Representatives from the tourism industry, which has been hit hard by the extended lockdown, has urged the State government to allow them to resume business at the earliest.
Since Tiruchi is considered to be located centrally in the State, it is a major transit centre for business, religious, domestic and international travellers. It has been a popular destination in the State for tourists from Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Middle East countries. During holiday season and festival season, Malaysians and Singaporeans visit the State for pilgrimage. Thanks to the excellent air connectivity, they prefer to land at Tiruchi and proceed to various temples in and around the city by staying in hotels here. They come in groups and many of them stay for about 10 days. A section of them visit Tiruchi mainly to buy cloths.
According to industry sources, there are about 100 hotels in the city. Nearly 40 % of them are located in two clusters – Central Bus Stand and Chathiram Bus Stand. Remaining hotels are scattered in different parts of the city, including Srirangam. The hotels provide direct employment to about 1,000 persons.
In addition to them, a number of tour and travel agents function in Tiruchi to facilitate the hotel, air, bus and train ticket booking for the inbound and outbound tourists and domestic travellers. Except a few hotels, which were arranged by the district administration to provide paid accommodation to the stranded overseas passengers, who were airlifted by special flights, almost all hotels in the city have been closed since March 25, thereby affecting the hoteliers hard. Industry sources say that premium hotels have suffered a revenue loss of ₹40 -50 lakh a month. The loss for medium range hotels with up to 25 rooms is said to be ₹15 - 20 lakh a month.
The COVID-19 crisis has made about 90% of the employees jobless. They face a bleak future as the hoteliers are still clueless about the business trend. Many feel that it may take months for revival. “Hospitality industry contributes about 10% of the Gross Domestic Product. But, the industry has been ignored. We are clueless about resuming booking,” said S. A. Mubashir, joint secretary, Tiruchi Tourism Federation.
Stating that they can not afford to keep the hotels closed any longer, hoteliers said that the State government should allow the hotels to resume booking at least from June 1. “It is a high time to re-open the hotels. If we start the bookings on June 1, it will take at least three to four weeks for us to gain momentum. Hence, the State government should no longer keep the hotels closed,” said Mohammed Ibrahim, founder, Staylink, Tiruchi.
Many of the industry representatives were of the view that public transports should also be allowed with safety and social distancing restrictions.
When contacted Tourism Minister Vellamandi N. Natarajan told The Hindu that Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami was well aware of the problems faced by the tourism industry. There has been demand to reopen the sector as quickly as possible and the issue would be taken up for a discussion, he added.
