|
New Delhi: The tourism industry has been hit badly by the recent serial blasts in the capital.
Tourist inflow has declined alarmingly since the blast on September 13 claimed 25 lives with a large number of cancellations being reported.
Tourism industry sources say that both international and domestic tourists are shying away from visiting Delhi. This is having a cascading impact on popular tourist destinations like Agra and Jaipur.
"The majority of the foreign tourists opt for package of Delhi-Agra-Jaipur-Delhi. They are now apprehensive about starting and terminating their tours from Delhi," said a tour operator.
Interestingly, no country has issued travel advisories for its citizens against visiting Delhi. The decline in the number of tourists was starkly visible in Agra with the monument of love, Taj Mahal, being virtually deserted on the weekend.
Tour operators say that the situation had started limping back to normal but the bomb blast near popular tourist destination Qutub Minar in south Delhi last Saturday has shaken the tourists further.
October to March is the prime tourism season in the country. Domestic tourists also prefer to use the festival season between October and December to visit places like Agra and Jaipur.
"The tourism industry reacts immediately and we may witness negative growth and may not be able to achieve our target this year. There are some cancellations but the situation is not alarming," said Subhash Goyal, chairman of Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India [Assocham] committee on tourism.
There is a discernable decline in the number of tourists since the Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation (DTDC) is running a fewer number of luxury buses on the Delhi-Agra route, as well as for local sightseeing tours.
"Earlier we used to get 25-30 tourists every day for local sightseeing tours of Delhi. Now we do not get more than seven tourists every day," said S. Pandey, DTDC manager tours.
However, there is still some hope since the economy of both Agra and Jaipur is heavily dependent on the tourism industry. I guess things should be back to normal in a month or so," said Goyal.
|
