The cascading effect of the Coronavirus scare has hit Kerala’s outbound tourism market in a big way, due to large-scale cancellations.
While travellers have the option of postponing their trip by a few months or even a year, many tour agencies in the State are having a tough time due to rampant cancellations.
The ripple effect of the virus has affected tours to China, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand and even countries in the Far East, said Rajesh P.R., a tour guide who frequently accompanies people on international tours.
“Many Keralites have postponed or cancelled tours to even countries in Europe, although the outbound travel season begins in April. Travel to Italy has been mainly hit, despite Venice, Milan, Rome and Florence being preferred destinations. This could be because of people in a few villages in Italy were being quarantined.”
He suggested that outbound tourists opt for travel insurance plans that provide good health coverage, since expenses even for minor diseases are very high in Europe. Many people opt for low-premium policies on the assumption that the tour manager will take care of everything, he said.
Most outbound tours, except pilgrim tours to places like Israel and Egypt, have been hit due to the Corona scare. Inbound tours to Kerala too have been affected after media reports of the government announcing a medical emergency following detection of the viral infection in three persons here, said Isaac Francis, director of a leading travel agecy.
“Travel agents stand to lose much, since a couple of airlines that operate mainly to South East Asia are not refunding the ticket fare. They contend that there is no travel ban to countries like Singapore, only travel advisory. But travel agents abroad are very cooperative on this count,” he said.
Most agencies were banking on travel plans of people to countries in Europe, despite the scare in parts of Italy, Mr. Francis said.
A combination of factors has been hammering the travel industry one by one since the past few years, said a travel operator. “Demonetisation, floods in Kerala, GST issues and rescheduling of flights due to re-carpeting of the Cochin airport runway have caused the stalemate. On their part, investors are not investing due to the uncertainty that is clouding the sector,” he said.
People fear to travel in closed spaces for fear of the possibility of infected co-travellers, he added.
