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BUSINESS: HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY
Terror Struck
Terrorist strikes in the US have hit the Indian
tourism industry hard just at the beginning of its peak season
By Himanshi Dhawan and Natasha Israni
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DESERTED HOTELS:
Room occupancy in hotels is down by 20 per cent, leaving more than
2,000 five-star hotel rooms vacant in Mumbai and Delhi alone.
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Sitting in his Opera
House office in Mumbai, Lalit Sheth is grappling with the aftermath of
the terror strikes in the US. His travel agency Raj Travels' 19 offices
across India used to receive up to 1,000 bookings a day. That was till
September 11. The average is now down to a tenth-just 100 a day. The Rs
120-crore company is closing four of its offices, including one in Delhi.
"Given the flurry of cancellations, we have no option but to downsize,"
says Sheth gloomily.
Similar sentiments are echoing in the London
office of Travel Pack, which runs chartered flights to Goa. Sales Director
Sam Eliathamby used to receive about 600 bookings a week. After Black
Tuesday the bookings are down to 50. "The scenario is so grim that
we plan to run only one chartered flight instead of two every week,"
laments Eliathamby.
These are two snapshots of the horror that is
unfolding across India's hospitality industry-tourism, airlines and hotels.
Terrorised by the attack on the US, the war in Afghanistan and flight
fears after four US planes were hijacked in a day, India's annual inflow
of 27 lakh foreign tourists has slowed down, endangering the $3.5 billion
(Rs 16,600 crore) annual tourism earnings. The three major destinations
for foreign tourists-Rajasthan, Kerala and Goa-have been hit hard.
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WEEPING MAHARAJA: Air-India mascot's
hoarding at its Mumbai headquarters reflects the mood in the travel
industry
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There are few fresh reservations for chartered
flights to Goa, which used to bring in almost 80 per cent of the two lakh
foreign tourists to the state every year. The 500-bed Taj Exotica Hotel
in Goa has had 70 per cent of the bookings for September and October cancelled.
There is panic in Kerala. Tourism Minister K.V.
Thomas convened a meeting on September 26 to chalk out a contingency plan.
"We are in touch with the Centre and chief ministers of other states
to evolve a strategy if the situation worsens," he says. State Tourism
Secretary T. Balakrishnan is more sanguine. "The US has not been
a major tourist source for Kerala, more than half are from Europe,"
he says. However, future plans may be affected. The state Government had
organised a road show in the US last year and was expecting about 20,000
American tourists this season. Also, it's not just the numbers. "Ten
American tourists are equal to 40 from other countries in terms of money
spent here," says K.C. Chandrahasan of Kerala Travels, which has
put off the October 18 inauguration of its US office at Manhattan.
Rajasthan too is bracing for an unusually slack
"busy" season. Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC)
Chairman Rajeev Arora expects a slump of 30 per cent in the seven lakh
foreign tourist arrivals in a year. That translates to about two lakh
less tourists this winter. The US accounts for about half of the tourist
traffic and the heavy cancellation rates will have a telling impact on
services ranging from the luxury train Palace-on-Wheels and the popular
Pushkar Mela. More than 90 per cent of Palace-on-Wheel passengers are
foreigners and by September-end alone, 250 cancellations had taken place
for the train's seven-day tour, which is priced between $1,680 and $3,395
per head.
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