Party over for Kerala, Goa beaches this year
Written by Writer on Friday, October 17th, 2008
Party over for Kerala, Goa beaches this year
17 Oct 2008, TNN
NEW DELHI: Instead of the sun shining on the beaches of Kerala and Goa this winter, the global meltdown is likely to cast a dark shadow over the Malabar and Konkan coasts. With wary travellers — international and domestic — cancelling trips following the meltdown, the tourism industry in Kerala and Goa is seeing a slowdown days ahead of the peak November-December season.
The meltdown fallout in the aviation sector has hit Kerala tourism. This is evident in the number of cancellations of hotel and chartered flight bookings, besides, the 450-odd houseboats, most of which will run below their capacity, due to the absence of international tourists. Paulose P Mathew, GM of Coraz Travels and a member of IATA, said, “In March 2008, we had a weekly domestic schedule of 10,922 flights. By September it came down to 8,788. On Wednesday, Jet Airways grounded seven of its aircraft. This has resulted in the cancellation of a further 294 schedules per week.” Kingfisher is expected to reduce 100 more schedules soon.
“There’re two types of international tourists — Leisure and MICE (Meeting, Incentive, Conventions and Exhibitions) mostly from the US and UK — who arrive on chartered flights. The bookings generally happen some six months earlier. Of the bookings made for the current season (October to January), nearly 20% has been cancelled. We expect another 10% cancellation to follow. This will lead to the cancellation in hotel and houseboat bookings,” he said.
Houseboat Owners’ Association executive committee member Tommy Pulikkattil is also worried. “About 4 lakh international tourists throng our state during the peak season every year. Kerala has about 450 houseboats to cater to their needs. The houseboat operators earn about Rs 35 lakh a day. During the last season, were all totally booked. But, in the current season, our booking is yet to cross 2 lakh mark,” Pulikkattil said.
Kerala tourism secretary V Venu, is, however, optimistic. “We have had consultations with the industry. While there may be some drop, we don’t anticipate a large meltdown. The industry feels it will bounce back. At the moment, we are comfortable.”
Faced with the global recession, Goa is counting on the loyalty factor with 40% repeat clientele. The tourism industry is doing its bit to lessen the burden. Said Ralph de Sousa, president of the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa, “We’re giving a charter rate that is 15-20% of the packages availed by the Free-of-Itinery Traveller. We’ve three categories of guests — Free-of-Itinery Traveller (FITs), who pay a higher rate for packages; followed by the Group Independent Travellers (GITs) who get packages at discounted rates, and the third category is the Charters, who will be given a rate that is 15-20% less than the rates paid by FITs.”
“Also, the bookings have started late this season. Earlier, tourists would book their holidays months in advance,” said Charles Bonifacio, CEO of Alfran Group.
(With inputs from Andrew Pereira in Panaji, T S Sreenivas Raghavan in Kochi and Ananthakrishnan G in Thiruvananthapuram)
