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Tourism sector foresees harsher times

Onkar Singh in New Delhi

The Indian tourism sector is mired in rising cancellations and uncertainty. The terrorist attacks on the United States have hit the Indian travel industry badly; many in the business are not even able to visualise a situation wherein they could be able to make good the losses they have incurred after September 11.

"The tourism industry in India has been hit so badly that we cannot even hazard a guess as to when will we be able to recover. I think there will be a major drop in the tourist inflow into India this year because of the war-like situation in the region," Subhash Goyal, president of the Confederation of the Tourism Professionals and chairman of the Assocham expert committee on Tourism and Civil Aviation, told rediff.com.

According the Goyal the drop in the number of tourists visiting India in the next six months could be close to one million.

"We had 2.3 million visitors last year when everything was under control. The ministry of tourism had hoped that this figure would swell to 2.5 million in 2001-2002. But after the September 11 attacks, the tourism scene in this part of the world has undergone a drastic change. Not only are there large-scale cancellations from tourists from the US, Europe and other countries, even the outgoing traffic has been hit," Goyal claimed.

He said that if the government were to expedite its plan to give visas to tourists on their arrival in India from the sixteen selected nations then it might help ease the situation a bit.

Tarun Thakral, general manager of Le Meridien, told rediff.com that most of the five-star super deluxe hotels have been affected by the rising number of cancellations.

"Hotels in Delhi, today, have an occupancy rate of 30-45 per cent as against 90 per cent during this time of the year. If this situation continues, hotels might have to consider offering attractive packages to attract domestic tourists," Thakral said.

Top brass of the hotel industry is struggling to find a way out of this situation. "We have decided to give a hefty discount to those who come and stay with us. Each hotel is losing Rs 600,000-800,000 per day. But the tourists are simply not there," said a general manager of another five-star deluxe hotel in Delhi.

The discount according to him could he as high as 50-70 per cent.

Delhi hoteliers have decided to write to the government asking it to wave off the luxury tax to save the hotel industry from total collapse.

Minister of State for Home I D Swami denied that there was delay on the part of the Union home ministry to implement the scheme of giving visas to tourists on arrival in India.

"Our job was to select the sixteen countries. We have done that. Now it the job of the external affairs ministry to set up the visa counters in Delhi, Bombay and other selected airports where the tourists are supposed to get visa on arrival. I am sure the external affairs ministry is doing the needful in this direction," Swami said.

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