PUNE: A year of conflicts and calamities, 2019 is not something that the stakeholders in India’s tourism industry would like to look back to.
Travel and tourism in the whole country has been hit severely throughout the year, as issues of safety and security gripped the minds of domestic as well as foreign tourists.
J&K VACATIONS AFFECTED
Right in the beginning of the year, the Kashmir Valley was filled with fear amongst the locals as well as tourists, as Pulwama faced one of the deadliest terror attacks where a bus of security personnel was attacked by a suicide bomber. While tourists were successfully taken out of the state at the time, the tourism in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) has since been hijacked.
J&K is one of the most preferred destinations of the domestic tourists for their summer vacations.
However, post-Pulwama attacks and the unrest that followed in the Valley, there was a significant fall in the number of tourists visiting Kashmir this year.
As the authorities in Kashmir were trying to restore tourism to the state after summer, tourists had to be evacuated from the state because of the shutdown due to abrogation of Article 370.
The shutdown has continued in the state from August 6 till date, which has hit the tourism in the state badly.
EXCESSIVE RAINFALL
Several parts of the state were hit with excessive rainfall this year.
The flooding in Sangli, Satara and Kolhapur districts were especially bad for tourism business as parts of Pune-Bangalore Highway and Mumbai-Goa Highway had to be shut down for several days. Train service was also affected.
CAA/NRC PROTESTS
On December 2, the Parliament passed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). With the announcement of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) of India already in place, protests emerged from the citizens across the country. As several in Assam, Tripura and parts of North India like New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh flared and turned violent, tourist inflow to these places decreased.
While the period between Christmas and new year sees a huge tourist activity in the country, this year, the travel agencies have claimed that there is over 50 per cent fall in the tourist footfall due to the protests.
“Whenever incidents like protests and internal conflicts occur in a country, foreign tourists are often given an advisory by their respective countries to avoid visiting the places of conflict. Even India does that. This has affected our business badly,” said Travel Agents Association of Pune (TAAP) President Nilesh Bhansali.
TOURISM ABROAD AFFECTED
India’s neighbour Sri Lanka is one of the most sought after budget-friendly travel destinations for Indians. The Easter Sunday bomb attacks in the state reduced the number of Indian tourists there.
Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Mumbai Chamari Rodrigo, while visiting Pune earlier this year, said that the tourist arrivals in the country dropped by around 50 per cent after the incident.
Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, had also issued an advisory against all non-essential travel to Sri Lanka.
MANY PROBLEMS
“This year, almost every other month, the travel agents faced some or the other difficulties, and had to struggle to keep the business going. Whether it was floods or internal conflicts, whenever any problems strikes, we suffer the most when there are advanced bookings as getting refunds and giving them to our customers is a hectic task. We are still trying to get refunds for the Jet Airways flights that we had booked in advance, before the company shut down in April,” Bhansali said.
