The Hindu Business Line : Political agitation in northern Bengal likely to hit hotel biz, tourism

Kolkata, June 18 The present political agitation in the northern parts of West Bengal has hit hard the hotel business and also the tourism industry in the region and the situation is unlikely to improve soon, according to sources close to these businesses. The inflow of foreign tourists will be particularly affected, feel the sources.

“Last year we had almost 80,000 foreign tourists visiting Darjeeling alone, in addition to another 28 lakh domestic tourists.” said Mr Suddhabrata Deb, Secretary, Travel Agents Association of Bengal (TAAB). “We do not expect that kind of traffic before next summer”.

The business during the Pujas will also be poor as the bookings for the festive season would normally start from June, he said and estimated the loss to the industry due to the present unrest at Rs 25 crore.

Mr Sanjit Das, General Manager of Mayfair Hotel at Darjeeling said, “We are daily losing about Rs 2.5 lakh of business”. The political disturbance in the hills surfaced at a time when the hotel industry there was experiencing a growth of 25 per cent, he said. Fortune Hotel, according to its regional head Mr Sudipta Basu, will lose a large number of tourists from other states. “Over the last few years we were getting good business from places such as Bombay, Ahmedabad and Delhi, particularly for holding corporate meetings in Darjeeling and this business, once lost due to the present agitation, will take time to come back, not before next year,” Mr Basu said.

With a major tourism destination of West Bengal becoming out of bounds for a large number of tourists, the State-based tour agents would now have to explore new areas around Kolkata, said Mr Debojit Dutta, Director, Impression Tourism Services. “The cancellation of bookings for the hills in June will be very large and we’re therefore mulling exploring opportunities in corporate business,” he said. Several hundred hotels in Darjeeling and a large number of transport operators in Siliguri would be victims of the turmoil, he added.

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