Tense times for tourism and hospitality industry
NEW DELHI : The travel and hospitality sector is facing the heat with the deadly Covid-19 spreading not only to Europe and Iran but also to India, with bookings being cancelled or rescheduled at a fast pace.
Operators such as Thomas Cook, SOTC, FCM Travel Solutions, Yatra and Makemytrip admitted their businesses have been hit. They are offering the option of deferring trips or availing future travel vouchers, refunds and even alternative destinations to Indian travellers who have booked on the China and South-east Asia route.
“Till now predominantly the Asian continent was impacted with travellers cancelling and rescheduling travel. Now rising reports from Italy, Spain, and
Switzerland mean that the popular Europe sector will also be impacted. No authority is coming out and declaring if a particular country is safe to travel to and this is adding to the travel fears,” said Mahendra Vakharia, executive council member of Outbound Tour Operators Association of India.
Sabina Chopra, co-founder and chief operating officer (corporate travel) at Yatra Online Pvt. Ltd, said, “South-east Asia and Italy being one of the most preferred destinations for Indians, we can anticipate a drop of 20-25% in terms of future bookings, though it is too early to predict any drastic impact. Travellers are wary of making fresh bookings to the affected locations... We have received about 35% of cancellation queries from travellers planning their trips to foreign locations during the season.” “Data on our platform indicates that flight bookings for South-east Asian countries have been significantly impacted. However, countries in the Western region, including the US and Europe, are seeing a marginal dip in numbers,” said a spokesperson of Makemytrip. The firm says 20% of its overall business comes from outbound travel,
Hospitality chain Hilton, which operates nearly 6,000 properties globally, did not give out the business impact.
“We are actively monitoring novel coronavirus (Covid-19) updates from the World Health Organization, the government, and public health authorities. We will continue to respond based on their advice. Precautionary safety and heightened hygiene and sanitation practices and measures has been implemented across all our hotels,” said a Hilton India spokesperson.
FCM Travel said it has seen a dip of 12-13% in leisure and 10-11% in corporate travellers from India to China. “While there have been cancellations, a lot of it is triggered by apprehension and panic. Barring a few places in South-east Asia and Europe, there are several places like Bali, the UK, central and eastern European countries where people can still go,” said Anand Menon, brand leader, Travel Tours at FCM.
Subhash Goyal, chairman of the tourism and hospitality council at the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, said there could be a silver lining if the government aggressively capitalized on the impact of the virus on China to tap tourism. China attracts 50-60 million tourists each year, while India gets about 10 million. “There is a hike in enquires to domestic destinations such as Andaman and Nicobar, Goa, Ujjain, and the northeast cities, among others,” he said.
Biman Mukherji contributed to this story.