By Xinhua,
New Delhi : Economic slowdown and the recent terror attacks in Mumbai have badly hit India’s tourism industry, according to PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI), a leading business organization, the Hindu reported Monday.
“Besides the attacks in hotels and railway station in Mumbai, the slowdown of economy will impact tourist arrivals from January to April. In fact, the tourists arrivals will fall to almost 25 to30 percent,” says PHDCCI, that has assessed the impact of global financial crisis along with the recent terror attacks on tourism and civil aviation sectors through a survey in North India.
Stating that there had been a 50 percent fall in outbound tourism, PHDCCI said business tourism had also taken a beating as outbound and corporate incentive tours have fallen.
“In October last year, there was a mere 1.8 percent rise in number of foreign tourists coming to India. In comparison, the increase in foreign tourist arrivals in October 2007, compared to the same month in 2006, was 13.6 percent,” it said.
“The increase in the number of cancellations with tour operators during October to December 2008, compared to the same period in previous year, was up to 20 percent mainly due to terror attacks,” it added.
The survey reveals that January to April this year is the period that the recession has actually hit the tour operators with30 to 40 percent cancellations.
“Demand for travel is down, basically because the key Western source markets — the U.S. and U.K. — have been badly affected by recession. In the hotels of Delhi the major clientele consists of foreign tourists and business travelers. But in these hotels there has been a 20 to 25 percent drop in room occupancy during October to December 2008, compared to same period in previous years,” the survey said.