The Hindu Business Line : Travel industry sees 25 pc drop in business

THE travel industry, which till the other day was grappling with a problem of plenty, today stands rattled yet again. While the industry is divided on the extent to which the tsunami will affect business over the next couple of weeks, a number of players expect a 20-25 per cent drop in the immediate aftermath of the calamity.

The President of the Travel Agents' Association of India, Mr Balbir S. Mayal, expects that the advisories issued by the UK and the US against travel to the affected regions, including India, would result in 20-25 per cent cancellations, with traffic on airlines from South-East Asia being the worst affected.

According to a travel agent based in the city, several group tours to Maldives, Sri Lanka and South-East Asian destinations had been cancelled in the past couple of days. However, he expects the situation to normalise soon provided there were no further aftershocks and the authorities took adequate measures to check the spread of disease.

According to an official in the tourism sector, the calamity would have an impact on tourism in the next two to three weeks and would result in a 20-25 per cent drop in revenues forecast for the year.

The Chairman and Managing Director of Raj Travels, Mr Lalit Sheth, says that traffic to the affected destinations of Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, has been diverted to places such as Dubai and Hong Kong.

According to Mr Sheth, no harm had come to any of his clients holidaying in the affected regions. The company was able to transfer a client holidaying in Phuket to Pattaya, away from the scene of destruction. Providing an instance of a similar arrangement within the country, he said one of his clients who were driving to Kanyakumari from Madurai on the day of the calamity was advised to travel to Thiruvanathapuram instead.

According to a spokesperson with SITA Travel, destinations on the west coast of the country and the northern circuit could receive many more holidaymakers. The company had not received any adverse reactions from there overseas operators, though a couple of clients from the Middle East had postponed their trips. The next 48 hours would be crucial and many in the industry would be watching developments before making their decisions.

Painting a far more positive picture is Mr Manav Thadani, Managing Director of HVS India, a Delhi-based organisation that tracks the hospitality industry. According to him, there would be little impact on the key holiday destinations of the North and the West coast, such as Goa. Tamil Nadu, which bore the brunt of the tidal fury, was not a big tourism destination, he adds.

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