Tourism stakeholders stage gagged protest

Frequent hartals send negative message about the State that is recovering from floods, say organisers

A gagged protest against the hartal in the city on Friday.

Over 300 tourism stakeholders took out a march from DH Ground to Marine Drive with their mouths gagged on Friday, to protest against frequent State and regional hartals.

“Enough is enough. What wrong did we do to get this type of treatment from political parties which announce hartals on flimsy reasons? A people's movement is needed against such forced hartals,” said an organiser.

Frequent hartals would send a negative message about the State that was recovering from the impact of the devastating floods that claimed around 500 lives and left behind a massive trail of destruction, said another.

The stakeholders were particularly angry at Friday’s hartal since the tourism sector was picking up pace following months of lull. Moreover, the hartal came during the peak tourist season, affecting thousands of foreign and domestic tourists. Most of them were unable to visit destinations of interest, while many had a tough time finding eateries that remained open.

Cruise tourists

The tour itinerary in Ernakulam and nearby districts of over 1,000 high-end cruise ship tourists from the U.K. was affected due to the hartal.

Around 300 of them, who arrived in chartered flights from the United Kingdom were taken in buses to the port where their cruise ship was berthed, with police escort. A similar number had to be ferried from their ship to the airport with police protection.

While most cruise tourists could make it to locales of their choice with police protection, around 200 of them, who opted for shopping in the city, were disappointed as shops remained closed.