AHMEDABAD: Come summer and people are on a road trip to Udaipur or take a beach vacation to Maldives or rush to the Himalayas.
When the people of Gujarat head to their favourite destinations, the travel and tourism industry in the state thrives with a whopping Rs 700 crore business.
Last year’s lockdown eroded this completely.
But the hope of revival of even domestic tourism this year has been dashed.
Estimates of Travel Agents’ Federation of India (TAFI), Gujarat chapter, suggest that cancellations of this year’s summer alone dealt losses to the tune of Rs 700 crore to the industry.
“The pandemic year adversely hit the business of the travel industry and tour operators,” said Ankit Bajaj, secretary, TAFI-Gujarat chapter.
“Many travel agents were forced to turn to alternative businesses or forced to lay off their staff or shift to smaller premises or even temporarily shut offices to cut costs of operations.” There was some hope of at least domestic travel and tourism reviving, Bajaj said.
“But even that took a hit due to the second wave,” Bajaj added.
“Inquiries have also not yet revived because people are extremely wary of travelling,” Bajaj said.
“The looming threat of the third wave is a big deterrent in pre-planning holidays because people not just fear Covid but also getting stranded due to restrictions.” After the second wave, tour operators are reeling from a severe revenue crunch and are heavily cutting cost of operations.
“We have completely shifted our office setup to home and continue to work from home so that we can save electricity and other operating costs,” said Hitank Shah, a city-based tour operator.
Summer holiday bookings account for 60% of the total annual revenue of tour operators.
This year, yet again, travel demand has nosedived both for leisure and MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) segments causing a clear loss to travel companies.
A 35-year-old travel company in Ahmedabad was operated by a team of eight persons till March.
“We had no choice but to let go off all the employees over the past two months,” said the owner of the company, on the condition of anonymity.
“Business is adversely impacted and we don’t have the funds to bear the overhead costs.
We have asked the employees to start looking for other jobs and have assured them that if the business revives in the near future, we may take them back.”