Jaydeep Patel
“All the hotels used to be houseful at this time, but we are struggling even to find day to day cost.” This voice is common for all hoteliers of Dalhousie. Dalhousie is not alone; the whole Travel and hospitality sector has been hit again due to the second wave of covid.
With the surge in new coronavirus cases sweeping India, and many states imposing fresh curbs, travellers are looking to modify their summer holiday plans in April-July according to the evolving situation.
Thomas Cook India, which claims a 30% month-on-month jump in domestic business in March, said it is witnessing deferment of plans, but it has been limited to Maharashtra so far.
Indian were waiting for summer break for a long time after almost 12 months of work from home, Lockdown stress and routine home chores. They were unlikely to cancel their vacation plan this time but the second wave is making all very conscious about the travelling decisions.
MakeMyTrip said the second wave of covid-19 is definitely having a knock-on impact and the firm does foresee a transitory slump in travel bookings in the near future, but exact percentage dip was not shared.
Booking.com, the world’s largest Hotel booking agency on the web, said that it is closely monitoring the updates on coronavirus-related situations from the government and related departments.
“We understand the importance of flexibility for travellers, and our options for free or flexible cancellation policies helps travellers update and cancel bookings until 24 hours before check-in at many properties via our platform,” said a Booking.com spokesperson.
On the other hand, 25% of people who have already booked may still proceed with their travel plans, says a survey.
A survey conducted in February 2021 by Local Circles, a community social media platform that enables the Government to make policies that are citizen and small business centric, revealed that 60 percent of citizens planned to travel this summer. Local Circles conducted another survey in the last three days of March to understand how the rising Covid caseloads had impacted people’s travel plans, which received over 25,000 responses from 13,225 people located in 305 of the 736 districts in India.
Big travel plans are still a mile away, but domestic tourism surely and slowly started picking up as lockdown norms were eased. Now, a second wave of infections poses a threat to yet another summer vacation period.
The lockdown and guideline posed by the Government on various travel destinations and state borders created another barrier to Travel and Hotel Industry. While talking with owners of hotels across Diu, A union territory in Gujarat, they said, even for entering into UT from the neighboring state there is a need to Covid-19 test certificate indicating a negative report. Also, that is mandatory for Hotel Booking. This guideline has led to almost 50% cancellation who were coming here to enjoy a relaxed weekend.
The uncertainty among guidelines between various states. According to M. Ravi, joint secretary of Karnataka Tourism Society, hotel bookings have fallen by more than 50%. “Tourist transport has also been hit badly. If this continues, travel, tourism and hospitality will be in deep trouble,” he said. One of the reasons is the lack of uniformity in precautions and protocol among different States. “They have to remove the requirement of an RT-PCR for certain States or make it mandatory for all. Each State has its own rules now,” he added.
Representatives of the sector from popular destinations in Karnataka echoed similar views. Jimmi Chengappa, general manager, Coorghomestays.com, said enquiries have become fewer. “To Kodagu, 90% of the traffic is usually from Bengaluru, which is still coming in. But in peak season during April-May, we also get tourists from Delhi, Mumbai, etc. Now tourists from Maharashtra are not coming because of the COVID-19 regulations there,” he said.
Adding that the market did recover post the lockdown, he said some homestays were doing very well. “But like last time, if there is a ban on tourism by the district administration or if there is a lockdown-like situation in Bengaluru, it will be detrimental for another peak season,” he said.
International travel not likely to kick start this year
Indians may have to hold off their international holiday plans as well for now. Restrictions on commercial international flight operations from India, which were first imposed in March 2020 in wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, may last for the most part of 2021, experts believe.
The Civil Aviation Ministry said that India has established an individual bilateral air bubble arrangement with Sri Lanka for operation of special international passenger flights between the two countries.
India now has such pacts with 28 countries, including Afghanistan, Bahrain, Canada, France, Germany, Iraq, Japan, the Maldives, Nigeria, Qatar, the UAE, the UK and the USA.
India has already established individual bilateral bubbles with France, Germany and the US that will allow airlines of each country in the pact to operate international flights.
Also New Zealand announced it was suspending entry of travellers from India, including its own citizens. The suspension will take effect from April 11 and will be in place till April 28, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in a news conference in Wellington. According to Reuters, the move comes after New Zealand recorded 23 new positive coronavirus cases at its border on Thursday, of which 17 were from India.
According to Health Canada, nearly a third of international flights that landed in Canada between March 3 and 19 – with passengers that tested positive for coronavirus upon arrival – were from Delhi. India’s national carrier Air India had, last year, come under fire from Hong Kong authorities for transporting passengers who tested Covid-19 positive upon arrival. Because of this, the airline faced several 15-day bans by the Hong Kong administration from flying into the city.
This situation is gloomy and hitting the travel plan of each citizen very hard, but there is nothing better than having safety in this another boom of the cases.
