A final decision will be made after a meeting of health officials later today.

Travelling in 2022 with Gaura Travel

https://gauratravel.com.au/flight-deals/

Tags Australian, covid-19, International Student, Operational Guideline, Quarantine, Victoria

Why Gaura

Gaura Travel reuniting 10,000 families during COVID-19

Post author By harshal shah
Post date 12/01/2022

The start of the journey…

Gaura Travel a Melbourne-based travel company founded 14 years ago, decided in June last year to face the challenges that COVID-19 brought during 2020. When no commercial flights were operating to India and the whole world was in lockdown, Abhishek and Ashwini Sonthalia (CEOs & founders of Gaura Travel) repatriated Indian citizens from Australia with the help of their team. Since then, the agency has operated more than 40 charter flights reuniting 10,000 families.

Like any other travel company in Australia, Gaura Travel had to close its offices during the first lockdown at the end of march in 2020, however the contact center continued operating 24/7 to solve the doubts of the customers when the confinements started. The future looked tough; the sales decreased to zero and many refunds had been issued due to the unfeasibility of running flights. The uncertainty of this moment in time made the owners and their employees’ resilience more prominent than ever. They had to find new alternatives to keep the travel agency running. Ashwini and Abhishek started to knock on the doors of airlines and government institutions (in Australia and India) seeking for a way to help those in need of travel. After a couple of months, they got support from the Indian Consulate in Melbourne, Singapore Airlines, Sri Lankan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines and Malindo Air to operate the firsts repatriation charter flights to India.

The idea was to create a couple of flights to find the best way home for Indians who wanted to return to their country. It was a big surprise for the company when those first two flights got booked out immediately. That was the moment when Gaura Travel opened more monthly flights from Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide to the main cities in India such as Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and many more without knowing how long it would be possible to keep doing it for.

A milestone for Gaura Travel

Last Friday, February 5th 2021, Akash Rajput an International Student of Deakin University became the 10,000th passenger of the repatriation charter flights to India from Australia organized by Gaura Travel. This accomplishment made the agency the largest operator of this new charter flight industry. “We didn’t know when we started everything that it would get this far, so it’s all thanks to the support of our customers and our team… we are going to continue on this mission of reuniting as many families as we can…” said Ashwini at Melbourne Airport when he congratulated Akash for being the passenger 10,000 who also got an upgrade of his ticket to Business Class.

“Mr. Raj Kumar, the Consul General of India in Melbourne one day told me, you will get plenty of opportunities in your life to make money but take this as an opportunity to make blessings” expressed Abhishek later the same day during the celebration event of “Reuniting 10,000 families”. The event was organized by the agency which included the attendance of people from the Indian community, the travel industry, the presence of Raj Kumar (Consul General of India in Victoria) and the Gaura Travel team members.

10,000 families have been reunited in India during the last 7 months thanks to the effort of Gaura Travel and the support of the Indian Consulate in Melbourne, Singapore Airlines, Sri Lankan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines and Malindo Air. The travel agency will organize charter flights for at least the next couple of months (February and March), trying to continue reuniting more than 10,000 families in India during the first quarter of 2021.

Travelling in 2022 with Gaura Travel

https://gauratravel.com.au/flight-deals/

Book your tickets from Australia to India on www.gauratravel.com.au
Gaura Travel – YOUR BEST WAY HOME

Tags Adelaide, Australia, Brisbane, covid-19, Deakin, India, International Student, Lockdown, Malaysia, Malindo, Melbourne, Reuniting Families, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Sydney