According to a report by Anil Sharma of IANS, foreign tourist arrivals in Rajasthan may drop by as much as 30 per cent due to the swine flu scare, industry players said. The tourism season in Rajasthan is mainly from October to March.
Navendu Goswami, a Jaipur-based tour operator dealing mainly in inbound tours to Rajasthan, said, “We may not be able to meet last year’s figure mainly on account of swine flu scare and recession in the western world. In fact, the figure would be 20-30 per cent lower than last year.”
Things have worsened for the hotel industry that was already passing through a difficult phase on account of the economic downturn. Surendra Singh, a Jaipur hotelier, said, “We were hoping that this tourist season would be very good for us. But, with reports of swine flu, bookings may not see an upswing.”
According to Singh, “The average occupancy of his hotels till September 2009 has been around 50 percent. Earlier, our occupancy used to be over 60 percent. But, now even achieving the 50 percent mark would be a big challenge.”
Around 1.4 million foreign tourists visited the state last year and on an average, one out of four foreign tourists coming to India visit Rajasthan. According to estimates, each foreign tourist spends about Rs 10,000 on an average per day, though no official figure is available to quantify the state’s tourism market size.
Source : hospitalitybizindia
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