The Hindu Business Line : Tourists call in to cancel travel plans

Travel agents feel that the impact that the terror attacks would have on Christmas and New Year tourists could be ascertained only over the next few days.

Shubhra Tandon

Mumbai, Nov 27 Phones rang incessantly on Thursday morning in the offices of most travel agents and hoteliers. As the face-off between the elite commandos and terrorists holed up in two of Mumbai’s five-star hotels continued through the day, travel agents and hoteliers were virtually swamped by calls from tourists and travellers wanting to cancel their bookings.

But the worst, it seems, is yet to come, as agents worry that if foreign countries begin to issue travel advisories against India, tourism could be severely bruised.

“I have got three calls since morning from my corporate clients asking to cancel their bookings. In the current scenario where the travel industry is reeling under so much pressure, three calls mean a lot,” Mr Rajinder Rai of New Delhi-based Swift Travels and President of Travel Agents Association of India told Business Line.

Added Mr. Reji Phillip, owner of IATA recognised Cosmos Travels: “Since six o’clock in the morning I am attending calls of my customers. There were lots of meetings in Mumbai today, which could not happen so people have been calling to defer or cancel their flight bookings.” He pointed out that he received more than 100 calls, out of which 80 per cent have been for cancellations and 20 per cent for postponement of plans. However, these travels were planned for either on Thursday or for over the weekend.

Travel agents feel that the impact that the terror attacks would have on the Christmas and New Year tourists could be ascertained only over a period of next few days. According to Mr Madhavan Menon, Managing Director, Thomas Cook India, “The impact of these incidents will be two-fold. If the countries issue travel advisories against India, travel insurance premium to India will go up across the world and hit travel to the country. Secondly, multinational corporations with operations in India might also restrict travel of their employees, if not for long then at least next few days.”

It is to be noted that the forward bookings for Indian destinations had already begun to slow down after the financial crisis started to unfold in the Western markets. Foreign tourist arrivals grew in the range of merely 1.5 to 2 per cent in the last two months, compared to 10-11 per cent growth witnessed in August 2008.

A number of meetings, conferences and exhibitions were cancelled as a result of which travellers kept ringing the hotels to cancel their bookings. Said Mr Onno Poortier, President, The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts: “As an immediate impact, we expect to see a drop in bookings due to cancellations by visitors for conferences and exhibitions.”

A spokesperson for ITC Grand Central told Business Line that the hotel has been getting lot of calls for enquiries about the situation in the commercial capital and “more number of them specifically for cancellations.” However, she added, the cancellations have been for the check-ins planned for Thursday, but refused to give any number on that.

Meanwhile, according to industry insiders, there will be around 600 rooms out of the Mumbai market with these two hotels damaged.

Earlier in a press statement issued, Mr R.K Krishna Kumar, Vice Chairman of Tata Group’s Indian Hotels Company which owns under-terror-attack Hotel Taj said, “It is tough to say when the operation [to flush out the terrorists] would get over.”

An Oberoi group spokesman said they were monitoring the situation closely and extending all cooperation to the police and government authorities.

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