The travel industry in Kerala has urged political parties to keep the tourism sector out of the ambit of hartals, frequent shutdowns resorted to by political parties and community organisations to show off their support base.
The Kerala Travel Mart Society functionaries recently met Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala and CPI(M) leaders Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and Pinarayi Vijayan and urged them to spare tourists and the tourism sector the hartal pangs.
They pointed out how the frequent hartals, often called on flimsy grounds, adversely impacted the tourism sector and earned a bad reputation for Kerala. The hospitality industry associated with tourism such as hotels, rented vehicles, houseboats and resorts were all adversely affected by hartals.
As the UDF government is now drafting a law that aims to curtail the number of hartals, the KTM team urged the Home Minister to include a provision in the proposed Bill to recover the losses incurred by businesses as well as individuals because of hartals.