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Friday, December 13, 2013

Tourism hits dry winter season ANAND OBEROI

GANGTOK, 12 Dec: Tourist arrivals are running low this winter season. Although the winter months used to be dry tourist seasons earlier, arrivals had picked in the recent past and apart from the post-earthquake slump in 2011, had remained reasonably busy. This time, however, the sector is not seeing much business, also hit substantially by a slew of cancellations triggered by travel advisories issued by several countries advising their citizens to avoid travel around Darjeeling [this during the spike in the aandolan there earlier this year]. Although the situation has normalized, the lost business has not returned.
Tour operators in the capital inform that a majority of the cancelled bookings were from foreign clients. It is informed that during this time of the year, a travel agency handles at least 2 to 3 large groups of foreign tourists. This is not the case this season.
“The inflow of tourists has dropped to an all time low with just a smattering of domestic tourists holidaying in Sikkim this season. I had about three major bookings from foreign clients cancelled earlier this year. There are hardly any enquiries or bookings which is getting travel agents like us wondering,” said Yangchen T. Lepcha of Blue Sky Tours & Travels.
Adding that during this time last year, she had over 50 bookings, she points out that the slump was hitting stakeholders rather severely since the winter season had developed rather well in Sikkim.
“With almost 35-40 percent of the total tourism prospects depending on this particular season [Nov to Jan], the present scene paints a grim scenario. And if this continues then people like me who have invested so much into the hotel business in areas like Pelling could face problems,” adds Tashi from Environ Tours & Travels.
He also informs that the few tourists that one can see at MG Marg during the evenings are mostly “drop-in” travelers who usually do not require the services of the tour and travel operators.
According to travel operators usually during this period, hotels operate on 80 percent capacity; a far cry from the current scenario.
“Most of the hotels in premier destinations like Pelling are running dry at the moment and with no new bookings, the entire tourism industry is a worried lot. Service providers invest heavily prior to the tourist season expecting to recover the same [with profits] as the season progresses, but as of now the market is down,” informs Rishikesh a travel operator at MG Marg.
And it is not just the hotels and travel operators who are hurting because of the low tourist inflow this season. Taxi and mainline jeep operators point out the negative impacts that they will face if this trend continues. According to the vehicle owners and operators, on an average, 10 local taxis did business from one hotel during this time last year but this season, hotels are hardly giving business to 1 or 2 taxis a day.
It is also during this time that almost 500 jeeps made it to and fro from Nathula alone which has dropped to two-digit traffic per day now.
The various shops and business enterprises that cater specifically to tourists are also hard hit with the shops running empty and business down.
The main reason, stakeholders comment, for the low turnout of tourists this season are the travel advisories issued by the various foreign embassies to their citizens asking them to avoid the Darjeeling Hills because of the statehood agitation there. Apart from these strict advisories and warnings the ‘word of mouth’ within the tourism circuit to avoid these areas because of the tension and highway blockages also worked against Sikkim.
The state government in a move to inject some excitement into what is turning out to be a drab season, is organizing the Winter Carnival 2013 at Gangtok scheduled to be held from 22 to 24 December. The organizers are confident that the event will draw tourists in respectable numbers because of the various activities laid out as part of the festival and the aggressive promotion undertaken at travel trade marts across the country and abroad.
An official of the Tourism department states that the department believes that the Winter Carnival would be a very positive and welcome initiative for tourism promotion. The officer adds that an almost similar situation had developed last year and then turned around for the better with last year’s Winter Fest.
“We positively hope that more bookings will start coming and the almost dead market will start seeing tourist inflow. The agitation in neighboring Hills has definitely had its toll on the tourism industry but we are pretty sure that the passing days and the Winter Carnival will bring us back on track,” stated the officer.

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